Ji Han Grand Commander

Chapter 4. Reform
"A new method of training soldiers?"

After eating and drinking, Feng Xi took the opportunity to share his ideas with everyone.

Although Fu Zhun was not Feng Xi's subordinate, he kept silent but also pricked up his ears, wanting to hear what new ideas his two buddies had.

"Yes. After I fell off my horse yesterday, a lot of thoughts flashed through my mind. Wen Jin, our current training is just basic physical training and moves training, right?"

Feng Xi stood up and walked around in a circle in the middle of the tent.

"Of course, the soldiers need to lift and pull stone locks to train their arm strength, and run to train their marching ability. As for the moves, they are their skills in fighting on the battlefield."

Zhang Nan nodded. He was also a veteran who had been in the army for more than ten years and was very familiar with training.

"Enough, but not enough. Wen Jin, let me ask you, if you only have plenty of physical strength and are skilled in fighting, is that enough on the battlefield?"

"How is it not enough?"

Zhang Nan became interested and wanted to hear what Feng Xi had to say.

"The thief Cao went south to attack Jingzhou, and his troops were all well-trained and experienced soldiers, right?"

"That's natural."

"Then why did Cao's army, with abundant physical strength and sophisticated combat skills, first lose to the military advisor's fire at Bowangpo and then lose to the allied forces of Sun and Liu at Chibi?"

"This...water and fire are merciless. Even a man of steel cannot stop the power of nature."

After thinking about it, Zhang Nan could still attribute the cause to the fire.

"The fire at Red Cliff only burned Cao's water camp, leaving the land camp mostly unscathed. This was not the fault of the fire, so why did Cao's army still flee in disarray?"

Feng Xi was unyielding and continued to ask questions.

"This...Cao's army's morale has been broken. They know that the situation is hopeless, so they are unable to resist."

"It can be seen that sufficient physical strength and proficient combat skills alone are not enough. We need to enforce discipline, and all officers must set an example, with smooth communication between superiors and subordinates. At the same time, we must also have a backup plan to prevent unexpected situations."

Feng Xi's few words left the group confused and unable to understand for a moment.

"Wen Jin, let me ask you, if you were the commander of the front army now, and the enemy generals imitated General Huangfu's story in the Battle of Changsha and burned down the camps, what would you do in the chaos?"

Feng Xi changed the topic and directly asked Zhang Nan about a future scenario.

"This... in a big fire, the generals don't know the soldiers, the soldiers don't know the generals, and with the smoke, it may be difficult to organize. The best we can do is to gather a remnant and break out of the fire."

Zhang Nan was somewhat embarrassed when he heard this. After all, it was wishful thinking to expect the army of this era to be able to avoid a fire. When the fire started, who would care who they were or who was in front of them?

Feng Xi shook his head when he heard the answer.

"When the time comes, you will lead a hundred men to break out. The enemy will not need to send out a large army. A few chaotic troops may be able to chop you into pieces."

What Feng Xi said was true. If history had continued to develop as it had, he would have been killed in a night raid by Pan Zhang's men, and Zhang Nan would have died in the chaos in Yiling.

"So what do you think? How should we react to this situation?"

Zhang Nan was a little unconvinced and asked Feng Xi back. However, this was only because Zhang Nan and Feng Xi were like brothers of different surnames that they dared to do so. Wang Ji and Li Chong did not dare to say anything, while Fu Rong listened with great interest.

"According to current military discipline, I have no choice but to accept the death."

Feng Xi spread his hands, looking helpless. Zhang Nan was about to explode, but Fu Rong held him back.

"Xiu Yuan just mentioned the 'existing' military discipline. Is there a way to prevent it from becoming chaotic?"

"It's impossible to completely avoid chaos, but it is possible to minimize the losses and reduce the risk of soldiers blowing up the camp."

"What do you mean?" "If soldiers are used to emergency gatherings at night, then the sense of panic and helplessness will be reduced immediately; if soldiers know that in the event of a night raid or fire attack, they should first save themselves, then find the corresponding sergeant, squad leader or other junior officers, and then let the junior officers decide on the action, then the losses will definitely be less than if they were a group of scattered sand."

"Xiu Yuan, this is an ideal situation. Now, even if Gao Shun were to be reborn or Ju Yi were to be resurrected, it would be difficult for them to train such an army, right?"

Zhang Nan rolled his eyes. Theoretical things are just theories after all. Who can actually do it?
"Why not? Why don't we give it a try tonight? Let's start the experiment with your troops, Wen Jin, who are our own troops. How about that?"

"This... do I need to inform a few military marquises?"

"No, we just need to let the entire army see their situation first so that they can learn from past mistakes."

Feng Xi smiled, but in the eyes of others this smile was very evil.

"General Feng, if we train like this, there may be a risk of the camp blowing up..."

Wang Ji, a veteran soldier who had spent half his life in the army, was quite worried about this.

Camp explosion, also known as camp roar, usually occurs when a soldier is camping at night. In the middle of the night, one of the soldiers suddenly has a sleep disorder and gets up and dresses in a hurry. The others mistakenly think that it is an emergency assembly and also get up and dress in a hurry. When all the soldiers gather together, they find that no one has given the order to assemble.

At this time, as long as there is a slight disturbance, perhaps just a soldier's scream from a nightmare, it can trigger a hysterical and crazy atmosphere in the camp. The soldiers completely break free from the constraints of military discipline. Some of them pick up weapons to seek revenge, hunting down officers, enemies, and unknown comrades, leaving only corpses on the ground the next day.

"Will a night attack destroy the camp? You can say that they will be confused, at a loss, or even desert, but how can the camp be destroyed? I will ask them to return their weapons to the warehouse in advance. At the same time, are the other two of you dead? I sent two thousand of you just in case."

Feng Xi rolled his eyes at Wang Ji. First of all, camp howling usually occurs in frontline troops under extremely high pressure from war, because the soldiers are under mental pressure of not knowing whether they will die tomorrow, so as long as there is a little disturbance, they may be paranoid and turn their weapons against their own people.

But first of all, we are outside Chengdu now, where does the pressure of death come from? Could it be that the enemy is inside Chengdu? Everyone is bragging and chatting leisurely every day. Even officers like Feng Xi went to Chengdu to drink not long ago. Otherwise, Feng Tunan would not have integrated with Feng Xi. Moreover, Feng Xi was not the kind of person who used high pressure to suppress soldiers and rule the army before, so everyone was not so nervous.

Secondly, the reason why the soldiers killed each other in the camp was because there was no "enemy", so they turned their guns on their enemies. With a concrete enemy, would the soldiers kill their comrades together with the enemy? This is nonsense in itself.

The third point, and the most important one, is that Feng Xi will ask them to return their weapons to the warehouse in advance. How do you want to blow up the camp with your bare hands? Punch and kick or just pounce and bite?
……

During the afternoon training, Feng Xi personally stood on the stage, found a roll of sheepskin to make a makeshift trumpet, and announced the first step of the training reform. In addition to the usual forking, stabbing, stabbing, and running, the afternoon training also included standing at attention.

Standing upright in the sun like this was too much for countless old hands who were used to being lazy. From time to time, someone could not hold on and became discouraged. There were soldiers responsible for recording their units and were responsible for handling miscellaneous tasks such as burning incense and cooking at night.

Seeing that his soldiers had a good foundation and most of them persevered with gritted teeth, Feng Xi nodded with satisfaction and specifically instructed that in the future he would allocate some money and food from his own pocket to increase the food such as minced meat for officers and soldiers equally, so that the soldiers would have the opportunity to drink meat soup occasionally.

At night, the camp was silent, but the more than 2,000 men led by Wang Ji and Li Chong stood up. Zhang Nan and Feng Xi stood on a high place, watching with bitter faces as Wang Ji and Li Chong personally brought dozens of people to their camp, picked up dry firewood, lit it, and threw it into the open space.

When they saw the smoke rising, they immediately shouted, "There's a fire! There's a fire! Bandits are setting fire to the camp!"

Then several hundred of Li Chong and Wang Ji's followers, wearing wet towels and dressed in black, rushed into the camp with makeshift wooden swords and sticks.

Zhang Nan's troops only received the order in the afternoon to store all swords and knives in order to avoid accidental injuries during the surprise attack at night. At this moment, the soldiers were all powerless, and with the thick smoke and shouts of killing, the camp of a thousand people was in chaos for a while.

There were shouts and cries everywhere. Some people rushed out with their butts naked, some hurriedly put on their clothes, and some rushed out in groups of three or five. There were all kinds of people.

"kill!"

Before Zhang Nan's troops could react, they saw hundreds of men in black rushing towards them with all kinds of weapons. Many of them were so scared that they knelt on the ground and begged for mercy. A few passionate men fought with them with their bare hands, but they were no match for four hands and were pinned to the ground in a few moves.

Before long, the big tent became quiet, with only the occasional cough from someone inhaling the thick smoke.

“Silla…”

With the sounds of several fire-extinguishing operations, peace returned to the camp, and Zhang Nan's troops, who were pinned to the ground, finally had time to take a closer look at the current situation.

Fire? It didn't start. Thieves? They looked familiar. Weapons? They were all made of wood.

"Today's exercise was very successful and met my expectations."

Several soldiers holding torches, Feng Xi, Zhang Nan and two other commanders dressed in black walked up to the platform together.

(End of this chapter)