Chapter 1 The Military Affairs Are Troublesome

Although the Huoqi Army and the Mengxue Army were nominally under the administration of the Liang Jun Chayue Fu (Two Armies Review Office), and nominally under the charge of Tan Weiming, the future ruler of Dongping, Tan Weiming actually had to follow his father to learn political strategy and various other affairs. Even when studying military affairs, the Imperial Guard Command would make proper arrangements, leaving him little time to spend in the Liang Jun Chayue Fu. Other officials from the Ministry of War, the Ministry of Revenue, and the Imperial Guard were not subordinate to each other, and their ranks were similar, making it impossible to say who was in charge of whom. The people from the Princess’s manor were even more inclined to follow Ye Tao’s lead. Thus, in the Liang Jun Chayue Fu, besides the various middle-ranking officials doing their jobs and managing what they could, a very unique situation was formed: Ye Tao, without any official position, was actually in charge of the Liang Jun Chayue Fu, controlling these six thousand men, all veterans and experienced soldiers and officers, forming a fighting force that was not too weak.

The affairs of the army were so complicated that Ye Tao, who only had experience commanding armies on the chessboard, was really overwhelmed by all kinds of messy things. Fortunately, his eldest brother, Guan Haishan, came to Danyang to help. With his great love and enthusiasm for architecture and landscaping, he took on the supervision of the construction of Tiecheng and the new urban area of Danyang; the daily business of the Yizhan Lou (Chess Battle Tower) was handled by the brothers Suo Yong and Suo Zheng; and the business of the Tiansuo Clock Shop was taken over by Du Fengchi, the young master of the Du family, who was now making the Du family's business in Danyang flourish. In dealing with wealthy clients, Du Fengchi, who had been managing inn businesses since childhood, was far more qualified than Ye Tao, who liked technology more than people. And the most important Ye Shi Gongfang (Ye Family Workshop) was personally taken over by Ye Lao Geng, who now held the title of Ziyilang Zhong (Advisory Secretary) of the Baigong Si (Craftsmen's Department) of the Ministry of Works. Tan Weixing affectionately called him "Uncle," which made him feel very uneasy, and he decided not to interfere in his son's personal affairs anymore. Although the Ye family still faced a shortage of capable personnel, it already had the momentum of a large family and a large enterprise, with several lines of business developing simultaneously.

Although the personnel of the army had been gradually finalized, and the candidates assigned to the two armies had also been decided, what about the garrisons? What about the training grounds? Although there were discussed plans and clauses, how to implement them specifically and how to supervise the implementation? How should the internal promotion and demotion system be linked to ability and the needs of different levels, and how much say should the commanders Qiu Haohui and Dai Yun have in this regard? Too many problems needed to be solved, but there was too little time.

After much deliberation, Ye Tao finally decided to organize a marching exercise when the personnel were complete, as the first competition between the two armies, and also to let those who had joined the two armies as trainee officers understand that the real army was different.

And based on the idea of combining public and private interests, the destination of this marching exercise was determined to be Yicheng.

At first, everyone agreed with this idea, but after Ye Tao, Dai Yun, and Qiu Haohui discussed and announced the specific evaluation methods, the faces of those originally excited "trainee officers" turned green. All the supervising officers and adjutants from the retired officers in the Mengxue Army and the Huoqi Army were transferred to each other, used to evaluate each other's various situations during the march. Each of the three thousand men from the two armies was divided into a detachment of three hundred men, and the trainee officers were responsible for all the work, including logistics and marching command. The arrangement of the march was also entirely determined by the trainee officers themselves. After they arrived at Yicheng, they were comprehensively evaluated according to the order in which each detachment arrived at Yicheng, and the mental outlook and physical condition at the time of arrival. What made everyone helpless was that the amount of money spent during the march was also one of the evaluation contents. After the various evaluation contents were listed in detail, and the calculation methods and weight ratios of each evaluation content were listed and distributed, everyone began to consider what kind of method they should use to win the exercise competition. But Ye Tao only gave everyone less than five days to prepare. In these five days, the trainee officers had to familiarize themselves with the troops they commanded, formulate marching and supply plans, and try to implement various arrangements… Even for veteran officers, it was not a simple matter, let alone for those rookies with enthusiasm but no experience? Qiu Haohui and Dai Yun were not included in the list of trainee officers for this evaluation because they had to continue to work with Ye Tao to implement various arrangements for the two armies in the future. This was to take care of Qiu Haohui so that he would not lose face after taking office for such a short time, making it difficult to control the army in the future, and also to prevent Dai Yun, who was too shrewd and powerful, from giving the Mengxue Army too much advantage in this trial-based exercise.

Since they understood that this was Ye Tao's way of giving everyone a warning, the supervising officers and adjutants were not polite and picked faults everywhere. These old soldiers might not be as prominent as the trainee officers, who were mostly from aristocratic families, but they had no problem using their stern or joking tone to drive the trainee officers crazy with various things, using guidance or criticism. The trainee officers, who were already at a loss, became even more flustered. Thus, five days later, twenty detachments set out in a hurry under the command of more than two hundred trainee officers. Afterwards, Ye Tao, Dai Yun, Qiu Haohui, and several officers from the Liang Jun Chayue Fu took several new and extremely comfortable four-wheeled carriages and headed towards Yicheng at their own pace.

Sometimes, Lu Dan really didn't know how to evaluate his current boss, this somewhat strange Ye Tao. Although Lu Dan had long understood that Ye Tao wanted to give those trainee officers who thought they already knew a lot about military affairs a little color to see, as a kind reminder, when the first batch of feedback information came a few days after the march began, he still felt a chill down his spine. He understood that it turned out that people could be tormented so wonderfully.

Among the old soldiers, there were certainly some who were kind enough to remind their "chief officers," but more of them were accepting the orders of their superiors in a muddle, under the deliberate or unintentional guidance of public opinion among their comrades, to watch the jokes. Thus, when Zeng Zining missed the normal time for cooking on the first day and hurriedly camped in the wild, he woke up the next morning to find the entire camp smelling bad and realized that he had forgotten to designate the location of the toilet when he was directing the soldiers to build the camp; Han Hanlin thought he could borrow the Dongping barracks along the way to stay temporarily, but when he arrived, he found that he did not have any documents proving that they belonged to the Dongping Ministry of War to let them enter the camp, and had to spend a lot of money to book several inns for the soldiers to stay; Xu Ping ordered the felling of trees to build the camp, but the next morning he was dragged by the owner of the forest and not allowed to leave, so he had to pay a fine... The jokes were far more than that. Those who didn't master the rhythm of the march and walked vigorously for a day, and then the whole army was exhausted the next day, were not considered major events. Even Chi Lei, who came from a military family and had sought guidance from his elder brother Chi Yun before departure, had such a thing happen as getting lost in the mountains and spending the night in the deep mountains, frightened by the howls of wild animals. Compiling the jokes that happened to everyone could keep the people who were watching now in a good mood for a long time.

At this time, Ye Tao, who was about to arrive at Yicheng, told Lu Dan to instruct the Yicheng garrison to prepare a venue, and all the troops arriving at Yicheng would rest for an hour before adding a physical fitness competition to test whether each detachment could immediately enter combat after reaching the destination...

Lu Dan dared to swear that he was observing Ye Tao's expression. When Ye Tao made such instructions, his expression was still so indifferent, as if he didn't care, without the smug grin that was unique to a master of tormenting people. On the contrary, Ye Tao seemed to be a little worried about whether these detachments could withstand such a journey. And when Ye Tao and his party arrived in Yicheng two days later, and accompanied by the Governor Peng Detian, visited the physical fitness training programs prepared for the various marching detachments that would arrive one after another, he ordered that after all the detachments had arrived, all the trainee officers should gather together to hold a "criticism and self-criticism" meeting, Lu Dan completely dispelled the idea of wanting to show off his skills in the Mengxue Army or the Huoqi Army as an old soldier.

"To temper their minds, starve their bodies, disrupt their actions, and then move their hearts and endure their nature, and increase what they cannot do..." Ye Tao's multi-pronged approach could definitely achieve such an effect, but it was a little too tormenting.

The first to arrive at Yicheng was indeed the detachment commanded by Chi Lei. For the last leg of the journey, Chi Lei had set out after noon the day before, then traveled day and night, and then arrived at Yicheng in the morning of the next day. However, Chi Lei was completely fooled by Ye Tao's added physical fitness test. In fact, he would have been the first even if he had marched according to the normal schedule, but this was an era of extremely underdeveloped communication, and he did not know the speed of other teams, so he had to try to take the lead. The soldiers were exhausted, and after resting for an hour, many people could not be awakened at all, it was better to conduct the test directly after arrival. Chi Lei, who wanted to cry but had no tears, looked ugly and didn't speak to Ye Tao for a whole day.

And the last detachment to arrive was actually the Zeng Zining detachment, which had made the most stinky joke. This pawnshop apprentice had indeed learned a lot along the way, and later almost suspected that there was something wrong with his IQ. However, Zeng Zining had spent the least amount of money along the way, and even made a deal with a caravan along the way to escort them for two days and earn a sum... Of course, this irregular thing would also become one of the anecdotes rather than a good story.

With so many jokes and so many embarrassing things, the "criticism and self-criticism" meeting convened by Ye Tao lasted from noon to night. This kind of meeting that made everyone expose their shortcomings was definitely not a "successful meeting, a victorious meeting," but it was full of laughter from beginning to end.

"Was it fun?" When the last leader of the trainee officers finished speaking, Ye Tao stood up. When the laughter and noise gradually subsided, he asked this.

Some said it was fun, some said it wasn't fun, and some hesitated to say what they felt. Everyone looked at each other, and there was no definite answer in the huge banquet hall for a while.

"Everyone knows, the real military affairs are different from the military affairs we learned from books and chess battles. This is why everyone who has read history books and can advise on military affairs and come up with ideas to defeat the enemy, there are all kinds of people, but those who can really control the troops and grasp the chance of victory in military conflicts are still those old soldiers who have dedicated their lives to the battlefield."

"Everyone is not an old soldier or a veteran, but they all think, or once thought, that they can be passionate youths who can gallop on the battlefield. People with dreams are happy, and those who have the opportunity to practice their dreams and even realize their dreams one day are enviable. However, through this exercise, I believe that everyone has a preliminary understanding of how difficult this road is. Hearing others repeat it countless times is not a simple road and cannot compare to a personal experience. After this experience, I don't know how many people here are still willing to insist on this road that may lead us to glory and dreams, or may lead us to difficulties and death, but will inevitably shape us to become stronger and stronger."

The banquet hall was silent. Ye Tao continued, "At least, we have all learned a lot, so this march has the most practical effect. I want to ask everyone, when you return to Danyang, are you going to have another round of competition? Do you have the confidence to do better than the nonsense along the way you came here?"

After about a second of silence, warm cheers erupted from the audience. For everyone, this was an opportunity, an opportunity to test whether they were suitable for military life, whether they could become qualified officers, and also an opportunity to turn the jokes that happened to them into a prelude to their success.

"Very good, I heard everyone's answer. Then, everyone please stand up, let us raise our glasses together for all the loyal souls who have shed blood, sweat, and even paid their lives on the battlefield, so that we can have the opportunity to fail and grow together here today, and then succeed together!"