Chapter 90: Su Xie Meeting
Su Dingfang's expression was stern, and he said solemnly: "Your Highness treats us with sincerity, and the soldiers will repay you with their lives."
Li Yuanji glanced at Su Dingfang with a bit of amusement.
That's you, not the other soldiers.
The other soldiers’ starting points are not as high as yours, and their future achievements will not be as high as yours.
What they care more about is whether I can keep them well fed and clothed, whether I can give them more rewards, and whether I can take good care of their families after they die in battle.
"Go down and do your work."
Li Yuanji waved at Su Dingfang.
Su Dingfang bowed and strode out of the room with his head held high.
Judging from his posture, he will inevitably give an ideological education lesson to the soldiers of Zuo Santong’s Mansion.
Li Yuanji was happy to see it succeed.
After Su Dingfang left, he began to think about the issue of placing Yuwen Bao.
Although Yuwen Bao lacks some abilities, his loyalty is commendable.
You can keep it by your side and cultivate it well.
At present, only Xie Shufang and Yuwen Bao are loyal to him.
As for the others, they either have their own little thoughts or have not yet completely returned to their roots.
It will take a lot of time and effort to get them all to come around.
Therefore, some important positions and some important tasks can only be handed over to Xie Shufang and Yuwen Bao for the time being.
Xie Shufang already has his own position and has begun to learn to stand on his own feet.
As long as nothing goes wrong along the way, you're destined to become one of his right-hand men in the future.
It is difficult to arrange Yuwen Bao's position.
If Yuwen Bao were to go out and take charge on his own, he would not be capable enough.
If he let Yuwen Bao stay by his side and serve as the commander of the guards, he was worried that Yuwen Bao would corrupt the guards.
A large number of the guards are destined to be stationed in the Wude Hall for a long time in the future.
If he became a person who did things without considering the consequences and acted recklessly, then his career as the King of Qi would be over.
"Let Yuwen Bao serve as Sima in the mansion."
After much deliberation, Li Yuanji finally decided to let Yuwen Bao serve as a Sima in the Prince of Qi's Palace.
The Sima of the Prince of Qi's Palace was an official of the fourth rank, and his position was only below that of Li Sixing's Chief Clerk. He did not let Yuwen Bao down.
The Sima of the royal palace had many duties, one of which was to enforce military law.
With Yuwen Bao's personality, he is most suitable for doing this kind of thing.
He is not afraid of anyone and does not give face to anyone. When he enforces military law, he will definitely not cheat or play tricks.
With him watching over the troops in Prince Qi's Palace, they will not slack off.
After Li Yuanji had figured out the placement of Yuwen Bao, Xie Shufang had already selected the person and sent him out, and then returned to the mansion to report to him.
"Your Highness, I have already sent someone out. They should be able to reach Luoyang within three to five days."
Xie Shufang bowed and said seriously.
If four or five people travel light and in a small group, they can go much faster than marching.
It might take more than half a month for thousands of troops to rush from Weize Pass to Luoyang.
However, if four or five people rode fast horses from Weize Pass to Luoyang, it would only take three to five days.
Li Yuanji nodded and instructed: "Before leaving, my sister said that she would instruct the craftsmen in Weize Pass to recast the armor and weapons of the soldiers of the Left First and Left Second Military Offices.
You go down and count the heights, waist lengths, and leg lengths of the soldiers in the Left One and Left Two Military Offices, and report to me.
Then gather the artisans accompanying the army and send them to the forge inside Weize Pass to let them lend a hand."
Xie Shufang was stunned for a moment, then said with surprise: "Your Highness the Princess wants to help us rebuild the armor?"
This is a great thing.
Although the soldiers of the Left One and Left Two Military Commands of the Prince of Qi's Palace were equipped with armor, the styles of the armor were different, so that outsiders could easily mistake them for a ragtag army.
If the same type of soldiers wore the same armor, or armor of the same color, the morale of the soldiers would immediately improve.
Even outsiders would not dare to show any disrespect when seeing this.
More importantly, once the soldiers’ uniforms were unified, their sense of belonging to the Military Headquarters would increase.
As the sense of belonging increases, the fighting capacity will naturally increase as well.
Li Yuanji smiled and nodded.
Xie Shufang smiled happily and praised: "Her Royal Highness is worthy of being Her Royal Highness."
Li Yuanji gave Xie Shufang a blank look, feeling helpless. It made no difference whether he had said this or not.
Xie Shufang didn't have the heart to think about this. He hurriedly moved a few steps closer to Li Yuanji and said, "Then can we also count the different armors needed by different soldiers and forge them as needed?"
Li Yuanji nodded without hesitation, "Of course."
Soldiers fighting on the battlefield have different divisions of labor, and the armor and weapons they need are also completely different.
Soldiers who serve as shield soldiers on the battlefield need hard armor with strong defensive properties.
Soldiers serving as assault cavalry on the battlefield need chain mail that is lighter and more flexible.
Soldiers who serve as crossbowmen or slingers on the battlefield do not even need to be equipped with iron armor, a set of leather armor is enough.
Therefore, when equipping soldiers with armor, it is necessary to equip them according to the roles they play in the army, rather than blindly pursuing uniformity and equipping them with the same armor.
The reason why the guards of the Prince of Qi's Palace were equipped with uniform iron armor was because no matter when and where they were, they played the same role, that is, Li Yuanji's guards.
All they needed to do was to ensure Li Yuanji's safety when he was in danger, or to take Li Yuanji away.
When Xie Shufang heard Li Yuanji's words, his smile became even brighter.
"Your Highness, wait a moment. I will go and do the statistics right away."
Xie Shufang was very concerned about this matter and was unwilling to stay a moment longer.
Li Yuanji did not force him to stay.
…
evening .
Xie Shufang and Su Dingfang appeared in front of Li Yuanji together.
Su Dingfang had completed the task assigned by Li Yuanji, and Xie Shufang had also counted the armor and weapons needed by the soldiers, as well as their height, waist circumference, and leg length.
Xie Shufang didn't spend much effort. He just greeted the captains and brigade commanders of the Left One and Left Two Military Headquarters, and they reported to him the armor and weapons needed by the soldiers.
This is the job of the captain and brigade commander. When the soldiers are equipped with armor for the first time, they already know all the needs of the soldiers and don't need to check at all.
As for the soldiers' height, waist circumference, and leg length, Xie Shufang did not go to the trouble of measuring them.
When the soldiers entered the camp, the military clerks would measure their height, waist circumference, and leg length and record them in a book. Some clerks with detailed records would even record the soldiers' facial features and any birthmarks on their bodies.
Xie Shufang only needed to send someone to pass a message to the clerk in the army, asking the clerk to deliver the relevant booklet to him.
"Your Highness, I have finished the statistics."
Xie Shufang eagerly placed the two booklets on the desk in front of Li Yuanji.
Li Yuanji smiled and nodded, but he didn't rush to talk to him. Instead, he looked at Su Dingfang and asked, "How did you check it?"
Su Dingfang said with admiration: "Your Highness's arrangement is flawless. I did not find any omissions ."
At this point, Su Dingfang added, "If you ask me to redeploy the defenses for Weize Pass, I may not be able to do better than Your Highness the Princess."
After seeing Li Xiuning's deployment with his own eyes, Su Dingfang was deeply impressed by Li Xiuning's abilities.
The defense of Weize Pass arranged by Li Xiuning cannot be said to be perfect, but it is quite complete.
Under the same military conditions, Su Dingfang believed that he could not be as perfect as Li Xiuning.
Li Yuanji nodded thoughtfully, "Then what do you think we can do?"
Su Dingfang thought for a moment and said bluntly: "All we can do is to distribute our troops and strengthen the defenses in various places."
Since there was no problem with Li Xiuning's arrangement, there was no need to go through the trouble of arranging it again. All we needed to do was to send more troops to various places to make the defense stronger.
"Then dispatch the troops you have."
Li Yuanji believed in Su Dingfang's judgment, so he adopted Su Dingfang's suggestion without hesitation.
Xie Shufang stared in surprise, looked at Li Yuanji, and then at Su Dingfang.
Where did Su Dingfang come from?
Why does Li Yuanji trust him so much?
Not only did he send him to investigate the defenses set up by Li Xiuning, he also decisively adopted Su Dingfang's suggestion and dispatched his troops.
He had an inexplicable sense of crisis and a sense of indescribable feeling.
After asking Su Dingfang, Li Yuanji's eyes fell on Xie Shufang. Seeing Xie Shufang looking at him and Su Dingfang in surprise, he roughly guessed what Xie Shufang was thinking.
"I haven't introduced you yet, have I?"
Xie Shufang slowly came back to his senses and nodded heavily.
Su Dingfang glanced at Xie Shufang and nodded.
Li Yuanji smiled and introduced Su Dingfang, "This is Xie Shufang, the deputy commander of the Left First Army in my mansion, and the Marquis of Pingyao County conferred by my father."
When Li Yuanji introduced Xie Shufang, he subconsciously looked at Su Dingfang, wanting to see Su Dingfang's reaction.
After Li Yuanji introduced Su Dingfang, Su Dingfang bowed to Xie Shufang and said, "Marquis Pingyao is polite."
Although Su Dingfang and Xie Shufang are now both deputy commanders of the Qi Wang Mansion, Xie Shufang has a title, a marquis, and his status is much higher than Su Dingfang, so Su Dingfang has to take the initiative to greet him.
Xie Shufang just bowed slightly without saying anything.
Li Yuanji introduced Xie Shufang, "This is Su Dingfang, now he is the deputy commander of the Left Third Army Mansion. In the previous battle of Mingshui City, he led the soldiers of the Left Second Army Mansion to help Luo Shixin block the attack of tens of thousands of people led by Liu Heita, and then beheaded Zhou Wenju and Cui Yuanxun in the chaos of the army.
I have reported this matter to the commander's headquarters. After verification, the commander's headquarters will report this matter back to Chang'an City. I believe that Su Dingfang's reward will be given soon."
