The first prince of Song Dynasty

Chapter 22 Chai Rong Reform
The first thing Chai Rong wants to reform is the army, especially his pro-army Forbidden Army, which he believes is the most urgent.

The Five Dynasties Forbidden Army was inherited from generation to generation, and most of them were hereditary, without selection, so most of them were old, arrogant and rude, and they did not listen to orders during wartime.

If they encounter a strong enemy, they will either flee or surrender. This has been common since the Five Dynasties.

After the Battle of Gaoping, Chai Rong saw Fan Aineng and He Hui of the Eastern Route Army fleeing on the battlefield. Fortunately, the soldiers spared no effort to turn the tide of the battle.

Otherwise, he didn't know that things would develop in that direction, and this time he was even more determined to rectify the imperial army.

The emperor's pro-army is afraid of death without fighting like this, and the other armies are even more unbearable. Chai Rong feels that it is necessary to vigorously reorganize the imperial army at this time.

On this day, Chai Rong suddenly summoned the Jiedu envoys of several important towns into the palace and switched their positions.

And order them to take office immediately. This sudden appointment caught these Jiedu by surprise.

Although they didn't want to leave their original feudal towns, but the emperor's orders were hard to disobey, they had to obey, and they could take office.

Especially after the battle of Shangchai Rongzi Gaoping, the prestige of the whole person increased day by day, and the majesty of the emperor became more and more serious, and the ministers bowed their heads and obeyed their ears.

Immediately afterwards, Chai Rong began to carry out drastic reforms. First of all, he ordered the abolition of the forbidden army.

This abolition does not necessarily mean how many people must be abolished, but those old soldiers, young soldiers, and those who specialize in empty pay.

This time, there were only tens of thousands of imperial troops left, and the scale of the abolition was quite large.

Then he set up a list to recruit strong and strong soldiers from the people to join the Forbidden Army, and at the same time ordered the various towns to select their elite soldiers to join the Forbidden Army.

Send people to various places to implement those supervisions, because the Jiedu envoys of several large feudal towns have just been deployed, and they are not familiar with the places, so there is no way to do what they want.

All of a sudden, the imperial court's forbidden army reached 10,000+, and they were basically elites. At this time, Zhao Xu proposed a plan to establish a military academy for the forbidden army.

When Chai Rong asked him why, Zhao Xu gave a long speech, which convinced Chai Rong.He means;
From ancient times to the present, all dynasties have valued the generals who lead the army and despised ordinary soldiers, but the generals who fight are important, but the real ones are the soldiers.

There are only so many generals, and the foundation of the army is soldiers, and the quality of soldiers is excellent, and this battle can be fought easily.

Besides, if your own generals are beheaded or captured on the battlefield, ordinary soldiers will flee in all directions.

At this time, if ordinary soldiers have undergone strict and systematic training, they can react quickly and organize battles by themselves.

Some can even temporarily become leaders spontaneously, directing local battles.

Chai Rong and the others are not mediocre. Although they don't know what a military academy is, they will also know this benefit.

After an ordinary soldier loses his boss, he can keep his organization stable, and a warrior can fight spontaneously. Such a soldier is a treasure.

Chai Rong couldn't wait to ask what is a military academy and how did he train?
After Zhao Xu's explanation, he finally understood that the purpose of the military academy was to train military generals and equip him with a series of military knowledge.

Such people are trained from ordinary soldiers. Just imagine that all soldiers have undergone such training. Then why should such an army not be able to sweep the world.

Then he appointed Zhao Xu as the first principal of the Da Zhou Military Academy, giving him full responsibility for the military academy's preparations for the military academy.

In fact, Chai Rong just asked Zhao Xu to experiment this time, see the results, and then decide whether to continue.

"Unexpectedly, I also became the principal. This title is really a bit..." Zhao Xu thought evilly in his heart.

With the imperial decree from the emperor, it really went smoothly. In one morning, Zhao Xu had already secured the site and house of the military academy.

The houses are all ready-made, even the facilities inside are ready-made, but there are still some that need to be added or repaired.

When everything was ready, Zhao Xu asked someone to write a brochure about the recruitment of the Dazhou Imperial Army Military Academy, which he dictated:
Do you want to become a general from a soldier?Do you want to become rich and handsome from a poor dick?Do you want to stand out from the forbidden army and become famous all over the world!

Then come to the Forbidden Army Military Academy, this is the place to realize your dreams, and give your dreams wings to take off here.

Here you can have the opportunity to receive face-to-face instruction from His Majesty, you have the opportunity to meet peerless famous generals, and here you have the opportunity to realize your general dream.

Come to the Great Zhou Military Academy. This semester enrolls [-] students. Sign up quickly and select the best. "

This modern admissions brochure quickly caused an uproar, although it was not as provocative as the current admissions brochures.

However, in that era, it was more able to arouse people's inner desires. As the saying goes, desire is the driving force behind people's hard work.

It was the first time for the lower ranks of the imperial guards to sign up. They didn't understand what *si and Gao Fushuai were.

But they know what the general means, and besides, they can still see the emperor here, so don't say anything, go sign up!

The number of applicants soared to [-] in an instant. Zhao Xu did not expect so many people to come at once.

He originally thought it would be nice to have a few hundred people come, but he didn't expect so many to come.Because he underestimated the power of his admissions brochure.

People may be used to it now, but who has seen such a thing in the five generations, the role of advertising does not distinguish between eras!

It is said that some merchants were inspired by it and started to promote similar promotions. Zhao Xu did not expect that he would soon become the founder of sales.

But he can't collect all 5000 people, and he doesn't have so many people to manage and train them.

After going through layers of screening, he still only left 1000 people, and asked ten of them to choose a small captain by themselves, and one of the ten small captains would be under the jurisdiction of the big captain.

Let the respective captains write down the school rules written by Zhao Xu, the principal, and memorize them by heart. If there is any violation, they will be severely punished.

As for those who cannot read, there are special personnel responsible for teaching them to read and write.Those who come to teach them are called teachers, and there are dozens of them.

The next day he also prepared a school opening ceremony, and invited Emperor Chai Rong, Zhang Yongde, Zhao Kuangyin and other senior generals to come.

And Zhao Xu wrote a speech for the opening ceremony, but it was all motivational words.

But reading it from Chai Rong's mouth can really motivate these soldiers to a greater extent.

After the so-called opening ceremony, everyone was full of energy.

You see the emperor is here, it seems our future is bright.

At the same time, according to Zhao Xu's regulations, every two weeks, all the students will have a debriefing competition, one-on-one according to your team.

The captain of the losing team has to bark like a dog to the captain of the winning team, and at the same time, in the next half month, he has to wash the smelly socks and underwear for the winning team.

Those who lose three times in a row will clean the toilets for one month, and at the same time wash all the students' smelly socks for one month.

Although this punishment was not harsh enough, none of the elders wanted to wash socks and sweep the toilet, and everyone secretly made up their minds not to lose.

According to the training curriculum written by Zhao Xu, they get up at five o'clock every morning, quickly organize their things, and gather at the school grounds.

Then we went out to exercise in groups, but it was not the daily training of the imperial army, but ran for ten kilometers in the wild. The physical strength of the ancients was still good, and no one was left behind after ten kilometers.

They completed ten kilometers in no time, at a speed comparable to that of a marathon champion.

In view of this, on the second day, Zhao Xu asked each of them to carry a weight of [-] catties, which was a bit difficult now, and the speed was much slower.

In the morning, they do some extreme training, overcoming obstacles, and exercise their reaction ability and willpower.

In the afternoon, special personnel taught them marksmanship and swordsmanship, as well as various assassination and investigation skills.

In the evening, someone taught them the art of war. On the first day, these people were made miserable, and everyone complained.

But no one chooses to quit, maybe it is for their own future, maybe they will die for other...

In this way, we have survived for half a month. During this half month, there are bitters and sweets, and our relationship will also improve by leaps and bounds.

As soon as half a month arrived, Zhao Xu immediately organized a martial arts competition. As expected, several teams lost.

Their team leader had to bark like a dog in front of many people, blushing with shame, and they had to wash other people's stinky socks and underwear for half a month.

Determined to give birth to them next time, this time, during the training process, they worked even harder in addition to completing the training tasks of the military academy.

Their squad leader also increased the amount of tasks for his team members, but no one complained, everyone was asking enough stinky socks.

In this way, everyone spent several months in the training and competition, and the time has come to the second year of Xiande, that is, 955 AD.

At this time, the officials still had their annual leave. Zhao Xu had been training at the Forbidden Army's place, so it was rare for him to have a chance to rest.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, he and Gao Guiying wandered around Bianjing city all day without stopping. Zhao Xu really admired women's physical strength.

He couldn't bear this kind of physical strength, but Gao Guiying was full of interest and beaming, like a little girl in love.

Looking at her familiar face, Zhao Xu had an indescribable feeling in his heart that he had never given anything to a girl before.

I bought a jade hairpin for Gao Guiying at a street stall. Although it was not very expensive, Gao Guiying already felt very happy.

In this way, the two of them would meet each other every day, or stroll casually, or walk relatively silently.

The days passed day by day like this, but this ordinary day was soon broken...

(End of this chapter)