Chapter 969: A Pearl Hidden in the Ocean
After listening to Huangfu Chaobo's inquiry, Guo Jia also shook his head and said, "That's true. So in Jia's opinion, Zhang Yan's desire to form an alliance with our Eastern Expedition Army this time should be sincere, and they should not ask for anything else except food and weapons."
Thinking of this, Huangfu Chaobo said, "You reply to Zhang Yan's envoy and tell him that I am willing to meet him and ask him to rush to Weijun as soon as possible. Senior brother, please discuss a meeting place with his envoy as soon as possible. There should not be too many people to meet. Let's set it at one thousand people. Tell him that if he can't arrive within fifteen days, let him go to Luoyang to talk to me."
Zhu Hao was stunned, and immediately came to his senses. After a promise, he said goodbye and left. He went to arrange personnel to return to Ye County to negotiate with Zhang Yan's envoy.
After Zhu Hao also left, Huangfu Chaobo had time to talk to the children and said, "How do you feel after riding for half a day today?"
Among these children, Zao Ping, the eldest son of Zao Ji, and Dian Man, the eldest son of Dian Wei, are the leaders. They are one literary and one martial.
For Dian Man, riding a horse has long been one of his daily training, so riding for half a day is not very urgent and there is no problem at all, but for Zao Ping and others, it is a lot of suffering. Especially Zao Ping, who is already fifteen years old and rides alone. After half a day, he almost can't even walk.
The rest of the little ones are okay. They are basically led by cavalry, so they are relatively not as tired as Zao Ping. However, they are much younger, so it's not easy. Seeing that they are all exhausted, Huangfu Chaobo swallowed the words that were about to come to his mouth, and quickly ordered Dian Wei to take them to wash and go to bed as soon as possible.
The next morning, after Huangfu Chaobo and his party had breakfast, they began to inspect the situation in Neihuang. In fact, there were only a few things to do during the inspection. One was to inspect the barracks and city defenses, the second was to check the city's treasury to see the reserves of food, weapons and equipment, and the third was to meet with officials at all levels.
Many larger cities in the Central Plains generally have a double-layer city structure, with an inner city in addition to the outer city. Like Wei County, because it bordered Yuan Shao's army, after Huangfu Chaobo took over, he ordered all cities to build inner cities and move many important buildings to the inner city, such as treasuries, granaries, weapon workshops, etc., and generally required them to be built not far from the county government office.
Under the leadership of the county magistrate and the county lieutenant, Huangfu Chaobo first inspected the soldiers in the city barracks. Neihuang currently has 3,100 soldiers stationed, including 3,000 infantry and 100 cavalry. According to the organization of the Eastern Expedition Army, the infantry army is organized into units as the lowest independent units, that is, each infantry unit has 1,000 soldiers, equipped with 100 baggage carts, 200 civilians, and 200 pack horses when going to war, of which 60 carts have 1,500 shi of food and grass per month, and the remaining 40 carts are tents for the soldiers and spare weapons and equipment.
Each unit consists of two sword and shield soldiers, two spear soldiers, and one archer soldier, which is exactly 1,000 people. If necessary, a certain number of cavalry can be added, and they can go to war alone.
Of course, for the guards, there may be a difference in organization, just as the Neihuang County Lieutenant made a slight adjustment to his 3,000 soldiers, adjusting the mixed organization of sword and shield soldiers, spearmen and archers to the team level, that is, in a team of 50 people, there are 20 sword and shield soldiers, 20 spearmen and 10 archers.
Such organization is easier for guards to operate. For example, when guarding a city, one of the daily tasks of the guards is to guard the city gate. After such adjustment, he can arrange a team of soldiers for each city gate, without drawing soldiers from each song. Over time, the cooperation between the 50 soldiers will be more tacit.
In addition, a team of soldiers is arranged on each city head, so the number of soldiers on duty in each round is 400, which is much more convenient for the generals to arrange the guards on the city head.
On the top of the city wall, the Neihuang County Lieutenant reported to Huangfu Chaobo with a nervous look on his face about his adjustment of the 3,000 guards under his command.
Beside him, the Neihuang County Magistrate and the Weijun Commander were listening in fear, cursing the county lieutenant in their hearts. You know, one of them was the county lieutenant's direct superior, and the other was his immediate superior. If Huangfu Chaobo wanted to punish them, they would not be able to escape the blame.
The Neihuang magistrate was secretly complaining. The county lieutenant's adjustment of the organization was a matter of recent times. A few months ago, when the county lieutenant came to the county magistrate and proposed to make a little adjustment to the organization of the soldiers, the county magistrate did not intervene much, because he felt that it would not have any impact if he just made a minor adjustment. Secondly, the county lieutenant was an old soldier of the Zhengdong Army transferred from Hanoi, and the county magistrate himself was the original Neihuang County Magistrate under Han Fu. Based on the principle of less trouble is worse than more trouble, he thought about not offending the old soldiers under the Zhengdong General, so he agreed.
Unexpectedly, within a few months, the General of the Eastern Expedition suddenly appeared in Neihuang, and personally asked about the organization issue, which made him sweat coldly on his back, even though it was already midwinter. Since then, no monarch has allowed his subordinates to change the military system privately. If they encounter a strict lord, they will even behead them on the spot.
After the county lieutenant finished speaking, Huangfu Chaobo stared at him sternly and said, "Do you know your crime?"
"I know my crime!" The county lieutenant knelt on the ground and bowed his head and said, "This matter should have been reported to the county lieutenant, and adjustments should be made after getting permission, but I plan to try it out for a period of time before reporting it, so..."
"Come here, Neihuang County Lieutenant He Lu changed the military system privately without military orders. According to the law, he should be executed, but considering your loyalty, you will be spared the death penalty. However, the death penalty can be spared, but the crime is difficult to escape. You are sentenced to thirty strokes of the cane, dismissed from the post of county lieutenant, demoted to the head of a garrison, and transferred to Longxiang Camp, allowing him to make meritorious contributions while serving his sentence. Neihuang County Magistrate knew about it but did not report it, so he was dismissed from his post and transferred to the county city for other arrangements. Wei County Governor Zhu Hao and County Commandant Geng Wu were not strict with their subordinates, and they were punished to serve for half a year."
After speaking, he waved his hand, and immediately several soldiers from the Xianzhen Camp came forward, stripped the county lieutenant of his armor, and dragged him aside for execution.
After playing the game for so long, Huangfu Chaobo knew that there was a saying that was right, "Only tools and names can't be borrowed by others." Another saying is "Political power comes from the barrel of a gun"! Therefore, whether it is the recruitment of soldiers in the army or the appointment and dismissal of personnel in the military and political affairs, they are all valid only after his personal confirmation. Others can make suggestions and recommend talents, but they cannot appoint them privately, let alone such private changes to the military system. If it is not dealt with today, someone will dare to expand the army and rebel next time.