Chapter 474-Organizing the Military
Translator: ryangohsf
Editor: Nora
The ability of Land of the Philosophers to raise the potential of the NPCs was slowly showing in the military.
Sun Chuan Lin, Shao Bu, Sun Tengjiao, Zhao Yan, Liao Kai, and the like, this bunch of home grown generals had broken through the obstacle of advanced general. It seemed unachievable before, but today, it seemed as though the bottleneck did not exist.
In the future, Shanhai City would welcome a bunch of advanced generals.
They did not need historical generals to take up the positions of major general anymore. This buff solved the future problem of advanced generals when Shanhai City expanded their army.
Apart from that, they had the Army Military Academy. At the end of the year, the first batch of people would graduate, and they would have a huge batch of professional military officers like logistics officers, clerks, strategists, and the like to join the various divisions.
In the future, each division could fight independently.
Replenishing members, expanding the Garrison Division, and organizing the Leopard Legion; all of these activities used up a hundred thousand odd prisoners. They still had a hundred thousand prisoners that needed organization.
Out of the one hundred thousand prisoners, excluding those injured and those who did not meet the standards, while also excluding the various county and House city protection squads, they had about sixty-five thousand potential troops remaining, enough to form another legion.
Ouyang Shuo did not choose to form a new legion. Instead, he expanded the current three legions. The current legions were made up of four divisions and each had 13,500 people and a total of 54,000 thousand men.
A legion, by definition, was sizeable enough to participate in a large war. However, based on the current battle situations, fifty thousand troops were not enough to control the battlefield.
One South Alliance could easily gather up two hundred thousand troops.
Hence, expanding the legion was urgently needed.
Ouyang Shuo decided to expand the four divisions to five, which coincided with the standard of five of the Shanhai City Military. He would also prepare a subordinate regiment for each legion.
With that, the strength of a legion would rise from 54,000 to 70,000, an addition of 16,000 people.
Seventy thousand elite troops were enough for a battle.
If they expanded the three divisions, they needed 48,000 men, similar to one legion.
After the expansion, they needed to appoint three more major generals.
Ouyang Shuo's principle was to try and choose from the generals that had greatly contributed in the war.
Hence, Shao Bu and Sun Tengjiao, the two cavalry generals, successfully became the 5th division major generals of the Dragon Legion and the Tiger Legion respectively.
As for the 5th division major general of the Leopard Legion, they would be chosen from one of the fallen generals.
In this battle, out of the two hundred thousand prisoners, only Di Qing was promoted. Such an obvious difference in treatment would definitely make the fallen troops feel excluded. Balancing everything, Ouyang Shuo decided to promote another fallen general.
As for the exact choice, it would be up to Du Ruhui.
After this full round of organization, Shanhai City had added four Garrison Divisions, as well as six fighting divisions, expanding to a total of 130 thousand men, a count close to the previous number of troops they had.
The fighting divisions, which were part of the three fully filled legions, had reached a total of 210 thousand troops. Apart from that, there would be Ouyang Shuo's three thousand Divine Martial Guards and the Guards Division.
Of the remaining seventeen thousand prisoners, Ouyang Shuo made them all change professions to bailiffs.
That's right, bailiffs.
Raising the position of the Internal Affairs Department, apart from giving them the power to trial cases, the second step was to prepare a strong bailiff squad for them. The bailiffs of the Law and Order Division were similar to modern day police squads.
Maintaining law and order, capturing thieves, and stopping crime organizations. Such matters were all left to the Law and Order Division.
Hence, they greatly needed to build a strong bailiff squad.
Once the Law and Order Division had enough bailiffs, they would be able to lessen the burden on the city protection squads and allow them to focus on military operations.
Ouyang Shuo required the city protection squads to be ready for the main battlefield at any moment.
He wanted to use all of these two hundred thousand prisoners to their best ability. He did not let many of these soldiers go because of the need to expand but also because the quality of these soldiers were relatively high.
The two hundred thousand prisoners were basically the entire alliance army.
During this battle, the alliance army had brought over the elite soldiers from their territories. As a result, their overall quality was above average.
After all, if he recruited and trained soldiers, and threw them into battles subsequently, the whole process would need more than three months.
Using prisoners of war was a short cut.
After this huge war, not only did the strength of the Shanhai City Army not weaken, it even increased instead. Thinking about this point, Ouyang Shuo really needed to thank South Alliance.
After confirming the plans for organizing the military, the following organization would naturally fall to the hands of the Military Affairs Department. This organization involved one hundred thousand troops and many different legions and divisions.
According to conservative estimations, without a month, they could not complete the first step of the reorganization.
For military organization, the Military Affairs Department already had a complete system.
First, they would remove the injured soldiers and the ones that did not meet the standards. They would pass these retired soldiers over to the Internal Affairs Department, who would handle them and give them new jobs.
These soldiers were all great laborers; everyone wanted to employ them.
After considering the population of people in Shanhai City, Ouyang Shuo instructed the Household Registration Division to try to arrange for this batch of ex-soldiers to work in Shanhai City and raise the population.
Ouyang Shuo wanted to let Shanhai City reach the population upper limit and upgrade to grade 2 prefecture.
Secondly, they needed to register the remaining prisoners of war and add them to the military records.
The moment they finished the military registration, they would officially integrate these people into the Shanhai City System. Others would not look down on them, and they could also enjoy the advantages of the territory. Of course, if they tried to run, they would be wanted by the entire territory.
To register two hundred thousand people, recording their soldier type, specialty, basic information and the like was a massive task. Solely relying on the Military Affairs Department was impossible.
Du Ruhui had no choice but to go and ask for help.
His first choice was naturally members of the Household Registration Division. This was their specialty, after all. Apart from that, he also took a bunch of students from the Army Military Academy to assist the Military Affairs Department.
This was also a chance for them to intern and get closer to the real action.
After the registration process, the soldier selection process would take place.
Shanhai City expanding ten divisions meant they needed fifty colonels and 250 majors. For these middle-level generals, they chose a portion from the old troops of Shanhai City, while a potion was chosen from the fallen troops.
After all, there were many elite generals among them, so Ouyang Shuo could not act biased against them.
The battle before was just them fighting for their Lords.
Now, they were one family. As their parent, Ouyang Shuo needed to treat everyone equally.
Of course, for the crucial positions, naturally, Ouyang Shuo had to grant them to generals he relied upon. The people he trusted would infiltrate all the divisions through the military reorganization.
Apart from that, Ouyang Shuo took a small number of officers from the Divine Martial Guards and Guards Division to become majors or colonels.
Be it the Divine Martial Guards or the Guards Division, they were people that Ouyang Shuo trusted the most. They were loyal to him and were willing to die for him.
Giving them roles in the divisions helped him keep control.
Ouyang Shuo had never planned to let go of his control of the military. Moreover, he wanted to prevent generals from growing arrogant and working for their personal gain.
He always thought that people were ambitious and selfish.
As a Lord, he needed to keep this ambition locked up in a cage from the start. He would not give it a chance to jump out.
Ouyang Shuo spent a vast amount of gold to pay for their salaries. Forming a professional army was with all these matters in consideration.
Apart from that, the salaries were standardized and transparent. The generals could not take the salary of the people under them. If they did that, the soldiers could report them to the Military Law Division.
With that, if any general dared to stage a coup, as long as Ouyang Shuo gave the order, the general would not be able to even move his troops, which would force them to surrender.
After exerting various methods, Ouyang Shuo could finally relax and allow the generals to bring the troops out to war. As a result of his identity, the chances of him personally leading them out would decrease in the future.
Even if he wanted to, the officials in the territory would not let him.
Of course, after they reorganized the military, he needed to go and meet each force. He needed to care for them and show his presence.
This move aimed to influence them.
Thirdly, they needed to replenish the divisions. Normally, the major generals could personally choose their troops under the accompaniment of the Military Affairs Department officials.
After all, there were many different types of generals, and their requirements of soldiers were different. Sword-shield soldiers, spearmen, archers, and more.
After the selection process, they needed to report back to the department and apply for items such as equipment, warhorses, and resources. After all, after the organization, the equipment would follow the Shanhai City standard.
This point alone was a massive expenditure.
Fourthly, and also the last step, was something the generals could not participate in.
Based on the Lord’s plan, the Military Affairs Department would organize the remaining soldiers. With a division as a unit, they would hand them over to their respective units.
Throughout this process, the various major generals and generals could not interfere.
After they completed this task, the Military Affairs Department would order the division to head to a specified location to receive their forces. This method could reduce the interference of the generals on the organization of the military to a minimum.
Of course, Baiqi and the others would not just stand around and do nothing.
As commanders who would lead their men, they could ask for benefits for their soldiers and also recommend promotions for their best generals.