The Ming Dynasty began from Sarhu

Chapter 39 Troop Training
Yang Hao was extremely busy, and the old man used his gradually declining power to provide his son-in-law with a steady stream of food and supplies in the form of supplementary food and wages for the Eastern Route Army.

These food and supplies transported to Shenyang from Tongzhou, the capital, Shanhaiguan and other places were originally needed by the four armies to capture Hetuala.

Now that more than half of the four armies have been killed or lost, it is reasonable to supply the remaining supplies to Liu Zhaosun's troops.

The lieutenant generals and guerrillas entrenched in Shenyang watched helplessly as food and fodder were transported out of the treasury and then divided up by the southern soldiers. How could these Liaozhen military leaders be willing to accept this?

The court had not yet begun to settle accounts with Yang Hao, and the distribution of military pay and supplies had to go through Yang Jinglüe, so everyone gave him some face.

After Li Rubai returned from Yagu Pass, he became mentally confused and behaved strangely. Sometimes he stayed indoors for several days at a time, and sometimes he clamored to become a lay Buddhist in Xuanyuan Temple and hang out with Taoist Zhang. He even sleepwalked and said he wanted to kill Nurhaci... This caused disunity in Liaozhen.

Li Rubai had a strong desire to survive and was too afraid of the imperial court, and was far less decisive than his father Li Chengliang.

Of course, everything is related to Li Rubai’s own strength.

The prosperity of Liaozhen during the Li Chengliang era is gone forever.

No matter what, Li Rubai is still nominally the number one in Liaozhen, but now the boss is not in charge and the second in command has not yet taken the position, which is very embarrassing.

Although there is a new military leader in Liaozhen, the newcomer has not yet established contact with the masters in the capital. The division of millions of taels of silver cannot be explained by a few letters between Liaodong and the capital.

It takes time to establish a new order.

Therefore, everyone could continue to tolerate Yang Hao and his son-in-law, who was a shaman, and their misdeeds outside the city of Shenyang.

~~~~~
At this moment, the only ones who could save Yang Hao were Emperor Wanli and his son-in-law Liu Zhaosun.

The Wanli Emperor withheld all the memorials impeaching Yang Hao, used the Imperial Guard to suppress those censors who sought fame, and then adopted a silent approach to the six ministries. Zhu Yijun was the master of this.

Liu Zhaosun was busy training the new army, trying to increase his strength in the short term.

Although the southern soldiers are brave, they are only guest soldiers after all, and their numbers are limited. Not to mention garrisoning in Liaodong for a long time, it is even difficult for them to protect themselves.

Historically, the Ming army suffered several disastrous defeats in Liaodong, from Sarhu to Hunhe, from the Ji Si Incident to the Battle of Songjin, all of which were related to the fact that the southern troops were too far away and failed to arrive in time.

The best way to solve the Liaodong crisis is to strictly train the Liao people according to the standards of the Qi Family Army, use the Liao soldiers as a foundation, and then absorb other strong armies.

Since the Jianzhou Jurchens could erode the Liao people, why couldn't Liu Zhaosun assimilate the Jurchens?

Take the enemy's path and leave the enemy with nowhere to go.

What can be done now are only some reforms at the military level. As for how to improve the living conditions of the Liao people from the economic, political and cultural levels, and then gradually reverse the situation in Liaodong, that is a bigger problem and requires long-term consideration.

Liu Zhaosun's previous rank as a captain was too low to be considered a respectable officer. Even if Yang Hao had promoted him twice, he would still only be a small garrison commander in charge of a few hundred soldiers.

The number of soldiers is too small and their influence is insignificant. It is definitely not possible to fight in Liaodong, which is full of tigers, wolves and jackals.

Yang Jinglue submitted a memorial to the court, suggesting that Liu Zhaosun should be promoted to lieutenant general, or at least a guerrilla commander.

In the past few days, he urged the Ministry of War to verify the military achievements every day, reminding Zhu Yijun to keep his word. Not to mention the reward silver, at least his son-in-law should be given the title of commander.

After all, thousands of people had heard that General Liu had killed Amin, the leader of the Bordered Blue Banner, in battle. He had made such an extraordinary achievement, and if he was not rewarded, it would discourage the soldiers in the east.

I wonder if the old emperor would be so angry after reading Yang Hao’s memorial that he would suffer from gout and die a year earlier.

Yang Hao knew the old emperor's temper, and when he proposed conditions to him during a war, they were often easier to achieve, especially if victory was the prerequisite. This was an experience Yang Hao had learned during the Wanli aid campaign in Korea.

Yang Hao asked his son-in-law to recruit soldiers boldly.

Only with soldiers can we take root in Liaodong. No matter what kind of garrison or guerrilla warfare, no matter what the number of soldiers is, just recruit them. As long as they don't exceed 2,000, don't go too far.

Yang Hao specifically instructed that if the censors investigated, the part exceeding the garrison quota should be said to be reinforcements for Ma Lin. If that was not possible, it should be said that the righteous people were eager to kill the slaves, provided their own food and grass, and voluntarily surrendered, so the people's hearts could be used.

In fact, as long as the emperor doesn't care about this matter, he is not afraid of impeachment from the censors.

The number of soldiers suddenly expanded from 300 to 2,000. Liu Zhaosun was full of admiration for his father-in-law's operation.

However, in order to repay Yang Jinglie's kindness in cultivating him, Liu Zhaosun decided to recruit 5,000 people directly.

Nurhaci will soon come to open the plains, and Liaoyang and Shenyang will be lost.

By then, Liaodong will be in flames everywhere, and few civilian military supervisors will be so bored as to risk their lives to go to Liaodong to check the number of troops.

In a word: Liu Zhaoshang and Sun recruited soldiers, the more the better.

After figuring this out, he began to concentrate on training his troops.

The military training in this era mainly focused on training military discipline and Qi Jiguang's "Records of Military Training" and "New Book of Effectiveness". These were ready-made teaching materials that could be copied without making too many changes.

What General Qi valued most in training troops was the source of soldiers and military discipline.

Among the southern soldiers under Liu Shoubei's command who fought fiercely with the Bordered Blue Banner, there were quite a few veteran soldiers, not to mention the other troops.

Last time in Hunjiang, when we were attacked by the Zhenyi of the Bordered Blue Banner, the first to flee were the veteran soldiers.

After Qi Jiguang's death, the once-famous Qi Family Army gradually faded due to problems such as equipment and training. Although Qi Jin continued to train his troops in the same way as his uncle, times were changing. During the Wanli Dynasty, when the commodity economy was booming, recruiting a pure Yiwu miner force became increasingly difficult as the economy progressed.

Without good manpower, nothing else can be achieved.

According to Qi Jiguang, the slick people in urban and rural areas are not wanted, the old soldiers are not wanted, the city people who are accustomed to government officials are not wanted, and those with fair and tender skin and tender flesh are not wanted.

Only those country folk who are big, strong, and afraid of the government, as well as farmers and miners, are the best.

He also had to be a bachelor. Before the establishment of the garrison, soldiers with families would certainly not dare to risk their lives on the battlefield, and the garrison commander would need a considerable pension after their death.

To sum it up in one sentence: a single, honest and strong country man.

The economic development level of Liaodong was far superior to that of Jiangnan, and the manpower here was not much worse than that of Yiwu. However, the Liaozhen officials simply didn't devote any energy to training the troops. They believed that relying on a few hundred or a thousand retainers could solve the border crisis, so why spend more money on training? Even if they surrendered to the Later Jin, their official positions and salaries would remain unchanged, and they could still make a lot of money. So what was the point of training the troops?

Many of the poor Liao people who followed him met the recruitment criteria, so he decided to recruit two thousand people first.

In actual training, it was also necessary to disrupt the soldiers' geographical distribution to prevent the problem of a large number of troops becoming too numerous to be removed. In addition to the Liao region, it was also necessary to recruit soldiers from other regions. Liu Zhaosun decided to first select 2,000 soldiers from the southern region and train them together with the Liao people.

After solving the problem of manpower, the next thing is military law.

As the saying goes, military orders are as heavy as a mountain and must be obeyed.

Since returning to Shenyang, Liu Zhaosun has been eating and living with the soldiers. He lives in a tent and is accompanied by two personal soldiers, one named Zhang Chao and the other named Pei Dahu.

Liu Shoubei is gradually downplaying the role of his retainers. Although retainers are useful, they are like opium. If used too much, they will become useless and will only have a counterproductive effect on improving the combat effectiveness of the entire army.

Every day, Jin Yuji stood at the south gate, guarded by several servants of Yang Hao, looking at the southern military camp like a wife-waiting stone, waiting for her garrison commander to return to the city.

Now Joseon Meiji and Yang Qing'er have reconciled. Because Liu Zhaosun has been away, without a man, the women have become good friends.

For more than ten days, Liu Zhaosun led his new army in devilish training in order to train a combat-ready army before the Battle of Kaiyuan.

Every morning, before daybreak, they would light a fire and cook. After breakfast, the battalion commanders would lead their soldiers for drills around Shenyang.

The circumference of Shenyang City Wall is nine li and thirty steps. These refugees, who are not physically strong, must run a full lap within the time specified by the garrison (one stick of incense), otherwise they will be eliminated.

Liu Zhaosun personally trained 800 people to serve as his personal guard in the future.

After running, even the strongest soldiers in the new army became red-faced and panting. After a short rest, they began queue training.

The first thing to be trained is the most basic standing posture, which requires soldiers to keep their feet together, legs straight, abdomen slightly retracted, chest naturally raised; lower jaw slightly retracted, eyes looking straight ahead. Standing posture plays an important role in the later combat of spearmen.

Liu Zhaosun never tired of correcting the soldiers who stood in the wrong posture, and this simple action took him two days.

The next step was to turn left and right. In order to make the soldiers distinguish between left and right, Liu Zhaosun had to temporarily suspend the formation training and led the soldiers to shout:
"Bowl is on the left, chopsticks are on the right"

"Bowl is on the left, chopsticks are on the right"

"Left first, right later"

"Left first, right later"

After the morning's tossing and turning, the new army's nightmare came to an end temporarily, and then it was lunch time.

Thanks to the efforts of the garrison commander, the new army had a sumptuous lunch, which made the southern soldiers jealous and greedy. However, no one was willing to run around Shenyang like a cow just to eat a few more pieces of meat.

Lunch consisted of two plates of meat, one plate of vegetable, and a large bucket of clear soup. Everyone only relaxed when eating.

However, Liu Zhaosun could not relax at any time. Every day he borrowed money from his father-in-law, Kang Yingqian, Qiao Yiqi, and everyone he knew who could borrow money to buy pigs, sheep and food for the soldiers.

In the afternoon, the recruits' nightmare continued.

After a long run, push-ups follow.

Then they continued to train the formations, standing postures and turning left and right. Liu Zhaosun ordered the captains of each battalion to learn first, and then teach the soldiers after they learned. If a soldier failed to learn it three times, he would be beaten with a military stick.

The garrison commander's desperate training of the troops left the Liaozhen generals on the city wall dumbfounded, and they suspected that he had gone crazy.

After Liu Zhaosun suffered so much, only about a thousand Liao people were able to hold on.

Those who could not persist were eliminated directly. Fortunately, there were many refugees, and they all had a religious fanaticism towards Liu Zhaosun, so new people joined in a steady stream every day.

The soldiers who were still able to hold on after ten days of drill training stood there, and their mental outlook was obviously much better than before.

Liu Zhaosun looked forward to Shangguan giving him some weapons and armor every day so that he could let these new recruits fight with real swords and guns.

However, the armor in Liaozhen seemed to be insufficient even for the servants, so it was certainly impossible to distribute it to the guest soldiers.

In this way, the new recruits went from standing at attention to turning left and right, and then to marching in step. After half a month, they had already shown signs of becoming a strong army.

But at this time, a danger was approaching Liu Zhaosun.

(End of this chapter)