Although Li Rusong was always domineering, he still maintained awe of the emperor. Therefore, although he could have five hundred servants accompanying him when he went to Beijing, he actually only brought three hundred with him. Today's trip only went to the suburbs of Beijing, so he only brought more than a hundred People are trusted.
Although the entourage was small, at this moment he felt that the British minister's invitation to him at the Xishan Courtyard was intentional. Therefore, these hundred or so people must also represent the Liaodong Army and must not lose their prestige.
The soldiers are as good as the generals. Li Rusong is high-spirited, and the Liaodong cavalry under his command are also high-spirited. After hearing what the eldest master said, they naturally held out their chests and belly, and marched forward proudly.
After passing the Niangniang Temple, not far away, we saw the Imperial Guards Camp that the servant mentioned earlier. This was the first time Li Rusong saw a "camp". He originally thought it was just a strong camp, but then he realized it was not the case. The camp here was a camp and the fort was a fort.
A barracks is a barracks. The barracks of the Imperial Guard are similar to those elsewhere, except that the houses are built rather strangely. They are exactly the same "big sheds" - in fact, they are common bungalows with cement brick walls in later generations, with dozens of them in a row.
The building system of the barracks is quite simple. The outer room is the dormitory, which houses one shed of soldiers (according to the regulations of the Beiyang Army mentioned earlier, one shed is equivalent to one squad of the Red Dynasty), and the inner room is the washroom and storage room. There are no toilets, and there are separate public toilets for cleaning.
The barracks are divided into districts, and each "district" is generally a battalion, housing about 500 people. There are three battalions of the Guards, usually two infantry battalions plus one horse or artillery battalion.
The two associations are one association, and the association has its own artillery reinforcement battalion; the two associations are one town, and the town also has its own directly-affiliated artillery battalion and directly-affiliated horse battalion. It is called the Chinese Army Artillery Camp and the Chinese Army Horse Camp.
There is a separate playground outside each camp area for training purposes. As a separate overall unit, there is a large playground in the middle of the entire camp in a town, which is used for centralized training and parades in the town.
The place Li Rusong passed by was on the edge of the camp area of a town, and there happened to be a horse camp. Li Rusong and his cavalrymen looked in through the neat gaps between deer and firewood, and found that horse fighting was being practiced inside.
Ma Zhan was actually Li Jiajun's special skill. Li Rusong narrowed his eyes and looked at it. However, this horse camp of the Imperial Guard was probably just doing basic training. A group of cavalry came and went in turns to chop down the wooden figures.
A general from the family next to Li Rusong sneered: "Wooden people can't move. How can they practice by cutting wood piles back and forth like this?"
The other general also smiled and said: "Come on, it's just the Beijing Camp. It's good to be able to practice like this. At least after practicing like this for a while, you can always ride the horse more steadily."
"Are you two better at training than Qi Shaobao?" Li Rusong suddenly said coldly: "Look carefully at the arrangement of those wooden figures, and then think about whether such drills are useless."
The two were scolded by Li Rusong and quickly took a closer look. Only then did they realize that the wooden figures were not arranged as neatly as they imagined, but were scattered and irregular, and the distance between the wooden figures was not very wide. .
"Hiss..." The two of them gasped, knowing that this would make it very difficult for the soldiers of the Guards Horse Camp. In fact, their biggest difficulty is to pass between these wooden men and chop them down at the same time, which makes it even more difficult.
Li Rusong observed extremely carefully. Seeing their surprise at this moment, Li Rusong stretched out his finger to the other side of the edge of the playground and said, "Look over there. What is the big hourglass used for? I don't need to explain it to you, right?"
There is definitely no need to explain. What else can an hourglass do besides telling time?
Li Rusong and others simply stopped to watch and saw that after all the Imperial Guard horse camps passed the "Wooden Man Formation", several more officers came forward to check on the wooden man, accompanied by a clerk holding a calculation in his hand, who seemed to be recording something.
Li Rusong watched for a while and secretly wondered: Could it be that they were recording the places where the cavalry wounded the enemy? But how to make this clear?
At this time, a sharp-eyed servant suddenly reminded: "Sir, please look, there seem to be vermilion marks on those wooden figures. It seems that... the saber blades in the hands of those cavalry are smeared with paint."
Li Rusong suddenly realized that this was the case. No wonder an officer came forward to check. Then he became curious again, what happened after the inspection?
This question did not last long, because the inspection speed was quite fast, and soon several officers stepped forward to report the results to an officer in front of the reviewing stand. That officer might be the battalion commander. After receiving the reports from several officers, he stood up, looked at them, and announced the results loudly.
Immediately afterwards, three of the dozens of cavalrymen who had just passed the examination dismounted and marched out of the queue. They walked dejectedly to the reviewing stand and knelt down. Three more officers walked out from the reviewing stand, each holding a riding crop and walking up to the three cavalrymen with a stern look on their faces.
The three cavalrymen lowered their heads and took off their shirts on their own, leaving their chests and backs bare and motionless. The three officers seemed to have yelled and cursed a few words, and then they whipped the three cavalrymen on their backs. Each of them received ten lashes, leaving bloody streaks on the backs of the three cavalrymen.
A servant next to Li Rusong couldn't help but said: "Fuck! I've heard that Qi Shaobao is strict in managing the army, but I didn't expect it to be so strict. This group of cavalry can pass through such a wooden formation, and they can also cut the wooden figures with their swords. Where can I not be called an elite? But unexpectedly, three people were picked out and beaten. This is so damn... so unreasonable."
Li Rusong looked stern and said nothing, but the servant who led the way before smiled and said: "Actually, it's not a matter of elite or not. I heard that they don't look at others. In short, after calculation, the three with the worst performance will be eliminated. They were pulled out and beaten, and then they were also fined in other items - such as the shed where they were staying, and everyone was fined to clean the hut for seven days.
Sometimes there are too many people cleaning the huts, and there will be other punishments, such as helping the best-performing hut to wash clothes. In short, although most of the penalties are not serious, they are very embarrassing. "
Li Rusong stared blankly for a while, then suddenly turned back to the servant who was speaking: "What other rules of the Imperial Guard do you know? Tell me all about them when you get back."
"Yes, sir, I understand."
Li Rusong didn't say anything about it anymore and ordered coldly: "Let's go." After saying that, he grabbed the horse's belly and left first.
Not far away, Li Rusong and others suddenly noticed a large group of people running from a distance. When everyone took a closer look, they found that these people were all wearing brown shorts, carrying large, unique-looking square bundles, and holding a large stone lock in each hand. The whole crowd came trotting in neat rows.
The brown bunt was originally a common folk costume, but there are very few people wearing it uniformly like this. To be precise, it is the only one in the world: Jinghua Armed Servant. And when Jinghua had the book and sword flag, "book and sword" became the unified symbol of Jinghua. Jinghua's armed servants also embroidered the book and sword emblem on the left chest of the brown bunt.
This group of people have the calligraphy and sword emblem on their left chests, and there is no need to explain their origins. Even Li Rusong knows them.
However, Li Rusong was still a little surprised by the group of armed servants who came with big stone locks. He asked the previous guide servant: "What are these servants of the Gao family doing?"
The servant replied: "Oh, this is their routine training, called running with weights."
"Running with weights?"
"Yes, Sir." The servant explained: "The square bag behind them is also carrying stone slabs, weighing thirty kilograms. The stone locks in their hands are fifteen kilograms each, and the whole body carries a sixty kilogram weight.
As far as I know, the servants in Jinghua do exercises five times a day. Before the exercises, they have to run with weights. They have to run twenty miles with a weight of 60 kilograms, and then return to the camp to bathe and have a meal. After taking a break for two sticks of incense, the 'technical and tactical training' began - such as musket shooting and bayonet fighting. "
"Five exercises in seven days, are they so intense every time?" Li Rusong asked with a serious face.
"That's probably the case." The servant scratched his head and said, "But the training here in Jinghua has more variety. Sometimes there is no technical and tactical training, but they are pulled out in groups to do some 'training'. This training also requires weight-bearing. But it will be slightly lighter, as if the whole body is carrying a weight of forty pounds, but you have to run a long distance..."
"How far?"
"Ah, they often run from Jianxinzhai to Sanshenyuan. This trip is fifty miles, but they always go there in the morning, go to Sanshenyuan for lunch, and then run back to finish their meal in the afternoon. They go back and forth like this every day, It’s always more than a hundred miles away.”
"Fucked such a good boy..." A servant said dumbfounded: "They say Gao Situ is kind, but why does it sound like he is treating the servant like a mule?"
The guide took a peek at Li Rusong and saw that although Li Rusong looked serious, he could not see any emotion or anger. He felt a little relieved and replied: "You must be as tired as a mule, but the food in the Baiyulou barracks is very good, all of them are Not to mention white rice, they still have plenty of meat and eggs. In addition, they all get four taels of regular salary and occasionally some merit rewards, which are no worse than the county magistrate, so I am quite happy to look at these mules. "
But before, the servant still shook his head: "No, no, no, even if the food is good and the salary is high, who can handle this damn exercise seven days and five times? Besides, what's the use of them practicing so hard? They can't make any money." Let’s fight! The first-level reward can be as high as ten taels per head. Without this, how can we talk about a way out?”
Each branch of the Ming army had different standards for merit rewards for their heads, and the origins of the heads they obtained were also different. Generally speaking, Mongolian heads were the most expensive, followed by Japanese pirates, and Jurchen heads were more average.
Don't be surprised, the heads of Japanese pirates are really more valuable than the heads of Jurchens. This is probably because the Japanese pirates invaded along the coast in the past. If you can't defeat them, you can still get on the boat and escape, so heads are more difficult to obtain.
The Jurchens are different. Although there are mountains and forests, they still live in a stronghold. As long as the Ming army encircles and suppresses them, it is easier to get their heads. Moreover, the Jurchens at this time were not very powerful in combat. When Nurhachi first raised his army, he often and Shuerhaqi and others, dozens or twenty men, defeated hundreds of enemy enemies. This is a historical fact, which shows that some ordinary Jurchen tribes at this time were more powerful. The war between villages is the level of group fights between villages. As long as there are a few brave guys who are not afraid of death on one side, the other side will have a problem that can be solved by charging.
Generally speaking, only powerful chiefs such as Yehe, Hada, and Ula could be considered serious military organizations. In Jianzhou, before Nurhaci, only those under Wang Gao and Wang Wutang were at the military level.
Since their combat effectiveness is not very good, their heads obtained by the Ming army are certainly not that valuable. This servant's so-called "twenty taels upwards" is because Li Chengliang was more generous in giving rewards.
Of course, looking at Li Cheng and Liang Jiading's strong combat effectiveness, this is one of the three main reasons. The remaining two main reasons are: first, the generals of the Li family have the habit of taking the lead in charging, and they are "Follow me" rather than "Follow me", which has higher morale; second, Li Chengliang is not stingy in spending money to improve the armor, and the equipment is obviously suppressed .
Li Rusong said calmly at this time: "Okay, please shut up. Gao Situ has his own rules, and what his servants rely on for food is not what we should care about. But after listening to this, you should also know where you are these days. It’s not easy to earn a living. Our Liaodong Army doesn’t have many rules like theirs. Generally speaking, there is only one rule: if you dare to fight, you will be rewarded if you can fight; if you are afraid of fighting, you will be killed! Do you understand?”
"Here!"
"I understand!"
"The great man is so proud!"
Li Rusong glanced majestically and ordered: "Let's go." He thought to himself: I heard that the Gao family has at least 100,000 armed servants. Are they all trained according to such intensity of training? Fortunately, Gao Situ is a civil servant. Otherwise, if I were from the Li family but had a hundred thousand strong soldiers, I would have been killed and my family would be wiped out.
But then he thought about it and thought that Gao Jinggong still had many servants in southern Xinjiang. He suddenly realized it and said secretly: Yes, although Gao Situ's servants are many, they are scattered everywhere. The capital is here as the headquarters of Jinghua. But there are no more than three thousand servants all year round.
The place with the most servants of the Gao family was originally Kaiping, but it did not exceed 10,000. Later, he patrolled Liaodong, and the number of servants increased sharply, but so far there should only be 20,000 to 30,000, and they are also scattered throughout Liaodong. From this point of view, although Gao Situ was a civil servant, he was very careful.
However, Li Rusong curled his lips when he thought of this and said to himself: This is too cautious. You are a civil servant and a classmate of the emperor. When the Imperial Guards already numbered 60,000, you actually only dared to let loose in the suburbs of Beijing. Why are there three thousand servants like this? Which of those distinguished nobles does not have thousands or even tens of thousands of servants? When has the emperor ever cared about them?
However, thinking about the strict discipline of the Imperial Guard and the strong training of the Gao family's servants that he had just seen, Li Rusong felt heavy in his heart, as if there was always something wrong. It’s okay that there are only 60,000 Imperial Guards in the Beijing camp now. What if there are 60,000 more, and 60,000 more after that?
The treatment of the border troops is already poor, and by then the status of the border troops may be even worse. After all, even if the frontier army cannot fight, the Beijing Guards can still achieve a great victory by attacking, and then the prestige of the frontier commander will be wiped out.
Thinking of this, he also thought of the defeat of his father Hetuala, and his heart became even more heavy. It's really unbearable that my father's lifelong fame would fall into the hands of a little-known Jianzhou chieftain, who was still a pawn in his father's tent.
"I'm going back to Liao Town this time. When the decisive battle against Chahar takes place, I will definitely take down Tumen's head and restore glory to the Li family! As for today... hmph, it's just a training exercise, and you want to bend my pride?"
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