stubborn thief

After the organization of the field brigade was finalized, Liu Chengzong met with the generals who were to be promoted one by one in the following days.

Personnel transfers below the rank of Qianzong of the four battalions were also announced one by one through selection by the Military Yamen and the Huben Battalion.

The new appointment was normal for Tang Tong and Zuo Guangxian. Their original official positions were both captains. The former fought in the Jiuli battle under Gao Yingdeng's camp, and fought all the way from Gansu to Guanzhong. He was famous for his volleys of bullets fired from heavy guns and made outstanding contributions.

Zuo Guangxian served as a captain in the Huben Camp and was transferred to the Xiaoying as a guerrilla general. At most, he was given an official title, which was not considered a promotion.

The two were very familiar with Liu Chengzong's establishment of a new field brigade, the battlefield duties of the mobile battalion and the reinforcement battalion, and they also particularly agreed with the idea of ​​commanding a part of Mongolian and foreign soldiers.

As both were officers, they could understand Liu Chengzong's intention. The incorporation of the Mongolian, Oirat and Kangning soldiers into the regular army meant Liu Chengzong's promotion path in the army and opened a door for the civilians of the three tribes.

This has basically nothing to do with the nobles. The Marshal's Office has always been trying to win over useful nobles who have surrendered, but it is not really friendly to the children of commoners under the rule of the nobles.

Because to organize an army, you need people to manage it, and to manage people, you can't get around the nobles.

Even though Liu Shizi did not advocate the idea of ​​nobles leading troops, there was no other way.

If a taiji leads his troops to surrender, is it okay if we don't need this taiji to lead these troops?

Of course, Taiji can rest at home and receive his salary, while his Zaisan, Darhan, guards and flag bearers can come out and lead the troops.

But it is still the same. He used to be an official of the tribe, and now he is a captain of the Marshal's Office. The superior people are always the superior people, there is no other way.

Of course, whether it was the Mongols south of the desert, the Oirat Mongols, or the Tibetan households, joining the army of the Marshal's Office would in itself reduce their personal dependence on the nobles and improve their class.

But they didn't have the chance to go any further.

The reason is very simple. Although there are many noble titles in the Marshal's Office, not only titles of nobility but also official titles such as colonel and captain are granted to nobles.

There were a limited number of Mongolian camps, and the actual official positions in each camp were assigned to each person. There were very few official positions available, and they were occupied by various noble officials with management experience.

As a simple light cavalry battalion or infantry battalion, it was difficult for them to defeat the Ming army on the battlefield and they could not independently undertake combat missions. Naturally, it was difficult for them to achieve military merit and get promotion opportunities.

The less able the army was to undertake combat missions, the harder it was for Liu Chengzong to allocate resources to it, and its combat effectiveness stagnated, turning into a vicious cycle of a low-cost army.

However, this situation was greatly changed by mixing the battalion commander's headquarters with 500 to 600 people into the brigade. With 11 brigades and 3,000 to 4,000 positions for low-level officers, the lower-class people had more opportunities to join the army and make meritorious service.

What's more, to be an officer one must understand languages, which can mobilize the entire ethnic group's identification with the Marshal's Office and greatly speed up the assimilation process.

Behind these three or four thousand low-level officers are a huge population of 2.5 million in Kangning Prefecture, Haixi Mongolia, and Tianshan Oirat. At least increasing the reserve of troops by 200,000 will greatly enhance the war potential of the Marshal's Office.

To be honest, war potential has always been the shortcoming of the area ruled by Liu Chengzong.

The population of the Mongolian West could not be properly utilized, and Shaanxi was sparsely populated after experiencing a severe drought and a major uprising. Although Fengxiang and Xi'an had large populations, they were important grain producing areas.

The Xi'an prefecture alone can provide more than 900,000 shi of summer tax, autumn grain and military farm grain every year. Liu Shizi wished that everyone could go farming.

However, except Zuo Guangxian and Tang Tong, Li Hongsi could not be said to be flattered by this appointment.

It's totally unbelievable.

He always thought that he was a mascot serving as an instructor in the academy, and never thought that he would be employed by Liu Chengzong to lead troops.

This is not only because he was a surrendered general, the main reason is that he had no soldiers when he surrendered, and he was completely a lone general.

Even a general like Yang Qi, who was extremely active after surrendering, was thrown to the south of the desert without any support to fight for territory and govern himself. Li Hongsi didn't think he would have such an opportunity at all.

Unexpectedly, Liu Chengzong not only appointed him as deputy general, but also made him the deputy general of the marshal's brigade.

Therefore, he was full of energy and went to Zhao Bengbian of the Military Office that day to ask for officers and set the recruitment standards.

Zhao Bian was so busy that he had no time to rest. He hadn't even finished recording his skills yet and a new job came up. He was almost mad to death.

Fortunately, Liu Shizi did not make things difficult for the military office. The number of officers needed to form a brigade was no longer something Zhao Bian could decide.

Liu Chengzong immediately assembled the entire Huben Camp and announced that all officers and soldiers below the rank of Qianzong in the camp would be promoted by one level.

The three of them were then grouped together and placed under Gao Yingdeng's command to assist him in the organization of a field brigade.

Gao Yingdeng's First Field Brigade did not need so many people. The entire brigade needed more than 1,300 officers, and Li Hongsi's special forces battalion alone required 399 people.

The Huben Battalion can just expand into three brigades.

Following Liu Chengzong's announcement, the entire Huben Camp was overjoyed, and those officers in the Marshal's Office who were usually serious seemed to have been reborn.

The Huben Camp was originally Liu Chengzong's officer corps. No matter whether they were soldiers or officers, entering the Huben Camp symbolized extraordinary honor for everyone.

But this is how the soldiers of the Marshal's Office who have not yet entered the Huben Camp feel about the Huben Camp.

And to those in it, this camp is like a cursed purgatory.

It's so frustrating.

Let me put it this way, the earliest batch of Tiger Guards and officers in the camp entered as early as the end of the Qinghai Campaign in May of the sixth year of Chongzhen.

During this period, in addition to the normal loss and replacement of military officers, the vast majority of officers and soldiers have undergone two years and five months of training.

In fact, when the Huben Camp was first established, Liu Chengzong set a rule of three semesters consisting of two half-year periods and one year, for a total of two years.

And it’s not something that can be learned all at once.

In the first half of the year, the main focus was on training meritorious soldiers from the peasant army, conscripted soldiers, and camp soldiers in commands, formations, military laws, literacy, and equipment and weapons, in order to train them into qualified sergeants.

In principle, soldiers who have made meritorious service can be promoted and return to the army to become squad leaders after completing this step of learning.

But there were not so many vacant officer positions in the Marshal's Army, so except for a few lucky ones, most of them were forced to undergo the second phase of training.

The second half of the year is for the squad leaders and team leaders who have made meritorious service to further improve their skills in martial arts, archery, horsemanship, formation commands, armor management, soldier rewards and punishments, and personnel management, as well as their ability to coach soldiers, with the goal of training them to be promoted to captains.

The result is naturally obvious. There are not so many positions for the generals in the Marshal's Office.

They were forced to undergo a third training session.

Strictly speaking, this year is the real training for military commanders. It does not involve the study of weapons, martial arts, archery, horsemanship, or guns and artillery. It is all about the pros and cons of military formations, tactics, weather and terrain, military strategies, and of course the indispensable on-site observation and discussion.

The purpose is to train battalion commanders, thousand commanders, or military generals.

Because Qianzong is actually the ceiling of the military position that a normal person can reach in a normal environment and according to normal circumstances, relying on excellent martial arts knowledge, military tactics and other personal abilities.

After all, at this time, the subordinates who are indirectly managed must do the actual work well; as part of the battalion-level organization, they must complete the deployment of superiors; in the middle, they must also be tested on their decision-making ability when encountering emergencies anytime and anywhere.

Every person who is fully qualified for this position has the ability and potential to become a general.

However, for battalion lieutenant general and higher positions, at least from Liu Chengzong's perspective, the considerations for the appointment of candidates are very complicated, and military talent only accounts for a small part of it.

Therefore, the Huben Camp had unknowingly become an extremely powerful reserve of military talents in Liu Chengzong's hands.

However, this talent pool must be emptied as soon as possible, otherwise the officers' dissatisfaction will become increasingly serious. This reorganization of the field brigade just gave Liu Shizi an opportunity to empty the reserve pool.

Four thousand officers were promoted one level in one day, and they immediately threw themselves into the recruitment work of the First Brigade with great enthusiasm.

They formulated very strict requirements and began to select troops from the eight battalions in the outer city of Xi'an.

The quality of the soldiers in these eight battalions is a mixed bag.

The origins of the soldiers in Luo Rucai's battalion are complicated. They are basically a miniature of the Marshal's Army. They recruit soldiers as they fight, including bandits from northern Shaanxi, mountain bandits from Longxi, slaves from Kangning, horse bandits from the grasslands, and deserters from the border troops.

They were fearless, good at fighting and daring to fight. They plundered landlords in northern Shaanxi, robbed chieftains in Kangning, bullied nobles in Qinghai, and fought against both the emperor and Buddha. They were the most rebellious group of people in the world.

The soldiers of the Mongolian Brigade are too pure, so pure that they are almost a miniature version of the Northern Yuan Khanate, with a lot of Northern Yuan heritage. There is a group of people like Xie Erhu who use the name of the tribe as their own name. In the past, they were a branch of the tribe that fled from the south of the desert to Qinghai, but now they have become orphans and have to inherit the main clan.

In fact, the four battalions of the Lintao Brigade were the most regular former Ming troops and had received the most military training.

There were four small camps, three of which were the Lanzhou garrison, the Lintao Guard and the Hezhou Guard's banner troops, and one of which was Yang Guodong's unit, which was the surrendered bandit soldiers from Xi'an Prefecture.

Most of them were bannermen with poor military quality, and they had no experience in fighting any decent battles.

The most important thing is the will of the generals and soldiers.

They had no mentality of being in charge of the Marshal's Office at all. They regarded themselves as outsiders and vassal troops. They fought under the call of Liu Chengzong, and their enthusiasm was even less than that of the Mongolian soldiers.

Of course, it is normal that the Lintao Brigade’s flag troops are not as enthusiastic as the Tumed Mongolian soldiers from Qinghai.

After all, for the Lintao Brigade Banner Army, the Marshal's Office belonged to the old border soldiers under Liu Chengzong, while the Dunta Khanate truly belonged to the Qinghai Mongols.

They just went with the flow and lived from day to day, following Liu Chengzong to make a living.

Therefore, no matter from which angle, the banner troops of Lintao and Hezhou were undoubtedly weak forces in the Marshal's Office.

But now, with the end of the Guanzhong Campaign, their mental outlook has improved greatly, and it is a time when they are in high spirits.

In the earlier Guanzhong Campaign, the Lintao Brigade first surrounded Qianzhou and then rushed westward to provide support, serving as a detachment in a night battle against the Dian Barracks, Yansui Barracks and Changping Barracks.

Those opponents were the strongest soldiers in the world who were far superior to the Lintao Banner Army and caused them great losses. It was only because of Liu Chengzong's three major camps in the flanking formation that they had the courage to hold on.

When that battle ended, the Lintao Brigade had truly completed the transformation from a garrison army to a regular army.

Later, Liu Chengzong added some surrendered soldiers to their forces, and the soldiers' military quality was greatly improved. However, their military discipline and organizational ability declined to varying degrees.

Until now, when people heard that the Grand Marshal was going to form a Central Field Brigade, the most excited ones were the banner troops that had won battles.

To them, the Lintao Brigade was just an auxiliary army. The two brigades like Wang Wenxiu and Yang Yao were the regular troops of the Marshal's Office, and the three major battalions of the central army were the direct troops that were one level higher than the regular army.

Although the food and wages are the same, the central army is the central army, and their weapons and cavalry are better than others!

Therefore, everyone applied enthusiastically. Those who were capable were full of confidence and arrogant, while those who were not capable were also eager to try their luck.

The generals, on the other hand, were not so excited.

The siege camp was rarely lively, and Liu Chengzong also went to watch the field brigade select soldiers. However, compared to the soldiers, his attention was more focused on several generals.

Luo Rucai was used to being unruly. Not only did he not object to this matter at all, he even wanted to participate in the recruitment of soldiers for the First Field Brigade. However, he was held back by two Yu Lin Lang sent by Liu Chengzong.

Xie Erhu was also not worried, but just like he had carried out Liu Chengzong's military deployment in the past, he was very interested and summoned officers at all levels including the Mongolian Brigade Commander Ahai Daiqing, asking them to pick out all the capable soldiers and send them to the Marshal to test their archery, horse riding and shooting skills.

The whole person has a kind of Buddhist nature towards military power, as if it were something outside of his body.

Buddha nature comes from fearlessness.

Xie Erhu had a clear understanding of his position in the Marshal's Office, and he didn't even think of himself as a military general.

Because as a military general, his combat experience, military skills and ability to command troops were no weaker than any other Mongolian general, but he was not much stronger than other Mongolian nobles.

This is obviously not the reason why he has a transcendent status.

So deep down in his heart, he positioned himself as the living Buddha of the "Liu Cheng religion" among the Mongolian tribes in Qinghai.

Who was it that gradually squeezed out Huoluochi, sent away Qintu Taiji, promoted him, who was the leader of the Barhu tribe of the Yongxiebu tribe with 30,000 households on the right wing but was actually a desert bandit in Chuidan, and pushed him to the position of the leader of the Mongolians in Qinghai?

It was not that he naturally had a strong ability to command the Mongolian tribes, nor was it that he was invincible and had military capabilities that made many Borjigins fear him.

It’s Liu Chengzong.

This was because Liu Chengzong needed a Mongolian leader who did not have a prominent background, had a clean background, possessed a certain amount of military power, and could control, intimidate, and suppress the many Mongolian nobles in Qinghai, so that he could have the honorable position of brigade commander.

He was not a general like Zhang Tianlin who would ask Liu Chengzong for food, weapons, and war horses, and then take on the toughest tasks, capture cities, and win the battle.

He was Liu Chengzong's agent in Qinghai Mongolia. He was responsible for recruiting soldiers, preparing horses, breeding cattle and sheep, and taking the Mongolian troops to experience the invincible and heroic spirit of the great marshal, so that people could return to Qinghai to spread the story and maintain the loyalty of the various tribes to the marshal.

This is the meaning of his existence.

So as long as Liu Chengzong is still there and the Mongolians in Qinghai are still there, what does it matter even if Xie Erhu disperses all his troops?

Shi Xiang was different. Compared with the calmness of others, he was extremely nervous all day long. He was almost dying of panic in the siege camp, as if he was the arrow aimed by a mounted archer.

He is not as irreplaceable as Xie Erhu. Lintao Brigade is his lifeblood!

"Why is the division commander so uneasy?"

  Hearing this question, Shi Xiang saw Liu Chengzong with his hand on the hilt of the knife at his waist and smiling. However, the Liu Chengzong in his mind was clearly holding the cross-legged scissors and pointing at his vitals with a smile!

"Marshal, how many soldiers do you want to select this time?"

Without waiting for Liu Chengzong to reply, Shi Xiang said quickly: "The Lintao Brigade was just able to fight hard battles for the commander-in-chief, but now that the elite troops have been transferred away, they have returned to their original form."

"Don't worry, brother. If you lose soldiers, you can get more. You have made great contributions in the past, and there will be greater fortunes in the future."

Liu Chengzong smiled and said, "Move upwards again."

Shi Xiang was stunned when he heard this. He thought, "I'm already not very stable as the brigade commander, how can I move up? Where can I move to?"

  Are there any official positions above the rank of brigade commander in the Marshal's Office?

Frightened, Shi Xiang hurriedly said, "General, being able to serve as a brigade commander and follow you on the expedition is already a great fortune for me. I dare not ask for any more."

Liu Chengzong did not say where he was going, but just said: "Leave a camp of 5,000 to 6,000 people, and I will give you another 6,000 men later, so be patient."

  Shi Xiang opened his eyes wide, his face full of surprise. It sounded like... the Marshal really intended to move me up further?

Liu Chengzong smiled.

The Marshal's Office is indeed one level above the brigade-level general.

That is the governor who is in charge of all military and political powers. This position is currently only set up in Gansu, southern Mobei and Tianshan.

Liu Chengzong planned to appoint another commander-in-chief after the reorganization of the powerful army of eleven brigades was completed, and the candidate would be Shi Xiang.

The location of the Governor's Office is in Lhasa, U-Tsang! (End of this chapter)