Compared with the hundreds of thousands of displaced people of Li Zicheng and Luo Rucai, the thousands of soldiers in the Guards Battalion are really not much, and it is not difficult for the army to supply food and grass for such a small army.

Although Xu Ping made a lot of effort to find firearms, he now had only a few hundred arquebuses in his hand, except for the three hundred flintlock pistols, and the rest of the people could only be equipped with spears. Since Xu Ping started as an engineer, he attached great importance to the engineers, and in addition to the two infantry teams and the teaching team in the guard battalion, a small engineer team was also established, and Xu Ping also took the time to train them personally. As for the baggage, Xu Ping asked Li Zicheng for thousands of homeless people to be used as labor carriers. The still weak Guards Battalion actually has no baggage, and none of the existing artillery in Luoyang Xu Ping is eye-catching, so the artillery team is not in consideration for the time being. The cavalry could only be begged from other camp generals, and Xu Ping went to Liu Zongmin and a few other old brothers Li Zicheng to go around and ask for 500 cavalry.

Due to Li Zicheng's dredging, Liu Zongmin only put forward one condition, that is, the 500 cavalry should be handed over to one of his old subordinates to command: "I know that Brother Xu likes honest people, Chi San is the most honest, and he still believes in Buddhism." ”

The person Liu Zongmin recommended to Xu Ping was his old brother and drinking friend in the same village in Shaanxi, whose real name was Chi San, and now he has a big name called Shude. After arriving at the camp, because Chi Shude looked wooden, every time he lost the battle and fled, he was sent by Shangfeng to break the queen. Liu Zongmin was very dissatisfied with this, so he asked King Chuang to transfer Chi Shude to be his lieutenant. Liu Zongmin saw that Xu Ping was in the limelight and treated his soldiers well, so he recommended him to Xu Ping.

On the tenth day of the first month of February, Xu Ping couldn't wait to set off. 3,500 recruits from the Guards Battalion, 500 Liu Zongmin's men, and more than 4,000 people allocated to him by King Chuang, a total of 8,000 soldiers. This small team, which looked inconspicuous in the Henan government, embarked on the road of the Eastern Expedition under the leadership of Xu Ping, bypassing the Tiger Prison Pass and marching to Kaifeng along Xu Ping's path.

When stationed near Luoyang, Xu Ping could strictly control his soldiers, but he could not get up and sleep mechanically during the march. The pressure of the soldiers needs to be discharged, and hearing that Xu Ping is still strictly forbidden gambling and other entertainment, Hei Baoyi and Yu Shenhe are a little uneasy. Of course, they are not in favor of gambling, gambling and private fights are never separated, and it will also distract soldiers from their own work, but no pastime is inevitable for soldiers to be irritable.

After camping today, Xu Ping called Hei Baoyi and Yu Shenhe to meet him. As soon as they entered the military tent, they saw Xu Ping and several staff officers sitting around the table, Zhou Dongtian threw a dice, and then buried his head in a piece of paper to write things.

"Okay," exclaimed the black guard as soon as he saw this, "no soldiers are allowed to gamble, you have fun here." ”

"We didn't gamble," Xu Ping looked up and smiled at several infantry officers, "Sit, a few staff officers are playing a kind of chess I designed." ”

"Oh." Hei Baoyi was a little unconvinced, and stretched out his head to look at the things on the table: "How do you count winning or losing?" ”

"There is no such thing as winning or losing in this chess." The chess designed by Xu Ping is a multiplayer cooperative model. Zhou Dongtian: They are playing about sappers, and one person is assigned to take several people to complete a task, such as digging a trench. No one except the referee knew what was going to happen to them, they might run into a boulder, maybe an undercurrent digging into the ground. In various situations, the leader assigns work for the others, and then everyone goes about their work, while the referee rolls a dice based on their judgment to determine the consequences of their actions.

"I didn't have time for the soldiers to train adequately, so I designed this game to give them an idea of what to expect. What should I do if I dig into a rock? how much effort is needed to judge the size of the stone, whether to immediately try to dig it out or to think about it; What to do if you encounter an undercurrent? How to judge the flow, how to dig for water, whether to continue or give up? The situations they face are unknown, and the leader can learn how to command, and the others can learn how to obey and cooperate, so that the experience in the game may be useful if they do encounter these problems. ”

"Was it designed by the New Army Teaching Team? What is the adult based on? Yu Shenhe listened interestingly.

"Yes yes, I adapted it according to the idea of the new army's deduction of war chess, the title page of war chess designed by Hou Ye said that one of the major uses of war chess is to allow the officers involved in the deduction to understand how their colleagues will react in a certain situation, I think this is actually the biggest role of war chess - the real battlefield is too different from the situation during the deduction, I feel that it is mainly necessary to rely on the judgment of the battle. It's very helpful to understand the personality and possible reactions of my colleagues, and I designed this game with this idea in mind. ”

Xu Ping took out several other sets of chess, one of which was about encounters, and he explained: "Except for the referee, no one knows how many enemies there are on the opposite side, and the effect of their detection is determined by the referee's dice throw. And when the results of the new round of investigation come out, they will have to face this choice again. If you are too cautious, you may miss out on opportunities, and if you are too aggressive, you may lose money...... This is another purpose of Hou Ye's design of war chess, so that soldiers can turn the common sense of the battlefield into intuition. ”

"Do you plan to promote these chess pieces in the barracks?"

"Yes. There are also camps, night reconnaissance, ambushes and attacks......" Xu Ping turned out a set of cards and rule sheets, distributed them to several officers to help them test, and then promoted them: "This is much more meaningful than gambling, and I think it's also quite fun." ”

Yu Shenhe looked at the pile of forms in Xu Ping's hand and didn't speak, but accompanied Zhou Dongtian, who had just tested a set of games, and shouted: "My lord, have you come up with so much?" ”

"Yes." Xu Ping smiled slightly.

……

"You look at it for a while......"

Referee Lin Shixin is a down-and-out scholar, not even a showman, because he is desperate and wants to be a staff member in the army. But except for the ability to read and write, Lin Shixin didn't know anything else, and he couldn't even carry the package, and no general who broke into the camp could look down on him. Since the turmoil in Henan, a large number of scholars like Lin Shixin have lost their source of livelihood, and their only ability to eat is to teach, and the people in the troubled times can't even take care of eating.

In Luoyang City, Xu Ping spent a month recruiting many such impoverished young scholars, and there were now more than 50 guards in the battalion, and Zhou Dongtian was trying to train them into qualified staff officers—for Xu Ping, the so-called qualification standard was very low.

Staff officer Lin Shixin looked at the rule table after throwing the dice, and said to Qin Dedong with a smile: "I still haven't seen any movement." ”

Several soldiers sat around their fruit leader, Qin Dedong, playing chess with great interest. They are tasked with fetching water from the river, only to be told by the referee that they have found a suspicious bonfire. They couldn't tell if it was the fire left by the hunters, and one soldier chose to look around, only to be told by the referee that there was a figure flickering in the nearby woods. But when Guo Chang Qin Dedong went to "see" in person, he didn't see anything, Yue Mu was so anxious that he scratched his ears and cheeks, and stabbed his waist again and again: "Closer, closer." ”

Lin Shixin immediately reminded: "Don't talk until it's your turn." ”

"Yes."

Yue Mu retracted his neck, Qin Dedong twisted his beard and thought for a moment, and slowly said his thoughtful decision: "I decided to look at it for a while." ”

When it is Qin Dedong's turn next time, the referee will tell him what the result is.

When it was the next soldier's turn, he did what Yue Mu wanted to do - he announced his turn: he left the covert and slipped to Qin Dedong's side, and said to him, "Come closer." ”

Qin Dedong felt a trace of pressure, and according to his own experience, he could completely ignore the surrounding discussions, but if there were companions who put forward opinions on the virtual battlefield, they must be considered carefully. If a companion uses his turn several times to remind himself and does not get a response, the companion will become very dissatisfied.

Lin Shixin smiled and threw down the dice again, and several soldiers immediately looked at him nervously, waiting to be announced that there was a cold arrow attack or a large number of enemy soldiers to kill, but Lin Shixin shook his head and said, "Nothing happened." ”

"The enemy didn't notice me." The soldier said happily.

An opposing voice: "Maybe I found out, but I didn't make a sound." ”

"Don't talk ......"

At the same time as Lin Shixin reminded again, a soldier spoke again: "Maybe there is no enemy at all." ”

"How could it not be, didn't you see Staff Officer Lin throwing dice?"

"He threw it back and forth, how can this be used as evidence?"

"But this time he had a strange smile."

Several soldiers argued, and after being stopped by the referee, the next soldier said that his action was: "It is recommended that Qin Guochang send someone back to the camp to call for reinforcements." ”

A soldier who followed set his action as follows: "Oppose to Qin Guochang: if it is a false alarm, he will be scolded, and he has not been able to fetch water in time to return to the camp." ”

"What else do you want to fetch water at this time?"

"You're really not afraid of death!"

Before the referee could stop their chatter, Yue Mu jumped forward and shouted, "It's my turn, I'm rushing into the forest." ”

"It's you again!"

"I was killed by you last time!"

"Qin Tou'er, next time you play, let Yue Mu carry all the buckets in the back!"

Lin Shixin threw out the dice and laughed: "A deer was startled out of behind a tree by you and fled quickly......

At this time, in Xu Ping's tent, Zhou Dongtian was reporting to him the results of the past few days.

"Compared with 10 days ago, the confidence of the soldiers has generally increased, their ability to adapt to all kinds of complex tasks has been strengthened, the commanders and the generals have become more and more adept at controlling the troops, the soldiers' trust in each other has increased, they have a better understanding of each other's personalities, and their assignments have become reasonable. Yesterday, the success rate of the mission was 50 percent higher than it was at the beginning, and the casualties during the battle were reduced by 30 percent, in short, far more than we initially thought. ”

"Your Excellency is wise!" Zhou Dongtian ended his report with a sonorous voice.

Xu Ping was also very satisfied. After camping every day, bored soldiers rushed to play chess with staff officers and officers, and some soldiers who were particularly obsessed with it played nearly 100 chess games in ten days, and fought dozens of battles in the simulated world. Xu Ping said: "I think this kind of game helps to dispel the fear of battle among soldiers, and they will unconsciously treat the battle as a fun game. ”

"Your Excellency is wise!" Several staff officers and officers agreed.

"Okay, there is one more thing," Xu Ping opened the report that Zhou Dongtian gave him, and said to Yu Shenhe and Hei Baoyi: "I have already read the list of team officers and guarantees that President Yu Qian and President Hei Qian gave me the day before yesterday, and I don't think any of them can be qualified for their duties. ”

"But, my lord," Yu Shenhe argued, "we are already in the tug-of-war zone between our army and the Ming army, and we cannot still maintain two bloated brigades of 2,000 men as before, and we must let a group of officers control the troops. ”

"I agree, but they hardly have any ability to command independently, according to Zhou Qian's report, now when they face a crisis in the game, their reaction is still to ask for instructions, and they don't have the courage to face the test."

Hei Baoyi has no say in this kind of issue, all he knows is the family and battalion system, so every time Xu Ping argues with the staff officers, he can only watch from the sidelines, and this time is no exception. Yu Shenhe defended to Xu Ping: "My lord, according to the regulations of the new army, each team should not exceed six hundred people, otherwise there will be a situation of poor command. ”

"If there is a commander on the side to supervise, it is still possible, after all, the commander is more experienced and has staff officers available."

"This is exactly what the lowly position wants to say, the lowly position thinks that the adult can promote the lowly position and Hei Qianzong to the adult's adjutant, and promote the people we procure to the team officer, we can assist them at the beginning, and we don't lead the team, and we have more spare energy to guide them."

"I've decided to promote you to the commander of the Guards Battalion, but I'm not going to let the battalion be in charge of these teams."

Yu Shenhe was stunned for a moment and said, "Please make it clear." ”

"I'm going to add an additional formation between the Guards battalion and the squads, and I'll call it the Wing. The officers and men of our battalion were divided into eight teams, each with 500 men, called the first to the eighth team, the first to the fourth team were commanded by the first wing, and the fifth to eighth teams were handed over to the second wing command. ”

Yu Shenhe asked: "Do you want to wait until the officers are mature to cancel this wing?" Judging from the experience of the new army, one battalion has too many teams to command. ”

"This wing will not be abolished, and when each battalion of the new army has five infantry squadrons, plus horse corps, artillery corps, and engineers, it will be difficult to control when commanding, and it is generally controlled by the coordination of two adjutants. Therefore, the wing in my Guards Battalion will not be a temporary formation, and the first wing will be handed over to the Guards Battalion Commander Tongzhi in the future, and the Guards Battalion Commander will be responsible for the second wing. ”

"My lord, can you tell me your reason?"

"Since the deputy battalion officer always has to assist in commanding, it is better to make it a regular practice, so that the cooperation between the wing officer and the officers of each team will be more tacit."

The officers of all battalions of the Forces nouvelles have been trained by the training corps of the Forces nouvelles, and their tactical literacy is already very impressive, and it is not difficult for them to temporarily change command. The Forces nouvelles have yet to face an opponent who will put them under pressure to reform. But Xu Ping spent all day thinking about how to reform. Now the pressure on the officers of the Guards Battalion is very great, and Xu Ping must consider how to reduce the pressure on the officers: "Our battalion already has a teaching team, a horse team, an engineer team, and an artillery team in the future. The wing officer only needs to consider the four infantry teams that have already cooperated tacitly, and there is no need to think about the coordination of artillery and cavalry, and more infantry teams can also make the team officers easier. ”

"It's late, dismiss and go back to rest immediately, I don't allow anyone to get tired." handed over the first wing and the second wing to Yu Shenhe and Hei Baoyi respectively, and then Xu Ping announced the dismissal of the meeting, and he opened the file to continue his work, making some changes to the battle chess according to the feedback. Xu Ping also told the guards to be ready, and in a moment he was to go on a routine patrol of the camp, personally inspecting all the night posts, twice a night—at least for now, Xu Ping was still not at ease with his subordinates, and he was going to use this march to give good instructions to the generals and fruits, and to correct them immediately if they made mistakes in their arrangements, so as not to develop bad habits. Xu Ping pretended to be energetic and able to take on the current work, so he stubbornly refused to let others share the burden, fearing that someone would fall ill and affect his marching plans.

In the guard camp, Xu Ping was always the first to get up and the last to fall asleep, all the camp affairs must be done personally, and all the reports were personally seen, "Hundreds of officials have fallen asleep, and hundreds of officials have not gotten up." Xu Ping said to himself: "When I read these two sentences of Taizu before, I always felt a little strange, but now that I think about it, Emperor Gao is also enjoying it." ”

Although he knew that the chief had always been energetic, Zhou Dongtian couldn't help but persuade: "My lord, you need to sleep more, you have to trust your subordinates." ”

"When they prove what they're capable of, I will." Xu Ping replied without raising his head: "But now I don't have time to rest." ”

"My lord," Zhou Dongtian continued to persuade, "It is not too late for a gentleman to take revenge. ”

"My enemy is under the wing of the powerful Zhendong Hou." Xu Ping lowered his head to read the feedback report, made a brief record in his hand, and said lightly: "If I am tired, let alone revenge in ten years, it is estimated that my bones have rotted." ”

……

wolf's den,

"I've already told my lords that it's not a question of who's right and who's wrong, it's a question of who is more loyal, it's a question of whether we need the loyalty of the military."

Li Yunrui's words made Jin Qiude nod again and again, but he hadn't finished speaking: "Han Dake's words show that his confidence in adults is insufficient, and his loyalty to adults is questionable, not only him, but now there are very bad rumors circulating within the new army, if we want to satisfy these people, we will disappoint the old brothers, they have made meritorious contributions and shed blood for adults, they are the strongest backing of adults, and the new army must be firmly in the hands of a group of people who are most loyal to adults." Li Yunrui once again emphasized: "This is not a question of right or wrong. ”

"This is a question of right and wrong," added Kim Qiude, "It is right to be good for the great cause of the Lord, and it is wrong to let the loyal subordinates of the Lord and let the suspicious people take charge of the army!" Sacrificing the old brother to please the newcomer is more than worth the loss, and they can't get enough of it. ”

"Brother Jin is right."

"This is not enough, it can't completely calm the grievances in the army, the battalion officer reserve that Yang Zhiyuan bewitched the adults must be disbanded and never rebuilt, I have asked my kid to set an example and ask the adults to quit." After the defeat in Shandong, Jin Qiude convened many meetings of senior officers of the new army, and now the atmosphere of the new army has changed, and the commanders of all battalions have worked hard to train and greatly enhance their combat effectiveness, which is more refreshed than before the battle of Shandong, which gives them more confidence: "Now it is different from the time of Changsheng Island, when we were very weak, and it makes sense for adults to promote talents in an eclectic manner." And now that our new army is unprecedentedly powerful, the current problem for adults is to master this powerful and invincible army, don't listen to Yang Zhiyuan's lofty words, fair? Are these ill-intentioned people qualified to ask for this? Have to! Let the old brothers understand that adults will always be their adults. ”

Li Yunrui deeply agreed: "Adults always say that the regulations should adapt to the situation and be improved, and I think this is the same and must be changed. Some members of the new army should not only not be promoted, but should also be closely monitored or simply expelled. ”

[Remember the URL . 三五Chinese网]