I practiced magic in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 170 Are you worthy enough to play guerrilla warfare with me?
Chen Ze was shocked by the words "report to the authorities" and immediately became angry and said, "Didn't you trick me into becoming a government soldier?"

"Who lied to you? It's none of my business whether you want to be the boss or not!"

"No, I just saw you take the reward with my own eyes, and you still say you didn't cheat?"

The other party turned around and wanted to leave, but Chen Ze obviously refused to agree.

The rural doctor was speechless, and then he started to curse Chen Ze: "Are you crazy? I just happened to know a few words, so General Zhou paid me to help him explain the policy."

Chen Ze looked skeptical after hearing this: "Really?"

The rural itinerant doctor looked impatient: "Nonsense, someone is paying you to brag every day, will you do it?"

After saying that, he pushed Chen Ze away, straightened his collar, and left with a swagger.

Chen Ze realized that he had misunderstood the other party. Although the rural itinerant doctor was obviously not a serious person, what he said was not wrong. So Chen Ze turned back to the recruitment site and patiently waited in line to register.

The military office had just been opened and the number of conscription spots was limited. In a blink of an eye, only thirteen spots were left.

But there are at least hundreds of people waiting in the crowd.

Chen Ze became anxious on the spot. If he didn't get selected, he would miss the opportunity!

So when it was Chen Ze's turn, he was very nervous.

"What is your name."

"Chen... Chen Ze."

"Can you write?"

"will not."

After answering, Chen Ze lowered his head in inferiority, not knowing where to put his panicked hands.

But Zhou Tai raised his head, glanced at the young man in front of him, and finally shook his head helplessly: "With your physique, I'm afraid it will be difficult for you to be selected. Why don't you go back first."

Because his family was poor, Chen Ze had never had a full meal since he was a child. He had been eating wild vegetables and rabbits for a long time, which caused his body to lack nutrition. As a result, he was short and quite inconspicuous when standing among the crowd.

But Chen Ze was too eager to be selected. Ten acres of land was simply the ultimate dream of his life!

Without a field, you can only be a hunter all your life, with no food to eat, and you might even be killed by a tiger one day. It would be difficult for you to even get married!

Chen Ze didn't want to be single all his life. He also wanted to bring his mother to live in the county town so that his family could live a good life.

He made up his mind, clenched his fists, stepped forward and recommended himself, saying: "General, please give Ze a chance!"

He has a determined look in his eyes, and although he is short in stature, there is a sharpness in his brows.

Zhou Tai admired the thin boy in front of him, especially his sharp eyes, so he decided to give him a chance to show himself: "What are you capable of?"

Chen Ze took off the bow and arrow and held them carefully in his hands. He lost his father at a young age and his mother was frail. He was able to survive to this day thanks to this skill of continuous shooting that never missed a target.

Although Chen Ze is illiterate, his brain is very flexible. He is well aware of his congenital deficiencies. He does not have enough arm strength to pull a strong bow. With the hunting bow in his hand, he has no advantage in range.

So he decided to find another way and try his best to show his strengths.

Chen Ze looked at Zhou Tai and said, "Sir, I have been hunting in the mountains since I was young. There is no point in shooting dead targets. If you want to shoot, shoot live targets."

"Oh, it seems you are very confident."

Zhou Tai admired Chen Ze more and more, and then called a few soldiers over and asked him to shoot at a pottery bowl as a target thirty steps away.

Chen Ze's eyes were sharp, and he said loudly: "I want to fight five!"

"Okay, I agree."

Suddenly five pottery bowls were thrown into the air.

Chen Ze held his breath and concentrated, and with quick hands and eyes, he shot five arrows in a row, and every arrow hit the bull's eye!

The five clay bowls shattered before they even hit the ground.

"What a great archery skill! Heroes are born young!"

Zhou Tai stood up suddenly. Considering Chen Ze's age and background, it was very rare to have such precise continuous archery skills. With Chen Ze's qualifications, he only needed to improve his diet and let him practice a top-grade martial art. In the future, he would at least be able to be a captain.

Even the soldiers around him, who had originally looked down on Chen Ze because of his thin stature, were now shocked by his miraculous archery skills and could not help but look at him with new eyes.

Zhou Tai stepped forward, patted Chen Ze on the shoulder and laughed, "Hahaha, great, you're accepted!"

Under Chen Ze's dark face, two rows of white teeth were revealed in his smile. The first small goal in his life was finally achieved successfully.

Mianchi, county government office.

Zhou Tai brought the list of soldiers to Wang Jing and reported: "My lord, the 2,000 soldiers have been recruited. Here is the list. Please take a look."

Wang Jing encouraged Zhou Tai a few words before taking over the list. Because of Wei Yan's precedent, he flipped through it carefully. Then he found that there was no name he remembered, and he was a little disappointed: "It's true that it's not easy to come across a hidden gem like Wei Yan."

After ordering people to file the list, he said to Zhou Tai: "Youping, the military system is just beginning. I hope you can stay for a while to train the soldiers and teach them simple military discipline and combat skills. At the same time, you have to teach them to read and write. Don't worry, I will send a few Mohists from the Mohist school to help you complete this task."

Wang Jing has always attached great importance to the ideological construction of the army, and in this regard, the most down-to-earth ones are the Mohists of the Mohist school.

Of course, Wang Jing did not want them to teach the Mohist idea of ​​"universal love and non-aggression", but to make the soldiers understand what is a righteous war and what is an unjust war, and to make them understand why they are fighting.

The Northern Army should not be warlike, but it should not be afraid of fighting either.

What Wang Jing needs is not a fierce and ferocious army like those during the Qin Dynasty. What he needs is a kingly army with ideals that are willing to sacrifice their lives for justice.

He even thought of a name. He planned to establish an ace force outside the Northern Army and command it personally, and name it "Shenwu" after the "Shenwu" in the Book of Changes, which says "The wise and insightful people in ancient times were those who were divine and mighty but did not kill."

Shenwu Army!
Wang Jing has already become a powerful figure, but he is still actively preparing for the future domination of the world. Reform and establishment of a new army are both indispensable processes of "internal cultivation".

"I obey my orders."

Zhou Tai did not know the importance of the military system to Wang Jing and the entire Northern Army, but he was honest by nature, and Wang Jing had been very kind to him, promoting him from an humble background. Therefore, Zhou Tai had no complaints about Wang Jing's orders.

Wang Jing then assigned Zhou Tai another 100 veterans to assist him in training the palace soldiers, and patiently instructed them: "The training should focus on spear formations, and strictly emphasize organization and discipline. The first thing is to teach them to absolutely obey orders."

The essence of the government soldiers is actually a militia that combines farming and fighting. Since they are not fully professional soldiers, many complex combat skills and tactical instructions are useless even if they are taught.

So Wang Jing simply taught Zhou Tai the intensive gun formation tactics and asked Zhou Tai to conduct special training for the palace soldiers.

In the era of cold weapons, the spear was the king of all weapons. It was easy to learn, practice, and form a formation, and it could quickly form combat effectiveness, making it the best choice for training palace soldiers.

In addition to spearmen, of course, long-range troops such as archers must be trained, but this depends on personal talent, and not everyone can become a sharpshooter.

In order to mobilize the fighting enthusiasm of the imperial soldiers, Xun You also suggested to Wang Jing: "My lord, you can select the best among the imperial soldiers from various places and recruit them into the imperial army."

"Strong trunk and weak branches?"

Wang Jing's heart skipped a beat. Isn't this the military strategy of the Song Dynasty?
The best personnel were selected from the local garrison troops and filled into the emperor's direct imperial guards, weakening the branches and strengthening the trunk.

This strategy has many advantages, but when Wang Jing thought of the fighting effectiveness of the Song Dynasty, he shook his head.

When Xun You saw this, he thought there was something wrong with his plan, and asked hurriedly, "My lord, is there anything wrong with this plan?"

Wang Jing came back to his senses, smiled and waved his hands: "This is not your problem. I just think that any system should have a promotion mechanism, otherwise it will eventually turn into inaction and bad governance." Why did the palace soldiers in history have all kinds of problems?

There may be many reasons, but in Wang Jing's opinion, the root cause is the lack of a reasonable promotion mechanism.

The Fubing seemed to have an easier life than ordinary people, as they did not have to pay taxes. However, they had the obligation to fight and to provide their own weapons and armor. This might have been possible in the early stages of the dynasty, but in the middle and even late stages, the population grew and the land initially allocated was inevitably insufficient to support the population growth. Due to land annexation, many of the Fubing's lands were even occupied by officers and dignitaries.

They had lost their land, were not allowed to renounce their citizenship, had to pay for their own military service, and were even treated as free slaves by the powerful. This was tantamount to forcing the soldiers to die. Naturally, this system could no longer be maintained.

What Wang Jing had to do was to allow the palace soldiers to be promoted in class, whether by being selected into a higher-level imperial guard sequence or by accumulating military merit to obtain official positions and titles, so that low-level palace soldiers would have more ways out, instead of being tied to land and household registration and working like slaves for the court all their lives.

After Wang Jing pondered for a while, he said to Xun You: "Gongda, I will provide an idea and you can help me complete the details."

Xun You knew Wang Jing was talking about the key points of the Fubing system, and immediately his expression became solemn and he listened attentively: "My lord, please tell me, I will keep it in mind."

"In addition to the government soldiers, I want to add two more levels of regular soldiers and elite soldiers, and select the best ones to recruit."

If the Fubing were militia that combined farming and fighting, then the Zhengbing were the original imperial guards of the Han Dynasty. They were professional soldiers directly under the emperor, completely separated from their production attributes and only learned how to fight.

Wang Jing had not yet become emperor, so he naturally could not use the term "Imperial Guards". Therefore, he simply changed the Imperial Guards to regular soldiers, meaning fully full-time professional regular army soldiers.

This concept was easy to understand. Xun You thought about it for a moment and understood Wang Jing's idea. Then he asked a core question: "My lord, are regular soldiers also granted land?"

The soldiers of the government were granted ten acres of land. This was the key point. Without any benefits, who would be willing to become a soldier?
Wang Jing shook his head: "Land is limited after all. Regular soldiers are not given land, but money directly."

Xun You calculated silently in his mind, smiled bitterly and reminded: "My lord, this will cost a lot of money. With the current income of the Northern Army, it may be difficult to support it financially."

The ancient emperors and generals were not unaware of the benefits of the conscription system, but where would an agricultural civilization provide so much spare money to support a fully professional army?

No matter how intelligent Xun You was, he couldn't conjure up money.

Wang Jing looked relaxed and said with a smile: "Don't worry, after completing the first round of industrial upgrades, money will not be a problem for the time being."

Once a large number of workshops are established, a positive economic cycle will begin, and the financial revenue that the Northern Army can control will increase dramatically. Therefore, instead of granting precious land, it is more cost-effective to give money directly.

Wang Jing discussed with Xun You the general treatment of regular soldiers. Although regular soldiers were not granted land, their income was much higher than that of government soldiers. It can be said that if one person joins the army, the whole family will not have to worry about food and drink, and they can also live in big cities and enjoy various hidden benefits and treatments.

However, correspondingly, the combat tasks that regular soldiers need to undertake are much more intense than those of the government soldiers.

"Above the regular soldiers, there are also elite soldiers."

The sharp warriors that Wang Jing mentioned were the ace combat troops like the Iron Scale Sword Guards, which had independent numbers and special flags.

These soldiers practiced martial arts and took various secret medicines, so their combat effectiveness was extremely strong. On the battlefield, they could often fight one against ten, or even one against a hundred. They could play a decisive role in fierce battles, so it could never be overemphasized.

Wang Jing knew that quality was more important than quantity. Only by selecting brave men from hundreds of miles away and training them into an army could we form a true national elite!
Because the number of sharp soldiers is small and they are truly elite who have been selected through layers of selection, in addition to giving them generous treatment, they must also be given honors.

Wang Jing said: "In each county, the officers of the government soldiers must be retired elite soldiers, and the military commanders must also be retired elite soldiers. Not only that, elite soldiers serving the country should have the privilege of not bowing to officials, but only kneeling to heaven, earth, the emperor, parents and teachers, and not bowing to court officials."

Don’t bow when meeting an official!

These four words seem simple, but in fact, in ancient times, this was equivalent to a huge promotion in social class, almost the same as the treatment of scholars after the implementation of the imperial examination system.

After hearing this, Xun You couldn't help but admire and said, "If this system is established, the soldiers will surely fight bravely and die for their lord."

Soldiers are willing to sacrifice their lives and do not fear life and death. Such a great cause is to be expected!

But although this method is a good one, it should not be implemented hastily.

Xun You weighed the pros and cons in his mind and suggested to Wang Jing: "The Fubing system and the Zhengbing system can be implemented immediately, but the Ruishi system should be postponed. We must wait until the Fubing system is strong and our army has established an unshakable authority before implementing it."

Any institutional adjustment targeting the lower classes can be regarded as a national policy. The Fubing system reformed by Wang Jingmo is essentially the same as Shang Yang's Reforms in Qin State. Both are aimed at opening up a channel for class advancement to the lower classes of society.

However, reform is bound to touch the cheese of vested interests, so this kind of reform is bound to lead to complete opposition from both the government and the public, especially among the aristocratic families. The gentry who monopolized the powerful class by relying on the supremacy of Confucianism will do their best to stop Wang Jing.

In the eyes of the aristocratic and powerful families, aren't the efforts of my ancestors less than those of you, a soldier who rose to the top through fighting and killing?
This is simply unreasonable!
Xun You was from the Xun family of Yingchuan, a famous family, so he understood the mentality of the aristocratic families best. He was an open-minded person among the aristocratic families and was willing to accept a certain degree of social change, as long as it was truly beneficial to the country and would allow him to go down in history.

There is no other reason, Xun You is an outstanding talent himself, so he is not afraid of being compared with others.

But among the aristocratic families, how many people are as talented as Xun You?

To put it bluntly, most of the children of noble and wealthy families are just average. Their talents and abilities are not necessarily much higher than those of the peasants who make a living in the fields. Without their family background and privileges, they are nothing.

Therefore, among the aristocratic families and powerful clans, enlightened people like Xun You are a minority. From the perspective of human nature, among the vested interests, the conservatives are actually the real mainstream and the majority.

All vested interest groups throughout history will not shed tears until they see the coffin. Even if civilization is to be destroyed, they will never easily give up the privileges and interests in their hands.

If the elite soldier system is really to be implemented, Xun You believes that it needs to wait a little while, at least until the effectiveness of the military system has been shown, and the groups of regular soldiers and elite soldiers have grown to a certain size, sufficient to confront the aristocratic families and powerful clans head-on.

Wang Jing agreed with Xun You's suggestion: "Gongda's words are very good, let's do as you wish."

After the major political discussions were over, the two began to talk about the current war.

Xun You smiled and said, "My Lord, you have established the Fubing system. Even if the noble families have the intention to rebel, they are powerless to stop them."

The soldiers who owned the land would inevitably gather together spontaneously, actively support Wang Jing's rule, and unite to fight against the aristocratic families.

As the saying goes, only those who have constant property can have perseverance!

Those without permanent property will only become bandits. Even if they go to war, they will just grab a few and run away, and it is difficult for them to accomplish anything great. This is the case with the Yellow Turban Army. They rebelled against the rule in the name of rebellion, but in the end they robbed and killed people, becoming a group of wild beasts who only knew how to destroy, and they were getting further and further away from the ideal of a country with Taoism.

Wang Jing, who had a solution, was full of energy and enthusiasm at the moment: "Now we just need to wait for Wei Bin to be defeated. After the battle of Mianchi is over, the Fubing system can be fully implemented in Bingzhou and the capital."

"What my lord said is absolutely true."

Xun You took the opportunity to flatter Wang Jing, and the master and the minister smiled at each other, obviously full of longing and expectation for the future.

In fact, although Xun You was initially forced to join the Northern Army, he was already deeply impressed by Wang Jing's talents at this time.

It's not just Wang Jing's increasingly unfathomable cultivation and foundation. There have been many military generals who are good at fighting in history, but there are very few generals like Wang Jing who can create the "Fubing System".

It is impossible to formulate such a national policy without sufficient social experience and wisdom and insight.

Especially since Wang Jing is only in his early twenties now!
There has never been anyone in history who possesses such talent and knowledge at this age!

The more Xun You thought about it, the more incredible it seemed to him. He was very curious. Could it be that his lord was really a star from heaven who had descended to earth?

Wei Bin was also thinking about the same question on Xiong'er Mountain.

He was seen leaning against a big tree in a panic, his face full of fear and regret: "Could it be that Wang Jing is really a star that has descended to earth?"

Beside Wei Bin, Zhu Ruo, whose scholar's clothes had become dirty, was also at a loss, muttering to himself: "How could this be? How could this be!"

He was weak and had been running around in the mountains for days to escape. Now he was exhausted both physically and mentally and could hardly continue.

At the beginning, he was very confident and thought he could use guerrilla warfare to delay time and force Wang Jing to withdraw his troops.

As a result, Wang Jing took out a system of local soldiers and divided up all the land of the Wei family. The local soldiers who had received the land were afraid that Wei Bin would come back for revenge, so they hunted him down more vigorously than the other.

There was one mountain hunter named Chen Ze in particular, who was simply haunting them. He brought more than a hundred people with him and chased them, leaving them with nowhere to go!
Just as he was thinking about it, two arrows flew over and shot down two of Wei Bin's followers.

The rest of the people were immediately frightened, and most of them ran away in panic: "The ghost monkey is coming, everyone run for your lives!"

(End of this chapter)