I am not Yuan Shu

Chapter 297 Yuan Shu's Staff Team

According to the efficiency of information transmission in this era, a general can directly command a maximum of 5,000 troops in combat. If there are more, it will exceed the upper limit of efficient transmission.

Therefore, anyone who is able to command a large military group in joint operations is not the result of the efforts of one person alone. Behind every famous general, there must be a professional and efficient team of staff and capable subordinate generals working together.

It is true that most military generals do not have the ability and qualifications to command large-scale coordinated operations, but even if they do, they must work with an efficient staff team, otherwise the hard requirements of command cannot be met.

Looking at the entire history of wars during the late Han Dynasty and the Three Kingdoms period, there were only two and a half people who clearly demonstrated the ability to command large military operations of more than 30,000 troops.

One is Yuan Shao, one is Guan Yu, and the remaining half is Cao Cao.

Among these two and a half people, Yuan Shao and Cao Cao both clearly had very strong, professional and efficient staff teams collaborating and helping them to command behind the scenes, and many of them have left their names, such as Guo Jia, Xun You, Cheng Yu, Xun Chen, Xu You, Tian Feng, Pang Ji and others.

Once he loses this highly efficient team of advisers and falls into an unfavorable situation, Cao Cao will be the first to collapse.

After losing his two main strategists, Guo Jia and Xun You, many of the wars that Cao Cao personally commanded after 214 ended in failure or voluntary retreat. His development efficiency was significantly reduced and he rarely achieved his original strategic goals.

It can be seen that Cao Cao's ability to command large troops was greatly influenced by his professional staff team.

Yuan Shao actually showed stronger ability to command large troops than Cao Cao.

As a governor of Bohai, he conquered the four major states of Ji, Qing, You and Bing with almost no defeats, which in itself is a reflection of his military strength and ability.

In the direct stalemate on the battlefield of the Battle of Guandu, although Yuan Shao lost Yan Liang and Wen Chou, he still had the upper hand. Cao's army was defeated head-on by Yuan's army many times. The front line advanced step by step towards Cao Cao's base camp, and Cao Cao almost lost the confidence to hold on.

However, Yuan Shao's political ability was obviously inferior to Cao Cao's. He did not do a good job in political work and failed to coordinate internal struggles well, which led to the important military adviser Xu You defecting to Cao Cao and telling Cao Cao the location of Wuchao.

As for Guan Yu, he should have had a professional team of advisers around him, but not many of them left their names, and the influence of the staff team on Guan Yu was relatively limited. It may be more because Guan Yu’s own abilities were very strong after being tempered.

After all, he is the only one in the Twenty-Four Histories who has been praised as "the most powerful person in China" since ancient times.

In that great battle that affected the situation in the world, he almost single-handedly fought against the joint attack of Wei and Wu. Under such circumstances, he wiped out the most elite field corps under Cao Cao, and at one point forced Cao Cao to move the capital to avoid his attack.

Therefore, Yuan Shu believed that a good staff command team could make up for the commander-in-chief's shortcomings in the overall view and make many correct judgments on his behalf. As long as the commander-in-chief could trust them, they could often achieve good results.

Yuan Shu was not sure whether he had the ability to command a large military group, but he felt that even if he did not, he could use a strong professional staff command team to assist him and use their collective wisdom to achieve effective command for him.

For example, Liu Bei after receiving help from Zhuge Liang, Pang Tong, Fa Zheng and others.

Liu Bei obviously did not have the ability to command large-scale military operations, and there was a lack of corresponding talents in the early group. However, after obtaining a strong team of staff, with his own excellent leadership qualities, he still achieved a rocket-like rise for the entire group.

Therefore, Yuan Shu believed that even if he did not have sufficient ability to command a large military group, as long as he had a professional staff team and his own political ability to control this staff team, he would be able to achieve a dimensionality reduction attack on other enemies.

What did Han Xin say?

The more the better. Individuals or teams that can command large-scale joint operations are so awesome and confident that no matter how many soldiers come, they are confident that they can command and use these soldiers to achieve their strategic goals.

As for the construction of the staff team, Yuan Shu started to think about it very early, and also paid attention to selecting some talented people in this area.

Xun You was an absolute talent selected by history for him, and he had first-class military ability, so Xun You was naturally included in his staff team.

Zhong Yao and Zhang Hong were also talents selected for him by history. Zhang Hong was able to assist Sun Ce in conquering Jiangdong, and Zhong Yao was able to govern Guanzhong and deal with many rebel forces such as Han Sui in Liangzhou, which was enough to prove the abilities of these two people.

In addition, Yuan Shu also selected more than 50 members who demonstrated their advisory abilities from the Yi Xin Hui Security Team and incorporated them into the advisory team, forming a larger advisory group, intending to make this advisory team the most trustworthy central command agency under his command.

By the way, there is also Wang Lang who took the initiative to join the army. Yuan Shu has not forgotten him because of his great achievements in ghost beasts.

Moreover, he was not really scolded to death by Zhuge Liang, and he cannot be considered a white-haired man or an old thief with a gray beard.

Like Xiahou Dun, his ability in governing the rear was remarkable and recognized. He served as the prefect of Kuaiji County and governed the county for several years. The county was peaceful and he was loved by the people. While in office, he happened to encounter Sun Ce's battle to pacify Jiangdong. He fought with Sun Ce for a while and the battle was evenly matched with that of Sun Ce.

He is a management talent with practical abilities, similar to Xiahou Dun. His position in Yuan Shu's team is to manage the rear and ensure logistical supply. At this level, Yuan Shu still has high expectations for him.

So Yuan Shu also recruited Wang Lang back from the local area and prepared to arrange a position for him to ensure logistics supply and become a member of the logistics team.

At this point, Yuan Shu divided the army into three teams: the combat team, the staff team and the logistics team. Each subordinate performed his duties and was in charge of a certain area. Yuan Shu was the governor among them, holding all the power and becoming the undisputed supreme commander of the army.

Appointed by the court, he led the army as a general, and he made the decision himself to give the army a special military title - Tianxiong Army, to highlight the unusual nature of this field corps.

Under the Tianxiong Army, the initial battalions were referred to by numbers, such as the First Battalion of Infantry, the Second Battalion of Cavalry, the Third Battalion of Crossbowmen, and so on. Yuan Shu and the captains and military commanders agreed that only the battalions that had made military achievements could obtain military numbers. The military number would become a symbol of glory and iron blood, and not something that ordinary people could possess.

This was also used by Yuan Shu as a reward to motivate the troops to fight bravely.

In addition, Yuan Shu also imitated the internal structure of Yi Xin Hui and set up a special military medical department, military law department, military pay department, military food department, etc. in the Tianxiong Army. He gave the logistics team important powers and responsibilities, and required the logistics team to provide front-line soldiers with services that were absolutely superior to this era.

Yuan Shu held on to one belief - the emperor would not suffer from hungry soldiers, and a hungry army would definitely not be able to fight well. He directly stipulated three meals a day for the army, two dry meals and one liquid meal in peacetime, and all three meals in wartime would be dry rice, which must be supplemented with meat and fat to ensure that the soldiers had enough calorie reserves.

His logistical requirements also made Yuan Feng feel cheated. He thought that the army would be provided with supplies according to the supply of an ordinary army, but Yuan Shu directly raised the standard to the highest level, setting a big trap for Yuan Feng.

Is there any son like you who betrays his father?

But as the saying goes, you dig your own hole and you bury it yourself. Yuan Feng had no choice. Yuan Shudu had decided to support his personal guards with his own money. If the army was to be expanded in the future, he would not be asked to pay. As a father, could he still shirk the military expenses for these 30,000 people?
I really don't have the face to do that, so I can only bite the bullet and find a way to help Yuan Shu.

Thanks to Yuan Shu's previous internal construction, the palace's expenditure was limited to a very low level. The Shaofu, which originally belonged to the royal treasury, became very well-off. So Yuan Feng directly took a large amount of the Shaofu's savings and budget as military expenses, and cut all the funds for decorating the palace.

It is euphemistically called that military and national affairs are the lifeblood of the country and cannot be taken lightly.

Let the emperor suffer, and let the Shaofu Tang Zhen and my eldest son bear the blame!
(End of this chapter)