Chapter 22: The Stormy Weather of Yu Guan (Part 1)

  Li Chengzhong rushed back to the Jianzuoying camp in the west of Youzhou City. The whole army had not yet officially started, but it was said that the Jiedu Mansion had already begun to prepare secretly. He reported to Zhou Zhiyue about his trip to Pingzhou this time. As for whether Zhang Zaigui, the governor of Pingzhou, could really petition the Jiedu Mansion as everyone wished, no one knew in their heart. Those who should have made an effort did so, and everyone else could only do their best and wait for fate.

  After waiting anxiously for several days, a public notice finally arrived at the prefecture in the city! When Zhou Zhiyong opened it nervously in front of Zhao Zaili and Li Chengzhong, who were involved in the secret plot, his face suddenly showed joy. This was a document issued by the judicial officer of the prefecture, addressed to various departments of the central army, including the inner city garrison, the righteous son's army, the silver gourd battalion, the mountain rear army and the strong soldier camp, recruiting willing officers from each battalion to go out and pacify Pingzhou. Those interested should report to the prefecture within three days.

  Zhou Zhiyu finally got the appointment to garrison in Yuanguan Town, where he will serve as Pingzhou's military commander and Yuanguan's defense envoy, with his rank remaining unchanged as a fifth-grade general. Along with Zhou Zhiyu's appointment letter, a new reorganization plan for Lulong Military was also issued, and the original plan to disband Jianzuoying remained unchanged, which means that Jianzuoying's brief four-month history came to an end, and from then on, there would no longer be this unit in Lulong Military.

  Perhaps due to the special nature of the Hu people's invasion of Pingzhou, or perhaps to compensate for Zhou Zhiyu and his men's great contributions in the southern campaign, with the approval of Commander-in-Chief Liu Ren'gong, the Military Governor's office specially permitted Zhou Zhiyu to go to Pingzhou to recruit young and strong soldiers and establish a standard three-battalion garrison army for Pingzhou, with all expenses borne by Pingzhou itself. The so-called standard establishment refers to the five battalions of one thousand people each, with one hundred people in each battalion, Zhou Zhiyu was allowed to establish an army of one thousand five hundred people under his command.

  The organization within the Lu Longjun is ten people in a group, five groups in a team, two teams in a Du, three or five Du in a camp, and two or five camps in a Xiang. Above that are independent armies. The names of each army are also different, such as Dashuai Army, Yier Army, Shanhou Army, etc., which are called "army", Yinhu Lu Du, Ba Du Qi are called "Du", Jianzuoying is called "camp", all have their own origins and traditions.

  Of course, the Jiedushi Mansion would not allow the local military head to appear again after the whole army was reorganized. Therefore, in the organization, the appointment of officers above the head needs to be specially requested from the Jiedushi Mansion, and the appointment of officers below the team leader is discussed by Zhou Zhiyu, the new Pingzhou Bingma Shi, with the Pingzhou Cishi Fu, and then reported to the Jiedushi Mansion for filing. In any case, Zhou Zhiyu maintained his position as a local military head and independent authority, he let out a sigh of relief, and immediately reported all the situations to the whole camp.

  Zhou Zhiyong assembled all 387 brothers in the camp and made a passionate speech, hoping that everyone could follow him to Pingzhou to resist the invasion of the Hu barbarians and maintain peace in one place. At the same time, he also promised that any brother who followed him would be remembered in his heart and would definitely be rewarded at the right time.

  Going to Pingzhou to guard the border is dangerous and hard, according to the original plan of the whole army, the brothers will be incorporated into the Grand Marshal's inner army after the withdrawal of the whole camp, and the treatment they enjoy will be higher than that of others. Many brothers had just escaped from the great defeat in the southern expedition, and after experiencing life and death difficulties, they naturally did not want to go to the border again to follow Zhou Zhiyu, so the mobilization effect of Zhou Zhiyu was not ideal. Until he went to Pingzhou to take office for the last time, there were only 83 people who were willing to follow him. There was no military officer above the eighth rank, one upper ninth-rank Renyong Xiaowei, one lower ninth-rank Renyong Fuwei, two upper ninth-rank Peiyong Xiaowei, and nine lower ninth-rank Peiyong Fuwei, with a total of 13 officers. Among them, four were Zhou Zhiyu's personal guards, and the remaining nine were the heads of the nine teams.

  Facing this situation, Zhou Zhiyong felt quite helpless, but he immediately regained his composure. His mind had already turned to Pingzhou and Yuguang. As long as there were these dozens of veteran soldiers who had experienced the battlefield, where couldn't they rebuild an army?

  Jiang Miao seemed to have made up his mind about Li Chengzhong, and no matter where Li Chengzhong went, he was willing to follow. Zhou Kan Dao and Zhou Xiao Lang chose to go to Pingzhou because the entire village had been slaughtered and they had no relatives left. Zhang Xing Chong did not respond at all, and when Li Chengzhong asked him twice, he just shook his head and remained silent, neither saying yes nor no. Li Chengzhong understood him very well, after all, his whole family was in Youzhou City, and it would be difficult for him to go to the border. Therefore, he did not ask again. Zhong Si Lang had always wanted to join the army and hoped to gain merit on the battlefield, so he followed along this time as well. As for Wang Da Lang's reason for wanting to go to Pingzhou, it was somewhat opportunistic - his reasoning was that the fewer people who followed Zhou Zhiyu, the more opportunities he would have.

  On the day of departure, there were eighteen people in total who gathered their luggage and followed Li Chengzhong, including Huotou Army Zhao Da and two bowmen Meng Xuxing and Jiao Chengqiao. The entire Youdu was also the most intact among the teams that went to Pingzhou with Zhou Zhiyuan, which made Commander Zhou Zhiyuan look at Li Chengzhong with a different eye after gradually understanding the internal situation of Youdu.

  When the team turned to the east gate of Youzhou, Li Chengzhong saw Zhang Xingzhong. He was carrying a large package and panted as he chased up from behind. Zhou Kan Dao punched him in the chest with one fist and laughed: "Every time you're so slow!"

  Zhang Xing took a deep breath, chuckled and said to Li Chengzhong: "It's not that I don't want to go, it's just that my parents are all at home, so I'm a bit hesitant..."

  Li Chengzhong nodded and said, "How did you decide to go again?"

  Zhang Xingzhong sighed: "I heard that we are going to Pingzhou to defend the border, and a certain family elder insisted on rushing me away..." As soon as he heard it was Zhang Xingzhong's old father's idea, Li Chengzhong immediately recalled the scene of the old general shouting "Kill! Kill! Kill!" when drunk. He then smiled and pulled Zhang Xingzhong into the team.

  ……

  In the grassland in front of the pine forest three miles south of Pingzhou City, the original Pingzhou army's large camp had been renovated under the instruction of Governor Zhang Zaiji. This was a camp that could accommodate two thousand people. Before the Lulong Army marched south to Weibo, it had always been the garrison of Pingzhou Town. All facilities were complete, including barracks, stables, drill grounds, and arrow towers. According to Zhang Zaiji's orders, Zheng County Magistrate personally recruited a thousand refugees. Within three days, they swept and cleaned up all areas, repaired damaged fences, re-pasted window paper on the barracks, and even thoroughly washed and scrubbed the stables.

  When Zhang arrived at the Ji rate St. History House and a group of officials from the Lu Long County were waiting at the entrance of the camp to welcome the new Pingzhou soldier, his eyes couldn't help but dim slightly, with a hint of disappointment. No other reason, Zhou Zhiyong led the front row of soldiers is really a bit... too few. There are more than 100 officials and servants from Pingzhou waiting, and both sides are crowded with people from Pingzhou who came to watch, everyone wants to see the grandeur of the army, but the result is only a dozen or so.

  Zhang Zaiji still had some reluctance and asked: "Well, how many more troops will follow? Also, please instruct the lower levels to make preparations."

  Zhou Zhi felt a bit awkward, but in front of so many people, he couldn't lose face for his own family. He coughed and said with a smile: "The Hu barbarians are just a bunch of bandits, a minor illness, where do we need so many people? These few dozen old soldiers are enough!"

  The two had a deep relationship, originally from the same village and grew up together, only one later followed Wen and the other practiced Wu. Zhang Zaiji naturally knew that this good brother was stubborn, so he could only smile helplessly and led Zhou Zhiyong and others into the camp.

  Zhou Zhiyu is the newly appointed Pingzhou soldier and horse messenger, as well as the Yuguang Shouge messenger. In other words, he is the number two person in name in the Pingzhou area. However, within the Lulong Military system, each state's soldier and horse messenger is directly controlled by the prefecture, and Governor Zhang Zaiji has no control over Zhou Zhiyu. On the contrary, in many states and counties of the Lulong Military, the soldier and horse messengers hold military power and are directly under the jurisdiction of the prefecture, often having a heavier say in local affairs. Some powerful soldier and horse messengers even directly interfere with local government affairs, leaving the governor helpless. When such a person arrives at the locality, all the dignitaries of Pingzhou who can get on stage come to the scene, and that night, they set up a banquet in the military camp to entertain Zhou Zhiyu and others.

  Zhou Zhiyu is a man who gets things done efficiently and dislikes dragging his feet. His mind was not on enjoying himself, so the next morning he rushed to the city's governor's mansion and discussed with Zhang Zaiji for an entire day, sorting out the grain supply and finalizing the details of recruiting refugees. On his way back, he brought a stack of documents and convened all military officers in the camp to announce new appointments on the spot.

  To reorganize the Pingzhou Town Army, it is necessary to establish a framework for military officers. Zhou Zhiyu had already thought about this on his way here. According to the organizational structure provided by the Jiedushi Prefecture, the Pingzhou Town Army consists of three standard battalions, with five companies in each battalion, two platoons in each company, and ten squads in each platoon. The military officers who actually lead the troops include three battalion commanders, 15 company captains, 15 platoon leaders, and 150 squad leaders. In reality, the military heads will not recruit according to the full quota, which means they will embezzle funds. This is not only a common practice in the Lulong Army but also a common practice among all armies. If the military head does not embezzle funds, how can he support his family? How can he entertain guests? How can he enjoy wealth and honor? Even at critical moments, where will he get the money to reward his subordinates and let them risk their lives?

  Better military leaders only take one percent of the empty salary, while worse ones take two or three percent, and some even reach five percent! Zhou Zhiyong is considered a good military leader, he has bigger ideals and ambitions, so in his plan, he only prepared to take away 200 people. His plan was to personally serve as the commander of the central camp, with only three battalions set up in the central camp, and the remaining two battalions would be eliminated, with the money reserved for emergency use. At the same time, he did not intend to appoint commanders for the other two camps for the time being, firstly because there were no good candidates, and secondly because it could be left as a hope for future soldiers to make merits and promotions. Therefore, the actual number of military officers he needed to appoint was thirteen battalion heads and team leaders, thirteen team leaders, and 130 partner leaders.

  Currently, including the close guards, the newly established Pingzhou Town Army has only 84 people, with 14 officers, and among the officers, 10 are partners. The lack of personnel made Zhou Zhiyuan very difficult, he thought left and right, and simply consulted with the governor Zhang Zaiji, directly writing in the name of the military commander and the governor, 70 copies of partner, from the ninth rank down to the deputy lieutenant, and 10 copies of team leader, from the ninth rank up to the lieutenant. In other words, all the soldiers who followed Pingzhou were promoted one level!

  According to this appointment, the Pingzhou Town Army can set up a team of 700 soldiers and seven battalion officers. However, all battalions currently do not have battalion heads, and two battalions do not even have deputy battalion commanders. The appointment of battalion heads requires special permission from the Jiedushi Prefecture, but since the Pingzhou Army is newly established and has no military achievements, the first-class military officers can only be considered in the future. As for the four deputy battalion commanders of the two battalions that are short-handed, Zhou Zhiyu simply let his four personal guards take on the roles concurrently and directly serve as the middle camp. The remaining five battalions were organized into the Left Camp, with Zhou Zhiyu temporarily taking command, while the Right Camp was completely vacant.

  So, at the time of the military meeting, everyone immediately boiled up, and they shared the benefits of the new camp head, feeling that this trip was not in vain.