Chapter 148: The Militia Camp (Part 2)

Most of the local militia recruits gathered by Zhen Qian were honest and simple tenant farmers. The oldest among them was twenty-five, and the youngest was sixteen. To them, the military camp was an entirely unfamiliar environment. Previously, they had used hoes to farm the land; now, they were soldiers holding sabers to kill. The exact difference between the two was not yet clear to them. The only thing they knew for sure was that being a soldier meant they would no longer go hungry, which was the primary reason they had volunteered.

The very first task upon opening the camp was an assessment and training session. A preliminary evaluation had already been conducted during the recruitment phase, but that process had been very simple: no missing limbs, able to stand straight, eyes level, mouth aligned; dwarves were rejected, those with hearing problems were rejected, and heavy-set individuals were also turned away. As long as a person possessed some physical strength, they could enter the army.

The entry criteria were not strict at all, falling far short of later standards. To mention nothing else, most of the new recruits could not even distinguish their left from their right. Training such men was exceptionally difficult!

Yet these new recruits possessed one distinct advantage: they were highly moldable. Compared to hardened veteran loafers, they understood far better how to cherish this hard-won change in their circumstances. Three meals a day easily satisfied them, they never argued against military regulations, and they never complained about the food. As long as there was no wanton abuse within the camp, they would regard it as paradise.

The purpose of the formal camp-entry assessment and training was very straightforward: to survey the troops under his command, understand their individual capabilities, and subsequently divide and organize them into squads based on those abilities, as well as to appoint junior officers.

Military treatises state that generally, a commander must embody the five virtues and apply the five cautions. The so-called five virtues are: first, wisdom; second, trustworthiness; third, benevolence; fourth, courage; and fifth, strictness. Without wisdom, one cannot assess the enemy and respond to changing circumstances; without trustworthiness, one cannot instruct and lead subordinates; without benevolence, one cannot attach the masses and care for the soldiers; without courage, one cannot make decisive plans and engage in battle; and without strictness, one cannot overawe the strong and unite the multitude.

The so-called five cautions are: first, discipline; second, preparedness; third, decisiveness; fourth, vigilance; and fifth, conciseness. Discipline means managing the many as easily as the few: standards and flags have clear divisions, gongs and drums have distinct signals, thus when one person learns to fight, ten can be taught through them. Preparedness means going forth as if facing the enemy: when moving, maintain a disciplined formation; when halting, enforce rigorous defense. Decisiveness means facing the enemy without clinging to life; as the classic says, slaying the enemy is decisiveness, and carrying it through with resolve is tenacity. Vigilance means remaining as watchful after a victory as at the start of a battle; as Song Yi said to Xiang Yu, a general whose army is victorious yet becomes proud and lazy will surely be defeated. Conciseness means laws and commands should be brief without being vexatious; when governance is overly complicated, the people grow lazy, just as muddy water sickens fish. When laws and prohibitions are overly blatant, thieves and bandits multiply.

Since he had already assumed the post of Deputy Militia Commander, Zhen Qian did his utmost to understand the military system of the Tang Dynasty, studying how to become a competent commanding general. Taking advantage of the newly established militia camp, Zhen Qian sought out numerous military books, learning that a general must possess the five virtues and five cautions. Wisdom, trustworthiness, benevolence, courage, strictness, discipline, preparedness, decisiveness, vigilance, and conciseness—these ten brief characters encapsulated the essential elements required of a military commander. Zhen Qian held them as classics in his heart. A person gets few opportunities in a lifetime to lead troops; although he commanded only two hundred and fifty new militia recruits—a group consisting mostly of youths no older than fifteen or sixteen, with the oldest barely in their early twenties—he still approached the task with utmost seriousness.

Zhen Qian gathered the two hundred and fifty recruits on a relatively flat clearing. Standing on a high platform and looking down, he saw that the five square formations were reasonably orderly, comparable to the level of modern student military training. However, seeing the white lime dots marked on the ground by each squad made it clear why.

Many of the recruits in the first squad on the left came from the same region. Having fled disaster together and drifted to Luquan County together, being placed in the same squad gave them a sense of security and familiarity.

As his gaze swept across the ranks below, Zhen Qian's face twitched into a bitter smile. Their names alone were enough to bring a chuckle. Poor families rarely had nice names; they believed that the cheaper a name was, the easier the child was to raise, leading to messy names like stray cats and dogs. There were three or four named Wang Er, quite a few named Big Fool, and even two named Iron Pillar—though one was called Zhang Tiezhu and the other Li Tiezhu, leaving him utterly speechless.

For a full minute, he stood silently on the platform in quiet observation. Feeling the stern atmosphere of that oppressive stillness, the men below put away their smiles and whispered conversations, standing there in nervous tension.

After another quarter of an hour, seeing that everyone below was tense and at a loss as to what to do, Zhen Qian finally shouted in a deep voice: "Those among you who are already married, step out of the ranks and stand to the left!"

The recruits were somewhat baffled by this command. After a brief hesitation, thirty-odd men stepped out and moved to the left.

"Are there any who are betrothed at home but not yet married? Those who are, step out and stand to the right."

At this, more than forty or fifty men moved to the right.

Zhen Qian nodded. "Return to your ranks, all of you!"

"Only sons in your families, step forward!"

"..."

Naturally, the recruits had no idea what purpose lay behind Zhen Qian's series of eccentric commands, but it gave him a completely fresh understanding of the men under his command. In this era, finding someone who could read and write was no easy feat. For two days since opening the camp, no one had even been capable of creating a roster of the recruits' basic information, making the enforcement of military discipline a formidable challenge.

To whip this troop into shape, give them a completely new look, and transform them from displaced vagrants into an elite force, Zhen Qian had to provide them with a goal to strive for and a driving force for progress. For now, the primary goal was easy to find: to have enough to eat. Once people have food to eat, new aspirations arise. In truth, refugees had very modest demands—an ox, a few acres of land, and a warm kang bed with a wife and children.

Regrettably, the feudal ruling class could not even provide these refugees with the most basic sustenance. Driven to the brink of life and death, uprisings by desperate vagrants became inevitable.

Clad in armor and grasping a ceremonial saber, Zhen Qian swept his gaze across the recruits below and shouted loudly, "Do you want to marry a beautiful and virtuous wife to add flourishing branches and leaves to your family? Do you want to acquire dozens of acres of fertile land and build a tile-roofed house? Do you want your granaries packed with grain so that you never have to worry about clothing and two meals a day ever again?"

The recruits below stared at Zhen Qian in astonishment, wondering why he would ask such a question. It clearly sounded like a pipe dream. After a moment of hesitation, they responded in a scattered murmur: "We do..."

"Speak louder! Did you not eat your fill today? I can't hear you!"

"We do!"

"Louder still! Shout out the dreams in your hearts!"

"WE DO!!!" A deafening roar erupted from below as all two hundred and fifty recruits cried out at the top of their lungs.

Watching the roaring recruits and seeing that the spark of hope had finally been ignited in their eyes, Zhen Qian nodded with satisfaction. The greatest fear is when people stop striving; once people harbor ambitions, they find drive, and everything else becomes manageable.

He could provide them with food, land, and training as brave warriors, but all of this required a prerequisite. Every living person possesses goals and ideals; peasants hope the earth will yield a bit more grain, merchants hope their goods fetch a good price, and even beggars ponder how to solicit a few more coins each day.

Those who are content do not necessarily find constant joy. Without goals and dreams, society stagnates, the nation declines, and the army loses its combat effectiveness. The yearning for a better life is the ultimate source of drive that keeps every human being going.