However, what is shocking is not the establishment of the First Brigade, nor is it that Hao Bonian was promoted to major general, because after the Battle of the Acropolis of Tonggu, it is normal to be promoted one step further with Hao Bonian's merits.

After all, many people have already been promoted to colonels, such as Li Chunjing, Fang Xitong, Wang Danxu, and Zeng Ziwen, who were promoted to colonels on the first day after the end of the war.

With Hao Bonian's military exploits and even qualifications, it is natural to be promoted after the war, and it is strange not to be promoted.

And the establishment of the first brigade is normal, after all, the scale of the Datang New Army is getting bigger and bigger, and it is normal to set up another brigade above the infantry regiment, and even set up an infantry division in the future.

They were shocked because Li Xuan also set up a second brigade in this holy decree, with the third infantry regiment and the fourth infantry regiment under his jurisdiction, but the position of the brigade commander was vacant.

Emperor Li Xuan did not decide on the candidate for the commander of the second brigade at the first time!

And this is the second in the Datang New Army, and it is also the only one in the near future to be a brigade commander!

Below Hao Bonian, who among the senior generals in the Datang New Army is not looking forward to it!

Needless to say, Li Chunjing, Fang Xitong, and Wang Danxu are now colonels, and they are also the commanders of the main infantry regiment, and there is great hope for them to continue to rise to the rank of brigade commander!

Even Huang Xueren, Fang Dongquan and several of their veterans are looking forward to it!

Even Zeng Ziwen, the director of the Operations Division, used the excuse of reporting the military situation to ask for a saint in the first time after this holy decree was issued!

What he did was nothing more than the throne of the commander of the Second Brigade, who wanted to be promoted to general, so as to become a real senior general in the Datang New Army, so as to reach the pinnacle of life!

For a while, the people in the Datang New Army who thought they were qualified to be promoted to the commander of the Second Brigade frequently used various reasons to ask for faces, and in addition to expressing their loyalty to Li Xuan, they would also talk about their experience in how to lead the large corps to fight, etc., in order to make themselves candidates for the Second Brigade, at least as an alternative.

However, Li Xuan did not decide on the choice of the commander of the Second Brigade for a while, and was indifferent to the hints of the generals under his command, but was more concerned about the preparation of the First Brigade and the Second Brigade, and at the same time how to strengthen the combat effectiveness of the Fifth Infantry Regiment and solve the equipment problem.

Today, among the five main infantry regiments of the Datang New Army, the Fifth Infantry Regiment is still directly under the Privy Council, as are the other artillery battalions, baggage regiments, and cavalry battalions.

Preparing for the establishment of brigades, and there are two brigades at the same time, this is Li Xuan's preparation for the subsequent establishment of a formal strategic unit 'infantry division'.

After the scale of the Datang New Army continues to expand, it is necessary to set up high-level command units such as brigades, divisions and even armies, otherwise, Li Xuan will not be able to effectively command these troops even if he has three heads and six arms!

According to past operations, with the current scale of the Datang New Army, even if it was organized into an infantry regiment of more than 2,000 people, Li Xuan still had no way to directly command various infantry regiments, which was more troublesome to command, and the efficiency was too low.

In the operation of the Tonggu Acropolis, Li Xuan actually commanded the troops by directly commanding the forward troops, the Chinese commando, the Chinese army and other troops, and did not directly command the infantry regiments, otherwise, he would not be able to effectively command the army of tens of thousands of people to fight.

The establishment of the brigade level is also to better adapt to the situation of the war, and it can also be regarded as giving Hao Bonian a large enough platform to display his talents!

According to Li Xuan's training plan for him, the future of this Hao Bonian is far more than the commander of an infantry regiment, but a reserve candidate for the division commander, and the current brigade commander is just a transition.

Besides, apart from Hao Bonian, to be honest, he doesn't have any available talents!

As the saying goes, thousands of troops are easy to get, and it is difficult to find a general, and today's Li Xuan is also trapped in the command of no high-quality senior generals!

After the new decree of the official establishment of the First Brigade and the Second Brigade was issued, it immediately caused a shock within the Datang New Army, and many senior generals were looking forward to the throne of the brigade commander of the Second Brigade.

Because this is a general's position!

At present, Hao Bonian, who has the most outstanding military achievements and the most outstanding talent, has served as the brigade commander of the First Brigade and was awarded the rank of major general.

But who will be the second brigade commander and the second major general next?

They don't know, in fact, don't talk about them, even Li Xuan himself is very distressed, because the generals under his command, except for one Hao Bonian, in fact, no one else is very suitable to be this brigade commander, otherwise, he would have started to train before, for example, first promote the rank to colonel, and then give a temporary corps commander the opportunity, so that he can be promoted to major general smoothly, and then become the brigade commander.

In fact, except for one Hao Bonian in the Datang New Army, Li Xuan actually didn't like the others, and he was also very hesitant about the candidate for the commander of the Second Brigade, basically because no one felt that it was suitable.

, that is the candidate for the commander of the second brigade, and many people will have this opportunity!

But this also created a situation, because except for Hao Bonian's accident, Li Xuan felt that no one was suitable, so many senior generals had this opportunity to serve as the commander of the second brigade, after all, since the second brigade had been established, a brigade commander was needed after all.

But Li Xuan was not in a hurry for a while, anyway, there were still a few days to go, although the brigade commander of the Second Brigade had not yet been established, the brigade headquarters of the Second Brigade had already been established.

This time, in order to strengthen the command capability of the brigade headquarters, Li Xuan assigned the brigade to the deputy brigade commander, as well as the chief of staff and the operational staff officer.

At the same time, the post of chief of staff was also established in the infantry regiment to further strengthen the command capability.

The chiefs of staff of the two infantry brigades were transferred from among the senior staff officers at the rank of major in the operations department, and the staff officers of the infantry regiments were transferred from among the young and promising lieutenants.

At the same time, the deputy brigade commander of the second brigade also arrived soon, this person is Huang Xueren, and interestingly, the deputy brigade commander of the first brigade is Fang Dongquan.

The appointment of these two people basically put an end to their desire to be a brigade commander!

The appointment of these two people as deputy brigade commanders can be regarded as a compromise by Li Xuan, according to his thoughts, these two people are actually the end of being a battalion commander, but they are all founding ministers, when the Tang Dynasty was only a few hundred people, they were one of the generals.

In order to avoid giving people the negative impression of being treated harshly by the old ministers, falling into the well, and hiding all the birds, Li Xuan had to continue to promote them, but this promotion could not give them actual power.

Give a brigade, a force of five or six thousand people to them to command, let alone a brigade, even if it is the position of the commander of the infantry regiment, Li Xuan does not plan to give it to them, because in this case, Li Xuan is not at ease in saying anything!

Therefore, a colonel and deputy brigade commander with a prominent position but not much real power is the best choice to not cause much negative impact.

Don't mention what Huang Xueren and Fang Dongquan thought in their hearts, but they were promoted from lieutenant colonel to colonel, and they also served as deputy brigade commanders.

And a few others continued to stare at the position of the brigade commander of the second brigade!

And this matter can't be dragged on forever, after resting in the Tonggu Acropolis for a few days, when Li Xuan got the forward of the Ming Army on the West Road and officially entered the territory of Liping Mansion, he finally made a decision, because at this time he was going to lead the army westward, and he couldn't let the position of brigade commander of the Second Brigade continue to be vacant.

After careful consideration, Li Xuan finally decided to let Fang Xitong take the position of commander of the Second Brigade.

To be honest, before Fang Xitong, he had considered several people, such as Li Chunjing, Zeng Ziwen, and even Wang Danxu and Bai Yunqi.

However, these people all have their own flaws, first of all, Li Chunjing, this person is talented, and he is quite outstanding, but this person's personality is too strong, and there is a precedent for acting without authorization, Li Xuan is quite worried that he will mess around, and if he doesn't do it well, he will bury the second brigade with more than 5,000 people!

Zeng Ziwen's words, this person's qualifications, prestige and even theories are very sufficient, but his performance of crying in Luohu Valley is something that many people can't forget, Li Xuan feels that this person has no theory, but if he actually leads the troops, it is very likely that he will repeat the fiasco in Luohu Valley.

Wang Danxu simply said that ability, loyalty, and qualifications are also very sufficient, but Li Xuan is dissatisfied that this person's military theoretical knowledge is too lacking, and he can't read big words, and he relies on instinct and experience to fight wars.

A person like a brigade commander needs to lead his troops to fight alone, and he needs to decide on his own many tactical and even strategic choices, and it is not enough to rely only on instinct and experience.

After thinking about it, he still chose Fang Xitong, this person's ability is not too strong, at least not as strong as Li Chunjingqiang, but there are still some of them, at least it is more than enough to be a regiment leader.

The experience and qualifications are not as good as Wang Danxu, but they are not lacking!

This person is relatively mediocre in all aspects, not too good, but not too bad!

And this person also has a merit that Li Xuan admires, this person is very, very loyal, and never forgets to show this loyalty, this kind of loyalty can even be described as foolish loyalty, he would rather the army be defeated than disobey Li Xuan's orders.

This kind of behavior makes people feel that he doesn't know how to be flexible!

But this kind of inflexibility is what Li Xuan needs!

Compared with ability, qualifications, and prestige, loyalty is more important to Li Xuan!

So after some consideration, Li Xuan chose the tallest one among the shortest ones, and finally chose Fang Xitong!