Wei Ni

The highest rank of military officer that the Central Guard Army can select is the commander of a thousand men, or the chief of the Yamen.

They had no right to comment or criticize middle-level military officers such as the lieutenant commander of the rank of two thousand stones, but only had the power to participate in recommendations.

However, since the beginning of the struggle for supremacy among various warlords, various local warlords have privately granted various titles such as general, lieutenant and Sima of other departments, making the military rank and grade very chaotic.

Even after Wei unified the north, it was still common for a lieutenant with a rank of two thousand stones to lead only a few hundred soldiers, while a Sima with a rank of one thousand stones would lead thousands of soldiers; it was even more common for someone to have the position of Yamen Jiang or Junqu Hou (a commander of 500 men) but have no soldiers to lead.

The redundant officials who were granted favors by imperial patronage were not only in the various departments of the imperial court, but also infiltrated into the central army in Luoyang.

This brought great inconvenience to Xiahou Hui's investigation.

There was not enough time to inspect the generals and officers of various departments, and he also had to divide his time and energy to take care of these empty titles and redundant officials to prevent the pearl from being lost in the dust.

After all, according to military practice, whenever a general or officer is promoted or dismissed, he or she is replaced by a deputy or a redundant official.

In other words, these empty titles and redundant officials were only appointed by the court because there were no vacancies in the army at the moment, so they were allowed to take the positions and wait for the vacancies to be filled. It does not mean that they are all playboys who are just sitting in their positions and doing nothing, or incompetent second or third generations.

Fortunately, Xiahou Hui had help.

On the second day after entering the palace to meet the emperor, when he had just rushed to the military camp to check in for a field inspection, a group of armed guards came and claimed that they were sent by Emperor Cao Rui to protect Xiahou Hui and to strengthen the army.

After hearing this reason, Xiahou Hui was speechless for a moment.

Although it is impossible for the Luoyang Central Army to be stationed around Luoyang City with 50,000 to 60,000 troops, their garrisons are all within the capital area!
He was planning to spend the night in the military camp, so what danger could there be?

If he were in danger, the Cao Wei state would have been in chaos and rebellion long ago!

Furthermore, he was the Central Guard General, so it was natural for him to enter the military camp for inspection. Which general would dare not be respectful? Why did he need Wu Wei to show off?

Could it be that Emperor Cao Rui was worried that I would eliminate dissidents and sent him here to monitor me?
Are you so unabashed about your distrust of me?

This was Xiahou Hui's first reaction when he saw these mighty guards.

Perhaps, sensing Xiahou Hui's resistance, or perhaps because he had been warned about this earlier, the sergeant made a special explanation after explaining his purpose.

"Reporting to Guard General Xiahou, this time, His Majesty has sent a total of ten armed guards out of the palace. One group will follow the guards, and the other group will be outside. Deliver the news to me and pass it on to the guards before nightfall every day."

Another five?
Delivering a message outside?
Xiahou Hui hesitated for a moment, and when he met the sergeant's gaze, he suddenly realized.

The group outside is not the Wuwei, but the one Cao Rui mentioned yesterday, who was rumored to be investigating whether the generals and officers had committed any illegal acts!
As for why they sent the Wuwei here.
Just to cover up the truth.

No matter what, the current school affairs office has already disappeared into the dark, so it still needs to keep a low profile.

"In this case, I will trouble you for nearly a month."

Xiahou Hui's attitude towards the Wuwei who came to help instead of monitoring him became very enthusiastic. "Well, what is your name, warrior?"

"It is my duty, and I dare not take the trouble from the guard. Well, you can just call me Shi Er."

History II
You don't even want to say your name?
Hearing this, Xiahou Hui raised an eyebrow.

The sergeant who called himself Shi Er couldn't help but smile bitterly when he saw this, and continued to explain, "I was born in a humble family, without a courtesy name, and my family has always named me after my father since I was young."

Hey~
Understood.

His name should be Shi Zhong.

But today's emperor's courtesy name is Yuan Zhong. As the emperor's exclusive guard, he can only be Shi Er no matter others call him or when he calls himself.

Haha, that’s quite unfair.

You have to change your name before you can be a police officer.

In response, Xiahou Hui nodded with a smile and patted his shoulder tacitly to show closeness and understanding.

With the secret support of the school affairs office, the inspection went much more smoothly.

Xiahou Hui would lead each military camp of a thousand men for one or two days.

During the day, the Yamen generals and the military commanders were ordered to supervise the soldiers in martial arts exercises and observe their military appearance, such as whether the formation was strict, whether the coordination of each group of troops was smooth when changing the formation, and whether the soldiers' demeanor and spirit were high.

Then I wrote them down one by one.

If he saw that the army was in disarray and the soldiers were listless, he would just watch the military performance and then move on to another military camp.

Since it is certain that the officers and soldiers of this camp are incompetent, there is naturally no need to waste time examining other details.

But if he encountered a well-organized and elite army, he would still ask his generals and officers questions, such as how to deploy troops when encountering the enemy suddenly, how to march when ordered to attack, how to resist when the camp is attacked at night, and other issues before the battle.

He's not being difficult.

Instead, we want to know the upper limit of these generals and whether they have the ability to lead a department on their own, and then use this to decide the most appropriate positions to put these competent people.

When camping overnight in a military camp, things are much simpler.

He only needed to see if the soldiers showed any signs of noise after nightfall and whether the soldiers on duty were alert.

As for the intelligence that the school officials had been relaying, it gave him a headache. It was really too confusing!
No one knew how Emperor Cao Rui instructed these officials, or perhaps these officials were accustomed to the previous way of doing things and did not understand what he wanted.

Xiahou Hui just wanted to know whether these generals had bullied the soldiers or were arrogant and unjust.

However, the intelligence sent by the school officials even recorded whether these generals were lustful and how many concubines they had.

When he wanted to find the information he needed, he had to search like looking for a needle in a haystack.

I wasted a lot of time for no reason.

What's even more hateful is that when he found Shi Er and asked him to tell the school officials not to mix in these irrelevant things when sending information later, Shi Er looked embarrassed.

"Reporting to the guard, when I was sent here, my superiors warned me that my only duty was to protect the guard and pass on information, and that I was not allowed to have any contact with school officials. Those who violate this will be sentenced to death."

He said so.

This left Xiahou Hui speechless.

He couldn't force these guards to die, could he?
With a heart full of indignation, he stayed up late every night with Ding Mi.

Read more latest popular novels at 6.9*shuba!

The deceased is like a husband who does not want to leave day or night.

Before I knew it, twenty days had passed.

Xiahou Hui and his entourage rode out of the Gucheng military camp and headed back to Luoyang City.

Judging from the tired look on his face and his listless state, people who didn't know the truth would have thought that he was out fighting and had been engaged in fierce fighting for twenty days straight!
Yes, he was exhausted physically and mentally.

During these twenty days, his daily schedule was packed, and he had to stay up late every night. He never got a full three hours of sleep a day, which was much more difficult than marching and fighting.

At least when going out to fight, you can take a rest while watering the horses and cooking.

But now he has to rush even to go to the toilet and change clothes.

Fortunately, it's all over now.

In his bag, there was a thread-bound book with densely packed lines of words, covering details such as whether eight out of ten low-ranking officers in the Luoyang Central Army were competent or not.

As for why it is eight out of ten, but not all?
Before he entered the camp for inspection, some officers had already reported sick to their superiors and asked to abdicate.

Yes, I was scared away.

Since the first day Xiahou Hui moved into the military camp, his whereabouts and actions have been closely watched by those interested.

After learning that he paid close attention to every detail and treated everyone equally, some officers and generals completely lost hope and hurriedly asked for resignation on the grounds of illness.

no way.

It will be too late if it's any later.

If they resign now, Xiahou Hui will not be able to judge whether they are competent. After the storm has passed, they can still seek a position in the army by seeking help from powerful people or asking for help from ministers. But if Xiahou Hui finds out and records it, they will have a stain on their record, and whether they are demoted or dismissed, it will be difficult for them to gain a foothold in the army.

The lesser of two evils.

They can only comfort themselves by saying "one step back, the sky will be wider".

In other words, those who could fill in the numbers in the central army must have a certain level of power in their family in Luoyang. Why didn't they connect together and refute the unfairness of Xiahou Hui's assessment results by using reasons such as "excluding dissidents" and "unfair arguments"?
As long as you keep attacking and arguing, and drag things out for a long time, it will eventually come to nothing.
Just like the "Course Examination Law" announced several years ago due to the Fuhua case, which is still under debate and has not been actually implemented, is the best example!
However, they all knew that this approach would not work.

First of all, the military is different from the government.

People can argue in the government, under the pretext of expressing their own opinions; but in military affairs, if you want to have a voice you have to look at your merits!
Xiahou Hui, who had made great achievements such as beheading the traitor General Sun Shao of Zhenbei and defeating Gongsun of Liaodong, claimed that a commander of a thousand or five hundred men was incompetent after personally staying in the military camp to observe the soldiers' martial arts performance. This was an ironclad fact!

How to refute it?
Isn't this questioning Xiahou Hui's ignorance of military affairs?
Moreover, he accused Xiahou Hui of not knowing how to fight a military force. How embarrassed were the other generals of Wei who had made few achievements? Did they think of themselves as good-for-nothings?
One rebuttal can offend many people.

Another reason is that they all know that the Wuwei are the emperor's exclusive guards.

Since Cao Rui sent the Wuwei to accompany Xiahou Hui, it means that this reorganization was Cao Rui's idea. Who would be stupid enough to sing against it?

Therefore, some generals and officers who did not live up to their reputations had to resign due to illness.

Some officers who had performed mediocrely during the inspection and thought that Xiahou Hui would recommend them for dismissal also began to rely on their family connections to actively run around and request transfers.

There was an undercurrent in the capital for a while.

Xiahou Hui, who had not yet reported the results, also became notorious.

Even his own paper books (thread-bound books), which were made by cutting the paper, folding it in half and sewing it together with needle and thread, became famous and were known to everyone in the capital.

Because the basis for evaluating or criticizing generals and their promotions or demotions were all recorded in that book.

"I am not afraid of the axe, but I am afraid of the written record. The axe kills, the written record kills the reputation."

This is a rumor that has been spreading in the capital recently. It has spread widely. After only a few days, even the emperor Cao Rui in the palace has heard about it. (End of this chapter)