Chapter 72: The Way of Benevolence and Forbearance (5)
During the raid on the winter camp of the Pingzhou army, the vanguard captured sixty-nine Khitans, among whom half were old, weak, women and children. The remaining thirty-six were robust men. On the grasslands, "robust" meant soldiers - all adult males, including underage boys who could wield a weapon, were considered soldiers. What to do with these captives was a bit of a headache.
For the old, weak, women and children, as long as they are under Feng Dao's jurisdiction, working according to the rules is no problem. The tribes on the grasslands often plunder each other, the losers become slaves of the winners, herding cattle and sheep for the winners, or even giving birth to children, this is a matter of course, so these Khitan women and children do not need to worry at all, they have natural labor consciousness and submissiveness.
As for the treatment of Khitan soldiers, opinions are roughly the same. Feng Dao's view represents the mainstream view of the Central Plains literati, that is, to govern with virtue and benevolence, and to educate these soldiers. Zhang Xingzhong and Zhou Dandao's opinion is closer to that of a military man, killing off the most unruly among them, and forcing the rest to join the army. In fact, both opinions are equivalent to incorporating these Khitan people into the military, because those who were considered "unruly" had already been killed in battle by the vanguard soldiers, and those who survived as prisoners of war were almost all willing to surrender, that is, they were "aware of the times".
Li Chengzhong also coveted these Khitan defectors, but he considered another issue - whether the Khitans and Han civilians could integrate. The first problem to be solved was the resentment of the over 300 Han people rescued towards the Khitans. Li Chengzhong personally visited these civilians, had a cordial conversation with them, inquired about their demands, and listened to their wishes. What surprised him was that these civilians' gratitude towards Li Chengzhong and the vanguard soldiers directly covered up their hatred towards the Khitans. They felt extremely fortunate to have escaped from the Khitan camp and did not even think about how to avenge themselves against the Khitans. When Li Chengzhong vaguely revealed his intention to recruit the Khitans, the civilians had nothing to say in response. In their own words: "General is our savior, General wants to do what, we dare not speak lightly. We are already lucky to have escaped, where else would we dare to hope for more..."
Faced with the blind obedience of the common people to their superiors in this era, or the numbness to their own fate, Li Chengzhong was surprised and didn't know whether he should feel fortunate or sad.
Okay, Li Chengzhong is not the kind of fool who vows to save the people of the world. His current idea is only to rapidly increase his own strength, defeat the Khitan army's blockade of Bailu Mountain, and further recover the land outside the pass, re-incorporate Yingzhou into the jurisdiction of the Lulong Army - in other words, bring it under his control, so that he can truly have a place to stand. Therefore, he quickly put aside these negative emotions and began to deal with the Khitan defectors.
The method was simple. In order to make the Khitan people truly work for themselves, he planned to do again what he had done before with the surrendered officers - reeducation through labor, or "reform through labor". This approach had already been proven effective in the past, so Li Chengzhong quickly put the surrendered Khitans to work. As mentioned earlier, those who were willing to lay down their arms and surrender were basically not arrogant, and they seemed very obedient to the requirement of exchanging labor for work points and exchanging work points for food.
During the reform process of the captives, Bailu Mountain Garrison explored some experiences and rules. Therefore, with Li Chengzhong as the head and Feng Dao as the deputy, members including Jiang Miao, Wang Er, and three village elders formed the "Bailu Mountain Prisoner Reform Committee". After multiple meetings and discussions, they applied certain proven effective successful experiences to reform these Khitan captives, gradually achieving good results. Apart from laboring for work points, these experiences also included:
Have Khitan prisoners of war participate in collective labor that requires multiple people to coordinate with each other - to cultivate their sense of integration.
Through some small tricks, let the Khitan warriors realize the importance of understanding Chinese and recognizing Chinese characters - to entice and persuade them to voluntarily participate in cultural courses.
Helping Khitan prisoners of war get acquainted with some Han civilians - so that they can realize the great harm caused to others by their past looting behavior.
Let instructors interpret the law and make it clear to them so they can see hope for their future life.
……
Li Chengzhong was a sports enthusiast in his previous life. The most participated sports events in the army were basketball and football. Since looting the Khitan winter camp, he had been eating mutton and beef at home for a while, with no place to vent his energy, except for training soldiers, he couldn't help but have some idle thoughts, so he started playing ball games during his free time.
In terms of the size of the school grounds at White Wolf Mountain Garrison, Li Chengzhong initially wanted to play basketball, but in reality, the current technical conditions did not meet this level. He found a few good female villagers and instructed them to blow fish intestines, sheep intestines, etc. full of air and tie them tightly, then insert these inflated intestinal tubes into an empty ball made of cowhide sewn beforehand, fill the gaps with wool, and finally sew on the outer skin, thus making a basketball. However, the bouncing effect of the basketball was not good and did not meet Li Chengzhong's requirements, so he compromised and reduced the size of the ball to make it roughly the size of a soccer ball, barely meeting the needs for kicking.
It's definitely not fun to play alone, so Li Chengzhong brought in Zhou Xiaolang's personal guard team.
"Does the Double Ninth Festival also enjoy Cuju?" Zhou Xiaolang saw Li Chengzhong playing with his feet and couldn't help but feel delighted, taking over the ball kicked by Li Chengzhong, doing a backflip, steadily stopping the ball on his neck.
Zhou Xiaolang's move was much more beautiful than Li Chengzhong's, and Li Chengzhong felt a bit embarrassed. He generously praised Zhou Xiaolang for a few sentences. However, Zhou Xiaolang said that his cuju skills were not good, and Zhou Kan's knife skills were much stronger than his. As he spoke, he gestured to his personal guards to divide into two teams to play with their own Xuanjie.
Since many people already know the basic skills of Cuju, it's easy to get started. Just explain the rules clearly and you can start playing right away. Li Cheng learned about this era's Cuju in elementary school history class and knew that it was vastly different from modern-day soccer. He had Zhang Laozhang rush to make a goal, and during his free time, he explained the kicking methods and rules of modern soccer in detail. The kicking method of modern soccer is much simpler than Cuju, and the guards understood it immediately. Once the goal was made, Li Cheng led one team and Zhou Xiaolang led another, and they began to sprint around the school field.
The scene was chaotic at one point, with the ball rolling wherever it went and ten people running after it. At its worst, the crowd even crowded together in a heap, unable to kick the ball out. Li Chengzhong called for a timeout and turned around to severely criticize five of his players on the spot, assigning each person's defensive area, dividing them into defenders, midfielders, and forwards, and threatening them with military law, requiring each to fulfill their duties and not run randomly.
When the game resumed, Zhou Xiaolang was stunned. His teammates were running behind the ball non-stop, often unable to even touch it. In less than half an hour, Li Chengzhong's team had scored fourteen goals in a row. When Zhou Xiaolang's teammates were exhausted and collapsed to the ground one by one, Li Chengzhong's teammates were still jumping around energetically, constantly dribbling and firmly controlling the ball's movement.
As the leader of the entire White Wolf Mountain military camp, Li Chengzhong's organized "new-style cuju" naturally attracted attention from the entire camp. The impact and explosive power of modern football made all the front-line soldiers hot-blooded, so "new-style cuju" began to sweep through White Wolf Mountain. One by one, footballs were placed on the shelves in the warehouse, priced at five work points, but still couldn't meet demand.
The venue is limited, but the enthusiasm for "new-style cuju" is unlimited. The soldiers of the front camp spontaneously formed teams by company, and made an appointment to kick the ball in the school field, resulting in chaos on the field. Several teams shared a pitch, and multiple goalkeepers guarded one goal at the same time, which happened frequently. As a result, each team began to secretly coordinate and communicate with each other about the time for kicking the ball. When communication failed, they would make an appointment to compete for the right to use the field through a match. Some team leaders would burst into verbal disputes during the appointment of matches, and in order to vent their anger, they would propose additional conditions for the lottery, with the prize being work points. There were also some team leaders who, when the score was unfavorable, would kick the ball in an extremely barbaric and collisional manner, which would trigger conflicts between the two teams. When such conflicts escalated, a football match would often evolve into a rugby-like game, with people and horses falling over each other, and smoke filling the air.
Li Chengzhong had to formulate the rules of football in detail, and the rules were basically copied from later generations. The only difference was that the requirements for collisions and physical contact were more relaxed. The promulgation of this set of rules was done by Li Chengzhong himself, who gathered all the soldiers in the camp to announce each article on the inspection platform, while the soldiers listened attentively with their ears perked up on the drill ground. The degree of seriousness even surpassed that of the promulgation of the "Front Camp Soldiers' General Orders". The soldiers' understanding and mastery of the "Football Match Rules" also gradually exceeded that of the "Front Camp Soldiers' General Orders", which was something Li Chengzhong did not expect.
To standardize the order of the White Wolf Mountain football match, Li Chengzhong carefully formulated a league system. Given that almost all soldiers in the front camp participated, Li Chengzhong set up three levels for the league: A-level, B-level, and C-level. The front camp currently has 40 teams, which is the result of absorbing new recruits from among the young and strong people who were rescued. Excluding the Imperial Guard, he randomly drew lots with the remaining 39 teams and held a three-round knockout tournament to initially determine the teams for each level. The league will be held for one year, with one round every five days, and the top three teams in each level will be promoted, while the bottom three teams will be relegated. Li Chengzhong also stipulated annual end-of-season rewards for each team in each level of the league, such as 30,000 yuan for the first-place team in the A-level league!
"The Rules of Football" also stipulates that each match is divided into two halves, with a total duration of half an hour. Five players start the game and five substitutes are on standby. This five-a-side football was designed to adapt to the White Wolf Mountain military system, equivalent to the number of people in each group. At the same time, it can increase the venue for the competition, as it divides the school field into four slightly smaller empty spaces that can accommodate four matches at the same time.
Li Chengzhong also gave up the pleasure of competing in person, and instead trained his personal guards as referees to enforce the law, while he himself acted as the chief referee, maintaining order during the competition.
Apart from the above measures, Li Chengzhong also opened a tactical training class, where each team leader could attend voluntarily. In the training class, he explained various tactics of football matches, such as long passes, ground penetration, and so on. He explained the responsibilities and tasks of each player on the field, such as goalkeepers, defenders, midfielders, forwards, and so on. He also explained the coordination and running positions between players, such as wall collisions, back passes, straight passes, and pulls. The tactical training class was packed every time, and Li Chengzhong spent ten consecutive nights explaining tactics. The enthusiasm of the team leaders to attend classes was extremely high, and the questions and interactions in the classroom were also very lively.
After Li Chengzhong's tactical training class ended, the league was also conducted in a fiery manner. On the evening of the match day, the soldiers from the previous camp automatically postponed their rest time and held a meeting under the leadership of the team leader to discuss the gains and losses of that day's match and study the tactical arrangements for the next match. At night, countless torches were lit on the campus, and teams training on the four courts were seen everywhere, even to the extent of queuing up.
The storm stirred up by the White Wolf Mountain Garrison football match made Li Chengzhong very satisfied. His original intention was just for leisure and entertainment, plus a little exercise. However, the subsequent development suddenly made him realize that this sport could be used to enhance the teamwork and coordination of each group of soldiers, train the platoon leaders - team captains, squad leaders - deputy team captains' command skills. Moreover, the performance of a football team seems to have a huge driving force for the cultivation of collective honor among players. These factors are important reasons why Li Chengzhong decided to vigorously promote the football league.
For a long time, the discipline of soldiers' combat formations has been a key part of their training. If each squad can cultivate small teams with battlefield flexibility through football matches, if the squad leaders and platoon leaders can develop battlefield command sense in football games... Li Chengzhong had more expectations for the future of the forward camp.
