When Zuo Mengeng returned to Linqing, the happiest person was Xu Ruolin.
The girl didn't care about being shy and pulled Zuo Mengeng to look at him, fearing that he was missing some parts.
"Oh, I told you, it's just an armed trip, nothing happened."
Xu Ruolin also realized that she was a little too concerned.
"It's not... I haven't heard from people that fighting is dangerous."
Zuo Mengeng laughed loudly.
"On this expedition, a total of three of our troops were injured. Guess how they were injured?"
How does Xu Ruolin know the way of military formation?
"I sprained my foot while chasing the enemy."
Speaking of this, Zuo Mengeng couldn't help laughing.
There is really a huge gap between the New Army and the White Lotus Sect rebels.
This time when he returned to Linqing, Zuo Mengeng met another person, Geng Ruqi who had recovered.
He is in his forties or fifties, with a strong bookish air about him, thin and timeless, elegant and easy-going.
"Zhongheng, thank you for your great efforts in rescuing the Gyeonggi incident. Otherwise, I would..."
Zuo Mengeng did not take credit.
"Uncle, why do you need to stay away from others? We are in the same spirit and should help each other."
Geng Ruqi is not a hypocritical person, and after what happened before, he suddenly becomes more open-minded.
"I have already met Li Sima and Duke Dongjiao. I don't think you have all the talented people here, but you are more transparent than the people in the court. How about you arrange something for me to do?"
Zuo Mengeng was overjoyed, but he didn't expect that Geng Ruqi would take the initiative to join his camp.
He can slowly train grassroots officials on his own, but when it comes to administrative methods at a certain level, he has only a limited understanding of them.
There was originally a Li Banghua training, but it was obviously not enough.
Now there is Geng Ruqi, a former governor, who is really even more powerful.
Zuo Mengeng thought for a while and decided to play it safe.
"If uncle doesn't give up, can you help Mr. Meng An with some official training first? When uncle is well, you will have to take control of the overall situation. In addition, Taichong and others are arguing endlessly, and there is no conclusion to this day. Uncle has given me some advice. So that everyone can reach a consensus."
Zuo Mengeng's arrangement had another purpose.
That is the idea of transforming old bureaucrats such as Li Banghua and Geng Ruqi.
The best thing to do is to involve them in a big ideological debate.
Today, the debate between Huang Zongxi and others is still inconclusive, and the scope of equality cannot be unified. In addition, their debate began to expand, and it already involved the positioning of the king.
But this kind of debate and dispute is necessary.
The process of unification of thoughts must be like this.
You can't just open your mouth and talk about a theory, and others will just accept it.
Confucius encountered many setbacks in his preaching.
Only by participating in it can you be influenced and ultimately change your mind.
"Everyone, during this expedition, I did not go to the front line in person. I had some free time and finally completed the last part of "The Wealth of Nations." In addition, here is the work "The Prince" by the European scholar Machiavelli compiled by my wife. I believe that these works from afar may be able to give us some inspiration.”
Zuo Menggeng has always paid attention to participation in ideological debate conferences.
He is a leader, whether in the military or politics, including in the ideological field, he must show his presence.
Especially in the field of thought, only if he participates in it can he control the direction and avoid chaos.
In addition, he also needs to guide and mobilize everyone's brainstorming so that everyone's thinking will develop in a more advanced direction instead of going backwards.
When everyone began to discuss the position of the monarch, Zuo Menggeng knew that the time had come, so he took out the final chapter of "The Wealth of Nations", discussing the income of the monarch and the country.
It just so happened that Xu Ruolin had finished compiling "The Prince", which was a great assist for him.
Zuo Menggeng took out two expositions, which immediately aroused everyone's enthusiasm. They all took the manuscripts back to read and study.
It is conceivable that the next discussion meeting will be lively again.
In fact, in the process of spreading these ideas, Zuo Menggeng has always hidden hidden meanings.
That's the concept of transmission state.
The Ming people of this era actually did not have a very precise concept of country. Their division of the world was based on dynasties and ethnic groups.
It's very simple and very in line with the current environment.
But Zuo Menggeng knows very well that if the Chinese nation wants to break through geographical restrictions, truly integrate into the world, and become a pioneer, a more complete national concept must be deeply rooted in the hearts of the people.
On the surface, it seems to be about the monarch and the income of the political power, but by extension, it is not the concept of the country.
Although the reason for returning to the army this time was due to the conflict with Prince Heng's Mansion, it happened to allow the new army to reorganize.
At the military meeting, Zuo Mengeng made a decision.
"Deploy half of the people from the first and third regiments and add them to the first brigade of the second division. Ning Weiping, you will serve as the commander of the first brigade of the second division."
The other officers looked at Ning Weiping who was promoted to brigade commander and couldn't help but be very envious.
We went out to fight several battles. Although they were all flat, both officers and soldiers gained combat experience.
This gave the new army a basis for expansion.
The originally empty Second Division (Linqing Association) can also enter the stage of improvement.
Mao Yuanyi is the happiest about this decision.
He came to Linqing and joined the New Army in order to realize his dream of fighting on the battlefield and to regain Liaodong in the future.
During the days when the 1st Division was deployed, his main job was to train new recruits.
Originally he thought these recruits were the foundation of the Second Division, but he didn't expect Zuo Mengeng to be more far-sighted.
First take the two regiments of the first division to fight. After they have been trained, half of the men will be sent to the second division when they come back.
In this way, the Second Division suddenly had a group of experienced officers, instead of being full of newcomers from top to bottom.
Transferring a group of new soldiers from the Second Division to join the First Division will not harm the combat effectiveness of the First Division too much.
In the subsequent battles, after a few more battles, both the first division and the second division will be tempered.
At the meeting, everyone discussed and the command structure of the second division was also established.
Division commander Mao Yuanyi, political commissar Zhang Jimeng, chief of staff Zuo Yong, and military chief of staff Liu Yiyuan also serve as chief of staff of the first division.
At present, the second division can only form the first brigade. The brigade commander is Ning Weiping, and the political commissar is Yi Guozhengping, the former political commissar of the first division and first brigade.
Ning Weiping and Yi Guozheng were both political commissars, and they both served as commanders of the newly built Second Division and First Brigade, which also contained Zuo Menggeng's deep meaning.
He needs to control absolute military power, so he naturally needs to arrange trustworthy people.
The political commissar of the first division and first brigade was replaced by Lou Fu, the political commissar of the second brigade and third regiment. The political commissar of the third regiment was replaced by Jian Zongan, the commander of the seventh battalion of the third regiment who had outstanding performance in the Battle of Yidu.
The organizational structures at all levels below the Second Division and the First Brigade are still vacant. The generals of the second division need to discover talents to supplement them during the formation and training process, and they also need the first division to grow and deploy them in subsequent battles.
After the specific personnel arrangements were made, Zhou You stepped forward.
"This is an infantry drill code compiled by me, Deputy Commander Zhang, Political Commissar Mao, Chief of Staff Liu and others. With the approval of the Army Commander, it will be implemented by the entire army from now on."
A mature army must have a mature training system.
Zuo Menggeng has been doing this since the New Army was still in the rear camp.
The person who is specifically responsible is always in charge of recruiting and training tours.
The infantry drill of the new army not only incorporates the advanced concepts of later generations, but also makes changes based on the current situation.
The recruits of the second division are the first batch of recruits who have completed basic training under the guidance of the drill.
The results are very good, at least everyone can see the speed at which the new recruits grow.
After passing the practical test, Zuo Mengeng made the decision and began to promote it throughout the army.
In addition to infantry drills, there are also several training syllabuses such as cavalry drills, artillery drills, and engineer drills.
These contents made the New Army begin to move towards formalization and systematization, and also began to gradually transcend the times. The longer the time goes on, the more powerful the new army will be.
As for the construction of the new army, Zuo Mengeng did not stop there.
"Since our army is becoming more and more regular, the training of officers must be more in-depth and standardized. I am determined to establish a new army officer school. From now on, officers above the regiment level will not be allowed to serve unless they have graduated from the military school."
Zuo Mengeng used the military academy as a killer weapon.
Later generations have proved that the role of the military academy is very significant, and there is no reason for him to abandon it.
It is a specialized military school and is the only way for senior officers to be promoted. This setting is very novel for everyone, but it is not surprising.
Because Zuo Mengeng has mentioned similar ideas to everyone many times before and after, everyone is mentally prepared.
Especially in the process of compiling various military training codes, everyone increasingly felt that military affairs could also be taught in different but detailed disciplines.
Nowadays, generals everywhere either inherit it from their families or learn it on their own on the battlefield.
Not to mention the probability of success, at least such a general is uncontrollable.
No one knows the story of the domineering military generals who destroyed the foundation of the dynasty. How to control generals has also been a big problem in all dynasties.
Trampling the warriors underfoot like the Song Dynasty did, only to be beaten until they couldn't breathe for more than three hundred years, is definitely not possible.
At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, the status of generals was still good. But after Tumu Fortress, military generals were reduced to servants of civilian officials.
Facts have proven that this still doesn’t work.
Although many of the senior generals of the New Army were from literary backgrounds. But having experienced actual combat, they know better than anyone else that there are serious drawbacks to civilian-controlled military operations.
It was Zuo Mengeng's words that inspired them.
"Since civilian officials cannot unite the army, why not turn civilian officials into generals?"
It was after receiving Zuo Menggeng's influence that everyone realized the importance of cultivating generals.
After a unanimous vote, the New Army Officers School was officially opened in the new camp outside Zuozhuang Military Camp.
Zuo Menggeng appointed himself the principal and actually came to teach.
Huang Zongxi, director of the Academic Affairs Office, is responsible for instilling new ideas into the officers. With such a radical and powerful person, there is no need for the officers of the New Army to follow Zuo Menggeng closely.
The rest of the scientific and technical instructors are also served by the commanders of the various units.
Combining actual combat with theory, many talents will surely come out of the New Army Officer School in the future.
