Water Margin: The Tale of Li Erlang of Guankou

Too many people would think that traveling back to ancient times and building an invincible army would be too easy.

In reality, even if you gave him twenty college students with rebellious tendencies, he still wouldn't be able to manage them.

Before transmigrating, Li Hanxiao was a member of the military and was already part of the system, following the rules of operation. He didn't think much of it until he started building an army according to those rules and realized just how difficult it was.

To ensure a sufficient number of qualified soldiers, it is necessary to seize land from the wealthy and distribute it to the poor, reduce taxes and levies, and develop water conservancy projects, etc. An army marches on its stomach, and Li Hanxiao is currently working on these tasks.

To ensure the quality of soldiers, compulsory education should be promoted or simplified Chinese characters should be popularized, and literacy campaigns should be carried out.

This is extremely difficult. In the entire Liangshan Marsh, only a minority of people are literate; most are illiterate or semi-literate. Li Hanxiao is determined to change this, but there aren't enough educated people to teach.

The limited number of cultural figures now need to devote themselves to other more important matters.

To ensure organization, since there was no standard Mandarin in ancient times, soldiers could only be recruited from the same place. In Jeju Prefecture alone, there were two or three different accents. Not to mention that customs and traditions varied from place to place in ancient times. In many cases, Li Hanxiao had to forcibly assign soldiers from the same hometown together.

There's no other way; otherwise, if they were mixed together, they wouldn't be able to understand each other.

To ensure the combat effectiveness of the army, military academies must be established to systematically train officers and non-commissioned officers.

To ensure the command capabilities of military commanders, a general staff must also be established.

To ensure logistical support, a strong capacity for material production and transportation is essential. To reduce logistical pressure, standardized and assembly-line production should be implemented if possible, and a robust quality control system is also indispensable.

There is a lot to do and too many things to handle, but we must do them one by one. Currently, what Li Hanxiao needs to do is to ensure the loyalty of the army and maintain morale, and to have enough political workers to conduct ideological education.

Soldiers need to have a common goal or belief and fight for it.

This necessitates the application of later political work education concepts...

Li Hanxiao planned to have Wen Huanzhang train these streamlined and dismissed officers, mainly focusing on ideological training.

There are two such official positions with different responsibilities: one is "political work" and the other is "coach".

"Political work" refers to the rank and grade of the military commanders of the unit to which they belong. It requires them to carry out ideological and political education among the grassroots soldiers after entering the army, to ensure that the army's ideology is highly consistent with the major policies and central ideas of the mountain stronghold, and at the same time to educate the soldiers to learn culture.

The "coach" is responsible for assisting the military commander in daily training, closely monitoring the unity and stability within the army, resolving conflicts and problems through ideological and political work, enhancing the cohesion and combat effectiveness among soldiers, inspiring morale, and ensuring the organizational function of combat at all times.

The fundamental logic is that if you want to change all of this, you need to change the relationships within a team: how to build close connections, effectively manage them, maximize efficiency, and ensure their loyalty.

Wen Huanzhang was surprised by Li Hanxiao's bold idea, and then questioned, "I roughly understand what the chieftain means, but... in that case, we must ensure that there are enough of them. We can't just put two officials like that for every thirty or fifty people, that would require an enormous number of people..."

The problem with Wen Huanzhang was that these two officials, whether "political workers" or "coach," were essentially officials rather than ordinary soldiers, making them relatively difficult to train.

Integrating such a large number of them into the military to change the soldiers' thinking... would make them very difficult to train, and insufficient...

"That's why we need to reduce the size of the organization. And we don't need to send two officials, who are only thirty or fifty people. With two people, we can ensure maximum efficiency for a team of more than one hundred people."

Li Hanxiao remembered what he learned at military school: the neocortex of the human brain determines that people need to maintain close relationships, so the number of people is about 150.

A battalion has about 500 people, far more than 150, so the branch cannot establish close contact with everyone in the battalion, and it is not easy to control the battalion.

A platoon consists of about 30 people, far less than 150. So the platoon leader can establish close relationships with all the people and control the platoon, but cannot maximize efficiency.

A company consists of approximately 100 to 120 people, not much different from 150. By establishing them in a company-based military unit, these individuals can build close connections with everyone in the company, gain control of the company, and maximize efficiency.

"In my opinion, it is very important to reduce the number of combat personnel now. First, we should lay off some of the personnel who are unwilling to stay in the fighting and reduce the size of the troops. If anyone is still willing to stay in Liangshan, they can work or farm. Second, all the junior officers who have been cut from the troops due to the downsizing should be temporarily gathered together for unified training. Two new positions, political work and training, should be established for these people and then assigned to each army."

"As for how to train these people into qualified political workers and instructors, my suggestion is to set up a military academy to train and train them."

"Military Academy?"

Wen Huanzhang was somewhat surprised by this very unfamiliar term.

Military academies did not exist in ancient times. Wang Anshi established a military academy during the Northern Song Dynasty, but it was not very effective. It only began to take shape in the Southern Song Dynasty, but its scale remained small until the Qing Dynasty.

Even earlier, Fu Jian of the Former Qin dynasty established a martial arts academy, but it was not very effective.

"Simply put, it's like the place that pioneered martial arts and taught military science. It's a place that trains military officers. The students here study to prepare for their future military work. Once they graduate, they will become junior officers."

"Understood, but we need to proceed with caution. Generally speaking, military affairs are matters of life and death, a matter of survival and destruction, and it's easy for these subjects to become intertwined with other disciplines. Teaching them all at once... after all, for us brothers... our foundation is insufficient. If I were to teach them all by myself, I'd be exhausted..."

Wen Huanzhang looked troubled; the workload was too great, he couldn't finish it even if he worked himself to death...

"Don't worry about that. I'll gradually find suitable people for you and increase manpower. One must take things one step at a time. We'll train these people first, and we'll handle the matters of the Martial Arts Academy slowly..."

Li Hanxiao then began to lay off and reorganize the troops, removing the elderly, weak, sick, and disabled from the combat units and reassigning them to other units.

Originally, the fighting force on Liangshan Marsh had reached 25,000 when Li Hanxiao led the Shaohua Mountain troops back to Liangshan Marsh. This battle resulted in the loss of about 2,000 men, leaving 24,800 men.

Now, Li Hanxiao has directly laid off 7,000 people, reducing the workforce to 17,800.

Of course, those who were streamlined were not simply dismissed. Li Hanxiao reassigned them to departments such as land reclamation and logistics, and they remained on the mountain.

As soon as the reorganization task was assigned, Ma Bian, the head of the intelligence department, urgently sought out Li Hanxiao.

His spies in Jeju City learned that Gao Lian would be leading his troops to attack Liangshan Marsh the next day.

"Prepare for battle immediately! Order Ling Zhen to deploy all firearms and stand by tomorrow!"

Even if Li Hanxiao used firearms to bombard Gao Lian, he couldn't guarantee he could kill him instantly...

After all, guys like him who know magic are all prodigies; who knows if he has any other way to dodge firearms...

The following day, Gao Lian led troops from Gaotang Prefecture and Jizhou Prefecture to attack Liangshan Marsh.

Strangely, they did not bring enough ships.

Li Hanxiao ordered everyone to guard the shore and use the water to create a defensive zone.

The three Nguyen brothers led their navy as the vanguard, their warships anchored at the shore, watching the strange actions of the enemy, wondering what their intentions were.

Their navy hadn't participated in the battle until now, and this was their first time facing Gao Lian. They had heard from their brothers that Gao Lian was extremely terrifying, so they were now very uncertain about their chances.

Gao Lian, unhurriedly, had an altar set up beside the reeds, clearly preparing to unleash his sorcery once again...

The sunlight dyed the reeds blood red. Gao Lian stood on the altar, the bronze beast plaque in his hand gleaming with a cold, eerie green light, as he chanted incantations.

Suddenly, a dark cloud flew across the previously clear sky and blocked out the sunlight.

At this moment, the soldiers behind them brought over some paper dragons and crocodiles and threw them all into the waters of Liangshan Marsh.

"disease!"

Gao Lian bit his tongue, spitting a mouthful of blood onto the Tai'a sword. He then pointed the sword at the sky, and a fierce wind suddenly arose, causing the paper dragons and crocodiles to rustle in the cold wind.

Suddenly, the Taotie pattern on the back of the bronze plaque in Gao Lian's hand opened its huge mouth, and dark green ripples spread across the entire lake.

"Get up!"

Gao Lian bit his tongue, and the blood splattered onto the bronze beast-gathering plaque. Instantly, hundreds of distorted beast faces appeared on the plaque. What about those that fell into the water? The paper dragon, when it touched the lake water, grew green scales, and the paper crocodile tore open inch by inch, revealing bright white fangs.

These paper effigies actually came to life!

Li Han smiled and thought to himself, "This is the second kind of magic Gao Lian used in the original novel 'Water Margin,' which is to transform paper-cut beasts into real beasts to harm people."

Twenty feet away in the reeds, Ruan Xiaoer, the "Standing Earthly Tai Sui," gripped the harpoon at his waist, watching as two lantern-sized red eyes broke through the waves amidst the rising black mist on the lake.

The three Nguyen brothers looked at each other in dismay. They had thought that they were not afraid of anything in the water, but how could human beings possibly kill these beasts?

They're alive! All of these things are alive!

The waves suddenly surged higher, and a putrid, stench assaulted the senses. Countless three-headed dragons, head to tail, stirred up whirlpools, while hordes of crocodiles opened their blood-red mouths at the bottom of the waves, each scale gleaming with a dark light, heading straight for the Liangshan Marsh navy on the opposite bank.

Behind Gao Lian, the flying divine soldiers beat their war drums in unison, the drumbeats causing the reeds on the bank to flutter and fall, as if cheering them on.

"Quickly, release it!"

The moment Ruan Xiaoer, the "Standing Earth God," waved his command flag, thirty sampans suddenly emerged from the reeds.

The shirtless men lifted the straw mats, revealing that the boat was full of barrels of kerosene, which they poured out. The black kerosene poured down like a waterfall, spreading for three miles on the water's surface in the blink of an eye.

"Living Yama" Ruan Xiaoqi stood at the bow of the ship, his bow drawn like the moon. As the rockets, their arrows coated with sulfur, pierced the air, they reflected the sharp teeth in the mouth of a dragon.

A deafening explosion shattered the twilight, and flames instantly engulfed the entire body of water along the oil slick.

The dragon's green scales curled and peeled off in the flames, revealing the charred paper and bamboo frame inside. The crocodiles let out screams like infants crying, and their scales, coated with kerosene, exploded into purple smoke in the fire.

The ashes scattered amidst the towering flames sank into the pool of water, instantly turning these things back to their original state.

"You ants dare to break my magic!"

Gao Lian was furious. He had been hoping to make a big splash in front of so many people, but his spell had been broken.

He can't afford to lose face.

But then Gao Lian stepped into the Seven Stars Stance, his blood-stained Tai'a sword pointing to the sky and drawing a blood talisman. He actually summoned a dark cloud and soared into the sky.

"disease!"

Gao Lian rode the clouds and flew across the water, preparing to launch an air raid and drop ferocious beasts from the sky.

Li Hanxiao squinted on the shore, his hand already gripping the golden bow and silver bullets, ready to strike at any moment.

"Gao Lian, see the treasure!"

Seeing that Gao Lian was now within his firing range, Li Han smiled and immediately grabbed the golden bow and silver bullet. With his left hand fully drawn and his right hand holding the infant, he fired a silver bullet at the bronze beast-gathering plaque in Gao Lian's hand.

"Hahaha!"

Gao Lian was initially very dismissive, thinking that such a small silver bullet could not possibly harm him.

As a result, the bronze beast-gathering plaque was shattered by that silver bullet that he had completely looked down upon!

"you!"

Gao Lian didn't know what method Li Hanxiao had used to break his spell, but he was furious. He pointed his Tai'a sword at Li Hanxiao and rode down from the sky on a dark cloud!

"fire!"

What greeted him was Li Hanxiao's loud shout.

In the reeds, among the ranks, and in various hiding places, the various firearms that Li Hanxiao had secretly concealed were now ready to be put to use.

In order to unleash the greatest concentrated fire in a sudden attack, Li Hanxiao mobilized twelve cannons, two hundred three-barreled guns, and fifty bombs, which were then launched using catapults.

To achieve the element of surprise, they had been well hidden beforehand, with nothing revealed at all.

Three hundred pounds of gunpowder exploded simultaneously at twelve different cannon positions in different directions. The cast iron shells tore through the dark clouds, and two hundred three-barreled guns wove a net of fire in the reeds.

The tall, black smoke protecting the cloud was riddled with holes by lead bullets, and fifty thunderbolts, launched by catapults, then exploded deep in the clouds, the blast waves even shattering a half-acre cloud mass.

A series of enormous sounds, like rolling thunder, echoed through the clouds, seemingly foreshadowing Gao Lian's doom...