Lin'an Never Night

Chapter 685 Knife handle
After Yang Yuan entered the Tongchuan Pacification Office, he quickly got into the role.

The first thing he needed to deal with was the backlog of official documents that had accumulated during the period when his predecessor left and needed to be personally printed and approved by the envoy.

Next, he would listen to detailed reports from civil and military officials from various departments of Tongchuan Prefecture and inspect the local areas.

Then, the civil and military officials from the sixteen states under the jurisdiction of Tongchuan Prefecture paid a visit to the pacification envoy in the prefecture city one by one and made performance reports.

Military affairs, civil affairs, autumn harvest, and transportation...

Now as the leader of a region, Yang Yuan naturally cannot take care of every detail. Instead, he will coordinate and manage the officials of various departments on the general direction, and these officials will be responsible for the specific details.

Therefore, what these officials are like is crucial.

Therefore, while understanding the military and civilian affairs of Tongchuan, Yang Yuan focused on investigating the governing ability and reputation of officials in various prefectures, counties and cities.

As for government affairs, he did not make any major changes.

It turns out that the people's livelihood and economy of Tongchuan Road have developed quite well, and the annual grain tax payment is also sufficient, so we should just follow the rules.

There was no need for him to interfere with the original good system and put his own stamp on it.

Despite the fact that we had to focus on the big and let go of the small, and also follow the rules of others, it still took more than two months to complete all these matters. Considering the efficiency of that era, it was actually quite fast.

In addition to the assessment and investigation of officials of all ranks in the sixteen prefectures of Tongchuan Prefecture, Yang Yuan was most concerned about armaments and the army.

"The Sichuan people can be used, and the Sichuan Army can be used."

On this day, Yang Yuan called Zhou Cheng, the number one general of Tongchuan, to the Pacification Office and chatted with him while drinking tea in the second hall.

"Among our garrisons now, there are some who are drawing salaries without paying for anything, and there are also some rogues who are filling in the numbers to make up the numbers.

Once the investigation was carried out, some people would use prisoners with hard labor to make up for the shortfall of escaped men.

The army is full of rogues and scoundrels, and military discipline is no longer in place. Soldiers are lazy, patrols and guards are just for show, and daily training is reduced as much as possible. This is not acceptable.

Although our Tongchuanfu Road is ahead of Lizhou Road, we are not on the front line whether against the Jin Kingdom or the Western Xia.

But what if a strong enemy breaks through Lizhou? Or what if our Song army breaks through the enemy's defense line and the Tongchuan troops need to follow up?

Who would dare to use such a lazy and weak army to fight? "

It took Yang Yuan more than two months of investigation before he had the confidence to speak to Chairman Zhou.

Yang Yuan had already saved face for Zhou Cheng, but Zhou Cheng could naturally hear it and knew that what Yang Yuan said was true, and he couldn't help but look ashamed.

Although Zhou Cheng was a stern-faced general who never smiled, he truly respected Yang Yuan.

Because Zhou Cheng was one of the twenty or so trusted generals that Li Xianzhong brought with him when he fought his way from the Jin Kingdom to the Western Xia and then back to the Song Dynasty.

At that time, the one who helped Li Xianzhong enter the territory of the Song Dynasty was the then commander of the Western Army and Sichuan Pacifier Wu Jie.

Because Zhou Cheng was injured, he did not follow Li Xianzhong to Lin'an, but stayed in Sichuan to recuperate. Now he has become a general of an army.

During the Battle of Lingbi, Yang Yuan entered the battle as the military supervisor of Lianghuai. All the generals, whether they were local troops or imperial guards, were worried that something might happen to him. The civil officials would use this as an excuse to criticize the military generals and punish them to death.

So whether they were willing or not, they had to bite the bullet, gather at Lingbi with all their strength and speed, and join the battle.

If not for this, Lu Tianming and Li Xianzhong might have turned into a pile of bones by now.

Therefore, Zhou Cheng was full of respect for Yang Yuan.

Now, hearing Yang Yuan pointing out the various problems of the garrison in Tongchuan Road in a threatening manner, Zhou Cheng naturally felt like he was sitting on pins and needles.

Yang Yuan said: "However, this is also a chronic disease, not your fault. I have decided to start the reform from your Tongchuan First General. After success, it will be implemented throughout Tongchuan. Commander Zhou, what do you think?"

Zhou Cheng was so ashamed that he quickly stood up, clasped his fists and said, "I am willing to obey your orders, Marshal."

"Okay, sit down and talk."

Yang Yuan waited for him to sit down and said, "There are two armies stationed in Tongchuan, right?"

The Song Dynasty inherited the military system of various countries of the Five Dynasties, with one hundred people forming a du, five dus forming a battalion, five battalions forming an army, and ten armies forming a wing.

One of the armies consisted of 2,500 men.

There are about 5,000 troops stationed in Tongchuan, which is basically the structure of two armies.

After receiving a positive answer, Yang Yuan said, "Go back and immediately conduct three eliminations on these two armies."

"First, weed out the old, weak, rogue, and thieves who are worth the number of prisoners."

"Second, those who are not qualified to be soldiers but are law-abiding and diligent in their work will be transferred to the wing army."

"The third cut is to eliminate disabled veterans. For these meritorious soldiers who are no longer able to participate in combat, I will make other arrangements."

In order to reassure Zhou Cheng, Yang Yuan further explained his specific arrangements for these people.

The soldiers who were cut from the combat troops and placed in the wing army would become excellent soldiers.

As for those who have made military achievements but are now disabled, old and weak, and are now being kept in the army to do logistical work, Yang Yuan will select and retain some of them as instructors, and arrange the others to serve in the militia training units of various prefectures, cities and counties.

The militia soldiers can protect the local area and eliminate bandits in peacetime, and can be converted into reserve troops for the army at any time in time of war.

But now many prefectures and counties do not have militia, Yang Yuan is going to set it up. The court will not allocate so much money, but the local tyrants have money.

Those who have a little power now have their own private armies, which they have to hide in secret at ordinary times.

When they set up local militia, these powerful people would be the commanders of the militia, which would be convenient for both public and private use.

Moreover, the soldiers recruited are local, so these soldiers will have stronger cohesion.

As for the fact that they will form some small hills, isn't that normal?

Mountains have always existed and will always be there, but they just appear in different forms depending on whether you suppress them or not.

If you want the horse to run but not eat grass, you will accomplish nothing.

Under the current objective historical conditions, Yang Yuan would have to be kicked in the head by a donkey before he would fight against the local tyrants and divide up the land. He relies on these local tyrants, and he must rely on and support them vigorously.

As long as you have the ability to always be the biggest boss, you will always be stable.

If you can't, just like Yang Zheng who is about to grow old, no one can inherit his legacy, and he has to voluntarily surrender his military power in exchange for the safety of his descendants.

Another example is Guo Hao from Lidong. Now the Wen family has taken power. The daughter of the Guo family even came up with the idea of ​​faking an imperial examination to file a complaint to the emperor, using public opinion to force the emperor to do justice.

So, if you are not good enough, someone will always replace you in a way you never expected.

Yang Yuan is confident that he can hold the situation.

"Cut them off, cut them off vigorously. Cut off the remaining people one by one. I want the real elite soldiers who can fight ten people with one."

“My five hundred personal soldiers are all veterans of the Battle of Lingbi. It would be a waste for them to be guards, so I will arrange them to be low-ranking military officers such as generals, guards, officials in charge, and escorts.

As for the vacant troops, I want you to recruit new soldiers. One army will only recruit men from good families, and the other army will accept any nationality, place of origin, or background. Bandits, deserters, fugitives, and prisoners who are willing to join the army to atone for their sins can all be recruited."

Zhou Cheng was excited at first, but his face froze when he heard this, and he quickly said, "General, these people are either brave and aggressive, disregarding human life, or unruly and disobeying orders, or cunning and deceitful, so I'm afraid they won't be of much use."

In war, what matters is strict military discipline and tacit cooperation.

Even if a common man is as brave as Yang Yuan, how many people can he kill alone in the chaos of the army?

Even if he can defeat a thousand people alone, he cannot influence the overall situation.

However, the kind of people Yang Yuan mentioned can indeed form a very strong destructive force when they first join the army. However, this kind of people do not obey orders and are disobedient to discipline. Once they really go to the battlefield, they will not only fight a bad battle, but will ruin the overall situation because of them.

Therefore, Zhou Cheng had to raise objections.

"It's okay. I need this kind of people. There are no useless people in this world, only people who are used in the wrong way. Before using them, just train them with strict military law."

Yang Yuan smiled and said, "Don't worry, all you need to make a vicious wolf wag its tail and turn its belly over at you and act coquettishly to please you is a few pieces of egg yolk pie."

Zhou Cheng didn't understand what egg yolk pie was, but guessed it was a Lin'an delicacy.

Zhou Cheng said, "Yes, I understand. I will arrange the first judgement when I return today."

After Zhou Cheng said goodbye and left, Yang Yuan immediately sent someone to call Xu Ziwei, the magistrate of Tongchuan Prefecture.

He wanted to conduct a pilot project in Tongchuan Prefecture to carry out a major replacement and reform of the military, but in addition to filling some of the empty salary quotas, some people would also have to be laid off from the current combat troops to the wing army.

How are these people arranged?
If you don't care, they will become an element that undermines public order.

There is also the establishment of militia and the arrangement of disabled but combat-experienced veterans, all of which cannot be achieved without the cooperation of Xu Tongpan, the second prefect.

……

Fuhu Temple on Mount Emei.

There is also a Jianglong Temple on Mount Emei. The Jianglong Temple is not big, with only about twenty monks practicing here.

However, the Fuhu Temple, which is far away from it, is an extremely large and majestic building complex, and it is a nunnery.

There are dense ancient cypresses, tall decorated paths, winding paths leading to secluded places, and Zen rooms surrounded by flowers and trees. There are no less than two hundred nuns practicing here.

But in the past two days, a long convoy suddenly entered the mountain.

After meeting the abbot, they took the people in the car out and handed them over to the Zen temple for ordination.

Overnight, more than twenty nuns of different ages appeared in Fuhu Temple.

In the backyard of Fuhu Temple, outside a Zen room surrounded by a bamboo forest and a quiet spring.

A bald young monk knelt on the ground and cried bitterly: "Aunt, please come and see me."

A 40-year-old nun in blue clothes holding a rosary walked out of the nunnery, frowning slightly: "Monks have transcended the Three Realms and are not in the Five Elements. Everything in the world has been abandoned long ago. Where did the aunt and niece come from?"

The bald little monk raised his head, his face full of tear marks. He had just shaved his shiny head two days ago, and he had not yet received the ordination and had no incense scars.

Look at that little face with tear marks, it’s Wu Shuangjiu.

Shuang Jiu hurriedly said, "Yes, yes, then please ask Master Fanqing to see the disciple, and please let Master Pukong know."

Pukong was displeased and was about to yell at her to leave so as not to disturb Master Fanqing's meditation, when he heard a long voice coming from the meditation room: "Ask her to come in."

(End of this chapter)