On the way, Xu Ping learned that Jia Minghe had transported a large amount of grain into Kaifeng, and now that the new army was stationed near Kaifeng and had not returned to Lanyang, it was obvious that the other party did not dare to stay alone in the field without supplies. Knowing that Xu Ping and Li Dingguo's army was heading north, Jia Minghe knew that he could not resist, so he led the Shanlan battalion to retreat into Kaifeng City to defend, while the remnants of the Chizhuo battalion retreated to Jinan to accept the five infantry teams that were coming. Only Zhu Yuanhong's department was left in Lanyang, and since this was the case, Xu Ping led the army to attack Zhu Yuanhong, and as expected, the latter really fled. The soldiers regained Lanyang without blood, and once again cut off Kaifeng's communication channel with the outside world.

Hu Chen and a group of other staff officers were found by Xu Ping, and they will be sent to the grassroots level of the guard battalion: "You will start from the general officer, but now I haven't figured out whether to let you work for half a year or a year and then transfer back to the staff team, or let some of you work in the officer position and be promoted to the general manager." However, this question is still a relatively distant problem for Xu Ping, so far there are only eight thousand general officer positions in the Guards Battalion, even if Hei Baoyi's new battalion is formed, there is no need for many such middle-level officers: "You have been familiar with each other in the staff team, I think you will cooperate well in the army, in the future, all the officers of our army will come to the staff team as much as possible to stay for a period of time, and you should seize this good opportunity to test your various ideas in the staff team in the army, such as the sergeant system we have just determined." ”

The Guards Battalion also lost a lot of soldiers in two consecutive battles, and before the Battle of Lanyang, Xu Ping had already ordered to replenish the strong men among the five hundred homeless people into the army, and this time he ordered another five hundred. At the military meeting in the evening, Zhou Dongtian reported that there were many complaints in the army, and the veterans complained that the recruits would enjoy the same treatment as the veterans as soon as they joined the army, and because of the constraints of the regulations, they did not have a cheap advantage except for allowing the recruits to help them sew straw shoes. The veterans felt that they had shed blood and contributed greatly to the Guards Battalion, and that it was too unfair to be treated the same as the recruits.

This kind of veteran oppression of new recruits was very common in the Ming army, and their emotions were understandable to the officers, and generally speaking, as long as there was no mutiny, the officers would turn a blind eye. The new army mainly stopped this behavior through the unified training of the teaching team and strict military discipline, but Xu Ping did not have so much time, and the traitor brand on the camp also made the prestige of officers and military discipline low.

At the moment, this problem is not very big, but if it is not prevented, it will definitely get worse. The staff officers didn't think of any good way to do this for the time being, and Zhou Dongtian didn't expect the commander to have any good way to report to Xu Pingping, but just made a report to him.

To everyone's surprise, Xu Ping only pondered for a moment before proposing a solution: "Let's subdivide the ranks of officers and soldiers, and soldiers of different grades will receive different salaries." ”

The officers who participated in the meeting were stunned when they heard this. All soldiers in the army receive the same amount of military salaries, and only officers have class salaries, which is not only the system of the Ming Dynasty, but also the practice of thousands of years. Of course, the veterans who have worked hard are dissatisfied with this, and the recruits are also weak in their hearts. Often, veterans will justifiably infringe on the interests of recruits and brazenly demand that they pay filial piety, but as for how much they want, the veterans are generally in their own hands, and the basis for the officer's judgment is not to cause a mutiny. When the recruits become veterans, they will naturally get back from the newer ones. Of course, this situation will affect the unity of the army and threaten the combat effectiveness of the army, and Zhou Dongtian is worried about this.

Xu Ping was confident about this, and he immediately came up with a set of plans: "We divide the soldiers into three classes, the monthly silver of the first class soldier is one or two and a half yuan, the second class soldier is one or two two dollars, and the third class soldier is one or two new soldiers." ”

Seeing that his subordinates didn't speak, Xu Ping said: "You can consider this number again, but you might as well try this method." ”

"My lord." Zhou Dongtian first complimented, and then questioned: "Is there a precedent for this method?" ”

"No, but it's not my idea, it's the idea of Master Hou."

Chen Zhe and Yu Shenhe glanced at each other and asked, "What did Master Hou say?" ”

"This idea was mentioned in the military book written by Hou Ye, and that book was called "The Source of Conquest". In the book "The Source of Conquest", in the chapter on the formation of the new army, Huang Shi wrote in great detail about the idea of separating military ranks and duties. Moreover, when the Guards Battalion was first established, Xu Ping's prestige was not enough, and there was a lot of work to be done to build an army from scratch, so he did not try to promote the rank system. Now Xu Ping thinks that his ability to master the army has been greatly strengthened, and Yu Shenhe, Zhou Dongtian and others are also familiar with the army, so they might as well try the method mentioned by Huang Shi to see if they can eliminate this potential crisis. This was Xu Ping's first attempt to transfer the contents of the book to his own army.

Yu Shenhe, Zhou Dongtian and others shook their heads: "I've never heard of this book." ”

Chen Zhe said thoughtfully: "I've heard of the humble position, but the Hou Ye said at the time that he would wait for us to be qualified as camp officers, and then consider whether to teach or not after four or five years." ”

"Yes, this is Master Hou's secret." Xu Ping let out a long sigh, but he didn't explain where he saw the book from, and there were subtle changes in the eyes of several former New Army officers looking at him.

"In my opinion, Zhendonghou understands very well that the contribution of veterans is greater than that of new recruits, and it is unfair to treat everyone equally, and it is also the source of trouble. Therefore, he envisaged that this differential treatment should be institutionalized, so that the veterans would not oppress the recruits on their own and make the recruits feel jealous and resentful, and at the same time, the recruits could also win more military pay for their heroic fighting, which was also very beneficial to the army. "The book 'The Source of Conquest', like other new military books, only has regulations, no reason. Xu Ping pondered over the problems that had just arisen and felt that the military rank system not only had these benefits, but was also beneficial to the command system and organization.

After Xu Ping's explanation, everyone agreed with the promotion of the rank system in the army. Yu Shenhe was still a little worried: "Then why didn't Master Hou use this method in the new army?" Are there some drawbacks that we haven't thought of? ”

"I don't think so, if Zhendonghou thinks it's not good, he will never write it in that book." Since Xu Ping arrived at the camp, his vision was not limited to a tactical commander: "The Marquis of Zhendong is not omnipotent, he is just tinkering with the Ming military system, and too big a change will cause the impeachment of the imperial history and the suspicion of the imperial court." And we don't have that concern. ”

Now that this topic has begun, Xu Ping poured out some other military ranks to his subordinates: "Zhendong Hou also wants to divide the sergeants into three ranks, sergeant, sergeant, and corporal. ”

Zhou Dongtian, who had already figured out the benefits of the military rank, applauded: "It should be like this, otherwise Guo Chang and his three sergeants will all get the same salary and the same treatment, and those old Guo Chang must be a little dissatisfied in their hearts." ”

"Not only that......" Xu Ping believes that all kinds of accidents may be encountered on the battlefield, after the establishment of military ranks, even if they don't know officers, sergeants, and high ranks, they can command those with low ranks, and in case of the death of a superior officer, it is clear who will take over the command: "In Zhendonghou's book, he also envisioned calling Qian Zong a colonel, and the general as a lieutenant, which is also divided into three grades, so I think they are all used to deal with various situations." ”

Now the team officers are all thousands of generals, if there is no wing officer present to command, several team officers can only work together according to tacit understanding, among which the older qualifications, more experienced team officers are of course easier to get the obedience of others, but this is a tacit understanding rather than a system. And if the rank is based on experience, merit and qualifications, such as one lieutenant colonel and the other major, then the army can be assured of the unity of command of the most experienced and qualified officers.

After everyone brainstormed and discussed the captain system, Zhou Dongtian asked again: "Has Master Hou talked about the rank of a general?" ”

"There is one point, in the regulations of Hou Ye's book, there is an attempt to change the guerrilla to a brigadier general, a staff member to a major general, a lieutenant general, and a general general," Xu Ping believes that this is just a simple change of title, and has no real meaning: "I think this is an extra move. ”

……

Capital.

Huang Zijun was quietly reading a book in the room, when suddenly there was a sound of hurried footsteps from far to near from the corridor, she looked up, the door of the outer room was pushed open, and a Jin Shentong in a military uniform walked in. Huang Zijun went up to take over the coat for her husband, but saw Jin Shentong frowning, and he didn't mean to take off his coat at all. She couldn't help but stop, looking at the face that seemed to be full of worries. Jin Shentong said in a deep voice, "I have something to tell you. ”

Huang Zijun, who had a hunch, leaned on the tea table with one hand and asked in a low voice, "Is there news from Henan again?" ”

"Yes." Jin Shentong looked serious and tried his best to control his emotions, but his voice still couldn't help but tremble slightly: "The Xuanfeng Battalion has been wiped out, and Uncle He's life and death are unknown, and there are many auspicious ones. ”

"Oh my God!" Huang Zijun's eyes widened in surprise, she felt that her body was weak, and then she slowly sat down on the chair, her face full of sadness: "It's Xu Ping again!" ”

……

Guide Province,

"Xu Ping is not a mount at all, it is clearly Sun Wukong who is the opposite." Although it was in front of the prefect, Yu Dong couldn't help shouting: "One day Huang Hou doesn't come to Henan to recite the mantra, we'd better not provoke Xu Ping, I can see that this Xu Ping is definitely Huang Hou's big disciple." ”

Huang Shouque did not even return to Decheng, and fled all the way south to abandon Henan, and it is said that there were only a few dozen cronies left by his side.

The prefect was so shocked that his face was pale, and now Yu Dong's strength in the field army has been greatly damaged, and the aid Bianchu army has fled cleanly, and there are only some local troops left in Guide Mansion: "Yu Shuai, if this thief comes to Guide, what should it do?" ”

"The prefect can rest assured, the thief will not be able to return to Germany for a while," Yu Dong was confident, and comforted the prefect of Guide: "Xu thief and the new army fought two battles, and the casualties were almost two thousand, which was almost half of his troops, and he hurriedly marched back to Lanyang, and it was estimated that hundreds of people would be tired." Xu Thief had to correct it for at least two months to recover from his injuries, and it would be winter at that time, and when Xu Thief recovered, the strength of the last general would also recover. In winter, Xu Thief is not easy to attack, so why wait for the beginning of spring, but when the weather is good, the new army will come again, and Xu Thief will not take care of me. ”

……

At this time, outside Ningling County, Guide Prefecture, an army was marching towards the county seat.

The two leaders wore felt hats and walked at the forefront of this army of more than 1,000 people. Xu Ping and Sun Kewang marched on foot like the soldiers of the Guards Battalion, and the repeated running made the horses of the Guards Battalion seriously lose weight, and this time when they returned to the south, Xu Ping let Chi Shude lead the cavalry to stay, so as not to die in large numbers of horses, and now there are not too many horse resources for Xu Ping to squander.

"Another 100 people are left behind today." The guard battalion that followed behind Xu Ping was now less than 1,500 people, and Li Dingguo's troops were exhausted, so Xu Ping asked Sun Kewang's troops, who had retreated to Qi County, to march with him: "In the past, when we marched, we always had to take care of our own injuries, and the speed was slowed down a lot, I hope our attempt this time can have a good effect." ”

In the section on mobilization, the Marquis of Zhendong mentions that when marching on friendly territory, it is advisable to preset military stations along the way to take care of the wounded rather than adopt the Ming army's usual mode of self-treatment. Xu Ping attached great importance to this experiment, and there were many regulations in the book that could not be met by technical conditions, but Xu Ping made some revisions because of his ugliness, and if it succeeded, it would show that this kind of thinking was feasible. Sun Kewang made advance plans and arrangements according to Xu Ping's request, and he also marched with him in order to draw lessons from them, and Xu Ping hoped that some of the regulations and systems in the section on mobilization could be popularized throughout Henan.

At this time, a guard caught up with the two of them, and reported that a businessman urgently asked to see him, and after Xu Ping heard that the newspaper was Lu Yufan's pseudonym, he offended Sun Kewang and rushed to the side to meet the visitor. A few days ago, Lu Yufan had already sent someone to report that a batch of arms would arrive recently, and because the war was urgent, Xu Ping had no time to see him, so he asked someone to go back and report to his master: If the arms are transported to Xuzhou, the silver will be taken from there, so there is no need to come to the front line. Since Lu Yufan has chased all the way here, there must be something wrong.

"General Xu will pay back the money." Lu Yufan's face looked very bad, if it weren't for the big leader of the rebels, this angry businessman would have to curse.

"What money?" Xu Ping was confused when he heard this, he had already greeted the officials left behind in the rear and asked them to pay Lu Yufan the money in full: "Didn't you receive the money for your gun?" Xu Ping felt strange in his heart, he didn't dare to snub this businessman, and in a blink of an eye, Xu Ping had a plan in his heart, if the left-behind officials who broke into the camp in the rear embarrassed Lu Yufan, then he would definitely be kind enough to appease, solemnly apologize, and punish those in the rear who disobeyed orders.

"I got it, but that's not what the villain said." Lu Yufan took out a large pile of receipts, many hundreds of taels, and as few as dozens of taels, he put this thick pile of receipts in front of Xu Ping's eyes, and talked about the experience along the way.

Needless to say, transporting arms into Henan is a deadly crime, and even in the area controlled by the Ming court, weapons cannot be blatantly transported, even if they have already bought off Ming officials along the way. Lu Yufan, like the previous times, brought a large amount of cloth as cover and carried the guns in these goods. Fortunately in the control area of the Ming army, after entering the control area of Henan Chuang Ying, Lu Yufan suddenly found that there were many more checkpoints on the road to collect tolls.

Cloth was an important military necessity in addition to grain, and Sun Kewang levied high taxes on it, according to his theory, if the price of cloth was high, not to mention the poor, even the rich would save money. If the people use less, then naturally they can get more by breaking into the army. Now the price of one piece of cloth in Henan is the same as the previous two, and although the camp has taken the lion's share, weaving cloth is still more profitable than before. Sun Kewang felt that even lazy women would weave cloth to earn some household income, not to mention those who were originally diligent.

As a result, Lu Yufan had to pay taxes for the large amount of cloth he carried, and although he argued that he was transporting things for the army and had Xu Ping's approval in his hand, the soldiers guarding the checkpoint were not accommodating.

The soldier's iron-faced selflessness has a lot to do with Sun Kewang. Sun Kewang was worried that someone would be greedy for the silver, so he stipulated that each checkpoint must open a receipt for collecting taxes, and every time the caravan arrived in a town, someone would check whether the caravan had a receipt. If a leak is discovered, the merchant will be immediately beheaded and confiscated for bribery, while the derelict checkpoint soldiers will be executed for bribery.

In Lu Yufan's original calculation, when he arrived at the destination, he could make some money by selling these cloths used to carry guns. But now long-distance transportation is not only not profitable, but also loses money, and he can't just sell them at the trading office. Without the cover of the identity of a cloth merchant, Lu Yufan's smuggling of arms would be easily discovered, so he could only grit his teeth and endure the harsh taxes along the way.

After Xuzhou exchanged the guns for silver taels, Lu Yufan began to buy grain to prepare for the return trip, which is also his long-term consistent practice, after all, a large amount of silver taels is too eye-catching and easy to attract thieves. The grain in Xuzhou is not very expensive, but the tax on breaking through the military checkpoint is higher than that of cloth, and Lu Yufan was so distressed that he almost died along the way. After sending the grain truck with the silver hidden out of the Kaifeng Mansion boundary, Lu Yufan turned around and came back to Xu Ping to complain.

Xu Ping laughed out loud after hearing what had happened, this round trip to Lu Yufan paid more than 3,000 taels of silver in tolls, no wonder he was distressed. Xu Ping gave the silver to Lu Yufan and asked him to go to Xuzhou to get it, and the latter carefully put away the voucher and asked, "Can General Xu give a warrant to let the villain be spared at the checkpoints along the way." ”

Three thousand taels is more than the carrying capacity of one person, and in order to avoid unnecessary trouble, Lu Yufan still plans to buy some food in Xuzhou and take it away.

"I'm not in charge of this." Xu Ping asked the guards to invite Sun Kewang to come, and after explaining the reason to him, he asked Sun Kewang to give Lu Yufan a certificate.

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