The disgraced official I took care of was actually Zhu Houcong's childhood friend.

Chapter 723

When Yu Dayou finally met Zhou Chu, he was still impressed by the man's demeanor. This man was younger than Yu Dayou had expected, but despite his youth, his words and actions exuded an air of authority.

This kind of majesty was something Yu Dayou had never seen before. Unlike the pretentious airs of the officials he had encountered who were incompetent and held their positions without doing anything, the majesty of Lord Zhou before him seemed to emanate unintentionally, as if it had been cultivated from years of holding a high position.

Yu Dayou strongly agreed with Zhou Chu's selection method. The selection of students by military academies is similar to that of soldiers, although there are some differences. Soldiers only need to look at personal qualities, but military academies look at more, including their understanding of military strategy and their talent in this area.

These things cannot be understood in a day or two.

A month is neither a long nor a short time, but it's enough to get to know a person.

Yu Dayou sneered at the two students who questioned Zhou Chu, thinking that Lord Zhou had already done more than enough by not killing them.

Yu Dayou knew very well that the most taboo thing in leading troops into battle was to be too soft-hearted. As the saying goes, military orders are like mountains, and orders must be obeyed without question. The army's execution ability is very important.

Hearing the pitiful cries of the two students being beaten, Zhou Chu looked at the eunuch in charge.

The eunuch immediately understood and hurriedly handed the booklet in his hand to Zhou Chu.

"Lord Zhou, this is the list of these students."

Zhou Chu took the booklet, opened it, and quickly became fixated on one of the names.

Yu Dayou.

As anti-Japanese generals who were as famous as Qi Jiguang, Yu Dayou and Qi Jiguang each had their own strengths.

Qi Jiguang excelled in military training and special operations, and was known for his extremely high casualty ratio. Yu Dayou, on the other hand, was at the other extreme. Yu Dayou's understanding of military strategy and formations reached an unbelievable level, especially his understanding and application of the Changshan Snake Formation, which he used in an incredibly creative way.

Yu Dayou's greatest strength lay in his ability to fight large armies. If Qi Jiguang and Yu Dayou were each given several thousand troops, Yu Dayou would be no match for Qi Jiguang.

If each of them were given 50,000 troops, they might be able to fight to a standstill. Qi Jiguang would select the best few thousand men from among his 50,000 to fight Yu Dayou's 50,000 troops.

If each of them were given 100,000 or even 200,000 troops, Qi Jiguang would be no match for Yu Dayou.

As far as Zhou Chu knew, there seemed to be no upper limit to the number of troops Yu Dayou could command, or rather, the Ming Dynasty in its original history did not have enough troops to reach Yu Dayou's limit.

This is a general somewhat similar to Han Xin, the military genius. The difference is that Han Xin actually commanded an army of 500,000 to 600,000 men, while Yu Dayou did not have that opportunity.

While most generals are judged by their lower limit, generals like Yu Dayou and Han Xin are judged by their upper limit, or rather, it's difficult to see their upper limit.

Throughout its military campaigns, Zhou Chu followed the methods of Qi Jiguang, as it learned Qi Jiguang's methods of training and deploying troops.

Therefore, Zhou Chu has always been very clear about his weakness, which is large-scale operations. Over the years, whether it is Zhou Chu himself, or Lin Lu and Yun Jin, they have basically followed the special operations route. Except for the two years in Tibet, they have almost always fought blitzkrieg, using speed to defeat slowness and attacking the enemy's unexpected moves.

This coincides with the military strategy of Li Jing, the military genius of the Tang Dynasty. This method of fighting is not thrilling or full of twists and turns, and is even quite boring. It emphasizes speed, reaching the enemy before they can react.

The appearance of Yu Dayou can make up for Zhou Chu's shortcoming. There are so many students in the military academy, but they can't all learn blitzkrieg and special operations. Most of the Ming army is far from reaching the quality of the Xuanwu Army and the Tiger Army.