The Song Army not only maintained the image of a brutal bully towards the people, but also oppressed, exploited and treated them internally at all levels.
There is very little tenderness between each other, and they basically bully others. If they are not officers, they are like ants. In the army, they will be humiliated by others. They will endure hardships and suffer without falling behind. When it is their turn to share the benefits, they will never get it. It is extremely depressing and painful.
Of course, this does not mean that becoming an officer will lead to success in one fell swoop.
Being an officer can indeed transcend the pain of ordinary soldiers, but it is by no means without pain. A similar situation will also occur between officers. The superior officer is the sky, and the subordinate officer is the earth. When treating the superior, the subordinate officer is directly reduced to dust. inside.
If you are not careful, a single word from the superior officer can cause you to lose your military position, become a soldier again, lose everything, and you will most likely be bullied by the same soldiers who bullied you when you were an officer, and your life will be worse than death.
In this hierarchical group, one link after another, one layer after another, is so bitter that it is not enough for outsiders to understand.
As a result, many grassroots Xiao Song soldiers cried while talking, wiping away tears while talking, which made the peasant army cadres responsible for the screening also feel quite emotional.
With such a terrifying system of oppression, it is no wonder that this army collapsed so completely because of a rumor. If it were them, the ending would not be any better.
The troops cultivated in this way have no trust in each other, only mutual suspicion and extremely serious hatred. As long as an opening is opened, the hatred will burst out like a volcanic eruption, becoming a bombing camp that even famous generals will change their expressions upon hearing.
So what else is there to say?
The screening of the Peasant Army is really much simpler than imagined. Many scumbags are exposed by the soldiers under their subordinates, and one is always exposed. The scumbag rate among officers is extremely high, which means that they are very seriously institutionalized and can hardly control themselves.
Only a very small number of officers still maintain a fresh mind and treat soldiers with military law, while the more gentle ones who love soldiers as sons are only one in a hundred, and the soldiers protect them to the death and prevent them from being screened out by the peasant army.
It was quite embarrassing for them.
The entire public trial after the screening lasted for three days. During the day, there was a public trial, and in the evening, there was a bonfire party. They talked to each other, poured out their bitterness, and then hugged each other and cried.
In this case, it is often the cadres sent by the peasant army who take the lead in telling about their miserable past and the great changes in the present, telling the difference between the past and the present, using the past to arouse recognition, and the present to make people think.
Some Song soldiers lowered their guard under such circumstances, unable to withstand the condemnation of conscience, and vomited out the wrong things they had done.
For example, someone's things were stolen, someone's daughter was molested, someone's cattle and sheep were stolen, etc.
They admitted their mistakes in front of everyone and expressed their willingness to accept any punishment.
Cadres of the Peasant Army said that this was not a capital crime and would not warrant a public trial.
If we really do this, we won't be able to finish the public trial in five days and five nights.
Of course, this kind of crime is considered a serious crime among the peasant army, and it may be executed by the Military Justice Department, but in a group like the Song Army, there is a system of oppression layer by layer.
If there was a grassroots soldier who didn't do this kind of thing, it would be abnormal and he probably wouldn't be alive now.
Therefore, such sins require them to personally atone for their sins in the future and use their own practical actions to wash away their sins, so that they do not have to go to the public trial.
The public trial ended after three days, the scumbags were executed, and the remaining Song Army prisoners faced a choice.
If they are willing to go home, they can go to the Peasant Army to collect travel expenses home. The Peasant Army will pay them and will never force them to keep them.
If you are willing to join the Peasant Army, then the Peasant Army welcomes them to join and is willing to absorb them into the army and become their comrades and partners.
From then on, everyone became a family, eating and drinking together, and as long as there was food to eat, no one would go hungry.
This is the highest level of commitment that the peasant army can currently achieve.
The captured soldiers of the Song Army had never seen such a formation before. They had never seen such a reasonable army since their birth, and they didn't know whether to leave or stay for a while.
But the choice has been given to them.
The prisoners watched for a while, then boldly stepped forward and expressed that they wanted to go home, no longer wanted to be soldiers, and missed their families.
They feel that the military life is too hard. They were forced to serve as soldiers in the first place. Now that they can go home, of course they can go home. They still have to take care of the elderly at home, feed their children, and cultivate the land.
Zhao Yucheng nodded in agreement and asked them to go and collect their travel expenses, and then they could leave.
Depending on the distance, the peasant army distributed tolls to the captives who wanted to go home. After receiving the money, they were doubtful and then tentatively left the military camp. No one stopped them until they were very far away.
No one would have stopped it.
When they saw that someone had really left, the remaining ones who wanted to leave but dared not were overjoyed. They hurriedly gathered around and said that they wanted to go home. They said that they had suffered enough from the suffering of the army and really did not want to stay in the army anymore.
This feeling is also human. It is normal not to want to stay in the army that has brought you a hellish experience.
But can the home they return to give them the shelter they want?
no one knows.
Zhao Yucheng could only wish that they could really live the peaceful life they wanted after returning to their families, instead of ending up under the increasingly harsh rule of the Southern Song Dynasty.
Many prisoners chose to be paid to go home, and of course many more chose to stay.
After the three-hour process of collecting tolls and leaving, those who still stay in the barracks and are unwilling to leave will of course not leave.
They chose to join the peasant army and continue fighting.
"Since you don't want to leave or go home, then from now on you are our comrades-in-arms. As comrades-in-arms, we will accept you all. You must also strengthen your study, strengthen self-reflection, and lead yourself in the days to come. To make a radical change.”
Zhao Yucheng stood on the high platform and opened his arms.
"Welcome to join us!"
After voluntary selection, a total of 35,128 people chose to stay and join the peasant army.
This is still a large number.
So Zhao Yucheng and Du Qi immediately set up an army reorganization committee to deal with the matter of army reorganization.
First, they promoted people in the peasant army who had a certain level of cultural knowledge and military accomplishment to grassroots officers, allowing them to command the newly joined captive soldiers.
Then select politically outstanding members of the Peasant Army to serve as instructors at all levels, and build the expanded skeleton of the Peasant Army according to the Ming Army's approach.
It is not easy for the seven thousand peasant army to absorb more than thirty-five thousand Song troops.
But with ideas as weapons, strict military regulations and discipline as constraints, superiors leading by example, and Zhao Yucheng's exemplary leadership, the rebirth of this army is not a strange thing.
In early July of the third year of Hongwu, the reorganized Peasant Army was organized into four combat divisions and two army-directed combat brigades according to the Ming Army's establishment, with a total number of 44,000 people.
At this time, there is no need for the peasant army to continue hiding.
Under Zhao Yucheng's plan, the four combat divisions were fully mobilized, divided into four groups, and began a major counterattack against the Southern Song Dynasty.
On the fifth day of July, the First Division of the Peasant Army and two combat brigades directly under the Army, under the personal leadership of Zhao Yucheng, captured Luling County, the capital of Jizhou, and then successively captured Jishui County and Yongfeng County.
On the sixth day of July, the Third Division of the Peasant Army, led by division commander Lu Chengren, captured Anfu County after capturing Yongxin County.
On the same day, the Second Division of the Peasant Army, led by division commander Xu Tong, captured Taihe County and Wan'an County one after another, and then captured Longquan County.
On the ninth day of July, the Fourth Division of the Peasant Army, led by division commander Zhang Xiaohu, broke into the Nan'an Army, raided Meiguan, Xiongguan, South Guangdong at lightning speed, successfully occupied Meiguan, and controlled this north-south movement. important channel.
The peasant army launched an all-out attack and spread everywhere. Wherever they went, the Song army collapsed. A small number of the officials who defended the territory initially resisted to the end and committed suicide for their country. A large number of them fled. A few were captured by the peasant army and became public trial materials, which accelerated the thinking within the peasant army. construction.
