After entering the Shuai's Mansion, there are two huge mirrors behind the wall. This is not unusual, now many yamen will set up large mirrors, used to arrange the crown, up to the political hall, down to the county government, most of them are like this. But on both sides of the mirror there is a sentence that is not found anywhere else: "Enter this gate and obey the military orders, and go out of this door to take care of the soldiers." ”

Han Qi looked at it and nodded secretly. At this time, famous generals often have to demand themselves like this, do not be greedy for money, and be generous to their subordinate generals. It's just that the policy is to lure the army to take advantage of it, and it is always a bit strange to lead the troops to demand this.

When he arrived at Shuaitang and served tea, Xu Ping casually asked about some affairs in the army.

Wang Kaidao: "Since Zhang Zhan went to Sichuan and Shu to recruit troops a few years ago, the personnel have been completed one after another two months ago. At present, there are still more than 11,000 people in training, and by the middle of summer, they should all be completed and distributed among the various armies. ”

Han Qiqi said: "How can new recruits be recruited, aren't they directly added to the army?" ”

"Of course not, the people and the soldiers are very different, but it is not just a matter of whether there are knives and guns in their hands. Newly recruited soldiers must first be trained, and after passing the pass of changing from civilians to soldiers, they will be distributed among the various armies. "Since Han Qi mentioned it, Xu Ping will say a few more words." Changing from a civilian to a soldier, changing the habits of being a common man, and acting in accordance with the rules and regulations is called training. At this time, they were familiar with the laws and regulations and systems in the army, got used to the days in the army, and learned the skills of warfare. As for whether the skills are good or not, don't think too much about it at this time, as long as you know it. After being assigned to each army, according to the skills of the previous training and training meetings, more drills will be added to the point that they are pure and proficient, which is called training. From training to training, it is the level of selecting people from the people to the soldiers, and then passing the level of truly becoming qualified soldiers. Those who cannot pass these checkpoints cannot be added to the army, or for the van army, or for miscellaneous service, and the army is not allowed to fill the number indiscriminately. ”

Whether in peacetime or wartime, the army has all kinds of training and combat tasks, and the training of new recruits is only incidental. As a result, the efficiency of training is extremely low, and there are even veterans who oppress the recruits and treat them as slaves, and all kinds of drawbacks emerge one after another. Even in the past year or two, there are still recruits who have not touched swords and guns, and who have not gone through the battle formation, can only be used as cannon fodder in wartime. There is no doubt that the efficiency and effect of gathering and training the recruits in a unified manner are much higher, but it is just that the organization and system are relatively troublesome for the marshal's office. The training time for recruits here in Dingxi City is six months, and it will be shortened under special circumstances, but it shall not be less than three months. These recruits have completed the whole training, and in terms of combat skills alone, they are not inferior to the forbidden army at this time, and the training of the forbidden army in this era was also very lax.

Recruits are trained in a centralized manner, and after they are distributed to various armies, they are accompanied by veterans who have been in battle for a long time as the backbone, which is the basic mode for several large armies in Qinzhou to pull together. Only with this model can we ensure that the size of the armed forces increases rapidly and that its combat strength does not decrease.

This is a completely different form of organization from the original forbidden army, and only in this way can it ensure that the rapidly expanding army still retains its combat effectiveness. In the past, whether it was the forbidden army or the box army, the new recruits were directly stuffed into the army, and the commanders and veterans were trained according to their mood, and the effect was self-evident. Once there is no headquarters, or there are too many new soldiers, the army directly loses its combat effectiveness. One extreme situation is "recruitment", that is, without a basic backbone and organizational structure, soldiers and brave men in a certain place are temporarily recruited to carry out combat missions. For example, in the history of Yuanfeng's four years of Wulu Expedition, 15,000 people were temporarily recruited in the Beijing Division, and Wang Zhongzheng led them to fight on the Linfu Road, which basically did not play any positive role.

There is a fundamental difference between a soldier and a civilian, it is not that if you give him a knife, the common people will become soldiers. The most important thing about this difference is not combat skills, not whether you dare to kill people in blood, but almost instinctive organization and discipline, which in the words of this era is the restraint of the Ming Division. It is inevitably an unorganized and undisciplined unit that is randomly recruited to replenish the staff, and what the recruits go through in the first period of time when they join the army roughly reflects the appearance of this army.

Xu Ping told Han Qi about this, and Han Qi thought for a while and said: "It makes sense to say this, but if you want to compare these with the thieves, I'm afraid that this dynasty will not have the upper hand." As far as I know, the army of thieves is based on the tribe, and the chieftain is the big and small leader, who has been taught since childhood, and knows its meaning when he moves up and down. And their art of war is cool, it is said that when the thieves eat, they all have to raise their hands to cover their mouths before they dare to eat, for fear that the superior will see the opening and think that they have something to say. Moreover, they are daily grazing, skilled in arching horses, hunting in their spare time, and cooperative, which are not comparable to our Central Plains people. If you want to compare discipline with Fanren and fight bravely, you have to make a lot of money and punish you with a cool law! Before leaving Beijing, all the princes of the DPRK and China thought so, and Qi thought that what he said was very true! ”

Xu Ping looked at Han Qi and smiled for a while: "I can't tell the truth, I won't explain it to you thoroughly, it seems that you still only know about military affairs, and it will be difficult to lead troops in the future." Fanren is nomadic and skilled in arching horses, so what? The two battles are not only archers and horses, but also slashing and stabbing with a knife and a gun. Swords and guns slash, just like the Central Plains people wield sickles and hoes, why don't you hear people say that the Han people plant well, so they are good at using knives and guns? When they hunt, they cooperate exquisitely, we Han people plant and harvest, the same drums and fields leak, thousands of people move forward together, it is like a military formation, and where is the difference? Let me tell you, in this world, as long as the hoe is swung well, it can be dug down like Mount Tai! When you talk about this, you say that the Han people are not as good as the Fan people in war, and there is no basis for this. It's just that for hundreds of years, the Han people have been bullied by Fanhu so hard that they have been beating them all the time, and they just find these excuses to comfort themselves. As for the fierce military law of Fanhu, it is because they are forcibly kneaded together by various tribes, and they have to do so. The severity of military law has nothing to do with the severity of punishment. The ancients made it clear that only in troubled times do we need to use heavy codes, and in peacetime, we should be lenient to show compassion to the people, and this is put in the army, that is, the law should be strictly enforced in wartime, and it is mainly lenient in peacetime. In our army, the way of loyalty and forgiveness is related to military affairs, such as training, marching, and combat, and military law must be strict, while in daily life, the main emphasis is on forgiveness. The military is rigorous and meticulous, and the daily life outside the military is loose and lively. ”

Han Qi opened his mouth, but finally didn't say anything, and closed his mouth again. Xu Ping's sentence has been bullied by Fanhu for hundreds of years, so he made up these excuses to comfort himself, leaving Han Qi with nothing to say.

Really speaking, there is still an advantage in cavalry archery, although it cannot decide the outcome of a battle, and most of the frontal troops cannot shake the infantry formation, but the advantage of maneuver is too great. However, the comparison of the advantages of this nomadic and agricultural people is far from enough to offset the gap in national strength, and the Song army cannot defeat others, and it has little to do with the difference in daily production habits.

You can't say that nomads usually ride horses so they have an advantage when fighting, this is true, and the Han people usually wield hoes and dance sickles are also advantages, and the advantage is even greater. The real reason is the fault line of the military culture of the farming nation, from the Wuhu Rebellion to the Anshi Rebellion, and then to the founding of the Great Song Dynasty, it has become the mainstream to think about the problem according to the military culture of the nomads.