Today's Dongshan Army has an astonishing strength of 20,000 troops. In addition to the 10,000 regular troops with numbers, there are also militiamen in Qingcheng County to maintain local security. Su Qi'an mobilized 10,000 people from them.
Twenty thousand troops formed the main force to attack Jiaozhou City.
There is still a gap between these militiamen and the regular Dongshan Army. However, the Dongshan Army sends troops for inspection and training from time to time, and the militia's combat effectiveness has been greatly improved.
Nowadays, the local militia is the main force in protecting local security and even encircling and suppressing some wandering bandits.
After a year of training and actual combat against local bandits, the local militia has become a force that is not weaker than the elite indigenous people and cannot be ignored.
On the eve of this siege, Su Qi'an had already exchanged improved weapons and equipment with the militiamen, and was even equipped with heavy siege equipment that only the regular army had, such as catapults and heavy ballistae.
With these equipment, these militiamen are even more powerful. After defeating Li Kang, Su Qi'an has long planned to expand the number of these militiamen.
But the time was not ripe at the time, and the militia also needed to be trained in actual combat. This would take time, if we opened our mouths at once like before.
The Dongshan Army's strength will definitely increase sharply, but its combat effectiveness will be greatly reduced. This is contrary to Su Qian's goal of cultivating a powerful army.
Su Qi'an always adheres to the premise of giving full play to the powerful strength of the Dongshan Army when it comes to military expansion.
After experiencing the Battle of Jiaozhou, the militiamen with tens of thousands of people are now basically mature enough to join the Dongshan Army.
Of course, they did not use the name Dongshan Army and called them Jiaozhou Soldiers to the outside world.
The military strength possessed by the Marquis of Daliang is obviously limited. No matter how outstanding the military exploits are, it will not exceed 10,000 people at most.
Those with more than 10,000 people will be impeached, and in serious cases, the army will be withdrawn.
After all, this was the iron law laid down by Emperor Gaozu when the Great Liang was founded to build an army. Even powerful ministers, at least on the surface, would not dare to break this iron law.
Therefore, over time, various default unspoken rules came into being, and using Jiaozhou soldiers as the number was the way to break the number of an army of ten thousand people.
Naturally, Su Qi'an would not break this unspoken rule of indifference. Such a good thing not only helped Su Qi'an reorganize the Jiaozhou soldiers, but also greatly increased his own power.
With 20,000 people, Su Qi'an plans to form a division-level organization that is one level higher than the regiment.
The full strength of the division level is 10,000, and exactly two divisions are formed, named after the first division and the second division.
With two divisions in hand, Su Qi'an was not satisfied. He planned to continue to expand the army and establish a third division.
As for the strength of the Third Division, Su Qi'an has already planned it, using the 6,000 local soldiers in Yangliu County as the basis for expanding the Third Division.
The remaining more than 4,000 people were recruited from the indigenous people. This was not Su Qian's random idea, but a careful consideration.
At the border of Jiaozhou, the indigenous population accounts for at least about 70%. Even though Su Qi'an and the elders of the Priest Alliance currently maintain peaceful coexistence, the recruitment of soldiers cannot always be mainly based on local Liang people.
In order to better publicize the equality of officers and soldiers of the Dongshan Army, it is imperative to recruit local indigenous people.
Earlier, Su Qi'an's Dongshan Army had local indigenous people, but because Su Qi'an only had 10,000 troops at that time, the proportion of indigenous people was not high.
In fact, the role they played was not very big. This time Su Qi'an became the person in charge of Jiaozhou, so he could naturally let some slack.
In the Jiaozhou soldiers, there is a certain size of indigenous troops. In the long run, the advantages definitely outweigh the disadvantages.
Su Qi'an has no restrictions on this recruitment. Even the natives of the Priest Alliance, as long as they meet the conditions and are willing to accept the assessment and pass the assessment, they can become Jiaozhou soldiers.
Although the recruits were nominally Jiaozhou soldiers, they all knew that Jiaozhou soldiers were Su Qi'an's private soldiers, that is, the Dongshan Army.
Many people could clearly see the Dongshan Army's strength and atmosphere, even after death, through the memorial ceremony that had just concluded some time ago.
Therefore, as soon as the recruitment was announced, it immediately caused a sensation in Jiaozhou, even among the three elite men
The natives are very excited.
What is rare is that the three elders who have always strictly prohibited their natives from becoming Jiaozhou soldiers have spoken out.
The general idea is that they are allowed to participate in the selection, and there will be no penalty whether they are selected or not. .
This shocked the natives. When Li Kang was in power, it was impossible for them to join the Jiaozhou soldiers. This was absolutely prohibited.
But now, their heads are letting go without any hindrance, which makes them have some suspicions in their minds.
Maybe they can really reach an in-depth cooperation with Su Qi'an, which would have been unimaginable in Li Kang's era.
Although it is not clear what the two parties discussed and what opinions they reached, this does not affect the indigenous people at all, who are eager to recruit Jiaozhou soldiers.
In the Elder City, the elders standing on the highest floor looked down at the countless natives below, their eyes scanning.
After a while, the Grand Elder said, "Second brother, what you did is really generous. You can let this ban go as long as you want. We have many elite people among these people."
"Haha, isn't this the same for the great elders?" The two elders said with a smile.
"Marquis Su's expansion of the army and the reorganization of the Jiaozhou soldiers will only benefit us in the long run. Even if our elite men become members of the Jiaozhou soldiers, it will also invisibly increase the strength of our army."
"Everyone knows how powerful our army is. Even if we have elite natives, they are crushed compared to the Dongshan Army. But this time Su Qi'an opens recruitment, and our people will become one of them, they will also be defeated. Bring back this method of improving combat effectiveness."
"Don't you realize that Su Qian's release this time is a kind of help to us. If it were Li Kang who had such an army in his hands, he would not be able to suppress us and others with all his life."
"And Su Qi'an is somewhat honest with us. This kind of magnanimity cannot be matched by Li Kang. Therefore, in the future in Jiaozhou, the only one who will be the leader of Jiaozhou is Su Qi'an."
With the answer of the two elders, the great elder and the third elder all agreed implicitly.
At such an age, he not only possesses extraordinary talents and intelligence, has a powerful army at his hands, but also knows how to pay equal attention to kindness and power, and is so magnanimous. Compared with Li Kang, such a person is really in heaven and earth.
They are elders. Although they are a little old, they are not dazzled by old age. They know how to stand in line at critical moments. If they really meet someone who can help them, they should hug their thighs.
With the support of the three elders of Jiaozhou, the recruitment of soldiers throughout Jiaozhou was quite smooth.
There were 40,000 to 50,000 applicants, but only 4,000 to 5,000 were finally admitted, which can be said to be the best of the best.
The establishment of the third division was almost a matter of course.
But due to the fact that more than half of the third division are new recruits, and their combat effectiveness is not strong.
Su Qi'an decided to reorganize three divisions using the three original regiments of the Dongshan Army as the backbone.
The first three division commanders remained unchanged, with Su Yong, Song Biao, and Chen Dao still serving.
In addition to the expansion of three divisions this time, the cavalry regiment commanded by Er Meng was also upgraded. Although the order was a cavalry division, there were only 3,000 cavalrymen.
It's not that Su Qian doesn't want to expand to 10,000 people at once, but recruiting cavalry is not as simple as infantry.
Those who can become cavalry must have basic skills on horseback. If you can't even control a horse, let alone fight and counterattack on horseback.
Da Liang cannot compare with Da Rong in the north. The people of Da Rong were born and raised on horseback.
There are very few Liang people who are good at riding and shooting. These are things that only rich and powerful people can do.
Moreover, the cost of training a cavalry is equivalent to that of three infantry. If it is a heavy armored cavalry, it is at least ten.
No matter how generous Su Qi'an was, he would not be able to spend so much, so after going through many layers of screening, he only recruited two thousand cavalry.
These new recruits will not be able to play their role in a short period of time, and they have to be trained and trained by the powerful veterans. This cycle cannot be short.
Although there were only three thousand people, Su Qi'an was naturally generous enough to support a division.
Establishment first, people day
Later, when it came to recruiting, Su Qi'an couldn't satisfy three thousand people.
Ermeng naturally knew what Su Qian was thinking, which was a sign of trust in him.
Ermeng secretly swore in his heart that he would not embarrass Su Qi'an no matter what, and would definitely train a cavalry division that would make the enemy fearful.
This time the reform of the army and the recruitment of new soldiers lasted for at least half a month.
With the establishment of three infantry divisions and a cavalry division, Su Qi'an now has the ability to protect himself in the face of threats from any state.
I think back to more than two years ago, when I first entered Jiaozhou, I had less than two or three thousand people in hand, and now I have a total of 35,000 people.
Although he is not able to dominate one side, no one can do it if they want to. He must think twice before doing so.
This is just the main force in Su Qian's hands, stationed in Jiaozhou in the name of Jiaozhou soldiers.
As for the county-level local militia organizations below six counties in Jiaozhou, Su Qi'an has never disbanded.
The militia is the main force in protecting the safety of local people and maintaining local order.
In Su Qian's plan, the Jiaozhou soldiers were regular troops. They would only be dispatched when a major war broke out. Small-scale wars such as local frictions and banditry were jointly handled by the militia and local government officials.
In this way, not only can the division of labor between the army and the militia be solved well, unlike the era of Li Kang's rule, the management of the government officials and the army was chaotic.
If something really happened, both parties would blame each other, so both parties were not very motivated.
Under Su Qi'an's reforms, the two had a clear division of labor, which not only reduced friction between the two parties, but also mobilized the enthusiasm of the other party.
As government orders were issued one after another, some people were initially panicked due to the battle in Jiaozhou, but gradually the peace of the past was restored.
Even better than in the past, if anything happens, there will be corresponding officials responsible.
There has not been a single case like in the past where officials were shirk-passing, evasive, and irresponsible.
Behind them, there is a series of strict reward and punishment systems supervising them.
Under this kind of operation, Jiaozhou recovered at an astonishing speed, and various counties and counties experienced prosperity that was difficult to see in the past, and everything was developing prosperously.
