Chapter 286- Rising From the Ashes
Translator: TeamTWO
Editor: Jun
After discussing the weaknesses of the army, Baiqi simply described the strengths of the army. "Although the army has many problems, we have good equipment and great generals, so that's a plus point."
Ouyang Shuo froze, his depressed heart had a slight happiness.
After analysing the pros and cons, Baiqi started to throw out his organization plan. “We need to solve the problem that the three camps aren't under the same command, but they’re all part of the same division. I suggest the 1st division to be split into 3 divisions, each camp having one. As for the current manpower problem, we could prioritize one division first to join the army group trial and the other two divisions will be slowly expanded."
Ouyang Shuo nodded; Baiqi's thinking was similar to Ouyang Shuo's thoughts when he formed the 1st regiment.
Every time the military was organized, it would cause a lot of panic. Hence, each reorganization must be planned in advance, especially such large-scale planning.
"The 1st division will be in the city west camp. Shi Wanshui is good at both infantry and cavalry, and is a remarkable general. Hence, the 1st division will be a light armored cavalry and infantry mixed division. There will be sword shield soldiers, spearmen, bowmen, crossbowmen, and light armored cavalry. The sword shield soldiers wouldn't be the heavy armored mountain barbarians and instead focus on light armor to raise the mobility of the division."
Ouyang Shuo nodded. Baiqi changed the lancers to spearmen and added the crossbowmen that he gave up on. In the allocation of soldier types, it seemed more logical.
"The 2nd division will be housed in the city north camp. It would be a purely cavalry division so it doesn’t need changes. As a cavalry division, it would have 2 heavy armored regiments and 2 light armored regiments, as well as one archer regiment."
Baiqi didn't choose whom to lead the city north camp, and even though Ouyang Shuo gave him the power, for such heavy personnel arrangements, he would just leave it to Ouyang Shuo.
The city north camp leader Lin Yi was just an intermediate ranked general, and couldn't lead an entire division. Ouyang Shuo had a suitable general in mind for the job.
"The 3rd division was camped in the city east camp. The current commander, Er'Lai, is a purely fierce general who isn't good at cavalry warfare. Hence, the 3rd division could be an infantry division with two heavy armored mountain barbarian infantry regiments, 2 spearman regiments, and a Mo knife soldier regiment."
The Mo knife was a long knife amongst the Tang blades, wielded by infantry and weighing 8 kilograms. It was 7 inches long, made of iron, and the handle was 4 inches long. It was mainly used against cavalry, and was really powerful.
The Mo knife was another Tang Dynasty weapon that the weapon workshop was working on recently and the army hadn't been equipment with it. He didn't expect Baiqi to know about it, and even included it in his plans. He was certainly special.
Up to this point, Ouyang Shuo totally understood Baiqi's plans. "General's thought is to focus on building the 2nd division?"
"That's right. Combining the 4th regiment, the city north camp’s 2nd regiment, as well as the independent regiment, and the 5th regiment of the city east camp, as long as we build one more heavy armored cavalry regiment, we could form a division already."
Baiqi didn't raise the topic about the Guards regiment, as that was Ouyang Shuo's personal army, and hence it was excluded from the 3 divisions.
Apart from that, the 1st regiment in the city west camp would use 2 heavy armored mountain barbarian infantry units to change for the archer and light armored cavalry units from the 3rd regiment to complete the reorganization.
After discussing the structures of the three divisions, Baiqi continued, "Each division must also have 1000 men. Five hundred would form up the personal Guards unit of the major general; the remaining 500 would form a scouting squadron, medical squadron, engineering squadron and two Chef squadrons. If in the future we have the ability, we still need to prepare spies, officials, clerks and other support staff."
Baiqi's army plan had basically solved the 4 problems he had raised. The last thing he mentioned had directly targeted the weakness of the current army.
Xinan University was only in charge of producing civil servants. As for military officials, they couldn't do anything. As for the militarists, without them the wars will be in a mess, and they couldn't be considered a passable army.
At the current moment, they could only take it a step by a time.
Ouyang Shuo envied Zhan Lang who didn't need to bother about such matters.
Ouyang Shuo calculated. For the three divisions to be in place, they needed 25.5 thousand more people including 1500 logistics men, which needed the Military Intelligence Division, God machine camp unit, Medical Department, and the Combat Logistics Division to settle together.
Not mentioning the others, purely class change fees would be 15 thousand gold, and with the equipment and other things, it was a scary amount. Much less the expenditure and their salary.
Although the costs of running it were huge, thinking about it, the moment the organization was in place, Shanhai City would have had a rebirth and a beautiful change.
"Good, let's follow your plan." Ouyang Shuo smacked the table and looked at Ge Hongliang. "Director Ge, how many members are there in the reserve force?"
"After the Battle of Changping, each division had been filled up with members, so around 5000 remain."
Ouyang Shuo kept quiet. The last round of expansion and the battle had already used up most of the reserve force. For them to have 5000 left wasn't easy.
However, this was not even a fifth of the people they needed. If they recruited new soldiers, not only would it need a long training time, but their combat power wouldn’t be high either.
Seeing that the Marquis didn’t speak, Baiqi and Ge Hongliang could only look on silently.
After a while, Ouyang Shuo regained his senses; he had made up his mind. "The military organization can't wait. However hard the problem is, we must solve it. I have 3 requirements. As for the specifics of the reorganization, I'll hand them to the both of you, you must ensure it's finished by the end of the year."
"Yes my lord!"
"Firstly, the 3rd division, the 2 heavy armored infantry regiments, and the Mo knife soldier regiments must all be mountain barbarian soldiers. The lack of manpower will be solved by Tian Wenjing and Leifan.
The Mo knife soldiers needed a lot of strength, so naturally the mountain barbarians would be a good fit. With Gushan City, Ouyang Shuo believed that to gather 5000 troops wouldn't be a problem.
"Secondly, the reorganization of the city protection units and city protection regiments. Shanhai City, Qiushui City and Friendship City, these 3 city protection regiments. Yishui City, Yongye City and Guangshui City, these three city protection units, as well as the 2 city protection units of Tianfeng City. A total of 10 thousand soldiers will all be added to the 3 divisions. With the reserve forces, a large scale recruitment would do the trick about the remaining 3000 shortfall."
Ouyang Shuo had cleared out all the city protection in an instant. He believed that with the 3 divisions, no one could attack Shanhai City.
"Thirdly, after the city protection unit and city protection regiments are reorganized, apart from Shanhai City, Qiushui City and Friendship City, the rest will recruit a city defense reserve force to be in charge of city defenses. As for the city defense regiments of Shanhai City, Qiushui City and Friendship City, they will be done after the territory upgrades to prefecture."
Building a city defense unit at Beihai City had meaning. The Beihai Naval fleet currently had two roles as sailors and protectors of the city. This reorganization didn't affect the navy, so any big changes to the navy would wait until after the new year.
"Yes, my lord!" Baiqi's eyes brightened. With such an organization to take down, the entire Lianzhou wasn't a far-fetched idea.
After they completed their discussion, what was next was personnel arrangements.
"Director Ge, pass down my orders!"
"Yes!"
"Shi Wanshui will be the major general of the 1st division in the city west camp; Luo Shixin will be the major general of the 2nd division at the city north camp; Er'Lai will be the major general of the 3rd regiment in the city east camp."
Ouyang Shuo first settled the major generals, and next would be the colonels of the regiments. Expectedly, Shihu, Shibao, Zhao Yan, Li Mingliang, Heiqi, and Jiang Kai were all appointed.
Guo Liang, Su Wang, and Liao Kai weren't appointed, but were appointed majors of the major general's personal Guards unit. Guo Liang was with Shi Wanshui, Su Wang with
Luo Shixin, and Liao Kai with Er'Lai.
The various city protection unit and regiment leaders all kept their jobs. After all, they were still needed to build up the defense squads. The only exception was Zhang Daniu and Hu Yobiao, who became the colonels of the 2 spearmen regiments of the 3rd division.
Out of the 3 city protection regiment colonels, only Zhao Sihu remained at his old job.
Taking the chance, Ouyang Shuo appointed Baiqi as general and overall commander. Such a huge role made the usually cold Baiqi emotional as he bowed. "Thank you, my lord!"
Ouyang Shuo nodded and smiled. "I hope that the 3 divisions can be reborn under your hands and become an elite army." He paused for a while before continuing. "Arrange the 2nd division to take the trial. The earlier you finish the earlier the territory can upgrade."
"Understood!"
After the discussion, Baiqi and Ge Hongliang left. In the upcoming month, there was much for them to do.
The next day, the reorganization and role changes were announced by the Military Affairs Department and caused a huge discussion.