Chapter 69: Company Commander

Of the ten newly minted Company Commanders of the Taiping Camp, bandits from Mount Dajiao took six of the posts: Zhao Sihai, Peng Dazhu, Ge Wu, Ge Liu, and Baldy, who had gone to the Laofeng Village copper mine and had not yet returned.

The other was Qin Zhisheng, who had served as a soldier in Governor-General Ding Kuichu's standard battalion during the Shaowu reign.

Qin Zhisheng was in his forties.

Originally a squad leader in the front battalion, he had distinguished himself in the battle against the Green Standard at Deqing: the squad he led had cut down more than ten Qing soldiers while suffering only two casualties of its own, so the men had elected him Company Commander.

Three soldiers in his squad were also promoted to squad leader.

When Song Xianggong wrote out the roster of Company Commanders, he gave the brothers Ge Wu and Ge Liu proper names — one was named Ge Zheng, the other Ge Yi.

He also gave Baldy a proper name: his surname was Jiang, and for his given name Song Xianggong chose the single character He. Thus all ten Company Commanders had proper names.

The Ge brothers were very pleased with their new names. Whether Baldy was pleased would not be known until he returned.

Zhou Shixiang had originally planned to give Shao Jiugong's Jiangxi soldiers two Company Commander posts. For one thing, they numbered nearly a hundred men and could be organized into two squads; for another, the fighting strength of these Jiangxi soldiers was relatively high.

Out of consideration for future battles and the need to win them over, Zhou Shixiang wanted to give them two Company Commander posts — one for Shao Jiugong himself, the other for Lin Yousan, formerly one of Kong Guoliang's personal guards.

But Song Xianggong firmly opposed this, willing to let only Shao Jiugong himself serve as Company Commander and refusing to approve Lin Yousan's appointment.

He insisted that the Jiangxi soldiers, from Shao Jiugong down, could for now only hold the rank of squad leader, and that no further Company Commander should appear among them.

Moreover, he stressed to Zhou Shixiang that the Jiangxi soldiers must not be formed into two separate squads of their own, but should be broken up and distributed among the various squads, so that they could never form their own cohesive unit.

Zhou Shixiang could largely guess what Shao Jiugong was worried about: nothing more than preventing the Jiangxi soldiers from growing too powerful within the Taiping Camp, which might one day lead to an imbalance of strength and internal strife, or to a situation where superiors could no longer command their subordinates.

It was essentially the same as his own worry that absorbing the Deqing Green Standard troops would create a situation where "the guest is strong and the host is weak."

Since the current distribution of power in the Taiping Camp was indeed problematic and its core strength had not yet been forged, Zhou Shixiang did not insist on his own view.

He followed Song Xianggong's advice and gave Shao Jiugong only one Company Commander post, then sent someone to invite Shao Jiugong over to "discuss" the matter of breaking up and reorganizing his Jiangxi soldiers.

To Zhou Shixiang's surprise, Shao Jiugong was not dissatisfied with the arrangement. On the contrary, he endorsed it wholeheartedly, and his words faintly revealed that he did not wish another Company Commander to be chosen from beneath him.

After Shao Jiugong left, Zhou Shixiang asked Song Xianggong what he made of it. Song Xianggong chuckled and said, "Company Commander Shao is a man with ideas of his own."

Zhou Shixiang was baffled. The difference between giving the Jiangxi soldiers two Company Commanders and one did not seem great, but in fact it was enormous.

The weight of one Company Commander's voice in the Taiping Camp naturally could not compare to two Company Commanders speaking together. At a council of war, for instance, one man speaking could never draw as much attention as two men speaking.

Yet Shao Jiugong's words suggested he did not want Lin Yousan to attend the Taiping Camp's councils of war as his equal. He even hinted that all these Jiangxi soldiers acknowledged him, Shao Jiugong, and that there was no need for another man to share his burden.

This left Zhou Shixiang thoroughly puzzled. And now Song Xianggong was saying Shao Jiugong was a man with ideas — which confused him even more.

Where did these ideas come from?

Seeing that Zhou Shixiang truly did not grasp the subtleties, Song Xianggong smiled and explained: Shao Jiugong's unwillingness to see another Company Commander emerge from the Jiangxi soldiers came down, in the end, to a question of power.

Unlike Zhou Shixiang, who thought two Company Commanders carried more weight than one, Shao Jiugong saw all these Jiangxi soldiers as his own men. Now, under his leadership, they had followed him into the Taiping Camp, and everyone looked to him alone.

Relying on the strength of these Jiangxi soldiers, Shao Jiugong could secure a firm seat in the Taiping Camp. Though he was only one of ten Company Commanders, his standing was clearly worth more than the others', because he had the backing of nearly a hundred Jiangxi soldiers.

When the Taiping Camp grew stronger in the future, his own position would rise with it. But if another Company Commander appeared who could stand on equal footing with him, that would be the greatest threat to his position.

Just imagine: how would those Jiangxi soldiers, long accustomed to following Shao Jiugong alone, regard this new Company Commander Lin Yousan? And how would they then regard Shao Jiugong?

Under the Taiping Camp's current system, all Company Commanders held equal rank. Shao Jiugong could not use his former status to suppress Lin Yousan, and Lin Yousan no longer needed to obey Shao Jiugong's every word.

In the short term, perhaps no great conflict would arise between the two, but over time, whether Shao Jiugong liked it or not, his standing in the eyes of the Jiangxi soldiers would decline sharply.

Lin Yousan, too, would unconsciously come to assume the role of Company Commander and contend with Shao Jiugong on equal terms. To put it plainly, Lin Yousan's existence would cause Shao Jiugong's standing among the Jiangxi soldiers — the very men he relied on — to plummet.

This he could never tolerate, which was why he hinted that the Jiangxi soldiers needed only one Company Commander.

After hearing Song Xianggong's explanation, Zhou Shixiang suddenly understood. Truly, everyone had their own calculations, everyone carried a little abacus in their heart. The great undertaking had not even begun to take shape, and already people were jockeying for power.

But that was fine. At least for now, breaking up and reorganizing the Jiangxi soldiers served the interests of the Taiping Camp, and of Zhou Shixiang himself.

Six Company Commanders came from Mount Dajiao. Shao Jiugong, formerly a Company Commander in the Jiangxi Green Standard, took one. The remaining three were all outstanding men from among the Luoding recruits.

In appointing three Luoding recruits as Company Commanders, Zhou Shixiang had overridden all objections and used talent without regard to convention.

The three were, first, Song Erniu, a standard-bearer from the front battalion. At the battle of Deqing, he had used his great flagpole to spear a Green Standard Company Commander to death, then charged fiercely ahead and cut down two more Green Standard soldiers.

His loyalty and courage were commendable, and making him a Company Commander would set an example for the whole camp.

The second was Zheng Tiezhu, the first man to sign up when Zhou Shixiang recruited soldiers at the east gate of Luoding. He had once served as a laborer in the Qing army, and had resolutely joined the Taiping Camp dragging along his bride of only a few months.

At the battle of Deqing, his performance was also praiseworthy. Though he had no kills to his name, he had held his ground without retreating a single step.

When Zhou Shixiang learned of his deeds after the battle, he decided on the spot to promote him upon their return.

When the Company Commander candidates were discussed, he recommended Zheng Tiezhu, telling the others that although the man was not especially fierce and had no kills to his credit, the mere fact that he had fought to the death without retreating was enough to shame everyone present.

If not him, then who?

At the battle of Deqing, when Hu Quan fell, Ge Wu and the others had all fled. No one, therefore, could object to Zhou Shixiang's reasoning, and the appointment passed without difficulty.

The last man was an unassuming fellow among the recruits, nearly forty years old: Zheng Daniu.

At the battle of Deqing, after taking several cuts, he had still grappled a Qing soldier and rolled down the slope with him, smashed the man's head in with a rock, then staggered back into the Qing ranks to fight to the death. He was still recovering from his wounds.

To reward his bravery and to show the wounded that the Taiping Camp dealt fairly and justly, Zhou Shixiang put him forward as a Company Commander candidate.

Compared with these three lucky men promoted to Company Commander, few of the Luoding recruits had distinguished themselves at Deqing. Most had at some point been afraid or had fled, and some had even been frightened out of their wits.

On the whole, however, they had passed through the trial of blood and fire. Zhou Shixiang believed twenty squad leaders could be chosen from among them.

He handed the task to the newly appointed aide Liao Ruixiang, with no particular conditions — just pick the tallest from among the dwarfs. Which men received squad leader appointments would likely depend largely on Advisor Liao's judgment.

Chen Mo, who commanded the death squad, was provisionally appointed squad leader.

Song Xianggong conveyed to him the death squad's rules of battle: those who took part in three death battles could leave the death squad and transfer to other squads as squad leaders, and those who performed outstandingly and rendered great merit could be promoted directly to Company Commander.

Chen Mo said nothing to this. He went back, blustered at the prisoners, then brought out wine and meat and ate and drank, utterly unconcerned with the battles to come.

The reorganization and the appointment of officers took two full days of busy work. During those two days Song Xianggong was also occupied with sorting and classifying the captured spoils. Everyone in the Taiping Camp, high and low, was busy; not a single person was idle.

On the third day, Zhou Shixiang finally put on the agenda the matters of moving against the gentry and wealthy households and forcibly conscripting the remaining residents of the city. Before he could formulate a plan, word arrived from the miners at Laofeng Village.