In addition, the Bo County Militia will also form a crossbow brigade.
All crossbowmen were Militia Private, and archers were Militia Soldier; the captain of the crossbow battalion was Junior Militia Officer, the company commander was Senior Militia Officer, and the battalion commander was Junior Militia Colonel.
I am the Militia General of the Yi Province Militia and also its Yi Province Militia. I directly command the personal guard, cavalry battalion, and crossbow battalion.
Finally, the awarding of military rank is not solely related to military position. As long as one performs military merits, one can be promoted in rank.
Wu Shuangren used his Internal Skill to talk for a long time before finally revealing his plans one by one.
He did not discuss this reorganization with Guo Jiwang. This was not a difficult matter for him; it was simply a matter of copying the system of non-commissioned officers, lieutenants, colonels, and generals from his previous life and making slight modifications.
For him, it was a simple and self-evident matter. But to outsiders, this hierarchical system, different from the imperial military system, with its clear distinctions between superiors and inferiors and a strict order, looked incredibly impressive!
Many people go through their entire lives without ever learning more than a few characters, so what is common knowledge to Wu Shuangren is nothing short of ingenious ideas to these people.
No one believed that an eighteen-year-old boy could come up with this; everyone thought that there must be a master guiding him behind the scenes.
As the mastermind behind Wu Shuangren, Guo Jiwang was also present when Wu Shuangren announced the system. He looked at Wu Shuangren on the stage with surprise.
It's not difficult to organize military ranks such as captain, company commander, and battalion commander based on the number of people; local militias and powerful clans can do it.
However, it is conceivable to create a corresponding set of military ranks based on these military positions, and to award different ranks to different branches of the armed forces, with the relationships between the ranks being interconnected and well-ordered.
This is something that not just any ordinary person could do.
Guo Jiwang had originally planned to remind Wu Shuangren to properly reorganize the Yi Province Militia and establish a new promotion system. But now it seems that Wu Shuangren no longer needs his reminder; the other party already has his own ideas.
'This young man is truly brave and resourceful!'
Guo Jiwang secretly admired him.
The five different ranks of military officers made it clear to everyone how they could advance.
The positions of captain, company commander, and battalion commander were all filled by a single person. Originally, unless the organization of the Yi Province Militia was increased, or these captains were killed in battle, the rest of them could only wait idly.
But now that Wu Shuangren has announced this new military rank system, everything has changed.
Wu Shuangren himself said that military rank promotion is not solely based on rank; as long as one has rendered meritorious service, one can be promoted in rank.
This means that every ordinary Militia Private has the opportunity to climb the ranks step by step!
In an instant, the militiamen of Bo County Militia, as well as the militiamen and local militiamen of other militias in Yi Province, were all filled with enthusiasm!
Only after announcing the new military rank system did Wu Shuangren officially begin reorganizing the Yi Province Militia.
First, his personal guard had suffered heavy casualties in several battles and needed to be replenished to one hundred men. The replacements were selected from two battalions of the Bo County Militia.
After the personal guard was replenished, Wu Shuangren immediately appointed Xu Yu as the captain of his personal guard. Then, he personally selected two company commanders and ten captains.
Then he had someone deliver the armband he had prepared in advance, which was actually just a piece of blue cloth with horizontal bars woven with red thread.
The Militia Soldier's armband has two red horizontal bars, Junior Militia Officer's has three red horizontal bars, but the third bar is shorter than the others.
The three horizontal bars on Senior Militia Officer are all the same length.
Similarly, Junior Militia Colonel and Senior Militia Colonel officers have four horizontal bars, Militia General have five.
Wu Shuangren invited Xu Yu and others onto the stage and personally pinned the corresponding armbands on them, which was considered a formal awarding of their ranks.
Next, Wu Shuangren announced that Bai Jinhuan would be the commander of the First Battalion of the Yi Province Militia.
Bai Jinhuan had been severely injured by Ciwen and had been bedridden for almost ten days before he could barely get out of bed. At this moment, he was pale, but he still walked up to the high platform with his head held high, and Wu Shuangren personally pinned the armband symbolizing the rank of the Senior Militia Colonel on his head.
Then Wu Shuangren announced that Chen Tie was the commander of the Second Battalion of the Yi Province Militia. He also invited Chen Tie to the stage and put an armband on him.
With the current number of people in the Bo County Militia, Wu Shuangren has already transferred some to supplement the personal guard. Next, he will definitely transfer some more to the cavalry battalion and the crossbow battalion. The remaining people are far from enough to form a third battalion.
However, Wu Shuangren directly announced the candidate for the battalion commander of the Third Battalion of the Yi Province Militia — Feng Ping!
Upon hearing his name, the former company commander who had won the championship in the first martial arts tournament and later became the battalion commander of the recruit camp was overjoyed. He practically ran up to the platform and stood excitedly in front of Wu Shuangren.
Next, Wu Shuangren did not announce the battalion commanders of the following battalions, but instead announced the commander of the cavalry brigade— Zhu Junchi.
When Wu Shuangren first took office as the head of the Bo County Militia, the other party was already a veteran in the militia. Later, he became Wu Shuangren's personal guard and fought alongside Wu Shuangren all the way to the present.
Zhu Junchi was an excellent horseman and had earned second-class military merits in several previous battles. He was one of the most outstanding members of the personal guards, so Wu Shuangren promoted him to captain of the cavalry battalion and awarded him the rank of Junior Militia Colonel.
Then Wu Shuangren announced that Liao Dayong would be the captain of the crossbow battalion.
The other party was the squad leader who won second place in the martial arts competition held in West River Market, and was later promoted to battalion commander.
Moreover, the other party is a relative of the Liao Clan, the most outstanding young man in the Liao Clan's younger generation, whose archery skills are so good that he can hit the target with eight out of ten arrows within a hundred paces.
The other party had command ability, was also good at archery, was ambitious, and was a relative of the Liao Clan family, so Wu Shuangren promoted him to captain of the crossbow battalion and also granted him the rank of Junior Militia Colonel.
After selecting the battalion commanders of the First Battalion, Second Battalion, and Third Battalion, as well as the commanders of the three special battalions—the personal guard battalion, the cavalry battalion, and the crossbow battalion— Wu Shuangren then appointed six deputy battalion commanders, assigning two deputy battalion commanders to each battalion.
Then he had these people personally confer ranks upon their battalion commanders, company commanders, and captains on the stage.
Throughout the entire process, everyone else present watched from beginning to end, their eyes filled with envy and longing.
The other tribal leaders and local tyrants in Yi Province all tensed up at this moment, watching Wu Shuangren on the stage with bated breath.
Without the series of actions this morning—the determination of military merit, the distribution of rewards, and the execution of military discipline—it would have been impossible.
Wu Shuangren's attempt to directly reorganize the militia and local braves throughout Yi Province may not be smooth. The local militia leaders and powerful clans may also be unwilling to let Wu Shuangren directly interfere in their personnel arrangements.
After all, personnel matters are power; handing them over means handing over most of your military power!
But given what happened this morning, and Wu Shuangren's announcement of the new military rank system and corresponding benefits, followed by the public conferment of ranks, the atmosphere has gradually built up to this point.
At this point, Wu Shuangren's momentum had been completely established!
If he were to publicly appoint the battalion commanders of the remaining battalions now, the local militia leaders and powerful clans would not dare to stand up and object.
Even if they wanted to rebel and refused to let their men be incorporated into the Yi Province Militia, their men might not obey them now.
After listening to what Wu Shuangren said, and seeing with his own eyes the rewards, land and property, and various other benefits that the other party had given out.
Wu Shuangren has already stolen the souls of the vast majority of people!
There were more than a dozen local militias and village militias in total, but they could only be reorganized into a maximum of four battalions.
Who gets promoted and who gets demoted has a significant impact on their future prospects and destiny!
These people themselves didn't even realize that they had subconsciously accepted the Yi Province Militia as a normalized organization. From initially thinking that they would go home after defeating the Mount Liang rebels, they have now begun to care about their future in this militia.
"Next up are the Fourth Battalion, Fifth Battalion, Sixth Battalion, and Seventh Battalion."
After all the conferment of ranks on the platform had concluded, only Wu Shuangren remained standing. He looked at the others and, channeling his Internal Skill, said:
"I will not appoint the battalion commanders and deputy battalion commanders for these four battalions for now. We will make the appointments in a few days based on everyone's performance in training!"
Upon hearing this, the local militia leaders and powerful clansmen all subconsciously breathed a sigh of relief, but soon became tense again.
Many astute individuals had already realized what was happening. They might not know the concept of an open conspiracy, but they understood that this was a trap Wu Shuangren had openly set for everyone.
He used the positions of battalion commander and deputy battalion commander of four battalions to keep all parties in suspense, thus forcing them to cooperate with his reorganization and obey his orders.
Wow, that's amazing!
Even if they understood what was going on, these people had no way to resist, and some even secretly hoped for it.
Regardless of their initial thoughts, everyone understands from today onward that many things will change.
Yi Province is about to usher in a new era!
149 Five Elements Flags, with a large banner erected.
The thirteenth day after Ciwen was killed.
Early morning, Yi Prefecture City.
Nearly 10,000 people left the camp and divided into more than a dozen areas of varying sizes, where they were conducting group drills.
During yesterday's reorganization, although Wu Shuangren did not appoint the battalion commanders and deputy battalion commanders of the remaining four battalions, he did determine the personnel division.
He selected some people from the local militia in Bo County to join the other four battalions, and also selected some people from other local militias and village militias in Yi Province to join the first three battalions.
At the same time, all those who could ride horses were selected to join the cavalry, and all those who could shoot arrows were selected to join the crossbowmen.
In this way, the militia of Bo County Militia and the militia and local militias from other places have been initially integrated.
Moreover, Wu Shuangren appointed all the captains, company commanders, and battalion commanders of the other four battalions to be militiamen from the Bo County Militia.
However, he added the word "acting" before the titles of these captains, platoon leaders, and battalion commanders, and explained to the leaders of various local militias and powerful figures that this was only temporary and was to facilitate the training that followed.
Once the other party's personnel are familiar with the training process, a second selection will be conducted.
The positions of battalion commander and deputy battalion commander piqued the interest of these people, and with Wu Shuangren's explanation, the leaders of various militias and representatives of local powerful families all cooperated with Wu Shuangren's reorganization.
At this moment, each of the veterans from Bo County led a team, starting by teaching them how to stand in formation, stand at ease, stand at attention, and march in step.
The militia and local militia members varied in quality from place to place. Some were used to wielding hoes, while others were used to wielding knives. However, when asked to walk in a line of ten, they could not march in unison.
The veterans from Bo County didn't hold back either. They used the same methods that the captains had used to whip them with sticks when they were new recruits.
If someone goes the wrong way, you draw a ticket; after that, you teach them again.
During this process, naturally some troublemakers will be dissatisfied, unwilling to cooperate or listen, and will take the initiative to stand up.
Wu Shuangren had made arrangements for this, having his personal guards watch from the sidelines as supervisors. If anyone jumped out, the armored guards would go up and warn them.
After two warnings, the third time they simply kicked him out, telling him to go back to where he came from and get out of the Yi Province Militia!
With these armored supervisors watching over them, most people behaved themselves after being warned once, and no one has been expelled from the training camp yet.
The combined number of local Bo County Militia and various parts of Yi Province is only slightly over seven thousand. Therefore, only the first three battalions are currently at full strength, while the remaining four battalions are not.
The first three battalions are currently practicing advanced formations such as spear formations and shield formations.
At the command, dozens of shields were thrust forward simultaneously, and spears emerged from behind them. Then they formed a circular formation, with the outer ring crouching down and the spear tips pointing diagonally, resembling a hedgehog with its quills bristling.
Some of the soldiers in these three battalions were new recruits who had only completed basic training in West River Market and were not familiar with these advanced formations.
Someone stepped on the foot of the person next to them, someone's shield was knocked askew, the formation was disrupted, and the captains pointed their fingers at them and scolded them, then they had to practice again...
There were hundreds of people practicing horseback riding on the outskirts. Some couldn't sit still on the horse and slipped off after a few steps; others could ride but didn't know how to use a sword on horseback.
With the addition of horses brought from various regions, the Yi Province Militia now has more than three hundred warhorses available for use.
Wu Shuangren's personal guard will take 100 horses, and the remaining 200 horses will be distributed to the cavalry battalion. Therefore, the cavalry battalion currently has more than 200 people, and each battalion commander is in charge of four companies.
Of these two hundred-plus people, less than half actually know how to ride a horse. The same goes for Wu Shuangren's personal guard; the dozens of new recruits also don't know how to ride, so they all have to start learning now.
Xu Jing sent out the eleven men he had brought from Bo County to serve as riding instructors for the group.
Those selected for the cavalry battalion and personal guard were specially chosen and possessed certain talents. Wu Shuangren did not expect these people to master mounted archery and learn to ride horses to fight enemies in just a few days.
But one must be able to ride a horse at high speed within at least a few days.
As for those who had already mastered a certain level of horsemanship, Wu Shuangren had the horsemanship instructors sent out by Xu Jing teach them riding archery and mounted combat.
There was another area specifically for the crossbowmen's battalion, where targets were set up in the distance, and the battalion's Militia Private would aim and fire with bows or crossbow bolts.
Throughout the entire Yi Province Militia, most of the Militia Private who knew how to use bows and arrows were selected for the crossbow battalion, totaling 107 men.
In addition, Wu Shuangren currently has eleven divine crossbows, fifty-two ordinary powerful crossbows, and thirty-four repeating crossbows, so he has recruited an additional one hundred and eight crossbowmen.
A crossbow is equipped with two crossbowmen: one to draw the bowstring and the other to load the bolt.
Therefore, the crossbow unit also had more than two hundred people.
A crossbowman can be trained in just a few days. Wu Shuangren ordered that the newly recruited crossbowmen continue to learn how to use bows and arrows after they had mastered the use of crossbows.
After all, the bow's firing rate is much faster than that of the crossbow, and the crossbow is more expensive to manufacture and maintain; once a part is damaged, it becomes unusable.
Wu Shuangren still hoped to have as many archers as possible under his command.
The last training area belonged to the Rong Province Militia; they were not incorporated into the Yi Province Militia, and Wu Shuangren did not interfere with their specific personnel arrangements.
However, Wu Shuangren still sent veterans from the Bo County Militia to coach them and train them together. The Rong Province Militia welcomed this and cooperated fully.
After witnessing the training results and astonishing combat power of Wu Shuangren's militia, any militia leader in Rong Province Militia who wasn't a fool knew they should learn from him.
On a small earthen slope, Wu Shuangren stood watching the people around him train.
Xu Jing also walked up the earthen slope, stood beside Wu Shuangren for a while, and said:
"With more people, you can't just shout orders on the battlefield anymore; many people won't hear them. If things get chaotic at the front, the rear will scatter. We need to teach flag signals; at least captains and above must be able to read flags."
Wu Shuangren nodded upon hearing this; this was the importance of experience.
If it weren't for an experienced person reminding him, Wu Shuangren would have only realized the importance of teaching flag signals in advance after suffering losses on the battlefield.