Chapter 647 Ordered to be sincere, the standard of the new army
In the next half month, nearly 2,000 refugees from the Weisheng Army arrived at the border of Tongda County. Most of these people's properties were robbed by the Hedong thieves, and even their houses were burned to the ground.
It is a ruins, but the officials of Tongtian County Government and the servants of Wuli Village set up tents to provide alms and charity. Each meal is a bowl of rice porridge and two cakes. Although the food is a bit simple, it can still fill the stomachs of the refugees.
During this period, County Lieutenant Li led the horse and infantry troops in the county government and worked with the officers to maintain order inside and outside the county. Simple tents were also set up around Tongtian County for people who would cross here.
More and more people came to take shelter from the wind and rain.
Although they did not have to worry about food, clothing and shelter for the time being, the people who were in trouble still had to find a way out for their future livelihood. Luo Jian, Wang Jin and others took the opportunity to use the name of the government to recruit strong men to form a new army. Although ordinary people complained about the Hedong officials
The army was lazy and cunning, and failed to defend the territory but only tried to blackmail the villagers. However, firstly, there was no one to rely on for a living. Secondly, after seeing that the newly arrived officers and soldiers in Tongtian County were very capable and fierce, after some thought, they decided to join the army.
There are not a few refugees there.
However, Xiao Tang put forward his own requirements to Luo Jian, Wang Jin, Guan Sheng and others for the selection of soldiers: Compared with the people in prefectures and counties who work in the fields every day, farmers from farmers' families are more suitable to be selected as soldiers.
The new army; among the recruits, all those who have served in the government, are over forty years old, and are very fair-looking will not be considered; those who appear to be very timid during the inspection, and even those who are extremely courageous will not be considered.
Recruitment; on the contrary, the best choices for recruitment are those among the refugees who are dark, stout, strong-skinned, with simple or mighty faces, and who are somewhat shy and frightened when meeting officials.
Because Xiao Tang remembered that during the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty, Zhejiang and Fujian were burned, killed and plundered by Japanese pirates. Hu Zongxian, the censor of Zhejiang Province, suffered from the low combat effectiveness of the officers and soldiers of the Zhejiang Guard Station and was determined not to train good soldiers in Zhejiang.
, but Qi Jiguang, who was transferred to the Zhejiang Dusi as a minister and a staff general, defied all opinions and recruited new troops locally and accepted their guidance and training. Even with limited time, he also trained the elite "Qi Family Army". And now
Xiao Tang's conditions for recruiting new soldiers were undoubtedly based on Qi Shaobao, who had made great achievements in conquering the Japanese pirates in Nanping and defending Mongolia in the north.
During the Northern Song Dynasty, the main criterion for recruiting soldiers was physical strength. In the past, Song Taizu Zhao Kuangyin personally selected a group of strong military men as "templates" and sent them to military commanders in various places for generals to recruit new soldiers based on the models.
Staff, recruit troops according to their length. The tall and strong ones will serve as the imperial guards, and the short and thin ones will serve as the side soldiers. As for the personality of the recruits? A large part of the soldiers in the Northern Song Dynasty's marching army came from the "thief army" who were sent to the army for prosecution.
Some of them are refugees in various places who have no food to eat. How can we have unified standards?
According to Qi Jiguang's selection criteria, those with strong physiques and tough temperaments are not the most suitable candidates. They are timid towards government officials, and honest farmers with strong bodies who have been doing physical work all year round are more likely to obey their instructors. Officers
order, then the time for this army to be built into a well-trained force will be greatly shortened. Until the Taiping Rebellion in the Qing Dynasty, Zeng Guofan also followed Qi Shaobao's selection standards and only recruited strong, simple men with calluses on their hands.
Peasants are brave soldiers and are determined not to recruit soldiers and market scoundrels. This is how they created the Hunan Army, a powerful force that is also famous in Chinese history.
When Xiao Tang recruits soldiers from all over the green forest, he can certainly choose those brave and brave men with unruly temperaments and no fear of the power of the government, because now he also has time to order Lin Chong, Yang Zhi, Xu Ning and other village leaders to slowly fight
Although those rebels had good combat qualities, but now in official matters, the obedience of the new army has become the most important criterion for selecting personnel.
After listening to Xiao Tang's analysis and detailed discussion, Luo Jian, Wang Jin, Xiao Jiasui and others all felt that his suggestion was very reasonable, so they all ordered to go down and inspect the young men according to Xiao Tang's standards, and then recruit them to Wang Jin who was good at teaching and training.
Enter into unified training under your command.
Three or four days later, another patrol sent out on horseback and rushed back to the county seat to urgently report to Xiao Tang: The day before, Hao Siwen was ordered to lead a cavalry force to search along the northwest of Tongdi County. When he was searching for the people in the villages,
They ran into a small group of thieves. After a fight, Hao Siwen led his troops to annihilate seventy or eighty thieves. However, he was shot by a cold arrow without taking any precautions. Now he was returning to the county along the original route.
Xiao Tang was shocked when he heard this. He quickly stood up and asked the scout: "Where did Hao Jun get hit by the arrow? How was his injury?"
"Reporting to Marshal Xiao Jie, Hao Jun was hit by an arrow in his arm. It was not in a critical position, and there is no serious problem at the moment. It's just that he was afraid of alerting other thieves. He is now wounded and unable to fight, so he has to lead his troops back."
After listening to the scout's detailed explanation, Xiao Tang, Guan Sheng, Xuan Zan and other generals who were brothers and sisters with Hao Siwen breathed a sigh of relief. Immediately, Xiao Tang issued another order to mobilize some men, and they rode together with Guan Sheng and Xuan Zan.
He ran out of Tongtian County and went to the north to meet Hao Siwen's troops.
Not long after, Xiao Tang saw a group of people running along the official road towards the county seat. Although some of the soldiers were slightly injured, it seemed that their morale had not dropped, and there were even some cavalry soldiers who were in trouble.
While talking and laughing, it seemed that Hao Siwen and his troops had the upper hand in that small-scale encounter.
Hao Siwen saw Xiao Tang from a distance, and Guan Sheng and others came to greet him in person, so they galloped out and rushed to Xiao Tang. Xiao Tang also came out to welcome him, and as soon as they met, he asked Hao Siwen: "Hao Jun, envoy
, how is your arrow wound?"
"Why do you bother to ask Commander Xiao Jie? In the end, there will be nothing wrong with him. He just got hit by an arrow in his arm, which made the gun useless. But he will recover after a few days of rest, so it won't be a big deal."
Hao Siwen immediately clasped his fists at Xiao Tang and replied, but the movement pulled the wound, which still made him frown.
At this time, Xuanzan also urged his horse to rush forward, and gritted his teeth and cursed: "That group of thieves are really rampant, and they have even reached the vicinity of Tongdi County! The Zhemo thieves will now gather people and come to attack the county.
What?"
Hao Siwen pondered for a moment and then said: "It's not like that at all. I led my troops to search along the way, and it was only by chance that I bumped into the group of thieves. Seeing that they were moving towards the west, I was lucky that they were not caught.
A large number of thieves surrounded them on all sides and blocked their way. However, according to my opinion, several groups of thieves gathered towards the northwest of Tongtian County. It seemed that they were going to send troops to plunder Fenzhou Mianshang and Pingyao area under the county seat.
Zhuangzhencunfang.”
Xiao Tang's heart skipped a beat when he heard this. If the information that Hao Siwen found out was true, Tian Hu would lead the Hedong thieves to look for innocent people in the northwest of Tongdan. Although it was not advisable to act lightly based on the current situation, Tongdan County was a long way from Fenzhou.
Pingyao and other places are not far away. Can I really watch Tian Hu and his thieves kill people and set fires in front of my eyes and remain indifferent?
