Meishan Su family, Su Yun is the most virtuous

Chapter 282 Military Reform!

After Zhen Shixuan left, Su Yun stayed in Jingsai Army for a month or so, and then completely handed over the task of training the Jingsai Army to Zhe Keshi, Wang Shunchen and others.

With the experience of the Qiying Camp, Su Yun no longer needs to spend too much time on it. He only needs to do a good job of logistical support.

He has more important things to do.

Su Yun plans to carry out military reforms in Fuyan Road.

Eight thousand cavalrymen can serve as the spearhead to break the enemy's formation and as the key force to change the battlefield, but cavalry alone is not enough to change the entire situation. There are still a large number of basic military forces in Fuyan Road that need to be transformed.

After Su Yun selected 8,000 cavalrymen, Fuyan Road now has 23,000 imperial guards, more than 30,000 garrison troops, and a large number of local soldiers, foreign soldiers, and native soldiers.

Needless to say, the Imperial Guards were an army directly controlled by the imperial court and belonged to the central army of the Song Dynasty.

The Xiang Army was the army of various states. During the Five Dynasties, they were called this because they guarded the city.

The Song Dynasty's Xiangbing was originally composed of old soldiers from local vassal states and newly created miscellaneous troops. In name, it was a standing army, but in fact it had the dual nature of local army and miscellaneous army.

However, with the establishment of a large number of imperial guards in various places, the differences between the local and central armies as well as the imperial guards have gradually disappeared.

However, despite this, there are still differences.

The Imperial Guards were actually the main fighting force, and the garrison troops were more accurately called engineers than soldiers.

The garrison soldiers generally had no combat missions. Whether they were in the capital or in other states, they mainly engaged in labor. For example, the garrison soldiers of various departments in the capital under the command of the Xuanhuiyuan were mainly used for animal husbandry and repairs.
The Zhuangcheng Army of various states was used to build cities, the Zuoyuan Army was used to manufacture weapons, the Qiaodao Army was used to build roads and bridges, the Chuanfang Army was used to build ships, the Zhuangfa Army was used for transportation, and the Heqing Army was used to manage and dredge rivers.

It was even used for serving and welcoming officials, postal services, land reclamation, etc.

In war, the Xiang soldiers often served as food transport teams and were only used in combat under special circumstances.

Therefore, the soldiers received very little training and review, were burdened with heavy labor, had poor quality, low status, and low pay.

As for why the wing soldiers were used in this way, the reason lies in the source of soldiers.

The soldiers in the garrison were mainly recruited. Among the recruited soldiers, the strong ones were selected to be the imperial guards, and those who did not meet the standards and were a little timid were selected to be the garrison soldiers.

The other part was composed of exiled criminals. For example, the Song Dynasty law clearly stipulated that "the prison commander is to wait for the guilty to be exiled."

In addition, there were some "fallen wing soldiers" from the imperial guards, that is, "those who were lazy and retiring from the imperial guards were demoted to wing soldiers."

In other words, these were basically those eliminated from the Imperial Guards, either because they were not strong enough or because they had no fighting spirit, so it was normal that they were not taken seriously.

The local militia is a regional armed organization that does not separate itself from production, and is roughly similar to the militia of later generations.

Its members are not registered as soldiers, and their food, wages and equipment are provided by their own hometown. They participate in training regularly and guard their hometown in times of war.

They have many names, such as Hebei and Hedong Shenrui, Hebei and Shaanxi Qiangren, Shaanxi Zhaihu, Hedong and Shaanxi Archers;

Volunteers from Hebei, Hedong and Shaanxi, archery societies from Hebei and Jingdong, local militia from Sichuan and Xia, able-bodied men from Sichuan and Xia; local militia from Guangxi, gunners from Guangdong, gunmen from Fujian, etc.

The training of rural soldiers is usually carried out during the slack farming season.

During the reign of Emperor Renzong, the local soldiers in Guangxi took advantage of the farming off-season every winter to practice with the three weapons of spear, dart and shield. During the reign of Emperor Shenzong, the local soldiers were trained in three shifts from November to the first month of the following year, with one shift per month.

During the reign of Emperor Yingzong, the strong men in Hebei were trained and reviewed from time to time. "During the farming off-season, they were divided into groups to practice archery, and at the end of the year, they were all tested to show rewards and punishments."

The quality of the various local soldiers varies greatly. Most of them are in name only. When they are inspected, seven or eight out of ten of them are old and weak and have no martial arts skills and can only be used to guard the village. However, Su Yun took a fancy to some of the usable soldiers.

There is a kind of local soldier in the northwest called archers. They are very strong and brave. They played an important role in the war against Western Xia.

In the border areas of Hedong, Shaanxi and Western Xia, there are large and small Qiang tribes distributed. They are independent of each other and have their own political system.

During the reign of Emperor Renzong, due to the need for war against Western Xia, the leaders of the Qiang tribes who accepted the rule of the Song Dynasty (the so-called "customized households") were appointed as officials, and were ordered to lead the able-bodied men of their own tribes, "divided into teams, given flags, and ordered to repair fortresses, and equipped with weapons and armor in preparation for mobilization." They were called foreign soldiers.

Su Yun had gone to inspect these foreign soldiers. They were good at fighting, but they usually did not obey orders. They could be used as escort soldiers. If they were to become the main force that decided victory or defeat, they would inevitably be unreliable sometimes.

Therefore, Su Yun’s main target is still on the three forces of the imperial guards, the garrison troops and the archers.

Su Yun’s first goal was to transform the 23,000 imperial guards in Fuyan Road.

There are two wings of the Imperial Guard stationed on Fuyan Road, with a full quota of 50,000 people. Logically, if Su Yun took out 8,000 of them to form the Jingsai Army, there should be 42,000 people left. However, after Su Yun conducted an extremely strict statistics, he found that there were only 31,000 Imperial Guards!
Where did the rest go?

Of course, he was just eating up the empty salary!
Haha, there are only a little over 60% of the establishment, and nearly 40% of the employees are empty salaries.

Tsk!
Su Yun found Zhang Qi, Qi Keyong and others to discuss how to deal with this matter.

Qi Keyong looked very uneasy. He knew about this matter of course. Even in the army he led before, there were actually people who were drawing salaries without working. However, he still had some dignity and only drew 20% of the salaries without working.

But if we really want to investigate, he cannot escape the blame.

Zhang Yu was not surprised by this matter, and when Su Yun asked about it, he said, "This matter was within my expectations.

At the beginning of the nation, Taizu and Taizong rectified military affairs and enforced strict military discipline, so the phenomenon of the imperial guards drawing empty salaries was not common.

However, by the time of Emperor Zhenzong, the problem of inaccurate military records had already emerged. During the Jingde period, there were problems with false reporting and omissions in the reporting and management of military records, so the court ordered the army to report accurate information and not omit any information.

According to regulations, the imperial guards were to have 400 cavalry and 500 infantry under one commander. However, there was a random inspection at that time, and it was found that there were cavalry commanders with only dozens of horses and infantry commanders with less than 100 or 200 soldiers, which meant that there were quite a few false registrations.

After that, the situation became increasingly serious. However, it was curbed after the defeat during the Qingli period. After several decades of peace, the situation became serious again.

The current situation is still relatively good, at least more than 60% of the staff are still there."

Su Yun called Qi Keyong and other generals and talked about the matter in a stern tone. The generals all looked unhappy, but after Zhang Qi's words, their expressions relaxed a little.

Su Yun's expression eased slightly, and he said, "I only have one request now, it must be fully staffed, do you have any problem with that?"

ps: It’s New Year’s Eve tonight, I wish you all good luck, good health and lots of wealth in the new year!
By the way, I would like to ask for a day off from everyone. I will take a day off tomorrow! It has been five months since I started writing this book.

A lot has happened during these five months, and I am very tired mentally and physically. Tomorrow is New Year's Day, and I plan to do nothing and take a day off.

(End of this chapter)