Chapter 98: The Mixed Organization Bureau

Chen Xin looked at the large bump on Liu Minyou's head, shook his head and sighed. "Brother Liu, you could have learned anything, but you had to learn from Shen Niangzi and get a bump on your head. By the way, she specifically asked me to send you her regards."

Liu Minyou rubbed the bump on his head, still a bit dizzy, and said listlessly, "What regards? You must be making that up. At least the hit wasn't too heavy; this little injury is nothing."

Chen Xin saw his dejected look and asked Liu Minyou, "So you didn't have Lu Lvzi and the others hit them back?"

"No. What problem would hitting them back solve?"

Chen Xin shook his head and smiled. "Brother Liu, your insight is profound. So what's being done about that canal now?"

"We send people to guard it at night. The people from Mazi Dun haven't caused any more trouble either. It's just that it never rains, so every day more people are needed to water the fields. Who knows how long this will go on."

"Brother Liu, don't worry. We have enough hands anyway. When I get back from Japan, I'll buy some more Liaodong refugees from Dengzhou. Next year we'll have even more people."

Liu Minyou said with displeasure, "Buying and selling people again."

Chen Xin did not argue, but changed the subject. "The number of people will increase, and we need to dig more wells. But the canal can't be wasted either. I'll settle this matter today."

"Don't go and blow things up. We are newcomers here after all, and we'll be neighbors for a long time to come."

Chen Xin smiled. "I won't. I'll go talk to Gong Pingkang. Guarding it every night is no solution. As long as we stop them from digging randomly, that's enough." With that, Chen Xin went out and headed toward the military camp.

Liu Minyou had been struck several days ago. The resulting brawl had left twenty or thirty men injured on both sides, but none seriously. As soon as Chen Xin returned to Weihai and heard the news, he rushed over to visit Liu Minyou. When Chen Xin returned to the military camp, the drill ground was filled with orderly formations. Over two hundred combat soldiers had already received the assembly order. Some new recruits who had never seen Chen Xin before watched curiously as all the normally fierce instructors bowed their heads obediently before this man.

When officers like Dai Zhenggang saw Chen Xin return, smiles appeared on their faces one after another. Although Liu Minyou had managed the affairs of the fort well enough, he lacked a certain boldness. Whenever Chen Xin was away, these men always felt as if they were missing their backbone.

Lu Lvzi came up to him, fuming. "My lord, you're finally back! Tell us what to do! I've been stifled to death. Mr. Liu kept stopping us from going. He talked with Gong Pingkang twice, and nothing got settled."

Chen Xin chuckled. "Then let's have a good talk with them too. Just a different kind of talk."

A quarter of an hour later, a squad of arquebusiers appeared before the gate of Mazi Dun's stockade, carrying a large log. Ignoring the military households on the stockade wall, they charged straight at the gate and rammed it. The military households on the wall looked down at the dense mass of helmets below; holding stones, no one dared to throw them. The gate was smashed open in just a couple of blows, and the military households inside scattered in a panic.

The combat soldier squad split into five-man teams. Carrying the long wooden staves used for training, they chased after them, striking at their backsides. These new recruits had taken plenty of beatings themselves, and now that they finally had a chance to hit someone else, it was as if they had taken stimulants. They beat the military households of Mazi Dun until they wailed like ghosts and howled like wolves. Facing these combat soldiers who trained daily and were bursting with energy, even though most only carried wooden staves, the military households dared not bring out their hoes. They all fled into their homes to hide. Fortunately, the combat soldiers only beat people on the streets and did not enter the houses. But the moment anyone came out, they were driven back in with a flurry of blows.

The farmers and craftsmen from Chen Xin's fort had also followed, all wanting to rush in and take revenge, but Chen Xin did not permit them to enter. Before long, a squad had seized Gong Pingkang and brought him over. The moment he saw it was Chen Xin, his legs went weak with fright and he was about to kowtow. Chen Xin laughed heartily. "Gong Battalion Commander, no need for such courtesy. Take me to find that hero who struck Mr. Liu."

Gong Pingkang knelt and begged for mercy. "Lord Chen, that, that brat didn't know any better. You, my lord, are magnanimous..."

"If Lord Gong is unwilling to help, I'll just search house by house, starting with Lord Gong's own home. If anything gets accidentally broken, don't blame this official."

Gong Pingkang stared blankly for a moment, looking at Chen Xin's smiling face. He truly looked like he was visiting relatives. But he knew that this Lord Chen had killed dozens of bandits at the beginning of the year, and even had a military household from the Left Battalion Commander's garrison executed as a deserter. Not daring to shield that military household any longer, he had no choice but to lead them to a thatched hut.

Nie Hong and the others rushed forward, kicked open the door made of bundled branches, and charged inside. A flurry of startled cries came from within. Moments later, they dragged out the military household who had struck Liu Minyou. Xu Yuanhua, who had come to identify him, pointed and said, "He's the one who hit Mr. Liu!"

Surrounded by a crowd, the military household was forced to kneel on the ground. He looked up at Chen Xin in terror, then turned a pleading gaze toward Gong Pingkang. Gong Pingkang stamped his foot and scolded him, "You insolent young fool who knows not the height of heaven or the depth of earth! Was Mr. Liu someone you could strike? Ah..."

With that, Gong Pingkang also knelt down and pleaded for mercy on his behalf.

Ignoring Gong Pingkang, Chen Xin said to Nie Hong and the others, "Bind him and give him a hundred strokes first. Take his pants down to beat him."

Nie Hong and the others immediately tied up the military household hand and foot, raised their wooden staves, and began beating him. The military household screamed continuously and soon passed out. Gong Pingkang kept pleading, but Chen Xin remained silent until the full hundred strokes were delivered. The military household's buttocks were now a bloody, mangled mess. Nie Hong felt the man's nose and said, "He's still breathing. My lord, shall I give him a few dozen more?"

Chen Xin waved his hand. He had someone fetch a basin of cold water, which was splashed over the military household's head with a splash. The man shuddered and opened his eyes.

Chen Xin crouched down, looked at the military household, and said coldly, "Anywhere else, you would be dead beyond doubt today. But Mr. Liu does not wish to take a life. Count yourself lucky. If this canal is dug open again in the future, whether you did it or not, I will come looking for you, and you will be bound and beaten with a hundred strokes just the same."

The man's gaze was dazed; it was unclear if he understood. Chen Xin turned to Gong Battalion Commander at his side and said, "Battalion Commander, what I just said, help him remember it."

Gong Pingkang agreed repeatedly. He wiped the sweat from his forehead, thinking it was finally over, and prepared to call someone to carry the military household away for treatment. Little did he expect that Chen Xin was not finished.

"Lord Gong, I also have several dozen farmers who were injured. I must trouble you to take me to find each of those who struck them."

Gong Pingkang had just stood up. Hearing this, he was so frightened he knelt again and stammered, "Lord Chen, I, this humble officer doesn't know who struck them either. It was so chaotic then, so..."

Chen Xin mused, "That is troublesome. Whether striking first or striking back, both are wrong. The one who first struck Mr. Liu received a hundred strokes. It would be too unfair if the others aren't beaten. If it's truly too hard to find them... why not just seize everyone and give them a hundred strokes each? That way, no one will be missed."

Gong Pingkang kowtowed repeatedly to Chen Xin, saying, "My lord, spare their lives. They are all wretched souls. This humble officer will strictly restrain them from now on and will absolutely never allow any more trouble to arise."

Chen Xin waited a moment, then helped Gong Pingkang up and sighed. "I know that Battalion Commander Gong is a good man. It's those under you who are cunning and do nothing but wicked deeds. My farmers are filled with righteous indignation, and I can barely keep them suppressed. For the sake of Battalion Commander Gong's face, I will go and try to placate them again. But too many of my farmers are injured; these past few days, no one has been watering the fields. If the harvest is delayed, I truly won't be able to talk everyone down."

Battalion Commander Gong glanced at the groups of farmers gathered outside the fort gate, all holding farming tools. These people were not as obedient as soldiers. He had no choice but to say to Chen Xin, "Lord Chen, my lord, how about this: for the next few days, we will water your fields for you. We guarantee it will be done well. I only beg that this matter ends here."

"Well, that works too. But you said this yourself; I didn't force you."

Gong Pingkang stared blankly at the smiling Chen Xin, nearly on the verge of tears. "Yes."

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In Chen Xin's office, the squad leaders and team leaders from the original veterans filled the room. Liu Minyou also sat beside Chen Xin. After hearing about the ransacking of Mazi Dun, he had worried for several days, fearing that someone from the guard battalion would come to assign blame. In the end, neither Yang Yunnong nor Battalion Commander Zeng showed their faces. The people of Mazi Dun immediately became obedient, sending people out every day to water the fields here.

Chen Xin told them directly to sit. Looking around, he saw that after drilling daily with the new recruits, they all appeared more fierce and rugged. Having spent more time managing men, a natural confidence had emerged in their bearing.

Chen Xin smiled and said to everyone, "Everyone, you handled Mazi Dun well. You beat them well. If any other fort dares to come and cause trouble in the future, deal with it the same way."

Lu Chuanzong laughed heartily. "My lord, that military household's wife moved to live by the canal at night. She stands guard there, terrified someone might steal the water."

Several others laughed along. Chen Xin said, "At least she's dedicated. Enough talk of these matters. Now, let's discuss the new organization."

The moment they heard "new organization," everyone perked up and listened attentively.

Chen Xin first asked Dai Zhenggang, "Has the new recruits' basic training been completed?"

Dai Zhenggang immediately stood up, cleared his throat, and began his report. "The new recruits were fully assembled in the second month. Most are fishermen and mountain folk from Wendeng and Ninghaizhou, with a small number of qualified refugees from other regions. The first month of basic training is not yet complete. Individual skills training began ten days ago; small-unit combined training has not yet started. These new recruits are poorer in formation drill. The former boat trackers were much quicker to pick it up."

Chen Xin waved him to sit. "Including the new recruits, we have only two hundred sixty men. We will organize them into twenty squads, ten firearms squads and ten assault squads. The lowest level remains the five-man team. The team leader may arbitrarily designate any suitable soldier; it no longer must be a saber-and-shield man as before. Above the team is the squad, still twelve men per squad. The former platoon is renamed a banner, each banner comprising three squads, thirty-six men, plus one banner commander, totaling thirty-seven men. One firearms banner and one assault banner form a bureau. Each bureau has one bureau commander, plus three support soldiers. Each bureau has seventy-eight men. We will form three bureaus in total, collectively called a company. I will serve as the company commander myself. Six personal guards for signals, flags, and drums. Dai Zhenggang and Lu Chuanzong will be vice company commanders, concurrently serving as bureau commanders of the First and Second Bureaus. The bureau commander of the Third Bureau will be..."

The five original squad leaders all watched Chen Xin nervously. With three bureaus, only one bureau commander position remained. They had all been equals before, and every one of them wanted this post.

For an officer rank of this level, election was out of the question. Chen Xin directly appointed, "Wang Zhangfu will take the post. Monthly pay, four taels of silver."

A surge of wild joy filled Wang Zhangfu's heart. He stood to accept the order, then sat back down, outwardly maintaining a calm expression. He let out a long breath and glanced sideways at Zhu Daichun beside him. At the last review meeting, Wang Zhangfu had raised the issue of bonuses for front and rear ranks, and the two had argued. Later, Zhu Daichun's tactical suggestions had been fairly pertinent, earning him praise from Chen Xin for diligent thinking. However, his opinion that long-spear thrusts should not be overly fierce had been harshly criticized by Wang Zhangfu, who accused him of considering squad tactics from the perspective of individual skill training. Wang Zhangfu firmly maintained that the long spear was primarily for attack and must use the Yang Family method of fierce, aggressive thrusting; the attack must not be weakened for the sake of holding back a reserve move. This view was endorsed by the majority of officers, and as a result, that suggestion was indeed not adopted. The requirement for long-spearmen remained brave and fierce thrusting. Later, although Zhu Daichun still served as the deputy training officer for the assault squads, the two had been locked in a silent rivalry ever since. Now that Wang Zhangfu had become a bureau commander, he had arguably pulled even again with Zhu Daichun's deputy training officer position.

Chen Xin subtly observed the others' expressions. Most showed disappointment. He had appointed Wang Zhangfu as the new bureau commander because Wang Zhangfu was from Zhangjiawan, while Lu Chuanzong and Dai Zhenggang were both from Yanggu, as was Liu Minyou's deputy Xu Yuanzheng. A balance needed to be struck. The other original squad leaders had also been promoted this time, at least assigned as banner commanders. The new squad leaders were also mostly men from Zhangjiawan.

His new organization was still largely based on the northern Qi Family Army. According to the *Practical Record of Military Training*, the Qi Family Army's northern organization was: five-man team, squad, banner, bureau, company, regiment, and battalion. The Qi Family Army's bureau was a single-arm unit, each bureau consisting of three banners and one hundred eight men, either all assault or all firearms. For the convenience of fighting bandits, Chen Xin used a small-scale mixed organization. Each bureau had two banners, three assault squads and three firearms squads each. This tripled the firepower output compared to before, and each bureau could operate independently.

Chen Xin continued, "The infantry totals two hundred forty men. Zhu Guobin will also serve as vice company commander. Leave twenty men who have ridden horses before for Guobin to use as cavalry. Mr. Liu has already planned to buy horses. Once they are bought, Guobin will begin training."

Dai Zhenggang said, "I'm afraid there aren't that many who have ridden horses."

Zhu Guobin, afraid of having no men, jumped out and said, "Ridden a mule counts too!"

Lu Chuanzong asked, "My lord, weren't we supposed to keep reserve troop quotas? This way, all the men are used up."

Chen Xin said flatly, "Continue recruiting. We're about to have more troop quotas again."

Zhu Guobin asked Chen Xin joyfully, "My lord, how many more men can we get?"

"I don't know. Perhaps a few hundred," Chen Xin answered crisply. He then turned to Liu Minyou. "Brother Liu, can the weapons be fully issued as quickly as possible?"

Liu Minyou flipped through his own ledger and said, "For this current batch, swords and spears are all fine — it's the arquebuses that are a bit lacking. Right now there are twenty craftsmen specifically drilling your gun barrels, producing about twenty-odd per month. So far this year they've already supplied fifty arquebuses; the rest will be made up in two or three months. If we're bringing in several hundred more men, we'll just have to add more craftsmen."

"Then recruit more craftsmen. Tang Zuoxiang has found some more — they'll come back with the next shipment of goods, and then they'll all be put to drilling gun barrels for you."

Liu Minyou touched the bump on his forehead, glanced at Chen Xin, and said, "Drilling gun barrels doesn't require veteran craftsmen. I've assigned over twenty newcomers — they only drill barrels, and a few days of training is generally enough."

Chen Xin said admiringly, "A semi-assembly line. Brother Liu, you're formidable. Don't wait for men to use the firearms — first make two hundred and store them."

After speaking, he turned to the firearms instructor and said, "For now, the firearms unit will take turns training with the arquebuses." He turned and looked around at the officers in the room. "You will take these new recruits and begin bandit suppression in the fifth month. I want many heads."