Chapter 126: The Concise Eighty-Eight Slashes
Armies can be classified in various ways, with a representative categorization dividing them into four major types: Classical Armies, Mercenary Armies, Modern Armies, and Contemporary Armies.
The core of classical armies were citizen soldiers, such as the formidable troops of the Qin Dynasty, the Fubing system of the Northern Dynasties, and even the armies of Sparta, Macedon, and the Roman Republic. Their soldiers were composed of citizens, freedmen during the slave system, or small landowners and self-sufficient farmers during the feudal system. These soldiers held relatively high social status, typically trained voluntarily, joined of their own accord, and possessed relatively strong combat will.
The primary driving force behind the combat of these classical armies was mainly a sense of personal honor and the desire to improve social standing. After the end of the classical era, this became difficult to replicate.
Mercenary armies, on the other hand, are groups formed through complex relationships of interest. Their characteristic is that soldiers are privately controlled by generals, with the soldiers belonging to the general. These armies are composed of a small number of elites and a large number of impoverished commoners lacking training. During combat, they primarily rely on the small number of elites; once the elites fall, the commoners immediately scatter everywhere. Representative armies include the Imperial Guards of the Song Dynasty, the border troops of the Ming Dynasty, various knightly orders in the West, and disorganized nomadic and pirate groups, all of which can be considered mercenary armies.
The combat driving force of these armies relies mainly on violent oppression, material rewards, and plunder and rape. They typically have weak autonomous combat will, and their overall combat effectiveness is quite poor.
Currently, the various Daimyo and Local Lords in Japan are employing this type of army model, taking to the battlefield in a “Follower + Ashigaru” formation.
Modern armies are composed of professional Military Officers and a large number of trained commoner soldiers. The soldiers form the main body, undergoing harsh and professional training under the lash of a small number of Military Officers until their minds are blank, turning them into mechanical combat dolls. They can then advance in neat formations, disregarding life and death, to engage the enemy in attrition warfare.
Typical modern armies include the various national armies of the Napoleonic era in the West.
The combat driving force of these armies is primarily discipline. Soldiers fear Military Discipline more than death, so under the coercion of Military Discipline, they can display tenacious combat effectiveness in a dazed state, truly able to fight without looking back.
As for contemporary armies, there’s no need to discuss them. Such armies could not possibly be conceived in the Japanese Medieval Period; there are simply no prerequisite conditions.
Given Yuan Ye’s current conditions, he lacks the social foundation for classical armies. At least for now, he has nowhere to find enough free citizens with a sense of honor, making it impossible to establish them.
He dislikes mercenary armies. If he were to gather a group of Vassals, and those Vassals were to recruit their own Vassals and Followers, it would eventually lead to numerous factions under his command, each with their own agenda. If even one Vassal were a bit lax, their subordinates might go around plundering and raping indiscriminately, or a Vassal might openly gamble with their subordinates.
If such an incident were to occur, given his personality, he would surely suffer from insomnia and nausea that night.
Furthermore, he can currently only use weapons available in the Japanese Medieval Period, and he dares not even implement large-scale improvements. If his army’s organizational system were the same as that of the local natives, he would have very little Advantage, and his life could be in grave danger. Therefore, a purely interest-based mercenary army is also not feasible.
This leaves only the path of modern armies. By imposing strict Military Discipline on the soldiers, they would become professional combat dolls, sent out to plunder… to rescue more people, and then train more combat dolls, ensuring that eventually, anyone who mentions him would tremble, and everyone would be as docile as quails.
As for whose example to follow… Yuan Datou is a good candidate. Yuan Ye had previously studied the text “Small Station Training” in class and remembered some of it.
He selected people from the Labor Team, drawing out over 140 individuals who had been well-nourished and had developed a certain sense of discipline in the Workshop. He organized them into fourteen small flag units, with ten people per small unit, thus forming his first legitimate army, or rather, laying the skeleton of a legitimate army.
Then, he took out the Training Manual, which he had spent two months away for advanced study, writing, thinking, and contemplating to compile. He broke it down into various booklets of differing thickness: “Concise Law of Eighty-Eight Slashes,” “Camp Regulations,” “Individual Tactical Training Methods,” “Monthly Salary and Benefits Charter,” and “Camp School Rules.” He then handed these over to A Man, A Qing, and the “Military Police” composed of veteran Followers, to assist in training.
A Man saw that Yuan Ye was up to his usual tricks again, but she didn’t rush to spout off. After all, Yuan Ye had succeeded several times already, and she had learned to be a bit more sensible, not daring to speak nonsense so casually. She directly picked up the “Concise Law of Eighty-Eight Slashes” and opened it to find that it wasn’t a swordsmanship manual but a concise and brutal military law.
One: Those who advance or retreat without awaiting orders, or fail to rejoin their unit after combat, shall be executed.
Two: Those who look back and retreat during combat, or whisper to each other, shall be executed.
Three: Those who flee during assignments or training, or feign injury or illness, shall be executed.
Four: Those who lose military equipment during training, or abandon military equipment without being wounded in combat, shall be executed.
…
Eighty-Six: Those who cry out in the night, run wildly, sneak out of camp to roam late at night, or gather to gamble, drink, and play, shall all be executed as a warning.
Eighty-Seven: Those who harass residents, plunder property, or rape women shall be executed as a warning to all soldiers of this flag.
Eighty-Eight: If a superior officer falls in battle and their subordinate fails to provide adequate support, resulting in no casualties, or if a small flag unit is annihilated with no casualties or merit for the remaining soldiers of this flag unit, all shall be executed as a warning.
Listed one by one, they were truly brutal. Even failing to participate in training would result in decapitation. Just looking at them felt a bit bloody.
A Man read through them at a glance and felt a chill run down her spine. Her ambition to become Commander-in-Chief immediately vanished. She felt that if she joined the camp, she would lose her head within six hours and be buried.
She swallowed and quickly closed the booklet again, saying with some difficulty, “This… Lord, it’s not that I’m saying you’re acting recklessly, but… do military laws really need to be this strict? If you keep executing people like this, how many will be left in the end? These people are all Family Retainers you paid for. It’s not good to waste them like this.”
Yuan Ye had his own principles and shook his head, saying, “Armies should inherently have strict laws and discipline. There is no room for sentimentality here, nor is there any room for negotiation! Therefore, even if this entire batch of people is executed, the precedent must be set!”
After speaking, he took out the “Camp Regulations” and handed it to her as well. “These are the daily rules and regulations. You should also read this one carefully. They will all have to memorize this one, and if they can’t, they will be beaten until they can recite it backward!”
A Man took the thicker booklet and quickly flipped through it, exclaiming in surprise, “What? You’re even going to regulate washing clothes, bathing, and cleaning rooms? And make it so clean?”
“Of course, we have to regulate it!”
Internal Affairs must be managed, and it is of utmost importance. However, it’s not for the reason most people think, such as further cultivating discipline, or at least that’s not the primary reason. Most people don’t realize the dire consequences of cramming ten men into a small room. Without strict Internal Affairs discipline, within three days, that room would turn into a dirty and smelly pigsty, with hygiene conditions so poor that they would cause infectious diseases, vomiting, and diarrhea, which can genuinely lead to death!
At the very least, people would be absent from training due to illness every day, leading to various non-combat casualties.
Yuan Ye handed her a short wooden stick. “You need to be even stricter in this regard. Anyone who doesn’t follow the regulations will be beaten. However, it’s inconvenient for me to personally administer the beatings, so you can do it for me. No one in the camp is exempt.”
A Man took the short wooden stick and weighed it. She remembered that Yuan Ye was also supposed to join the camp, and her gaze fell on him, thoughtfully asking, “Everyone?”
“Not including me. I will voluntarily comply, so you don’t need to worry about me.” Yuan Ye would certainly lead by example, but he quickly added a caveat to prevent A Man, that wild child, from finding an excuse to try hitting the Lord. She was capable of such a thing. He also emphasized, “What you have to do is very important. You must strictly enforce the regulations and absolutely not hit people on a whim. If such a thing happens, don’t blame me for publicly beating you.”
A Man knew he was serious and nodded obediently. “Alright, you’re the Lord, and your word is law. I’ll memorize these two booklets myself first, and I absolutely won’t let anyone find fault with them. You can rest assured about my brain.”
However, after speaking, she hesitated and couldn’t help but offer a piece of unwelcome advice. “Will this work? Constantly chopping off heads and beating people – what if those guys can’t take it and rebel? Of course, I’m not afraid of them rebelling. With our dozen or so armored men, it won’t take much effort to disperse them. But these people are also assets, and it would be a shame to kill them.”
“Constant high pressure alone won’t work; benefits still need to be provided. However, I’ll handle that, so you don’t need to worry!” Yuan Ye patted the “Monthly Salary and Benefits Charter” and “Camp School Rules.” “They only need to endure for two and a half years. This two-and-a-half-year period is considered their redemption fee. After two years, they will become freedmen and can leave the barracks. They will have priority qualifications for purchasing property, land, and ships, obtaining small loans, and participating in group matchmaking. Moreover, as long as they enforce the law justly and obey orders, they will not be punished and will receive a monthly salary far exceeding that of the workshop. Most people should be able to endure this and not intentionally cause trouble, so you don’t need to worry too much.”
“So, I’m the bad guy, and you’re the good guy!”
A Man wasn’t stupid and immediately understood Yuan Ye’s intention. It was a classic good cop, bad cop routine. But she didn’t have any objections. After all, in this world, besides A Qing and Yuan Ye, few people liked her. In fact, rather than being liked, she preferred others to fear her. However, after taking the “Monthly Salary and Benefits Charter” and looking at it, she hesitated. “You’re going to free these people after two and a half years? And if they get injured or disabled, you’ll still arrange work for them and support them indefinitely. Won’t that be too costly?”
“Not allowing retirement will only breed soldiers who are afraid of death and slack off. Keeping those people would be more harmful than beneficial.” Yuan Ye had thought about this repeatedly and made this decision based on advanced experience from later generations. He spoke without hesitation. “Let’s try it first. And after two and a half years, they will be accustomed to camp life and may not want to leave. At that time, we can re-sign contracts with them until the day they are no longer fit for combat.”
A Man hesitated slightly, thinking that trying it first was acceptable. After all, everything Yuan Ye had said he would try before had succeeded, and this time might be the same, so she didn’t object further. She then picked up the “Camp School Rules” and flipped through it, also very surprised. “You’re going to set up a school in the barracks? What can those idiots learn?”
“This is to select Military Officers. Those who perform well in training and show intelligence can enter ‘Camp School’ to learn common characters, arithmetic, marching, setting up camp, and so on. In the future, they will become Junior Officers. Then, the capable will advance, and the incapable will step down.” Yuan Ye intended to teach this himself. At that time, he would be the principal for the first batch of Military Officers, which would greatly improve loyalty. Moreover, he didn’t plan to recruit Vassals on a large scale, so if he wanted to establish a command system, he could only train them himself.
After speaking, he handed the “Individual Tactical Training Methods” to A Qing. “This one is for you. The training methods inside are what I’ve gathered. I’m not sure if they’re correct, so look through it carefully and feel free to modify and experiment. In the future, in addition to assisting A Man, you will be responsible for teaching soldiers Archery and Spear Technique.”
A Qing nodded gently, took the booklet, and began to read it carefully. She was still somewhat confident in her martial arts skills and didn’t find it difficult.
Yuan Ye then called over the dozen or so veteran Followers who were preparing to serve as the Military Police to come closer. He instructed A Man to read the military discipline and regulations to them, asking them to memorize and familiarize themselves with them first, and to offer suggestions to brainstorm whether they were feasible, so that he wouldn’t be working in isolation and overlook something, thus saving a few heads.
For now, this is all he could do. After all, in the Modern Era, he was just an ordinary person. This was the best method he could think of. He just didn’t know what the actual results would be, or if it could help him survive in this unfortunate Era.
Now, all he could do was pray that it would truly work.
