Chapter 61: The Winter of Jiwei (12)

  Since Li Chengzhong started training, the large kiln cave that was temporarily converted into a schoolhouse has been brightly lit every night. All battalion commanders and above military officers have to attend classes here. The content of the classes includes not only the training outline arranged by Li Chengzhong but also Feng Dao's literacy education.

  But tonight, these officers have gathered here not to attend a lecture. On the podium, Pingzhou Military Governor Ma Bu and Yu Hou, as well as Zhang Long, the Imperial Inspector, unfolded the silk scrolls in their hands and read out this letter of appointment issued by the Lulong Prefectural Government:

  "Li Chengzhong, the Left Camp Adu of Pingzhou, was promoted to be the Commander-in-chief of the Front Camp of Pingzhou, with a rank promotion to Xuanjie Colonel. This is the appointment letter on the certificate. The seal of the Youyun Military Governor's Office was stamped above."

  "... specially good at military affairs, with a calm and steady temperament, capable of handling military matters, with both civil and martial talents, brave in undertaking extraordinary tasks, able to accomplish things in an unconventional way. This is a good choice, can be relied upon as before. Guanghua 2nd year, October 19th."

  Zhang Long was a third-generation farmer, and he himself was also an uneducated roughneck. He didn't recognize these characters, but before leaving the pass, he had memorized these sentences, and now he recited them in a somewhat similar tone, which seemed to have a bit of literary flair. However, he held the letter upside down, and he wasn't aware of it himself. Among the ten military officers listening below, nine didn't recognize characters, and they all didn't notice anything wrong. Only Jiang Miao, Zhang Xingchong, and Yuan Xingqin and a few others were secretly laughing below.

  The words in the letter were not obscure, but basically everyone didn't understand, only knowing that this was a letter to promote Li Chengzhong's official position. Combining what they heard with phrases like "Front Camp Commander" and "Xuanjie Colonel", everyone finally understood that their own commander had become a battalion commander, ranked Xuanjie Colonel, eighth grade upper rank. After careful calculation, Li Chengzhong had already become the second most important person in the Pingzhou army under Zhou Zhiyuan. At this time, cheers erupted from the cave like thunder.

  Li Chengzhong bowed his head and took the appointment letter from Zhang Long's hand, unfolding it again to read it carefully. He was overjoyed in his heart. This appointment letter was different from the ones he had received before when he was appointed as a team officer or battalion commander. Those letters were all blank letters that Zhou Zhiyu had brought back from the town of Pingzhou when he left, and they were only completed by filling in Li Chengzhong's name and affixing the seals of the military governor's office and the prefecture government. This letter, however, was formally issued by the Youyun Military Prefecture, written in person by Guo Tongjian, the judge of the prefecture, with not only an order of promotion but also a letter of explanation, and it bore the seal of the military prefecture.

  Zhang Long laughed and said, "The great merit Li has achieved in White Wolf Mountain has been reported to Youzhou, the prefecture is overjoyed, and this matter has been announced to the border towns. It won't be long before Li's name will spread throughout the entire Lulong Army. It's said that the commander-in-chief personally asked about the details of the battle and repeatedly praised it as 'good'..."

  Li Chengzhong smiled and carefully put away the promotion certificates, then saw Zhang Long take out three more certificates and hand them to Li Chengzhong: "These are the promotion certificates for several of your capable subordinates." As usual, these certificates were to be read aloud by Li Chengzhong. Li Chengzhong took them over, one by one, and read them on the spot, amidst the cheers of the military officers. Jiang Miao, Zhang Xingchong, and Zhou Kandao stepped forward to receive them. All three had been promoted, with the words "acting" removed from their titles, becoming formal deputy captains, and their ranks were also raised one level, from Renyong Deputy Captain to Renyong Captain, ninth grade upper rank.

  Zhang Long handed over a thick stack of blank warrants and said in a low voice, "These blank warrants were given to me by the military commander to pass on to you. For the vanguard troops, all officers below the rank of general are to be appointed by you, brother. Once you have decided, make a copy and report it to the military commander's office and the governor's office."

  At this moment, Li Chengzhong was truly moved. These blank warrants meant one thing: Zhou Zhiyuan allowed Li Chengzhong to recruit soldiers on his own outside the pass to make up for the shortage of troops in the vanguard, and all appointments of military officers were left to Li Chengzhong to handle, with Zhou Zhiyuan not interfering at all. What a great support and trust this was! Thinking about Zhou Zhiyuan's kindness towards him, Li Chengzhong felt that he had no way to repay it.

  The order was read out, and Li Chengzhong ordered the table to be set up to entertain Zhang Long and other military officers who were escorting the troops. He said with some embarrassment: "There are many wild game in Bai Luoshan, but there is no wine, I'm really sorry about that, brother."

  Zhang Long burst out laughing: "I knew this day would come, so I specially brought ten jars of fine wine. Tonight, let's get drunk with my brother!"

  That night, dozens of officers set up a banquet in the cave and celebrated with great fanfare, but unfortunately, there was still not enough wine, so everyone didn't quite get their fill.

  The next day, Li Chengzhong invited Zhang Long and other officials and soldiers from Yuguang to watch the ceremony. His military training plan had been carried out for ten days, and it was time for inspection.

  Li Chengzhong's unit of over 300 people, in rows of ten, formed a horizontal formation, holding knives, shields, wooden guns, bows and arrows, and other weapons, marching in unison through the drill ground. When passing by the reviewing stand, they changed from quickstep to slow step, turning their heads to the right in unison, saluting the reviewing stand with a loud shout of "Kill!" This set of movements was plagiarized by Li Chengzhong from the "split column formation" of later generations, and it took eight days to teach this set of movements. As for letting the soldiers practice, it only took two days.

  In Li Chengzhong's eyes, the "formation" march of his own soldiers was too rough. Firstly, the rows were not aligned, either the right side was ahead or the left side was ahead, or the two ends and the middle were not aligned, forming a concave and convex surface, which was really ugly. Secondly, the soldiers' footsteps were not uniform, and there were always one or two people in each row whose footsteps were inconsistent with others. Then, when marching in front of the reviewing stand, many soldiers walked with their feet splayed outward, and a few soldiers jumped up and down, just like the "goose-step" march that Li Chengzhong saw on TV later, which was really awkward to look at; Moreover, the soldiers' shouts of "kill" were not in unison, nor loud, completely lacking any spirit...

  Fortunately, after all the soldiers had circled around the field for a while, they were still able to find their final position at attention. More than 30 soldiers gradually formed into three rows of six men each in a large square formation, with the scouts and logistics teams on either side.

  Li Chengzhong's face was ashen, but he wasn't one who hadn't thought of this terrible outcome. In his heart, he had also prepared for the possibility of a poor performance. After all, the training period was too short, and for these new recruits with extremely low quality, being able to not get lost or scattered in such a short time, still complete the entire set of prescribed movements, and finally form up in front of the reviewing stand, was already considered not bad.

  If it weren't for Zhang Long and others on the reviewing stand, Li Chengzhong would have encouraged his soldiers to continue their efforts. But at this moment, he felt that he couldn't save face, so he was speechless with shame and anger for a while. Since Li Chengzhong didn't speak, the soldiers of the front camp stood still with their chests out, no one dared to make any noise. Only from time to time, some "huffing" sounds of horses' breathing came from the war horses ridden by the scouts on one side.

  The soldiers stood still, chest out and abdomen in, eyes fixed on the front... This action was called "standing military posture" by later troops, which Li Chengzhong had been training specially for these days. Every day at noon, all soldiers had to train this subject for half an hour, and anyone who made a slight movement would be immediately pulled out and punished in front of all the soldiers. The punishment method was to lie down on the spot, with both arms supporting the body, and adjust the height of the body through the flexion and extension of the arm, and only after doing 50 flexions and extensions according to the squad leader's command would it be considered completed. This action is called "push-up" in later troops.

  Li Chengzhong stood still, and none of the soldiers in the front camp dared to move. Even the officers who escorted the military supplies on the reviewing platform were frozen in place. They weren't standing at attention, but rather they were stunned by the entire "formation".

  Li Chengzhong's troops marched in a formation that seemed sloppy and disorganized to him, but to Zhang Long and the others, it was actually neat and solemn. They had never seen such a neat formation before, nor had they ever seen such uniform footsteps or such solemn postures. In this era, although armies emphasized formations, they did not train their soldiers like this. When deploying troops in formation, the emphasis was on compactness and strictness, with an emphasis on discipline and bravery in battle. As for whether each row was neat or not, the distance between rows, and the uniformity of footsteps, these were not important. Training soldiers to stand at attention like wooden stakes was something no one had ever thought of before.

  So, Zhang Long and others were at a loss, each with their own thoughts, some curious, some puzzled, some incomprehensible, and even disdainful. Yuan Xingqin stood behind Zhang Long, feeling contemptuous of this Li Chengzhong, who had wasted his great reputation on training soldiers to do these useless formations, which looked good but were useless on the battlefield. In Yuan's opinion, the focus of training soldiers should be on combat skills, and cultivating their martial spirit was essential. Even if they were practicing formations, they should train soldiers to perform according to tactics like the "偃月阵" or "突矢阵", this was the true way to train troops. Could walking in a neat line intimidate the enemy? Could standing like wooden stakes withstand the enemy's swords and arrows? It was truly laughable!

  Li Chengzhong secretly observed the expressions of Zhang Long and others, especially the slight disdain at the corner of Yuan Xingqin's mouth, which made him feel even more embarrassed. Holding back his anger, Li Chengzhong loudly shouted: "Dismissed!" He no longer paid attention to the soldiers lined up below the stage, turned around and bitterly smiled at Zhang Long: "Letting Brother see a joke, training days are still short, can't be taken seriously, can't be taken seriously."

  Zhang Long had never seen this kind of training before and didn't know if it was good or bad. He himself was inarticulate, so he didn't know what to say, and muttered: "It's okay...it's okay..."

  He's better off not speaking, but once he speaks, it's really bad. His words sound like perfunctory comfort no matter how you listen to them. Li Chengzhong thinks Zhang Long is being polite and doesn't want to point out the shortcomings of his own team, so he suppresses the anger in his heart and secretly decides that when he gets back, he will definitely make these guys practice twice as hard and come up with a formation that will make the officers of other "brother units" look up to them!

  Zhang Long led his troops back to Yu Guan, they didn't want to stay in Bai Lu Shan for too long, after all eight hundred people meant eight hundred mouths to feed. If they stayed here one more day, there would be less food left in Bai Lu Shan. With the experience of fighting against the Khitan people on their way here, Zhang Long seemed to have gained some confidence in returning, and he didn't fear setting out at this moment.

  As he was about to leave, Zhang Long asked: "Having known each other for a long time, I still don't know your younger brother's courtesy name?"

  Li Chengzhong scratched his head: "Sorry about this, brother, but I don't have a courtesy name yet."

  Zhang Long uttered an "oh" and couldn't help but remind him, "Someone used to not have a courtesy name either, thanks to the military envoy who gave someone the two characters 'Quan He'..."

  Li Chengzhong's eyes lit up as soon as he heard it. He had been in this era for more than half a year and understood the relationship and meaning attached to the courtesy name, so he said: "I have an unreasonable request, I want to ask the military commander to give me a courtesy name, and I hope my brother will convey it for me."

  Zhang Long felt a few more points of closeness in his heart when he heard Li Chengzhong's words, patted his chest and made some guarantees, and the two reluctantly bid farewell.

  The arrival of the fifty carts of supplies greatly alleviated the shortage of materials in the White Wolf Mountain military camp. The grain was stored in the cave, enough to eat for three months. The cloth was immediately distributed to the women and children, who hastened to sew winter clothes and quilts. In addition, the new knives, shields, wooden guns, and leather armor were also distributed among the troops, replacing a batch of inconvenient Khitan swords and spears.

  Everything was in order, and Li Chengzhong began to train the soldiers with all his might. Based on his own feelings, he had lost face in front of Zhang Long and others, so this training session was really intense. As a result, the soldiers in the vanguard finally experienced what Li Chengzhong meant by "devil training".