Chapter 467 Develop your ambitions

Chapter 467 Develop your ambitions

The structure of the foreign army in Bafu was established, and the Chinese army sergeants became professional soldiers like the Xianbei sergeants before. The foreign army was the township, Tuan, state, and county soldiers, and the organization and management were still very loose.

In order to reflect the overlord's management power and authority over these township regiments, the overlord brought local powerful and armed forces under control by selecting the chiefs of the townships and granting them military power.

Needless to say, whether these selected state chiefs have outstanding virtues and reputations is secondary. The most important thing is that they have the largest number of private tribes and are the most powerful group of people in the township. Only in this way can a local military system be quickly established and the effect maximized.

However, Huazhou is the seat of the Bafu, and many Beizhen military leaders have settled here. Compared with other areas, it is naturally different. The powerful people in the township obviously have little say.

Guo Yan was born in the Guo family of Taiyuan. Because his ancestors served as officials in Kansai and settled in Fengyi County, Huazhou, he was considered a prominent family in the county. However, in fact, neither his hometown reputation nor his clan power was worthy of the high reputation of being the head of the state. . He was chosen as the chief minister, obviously because of the decision-making of the Bafu rather than the village recommendation or because he deserved the title.

In the final analysis, Bafu still does not want local local forces in Huazhou to be too strong. Guo Yan had to choose Zhou Changming as the commander-in-chief of Wuxiang County. The logic behind it was the same, they didn't want to support a too strong representative of local forces.

Zhou Changming's position as commander-in-chief was donated to him by Li Taizhen, who had been conscientiously involved in river defense and the reorganization of the Chinese army for several years before he was able to stabilize his position.

Although Guo Yan was also a well-known figure in the countryside, his previous experience was as a civil servant in the Taiwan government and as a court official. He had no experience in commanding troops in combat. He was suddenly given the position of being in charge of the local soldiers in the state, and he was inevitably a little at a loss.

If changes in authority only require self-adjustment and adaptation to gradually get on the right track, then in some cases it is completely beyond his ability. Because the number of soldiers in the township regiment was seriously insufficient, no matter how much he adjusted, it would not help.

In the military organizational structure of Bafu, the prefectures, counties and township regiments are the reserves and supplements of the Chinese army. They are responsible for local security and relatively easy combat tasks, and sometimes have to provide combat assistance to the Chinese army, such as building fortifications, Transport baggage, etc.

In some places, such as several states in western Henan, the powerful private soldiers are the most important military force, and their combat effectiveness is no less than that of the Bafu Central Army.

Although Huazhou is the seat of the Overlord, and the Chinese army brigade is also permanently stationed here, it does not mean that the state, county and township regiments are not important. On the contrary, more armed township regiments are needed. One is naturally to serve as an auxiliary soldier of the Chinese army, and the other is to participate in river defense and repair fortifications. There are also many other tasks.

Prefecture, county and township regiments are not regular armies. They need to raise at least half of their own supplies and supplies, and they do not have a fixed station. They often gather and disperse when things are done, such as the grand parades held in the past years, Last year there was a crisis like the army pressing down on the border, and there was also ice digging at the river mouth every year, etc.

Guo Yan had to lead the rural soldiers last year, and it went smoothly at the beginning. He handled the military affairs of the Huazhou rural soldiers in an orderly manner before and after the Battle of Yubi. However, after the rural soldiers were disbanded and returned to their hometowns last winter, problems began to arise one after another, and the biggest problem was the large shortage of battalion soldiers.

"Last winter, the township regiment was disbanded on the spot. We originally ordered the masses to gather in the camp at the turn of March and April in late spring, after the farming work came to an end, to train in martial arts and take turns to guard the river. But now the military period is approaching, and we should have gathered eight There are only more than three thousand soldiers from thousands of villages in the camp at the moment, and among them there are more than a thousand powerful chieftains from the Di tribe who have moved in. "

When Guo Yan talked about this, he had a bitter look on his face again, and after a long sigh he continued: "In the past few days, I have been visiting my hometown frequently to visit the wise elders, but they only complained to me, and the soldiers were scattered among the wild woodcutter. It is difficult for them to gather together to reclaim wasteland..."

After listening to Guo Yan's story, Li Tai understood in his heart and understood why Guo Yan came to him for help.

The so-called rural regiment armed forces did not generally recruit strong men from the countryside as soldiers. They mainly consisted of rural defense garrison troops and powerful private soldiers who already existed and were well organized. For example, the Shangyang garrison where Zhou Changming was previously located was part of the township regiment.

Guo Yan was able to successfully complete the task last year, but this year he couldn't even get the basic personnel together. To put it bluntly, it is not a problem of his people's ability, but that Bafu's rule is still not enough to deter the penetration of order in the countryside.

This person is neither the chief minister elected by the village, but selected and appointed by the Bafu, so his authority comes from the Bafu rather than the village. Last year, Gao Huan's army surrounded the jade, and everyone in the village was naturally in danger. Of course, there are more people and strength, and only by gathering together can we deal with the danger of military disaster.

But now that the danger has been lifted, of course everyone is still busy with their own affairs. Guo Yan himself lacked prestige and appeal in the countryside, and his family had to do hard military service. If he could give an order and gather the countrymen, or invite everyone to drink and eat meat, of course there would be no such difficulty.

His own prestige was not enough to summon the rural soldiers again, so Guo Yan of course had to ask for help from someone who could do it. But as the Bafu intends to suppress the local nostalgia forces in Huazhou, there are really not many such people, and Li Tai is the person most likely to have such influence.

Li Tai's current reputation is not limited to Shang Yuan. Although he does not often stay in his hometown, the influence and impact of the alliance he has established is getting bigger and bigger. This time he returned to his hometown and gathered more and more people. His popularity is enough to reflect the grandeur of his hometown voice. Guo Yan came to ask him for help, and he went to the right temple gate.

"I said before that the reputation of the village is not as good as mine, but I am not being modest. But since I have accepted the position, I must do my best. Now that my reputation is not good enough, I am really ashamed. But if one person fails in his duty, and the villagers are misled by me and accused of being tough and difficult to use, it will be even more against the village's loyalty. I know that General Zhou has a deep friendship with Xihe Public, so I boldly ask for an introduction."

When Guo Yan said this, he changed his body from bowing to kneeling, and said sincerely: "I am just a person who steals the reputation, so I don't have to pity him. But if the villagers are slandered because of my incompetence, the people will not be able to let it go. Xihe Public has a high gate. Today, I am lucky enough to sit before the table. Please give me a small seat so that I can listen to your teachings for a long time. I am very grateful!"

When Li Tai saw this scene, he quickly got up from the table and walked around the table to help Guo Yan up, but Guo Yan just bowed deeply and couldn't get up.

Zhou Changming also stood up and stood aside to help Guo Yan, saying, "General Guo always expressed his respect for you when he talked about your deeds with others. He especially admired you for your good deeds that benefited the villagers. Today, I came to pay my respects to you, first telling you about my worries and sufferings, and then asking you to serve me. This is also frank and sincere, not for stealing reputation and confusing the masses."

Li Tai has also faced many people who have come to him to seek his support during this period of time. He is already accustomed to this situation, but today's experience is a little different.

The Guo Yan in front of him is not an ordinary person, but the current head of Huazhou. Although he is not truly worthy of the title, since the Bafu has awarded him this honor, it is obvious that they appreciate and value him.

But now, the head of Huazhou selected by the Bafu is kneeling in front of him and begging him to be his disciple. To be honest, this really makes Li Tai feel a little vain. Is the day when Luke will lead the revolution another day coming?

Putting aside Guo Yan's plea, Li Tai couldn't just sit back and watch.

As Guo Yan said, if he couldn't handle the Huazhou soldiers, he would be derelict in his duty, but the Huazhou folk sentiment would definitely leave a very negative impression on the Bafu. This place is the foundation of the Bafu. If there is really rebellion everywhere, it must be cleaned up. At that time, Li Tai's series of arrangements for rural affairs will naturally be greatly affected.

So after thinking about it, he said to Guo Yan: "I have also seen General Guo's previous affairs. He is indeed a capable person. He is willing to humble himself in this door and make my hall shine. There are no complicated rules in the household, but we must be united and help each other. If you do anything that damages the reputation and morality of the family, you will be punished!"

Guo Yan recommended himself as Li Tai's disciple. Of course, he valued Li Tai's super prestige in the village. With this opportunity, he can be generally valued by the villagers as the head of the state, and it will be easier to do things.

If there is gain, of course, there must be something to pay. Although disciples are not slaves, they also have to share the benefits brought by the power and prestige of the master, and of course they have to be loyal and serve in return.

"Thank you, Master, thank you for accepting me! I will abide by the family rules and promote the family tradition, and I dare not violate it."

Guo Yan hurriedly bowed again and said, a big stone in his heart finally fell. With the reputation of this master, the villagers dared not ignore him anymore.

After thinking about it, Li Tai said to Zhou Changming: "If Changming is not in a hurry to return to the mansion to do his job, then I will trouble you to visit the homes of the villagers in the near future and tell them that I will host a banquet in the household, and introduce the new people in the household to meet the villagers, get to know each other, and get along well in the future."

In addition to Guo Yan in front of him, he also accepted other disciples. These people not only work in various mansions, but also arrange and manage some household affairs if necessary, and they will inevitably have to deal with the villagers, so it is also necessary to introduce each other.

"Since it is your order, I will definitely do it." Zhou Changming said hurriedly after hearing this, and then sighed: "If it weren't for the soldiers in the camp, I really want to return to your command with Quji." Da Xiwu released Li Quji with satisfaction after asking Li Tai for a while. However, Zhou Changming led the army based on the original Wuxiang County Township Group. If other generals were replaced, they might not be able to mobilize them freely, and the transfer of positions would be restricted, so he still belonged to the right army commander He Lanxiang. It is said that Zhou Changming needs to visit the village to inform the masses, but this time when Li Tai returned to his hometown, many village nobles had their clansmen personally rush to Shangyuan to welcome the party, and they have not left yet, so they only need to go around Shangyuan for a week to notify everyone. A few days later, the village banquet to introduce students to the villagers was held in Shangyuan. All the students who had joined Li Tai in recent years and were now in Shangyuan came out to meet the villagers gathered here.

These people may not be born here, and some even came to Shangyuan for the first time with Li Tai, but because of their relationship with Li Tai, they also received the sincere welcome, warm praise and sincere encouragement from the villagers, hoping that they can create greater merits under the leadership of Li Tai.

Guo Yan, who was also among them, also caused quite a stir at the banquet. Before, his reputation in the village was not so well-known that he quickly became well-known after becoming the top leader of the state, but he received the most sarcasm and resentment, and the few congratulations and encouragement came only from relatives and friends.

However, this time, when Guo Yan attended the village banquet as a student of Li Tai, he was treated much better than before. Even before the banquet was over, some village tycoons took the initiative to find him to discuss the gathering of village soldiers.

Li Tai was neither a state official nor a foreign military governor, so he could not openly intervene in the gathering and dispersal of rural soldiers. He did not mention this matter at all at the rural banquet. But many things do not require direct verbal expression. Just by accepting Guo Yan as his disciple, the people attending the meeting can interpret a lot of information.

It was already late March, and Guo Yan did not have time to stay in Shangyuan for a long time. After attending this banquet, he stayed overnight and set off in a hurry, heading straight to Chaozhou, east of Huazhou City, along the Yellow River. Go away.

This is the gathering place for the state army and local soldiers. The camp is large enough to accommodate tens of thousands of soldiers stationed here. When Guo Yan visited here for inspection before, there were still few troops stationed in the camp and the camp was empty. But when he returned this time, more than 2,000 rural soldiers arrived and settled in.

In the next few days, various parties led the armed troops of the rural regiments to rush to the Chaoshan camp in an endless stream, looking at each other on the way. Finally, before the arrival of April, the number of armed rural soldiers stationed in the camp reached more than 10,000.

Naturally, there were rural soldiers who obeyed the previous orders and arrived as scheduled, but Guo Yan also understood that if he had not become Li Tai's disciple and used the master's prestige in the countryside, he would not have been able to gather them as scheduled based on the previous military orders alone. There were so many rural soldiers.

So while happily reporting to the Foreign Army Governor's Office, Guo Yan also did not forget to send someone to Shangyuan to report the news. This feeling of finding a powerful supporter of the organization is really wonderful.

Even if he had lived in the village for more than thirty years before, coupled with the honor and blessing given to him by the Taiwan government as the head of the village, Guo Yan could not make Guo Yan feel as important as he is to the village now!

For Guo Yan, the big difficulty that threatens his future is just a small episode for Li Tai, who has accepted an extra disciple. At the moment, the most important thing for him is to enjoy the rare leisure time during his wedding vacation. When the situation in Henan develops further, it will be difficult for him to have such leisure again even if he will not go to Henan in person in his current position.

So during the past few days, he accompanied the newlyweds on a leisurely tour of the countryside during the day, and at night he gathered with family members to learn about the development of public and private industries and discuss the next plan.

Nowadays, he is involved in military and political affairs and is very important in the Bafu. Unless Yuwentai plans to continue to attack Jinyang in the Eastern Wei Dynasty in northern Shaanxi, he will not return to northern Shaanxi to take charge in the short term.

However, now his personnel arrangements in northern Shaanxi are very rich and he has a very solid foundation. Unless Bafu wants to focus on operating northern Shaanxi as the Kinki states and wipe out all his personnel arrangements. It is difficult to shake his current control in northern Shaanxi.

Next, in northern Shaanxi, the farmland will of course continue to develop and expand in scale. Moreover, the victory in the Battle of Yubi also made the salt profit in Hedong more stable and predictable, greatly increasing its attractiveness to the current times. It was a good opportunity to promote a wave of opening methods.

If the powerful people in Kansai want to join the salt industry and share profits, Kaizhongfa also provides them with a convenient and easy-to-operate way. Li Tai's dream of gathering many local tycoons from Kansai to go to northern Shaanxi to be his tenants will surely come true soon.

In order to promote the implementation and development of this policy, he even planned to give up some of his interests in northern Shaanxi to attract more people to join.

Although the north is not the main military base of the Western Wei Dynasty, the pressure on border defense is also not small, and the replacement of old and new overlords is about to occur on the Mobei grassland, whether it is to take advantage of the chaos to receive part of the inheritance after the decline of Rouran, or to avoid Turks in the coming year. When you are the dominant player, you need to make arrangements early.

If northern Shaanxi can stably supply border defense supplies and army supplies, then when Li Tai comes to power, he will have the confidence and foundation to drink from the Mayin Mountains and attack Mobei after finishing Northern Qi!

Of course, these are very long-term assumptions, and there are also plans for the present. As Bafu's work of selling resources in various counties, mountains and marshes began vigorously, Li Tai also continued to buy properties everywhere.

Although he is now unparalleled in Huazhou Township, looking at the whole of Kansai, there are still many local snakes that are difficult to resolve. Any conflict of interest with the locals will be very difficult.

But if we want to attract some of the personnel assets of these local powerful people to northern Shaanxi through the Kaizhong method, then we will have the means to check and deal with these local powerful people: If you dare to make things difficult for me in the countryside, I will dare to do it to you in northern Shaanxi!

So when Gao Bin came to say goodbye to him after taking office in Xihe County, Li Tai also specifically asked him to strengthen investment promotion through a series of preferential policies, first to increase the popularity and attract the assets of various counties. Only in the past can you live a good life in the future.

After a few days of taking a break from the busy schedule and enjoying the relaxed and comfortable life of newlyweds in the country, as the time entered April, there was an urgent order from the Taifu to go to the countryside, and they were ordered to return to the Taifu quickly.

Because the situation in Henan has further developed, after remaining strangely silent about Hou Jing's rebellion for more than two consecutive months, the Eastern Wei Dynasty finally made further moves and sent troops from Yedu south to quell the rebellion.

He always had to pay back the money he went out to live in. Li Tai complained in his heart that his marriage leave was greatly reduced, but he didn't know that the reason was that he had robbed Jinyang before, so Gao Cheng seized the opportunity to deal with his cousin Cui. Accompanied by Cui, Gao Cheng went on a tour of Hebei provinces. The state went smoothly, and he arrived in Yedu in advance to send troops to quell the rebellion, which in turn led to his marriage leave ending early.

The heat is steaming and the heat is uncomfortable. Today is a big chapter. Everyone should pay attention to preventing heatstroke. . .