The Great Qin Empire---Qin Li

In these days, when marching and fighting, except for weapons and armors that were issued by local arsenals, other clothes for changing had to be brought by oneself, and quilts were no exception.

"Quilts" were quilts in these days. In the hot summer, they were thin single-layer quilts. Now it is late autumn and the weather is getting colder. A thin quilt alone is not enough to keep out the cold, so thick quilts are needed.

Because everyone brought their own from home or bought them at the market when they arrived at the station, the things filled in the quilts were also strange. For officers like Li You, the quilts they covered in the army were not only made of the best silk, but also lined with a layer of soft deerskin, and stuffed with duck and goose down. They were light and warm, and only the nobles could afford them.

Military officers like Heifu, who came from middle-class families, used better ramie cloth to sew quilts. For example, the quilt he covered himself with was made by his mother, and filled with reed flowers collected from the Yunmeng Lake in late autumn. It felt soft to the touch and was warm enough to cover himself with.

Ordinary soldiers who were even poorer could only use coarse linen as quilts, and stuffed some dry grass and wheat straw into them in autumn. This kind of quilt felt hard to the touch and could only barely keep out the cold...

But in this tent that could accommodate ten people, Li You found that no matter what shape the quilts were, they were carefully folded and placed at the end of the bed.

Although it was impossible to fold them into the "tofu blocks" of the People's Liberation Army in later generations due to material problems, they looked very pleasing to the eye in the eyes of Li You, a captain who liked uniformity. You know, let alone the Nanjun soldiers, even the most elite Guanzhong warriors, the quilts in the tents were placed in a mess, and no one had ever subconsciously folded them.

Except for the surprise when he first came in, he didn't say anything after that. He walked out of the small tent of ten people and looked at the other tents in the camp of a hundred people led by Hei Fu. He saw that without exception, the bedding was neatly folded. In addition, armor, clothes, weapons, and shields were placed in a place, which formed a sharp contrast with the mess in other tents...

Li You picked up a wooden tablet on the couch. On it was the work schedule written by Hei Fu. Get up at sunrise to fold the quilt, eat at mealtime, go out for training at noon... Almost every hour has a corresponding work schedule.

"Who asked you to fold this quilt?"

It couldn't be the soldiers' own initiative, it must be the order of the military officers.

Hei Fu, who followed closely behind, immediately responded: "The officers ordered the soldiers to do it."

"Why do you do this?" Li You asked.

Hei Fu said, "It's for the sake of unity."

"Unity?"

Li You became interested and sat down on a neatly folded blanket with a helmet on top, and asked Hei Fu to tell the story.

Hei Fu looked at the commander and the five hundred leaders standing in a circle outside the tent and felt a little embarrassed.

Li You said, "It's okay. Please tell me in detail."

Hei Fu bowed his head and said, "I dare to tell you, the soldiers under my command are all from various counties in Nanjun. Some are from Anlu County, some are from Yan County, and some are from Jingling County. They didn't know each other before. Moreover, since they were summoned to the north last year, they have been away for a year and have not been able to return. They can't help but miss their families. This is what we call the hearts of the people are not one. If they encounter a battle, they will hesitate and look at each other, and they will not be able to move forward as ordered."

"When I was in the county, I participated in the training of the soldiers. I must first discipline them with the ranks, and make sure they are in step, uniform, and not confused. When I arrived at the military camp, it was even more strict. Even if the soldiers went to do things like chopping wood or grazing, they could not go out alone. They must form a line. Those who did not form a line were not allowed to pass."

This is just like the later army, where three people must line up when traveling, all for the purpose of allowing soldiers to develop good discipline in their lives.

Folding quilts and other military affairs also play the same role.

This kind of "formalism" of the army has been criticized in later generations, but its original intention is good, and it has a great role in promoting the uniformity of the army. If even a small quilt cannot be folded neatly every day, you don't have to expect the soldiers of this army to obey more stringent orders when marching, stationing, and fighting.

Looking back, when I was in the police academy in my previous life, although I cursed the boring formalism of folding quilts every day, now it has become a habit that Heifu can't give up.

Uniformity is an important way to gather collective strength and gradually accumulate. This is what Heifu calls "one heart". Whether it is the ancient military strategists or the modern armies of various countries, they are subconsciously doing similar things.

Soldiers are weapons!

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

He thought that the so-called fierceness was not the domineering attitude of winning every battle and conquering every attack, nor the tragic and heroic spirit of mountains of corpses and seas of blood, but the indifference to human life and the 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 bones and become a part of their lives, so that everyone has a strong sense of belonging.

When you are ordered to be a general, you must forget your family, when you go abroad to fight, you must forget your parents, and when you kill the enemy in battle, you must forget yourself.

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

This principle is the same when it is put into the Qin army.

So when Heifu was stationed in Huyou Township, he asked his soldiers to insist on folding quilts every day to cultivate their obedience and discipline. When he arrived in Yangcheng and had new subordinates join, he asked the old subordinates to teach the newcomers to fold quilts, which became a good way to quickly integrate them into the collective.

Of course, the more important reason is that Heifu wants to attract the attention of the commander in this way. Under the reform of Qin law, many officials and officers of Qin are obsessive-compulsive, and Heifu is just the right medicine...

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

So he talked about it: "Therefore, in addition to military training, I think that soldiers can also start with some simple things on weekdays to eliminate their selfish desires when they were the people, forget those lazy habits, and make hundreds of people uniform, just like one person!"

After speaking, Heifu bowed and said: "I am a vulgar person, and my shallow views make the captain laugh."

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

Li You did not sneer at it, but admired the little military officer in front of him. He asked Heifu where he came from. When he learned that his family was just a small official family without a surname, he was a pavilion chief in the local area. After joining the army, he made little contributions and got the position of a doctor. He was secretly amazed.

He had read the Art of War and remembered that there was a passage in Wu Zi: "If the laws are not clear, rewards and punishments are not credible, the troops do not stop and the drums do not advance, even if there are millions of soldiers, what good is it?"

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

So, what is considered "managing the troops" with clear laws and regulations?

The so-called management means being polite when at rest and powerful when in action! Advance without resistance, retreat without pursuit, advance with moderation, left and right respond to each other, even if they are separated, they can form a formation, even if they are scattered, they can form a line.

What happened today refreshed Li You's understanding of "being polite when at rest".

"This captain's inspection of the camp today was not in vain."

He stood up with satisfaction, and when he walked out of the tent, he said to the commanders and the five hundred commanders who were waiting outside with wide eyes: "Hei Fu's management of the troops can be said to be polite! He and the soldiers should be rewarded with ten thousand coins!"

Hei Fu thanked him, and his subordinates standing in several rows outside also showed joy after hearing it, thinking that the quilts they had folded for the past two months were not in vain.

Unexpectedly, Li You turned around and said: "I just don't know if Hei Fu's subordinates can really be as one as a hundred during the drill, and can they be powerful when they move? Tomorrow, this captain will try it!"

...

Li You seems to be elegant, but he acts in a hurry. The day after arriving at the military camp for inspection, he asked five commanders to take their soldiers to a large military exercise outside Yangcheng County.

According to the rules of the Qin army, 5,000 people were divided into five teams, lined up in the wild, and conducted exercises. During the exercise, three large wooden Huabiao were erected, one every hundred steps.

After the army was lined up, they practiced martial arts such as spears, fast marching, and running and marching according to Li You's golden drums and flags. After three repeated exercises, the army fully mastered various essentials, and then rewards and punishments were given according to the performance of the exercises.

In this exercise, as Li You expected, the Nanjun soldiers' formations, golden drums and flags were all average, far inferior to the elite troops in Guanzhong.

Only Heifu, who had not relaxed his formation training for two months, attracted Li You's attention again...

The board was used as a drum, the tile was used as gold, and the pole was used as a flag. Beat the drum to advance, lower the flag to advance, sound the gong to retreat, wave the flag to the left, wave the flag to the right, and sit down while beating the gong and drum. Each item was completed well.

It may be luck to make the general notice it once, but it is strength to notice it twice in a row.

So after the drill that day, Li You rewarded Hei Fu and his subordinates with 10,000 coins, and made a decision that surprised the whole group.

Hei Fu and his subordinates were all transferred to the short-armed forces directly under Lieutenant Li You!