Chapter 652: The Fortune of the Brigade Commander

Once the field brigade organization was finalized, in the following days Liu Chengzong met in turn with the officers slated for promotion.

Personnel changes below the rank of Battalion Commander in the four battalions were also issued one by one, processed through the Military Office and the Tiger Guard Camp's selection.

The new appointments were quite normal for Tang Tong and Zuo Guangxian. Both had previously held the rank of Battalion Commander. The former had seasoned himself in battle under Gao Yingdeng's main camp, fighting all the way from Gansu into Guanzhong, famed for using heavy muskets loaded with scatter shot to unleash volleys of curtain fire, his merits outstanding.

Zuo Guangxian, meanwhile, had served as a Battalion Commander in the Tiger Guard Camp. Transferring to a small camp as a Mobile Strike General was at most granting him a substantive commission; it hardly counted as a promotion.

Both men were thoroughly versed in the battlefield duties of the roving and reinforcement battalions for Liu Chengzong's new field brigade, and both strongly identified with the idea of commanding a unit of Mongol and Tibetan tribal soldiers.

As officers, they could grasp Liu Chengzong's intent. Enrolling Mongol, Oirat, and Kangning soldiers into the regular army meant Liu Chengzong had opened a door for the commoners of those three groups to advance through the military ranks.

This had virtually nothing to do with the nobles. The Marshal's headquarters had always co-opted useful surrendered nobles, but its treatment of the commoner offspring under noble rule was, frankly, far from friendly.

Because to organize an army, you need people to manage it, and using people to manage it simply cannot bypass the nobles.

Even though Liu the Lion had no regard for the noble-led-troops approach, there was no other way.

A taiji leads his followers to submit — could you not use that taiji to lead those followers?

Of course you could. The taiji stays home drawing a stipend, while his subordinates — the jaisang, darhan, guards, and banner-bearers — come out to lead the troops.

But it amounts to the same thing. Yesterday they were tribal officials; today they are Centurions in the Marshal's headquarters. The upper class always remains the upper class. There is no other way.

Of course, whether Southern Desert Mongols, Oirat Mongols, or Tibetan households, joining the Marshal's army in itself lessened their personal dependence on the nobility and elevated their station.

Yet they had no opportunity to advance further.

The reason is simple. Although the Marshal's headquarters had many noble titles — not only ranks of nobility but also commandant and colonel-level commissions granted to nobles —

the Mongol-Tibetan battalions were limited in number. Every substantive post in each battalion was one pit for one radish. The available commissions were already very few, and they were all occupied by various noble retainers with administrative experience.

And as pure light cavalry or infantry battalions, they struggled to prevail over Ming forces on the battlefield and could not independently undertake combat missions, which naturally made it difficult to earn battle merits and gain promotion opportunities.

The less they could undertake combat missions, the harder it was for Liu Chengzong to allocate resources to them. Their combat effectiveness stagnated, turning into a vicious cycle of low-cost armies.

But organizing them into Company Commander divisions of five to six hundred men, mixed into the brigades, neatly changed this situation. Eleven brigades, three to four thousand junior officer positions — common folk had far more chances to earn merit on campaign.

What's more, an officer cannot be ignorant of language. This could mobilize the entire ethnic group's identification with the Marshal's headquarters, while also greatly accelerating assimilation.

Behind those three to four thousand junior officers stood the populations of Kangning Prefecture, the Haixi Mongols, and the Tianshan Oirats — a full two and a half million people. That meant at least two hundred thousand additional reserve troops, enormously boosting the Marshal's headquarters' war potential.

Truth be told, war potential had always been a weak point of the territory under Liu Chengzong's rule.

The Mongol and Western Tibetan populations could not be properly utilized, while Shaanxi, after the great drought and great uprising, was sparsely populated. Though Fengxiang and Xi'an prefectures had large populations, they were also crucial grain-producing regions.

Xi'an Prefecture alone could supply over nine hundred thousand shi of summer tax, autumn grain, and military farm yield each year. Liu the Lion wished he could send everyone to farm.

But aside from Zuo Guangxian and Tang Tong, for Li Hongsi, this appointment could not even be called overwhelming flattery.

It was sheer disbelief.

He had always thought of himself as a mascot posted at the academy as an instructor, and had never imagined Liu Chengzong would activate him to lead troops.

This was not only because he was a surrendered general. The main reason was that when he surrendered, he had no troops in hand — he was a thoroughly bare-pole general.

Even a surrendered Regional Commander as exceptionally proactive as Yang Qi had merely been sent, without support, to the Southern Desert to carve out territory and govern himself. Li Hongsi never imagined he would get an opportunity like that.

He never, ever expected that Liu Chengzong would not only grant him the rank of Deputy Regional Commander, but Deputy Regional Commander of this very Marshal's Standard Brigade.

Thus his drive was overflowing. That very day he went to the Military Office to press Zhao Kebian for officers and set recruitment standards.

Zhao Kebian was run off his feet. Before he had even finished recording merits, new work arrived, nearly angering him to death.

Fortunately, Liu the Lion did not make things hard for the Military Office. The number of officers needed to form a brigade was no longer something Zhao Kebian could decide.

Liu Chengzong immediately mustered the entire Tiger Guard Camp and announced that all officers and soldiers within the camp below the rank of Battalion Commander would be promoted one rank across the board.

He then grouped the three of them and assigned them under Gao Yingdeng to assist in the field brigade's formation work.

Gao Yingdeng's First Field Brigade did not need that many people. The entire brigade required just over one thousand three hundred officers, and Li Hongsi's Raid Battalion alone needed three hundred ninety-nine.

And the Tiger Guard Camp, as it happened, could be expanded into exactly three brigades.

With Liu Chengzong's announcement, the entire Tiger Guard Camp erupted in jubilation for a time. Those Marshal's headquarters officers, ordinarily stern and unsmiling, all seemed reborn.

The Tiger Guard Camp had always been Liu Chengzong's officer corps. Whether soldier or officer, entering the Tiger Guard Camp symbolized extraordinary honor for everyone.

But that was how soldiers of the Marshal's headquarters who had not yet entered the Tiger Guard Camp felt about it.

For those inside it, this camp was like a cursed purgatory.

It wore people down far too much.

Put it this way: the earliest batch of Tiger Guard soldiers and officers in the camp had entered as far back as the sixth year of the Chongzhen reign, after the great battle at Qinghai in May.

During this period, aside from normal attrition and replenishment of army officers, the vast majority of its officers and soldiers had already undergone two years and five months of study.

In fact, when the Tiger Guard Camp was first established, the rule Liu Chengzong set was three terms — two half-years and one full year — totaling two years.

And it was not meant to be completed all at once.

The first half-year was mainly for meritorious soldiers from peasant army, recruited, and garrison backgrounds to receive training in commands and formations, military law and regulations, basic literacy, and weapons and equipment, cultivating them into qualified Squad Leaders.

In principle, meritorious soldiers who completed this stage of study could be promoted and return to their units to serve as Squad Leaders.

But the Marshal's Army did not have that many vacant officer positions, so aside from a few lucky ones, most were forced to undergo the second phase of training.

The second half-year was for meritorious Squad Leaders and Platoon Commanders to further refine their martial skills, archery, and horsemanship; command formations; armor and equipment management; soldier reward and punishment; and personnel management techniques, along with the ability to train soldiers. The goal was to cultivate them for promotion to Centurion.

The result, naturally, was obvious: the Marshal's headquarters did not have that many Centurion positions either.

They were forced into the third phase of training.

Strictly speaking, this one-year phase was the true officer training. It did not involve the study of weapons, martial arts, archery, horsemanship, muskets, or cannon. It was entirely about the strengths and weaknesses of troop formations, tactics and methods of warfare, weather and terrain, military strategy and principles — and of course, the indispensable on-site battle observation and discussion.

The goal was to cultivate Company Commanders, Battalion Commanders — in other words, field officers.

Because Battalion Commander is, in fact, the ceiling of military rank that a normal person, in normal circumstances, with normal opportunities, can reach relying on personal abilities like superb martial skill, knowledge, and military strategy.

After all, at this stage, looking downward, one must ensure indirectly managed subordinates perform practical work well; looking upward, as part of a battalion-level structure, one must fulfill higher-level deployments; and in between, one's decision-making ability in sudden, unexpected situations is constantly tested.

Every person fully competent in this position possesses the ability and potential to become a general.

It is just that for Camp Vice Commander and higher ranks, at least from Liu Chengzong's perspective, the considerations for candidate appointment are extremely complex, and military talent accounts for only a very small part.

Thus, the Tiger Guard Camp had imperceptibly become an immensely powerful reserve of military talent in Liu Chengzong's hands.

It was just that this talent reserve pool had to be drained as quickly as possible; otherwise, the officers' discontent would grow more severe by the day.

This reorganization of the field brigades happened to give Liu Shizi a chance to empty the reserve pool.

Four thousand officers were promoted one rank overnight, and immediately threw themselves into the First Brigade's recruitment drive with overflowing enthusiasm.

They set rather strict requirements and began selecting candidates first from the eight battalions besieging the city outside Xi'an Prefecture.

The quality of troops in these eight battalions was a mixed bag.

Luo Rucai's battalion had soldiers of complex origins — basically a microcosm of the Marshal's army, recruited as they fought: northern Shaanxi roving bandits, Longxi mountain bandits, Kangning slaves, grassland horse bandits, border army deserters — you name it.

They feared nothing in heaven or on earth, could fight and dared to battle — plundering landlords in northern Shaanxi, robbing chieftains in Kangning, bullying nobles in Qinghai, fighting emperor and Buddha alike. They were the most unorthodox crew under heaven.

The Mongol Brigade's soldiers, on the other hand, were too pure — so pure they were practically a miniature Northern Yuan Khanate, a heap of Northern Yuan remnants. There was a whole group like Xie Erhu who used their tribal name as their own given name, branch tribes that once fled from south of the Gobi to Qinghai, now unexpectedly becoming orphaned heirs inheriting the main line.

By comparison, the four battalions of the Lintao Brigade were actually the most regular former Ming troops, and had received the most military training.

Four small battalions — three were Lanzhou garrison troops, Lintao Guard and Hezhou Guard banner troops, and one under Yang Guodong was surrendered bandit soldiers from Xi'an Prefecture.

Being mostly banner troops themselves, their military quality was rather poor; nor had they fought any decent battles in terms of combat experience.

Most important of all was the mindset of the officers and soldiers.

They had no sense of being masters of the Marshal's Mansion at all — they saw themselves as outsiders and auxiliary troops. Fighting under Liu Chengzong's call, their enthusiasm was even less than that of the Mongol soldiers.

Of course, in terms of enthusiasm, it was only natural that the Lintao Brigade banner troops fell short of those Tumed Mongols from Qinghai.

After all, to the Lintao Brigade banner troops, the Marshal's Mansion belonged to that gang of old border soldiers under Liu Chengzong, while the Dunta Khanate truly belonged to the Qinghai Mongols.

They were merely drifting with the current, muddling along, following Liu Chengzong for a meal.

Therefore, from any angle, the banner troops of Lintao and Hezhou were indisputably the weakest brigade in the Marshal's Mansion.

But now, with the Guanzhong campaign concluded, their morale had greatly improved — they were at a high point of spirit.

In the earlier Guanzhong campaign, the Lintao Brigade first besieged Qianzhou, then raced west for reinforcement, fighting night battles as a flanking force against the Yunnan Battalion, Yansui Battalion, and Changping Battalion.

Those opponents were all far superior to the Lintao banner troops — the empire's elite forces — and inflicted enormous losses on them. Only Liu Chengzong's three great battalions arrayed on the flank gave them the courage to hold on.

When that campaign ended, the Lintao Brigade had truly completed its metamorphosis from garrison banner troops into a regular army.

Later, Liu Chengzong supplemented them with some surrendered soldiers, greatly improving the soldiers' military competence, though discipline and organizational ability declined to varying degrees.

Now, hearing that the Grand Marshal was forming a central field brigade, the most excited were precisely those banner troops who had won battles.

To them, the Lintao Brigade was merely an auxiliary force — brigades like those of Wang Wenxiu and Yang Yao were the Marshal's Mansion's regular troops, while the central army's three great battalions were direct-line units a grade above even the regulars.

Though the pay and provisions were the same, the central army was the central army — what they used and rode were better than everyone else's!

So one after another they eagerly volunteered — the capable ones brimming with confidence and swagger, the incapable ones also itching to try, hoping to test their luck.

The commanders, however, were not nearly so excited.

The siege encampment was rarely so lively, and Liu Chengzong also went to observe the field brigade's troop selection — though more than watching the soldiers, his attention was focused on several commanders.

Luo Rucai was as recklessly irreverent as ever. Not only did he have not the slightest resistance to the matter, he even wanted to personally take part in the First Field Brigade's selection, and had to be held down by two of Liu Chengzong's Feathered Forest Guards.

Xie Erhu likewise had no worries, simply approaching it with great interest, as he did when executing Liu Chengzong's past military deployments. He summoned the Mongol Brigade's officers from Assistant Commander Ahai Daiqing down, telling them to pick out every soldier with ability and send them in a bundle to the Grand Marshal for testing in archery, horsemanship, and mounted archery.

Toward military authority, the man possessed a Buddha-like detachment, as if it were a worldly possession.

That Buddha-nature came from fearlessness.

Xie Erhu had a very clear sense of his position in the Marshal's Mansion — he did not even consider himself a military commander at all.

Because as a military commander, his own combat experience, military skills, and ability to command troops were no weaker than any Mongol commander's, but neither were they vastly superior to other Mongol nobles.

That was clearly not the reason for his transcendent status.

So deep in his heart, he positioned himself as the Living Buddha of the "Liu Chengzong Faith" among the Mongol tribes of Qinghai.

Who was it that took him — nominally a headman of the Barhu tribe of the Yongxiebu clan of the Right Wing Three Tumen, in reality a bandit of the Chuodan Desert — and step by step pushed out Huoluochi, dispatched Shaotutaiji, promoted his rank, and pushed him into the position of leader of the Qinghai Mongols?

It was not because he naturally possessed great command ability over the Mongol tribes, still less because he was invincible and had military prowess that awed the many Borjigin nobles.

It was Liu Chengzong.

It was because Liu Chengzong needed a Mongol leader without illustrious lineage, with a clean background, possessing a certain armed force, who could control, overawe, and suppress the many submitted Mongol nobles of Qinghai — that was why he had his honored post as brigade commander.

He was not a general like Zhang Tianlin, who went to Liu Chengzong for provisions, weapons, and warhorses, then took them to gnaw on the hardest bones, storming cities and seizing territory to win battles.

He was Liu Chengzong's proxy among the Qinghai Mongols — to conscript troops, prepare horses, breed cattle and sheep, lead the Mongol corps to witness the Grand Marshal's ever-victorious gallantry, have men return to Qinghai to spread the word, and maintain the tribes' loyalty to the Grand Marshal.

That was the meaning of his existence.

So as long as Liu Chengzong remained, and the Qinghai Mongols remained, even if Xie Erhu scattered all his soldiers, what would it matter?

Shi Xiang was different. Compared to others' composure, he was utterly disquieted, panicking to the point of death in the siege encampment, as if he himself were the archery target a mounted archer was aiming at.

He did not have anywhere near Xie Erhu's irreplaceability — the Lintao Brigade was his very lifeblood!

"Why is Brigade Commander Shi so uneasy?"

Hearing this question, the Liu Chengzong in Shi Xiang's eyes stood smiling, hand resting on the saber hilt at his waist, but the Liu Chengzong in his mind was clearly smiling as he held a pair of crossed shears, measuring them against his lifeblood!

"Grand Marshal, for this troop selection... how many are you taking?"

Without waiting for Liu Chengzong to answer, Shi Xiang hurriedly added: "The Lintao Brigade has only just gained the ability to fight hard battles for the Grand Marshal — if, if the elite are all transferred away, we'll be beaten back to our original form."

"Elder brother need not worry. Troops gone can be replenished. You have rendered meritorious service before, and greater fortune awaits you."

Liu Chengzong smiled. "Move up a step further."

Shi Xiang was stunned speechless. He thought to himself, I'm already barely steady as brigade commander, and you want me to move up? Where else could I possibly go!

Was there even a rank above brigade commander in the Marshal's Mansion?

Frightened, Shi Xiang hurriedly said: "Grand Marshal, to serve as brigade commander in your retinue is already the greatest fortune for this humble officer — I dare not covet any further fortune."

Liu Chengzong did not reveal the destination, only saying: "Keep a large camp of five or six thousand men, and I'll replenish you with another six thousand later. Be patient."

Shi Xiang's eyes widened, his face full of astonishment. It sounded as if... the Grand Marshal truly intended to move him up another step?

Liu Chengzong smiled.

Above the brigade-level Chief Commander in the Marshal's Mansion, there was indeed one more rank.

That was the Commander-in-Chief, who held unified authority over all military and civil affairs — a post currently established only in Gansu, south of the Gobi, and the Tianshan Mountains.

Liu Chengzong planned that once the reorganization of the eleven brigades of formidable troops was complete, he would establish one more Commander-in-Chief post, with Shi Xiang as the designated candidate.

The Governor's yamen was located in Lhasa, in Ü-Tsang!