Chapter 12 Inexplicable Personnel Changes

Having spoken with Tan Weishi a few times without any results, Ye Tao accepted the fact that Tan Weishi would have to follow his group back to Yunzhou. In Ye Tao's view, although Tan Weishi was somewhat unhappy, she accepted this fact extremely calmly.

But what happened next was a bit ominous. Hearing that Tan Weishi was going to Yunzhou for a "tour," Dai Xi, who had become Tan Weiran's wife but had not diminished her free and easy personality, volunteered to be Tan Weishi's guide and immediately began to arrange various matters for returning to Yunzhou. Tan Weiran doted on this beautiful wife very much. Since he didn't have any other duties at the moment, he hesitated for a while and said that he also wanted to go to Yunzhou to take a look. Surprisingly, Tan Xiaopei agreed without hesitation.

Whether it was Tan Weiran and Dai Xi, Tan Weishi, or Ye Tao and Tan Weixin, everyone was actively preparing to go to Yunzhou, but the departure date had not yet been determined. They were all waiting for General Xu's return. On the day Ye Tao returned to Danyang, Tan Xiaopei sent a letter summoning Xu Jingtao, the Yunzhou Pacification Commissioner and Left General, back to the capital to report on his duties.

The old general had perfectly completed the first stage of Yunzhou's strategic plan in Dongping. He reorganized all the armed forces within Yunzhou, completely integrating the original Tieyun Cavalry (Iron Cloud Cavalry), tribal soldiers from various tribes, local garrison troops, and those Tuntian troops (military farms) who had retired after serving their terms but were ready for temporary conscription at all levels. He also began to integrate the Yunzhou tribal cavalry forces into Yunzhou's military system.

According to Dai Yun's original statement, Yunzhou could indeed summon more than 200,000 troops of various levels at any time, but after the old general's reorganization, this number was reduced by more than half. The old general confiscated all the farmlands owned by the families of the surrendered and wavering factions that had been conveniently eliminated by the Dai family before and after the Yunzhou campaign. Then, he issued a "Land Grant Order," giving these properties to the demobilized soldiers. The soldiers and their families temporarily practiced a quasi-military Tuntian system. They formed dozens of military farms and military pastures of varying sizes. All farms maintained less than one-third of their personnel for low-intensity military training, focusing on training in material transportation and distribution. The ownership of these farms and pastures scattered throughout Yunzhou would be gradually transferred to the Yunzhou Veterans Association within the next ten to twenty years. The overall scale of the population of these military industries would remain relatively stable. The lives of those who lived on these farms and pastures in the future would be guaranteed by the Yunzhou Veterans Association. The children who grew up in these industries were exposed to a relatively strong military and quasi-military environment from an early age, familiar with the military system and lifestyle, and would be a good source of soldiers. After these children grew up, if they chose the path of joining the army, they could bring their families to the farms or pastures. Those who engaged in other jobs would need to leave. Leaving was just a choice. Although Yunzhou was still a quasi-military system, after Ye Tao's wild and imaginative arrangements, the Yunzhou economy had shown a vigorous trend in the process of various purchases by merchants and investment in the construction of industries. As long as one was willing to work hard, endure hardship, and concentrate on learning various knowledge and skills, there was no possibility of starving to death. The Yunzhou Veterans Association, temporarily managed by Dai Shikui, paid great attention to this part of the personnel who were diverted from the military system and recommended quite good jobs for many of them. Since Yunzhou would strictly implement the policy of exempting only children from conscription in non-wartime situations in the future, a considerable number of people would flow into various industries. There were many dexterous people among them. Dai Shikui had recommended no less than a thousand people to Qian Shun to participate in the construction of the Yunzhou branch of the Ye Family Workshop and to receive preliminary training, preparing to switch to becoming craftsmen in the future.

This part was just the veterans. General Xu considered the people in various aspects of Yunzhou who provided various services to the army and took different measures. For those institutions that provided basic materials such as grain, medicine, and wood, General Xu consulted the opinions of the heads of those families or villages and implemented a "market economy" transition across the board. Everyone could participate equally in the bidding for Yunzhou military procurement in the future, but the Yunzhou military would no longer promise them a purchase quota. Although it sounded a bit scary, many of these basic materials were Yunzhou specialties. Even if they reached other parts of Dongping, or anywhere in the world, there would be no shortage of sales channels. As for those farmers and villages who had been conscientiously growing grain and selling it to the Dai family, allowing the Dai family to have grain to support the army, they were even less worried. In Yunzhou, after the war, while efforts were being made to reduce the army, the demand for grain increased by about 10% due to the influx of a large number of passengers, and the price increased by about 3%... General Xu handled the craftsmen who were linked to the army in different ways depending on the circumstances. All the military equipment workshops were shut down, and officials from the Ministry of Industry were sent to count and verify them, inspecting the production level of each public or private workshop. The Yunzhou Pacification Commissioner's Office temporarily issued subsidies to the craftsmen of these military equipment workshops and conducted large-scale training... This part of the training had become the largest order in the history of the Ye Family Workshop's training department, which was undergoing a transition. If the workshops for leather goods, military uniforms, and the like could pass the inspection and the quality was qualified, they would soon receive orders from the Ministry of War of Dongping... The Dongping army also had a large demand for equipment replacement. Although Dongping's craftsmanship was quite exquisite in other aspects, the level of leather tanning and leather goods production was problematic due to the lack of large-scale animal husbandry support. The products produced in Yunzhou, mainly horse equipment and leather armor, would soon be used to arm the Dongping army. Although the main combat army of Dongping had decided to use metal armor as much as possible in the future, the city defense forces in various places still needed a lot of leather armor and the like. As General Xu played this trick, the demobilization of the army not only did not plunge Yunzhou's production into depression, but became even more prosperous. The large number of orders from the Ministry of War alone was enough for Yunzhou's production system, which was still dominated by small and medium-sized workshops, to be busy for half a year or a year.

In fact, these arrangements had nothing to do with the old general's core responsibility of preparing the army and ensuring Yunzhou's security. However, the old general adopted many suggestions and implemented these measures that were conducive to Yunzhou's stability one by one, not only ensuring the peace and prosperity of the people of Yunzhou, ensuring the lives of veterans and their families, but also leaving great room for reform in the future. The old general didn't understand economics very well, and he didn't want to pretend to understand it. What he had to do was to ensure temporary security. After that, there would naturally be a suitable second Yunzhou Pacification Commissioner to deal with these issues.

The old general's performance in his core mission was even more impressive. He believed that Yunzhou had a vast area, almost as large as two or three states within the original territory of Dongping. The population was sparse, and the towns were not dense. In this case, once a war broke out, organizing a large number of troops to resist step by step was not in line with the current situation in Yunzhou. He set the development direction of the Yunzhou army in two directions: first, a strong reconnaissance and deterrent capability, and second, a strong mobility and campaign organization capability. In the old general's view, if Yunzhou could have 100,000 troops with sufficient mobility, the previous Yunzhou campaign could have been fought in a completely different way. For example, abandoning Benlang Plain (Running Wolf Plain), confronting the northern tribes with the Di River as the boundary, concentrating the entire army and fighting a decisive battle with Xiling. After winning the battle, the entire army could go north to take Benlang Plain directly or continue to confront the northern tribes in Benlang Plain. It was optional to fight a battle with Northern Liao first. With the support of tribal cavalry, Yunzhou only needed elite corps. The old general transferred the officers of the Blood Kirin Army who remained in Yunzhou. In addition to a small number of people continuing to participate in the reorganization and training of the Tieyun Cavalry, he formed the Jingyun Cavalry with the Blood Kirin Army officers as the core. The Jingyun Cavalry temporarily had only about 4,000 people and would gradually expand to 30,000 people in the future, keeping the same size as the Tieyun Cavalry. After the Jingyun Cavalry team was built and the training was on the right track, it would continue to absorb Yunzhou tribal youths to expand, using the spirit of excellence and pioneering spirit that the Blood Kirin Army officers had become accustomed to, to make the powerful tribal cavalry even stronger. In addition, the old general also formed three smaller cavalry units, namely the Leiqi (Thunder Cavalry), a unit directly under the Yunzhou Pacification Commissioner's Office with an establishment of 5,000 people, and the Silver Wing Outpost Army and Frost Wolf Outpost Army, each with an establishment of 6,000 people...

The Silver Wing and Frost Wolf armies were established to implement the old general's idea of strong reconnaissance and deterrent capabilities. In the previous battles, the old general fully realized how convenient it was to have a strong, professional, multi-skilled scout cavalry team with specialized weapons and equipment. For this reason, regardless of the Ministry of War, the commander of the Forbidden Army, and other parties coming to ask for people, he resolutely kept Chi Lei, who was probably the best scout cavalry commander in the world at the moment, in Yunzhou, appointed him as the commander of the two armies, and let him organize the troops according to his own ideas. The Frost Wolf and Silver Wing armies were still the first units to reach the full quota, and even exceeded it, because the old general allowed Chi Lei to choose people first, and the people he eliminated were then handed over to other units to choose. This also formed a new tradition in the Yunzhou army.

Speaking of which, the old general should be more proficient in infantry. However, the original infantry in Yunzhou made him speechless. In addition to gathering elites selected from the various infantry units, mainly the Dai family's clan soldiers, to form an infantry of 20,000 people, the old general really couldn't think of anything else to do. Among these 20,000 infantrymen, 10,000 were stationed on the shore of Snow Wolf Lake, training and ensuring the large-scale construction of the Ye Family Workshop's factory buildings, while the other 10,000 were scattered in various places, assisting the 20,000 Forbidden Army and city defense forces from Danyang who entered Yunzhou in several batches to maintain local治安 (zhì ān, public order).

Yunzhou now has only a little over 100,000 troops, including the military forces transferred from Dongping. However, the combat effectiveness of these 100,000 troops is different from the 200,000 troops that could be mobilized before. Yunzhou's integration into Dongping means the convergence of military systems in the two places. Although the Tan family started as warlords, they have always strictly implemented the elite soldier strategy and rarely conscripted the people into the army to fight at will. Even in particularly urgent situations, there is a very strict three-level conscription system. It should be known that in the Battle of Xunshan Pass, where the Blood Kirin Army emerged, Dongping's other territories did not carry out even a slight mobilization, except for Baishi City and Ningshi City, which temporarily implemented conscription. When Yunzhou completes the reorganization and training of these troops according to the old general's framework, and equips them with sophisticated weapons, it will be a very strong force.

It was precisely because of these difficult and heavy tasks, and the perfect completion of these tasks, that the old general was able to return with considerable satisfaction. Although he had been tossing around in Yunzhou for so long, he hadn't even had a chance to fight a battle, but these solid works also gave him a great sense of accomplishment. It also allowed him to report on his duties very confidently.