Chapter 327: The Embryo of an Officers' Club

In Lin Qian's organizational structure, an army division's combat units included: two infantry brigades, one cavalry brigade, one artillery regiment, one engineer battalion, one supply battalion, plus a guard company and so forth.

The cavalry brigade of 4,400 men he had mentioned earlier in the stable was exactly one component under the army division.

Lin Qian said, "This structure is not set in stone. The brigades and regiments under a division don't necessarily have to be two infantry and one cavalry—three infantry brigades would also work.

In short, what structure the army should adopt is not something we decide by slapping our heads back here. We have to consult the officers and men at the front and conduct extensive field surveys before deciding."

Xu Fengjie pointed at the division-level commanders on the chart and said, "Your Majesty, the division-level commander is called a Major General... Is this Major General one of Great Xia's honorary ranks?" Regarding honorary ranks, Ma Chenglie had once explained that Ming military officers' posts were divided into three types: functional posts, sinecure posts, and merit posts.

Before Lin Qian raised his army, the post of Mobile Corps Commander he had held was a functional post, also called an assignment—in other words, actual authority, similar to a battalion or Mobile Corps Commander—while the post of Military Strategy General he held was a sinecure post, also called an honorary rank, which was essentially a military title, similar to General or Major General.

Merit posts were honorary titles, roughly the Ming dynasty's equivalent of military medals.

From an institutional design perspective, the Ming system was very advanced. Separating functional posts from sinecure posts effectively avoided the dilemma of one post per person, which led to difficulty in promotion and trouble rewarding merit.

Of course, the Ming's honorary rank system was not perfect. For instance, there was a strict separation between officers and enlisted men—soldiers had no honorary ranks—and the system was overly lengthy and tongue-twisting. For example, at the same general level, there were Galloping General, Realm-Securing General, Illustrious Courage General, and so on, all the way down to Lin Qian's Military Strategy General—eight kinds of generals in total, each with a different grade. How was anyone supposed to tell them apart?

To distinguish rank, one had to prefix the general title with a grade, like Fifth-Rank Military Strategy General or Second-Rank Galloping General. Wasn't that just taking off your pants to fart?

Lin Qian's military rank system was in fact directly copied from the modern rank system, from Corporal to General, from enlisted to non-commissioned officer to company-grade officer, field-grade officer, and flag officer—the hierarchy was clear at a glance.

Moreover, this naming scheme was actually derived from the Ming's honorary ranks. Among those ranks there were Trusted Illuminating Colonel, Trusted Merit Colonel, and so forth—Colonel and Second Lieutenant were completely from the same lineage.

In the correspondence between military post and military rank, a Mobile Corps Commander was a Brigadier General. An army brigade numbered approximately 6,200 men, roughly equivalent to one battalion of the pre-reform Great Xia New Army.

The battalion-level commander of the Great Xia New Army was the Mobile Corps Commander, who could call himself "this general" before subordinates and "your subordinate general" before superiors—exactly the threshold for the rank of general. Those one level below, the Battalion Commanders, could only call themselves "your humble servant" before their superiors.

Therefore, after the new military post and rank system was implemented, the changes to existing officers' titles were not great, so little opposition was expected. On the contrary, previously the officers had posts without ranks, and after Great Xia was founded, they had all been looking forward to rank rewards. Introducing a rank system should satisfy the officers. Lin Qian explained the naming rules of this new rank system, then added, "Besides officers, this rank system also includes non-commissioned officers. All NCOs below the rank of Sergeant Major can be filled by enlisted soldiers.

This both rewards soldiers who fight bravely and picks out the combat backbone and technical backbone from among the soldiers.

To advance from NCO to company-grade officer, one must study at a military academy, or else have performed deeds of major merit.

In this way, we can both raise the cultural quality of our army and encourage soldiers to fight bravely."

Xu Fengjie nodded repeatedly and said, "Feasible, feasible!"

Under this rank system, as Army Chief of Staff, he would be at least a Major General, possibly even Lieutenant General or General, so he was naturally very satisfied. Song Danchu, being a civil official who followed the nine-rank system, would not receive a military rank.

"Whether it's feasible or not can't be decided by us talking on paper. We still need to conduct surveys, and we need pilot programs. This is a matter affecting the entire army; we can't rush it. I plan to run the pilot in this one division being expanded."

After Lin Qian finished speaking, he relaxed and took a sip of tea. Only then did he notice that the discussion on military reform had been so intense that the tea had gone cold. Lin Qian called for a maidservant to change the tea.

After the hot tea was brought, Lin Qian said, "At present, the Great Xia New Army has over 30,000 men, and the garrison forces over 80,000, totaling 110,000. After reorganization, that comes to about six divisions, so this division being expanded will be temporarily designated the Seventh Division."

"Excellent!" Song Danchu rose and clasped his hands in salute. "The Army Ministry will immediately begin preparations for conscription!"

Xu Fengjie also clasped his hands and said, "The Army Staff will join with the Army Ministry to send survey teams to the front lines, specifically to collect the opinions of frontline officers and men on the question of unit organization."

In Lin Qian's view, once the army had new ranks, posts, and organization, the next step would be reforming military uniforms and military etiquette.

The fist-and-palm salute and the kowtow were indeed unsuitable in many ways for the military.

But that was all for later. For now, the priority was to get the organizational reform done properly.

Lin Qian instructed, "The survey teams must not only interview officers but also go deep among the rank-and-file soldiers. Don't engage in formalism or put up a front, and don't be afraid of exposing problems—record whatever you find.

Even if a soldier says he wants to bring some women into camp for fun, the survey teams must record it faithfully and report it back!"

"Yes!" Xu and Song answered in unison.

After the two left, Lin Qian finally felt parched and drank several more cups of tea in a row.

A few days later, Guangzhou received another beacon-message report: Pu Mingsheng had defeated a Ming army force sent to suppress him, and his arrogance had swelled greatly.

Meanwhile, Fu Zonglong, who had previously invaded Guangxi, had been soundly beaten by Qin Liangyu, losing men and generals. Because the three provinces of Yunnan, Guizhou, and Sichuan had been worn down by years of continuous warfare, their local treasuries were already exhausted and they had no strength left to suppress the rebels, allowing Pu Mingsheng's power to grow further.

The rebel forces of An Bangyan within Guizhou took advantage of this opportunity to catch their breath and pulled together over ten thousand men to resist the Ming court.

In the southwest, numerous minor native chieftains also seized the moment to stir up trouble, making the southwestern situation extremely volatile for a time. Guilin sent new beacon reports to Guangzhou almost every day. And the Ming court, now run ragged by Great Xia, was utterly unable to send a single soldier to the southwest.

Lei Sanxiang's army was steadily encroaching on Jiangxi, yet the court remained unable to select a new Governor-General candidate.

This was because both court and country could see that Ming Jiangnan had no troops left to use. Of the previous two Governors-General of Jiangxi, one had been executed by slow slicing and one had been killed by the Xia army. Whoever went to take over that mess now would be walking into certain death, wouldn't they?

Thus, even when the Grand Secretariat put forward candidates, these men would feign illness and refuse to go, or even directly request retirement.

A few days earlier, the Grand Secretariat had recommended Wang Zunde to serve as Governor-General of Jiangxi. This man had served as Governor of Guangdong during the Wanli era and Governor of Guangxi during the Tianqi era. In his posts he had pacified numerous mountain bandit and sea bandit uprisings, combining suppression and appeasement with flexible tactics—he could be said to have experience commanding troops.

This man belonged neither to the Donglin Faction nor to the eunuch faction, which suited the Emperor's principles for appointing men and also satisfied the interests of the various factions in the Grand Secretariat.

Unexpectedly, before the Grand Secretariat could even submit the name list to the Emperor, Wang Zunde himself submitted a memorial requesting retirement.

The previous Governor-General candidates who had been selected had all used this same trick, making Chongzhen feel as disgusted as if he had swallowed a fly.

Now Wang Zunde pulled the same stunt, and Chongzhen flew into a rage, issuing a stern edict of reprimand.

He furiously denounced him as "an idle place-holder who eats without working—shameless beyond compare!"

The imperial edict also said, "What Jiangxi lacks today is not troops nor pay, but loyal hearts! I would not begrudge dashing my head to pieces or grinding my body to dust, toiling day and night in anxiety. Yet you, my ministers of state, lose heart before you have even seen the enemy. You treat a single appointment like a death sentence, each of you looking upon me as an enemy and treating affairs of state as child's play."

Finally, he even threatened, "Do you think my axes are less sharp than the bandits' swords?"

After this torrent of abuse, he still refused the request and ordered Wang Zunde to take up his post immediately.

Upon receiving the stern edict, Wang Zunde was speechless. He had no choice but to accept the order and set out for his post carrying his own coffin. He was already afflicted with illness and had little time left; the worry and anxiety of accepting the imperial decree weighed on his spirits, and he had only just reached Henan when he died of illness on the road to his post.

Chongzhen did not believe it at first and specially dispatched a eunuch to verify the corpse. Only after learning the news was certain did he issue an edict of special consolation.

In this way, three men had now died in the post of Governor-General of Jiangxi, each with a shorter tenure than the last, frightening the court officials so much that no one dared go. At the same time, the refugee unrest in the northwest was growing ever more violent and extremely troublesome.

Ever since Great Xia had seized control of the Yangtze waterway and attacked Jiangxi, the situation in the Ming's north had grown increasingly dire.

The autumn grain shipped north last year had already decreased, and this year's spring and summer grain had been cut back even more drastically.

Jiangxi's grain production had gone to zero directly, Huguang's grain shipments had been halved, and the entire north China plain was being sustained by grain and pay from the Southern Metropolitan Region and Zhejiang Province alone.

Affected by this, famines had broken out in many northern regions, especially in the northwest, where refugees were growing ever more numerous, sweeping even unaffected commoners into their ranks, and the situation was deteriorating further.

In the fourth month, Vice Regional Commander Cao Wenzhao of Yansui subverted Zhang Liwei and had Wang Jiayin poisoned to death, leaving the refugee army momentarily without a leader.

But after brief chaos, Wang Ziyong succeeded as alliance leader and formed a coalition of thirty-six battalions, among which Gao Yingxiang's forces were the strongest. Calling himself the Dashing King, he rampaged all over Shanxi, causing even more trouble than Wang Jiayin, the "Horizontal Heaven Single-Character King."

Yang He, Hong Chengchou, Cao Wenzhao, Lu Xiangsheng, and others were all tied down in the northwest, unable to move.

Fortunately, Mao Wenlong was constantly harassing the Jianzhou barbarians. Though he achieved no major victories, he made it difficult for the Jianzhou barbarians to concentrate heavy forces for a push south, and the pressure at Shanhai Pass suddenly lightened considerably, allowing the Ming to finally catch its breath in the northeast.

In the court, officials would rather volunteer to go to Shanxi to suppress the roving bandits, or to garrison Liaodong, than go to Jiangxi to fight the Southern Xia army. This left Jiangxi even more bereft of talent, and the Xia army advanced as if through uninhabited territory, pushing forward with great speed.

By mid-May of the second year of Zhongxuan, Yuanzhou, Linjiang, and Fuzhou prefectures had fallen in succession, while Guangxin and Jianchang prefectures were on the verge of collapse under Huang Hetai's siege.

Lei Sanxiang's main force had pushed toward Ruizhou and Nanchang prefectures, poised to conquer all of Jiangxi.

But rapid advance had its drawbacks—multi-front offensives stretched the front too thin, weakening headquarters' control over the army and causing frequent violations of military discipline.

After taking four prefectures, over a dozen cases of rape had occurred, and incidents of looting, gambling in groups, and drunkenness had risen markedly. Under military regulations, molesting a woman carried a minimum punishment of ten lashes, with severe cases punishable by death—yet even such harsh orders failed to stop the chaos. On the contrary, the stricter the discipline, the more victories won, and the more deserters there were.

From the entry into Jiangxi to the encampment before the walls of Nanchang, barely over 1,500 of the 30,000-plus new troops had died in battle.

But deserters already exceeded 300, and over fifty had died of disease—especially venereal disease—with the number still rising.

Lei Sanxiang had served as a soldier and knew that for such matters, channeling was better than blocking, so he turned a blind eye to soldiers indulging themselves in captured towns. These sordid affairs had been hidden beneath the new army's gleaming exterior, unknown to outsiders—but once the research team arrived, everything came to light.

Soon, the research team's findings were sent by fast horse back to Guangzhou.

In the General Staff meeting room, Xu Fengjie's face was full of shame, while Song Danchu was deeply grieved.

Lin Qian was silent for a long while, then spoke: "Does the General Staff know about these matters?"

Xu Fengjie lowered his head: "Every punishment for discipline violations and every non-combat casualty report was submitted directly to the General Staff. Before the research team went, the Staff hadn't noticed the correlation between the issues. The fault is mine."

Lin Qian said nothing, picking up documents from the table to leaf through—these were the battle reports and military justice records since the new army entered Jiangxi.

"Fourth day of the fourth month, second year of Zhongxuan, Battle of Anfu County… our troops lost thirteen dead, eight wounded, four missing, two sick…" "Eighteenth day of the fourth month, second year of Zhongxuan, Yongfeng County town… our troops lost twenty-five dead, six wounded, one missing, one sick, five punished under military law, list as follows…"

The new army's mass discipline violations were a recent development; in earlier battle reports, there was indeed no trend in the data, so the Chief of Staff could hardly be blamed. Moreover, the new army's overemphasis on discipline, on the collective, on championing the people's cause, while neglecting soldiers' basic needs, was also his error as the architect of the system.

The Great Xia new army was made of men, not pawns in a game; moral paragons were few, and most soldiers had ordinary human desires. No matter how strict the discipline, it was impossible to have zero violations.

In fact, ever since the Macao-garrisoned navy men had molested women, such incidents had occurred sporadically in the Xia army.

Such matters were physical needs—even knowing they would be investigated, possibly shot, and bring shame upon their families, men simply couldn't restrain themselves.

And the military camps were extremely high-pressure and tense. The new troops had entered Jiangxi in April of last year, over a year ago now, camped long before Ganzhou's walls, enduring constant major battles without ever being rotated for rest.

Soldiers under prolonged mental strain with no outlet committing foolish acts was only to be expected.

Earlier, at the Battle of Huangtianxia, soldiers had been blood-crazed and refused to accept Ming surrenders—a sign that the army was slipping out of control.

At this thought, Lin Qian set down the documents and said to the two men: "I previously believed that military discipline and conviction alone could make an army invincible. That was wishful thinking."

Xu Fengjie was taken aback, then said shamefacedly: "Your Majesty, please don't say that. You manage a thousand affairs daily—how could you possibly handle everything personally? This scandal is the Army Staff's responsibility, and as Chief of Staff, I cannot shirk the blame."

Song Danchu said hoarsely: "The Army Ministry handles logistics and construction. My ministry bears the primary responsibility. I was too focused on equipment upgrades and troop expansion, forgetting to care for the common soldiers—and this is the result. Your Majesty, your servant is guilty."

Lin Qian said: "Enough. The new army was built from nothing—when you cross a river by feeling the stones, how can you not stumble?

This fall we took was fortunate—it didn't hurt much, only skinned a little flesh, but it's knocked us awake. That's a good thing.

Who among men is without fault? To err and then correct—there is no greater good. Stop blaming yourselves. The urgent task now is to discuss how to reform."

Lin Qian paused, then continued: "This matter is important; it shouldn't be the three of us discussing it in a corner. Summon the General Staff and the Military Police Directorate." An hour later, the entire upper echelon of the Great Xia military filled the meeting room.

Lin Qian first had Xu Fengjie brief the situation, then said: "What we're discussing today all concerns the baser appetites—to put it bluntly, it's rather unsavory.

But I believe the army should not suppress human nature—it should respect human nature.

We can't avoid the topic because it feels dirty, leaving the army with vague blank regulations or a one-size-fits-all ban—that's just planting landmines for ourselves." After a moment of silence, Song Danchu said: "I think Commander Lei's approach is correct—channeling is better than blocking…"

At these words, the civil officials moved to object.

Song Danchu raised a hand to signal them to be patient, then continued: "But we can't channel too freely either—letting soldiers go into town to visit prostitutes is certainly unacceptable. I suggest we adopt the Qi family army's 'camp wives' system."

To put it plainly, this system had soldiers' wives accompany the army, assigned to the baggage train as 'women laborers,' doing light chores in peacetime and moving with the army in wartime.

When fighting was slack, soldiers could spend time with their wives.

Zheng Zhilong laughed: "That's utterly impractical. Never mind whether others could do it—even the Qi family army itself couldn't maintain it after being transferred to the Ji Garrison. Take the new army as an example: thirty thousand troops—how many camp wives would we need? Thirty thousand? Three thousand? Or three hundred?

Could three thousand women move with the main army? And if there were only three hundred, all respectable married women, what about the other twenty-nine thousand seven hundred brothers?

What about the unmarried brothers? Isn't that just throwing a firestarter into dry tinder?"

Zheng Zhilong was a Deputy Director-General overseeing the Military Police Directorate, so he had also come to the meeting.

He said: "Your Majesty, in my view, there's no other way—we must use camp prostitutes. Don't turn up your nose at it; it's already the cleanest solution available." Xu Fengjie said: "Director Zheng speaks sense. If the army is permissive on this matter, large numbers of soldiers will fall ill; if strictly forbidden, it would be even worse—there would be bullying within the ranks, and even… sodomy."

This was not Xu Fengjie's speculation—such things had genuinely occurred in the Ming army. Even after Qi Jiguang went north to the Ji Garrison, incidents of men sharing beds under the pretexts of "brotherly affection" and "mutual warmth" had occurred in the Qi family army.

The soldiers of the Ming's Nine Border Garrisons were even worse—veterans sharing beds with recruits, officers with soldiers, happened frequently.

Lei Sanxiang had served as a soldier and knew that letting such problems ferment internally caused far more harm than releasing them outward—that was why he had no choice but to turn a blind eye to soldiers going out.

In thousands of years of Chinese history, which general didn't know that good discipline earned the people's love and made an army strong in battle?

Yet in the end, all well-disciplined armies vanished, and every army eventually rotted into the same scum as the Ming forces—why?

Generals knew that letting their men massacre, loot, and rape damaged combat effectiveness and was no long-term strategy, yet they did it anyway—were they stupid? Those who oversimplify complex problems and see the world in black and white are the truly stupid ones.

In Lin Qian's view, however, the camp prostitute system was practically turning back the wheel of history. Its only benefit was regular medical checkups for the service women; the drawbacks were legion—not to mention the moral corruption and damage to the army's image.

Were camp prostitutes even convenient for mobile operations?

Wouldn't camp prostitutes cause soldiers to fight over women, or even misuse public resources for private ends?

Whether the camp prostitute system or strict prohibition, both harmed combat effectiveness—the only difference was that one was slow suicide and the other took effect immediately. If this problem were so easy to solve, there wouldn't be so many mixed-race children around American military bases across the modern world.

Before long, the group had debated in the meeting room for two hours, drinking five or six cups of tea and making several trips to the latrine, yet still failing to find a fundamental solution.

Seeing everyone growing weary, Lin Qian called for Geng Wu: "Bring the borneol incense that the southern barbarian kingdom sent last time."

"Yes!" Geng Wu acknowledged, sending someone to fetch it from the residence, who returned quickly.

Ran Qiu took the snow-white borneol incense shaped like plum blossoms from the incense box and smoldered it using the indirect heating method.

In moments, a crisp fragrance filled the meeting room—cool, faintly sweet, clean and restrained, as if one were standing in a bamboo grove in a secluded valley, refreshed and clear-minded.

This borneol incense had been a gift from the Sultan of Banten when they fought the Acehnese, and it had the effect of refreshing the mind.

Lin Qian had kept it for use at meetings; now that he tried it, it was indeed extraordinary.

Fortified by the borneol incense, the attendees debated for another two hours, until the incense burned out and candles were lit throughout the room—still no conclusion. Plenty of stopgap measures had been proposed, though.

Lin Qian summarized: "The front-line troops work hard—we need to give the soldiers some pleasures. We can regularly reward them with meat and wine, and ensure adequate provisions of supplementary food. Additionally, we should establish places in each unit where soldiers can relax—let them play pitch-pot, chess, read, and look at newspapers.

Also, cultural activities like opera performances, storytelling, and bamboo-clapper acts should be arranged—on one hand, recruit folk performers to entertain the troops; on the other, let soldiers perform for themselves.

Ultimately, we must hold the line: no gambling, no visiting prostitutes, and we must rigorously investigate bullying within the ranks." Song Danchu noted everything down, then added: "Your Majesty, the thirty thousand new troops have fought hard—could we rotate them back to the rear in batches for rest, with the Fujian garrison troops taking their place?"

Lin Qian glanced at Xu Fengjie; the Army Chief of Staff shook his head.

In this era, there were no railways or steamships—even supplying soldiers with food, drink, and provisions was difficult, let alone rotating them for leave. Utter wishful thinking.

When the fighting was not urgent, they could still rotate troops in waves of attack, but when the situation was critical, everyone had to be thrown in.

By the same logic, sending soldiers' families to the front lines to boost morale was completely impossible.

In the end, this came down to the limits of productivity. Great Xia's productivity was somewhat stronger, so it could find what diversions it could for front-line soldiers, and their discipline would be relatively better as a result.

The Ming army and the Jianzhou barbarians lacked such conditions, so naturally they could not impose too much restraint on their subordinates either.

Correspondingly, since the Great Xia army lacked the logistics of a modern military, it could not be held to the standards of a modern military.

Lin Qian glanced at the sky outside the window and asked Ran Qiu, "What time is it?"

"Your Majesty, it is already the hour of Zi."

Lin Qian said, "Let's proceed according to today's discussion results for now. Get the ordinary camp entertainment going first; we'll discuss the deeper issues later." "Yes." Everyone answered in unison.

Lin Qian was silent for a moment, then said, "In addition, the Army Staff Department and the Ministry of the Army should make preparations. Three days from now, we're going to the front lines!"

Yahei

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