Back to the end of Ming Dynasty to be a warlord

Chapter 174
In the barracks, Zhao Kang and Lu Mo selected 20 people according to the list to form Yang Chao's personal army.

These 20 people have all seen blood, but their commanding ability and learning ability are weak. They have all gone through several months of training, but they can't read a single word.

It was not suitable for these people to be officers, so Yang Chao was recruited into his personal army and used as elite soldiers.

For these strong men, their original officers also like them very much. These people are more honest and obedient, and they can fight. Who doesn't like them.

But under Yang Chao's order, no one dared to object. They could only murmur a few words and complain to Lu Mo and Zhao Kang. Zhao Kang actually knew how to appease his colleagues. It is also in the eyes.

After forming the personal army team, you have to continue to recruit people.

Yang Chao didn't want to waste any of Huang Chong's troops in the right department, and there were at least 300 more people to recruit.

Yang Chao had cleared the soldiers of Chen Kuan and Li Fu, and had some surplus, so he directly applied for [-] recruits, and the Ministry of War approved it.

The same team, Hu Quan, Lu Mo and Zhao Kang, were responsible for recruiting troops.

But after recruiting for a day, only one hundred people were recruited, which was completely different from last time.

It was always easy for Yang Chao to recruit troops before.

After questioning, I found out that it was because my military salary had lost its attractiveness. A soldier is two renminbi a month, a corporal is three renminbi, a team leader is one liang, a flag officer is two liang, and a hundred is three liang. An officer is naturally not bad. .

But it was much worse for soldiers. Rice had risen to [-] cents a load, and a year’s salary for soldiers could not buy a load of rice, which meant they could not support their families.

The reason for the veterans is that they feel that the pay is cheap, and the food in the army is good, and there is hope for promotion. As long as they are lucky, they can be promoted by killing a few Jiang bandits. For recruits, it was really unattractive, so those who knew or didn't know Yang Chao were not too happy to be soldiers.

Only one hundred people were recruited in a day, which made Yang Chao have to consider raising the military salary.

Yang Chao didn't consider raising the military salary as a burden. If a soldier couldn't support his family, how could he expect them to have a sense of honor.

A soldier who is like a beggar is nothing but a walking corpse waiting to die.

But I have never had any idea about rising prices, because I haven't worried much about my livelihood.

Li Fu in the military camp is no exception. Although he is a vegetable grower, he is actually a small rich man. With dozens of acres of vegetable fields, he earns at least 200 taels a year. In fact, it doesn't matter much.

Yang Chao finally consulted with Zhang Dawei.

Zhang Dawei is mature and prudent, and has no other livelihood. Yang Chao's military salary is only one or two taels of silver, because he has also obtained the status of team leader.

Lao Zhang said that his family is really struggling, but his salary of one tael of silver can still support his family, but it is not enough to feed the whole family. If it can be raised to two taels of silver, his family of three can live a good life up.

That is to say doubled.

But Lao Zhang is a military officer and needs two taels of silver to support his family. If he is a soldier, Lao Zhang said that he is an idle laborer at home, and staying at home is a burden. The monthly salary needs to be raised, and two coins a month is not too little.

But after thinking about it again and again, Yang Chao decided to increase his salary. The salary of northern soldiers in the Ming Dynasty was usually one or two to one or two five, but the actual payment would not exceed five coins, so Yang Chao simply gave his soldiers five. money.

Officers are raised accordingly, corporal chiefs are raised to one tael, and team leaders are raised to two taels, of which five taels, a hundred taels of ten taels, and if it is the total, there will be 20 taels of salary a month.

The new military pay was issued soon, and Yang Chao insisted on posting it in plain text for all soldiers to see, even though they were illiterate.

Gather all the soldiers to give lectures and tell them the new system. Even after strict training, the salary still makes people whisper.

Not to mention the one hundred newly recruited soldiers, they made a lot of noise.

With this new payment system, Yang Chao believed that it should be attractive.

This time, instead of going door-to-door to recruit soldiers, he directly wrote more than a dozen notices and posted them in various guards, so that the young and strong who wanted to serve as soldiers came to the barracks to report by themselves.

Sure enough, on the second day, young and strong people began to come to the camp, and after finding out that the soldiers could really have five coins, they were all willing to serve as soldiers.

Hu Quan set up tables and chairs at the gate of the camp, Lu Mo helped to record, and Zhao Kang led his soldiers to maintain order.

100 people were recruited on the first day, 300 people were recruited on the second day, and after the remaining [-] people were recruited on the third day, there were still more than [-] people queuing up at the gate. When I told them that enough had been recruited, some people were aggrieved and said: I came here after walking a long way, but I didn't become a soldier.

For these clamoring young and strong, they directly dispatched their own soldiers, lined up to intimidate them, and then they all dispersed.

The formation of the army is already very formal. With the experience of expanding the army by 400 last time, it is no problem to add [-] people this time.

However, many veterans basically broke up, especially those soldiers who had seen blood, at least they were all in the same team.

Even last time, Chen Baodi's soldiers just stood guard at the stern of the boat and watched others charge and kill from the beginning to the end.

In this way, the only established veterans are the twenty soldiers around Yang Chao.

After completing the establishment and promoting a new batch of team leaders, Yang Chao called the nine old teams for a meeting.

Now three of them, Lu Mo, Wang Pu and Zhao Kang, are already Banner Chiefs.

Only many men, Chen Baodi, Song Kun, Li Wuliu, Sun Changfu, and Zheng Yongwang are still in charge of the team and are still leading recruits.

But these veteran teams undoubtedly have more experience in commanding and leading troops than those newly promoted. It is more of an officer's demeanor.

Yang Chao told the nine people that although their respective official positions are different, they are still on the same level. Now that he has been promoted to the head of a thousand, there is a vacancy under him, and he will be selected from these nine people. As for who can Being elected still depends on performance.

Yang Chao announced that the literacy class will continue to be held this year, and the system of raising one level of literacy remains unchanged. Lu Mo has already passed the literacy test, so there is no need to take the exam, but other people will still be able to advance to one level if they pass the exam.

In addition, meritorious deeds for killing enemies will still follow the system of last year, and meritorious service will be distributed according to the system.

Therefore, if you want to be promoted, there are only two paths, the first is to kill the enemy and make meritorious service, and the second is to learn to read.

The promotion path is open and transparent. Yang Chao believes that there must be more people who are literate by heart this year than last year.

Because at least many of the men are still in the old team who still have the same positions as their own soldiers in the past. They are very uncomfortable and very aggressive.

After the meeting, Zhao Kang was left behind, and he still encouraged him, telling him that now he is the only elite soldier in the army who has seen blood, and whether he can make meritorious service depends on his performance.

Zhao Kang expressed that he would not let Yang Chao lose face, and Yang Chao told him that this year he will replace Wang Pu's escort ship last year, that is to say, let him escort the boat every day, and have a better chance of encountering Jiang Bandits. great opportunity.

He also had a private chat with Lu Mo and Hu Quan, and told them that although they were appointed by Yang Chao to be the head of the banner and the head of the hundred, Yang Chao asked them if they would give up.

In the past, Yang Chao didn't think about it at all, but now Yang Chao has the ability to help these two get the fame of scholar.

First of all, Hu Quan, in the past, he couldn't even pass the county test and the government test. The county test was too simple, and the county magistrate directly graded the papers. Where is Jiangning county magistrate Yang Wencong? Yang Chao's 'friend', so passing the county and government examinations is a one-sentence matter.

As for being a scholar, it's not too difficult. Xu Zhihuan, the imperial censor, was not punished this time because of his meritorious service in appeasing the scholar. Yes, so Xu Zhihuan owes Yang Chao a favor.

Tixue Yushi happened to be able to manage the level of the college examination. Although he alone said it was not enough, it was not difficult for him to help ensure that two scholars passed the test.

For the favor owed to Yang Chao, Xu Zhihuan probably wouldn't find it difficult to repay the favor with two not-so-worthy scholarly achievements.

Hu Quan said that Yang Chao made the decision for him, he just had no idea, he didn't know what he was going to do, Yang Chao dragged him to the barracks, otherwise he would still be killing pigs.

Lu Mo simply said that his current skill is far from being a scholar, and he wants to continue studying for a few years before saying that, but he is self-aware, and his level is just enlightened, so it is too unreasonable to take the examination of a scholar .

Yang Chao didn't agree to help Hu Quan make up his mind, and let him think and plan carefully. Yang Chao didn't want his friend to degenerate to the point where he didn't even have an idea about his own life.

Yang Chao agreed to Lu Mo and let him continue to study for a few years, and when he felt that he was almost done, he was helping him run the imperial examination.

The recruitment of soldiers was full and the formation was completed, but Yang Chao was still busy for a while afterwards.

Because there are a total of more than 800 soldiers, all of them have to establish a file system, but there are only three who can read and write, and Lu Mo is just literate, so the main burden is actually done by Yang Chao and Hu Quan.

It made Yang Chao feel that there was a serious shortage of documents in his army. One aspect was to run literacy classes. If it was necessary to be quick, he had better recruit a few scholars directly.

Other than this, everything was normal. Craftsmen came to the camp to start building bathhouses, Li Fu's greenhouses began to produce vegetables, and the warships set sail again to earn money.

Therefore, once the file work is finished, Yang Chao will have free time, and at this time, Jinchai Building reopens, and Yang Chao just goes to have a look.

(End of this chapter)