Three Kingdoms: Let Yuan Shen be great again

Chapter 51 Military Reform Plan

For Yuan Yao, neither the textile industry, on which he had high hopes, nor the Guangling strategy, which involved the Zhong family's expansion direction, could be accomplished overnight.

This falls under Huainan's medium- to long-term plan, but in the short term, the most important issue remains domestic policy.

The most important aspect of domestic policy, however, is the reorganization and reform of the military.

The Zhong clan's army used to be very chaotic in terms of its military system, with private armies, recruited soldiers, and conscripts all mixed together. This hodgepodge was not only very troublesome to manage, but also quite inefficient in practice.

In addition to the lingering poison of Yuan Shu, the Zhong clan's army is still very weak at its core. Although they recently defeated Sun Ce, that was more of a strategic success and the unexpected factor of Guan Yu.

In fact, when Yuan Yao first took over military and political power, the average age of the Zhongshi Army was almost forty years old. In the late Eastern Han Dynasty, they would have been considered an army of old men. Moreover, due to years of defeats, their fighting spirit and military quality were very poor, and their loyalty was practically nonexistent.

Afterwards, Yuan Yao made some improvements, such as recruiting some young and strong men to join the army, eliminating the old and weak who were unable to fight, and mainly engaging them in land reclamation work. In addition, there were some personnel changes, and a few bad apples were dismissed and investigated.

These improvements are clearly limited; they are merely stopgap measures and do not address the root cause.

The recent purge also affected many military personnel, which certainly caused the Zhong army's combat strength to plummet and morale to collapse, but it also presented an opportunity for destruction and reconstruction.

Especially with Yuan Yao riding high on his victory over Sun Ce, having a base of two thousand imperial guards, and with Guan Yu in charge, any trouble he might cause could be suppressed. It's time for a full-scale overhaul.

Yuan Yao arrived at the military camp outside the city, where Cao Xing explained the recent reforms of the army to him. Accompanying him were the strategist Liu Ye and Lü Meng, who was often dragged over to give instructions.

The combination of these people was very deliberate. Cao Xing was an experienced senior military officer, Lü Meng was a standard junior officer, and Liu Ye was the chief of staff who oversaw both military and political affairs. It can be said that all aspects were taken into consideration.

Cao Xingxian reported to Yuan Yao on his recent core task, which was to centralize power and bring all military power under one control.

During the late Han Dynasty, due to the Yellow Turban Rebellion, the imperial court allowed local areas to recruit their own armed forces. As a result, these recruited troops often only recognized their direct commanders, leading to the historical peculiar situation of "my subordinates' subordinates are not my subordinates".

In addition, local powerful families built fortified villages and formed private armies for self-protection. These soldiers were not included in the official ranks and were not subject to command. Once war broke out, they would become an unstable factor.

In this battle to defend Huainan, Zhang Duoxuqian, a powerful figure from Chaohu, tricked Yuan Yao by defecting to his side, almost tipping the balance of power.

In response to this problem, Yuan Yao forcibly seized ownership of all the troops. Under the guise of reorganizing them to fight the enemy and unifying their pay, he demanded that his subordinates hand over their personnel rosters. From then on, their food, pay, equipment, promotions, and even the resettlement of their families would all be arranged and decided by the central government. Generals would only have wartime command authority, and those who privately hid their troops would be punished for treason.

As for the local strongmen and their private armies, since Zhang Duo and Xu Qian fled, the remaining local strongmen in Lujiang have basically stopped showing their teeth under Yuan Yao's long-term suppression. After Yuan Yao promised to let them continue to be wealthy, they handed over their private armed forces, either to be incorporated into the regular army or to serve as the local garrison.

Overall, due to Huainan's relatively small size, Yuan Yao's centralization of power did not encounter much resistance. According to Cao Xing's estimate, the entire rectification will be completed in a few more months.

However, simply consolidating military power is only the first step. Moreover, separating the power to deploy troops from the power to command them may lead to a situation in the short term where generals do not know their soldiers and soldiers do not know their generals, resulting in a decline in combat effectiveness. Other supporting measures are needed.

Yuan Yao instructed: "We can establish a staff system, which means expanding the position of military advisor and setting up more staff officers to be in charge of intelligence, terrain surveying, logistics coordination, military discipline supervision, etc., to improve the command ability of the general."

The accompanying scribe wrote down Yuan Yao's words in a flash.

After Yuan Yao finished speaking, Cao Xing also offered his personal opinion: "Could the military system be revised again?"

Cao Xing pointed out that the current Zhongshi army, including the armies of most of the feudal lords at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, were mostly soldiers who served as agricultural settlers and fought on the side, with no distinction between soldiers and farmers. They could only concentrate on training during the off-season for farming.

The advantage of this military system is its low maintenance cost and certain output, enabling it to be self-sufficient. However, its disadvantage is equally obvious: low combat effectiveness and inability to fight tough battles.

Therefore, Cao Xing hoped to train more full-time standing troops, otherwise they would be at a great disadvantage when encountering other people's elite troops in the future.

But this is actually not a very easy thing to do.

Yuan Yao certainly knew that separating soldiers from farmers could greatly improve the combat effectiveness of the troops, but the reality was that he couldn't afford to support too many professional soldiers.

"How about this, expand my two thousand Imperial Guards by half, to three thousand men, and let's keep this number for now."

"As for the combat effectiveness of the troops—better to have too many than too few; if the quality is not good enough, make up for it with quantity."

Yuan Yao came up with a reverse way of thinking.

Cao Xing didn't think the garrison troops were bad; he just gave them another wave that was even harder to use. Then, the garrison troops, this semi-professional army, would look much better.

"Huainan is a place of constant warfare, and we must be prepared for war at any time. Here's what we'll do: all males who are 15 years of age or older will be assigned to the reserve force. They will train for three days a month during the off-season and will be responsible for auxiliary work such as defending the city, transporting grain, and building fortifications during wartime. They will try their best not to participate in front-line field battles."

Cao Xing: "..."

Next, Liu Ye shared his views, mainly focusing on logistics. He hoped to establish an independent support organization within the military, dedicated to managing ordnance, storing provisions, and transporting supplies.

"Good idea." Yuan Yao praised: "I'd like to add one more thing: increase the number of military doctors in the army and enhance the role of the wounded soldiers' battalion. When I write a nurse's manual, if we follow it carefully, we can at least double the recovery rate."

Seeing that everyone else had spoken, Lü Meng boldly added, "Grand Commander, we soldiers don't actually have that many ambitions. What we care about most is whether our military achievements can be fulfilled."

"Yes." Yuan Yao nodded and said, "It is only right to have clear rewards and punishments."

However, to truly achieve clear rewards and punishments, it's not enough to just talk about it. A feasible system for quantifying military merits must be established, military judges must play their role in verifying each person's military achievements in a timely manner, and a merit officer must be specifically responsible for this matter to ensure that rewards and punishments are effectively implemented.

Most importantly, the reward must be something tangible.

This brings us to the issue of finance.

Yuan Yao calculated that all the reform plans he had recently proposed, whether it was to reform the bureaucracy and promote new people, to vigorously develop the textile industry, or various military plans, were all money-devouring behemoths. The initial investment alone was estimated to be tens of millions.

However, Huainan had just gone through a war and was not wealthy to begin with. It was only by killing many local tyrants and evil gentry and receiving gifts from Cao Cao that the military expenditure hole was plugged.

The remaining powerful families in Lujiang are of average means; otherwise, they wouldn't have survived to this day. Moreover, they recognized the situation early on and have been quite cooperative with Yuan Yao's rule. It wouldn't be reasonable to target them again.

But where would Yuan Yao find this money and grain to serve as the start-up capital for Huainan's take-off?

Yuan Yao quickly came up with an idea.

They are still powerful figures.

There was no other way; these were the only wealthy people in the late Eastern Han Dynasty. Who else could we turn to if not them?

As mentioned earlier, the local powerful families in Lujiang are almost penniless, with no more profit to be made from them.

It's okay.

Lujiang is out of money, but there's still Jiujiang!

Yuan Yao: "Who came up with this 'powerful clan' thing? You can get gold coins just by hitting it?"