The scorching sun was in the sky, and the training ground was almost cracked.

In order to avoid the scorching sun at noon, Li Zicheng moved the celebration party to the evening, except for the hundred households guarding Zhenhai Fort, all the soldiers lined up in the training ground to wait, sweat had already soaked their summer clothes, but no one dared to look around, once they were targeted, the thousand households would kill people, and today was a celebration party, maybe the credit also had its own share.

The vast majority of soldiers are still intimidated by strict military discipline, and military merit has always been the preserve of officers, and it would be good for soldiers to receive adequate salaries.

At the end of the Shen period, the red sun had turned westward, but the heat wave was wave after wave, and there was no sign of abating at all, as if testing these expectant soldiers, Li Zicheng finally appeared in the training ground with Liang Wencheng.

The soldiers looked straight ahead in unison, and unconsciously saluted, and the officers of each hundred households also had their own expectations.

Li Zicheng stood in the middle and glanced at the audience, and the soldiers suddenly felt the gaze of Lord Qianhu that was hotter than the sun, "Lord Qianhu saw me, and I glanced at him just now......"

"This time the resumption of Fort Qiang is the result of the concerted efforts of all the soldiers, the officers carried out the military orders, and the soldiers marched forward bravely, so they defeated the Mongols in one fell swoop......" Li Zicheng's voice was not high, but his deep voice echoed in the training ground, and all the soldiers could clearly hear Li Zicheng's praise for them.

The officers smiled, knowing that the next step was to reward meritorious deeds, and it was no surprise that they would actually confer the duties of a hundred households.

"Any idea why I'm late?" Li Zicheng swept his gaze over the audience again, "I want to see if last night's victory was an accident." ”

Looking at the dazed soldiers, Li Zicheng continued: "Any strong soldier is inseparable from the iron military discipline, just now the brothers were exposed to the scorching sun without moving a single bit, this is our greatest confidence, I believe that after the baptism of blood and fire last night, my brothers have become qualified soldiers," After a pause, he suddenly raised his voice, "In the future, we will no longer be hated by everyone!" ”

The soldiers were excited, but they couldn't express it in words, although they didn't expect to be promoted and rich, but in the eyes of the Thousand Households, they had washed away the titles of "Defeated Soldiers" and "Rotten Soldiers", they could even defeat the invincible Mongols, and more importantly, the Thousand Households had always been in their eyes, and they didn't know who started, all the soldiers applauded warmly, not only to thank the Thousand Households, but also to their own affirmation, applause, is the only way to express their hearts.

Li Zicheng waited for the applause to gradually fade down, and then continued: "The merits of the brothers, I will ask Wei Li for instructions, as long as the brothers work hard, I, Li Zicheng, will definitely not treat my brothers badly!" ”

"Bang Bang Bang ......"

There was thunderous cheer and a wave of applause.

"People don't walk without heads, birds don't fly without heads," Li Zicheng's tone changed, "Today, we will first appoint the commanders of each hundred households, and the military merits of the soldiers will be rewarded." ”

The audience was silent, hundreds of pairs of eyes were fixed on Li Zicheng's lips, and the officers' eyes were even more expectant.

"Liu Yunshui, alone led his subordinate soldiers, ambushed the defeated Mongol army, won a lot, and he could accept it when he saw it, strictly abide by the military order, and from now on he will be promoted to the hundredth household, commanding the cavalry."

He had long estimated that he would be promoted to a hundred cavalry households, but when Li Zicheng announced this information in public, Liu Yunshui's heart was still in ecstasy, especially the cavalry under him, which followed from Ganzhou and was the strongest army in combat effectiveness.

When he heard Li Zicheng say that he strictly abided by the military order, he couldn't help but think of the first time he went out to fight with a military staff, and his face was burned.

Liu Yunshui stood at the front, first kowtowed to Li Zicheng and Liang Wencheng to thank him, and then bowed to the soldiers on all sides, and then silently retreated to the side.

"Li Guo, as the main officer of the Qiang Fort this time, was able to fight with the Mongols for a long time without retreating, killed a lot of enemies, and fully played the prestige of our army, and was promoted to the second hundredth household, commanding the cavalry."

"Master Xie." Li Guo also made a big salute, compared with Liu Yunshui, although his subordinates are veterans, but the real combat effectiveness is inferior, and the riding skills of special soldiers have to be practiced from scratch, but he has always been dissatisfied with Liu Yunshui, and glanced at him secretly, but said in his heart: "I will catch up with you sooner or later." ”

Next, Li Zicheng announced five infantry hundreds, that is, the original commander of five hundred households, in addition to Qin Danian who stayed in Zhenhai Fort, Li Ji, Zhou Bin, Xie Guangze, and Song Wen all participated in last night's battle, although Li Ji and Zhou Bin were not the main force of the attack, but they reinforced, Li Guo's hundred households, and made great contributions to the defeat of Bayar's main force, Xie Guangze and Song Wen completed the task of cleaning up the east and west gates in a decent manner.

Although Bayar escaped from Ximen, it was intentional by Li Zicheng, he did not want his subordinate soldiers to fight to the death with the Mongols, and there were ambushes of the Ming army outside the city, so he was not worried that Bayar would run away.

Originally, Li Zicheng wanted to get eight hundred households, but the number of soldiers was insufficient, so he gave up, and he didn't want the officers to have another chance to eat empty salaries.

In addition, Wang Anping was promoted to the chief flag officer, and his subordinate rangers were expanded to twenty people, Ma Youshui was also promoted to the chief flag officer, becoming the commander of Li Zicheng's twenty personal soldiers, and He Xiaomi was promoted to the small flag officer.

These two general banners are directly subordinate to Li Zicheng, and no one else is allowed to transfer them, and they are regarded as soldiers directly under the Qianhu.

Sun Lin was not promoted, and was still a small flag officer, but this time he was adjusted to a full-time quartermaster and was no longer in charge of grazing.

According to the establishment of the Ming army, there should be two people from the thousand households in the thousand households, and one who is in charge of military discipline, and now there is no suitable candidate, so they have to be temporarily vacant, and they will be promoted again when they have military merits in the future, but Li Zicheng's real meaning is that he is worried that he will not be able to urinate in the same pot from the thousand households and the town, which restricts his military plan.

Xining Wei is subordinate to the Shaanxi Xingdu Division in Ganzhou, which is located in Ganzhou, and the two capitals and thirteen divisions in the interior of the Ming Dynasty, which are slightly different in military design.

As long as a soldier has military merits, he can theoretically be promoted to an officer, like Liu Yunshui and Li Guo were gradually promoted from soldiers to 100 households, and Li Zicheng was promoted from an ordinary soldier to a thousand households several times.

Such a system is conducive to stimulating the enthusiasm of soldiers for military exploits, but in Xiningwei, these are often systems on paper, if soldiers only have military merits, it is generally difficult to be promoted to the position of officers, but Li Zicheng decided to implement this rule in Weili, not only to motivate soldiers, but also because he really does not have a suitable candidate for officers, like the five infantry hundred households, all of which are the original hundred households, which is really difficult.

After Li Zicheng announced the appointment of the seven major and hundred households, he originally had to appoint a new chief flag officer and a small flag officer, but it would take a long time to come to this, and the soldiers' combat exploits still needed to be carefully determined, so they were not announced in public for the time being.

In addition, the soldiers allocated by Wu Shaoling are mixed, it turns out that in order to recover Fuqiang Fort as soon as possible, the soldiers have hardly made adjustments, and now that the battle is over, there is no major combat mission for the time being, it is a good opportunity for training, soldiers such as soldiers who are not suitable to stay in the army, must be adjusted, they belong, or go to the fire army, or go to shepherd, if it is not suitable, then it can only be forced to retire, Li Zicheng's point of view, is that it is better to lack than to abuse, and do not let these soldiers harm the entire army.

Li Zicheng gave several hundred households three days to train their subordinates, but in order to maintain the stability of the army, and after the great victory over the Mongols, the first adjustment could not be too large, and he himself had to go to Weili to ask for merit for the soldiers, and the matter of training the soldiers was handed over to the hundred households.

As soon as the day dawned, Li Zicheng got up, ran eight laps in the training ground, and was covered in sweat, He Xiaomi called for water, he wiped his body briefly, and was sitting at the square table drinking warm tea, Liang Wencheng came over, "Zicheng, has the writing for Weili been written?" ”

"I wrote it last night, and I'm about to let the adults see it!" Li Zicheng made a look, He Xiaomi took the paperwork placed on the bedside, and handed it to Liang Wencheng with both hands.

Liang Wencheng hadn't finished reading it, and his brows furrowed: "Zicheng, this document ......"

"My lord, is there anything wrong with the paperwork?" In his heart, Li Zicheng already regarded Liang Wencheng as his own person, so he spoke casually, "His subordinates are completely written according to their actual military exploits." ”

"Zicheng, you don't know," Liang Wencheng has been in Weili for many years, and he is naturally more familiar with the actual operation of asking for merit, "Weili generally does not give soldiers military merits, and the documents reported to Weili for merit will generally be cut in half when they arrive in Weili, if Zicheng reports according to the actual report, Weili is afraid that he will not be able to give much silver, as for the pension of the casualty soldiers, Weili has not issued it for many years." ”

"What Lord Liang means, please merit must be exaggerated, and after the deletion of Weili, can the actual military merit be preserved?" Li Zicheng hates this kind of internal friction the most, no wonder the combat effectiveness of the Ming army is getting weaker and weaker, and it is all caused by these rebel ministers.

"Unless he can say that he can move his father-in-law." Liang Wencheng had to smile bitterly.

"Grandpa Wu?" Li Zicheng shook his head, now that Fuqiang Fort has been overcome, his subordinates have concentrated most of the soldiers in Weili, and it would be good if Wu Shaoling did not use food and salary to restrain him.

After a hurried breakfast, Li Zicheng re-transcribed the merit paper, the casualties of the Mongols had expanded to nearly 100 people, but some of the corpses were snatched, and the Mongolian cavalry that raided Fuqiang Fort reached more than 200 people, and the casualties of the Ming army themselves also rose from 29 to 67 people.

Liang Wencheng looked at the document he had just transcribed, and couldn't help laughing: "Zicheng, it's okay, the stronger the Mongols, the more Xining Wei can't do without you, and Gonggong Wu wants to move you in the future, and he has to weigh it, at least when there is no one to guard these two military forts for him, he will not attack you." ”

"Am I not raising a thief and respecting myself?"

The two looked at each other, and they both laughed.