The next day, the hungry people gathered outside Dapanbao finally left, and hundreds of hungry people helped the old and the young to retreat north in the cold wind.

For the sake of safety, Wang Weizhen, the officer of the management team, also specially sent Jia Hongyu, the chief flag officer, to take people all the way to "immediately send them out", and Wang Weizhen himself happily led his troops back to Wangjiazhuang after having a banquet in Dapanbao.

At this time, Liu Yan took Chen Xun, Wang Bo, Wang Yue, Xu Ming, Miao Shao, and Zhang Yi to stand on the fortress wall, looking at the hundreds of hungry people who were gradually moving away, and his heart was very uncomfortable.

"Catching up with such a world, such a disaster year, I don't know how many people can survive."

Liu Yan closed his eyes, he had done his best to leave behind fifty households, more than five hundred, plus more than one hundred and seventy half-grown children he bought, and more than seven hundred people were also saved, which can be regarded as a lot of effort.

"Captain A, let's go back to the meeting."

Chen Xun looked at Liu Yan with a sad expression, and said softly, Liu Yan opened his eyes and nodded, and said: "Let's go, in addition, send someone to call the directors of the wine workshop, the soap workshop, the salt drying field, and the firearms supervision office, and the director Zhao will also come over, we are going to have a conference today." ”

"Yes."

In the General Flag Official Hall, Liu Yan sat in the middle, on the left were Chen Xun, Wang Bo, Wang Yue, Xu Ming, Miao Shao, and Zhang Yi, the six small flag officials, and on the right were Wang Yunhe, Chen Jiangshi, Tan Xiaoda, Chu Yunfei, and Zhao Min.

Seeing that everyone had arrived, Liu Yan started the agenda.

The first is to dispose of the more than 170 children that Liu Yan bought.

"Most of these children are fifteen or sixteen years old, half male and half female, and I am going to let them learn the trade in the fort."

Liu Yan had his own plan, among the more than 170 children, there were eighty-two girls, and Liu Yan divided these girls into two parts, one in the soap workshop and the other in the wine factory. The art of koji-making in both the soap workshop and the sake brewery requires careful care, and these girls are at the right age to learn a craft and supplement the manpower of both workshops.

The remaining 90 boys, Liu Yan is also divided into two groups, one group is responsible for distillation and other processes in the distillery, and the rest are placed in the firearms supervision department to learn the craft.

After Liu Yan allocated the manpower, he said to Tan Xiaoda, Wang Yunhe and Chen Jiang: "These are still children, in the workshops, we must not only let them work, but also patiently give them the ability, if there are materials that can be made among them, we must also focus on training and promoting, they are the future of our Dapanbao!" ”

"In addition, although these are half-grown children, they are also paid, and the specific amount is paid according to the lowest salary of each workshop, and then increased as appropriate when they are skilled."

The three of them respectfully received the order.

"That's right,"

Liu Yan said to Zhao Min again: "Director Zhao also has something to do, these children are hard-working people, I think if Director Zhao has time, he might as well open a private school in the fort to teach those children to read and write, and the required expenses will be paid by the fort." ”

When Zhao Min heard this, he immediately respected Liu Yan, this is not something that ordinary people can think of, I saw Zhao Min get up and salute, and said respectfully: "A long vision is long-term and kind-hearted, this move is tantamount to rebirth for those hungry children, adults can be said to be the reborn parents of those children, subordinates are here, thank you on behalf of these children!" ”

Liu Yan helped Zhao Min up with a smile and said, "I am also on a whim, and I have to do the specific things himself." ”

Zhao Min Zhengse said: "This is my subordinate's duty, and I should do my best!" ”

Next, it was the resettlement of the fifty hungry families.

Liu Yan thought for a moment, and then said: "As for the fifty hungry households, they must all be converted into military households as soon as possible. ”

Zhao Min clenched his fists and took his life.

"Now there is still a shortage of manpower on the Juntun side, and the salt drying field is also on the side, I am going to divide these 50 military households into two parts, and 30 households will go to Juntun to open up wasteland, and prepare for spring plowing together next year. The remaining 20 families went to work in the salt drying field. ”

At this time, Chen Xun took care of the affairs of the military tun, so he and Chu Yunfei hugged their fists together to receive their lives.

Liu Yan looked at Chen Xun, who had already lost weight twice, and said secretly in his heart: "If you have time, you should find a talent who is specifically responsible for Tuntian affairs, well, find a time to go to Wangjiazhuang." ”

The starving people who have been sheltered this time are considered to have been settled, and the rest is the specific implementation, which is responsible for several principals, and Liu Yan does not need to worry about it anymore.

However, at this meeting, Liu Yan still had a topic, that is, to expand the banners of the Dun Army.

Now the population of Dapanbao has reached nearly 4,000 people, such a population size is second to none in the entire Xiahe Village in front of the thousand households, second only to the city of thousands of households, but the degree of prosperity is not as good as the city of thousands of households, there are basically few shops in the fort, they are just some small doors.

Therefore, Liu Yan also has a population base to expand the number of people, and this meeting will be properly discussed, so Liu Yan said his thoughts, so that the new hungry military households can be placed, as well as Chu Yunfei's subordinates.

Regarding the expansion of the army, Chen Xun, Wang Bo, Wang Yue, Xu Ming, Miao Shao, and Zhang Yi, the six small flag officers, were the most excited, which meant that there were more people in the hands of the six people.

Chu Yunfei on the side also showed envious eyes, after all, he also had a group of people under him before, which was very beautiful. But now Chu Yunfei is very clear about his positioning, that is, the main thing in the salt drying field, just make money by drying salt with peace of mind, and let others do the things of fighting and killing.

So Chu Yunfei stood up first and said: "Since Captain A wants to expand the number of people, the more than 70 brothers before his subordinates are all good hands, if Captain A doesn't dislike it, his subordinates will definitely take in Captain A and integrate them into various banners!" ”

Liu Yan laughed and said, "Okay! Now that Director Chu is already a member of our Dapan Fort, those Yanding brothers are naturally the same. ”

Subsequently, Liu Yan announced a new military system, adding a level of establishment to the top of the original flag, which was called a sentry.

At present, the flags led by Chen Xun and other six small flag officers have been expanded into sentinels, as follows:

Originally, the formation of the team level was unified into a single army, and a team consisted of a captain (who also served as a flag bearer), three sword and shield men, and eight bird gunners or pikemen, and a team of 12 people remained unchanged.

The establishment of the flag level has been expanded from the original three teams of dun armies under its jurisdiction to four teams of dun armies, including two teams of gunners and two teams of birdmen. The chief officer of a flag is called the flag commander, and is also accompanied by a herald (who also serves as a drum and bugler) and a flag bearer. The strength of this banner reached fifty-one people.

Above the flag-level system is the whistle.

Each post has three banner troops, and the chief officer of each post is still Chen Xun, Wang Yue, Wang Bo, Xu Ming, Miao Shao, Zhang Yi, these six small flag officers, Liu Yan gave each of them a team of guards, a team of night guards, five drum and bugle players, five heralds, and a strength of one post is one hundred and eighty-seven people.

In this way, Liu Yan appointed the small flag officer Chen Xun to command the outpost, the small flag officer Wang Yue to command the rear outpost, the small flag officer Zhang Yi to command the left outpost, the small flag officer Wang Bo to command the right outpost, and the small flag officer Miao Shao to command the middle post and follow Liu Yan's actions.

Xu Ming, the small flag officer, originally commanded all the flags that did not collect at night and distributed them to various posts, and then Liu Yan supplemented the shortfall on the basis of the remaining night non-collection troops and formed cavalry posts.

At this point, after the expansion of the Dun Army of Dapanbao, there were six outposts, a total of 1,122 people, which directly increased five times on the basis of the original strength.

At this time, after listening to Liu Yan's expansion plan, everyone was dumbfounded, a small tunbao actually wanted to form an army of 1,000 people, which was unheard of, such a force had already exceeded the troops and horses stationed in the front of Xiahe Village!

Wang Bo, the little flag officer, muttered in a low voice: "Captain A can't be stimulated by those thousands of hungry people, right?" ”

The rest of them all nodded subconsciously.

Liu Yan didn't care, and continued: "The troops required for the expansion, in addition to the more than seventy salt dings brought by Chief Chu, must also be drawn from the military households in the fort, replenished within half a month, and then immediately start training. ”

"In addition, the military salary standard of the Dapanbao Dun Army should also be raised, the ordinary Dun Army will be paid three taels per person per month, the captain will be three taels and five per month, the flag general will be four taels and five per month, and the small flag officer will be six taels per month. The standard of not accepting soldiers at night is one level higher than that of the dun army at the same level, with three or five per person per month, and four two or five per month for the captain at night. ”

Chen Xun frowned slightly, and said: "Captain A, in this way, our Dapan Fort will have to draw out a quarter of the manpower to form soldiers and horses, and almost all the young and strong men in the fort will have to be drawn out, so that next year's spring ploughing manpower will definitely be insufficient." ”

Zhao Min also said worriedly: "If we follow the new military salary standard proposed by Commander A, then we need more than three thousand five hundred taels of military salary every month, which is too big!" ”

Tan Xiaoda next to him also expressed his opinion: "I understand the ambition of Captain A, but suddenly there are so many people, and the equipment to be equipped is also a problem. Now we can almost get together the spears, swords, shields and bird guns in Dapan Fort, but there are many shortages in armor, and I am afraid that the equipment will not be complete in a short time. ”

Xu Ming, the little flag officer, also said: "In addition, the war horses are the same, and it costs a lot to add dozens of war horses. ”

Now the monthly expenditure of a war horse is basically equivalent to the salary of three dun soldiers, and it takes more than ten taels, one hundred and eighty-seven war horses for one outpost, plus the heralds in each post also have to ride horses, adding up to more than three hundred, not to mention the cost of procurement, the monthly expenditure of raising horses alone is more than three thousand taels of silver!

Such a huge expenditure, even if Dapanbao has a lot of income now, it is difficult to continue, after all, the military camp and everywhere have to be expensed, and the plate is too big.

So Liu Yan thought for a while and said: "The matter of military salaries has been decided, it must be raised, there is nothing to discuss." ”

"But the armor that Chief Tan said is a problem, I don't think it's as good as this: give priority to equipping the sword and shield bearers and spearmen with armor, and if the bird gunners are delayed, I will also find a way to recruit blacksmiths and other people, how about it?"

Tan Xiaoda said: "In this way, then I have no opinion on the Firearms Supervision Department." ”

"As for the issue of war horses, the heralds of each ministry can temporarily not be equipped with war horses, and first find some people who are good at running to act as heralds. Wait until we have more war horses, and then equip the heralds with war horses, so that as long as the cavalry posts and various departments do not collect and equip war horses at night. ”

But everyone calculated, even so, at least two hundred and sixty war horses were needed, and Liu Yan had no choice but to let the little flag official Xu Ming be in charge of this matter, no matter how much money was during this time, he had to buy all the war horses as soon as possible.

Fortunately, in order to survive and make money, many guards everywhere secretly sell war horses through the black market, and the imperial court has repeatedly banned them, so Liu Yan can get so many war horses.

Of course, there are also many "war horses" that are actually just pack horses, but Liu Yan can't take care of it anymore, and it's better to have than nothing.

Finally, Liu Yan talked about the problem of manpower.

"Among the six sentinels, except for the cavalry sentry posts, which must be trained off-duty, the remaining five sentry men and horses can be trained in turn, and two sentry posts must be guaranteed to be in a training state every month.

Chen Xun thought for a while and said, "If that's the case, I will mobilize some strong women and elderly men in the fort, and I should be able to make up the manpower for next year's spring ploughing." ”

As for Zhao Min's question of the huge cost of money and food, Liu Yan has no choice, fortunately, now all the businesses of Dapanbao have a lot of profits, so it's good first, Liu Yan doesn't have to worry about silver in a short time.

Liu Yan breathed a sigh of relief, and then said to Tan Xiaoda: "That's it for today's meeting, early tomorrow morning, I will go to the Firearms Supervision Office to have a look, the human affairs are finished, let's take a look at the equipment." ”