After more than a month of military reform, Guan Xuqing appointed the generals of the four military regions, with Dong Liang as the general in the Northeast Military Region, Lu Yiwei as the general in the Southeast Military Region, Liu Mingchuan as the general in the Southwest Military Region, and Nie Shicheng as the general in the Northwest Military Region

These four people are all veterans of the formation of the army, and they are also the most relied on and trusted people by Guan Xuqing, and they are also older, and no one raised objections after the announcement, and these four people also became the first batch of generals after the implementation of the military rank system in the Qing Army

And Zuo Zongtang, Li Hongzhang, Prince Alcohol, and Peng Yulin were awarded marshals, among which Zuo Zongtang and Peng Yulin needless to say, the two family members of the military department have quite high prestige in the Qing Dynasty army Li Hongzhang and Prince Alcohol are only nominal marshals, and they have no military power, but because they have all led soldiers, among them, Li Hongzhang's military power was deprived by Guan Xuqing after the pro-government, so the two of them were also awarded marshals

In addition, Feng Xianghua, Wang Feng, Fang Shizhen, Duan Qirui, Feng Guozhang, Zhang Xun, Cao Kun, Lu Rongting, Xu Shichang, Duan Zhigui, Zhao Bingjun, and former officers of the Qing Army Wu Ping, Wu Guang, Chen Heng, Wan Tianjie, Shen Danyang, Pan Dongmin, and Feng Zicai were all awarded generals, while Deng Shichang and Yan Fu were awarded admirals

In addition, there are 50 lieutenant generals and 175 major generals, all of whom are former officers of the Qing Army's standard command level and officers above the command band of the main ships of the Qing Navy

As early as after the victory of the Sino-French War, Guan Xuqing personally wore the imperial badge for several generals who had won military merit in the Old Summer Palace: The honor of a soldier is above all else

At this time, the hearts on their shoulders are their highest honor as soldiers

In Guan Xuqing's view, the implementation of the rank system in the army makes it easier for all armies to distinguish between superior and lower levels when conducting joint operations, and to make unified arrangements for work, otherwise several divisions will meet together, and they will all be division commanders, and no one will buy anyone's account, and they will be done with their own fighting

In addition, it is not difficult to see the important role played by the military rank system in the two battles of China and France and China and Britain, such as the attack on Taiwan launched by the French army after the landing in Keelung, which was attacked by Sun Kaihua, and the French army was able to organize a complete attack after the establishment was completely disrupted, and the organized overall coordinated retreat benefited from the rank system, because after their direct commanders were killed in the battle, most of the soldiers would lose their backbone, and the so-called defeat was like a mountain, but with the rank system, It can be seen from the clothing that this person's military rank, as long as he is higher than himself, he must obey, for example, a captain, the soldiers under the company commander are all dead, and when he sees the soldiers of many other companies who have retreated in front, he can re-command these soldiers to organize a round of attack or organize to block the enemy's attack, and the soldiers are easy to find the backbone, so with the rank system, even if the unit structure is disrupted, it can reorganize the force and put into battle in a short time

The military rank system can also create an atmosphere of unity and friendship in a peaceful environment, and the intuitive consciousness it gives people is respect and obedience to superiors, which is the basic quality that any soldier should possess -- obedience to orders

In the process of the army's transformation from tactical to strategic, the military rank system is almost a mixture of tactics and strategy, which is conducive to the army's march toward modernization; although at that time, including many generals who returned from Germany, could not understand the benefits of the military rank system, Guan Xuqing had already overbearingly implemented the military rank system for this reformed unit

Fortunately, today's Qing Army has also seen the troops on the market, and in just two years, it has fought with the world's first and second ranked countries in a row, and knows that foreigners have implemented the military rank system, regardless of how much benefit this thing can bring to themselves, but what foreigners have, we must also have in the Qing Dynasty, and in such a mood, everyone enthusiastically accepted this fresh thing

Guan Xuqing personally conferred titles on the first batch of marshals and generals of the Qing Dynasty, and hung up the badge, but unfortunately Zuo Zongtang, who was seriously ill, could only accept the congratulations of his military rank and subordinates in bed

Guan Xuqing looked at the generals with badges and generals on their chests and shoulders and said: "High-quality soldiers are the most important decisive factor in the military strength of the Qing Dynasty, and no weapons and equipment are better than those who are weapons and equipment, if people can't do it, even if they give him good weapons and equipment, it will be in vain, you are all the wealth of the Qing Dynasty, and the future of the Qing Dynasty, I am still that sentence, the honor of the soldiers is above all else."

After a burst of warm applause, Guan Xuqing continued: "Nowadays, Britain, France, Russia and even Japan are eyeing our Qing Dynasty, in the face of such a situation and challenges, content with the status quo, sticking to the old system, not thinking about reform, the end can only be abandoned by the world, only vigorously reform and create, in order to provide a strong impetus for the construction of our Qing army, this is a very urgent and important task entrusted to us by the times, do we have to wait until the foreign devils hit the doorstep, only to think of reform, to think of progress? ”

Everyone was silent, deeply reflecting on the fact that the Qing Dynasty has gradually become stronger in recent years, isn't it just that it is constantly reforming and learning from the experience of foreigners?

After the award ceremony, the exercises between the divisions were carried out in full swing, and in order to compete for the number of the 1st to 10th divisions, which symbolized the main force of the ace, all the troops used their full strength without reservation

After a month of fierce competition, in the end, the troops led by Luo Ming, Feng Zicai, Wu Ping, Shen Danyang, Duan Qirui, Feng Guozhang, Zhang Xun, Lu Rongting, Xu Shichang, and Duan Zhigui overwhelmed the others, and respectively won the number of the first to tenth divisions of the Qing Army, and enjoyed higher salaries than other divisions

If history has not changed, the Sino-Japanese war is about to start, at this time the war related to the national fortunes of the two countries is approaching, Guan Xuqing is even more nervous about this war than the original Sino-French war, after all, this nation has been bullied too much by the Japanese in history, and this history must not be repeated in this space

In order to be able to defeat Japan, Guan Xuqing was not even willing to intervene in the dispute in Thailand, just hoping to recuperate, store energy to defeat Japan in one fell swoop, and make it impossible for the Japanese to recover within a hundred years

Kindness to the enemy is cruelty to oneself, Guan Xuqing will never show mercy to the Japanese after the reform of the military system, Guan Xuqing is ready to take action against the DPRK and Xian, which will undoubtedly greatly stimulate the Japanese, and will also directly provoke the famous Sino-Japanese war in history, including the land war in Korea and Xian, and the two naval battles in the Yellow Sea and the Bohai Sea

But history has been rewritten by Guan Xuqing many times, how the war will develop is really unpredictable, but judging from the current comparison of the military capabilities of the two countries, the Qing Dynasty still seems to have a certain advantage, if it is a disadvantage, maybe the intelligence of Japan's "chrysanthemum" organ is much stronger than that of the Qing Dynasty, but these are no longer important, because Zhao Bingjun is back, this Qing Dynasty demon fox will form the most reliable intelligence network for the Qing Dynasty after he returns, so that the only disadvantage to Japan does not exist

Thinking of this, Guan Xuqing exhaled heavily, it seems that he can sleep peacefully for a few days......