Chapter 025 It’s not difficult to win military morale
As Cheng Shijie issued the order to assemble, the servants and soldiers who were chatting in twos and threes on the school grounds immediately gathered towards the general meeting platform in the school grounds as if they had springs.
Cheng Shijie looked at the stopwatch on his phone. In just one hundred and eighty-one seconds, more than 400 people had already lined up. The team was neat and tidy, but it was miserable.
What was miserable was not the formation, but the appearance of everyone. These servant soldiers recruited by Cheng Shijie were nominally servant soldiers. In fact, he did not distribute military uniforms because he did not have any. He left in a hurry and forgot to arrange them.
The result is that the current team does not look like an army at all. Two-thirds of them are wearing tattered beggar uniforms, and the other third are wearing faded Ming army standard mandarin ducks. Of course, these mandarin ducks and jackets are also in terrible shape.
Cheng Shijie frowned slightly: "You have been training for nearly a month, and you are still like this?"
Shen Mingyu felt a little aggrieved: "They have only trained for less than a month, and their performance is certainly not satisfactory. If they want to follow the rules and regulations, they will not be able to do it without one or two years of training."
"How long does it take a year or two!?"
Cheng Shijie thought military training was too simple. In the half-month military training of later generations, at least during the military training exercises, students performed pretty well. But the problem is where the students of later generations keep their knowledge, at least they can distinguish between left and right.
Ninety percent of his servants were illiterate, and almost all of them were indiscriminate.
Shen Mingyu explained: "This is already good. Most people are illiterate. It is not an easy task just to let them distinguish east, west, south, north, front, rear, left, and right. We also need to let them understand the flags and remember them. It’s even more difficult to beat drums and charge, and to retreat after paying gold. As for building camps, setting traps to resist horses, forming military formations, and cooperating with multiple arms... these may take several years to slowly explore and adjust."
Cheng Shijie looked calm on the surface, but he was panicking inside.
It is now the end of August, which means that in Liaodong, the Battle of Daling River has begun. When Zu Dashou could not withstand Huang Taiji's attack, he asked Guan Ning's army to support Daling River with refueling tactics three times. , and then Zhang Chun led 40,000 cavalry and was wiped out in a last-ditch battle.
It was time for the imperial court to recruit the Dongjiang Army in Shandong to support Dalinghe. It was time for Kong Youde, who was forced to rebel, to rebel. Why did he still make a fool of himself?
Thinking of this, Cheng Shijie said: "Soldiers, disperse!"
Shen Mingyu felt inexplicably strange, and Chang Yu was also puzzled.
Cheng Shijie left the military camp with his hands behind his back and returned directly to Qianhuzhai.
If you want to train an army, you need good equipment and good morale. These servants are willing to follow Cheng Shijie because Cheng Shijie gives them food, lets them eat well, and earns money every month.
But in order to train these young men into elites and dare to fight in the coming troubled times, it is necessary to inject soul into this army.
The matter of the soul is not urgent for the time being, he still has time, but uniform clothing is a good way to improve morale.
"Zhang Qianshu!"
"Be humble!"
"I give you a mission!"
Cheng Shijie muttered: "Go buy a batch of cloth and make 800 sets of military uniforms in advance!"
"But it's not easy to make 800 sets of military uniforms!"
At this moment, Zhou Yandong, deputy Qianhu, came in. He bowed and said, "Sir Qianhu, our salt factory is producing salt!"
"The first batch of salt is 1,600 shi, I have people transport it here!"
"Zhang Qianshu, please have people distribute it to each household. Each household will receive ten pounds first and save the rest!"
"yes!"
"Brother Zhou, come and sit down!"
Cheng Shijie placed a glass teapot in front of Zhou Yandong.
Zhou Yandong stared directly at the glass teapot: "This is..."
"Give you a new set!"
Cheng Shijie walked to the back room and took out a crystal tea set from the last time he brought it. Of course, it was the one without a production label.
Zhou Yandong said he was embarrassed, but he quickly took it into his sleeve.
"Sir Senhu, you want to buy cloth to make military uniforms?"
"yes!"
"But why buy cloth?"
“How can we get military uniforms if we don’t buy cloth?”
"We are the Qianhu Office."
"Our Thousand Household Office is short of everything except that we still have some food!"
"We are in short supply, but the Command and Envoy's warehouse is not in short supply. There are a lot of good things in there, but we don't usually use them."
Zhou Yandong said: "Commander Jin is still using these things to exchange for money. It's definitely not possible to get them out in bundles. If you are discovered, you will lose your head. But you can stuff a small amount of money and get a dozen pieces out. After all, you can also use weapons." It will rust and wear out. It seems that the guys in the warehouse are all very smart. As for the military uniforms, except for our military uniforms, civilians are not allowed to wear them. Otherwise, they will lose their heads. Give them some money and put them in our thousands of households. Change it up and down, and they can find a way!"
Perhaps taking advantage of Cheng Shijie, Zhou Yandong then gave Cheng Shijie some unwritten rules.
"Lord Qianhu, if you look at the whole world, there is no Qianhu who spends money to buy food and raise soldiers!"
Zhou Yandong said: "There are hundreds of warehouses, large and small, in Dengzhou City. The people who manage the warehouses are all rats. There are many people to recruit. When they distribute food, they weigh it crookedly and bucket it crookedly. Let's give them some." Money, then the grain is here. Although it is said to be old grain and miscellaneous grains, can't it be cheap? The best grain is five cents of silver. For every stone of old grain in their hands, the most they can get is two cents of silver. After this comes and goes, there is nothing left. Too much money!”
Cheng Shijie stood up again, walked into the house, and picked up a small box. The small box was filled with the remaining crystal jewelry, including bracelets, necklaces, and ingots made of crystal.
"Brother Zhou, leave these things to you. I want military uniforms and weapons. Can you do it?"
"These……"
"That's right!"
"Master Qianhu, just wait!"
Zhou Yandong picked up the box, fearing that Cheng Shijie would regret it.
In Zhou Yandong's view, Cheng Shijie was rich, but he didn't take money seriously.
…
"Look forward, stand at attention, take a breath..."
"Count!"
"one two three four……"
"Seventeen, he called seventeen, you are eighteen, eighteen, eighteen, remember!"
"Grass!"
"Turn left, turn left, turn right!"
"turn back!"
"Move forward in unison!"
"I've taught you how many times, but I still can't tell the difference between right and left!"
As a small box of crystals was scattered, Cheng Shijie's servants took on a new look. Each of them had two sets of brand-new military uniforms, and finally looked like an army should.
These servants who put on their new uniforms had not had time to be happy, but Cheng Shijie came to train them. He downloaded many videos of army training and student military training on his mobile phone.
Who can't follow the example of a gourd?
Cheng Shijie was training the army seriously, but the servants below were trained miserably.
Before dawn in the morning, I started a five-kilometer long-distance run, and then the servants were so exhausted that they were out of breath. After breakfast, they continued to practice formation exercises for two hours.
It's not a pleasant feeling to stand under the scorching sun.
Song Kangnian stood under the shade of the tree, watching Cheng Shijie training with great interest.
"Children-sama is really fooling around!"
Shen Mingyu was deprived of the right to train troops, which made him feel a little conflicted.
"Nonsense?"
Song Kangnian stared at Shen Mingyu and said: "If this is nonsense, then the best military training method in the world is just nonsense..."
"Mr. Song, you don't know how to train soldiers!"
"Song doesn't know how to train soldiers, but he understands people's hearts. Now Master Qianhu has won the hearts of the soldiers. Look at how hard he has trained the soldiers. Has anyone ever said anything back to him?"
Shen Mingyu thought about it and realized it was true.
Cheng Shijie had beaten many soldiers with his own hands and kicked many butts, but why didn't they resist? Even if you don't dare to contradict Cheng Shijie, you should be able to withdraw?
The problem is, there really isn't.
Cheng Shijie really didn't do much. He gave his servant Bing as much food as possible every day. Even if he could eat ten kilograms of grain in one meal, he would still give it to him.
Secondly, rewards and punishments are clear.
Sufficient food and adequate pay, clear rewards and punishments, just these two points, anyone who knows a little bit about military affairs can tell a lot about it, but the problem is that there are too few people who actually do it.
But Cheng Shijie did it.
Looking at the entire Ming Dynasty, almost all Qianhu officials were thinking about making money, and only Cheng Shijie was preparing for war.
