“Establishing a career with ambition, but no way to serve the country.” This was a saying coined by some of Danyang's playboy sons to mock their repeated obstruction by their families in joining the army or being turned away by officials in the Ministry of War responsible for recruiting soldiers and officers.

Speaking of this, Tan Weixin said with a pout, "Right now, Dongping's situation is that import and export trade is booming, the structure of foreign trade products is reasonable, profits are considerable, the country's overall economic situation is good, comprehensive national strength is thriving, domestic economy and culture are developing rapidly, and the employment rate is extremely high... That is to say, whether Dongping is no longer satisfied with the status quo or the surrounding countries cannot stand Dongping's peaceful rise, there is only one inevitable result, and that is war. The time to make a name for oneself is now! Plus, your marching chess and grand strategy have stirred things up so much, making war so attractive, it's no wonder so many people are acting like they're in heat, unwilling to stay乖乖 in their family's businesses and stubbornly squeezing into the army."

What gave Tan Weixin a headache was that since war was inevitable, and those passionate young people were indeed likely to become the backbone of officers in the future, how to reasonably alleviate their current restless moods was indeed a serious problem. She and Ye Tao both understood that while marching chess incited some people's desire for the battlefield, the reason why marching chess itself was so easily popularized, and why this game reached a fairly high level in such a short period of time, was indeed because it catered to everyone's basic mentality of wanting to make a name for themselves in a strong country. It was hard to say who was pushing whom; perhaps, it was a beneficial mutual promotion.

"If you ran to the Yizhan Tower these days and shouted to recruit new soldiers or something, I estimate half the people inside would get a fever in their heads and sign up," Ye Tao said with a chuckle, ignoring Tan Weixin's troubled expression and eye-roll.

"Still laughing? These people really don't value their lives anymore. When a real war breaks out, it's not fun, you know. People really die!" Tan Weixin said worriedly.

"War game, huh..." Ye Tao shook his head, no longer continuing to tease Tan Weixin. Discussing such topics while they were alone was really a bit of a downer.

"War game..." Musing on these four short words, Tan Weixin suddenly thought of something. Her eyes, which suddenly lit up, also reminded Ye Tao.

In the era they came from, it was nothing new for large numbers of wealthy, idle guys with nothing better to do to spend a lot of money buying military uniforms, protective gear, paintball guns, or airsoft guns that fired rubber bullets with compressed air, and run to specialized venues or deep into the mountains to play war games, even leading to a military goods industry. The wealthy sons who were equally idle now probably needed this kind of way to burn off energy.

Ye Tao patted his head and said, "This might be a good idea. At least, let's just treat it as a hardcore summer camp."

"Yeah, and we can also divert a group of well-trained veterans. After all, we can't just let these young masters fool around; such an army won't be able to go to the battlefield in the end," Tan Weixin added.

"How about... all the soldiers are veterans, and then we leave the positions of officers and non-commissioned officers vacant?" Ye Tao suggested.

"Good idea. It's not a problem to support a few thousand retired veterans; those veterans would be more than happy. The military pay isn't much anyway, and as for the positions of officers and non-commissioned officers... it's certain that we won't pay them..." Tan Weixin suddenly looked at Ye Tao with unparalleled innocence and said, "Do you want to extract some 'sponsorship' from those people who are crazy about joining the army?"

Tan Weixin's words gave Ye Tao the creeps. This really was a "hardcore summer camp." Ye Tao thought for a while and said, "It's possible, but you have to make them willing to pay. In any case, many of them will definitely not be able to endure the hardship and will quit after playing around. Just treat it as a preliminary screening."

Tan Weixin smiled strangely and said, "Not necessarily. Apart from those who are too useless, there are ways to make them willing to stay in the army for a long time... Competition. Fighting with people is endlessly enjoyable. We can set up two units with different names. Regularly organize technical and tactical competitions, organize training and exercises. This can both discover talent and find some fun for those young masters, and we can also have fun watching. Isn't that great?"

After the two excitedly discussed all the details, Tan Weixin suddenly realized a problem. She shook her head and said, "But, I really don't know if it will work. After all, no matter what, this is considered a private army. Even if the Ministry of War approves it, I'm afraid the remonstrating officials won't let it go. Those remonstrating officials don't dare to touch me, but as for you..."

Tan Weixin glanced askance at Ye Tao, her meaning was more than clear. Once such a semi-game army was established, even if it was fundamentally beneficial to the country, Ye Tao would be besieged by the remonstrating officials. Although Ye Tao couldn't hear the court discussions, the pressure at that time would definitely be enormous.

A moment of silence enveloped the two. Here, although they had more and more power, this was, after all, not a place where they could do whatever they thought of. In the end, this was not their world.

"Ah, I still have to try this fun thing," Tan Weixin sighed softly.

And she did just that. While the women's team organized by Tan Weixin was thoroughly defeating a team composed of some officers from the Danyang City Guard Army in a grand strategy chess game, Tan Weixin organized two small-scale experimental armies in the name of a folk game to solicit some people's opinions. Even with the confidence in Tan Weixin's consistent judgment, such an army of unclear affiliation still made many people doubtful. And while this discussion should have only remained within a small scope, accusations against Ye Tao for "treating military affairs as child's play" arrived with unexpected speed. The remonstrating officials did not know where they got the news, and the memorials of accusation came surging in. In the opinions of the remonstrating officials, everything from imprisoning Ye Tao to the lowest degree of official reprimand was suggested. Although no one dared to challenge the national lord's love for Princess Zhaohua and involve Tan Weixin as well, some people vaguely mentioned the so-called maintenance of royal dignity.

When Tan Weixin's team finally won two consecutive games and broke out of the group stage a few days later, this argument became even stronger. Senior court officials such as Situ Huang Xuping, who were on better terms with Ye Tao, had already privately reminded Ye Tao not to take this matter lightly.

"The fox's tail is showing," Tan Weixin commented while scooping up warm red date porridge. "Regarding this matter of building an army, I asked my royal father, my uncle, Lord Situ Huang, and several subordinate officials of the Ministry of War. At most, no more than ten people should know about this. Moreover, my attitude when I mentioned this matter was only... uh... that kind of half-joking, half-serious manner. Can't you perceive the implications of the fact that things have become so controversial now?"

Ye Tao scratched his head and said, "Except for what I'm sure I have to do, I stay in my workshop. How would I know what tricks you guys are playing?"

Tan Weixin smiled warmly. Perhaps in order to always have surprises, she had always intentionally ignored the part about what Ye Tao was doing in the workshop in the various messages reported by those who were sent to Ye Tao's side for various reasons. She wanted to constantly see strange and new things, brought to her by Ye Tao, so that she could rejoice again and again, so that her body, which could not withstand intense emotions, could undergo small challenges time and time again.

"You... are you making something fun again?" Tan Weixin asked, with some speculation.

Ye Tao shook his head and said, "When Yijia opens, there has to be something to hold down the fort, right? I'm making a set of mirror-lacquered silver-decorated furniture. As for fun things, would a ratchet-style heavy crossbow count? You should know about that."

Tan Weixin sighed softly and said, "Military equipment... Actually, I should have expected this result from the beginning."

"Expected what?" Ye Tao, who didn't know much about and didn't want to know much about the personnel relationships in the court, asked in confusion.

"If I'm not mistaken, the one who wants to plot against you behind the scenes should be Marquis Deshan, the Gao family... From the looks of it now, at least from the eyes of others, your ways of rising are too similar. The difference is that after four generations, the Gao family has become the largest arms manufacturer in Dongping, and Gao Zhen is even one of the three highest officials. Their power in the court and their influence on the military and the business world are really not to be ignored." Tan Weixin glanced at Ye Tao. She didn't need to explain much. Even if Ye Tao was dull, he should know the story of the Gao family's rise. Back then, the Gao family became a member of Dongping's not-so-large group of high-ranking officials by presenting fire oil bombs and a new type of heavy hammer catapult when Dongping was at war with both Northern Liao and Western Ling for many years. The Gao family had once carried the name of court jester, enduring humiliation and persisting, constantly taking out all kinds of novel and interesting treasures to consolidate their relationship with the Dongping royal family. In private, they constantly explored and developed the technology of the workshops in their hands, constantly extending the tentacles of commerce to all aspects. Finally, after several generations of operation, they also joined the ranks of Dongping's top families.

Tan Weixin understood very well why the Gao family would find an opportunity to start attacking Ye Tao at this juncture. They didn't want to see the Ye family become a rising star in the field of armaments, especially precision armaments, which the Gao family had long considered their own territory. After all, the Gao family did not transmigrate like Ye Tao and Tan Weixin, especially not like Ye Tao, who had obviously received specialized training in manufacturing technology and design, and could also integrate the modern knowledge he had mastered. He was a terrifying figure who could come up with one or two new ideas with almost a single thought and could also put them into practice. The Gao family's optimized formula for gunpowder, which had been piled up with human lives for so many years, was only common sense to Ye Tao, and the fact that Ye Tao had increased the processing accuracy to the point where it was indistinguishable to the naked eye in just a few years made the Gao family somewhat at a loss. This was a historic breakthrough that they had always wanted to achieve but had never been able to complete.

From the perspective of the Dongping royal family and the Dongping court, the rise of the Ye family gave them an excellent choice in terms of armaments, a choice that was superior to the Gao family's products in terms of both quality and design novelty. It was not only a good thing to reduce costs through competition, but also an unexpected joy to restrict the Gao family's monopoly. But for the Gao family, the backwardness in armaments and technology was closely related to their influence in the court, in the business world, and in the military. They were too familiar with this model of rise, so they couldn't possibly not take advantage of the fact that the Ye family had not yet grown to be able to compete with them to restrict the Ye family.

Ye Tao was by no means unfamiliar with commercial warfare; all he lacked was a little inspiration to cross the pure commercial thinking to the realm of power. Tan Weixin sometimes felt that Ye Tao seemed to be intentionally avoiding this issue and focusing his attention on the purely technical field.

Tan Weixin smiled mischievously and said, "There's also something that I think it's better to tell you now. The Gao family's young master, Gao Zhuo, was once the most likely person to become my husband."

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ps: I still have some expectations for the results I want to achieve with this book. Naturally, the current monthly ticket ranking of seventh is very unsatisfactory.

In the book review section, I saw many opinions and suggestions from readers, and the author is also very happy to accept constructive opinions and suggestions. For some opinions that are more concentrated, I will explain them in a special article in a few days.

Because I still have some expectations for the results of the new book's monthly ticket list, I will also join in on the trend of exchanging updates for monthly tickets. It seems that this is the first time I have joined in the speed of updates operation.

The two chapters update every day remains unchanged, with no less than 3,000 words per chapter. (It seems that I really can't find a chapter with less than 3,000 words in the existing drafts.) Starting from 145 votes, one more chapter will be updated for every 50 votes. Let's see how much of my drafts the enthusiastic readers can force out.