Chapter Seventy Reorganization
He received official uniform and hat from the Governor's office, was appointed as an officer, and Li Mingfeng returned to the marine corps barracks.
The next day, Li Mingfang convened all the leaders of the Foreign Gun Corps, Wei Zhi-jun and his subordinates, as well as members of the military advisory group sent by the foreigners and two Du Si dispatched by He Guiqing to attend the meeting.
Li Mingfang announced the imperial court's decision: first, the Ever Victorious Army was renamed Changsheng Army and placed under the management of the Governor-General of Liangjiang. The imperial court allowed the Changsheng Army to maintain a force of one town, with four-tenths of its provisions provided by the imperial court, four-tenths by Liangjiang, and the remaining portion self-raised by the Changsheng Army itself.
Of course, these silver coins were far from enough. All along, Li Mingfang's grain allowance was three times higher than that of the Green Camp, so in fact, the silver coins provided by the Two Rivers and the Imperial Court could only meet 30% of the needs of the Changsheng Army.
Wei Zhi-jun was granted the title of Zheng Si-pin, a fourth-rank official in the imperial court, and allowed to serve in the Changsheng Army. He Gui-qing transferred two officials from his own command to the Changsheng Army, and also reassigned 400 soldiers from his personal guard to the Changsheng Army, ostensibly to strengthen its combat effectiveness, but actually to control the thoughts and movements of the lower-ranking soldiers.
The British military instructors and the original foreign rifle troops formed an instructor team, which was responsible for the military training and tactical explanation of the whole army. The British advisers formed an advisory group, who had the power to attend all high-level meetings and put forward their own military views.
After announcing the decision of the imperial court and the governor's office, Li Mingfeng assembled the troops. When Wei Zhi-jun was just captured, there were more than 25,000 soldiers in the foreign gun team. After several major battles under Jingdezhen City, when they arrived in Shanghai, the foreign gun team had less than 20,000 people left. This time, it was to be reorganized into the Ever Victorious Army, and the imperial court only allowed one town's military strength to be retained.
A town should have 12,500 soldiers, so now there are actually 7,000 more horses. After several screenings, all the old and sick soldiers with injuries were dismissed. After selection, there were still 3,000 more horses, Li Mingfeng considered for a long time, but ultimately did not continue to disperse.
It was not Li Mingfang who wanted to disband the army, but rather the imperial court and He Guiqing were both keeping an eye on him. If his actions were slightly improper, arousing the imperial court's suspicion, then the Changsheng Army would probably be unable to survive.
There were three thousand more, Li Mingfeng really couldn't bear to disperse them, so he ordered the selection of a day for testing, and selected 3,000 soldiers who were not strong in physique and not skilled in using Western weapons. Let them do logistics work under Wu Ting's command, and another part enter the newly established customs and serve as customs guards.
Li Mingfeng ordered again, dispersing the original foreign gun team members, Wei Zhi-jun's surrendered army, and the governor's personal soldiers. These three forces were crossed and assigned to form six battalions. Cai Yigong was appointed as the commander of the "Yi" battalion, Chen Xinghan as the commander of the "Han" battalion, Wei Zhi-jun as the commander of the "Zhong" battalion, Zhou Jingtong as the commander of the "Jing" battalion, Jiang Shaozu as the commander of the "Jie" battalion, and Qiu Guolin as the commander of the "Yong" battalion.
Cai Yiqun, Chen Xinghan were old members of the Foreign Gun Corps and had been small heads in the Green Camp. They were on good terms with Gong Cheng and it was he who introduced them. Although they had previously served in He Guiqing's troops, their rank was too low to have even seen the Governor-General, whereas Li Mingfang treated them with great kindness, so he trusted their loyalty.
Wei Zhi-jun goes without saying, must lead a battalion. Zhou Jing-tong is his number one general under him, at the time of the Battle of Jingde Town, he was in charge of defending Fuliang, Fuliang was originally the rear of the foreign gun team, very important, from this it can be seen that Wei Zhi-jun trusted him extremely. The current Changsheng Army, 90% of its military strength is made up of Wei Zhi-jun's old subordinates, in order to appease the lower-level soldiers, so Li Ming-feng promoted him to battalion leader.
Jiang Shaozu and Qiu Guolin were two of He Guiqing's trusted generals, and it was only natural that they should serve as battalion commanders.
Each camp has two thousand soldiers, and the six camps have a total of twelve thousand. Li Mingfeng personally selected five hundred strong and loyal soldiers to serve as his personal guards, thus completing the town's military strength.
Cai Yiqun, Chen Xinghan were originally acting as the head of the department, Zhou Jingtong had no official position. After this appointment, Li Mingfeng asked for their titles to be granted. After He Guiqing petitioned the imperial court, all three were appointed as fifth-rank guardsmen.
The instructor team consisted of the original 600 foreign soldiers and the newly arrived 200 British soldiers, with Andrew as the captain and Palan as the deputy captain.
The advisory group consisted of ten British officials. Li Mingfang ordered them not to interfere with daily management, lest they overstep their bounds.
From today on, Changsheng Army is officially established. Li Mingfang will send the appointment results to the British Embassy and the Governor's Office of the Two Rivers, and get recognition from both parties.
Li Mingfeng took the opportunity to ask He Guiqing for new military uniforms, because the original green camp soldiers' clothing was not suitable for the Changsheng Army due to the use of new-style weapons. He Guiqing approved this request and specially allocated silver from the treasury to rush out 15,000 sets of military uniforms that met Li Mingfeng's requirements.
Li Mingfeng did not dare to challenge the baseline, he just asked to change the original canvas shoes into ones with a solid sole, increasing their durability. And also to tighten the originally loose and baggy pants, making it easier to move around.
Upon arriving at the embassy, Li Mingfeng was straightforward. Since you British want to intervene, then you must assume responsibilities while gaining rights. Li Mingfeng brought up the issue of military expenses, which boiled down to the imperial court only being responsible for three-tenths of the grain rations; if they wanted the foreign gun squad to operate normally, the British would have to foot the bill.
The British made a fortune from selling opium and didn't mind allocating a few thousand taels of silver every month. So Weetman readily agreed that the British would be responsible for one-third of the Ever Victorious Army's monthly rations in the future. The rest still had to be raised by Li himself.
Fortunately, the supplies that Li Mingfeng brought back from Chizhou were given to the Prussians, but he still had 500,000 to 600,000 taels of silver in his hands. Even if there were no more incoming goods, the Changsheng Army could maintain itself for three to five years with its stored supplies.
From then on, the Invincible Army got on the right track and trained tirelessly every day.
Li Mingfeng had more free time. Every day, apart from managing daily affairs in the Changsheng Army, he would either run to the British Embassy or visit Gong Cheng's home to gather intelligence on various aspects.
Time flies like water, passing very quickly, and two months have already passed in the blink of an eye.
Something within Li Mingfeng's expectations but also something he didn't want to happen was gradually unfolding.
