Chapter 282: It Seems I Truly Must Learn Wang Dou

Wang Dou wanted to expand the unit establishment under each officer. Everyone naturally raised both hands in approval. There was no problem supplementing the New Army into the various companies and divisions; after several months of brutal drill, they had basically formed the habit of obeying orders from superior officers. Especially with Wang Dou’s word carrying the weight of nine cauldrons in the Shunxiang Army and in Baoanzhou, who would dare oppose it?

The only point was that the many newly trained New Army troops had mostly been selected and organized from the refugees of Zhending Prefecture and Baoding Prefecture the previous year. Many people differed in clan, language, and customs. Other things aside, there was this matter of language. Although the accents of the northern regions were close and far less complicated than those of the south (where a single village often had several dialects), it was still true that every ten li and eight villages had different accents, and many people had never spoken the official language in their entire lives. When these people talked to one another, they perhaps had to speak slowly and listen carefully just to barely understand.

Although they had crammed several months of official-language training at Shunxiang Fort, the army was still a great assembly of every accent from all corners of the land. During the several months of New Army training at Shunxiang Fort, they had always appointed people of local prestige among them to lead the training. Now that they were to be broken up and mixed together, the future transmission of orders from superior officers would probably become a major difficulty.

This was also the reason why in ancient armies, fellow townsmen managed fellow townsmen, clan heads managed kinsmen, and higher ranks generally did not skip levels to interfere downward. This matter of language and customs alone gave countless famous generals splitting headaches. At this moment, Wang Dou could no longer attend to so many concerns and only calculated on properly promoting the Great Ming official language throughout Baoanzhou in the future.

They were to set out for battle only days after reorganization, and the soldiers’ weapons and equipment were a problem. Half of these New Army troops were firearms soldiers, and half were long-spear soldiers. When they arrived, each man had only a mandarin-duck battle jacket and a red-brimmed army cap, basically without armor. When Wang Dou set out on campaign, he had scraped every last piece of armor from Shunxiang Fort clean; even the old troops under Han Chao had no armor. In those several months, Shunxiang Fort had produced in total fewer than two hundred sets of iron helmets and iron armor, distributed only to some officers in the army for use.

Fortunately, since Wang Dou had begun fighting the Qing troops, he had captured in total over seven thousand several hundred sets of Qing army armor. Although he had given five hundred sets to Xu Yue’e, the battalion’s baggage train still held nearly seven thousand sets of armor. Among them were iron armor, iron-studded cotton armor, and mail armor. Though the armor colors varied, spread across the various banners of the Qing army, fortunately all these troops setting out for battle had red-cotton, fleece-lined wool greatcloaks draped over them, which could clearly distinguish friend from foe. Later, after these captured armors were transported back to Shunxiang Fort, craftsmen would be ordered to properly refashion them.

In this way, the nearly seven thousand men of Wang Dou’s army at Liujing Fort could all don armor, protecting their lives and safety to the greatest extent.

However, this armor had come along with the main baggage army escorted by Hu Dawei and the others, and distributing armor to each man would also have to wait quietly for several days.

……

The fourth day of the first month of the twelfth year of Chongzhen, afternoon.

Yesterday afternoon Wang Dou and Yang Guozhu had arrived at Liujing Fort. After nearly a day’s rest, time was short, and while Hu Dawei and the others had yet to arrive, Wang Dou and the various commanders seized the moment to reorganize the army.

The weather was still bitterly cold, the chill wind slashing at faces and biting into flesh and bone. On the North River to the right of Liujing Fort, a thick layer of solid ice had formed. At this moment, on the river-plain five li behind the fort, over one thousand seven hundred campaign troops and over five thousand Baoanzhou reinforcement troops stood silently in formation.

Although the weather was extremely frigid, the entire army remained motionless. Many people’s hands and faces were frozen purple, yet they still held their long spears and firearms, standing in silent reverence. The over one thousand seven hundred veteran troops who had survived the campaign with Wang Dou need not be mentioned — every one of them held head high and chest out, and they were all still fully clad in their own armor. The troops under Han Chao were unwilling to show weakness and stood equally ramrod-straight. And those newly trained New Army troops, spurred by this solemn atmosphere and recalling the bitter training they had undergone at Shunxiang Fort, also each strove to stand straight.

Heaven and earth were soundless; several thousand men made not a noise. Only the sound of the cold wind stirring everyone’s uniforms and the red tassels of their army caps could be heard. This stern and forbidding formation made Yang Guozhu, Guo Yingxian, and the others standing not far away turn pale. Setting aside the fierce troops who had campaigned with Wang Dou, even those Baoanzhou New Army troops who had come as reinforcements could present such a strict and orderly military bearing. Wang Dou had said that most of them had drilled for only a few months. Although many of these men had never been on a battlefield, judging merely by this “air and complexion,” after fighting a few battles they would certainly become a first-rate crack force in the future.

Seeing that Wang Dou’s subordinates here already numbered close to seven thousand, all combat troops, and that Baoanzhou still had quite a few more soldiers who in the future would all be fierce warriors, his strength was too terrifying. Yang Guozhu let out a long sigh to Guo Yingxian beside him: “Wang Dou is right. One must train the New Army.”

Guo Yingxian’s face was blue-purple, cracked open in line after line by the cold wind, and the beard around his mouth was a patch of white. He sniffled and merely nodded vigorously.

Today Wang Dou was reorganizing the army, and Yang Guozhu hurriedly brought his own personal general of the central army, Guo Yingxian, as well as several battalion company commanders and squad commanders from his camp to come watch, calling it by the fine name of “inspection.” Wang Dou understood Yang Guozhu’s thoughts, but the strength of his own forces no longer needed to be concealed from him.

At this point in time, openly displaying his military strength could further increase the respect and intimidating power he deserved. Therefore, for matters that other camps would regard as taboo, Wang Dou still allowed Yang Guozhu and the others to stand to one side and observe.

First, Company Commander Han Chao of the First Division began reorganizing and supplementing his troop strength. According to the new establishment, each company commander was expanded to four squad commanders. Han Chao had left one squad commander on garrison duty in Baoanzhou, brought two squad commanders out, and also had the newly appointed Squad Commander Gao Xun assigned to his command. Thus, among Han Chao’s subordinates, only Gao Xun’s squad needed troop replenishment.

During the Battle of Julu, Gao Xun’s squad had lost half its soldiers, as well as two platoon officers, six squad leaders, and seventeen fireteam leaders. The lost squad leaders and officers had long since been promoted from the veteran soldiers within the squad. These veteran soldiers who had undergone the test of life and death — even an ordinary common soldier was fully capable of serving as fireteam leader, Squad Commander, or even platoon officer within the squad. Moreover, these newly appointed officers who had survived the brutal fighting possessed an even deeper understanding of the battlefield. In the future, whether they led troops or conducted training, the standard of the subordinates they produced would be extremely high.

The lost soldiers then began to be replenished from the New Army. The provost, Chi Dacheng, personally took the troop register and called out names. For each platoon and each squad within Gao Xun’s squad, however many soldiers needed to be replenished, that many soldiers were called out.

When the over four thousand five hundred New Army troops standing in silent reverence heard their names, they took up their long spears or firearms and stepped out from the ranks one by one, bearing all manner of feelings, filling the vacancies in Gao Xun’s squad squad by squad, platoon by platoon, until full.

No picking or choosing, no complaining — everything followed the troop register list.

After these New Army troops arrived within Gao Xun’s squad, Gao Xun led them back to their own encampment to become familiar with one another as quickly as possible. Within the encampment, the Squad Commander of each squad and each fireteam had to record the names of all soldiers in his unit on the back of his waist tablet. Henceforth they must know at all times what their ten subordinates were called, who was strong and who was weak, their personality traits, and so on — all clearly understood.

And the platoon officer of each platoon would record the names of the several squad leaders on the back of his own waist tablet; he too needed to understand the specific circumstances of the several squad-level officers under him.

Finally, after each squad and each platoon within Gao Xun’s squad had finished replenishment, all troop strength was compiled into a register, prepared in three copies: one kept within the squad, one submitted to the company command, and one submitted to Wang Dou’s battalion command.

After the First Division had finished replenishing its troop strength, it was successively the turn of the Second Division and the Third Division.

Under Wen Fangliang and Zhong Xiancai, casualties had mostly exceeded half. In addition, the wounded soldiers had all been left within Zanhuang territory, and there was also the increase of one squad commander’s establishment. Therefore, the two divisions each needed to replenish nearly a thousand men in troop strength.

During the reorganization, each of the two divisions retained one squad fully replenished by veteran soldiers; the remaining three squads were all formed by mixing new and veteran soldiers together.

Those officers were also all filled by veteran soldiers from within the division. When a platoon officer died in battle, the deputy platoon officer or a Squad Commander filled the post. When a Squad Commander died in battle, a fireteam leader or veteran soldier filled the post. Merit, battle record, and the martial strength grades of the soldiers within the squad and fireteam were also taken into account. These veteran soldiers who had survived the aftermath of battle were basically all qualified low-level officers.

In just one afternoon, the armies of the three company commanders under Wang Dou — Han Chao, Wen Fangliang, and Zhong Xiancai — had already been reorganized and their troop strength replenished, with over two thousand men in total drawn from the New Army to fill them. Yang Guozhu also watched for a full afternoon. By his rough estimate, the three company commanders under Wang Dou alone already commanded a troop strength approaching four thousand, nearly equal to his own troop strength in the garrison city.

Among these three company commanders, though there were many new recruits within, under the leadership of those officers with rich combat experience, it would not be unexpected that they would very quickly radiate fierce battle effectiveness.

This method of using veterans to lead new troops, continuously expanding troop strength and increasing combat power, greatly broadened Yang Guozhu’s horizons. He sighed deeply and thought to himself: “It seems I truly must learn Wang Dou’s methods. Otherwise, if this continues…”

He shook his head, his heart full of dejection. Although he was a Regional Commander, in leading and training troops, he fell far, far short of Wang Dou, a mere Mobile Corps Commander.