Chapter 295 Personnel Appointment! ( words long chapter!)

Fengzhou, December 18th.

Ye Mingsheng, dressed in military uniform and with a sword on his waist, entered the camp in the north of the city without any notice, accompanied by hundreds of his personal soldiers. He went straight to the training ground to see the training situation of thousands of new recruits in the camp.

He Jingyun, who was directing the training, saw Ye Mingsheng coming and hurried over to greet him. However, Ye Mingsheng did not disturb his command of the training of the recruits. He made a sudden visit this time just to see the most realistic training situation of the recruits.

“Kill! Kill! Kill…”

“Whose food are we eating?”

"Marshal Ye's meal!"

"Whose clothes are we wearing?"

"Marshal Ye's clothes!"

“Who do we owe our allegiance to?”

"Swear to be loyal to Marshal Ye until death!"

Listening to the deafening slogans of thousands of new recruits who were training in the training ground, although he was used to not showing his emotions, Ye Mingsheng couldn't help but reveal a satisfied smile on his face.

In order to enhance the loyalty of his soldiers, Ye Mingsheng had been thinking about doing some ideological work for his soldiers when he was still in Luoan.

However, considering that the time was not yet ripe and he had no roots, if he did that and was reported and exposed, he would be killed without a burial place, so Ye Mingsheng was patient and waited until today.

Now that he is in Fengzhou, his own territory, Ye Mingsheng can naturally let go and do what he wants and let his subordinates engage in personal worship...

In addition to doing ideological work for the soldiers, Ye Mingsheng also put in a lot of effort to prevent his subordinates from following his example and becoming self-reliant and obeying orders but not decrees. In addition to firmly controlling the financial and personnel power, Ye Mingsheng also strictly prohibited his generals from recruiting soldiers privately and expanding the troops.

All the recruitment work must be carried out by people he sends to do the work. The recruits are all sent to the recruit camp for training. After three months of recruit period, they are distributed to various combat units.

And this camp in the north of the city is where the new recruits recruited by Ye Mingsheng are trained!

After watching the new recruits' training for a while, Ye Mingsheng was reaffirmed in his heart about He Jingyun's ability to train soldiers. It has only been more than a month, not to mention the combat effectiveness of the troops.

However, He Jingyun has already made these farmers have some sense of strict discipline. They can still complete the training tasks with quality and quantity in this cold environment, which is very rare now.
"General He, how many new soldiers are currently being trained in the North City Camp?" Ye Mingsheng asked:

"Reporting to the general, there are currently more than 5,000 soldiers in training in the North City Camp. According to the information passed on by Liu Tongzhi, it is expected that in the next two months, another 7,000 young and strong men will come to the North City Camp for training!" He Jingyun replied respectfully:

Ye Mingsheng nodded slightly when he heard this. A month and a half ago, under his order, Fengzhou Tongzhi Liu Zhengxian had officially counted that there were a total of 3,700 hectares of unowned fertile land in Fengzhou. In addition, there were at least tens of thousands of hectares of wasteland suitable for farming but not yet developed...
After confirming the resources at hand, Ye Mingsheng, his generals, and officials from the Fengzhou government jointly held several meetings, trying to reach a balance between the needs of the army and the capabilities of the Fengzhou government, and finally determined his immigration plan.

The young and strong laborers who immigrated to Fengzhou could each be allocated three acres of private land and could rent seven acres of land from the government.

Three acres of private land are exempt from taxes for three years, and seven acres of land rented from the government are required to pay one-third of the grain tax each year.

In addition, Ye Mingsheng also took into consideration that the immigrant farmers were too poor and had no production tools, so he personally invested and purchased a large number of farm tools from the Dalongchang Company at cost price, and provided them to the Fengzhou government, asking the government to rent these farm tools to the immigrant farmers for free...

As a time traveler, although Ye Mingsheng knew from history books that peasants in the feudal period were very eager for land, he still underestimated the extent of their desire.

The Great Zhou Dynasty, which lasted for hundreds of years, had a serious problem of land annexation, in addition to the decline of the prestige of the imperial court and the separatist rule of many towns. In order to avoid harsh taxes, ordinary people could only sell their land to gentry and then become tenants of the gentry landlords and work for them.

Even so, the common people can only get no more than 10% of the food after working hard for a year. They can only barely make ends meet, and there is no quality of life to speak of. If they encounter some disaster or disease, they can't even afford medicine and can only leave it to fate. Such a life can be said to be extremely miserable...

Therefore, against the backdrop of Ye Mingsheng's great defeat of the Khitans, the poor masses who had long been oppressed by the gentry class were all excited when they heard that they could get land in Fengzhou and be exempted from taxes. In the first month after the immigration policy was introduced, tens of thousands of people flocked to Fengzhou from all over Liaoyang.

With the population, the problem of military personnel was naturally solved. At this time, Ye Mingsheng introduced his own conscription policy.

Any family that settled in Fengzhou and had family members joining the army could receive an additional five acres of private tax-free military land from the government. In addition, the land rented from the government was exempt from rent and the whole family was exempt from corvée labor. After the three-year tax-free period for land ended, the tax was halved.

Under such favorable conditions, almost every family that immigrated to Fengzhou would send a young man to join the army. For a while, Ye Mingsheng’s military camp was actually overcrowded...

"General He, your next job is to select the best from the best and eliminate some people from the team!" Ye Mingsheng ordered He Jingyun:

Hearing Ye Mingsheng's order, He Jingyun's eyes showed some surprise. In his eyes, Ye Mingsheng has always been an ambitious person, so shouldn't his requirement for soldiers be the more the better?
Seeing He Jingyun's expression, Ye Mingsheng naturally knew what he was thinking. In order to let He Jingyun understand his decision and better execute the task he had assigned, Ye Mingsheng immediately explained:

"With the elimination mechanism, these new recruits will feel the pressure, and they will work harder during training, and the combat effectiveness of the troops will be better guaranteed!"

"Besides, there are too many people joining the army. We in Fengzhou cannot afford to support so many soldiers!" I plan to divide the newly recruited soldiers into two parts. Those with outstanding performance will be included in my Zhenwu Army as usual, and those who are eliminated will form the rural army and the security camp as a reserve force. In normal times, they will farm, mine, and engage in production. When a war breaks out, they will be added to the Zhenwu Army!"

Hearing Ye Mingsheng's thorough explanation, He Jingyun naturally understood everything. He nodded and asked Ye Mingsheng again:

"Then I wonder how many people you want to eliminate, sir?"

Regarding this question, Ye Mingsheng originally wanted He Jingyun to decide it himself, but after thinking about it, he gave an answer.

"Four percent!"

Ye Mingsheng originally had three battalions and a cavalry unit, totaling 7,000 people. After a battle with the Khitans, about 1,000 people were killed. In addition to some wounded soldiers who were unable to fight, the total loss was about 2,000 people.

Ye Mingsheng's initial goal was to expand the army to 15,000 people, which meant that Ye Mingsheng had to recruit 10,000 young and strong men. Judging from the current enthusiasm of the masses for joining the army, at least 40% of the people should be eliminated...
"Got it, my lord!"

He Jingyun received the order and said:

After the recruits finished their training, Ye Mingsheng, the general, stood up at the invitation of He Jingyun and gave everyone a speech.

Ye Mingsheng has been an officer for a while. Although he had no experience in giving speeches before, he is getting more and more experienced now. With just a few words, he can narrow the distance between himself and the officers and soldiers, mobilize the soldiers' emotions, and make more than 5,000 soldiers applaud and cheer loudly...
At the end of the speech, Ye Mingsheng announced that there would be no limit on the amount of meat dishes for the extra meal today, so everyone could eat as much as they wanted. He personally awarded the soldiers who performed exceptionally well in the training, giving them the honorary title of Tiger Guard, as well as rewards such as silver, cloth, and food.

These measures greatly enhanced Ye Mingsheng's glorious and majestic image in the minds of the soldiers, as well as the enthusiasm of the recruits for training.

After completing all his activities in the North City Camp, Ye Mingsheng returned to Fengzhou City. His inspection of the North City Camp was not only to see the actual training situation of the recruits, but also to conduct research for his next decision!
Returning to the study in the general's mansion, Ye Mingsheng, who had already made up his mind, immediately wrote down a few orders.

After the training of new recruits in Chengbei Camp

Draw new soldiers to supplement the losses of the first, second and third battalions and the cavalry team in the last battle!
New recruits were selected to form the Fourth Battalion, some military attachés from the Third Battalion and some members of the Royal Guard were transferred to support the formation of the Fourth Battalion, and Ye Tie, the former sentry chief of the Third Battalion, was transferred as the commander of the Fourth Battalion!

New recruits were selected to form the Fifth Battalion, and some military attachés from the First Battalion and some members of the Royal Guard were removed to support the formation of the Fifth Battalion. Xun Ke, the former sentry commander of the First Battalion, was transferred as the commander of the Fifth Battalion!
New recruits were selected to expand the cavalry team into a cavalry battalion, and the former cavalry team sentry leader Guo Zhiping was promoted to commander!

Chen Chuanwu, former sentry commander of the third battalion, was promoted to deputy commander of the third battalion.

Zhang Qinghua, the former sentry chief of the First Battalion, was promoted to deputy commander of the First Battalion, and Ma Zhongjun, the military attaché of the First Battalion, was promoted to sentry chief.

Within a month, after the Fourth Battalion was formed, it was transferred to Xiangshuiyuan to protect the trade route and replace Yuan Song's First Battalion. After the First Battalion was repaired, it was transferred to Xinfa County together with the newly formed Fifth Battalion to replace Lin Huaiwu's Second Battalion.

Since the army has been expanded, some talents must be promoted. Therefore, the promotion of Ye Tie, Xun Ke and Guo Zhiping is reasonable.

First of all, Xun Ke was an unexpected surprise for Ye Mingsheng this time...

Although Ye Mingsheng knew that He Jingyun was very capable and resourceful, he hired him more to alienate the small group around He Jingyun and achieve the goal of warning He Jingyun.

However, what was unexpected was that Xun Ke did an excellent job in the First Battalion. In the battle against the Khitans, he assisted Lin Huaiwu in blocking the fleeing Khitan army for a whole day, creating an opportunity for Ye Mingsheng to lead a large army to arrive and inflict heavy damage on the Khitans.

Although the battle report stated that this battle was commanded by Lin Huaiwu and assisted by Xun Ke, based on Ye Mingsheng's understanding of Lin Huaiwu's abilities, he guessed that this battle should be commanded by Xun Ke and Lin Huaiwu was the one who assisted.

Of course, no matter who is the commander and who is the assistant, the only thing that is certain is that Xun Ke is very capable!
He made great contributions in the battle against the Khitans!

In addition, according to Huo San's surveillance report, not only did Xun Ke and He Jingyun lose contact, but their relationship had deteriorated a lot.

Taking all these situations into consideration, Ye Mingsheng, who needed talented people to work for him, felt more confident and bold in promoting Xun Ke, an old subordinate of He Jingyun.

The second person promoted to commander was Guo Zhiping!
In the battle against the Khitans, Guo Zhiping's cavalry team tied down the main force of the Khitans when guarding the camp, and slowed down the enemy's speed when pursuing, which also made considerable military achievements. However, some military officers headed by He Jingyun also had some opinions on his promotion...

Ye Mingsheng himself was a military officer from the Imperial Guards, so the army under his command mainly continued the military officer system of the Imperial Guards. Except for Guo Zhiping, all of them were orthodox military officers.

Although no one showed it openly because of Ye Mingsheng's trust and importance to Guo Zhiping, but except Ye Tie, everyone secretly despised Guo Zhiping, who came from a bandit family and accepted the amnesty.

The last time Ye Mingsheng handed the cavalry to Guo Zhiping, a group of people were very dissatisfied. It was Ye Mingsheng who relied on his prestige in the army and his control over the army to forcefully overcome all objections and put Guo Zhiping in the position...

In this battle against the Khitans, Guo Zhiping won respect and dignity in the army with his solid military exploits, and told everyone that he did not disappoint Ye Mingsheng's trust in him! He made Ye Mingsheng proud!
So this time, Ye Mingsheng also fulfilled the promise he made to Guo Zhiping when he recruited him, that he would give priority to promoting Guo Zhiping to commander once the army was expanded.

Ye Mingsheng wanted to use the example of Guo Zhiping to set an example for the generals in the army and tell everyone that his subordinates only valued military exploits and did not care about their backgrounds. If they established meritorious services, they would definitely be rewarded!

In addition to this, Ye Mingsheng also had a deeper plan for the promotion of Guo Zhiping. Where there are people, there are rivers and lakes, especially in a place like the military. He had to make plans early and use Guo Zhiping as a chess piece to balance the situation, to prepare for a rainy day and prevent trouble before it happens...
(End of this chapter)