According to official data, the Viet Cavalry Battalion was supposed to have 700 men, all of whom were light cavalry. Compared with the Western Han Dynasty, the number of troops in the Eastern Han Dynasty was greatly reduced. Although this saved military spending and showed the unparalleled self-confidence of the Han Dynasty, it also led to the lack of defense forces of the Beijing Division.

Therefore, Zhang Jiao chose the strategy of capturing the thief and capturing the king first, and wanted to take the lead in occupying the Beijing Division, which should also have the consideration that the Beijing Division was empty and the military strength was insufficient.

There are only 200 "cavalry" soldiers stationed at the gate of Luoyang. "Guangya" said: "Ti", Chi also. Ti cavalry is a cavalry dressed in orange and red.

"The Book of the Later Han Dynasty: Baiguan Zhi IV" records: "There is one person who holds Jinwu, and there are 2,000 stones...... One person, more than a thousand stones. Two hundred horsemen. ”

After the founding of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Liu Xiu reduced the eight captains of the Western Han Dynasty to five lieutenants, and at that time people called the five schools the five battalions. He also placed the marquis of the Northern Army to supervise the five colonels.

The so-called five battalions of the Northern Army refer to the five battalions of tun cavalry, Yue cavalry, infantry, Changshui, and archery. And the original Hu cavalry battalion was merged into Changshui, and the tiger camp was merged into the incident sound battalion. The rank of the captain of the fifth battalion is more than 2,000 stones, and the officials are idle, and most of them are appointed by the heart of the royal family, and the marquis of the northern army with a rank of 600 stones is one person, and the five battalions are forbidden. Each lieutenant has a subordinate Sima and a thousand stones.

It can be seen that the rulers of the Eastern Han Dynasty did not believe in the generals with foreign surnames leading the troops, and they did not trust the imperial family to lead the northern army, fearing that it would threaten the imperial power. Let the royal family serve as the captain of the fifth battalion, and give up the lowly and powerful and rank of 600 stone in the Northern Army, the fifth battalion of the prison is forbidden, which can be said to be well-intentioned.

Now that he has no choice but to use Guo Bin as the cavalry lieutenant and lead the cavalry battalion, it is not only a trust in Guo Bin, but also Liu Hong really has no choice. Faced with the dangerous situation of the siege of the 100,000-strong army of Taiping Dao, even if he was the Son of Heaven, he did not dare to act rashly.

Guo Bin can imagine that the end of a dynasty will inevitably be full of corruption~ corruption and slack armaments, but he could never have imagined that the once famous Yue cavalry battalion would have fallen to such a state.

After investigation, three of the few people who drank and prostituted with Yuan Jian in the camp tent were the chief of the Yueqi camp, and the other few were the chief of the camp. The so-called "uncle" is the commander of a hundred people in the ancient army. There were 700 sergeants in the battalion, so there were also seven elders. Today, three of the seven elders are openly drinking and prostituting in the camp, while the other four are not in the camp.

In addition, after counting, the Yueqi battalion, which was supposed to have 700 people, is now only 95 people. The rest of the people either took leave or went out to camp for recreation.

Hearing this, Guo Bin's original idea of using the existing military strength in the Yue cavalry battalion collapsed instantly. At this time, the armament in the Vietnamese cavalry battalion was lax and there was a lack of training, which was really difficult to use.

After a busy time, after counting the number of people, it was already dark, and the 100 special soldiers brought by Guo Bin had already taken over the defense of the Yue Cavalry Battalion. Guo Bin ordered everyone to go back to the camp to rest, not to order, not to leave the camp without permission. After waiting for one night, only thirteen soldiers returned to the camp.

Waiting until the early morning, Guan Yu, who returned to the city, galloped back to the Yue cavalry camp and handed over the edict of the Son of Heaven to Guo Bin, Guo Bin had a bottom in his heart.

Yesterday, Guan Yu was ordered by Guo Bin to return to the city to explain to He Jin the situation in the Yue cavalry camp in order to apply for greater power. Presumably, given the urgency of the current situation, many problems that are usually difficult can be quickly resolved. Sure enough, yesterday because it was late, the city gate was closed, and it was impossible to leave the city, Guan Yufang arrived early this morning and brought the answer that Guo Bin was looking forward to.

The edict of the Son of Heaven said: "With the cavalry captain Guo Bin leading the Northern Army to the cavalry battalion, the appointment and dismissal of personnel in the battalion and the selection of sergeants can be disposed of as appropriate, and they are allowed to act cheaply." ”

This edict was like a gold medal order, not only giving Guo Bin the power to act cheaply, but also handing over the personnel power to Guo Bin. It's not that Liu Hong has a big heart, and it's not that he's stupid. Instead, he knew that the quota of these seven hundred people, if used well, could play a great role in the battle to protect the Jingshi; Even if Guo Bin wanted to rebel, relying on the 700-strong Yue cavalry battalion would not be able to do it anyway. simply singled to the end, giving Guo Bin more power, and also enabling him to make the Yue cavalry battalion form combat effectiveness in the fastest time, and play a role in the encirclement and suppression ten days later.

Now that he has the strong support of the Son of Heaven, Guo Bin can act boldly. Time is pressing, and what he has to do now is recruit. As for the original soldiers and officers, he decided to treat them separately after consulting with Xi Zhicai and others.

He did not have time to scrutinize which of the soldiers were hardworking and which were stealing, nor did he have time to check whether the officers were paid empty. Guo Bin came up with the idea that all the soldiers in the battalion, including those who returned at night, should stay, and those who did not return overnight would be removed from the military even if they returned to the barracks, and as for the officers, they would be kicked out without discussion.

Because the officers in the battalion had all gathered in Yuan Jian's big tent to drink and have fun, and the others had not returned yet. After Guo Bin asked the special soldiers to take over the defense, he ordered that only the battalion was allowed to enter and not leave, so no one could send the news out of the battalion, and it was naturally impossible for the officers to return to the battalion.

As for the soldiers, everything depends on the results of training. Those who can endure hardships and insist on training for ten days can naturally stay, otherwise they will get out. With such a simple and brutal method, it is possible to kick out the treacherous soldiers as quickly as possible, ensuring the purity and combat effectiveness of the army.

In the army, there are military officers and military horses. The military officer is responsible for assisting the captain to lead the troops, and is a civilian personnel; The military commander is a military position, which is responsible for training soldiers. For these two positions in the army, Guo Bin unceremoniously appointed Xi Zhicai as a military officer, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei served as the left and right military commanders respectively, and Xun Yu and Guo Jia temporarily engaged in the army.

Once the division of labor is clear, the various departments are running at a rapid pace.

Although Zhang Fei served as the Sima of the Right Army, he didn't understand the training methods of the army under Guo Bin at all, so he still had to look at Guan Yu in training soldiers.

However, at present, in front of this young team, in addition to the training of old soldiers, the most important task is recruitment.

Because Guo Bin decided to kick out most of the original soldiers and all the officers out of the Yue cavalry battalion (the reason was that it was easy to find, the soldiers left the camp without permission, and the officers were paid for empty salaries and were poorly trained), so the total strength of the Yue cavalry battalion was only 200 even if the 100 special soldiers brought by Guo Bin were currently there, which was still 500 compared to the full 700 people.

Regarding the source of the soldiers, Guo Bin had already made a calculation in his heart, so he selected from the nearly 100,000 displaced people outside Luoyang City.

Most of these displaced people came from Jizhou, Bingzhou, and some even came from Youzhou, Yanzhou, Qingzhou, and Yuzhou. The so-called "land of Yan Zhao has been full of generous and sad people since ancient times", these people who live in the north have struggled with the cold since birth, and their physical fitness is much better than that of people living in the warm south, and their stature is much taller than that of southerners.

Although there must be Taiping Tao among these displaced people, Guo Bin naturally has a way to distinguish them.

After seeing the situation in the Yue cavalry camp yesterday, Guo Bin ordered Xun Yu to take a few people back to Beijing and recruit people among the displaced people through the power of Guo's mansion.

When recruiting, it was stated in advance that they were going to Youzhou to buy leather goods and recruit workers and accompanying guards. Every day, I want people to sign up freely.

If they are people in the Taiping Dao, because it is already mid-February, and the day of the event is imminent, it is naturally impossible for them to go to Youzhou, of course they will not sign up. And those who sign up can only be homeless people who really lack food and clothing, and almost have to eat. In this way, the displaced people are separated from the Taiping Road, and the task of selecting sergeants is much simpler.

The criteria given by Guo Bin are different from those of ordinary magnates, and they should try to find literate people, who can settle accounts better, and it is best to bring their families with them. In addition to this, as long as you are not physically disabled, you can. In this way, the number of displaced people is not limited to 500, but 12,000 is also acceptable.

Guo Bin's method has also been greatly appreciated by Uncle He Jin, why? This can not only distinguish the Taiping Dao from the real outcasts, but also increase the manpower, strengthen the power of the Taiping Dao while weakening the Taiping Dao. But the number should not be too much, otherwise it will be easy for Taiping Dao to see through, after all, Taiping Dao is not a fool.

As a result, led by Xun Yu, the recruitment activities of Guo Fu received great attention as soon as they were launched. In just one day, nearly 2,000 people were recruited. These people were all carefully selected by Xun Yu, and although they all looked very thin, they could be seen that they were all strong people before. And most of them bring their families with them, which further reduces the probability of recruiting Taiping Dao.

However, this also caused a little trouble for the wealthy Guo Bin: although there are only 2,000 young and strong people, there are more than 3,000 old and weak women and children in his family. As a result, a large number of nearly 6,000 people gathered at the resettlement site specially allocated by He Jin for Guo Bin. He Jin was appointed as Henan Yin at this time, and the Gyeonggi area was in his charge, and it was not easy to allocate a piece of land to Guo Bin to resettle the displaced people?

The bitter cold land of Yanzhao, close to Wuhuan and Xiongnu, makes its people fierce, most of the men can ride horses, and they are powerful and able to open bows, which is the best source of soldiers in this era. If it weren't for the fact that these people recruited at the moment were all hungry and cold refugees, all of them with yellow faces and thin muscles, otherwise they would have been able to form combat effectiveness in just three days.

After the recruitment was completed, Xun Yu's main job became to settle the displaced people.

Because most of the magnates in Beijing recruited domestic slaves among the displaced people, but the number was not as large as that of Guofu. In addition, Xun Yu deliberately recruited in various branches of the homeless camp, and only a few hundred people were recruited in each place, so it was not so eye-catching. Because of Xun Yu's cautious approach, his work did not have much impact on the displaced people. Long before Xun Yu began to recruit displaced people, Huzi was ordered by Guo Bin to deliver dried grain and meat to the places where the displaced people were resettled, so as to resettle these displaced people who had not eaten a full meal in the past six months.

Therefore, after the distribution of food, the homeless people were grateful, because this meal was no longer gruel in the soup kitchen, but real cakes, broth, and even pickled pickles! The homeless people carefully tasted the few slices of diced meat floating in the bowl, as if they had returned to the beautiful era of food and clothing for a family, and many of them even shed tears after eating.

Seeing this scene, a big stone in Xun Yu's heart finally let go.

When he first recruited these outcasts, they were dizzy with hunger and weak limbs, and naturally they lacked the slightest energy, not even negative emotions such as anger and frustration, and they were like the walking dead. Now although I am crying, I am also angry. According to Guo Bin's words: "It's good to be able to cry, and being able to cry proves that they are still alive." ”

In this year of great famine, the people were displaced, and crying became a luxury.