Young Marshal: Many children bring more blessings, marry a wife who is as powerful as the world

Chapter 23 Sister is Determined, Swearing to Fight to the Death with Xue Ming!

“What’s that?”

Originally, Zhang Shuzhen had little hope for being able to form a guard squad. After all, she was a woman, and while there were many female bandits in the northeast, there were no female generals in the regular army.

But now, seeing that Zhang Xueming had shown some interest, she immediately moved closer to him. Zhang Xueming smiled mysteriously and whispered something in her ear.

In an instant, even Zhang Shuzhen, who had thick skin, couldn’t help but blush. After pondering for half a minute, she gritted her teeth and said, “Alright, it’s a deal. But make sure you go easy on me when the time comes.”

“Better to challenge than to persuade.”

Seeing that she had agreed without any hesitation, Zhang Xueming smiled. These days, with various basic projects under construction, the entire city of Daqing had become one huge construction site.

Although Zhang Xueming had a lot of basic materials from the system rewards. He knew he couldn’t rely on that forever. So, he built a logging yard, a coal mine, and a quarry. The logging yard and the quarry were manageable, but the coal mine was a high-risk occupation.

Even decades later, coal mines across the country would still have many accidents and casualties. Right now, there were almost no safety measures in place, and they were basically trading lives for coal. He had sent cavalry to capture bandits and destroy mountain strongholds.

Out of the 6,000 bandits he had captured, he selected 1,000 of the most notorious ones. They were all sent to work in the black coal mine. However, these selected bandits knew the dangers, and since they were sly bandits, many of them risked their lives to escape each day.

As his operations expanded, Zhang Xueming felt that he was running out of people, soldiers, materials, and even food!

Right now, there was nothing in Daqing that wasn’t in short supply. After all, he was building a city from scratch, and the amount of manpower and resources needed was astronomical. Even with the system’s help, Zhang Xueming felt like he was about to crack under the pressure. He carefully assessed his available forces:

“Imperial Guard Cavalry, 1,000 men, divided into 5 companies. Right now, 3 companies are out fighting bandits, 1 company is on surveillance and overseeing construction, and 1 company is on rest.”

“We have over 6,000 prisoners, but removing the elderly, sick, and weak, there are only 5,000 strong men!”

“4,000 of them are working at construction sites building various factories!”

“Among the remaining 1,000 most dangerous prisoners, 150 are at the logging yard, 250 at the quarry, and 600 at the black coal mine!”

“With the 100 engineering machine operators and 300 expert builders provided by the system,

I have fewer than 8,000 people!”

While 8,000 might seem like a lot, in a city, it was as sparse as pepper on a pancake—almost invisible. Zhang Xueming still planned to develop heavy industry in Daqing, like steel mills, arms factories, and petrochemical plants. These were labor-intensive enterprises!

In the future, China’s largest steel producer, Baosteel, had 260,000 employees. The Azov Steel Plant, which had been involved in the Russo-Ukrainian War for years, was a city unto itself. Even the Daqing Oil Field in the future was a mega-enterprise with over 100,000 employees. Zhang Xueming could only wish to expand his workforce from 8,000 to 800,000. He slapped Zhang Shuzhen’s round bottom.

“Hurry up and get dressed. Go to the warehouse and find the weapons we seized from the bandit hideouts. Pick out a few hundred usable guns. Then, head out to fight bandits!”

Bandits were as common as flies in the northeast. If he wiped them all out, even with a 10-to-1 rehabilitation ratio, he could easily get tens of thousands of soldiers.

At this point, Zhang Shuzhen was stunned. That was too fast. Just moments ago, she had been allowed to form a guard squad, and now she was being sent to fight bandits.

She rubbed her tired eyes.

“My lord, please spare me. I’m exhausted. Can I sleep for a while before going?”

Zhang Xueming glared at her.

Who was the one just shouting, “Sister, I’m determined to fight to the death with Xueming!”

How did she suddenly turn into someone who was scared?

Zhang Xueming raised his hand and gave Zhang Shuzhen another slap on the backside.

“This is your last chance! If you don’t go, you can stay home and learn women’s work, cooking and teaching children!”

Women’s work?

Cooking and teaching children?

In an instant, Zhang Shuzhen’s hair stood on end. She struggled to get up from her blanket.

“My lord! I’ll go right now! I’ll go right now!”

Meanwhile, Gu Ruiyu, who had been silently observing everything, was completely dumbfounded.

Is this man really the second son of the Zhang family?

How come he’s so ruthless and doesn’t show any tenderness toward women?

In the opera circles, life was hard, and people often said that the leader treated women like men and men like cattle. But here, the young marshal had skipped the first step. He treated women like cattle straight away!

After getting his job done, he expected her to grind flour for him!

What about her?

Was she supposed to sing for his soldiers in the future?

As Gu Ruiyu was lost in her thoughts, Zhang Xueming suddenly seemed to remember something.

He complained, “By the way, how come there’s been no response to my recruitment ad in the newspaper?”

“Did I fail to trap Zhang Liuzi this time?”

“It’s impossible!”

…

As Zhang Xueming pondered, the ad he placed in newspapers across the country was already being published.