Compared with the hundreds of thousands of refugees from Li Zicheng and Luo Rucai's family, the few thousand soldiers in the Guards Battalion are really not that many. It is not difficult for the invading army to provide food and fodder for such a small army.

Although Xu Ping spent a lot of effort to collect firearms, in addition to the 300 flintlocks, he now only has a few hundred matchlocks, and the rest can only be equipped with spears. Since Xu Ping started out as an engineer, so

He paid special attention to the engineers. In addition to the two infantry teams and the teaching team in the Guards Battalion, a small engineering team was also established. Xu Ping also took the time to train them personally. As for the luggage, Xu Ping asked Li Zicheng for a few

Qianliu civilians were used as laborers and transporters. The still weak Guards Battalion actually did not have much baggage. Xu Ping did not like any of the existing artillery in Luoyang, so the artillery team was not considered for the time being. The cavalry could only come from other places.

Xu Ping went to Liu Zongmin and several other old brothers of Li Zicheng to ask for five hundred cavalry.

Due to Li Zicheng's intervention, Liu Zongmin only proposed one condition, that is, the five hundred cavalry should be handed over to one of his old subordinates to command: "I know that Brother Xu likes honest people, and Chi San is the most honest, and he also believes in Buddhism."

The person Liu Zongmin recommended to Xu Ping was his old brother and drinking buddy from the same village in Shaanxi Province. His real name was Chi San, and now he had a nickname: Shu De. After arriving at the camp, Chi Shu De seemed dull, and every time he ran away after losing a battle,

They were all sent by Shangfeng to cut off the rear. Liu Zongmin was dissatisfied with this, so he asked King Chuang to transfer Chi Shude to be his lieutenant. Liu Zongmin saw that Xu Ping was very popular and treated his soldiers well, so he sent him

Recommended to Xu Ping.

On the tenth day of the second lunar month, Xu Ping couldn't wait to swear an oath. There were 3,500 recruits from the Guards Battalion, 500 Liu Zongmin's men, and more than 4,000 civilians assigned to him by King Chuang, for a total of 8,000 Chuang troops. This army

The small team, which seemed inconspicuous to the Henan government, embarked on the Eastern Expedition under the leadership of Xu Ping, bypassing Hulao Pass and marching towards Kaifeng along the route Xu Ping came from.

When stationed near Luoyang, Xu Ping could strictly control his soldiers, but during the march, he could not mechanically get up and go to bed in unison. The pressure on the soldiers needed to be relieved. I heard that Xu Ping still strictly prohibited gambling and other entertainment, so Hei Baoyi and Yu Shen

Hedu was a little uneasy. Of course, they did not approve of gambling. Gambling and private fights were never separated from each other, and they would distract soldiers from their own work. However, soldiers would inevitably become irritated if they had no pastime.

After camping today, Xu Ping asked Hei Baoyi and Yu Shenhe to meet him. As soon as they entered the military tent, they saw Xu Ping and several staff officers sitting around the table. Zhou Dongtian threw a dice, and then buried them in the tent.

Write something down on a piece of paper.

"Okay," Heibao shouted as soon as he saw this: "Soldiers are not allowed to gamble, so you can have fun here."

"We are not gambling," Xu Ping raised his head and smiled at several infantry officers: "Sit down, some staff officers are playing a chess game I designed."

"Oh." Hei Baoyi was a little unconvinced and stretched his head to look at the things on the table: "How do you calculate winning or losing?"

"There is no winning or losing in this chess game." The chess game designed by Xu Ping is a multi-player cooperative mode. What Zhou Dongtian and the others are playing is about engineers. One person is assigned to lead several people to complete a task, such as digging a trench.

No one except the referee knows what situation they will encounter in advance. They may encounter a huge rock or an undercurrent dug into the ground. Faced with various situations, the leader arranges work for others, and then everyone goes to work.

, and the referee throws a dice based on their judgment to determine the consequences of their actions.

"I don't have time for the soldiers to fully train, so I designed this chess game to give them an understanding of the situations they may encounter. What should I do if I dig a stone? How much energy does it take to judge the size of the stone? Is it necessary to immediately try to remove it?

Dig it out or try to bypass it; what to do if you encounter an undercurrent? How to judge the flow, how to pan for water, whether to continue or give up? The situations they face are all unknown. The leader can learn how to command from it, and the others can also

You can learn how to obey and cooperate, so that once you actually encounter these problems, the experience in the game may be useful."

"Is it designed by the New Army Teaching Team? What did you adapt it based on?" Yu Shenhe listened with interest.

"That's right. I adapted it based on the idea of ​​​​the New Army's war chess deduction. The title page of the war chess designed by Mr. Hou said that one of the uses of war chess is to allow officers participating in the deduction to understand what their colleagues will do under certain circumstances.

What kind of reaction? I think this is actually the biggest role of war chess - the real battlefield is very different from the situation during the deduction. I feel that it mainly depends on judgment on the battlefield. It is very helpful to understand the personality and possible reactions of colleagues.

, my war chess is designed with this idea in mind.”

Xu Ping took out several other sets of chess, one of which was about encounters. He explained: "Except for the referee, no one knows how many enemies are on the opposite side. Their detection effect is determined by the referee rolling dice. When the enemy's situation is unknown,

The soldiers choose to conduct further investigation or take immediate action. When the new round of investigation results come out, they have to face this choice again. If they are too cautious, they may miss the opportunity, and if they are too aggressive, they may suffer heavy losses...

This is another purpose of the Marquis's design of war chess, so that soldiers can turn common sense on the battlefield into intuition."

"Do you plan to promote these chess games in the military camp?"

"Yes. There are also camping, night reconnaissance, ambush and attack..." Xu Ping took out a set of cards and rule sheets, distributed them to several officers to help test them, and then promoted them: "This is much more meaningful than gambling.

, I think it’s quite fun.”

Yu Shenhe looked at the pile of forms in Xu Ping's hands and said nothing, but Zhou Dongtian, who had just tested a set of games with him, shouted: "Sir, you have created so many?"

"Yes." Xu Ping smiled slightly.

…

"You looked at it for a while..."

The referee Lin Shixin is a down-and-out scholar, not even a scholar. Because he has no other options, he wants to be a staff member in the army. But apart from the skill of reading, Lin Shixin knows nothing else, and he is not even capable of carrying packages.

, no general who broke into the camp thought highly of him. Since the turmoil in Henan, a large number of scholars like Lin Shixin have lost their source of livelihood. Their only ability to earn a living is teaching, and the people in troubled times can't even take care of eating.

How many of them still ask teachers?

In Luoyang City, Xu Ping spent a month collecting many of these impoverished young scholars. Currently, there are more than fifty Guards Battalions, and Zhou Dongtian is trying to train them into qualified staff officers——

For Xu Ping, the so-called qualification standard is very low.

After throwing the dice, staff officer Lin Shixin looked at the rule sheet and said to Qin Dedong with a smile: "Still didn't see any movement."

Several soldiers sat around their fruit leader Qin Dedong and played chess with great interest. Their mission was to go to the river to fetch water, but they were told by the referee that a suspicious bonfire had been discovered. They could not tell whether it was the fire left by the hunters.

, a soldier chose to look around, and was told by the referee that there was a figure flashing in the woods nearby. But when the fruit leader Qin Dedong went to "look" in person, he saw nothing. Yue Mu scratched his ears and cheeks anxiously, and stabbed him repeatedly.

waist: "Closer, closer."

Lin Shixin immediately reminded: "You are not allowed to speak until it is your turn."

"yes."

Yue Mu retracted his neck, Qin Dedong twirled his beard and thought for a moment, then slowly said his carefully considered decision: "I decided to watch it for a while."

When it's Qin Dedong's turn next time, the referee will tell him what the result is.

When it was the next soldier's turn, he did what Yue Mu wanted to do - he announced his turn action: leave the hiding place and sneak to Qin Dedong, and said to him: "Get closer."

Qin Dedong felt a little pressure. Based on his own experience, he could completely ignore the surrounding discussions, but if a companion raised an opinion on the virtual battlefield, he must consider it carefully. If a companion uses his turn several times to remind himself,

If there is no response, the companion will become very dissatisfied.

Lin Shixin smiled and threw down the dice again. Several soldiers immediately looked at him nervously, waiting to be announced that there was a cold arrow attack or a large number of enemy soldiers coming out, but Lin Shixin shook his head and said: "Nothing happened.

."

"The enemy didn't see me." The soldier said happily.

An opposing voice said: "Maybe he showed up, but he didn't say anything."

"No talking..."

While Lin Shixin reminded him again, a soldier spoke again: "Maybe there are no enemies at all."

"How could it not be? Didn't you see Staff Officer Lin throw the dice?"

"He throws it away every time. How can this be used as evidence?"

"But this time he smiled very strangely."

Several soldiers started arguing, and after being stopped by the referee, the next soldier said his action was: "I suggest Chief Qin Guo send someone back to the camp to call for reinforcements."

A soldier who followed immediately classified his action as: "I objected to Chief Qin Guo: If it was a false alarm, he would be scolded, and he could not get water back to the camp in time."

"Why do you want to fetch water at this time?"

"You are really not afraid of death!"

Before the referee could stop their chatter, Yue Mu jumped forward and shouted: "It's my turn, I rushed into the forest."

"you again!"

"You were the one who killed me last time!"

"Boss Qin, next time we play, let Yue Mu carry all the buckets from behind!"

Lin Shixin threw the dice and laughed loudly: "You scared a deer out from behind the tree and ran away quickly..."

At this time, in Xu Ping's camp, Zhou Dongtian was reporting to him the results of the past few days.

"Compared to ten days ago, the soldiers' confidence has generally increased, and their ability to adapt to various complex tasks has been strengthened. The commander-in-chief and the commander are becoming better and better at controlling the troops. The trust between the soldiers has been enhanced, and their trust in each other has been enhanced.

We have a better understanding of each other's personalities, and the assignment of tasks has become more reasonable. Yesterday, the success rate of the mission was increased by 50% compared with the original, and casualties during combat were reduced by 30%. In short, it is far beyond our original imagination."

"Your Excellency is wise!" Zhou Dongtian ended his report sonorously.

Xu Ping was also very satisfied. Every day after camping, bored soldiers rushed to play chess with their staff and officers. Some soldiers who were particularly obsessed with it played nearly a hundred games in ten days and dozens of times in the simulated world.

Fighting. Xu Ping said: "I think this kind of game can help eliminate soldiers' fear of fighting, and they will unknowingly regard fighting as an interesting game."

"Your Excellency is wise!" Several staff officers and officers agreed.

"Okay, one more thing," Xu Ping opened the report given to him by Zhou Dongtian and said to Yu Shenhe and Hei Baoyi: "I have already read the list of team officer recommendations that Mr. Yu Qian and Mr. Hei Qian gave me the day before yesterday.

, I don’t think any of them are qualified for the job.”

"But, sir," Yu Shenhe argued: "We are already in the tug-of-war zone between our army and the Ming army. It is impossible for us to maintain two bloated 2,000-man brigades like before. We must let a group

Officers control the troops.”

"I agree, but they have almost no ability to command independently. According to Mr. Zhou Qian's report, when they face a crisis in the game, their response is still to ask for instructions, and they do not have the courage to face the test."

Hei Baoyi had no say in this kind of issue. All he knew was the servants and the camp system, so every time Xu Ping argued with his staff, he could only watch, and this time was no exception. Yu Shenhe protested to Xu Ping

He said: "Sir, according to the regulations of the New Army, each team should not have more than 600 people, otherwise there will be ineffective command."

"If there is a commander supervising by the side, it is still possible. After all, the commander is more experienced and has staff available."

"This is exactly what Bei Zhi wants to say. Bei Zhi thinks that your Excellency can promote Bei Zhi and Mr. Hei Qian to your adjutants, and promote the people we recommend to team officers. We can assist them when they first start, and we will not lead
To be continued...