Qin Official

When marching and fighting these days, except for soldiers and armors, which are distributed by the local arsenal, you have to bring your own clothing, including quilts.

"Quilt" refers to the quilt these days. The summer is hot, so it is a single-layer thin quilt. Now it is late autumn, the weather is getting colder, and a thin quilt can no longer keep out the cold, so a thick quilt is needed.

Because everyone brought their own from home, or bought it at the market when they were stationed, the things in the quilt were also full of strange things. The quilts worn by captains and generals like Li You in the army were not only sewn with the best silk, but also lined with a layer of soft deerskin and stuffed with duck and goose down, making it light and warm. , only nobles can afford it.

Military officials like Heifu who came from middle-class families used better quality Gebu to sew quilts. For example, the quilt he covered himself with was sewn by his mother, who also picked it from Yunmengze in late autumn. It is filled with reed catkins, soft to the touch, and warm enough to cover your body.

The poorer ordinary soldiers can only use burlap as a quilt, with some dry grass and wheat straw stuffed into it in autumn. This kind of quilt is hard to the touch and can only barely keep out the cold...

But in this tent that can accommodate ten people, Li You found that quilts of whatever shape were carefully folded and placed at the end of the bed.

Although it was impossible to stack them into the "tofu blocks" of the People's Liberation Army due to material problems, it looked very pleasing to the eyes of Captain Li You, who liked uniformity. You know, not to mention the Nanjun soldiers, even the most elite Guanzhong warriors, the quilts in the tents are laid out in random directions, and no one has ever folded them subconsciously.

Apart from being surprised when he first came in, he was speechless after that. And San walked out of the small tent of ten people and looked at the other tents in the camp of Heifu and his hundred people. But without exception, I saw that the bedding was neatly stacked. In addition, armor, clothes, weapons, oars and shields all had their own place to put them. This was in sharp contrast to the mess in other camps...

Li You casually picked up a wooden tablet on the couch. On it was a work and rest schedule written by Heifu. He got up at sunrise and folded the quilt, ate during meals, and went out to train at odd hours... Almost every hour had a corresponding schedule.

"Who asked you to fold this quilt?"

It couldn't be that the soldiers were conscious, it must have been the order of the military officials.

Hei Fu, who was following closely behind, immediately agreed, "My subordinates ordered all the soldiers to do it."

"Why is this so?" Li You asked.

Heifu said: "It's for the sake of all the hearts."

"One heart?"

Li You became interested and sat down on a neatly folded floor with a quilt on the floor and asked Hei Fu to tell him.

Heifu looked at the leaders and five hundred masters standing in a circle outside the camp, feeling a little embarrassed.

Li Youque said: "It doesn't matter, please tell me in detail."

Hei Fu bowed his head and said: "I dare to tell you, Captain, that all the soldiers under my command are from various counties in Nanjun. Some are from Anlu County, some are from Yan County, and some are from Jingling County. We did not know each other before. And everyone has never been there before. After he was drafted to go north at the age of 18, he worked abroad for a year and could not return home for a long time. He could not help but miss his own home. This is what is called everyone's heart. If there is a battle, they will hesitate to look at each other and cannot move forward according to orders. "

"When the subordinates are in the county, they have participated in the training of soldiers. They must first be restrained in the formation, and they must be in step, uniform, and not in disorder. When they arrive in the military camp, it is even more strict. Even if the soldiers are doing chopping It is also not allowed to go out alone to carry out firewood, grazing, etc. You must form a procession, and those who do not form a procession are not allowed to pass."

This is just like in the army of later generations, three people must line up when traveling. It is all to help soldiers develop good discipline in their lives.

Military housework such as folding quilts also plays the same role.

This kind of "formalism" of the army was often criticized in later generations, but its original intention was good and it greatly promoted the uniformity of the army. If even a small bedding cannot be stacked neatly every day, you do not need to expect the soldiers of this army to obey more stringent orders when marching, stationed, and fighting.

Looking back, when he was in the police academy in his previous life, he cursed the boring formalism of folding quilts every day, but now, it has become a habit that Heifu cannot give up.

Uniformity is an important way for collective strength to condense and gradually develop and accumulate. This is what Heifu calls "the heart of one people." Both ancient military strategists and modern armies of various countries are doing similar things subconsciously.

A soldier is a murderous weapon!

After a year of military life, Heifu has a new understanding of this sentence.

He believed that the so-called ferociousness was not the domineering spirit of victory and victory, nor the tragedy of mountains of corpses and seas of blood, but indifference to human life and suppression of human nature!

Military discipline and military regulations are based on the premise of eliminating personal character. This discipline must be deeply rooted in the bone marrow and become a part of their lives, so that everyone has a strong sense of belonging.

If you are ordered to do so, you will have to forget about your family. When you go abroad to fight, you will have to forget about your parents. When you are about to fight against the enemy, you will have to forget about yourself.

That's right, forget their previous identities as farmers, craftsmen, merchants, husbands, sons, and brothers, and get a new identity, the only identity: warrior!

This principle is the same when it comes to the Qin army.

Therefore, when Heifu was stationed in Hufu Township, he asked his soldiers to insist on folding quilts every day to cultivate their obedience and discipline. When he arrived in Yangcheng, when new subordinates joined, he asked his old subordinates to teach the newcomers how to fold quilts. It has also become a good way to quickly integrate them into the group.

Of course, the more important reason is that Heifu wanted to attract the commander's attention in this way. Under the transformation of Qin Law, many officials and officers in the Qin State had obsessive-compulsive disorder, and Heifu just prescribed the right medicine...

After two months of strictly demanding his subordinates day after day, the opportunity really came. How could Heifu miss it?

So he talked eloquently: "Therefore, in addition to military training, the subordinates thought that the soldiers could also start with some simple and small things on weekdays, so as to eliminate their selfish desires when they were in charge of Guizhou, forget those lazy habits, and make hundreds of people Uniform and uniform, just like one person!"

After saying this, Hei Fu bowed and said: "The subordinates are vulgar people and their shallow views make the captain laugh."

"A hundred people are like one person..."

Li You did not sneer, but rather admired the young military official in front of him. He asked Heifu where he was from, and learned that his family was just a family of young officials without a family name. He worked as a local pavilion chief and joined the army. Only through little meritorious service did he get the position of doctor, and he was secretly amazed.

He had read the Art of War and remembered this passage in "Wu Zi": "If the laws are unclear, the rewards and punishments are not believed, the gold is endless, and the drums are not advanced, even if there are millions, what is the use?"

When this happens, it must be because the general does not know how to manage the army.

So, what does it mean to “manage the army” according to the law?

The so-called ruler should be polite when he lives, and powerful when he moves! Advance cannot be stopped, retreat cannot be pursued, but there is a knot in the front, and the left and right should be rubbed together.

Today's incident refreshed Li You's understanding of "being courteous".

"This Captain is patrolling the camp today, and it's not in vain."

He stood up with satisfaction, and when he walked out of the tent, he said to the commander and the five hundred chiefs who were waiting outside with wide eyes: "Hei Fu manages the army with courtesy. He and all the soldiers should be rewarded with ten thousand coins!"

Hei Fu thanked him, and his subordinates who were standing in several rows outside also looked happy after hearing this, thinking to themselves that the quilts had not been folded in vain in the past two months.

Unexpectedly, Li You turned around and said: "I just don't know whether all the people under Heifu's command can really be one hundred people during the drill, and if they can move, they will be powerful? Tomorrow, the captain will have to Try it!”

…

Li You looked elegant, but acted in a fickle manner. The day after he arrived at the military camp for inspection, he asked five leaders to lead their subordinates in a large-scale military exercise outside Yangcheng County.

According to the rules of the Qin army, the five thousand people were divided into five teams and formed into formations in the wild for exercises. During the drill, three wooden large watches are set up, one for every 100 steps.

After the troops were arrayed, according to Li You's golden drum flag, they practiced martial arts with spears, quick steps, and running. After repeating the drill three times, the army will fully master all the essentials, and then rewards and punishments will be given based on the performance of the drill.

In this drill, as Li You expected, the Nanjun soldiers had average control over the formation and golden drum flags, and were far inferior to the elite troops in Guanzhong.

Only Heifu, who had not slackened his training in the queue for two months, once again attracted Li You's attention...

Use the board as the drum, the tile as the gold, and the pole as the flag. Advance with the drums beating, advance with low flags, retreat with the sound of gold, follow the troops to the left, follow the troops to the right, sit down while beating the gold and drums, each task is completed well.

Being able to get the general to notice once may be luck, but being able to notice twice in a row is strength.

So after the day's practice, Li You rewarded Heifu and his men with tens of thousands of dollars, and made a decision that surprised the whole song.

Heifu and his subordinates were all transferred to the short-term soldiers directly under Captain Li You!