"The Führer, it's the Führer!"

"Sprinkle family Wen Anbang, I've seen the Führer!"

"A certain doctor Wu Lu Mountain Fengming Mountain, see the Führer!"

"A certain Su Zhilian, I have seen the head of state!"

Although it was a micro-service trip, Wu Haogu was still recognized by a group of mercenary leaders at the door of Zhao Zhongge's house, and they stepped forward to salute. Wu Haogu is their god of wealth! Several mercenary firms that opened in Jiehe Shang City have all been secretly funded by the God of Wealth...... The mercenary line is also an industry that Wu Haogu focuses on cultivating in Jiehe Shang City!

"Zhiping, let me introduce to you, this is Wen Anbang of Hedong Guard, both civil and military, known as Wenneng Anbang, and Wu Neng Dingguo. It's still the same clan as Wen Lugong!

This is Feng Mingshan, who is the Feng family of the Doctor Wu Lu Mountain, and can contact the heroes of the Great Liao Kingdom for us, but his hands and eyes are all over the sky, and thousands of people can pull them for you.

This is Hebei Haoxiong Su Zhilian, who is good at kung fu on horseback, one of the best horse masters in Jiehe Shang City, and a member of the Jiehe Hippocampus Guild......"

Wu Haogu also asked his entourage to find the three most reliable ones from a bunch of mercenary leaders and introduce them to Zhang Yuan. One of them is Hedong, that is, the mercenary leader from Shanxi, who claims to be surnamed Wen, called Wen Anbang, and is a relative of Wen Yanbo - it doesn't sound like it's true! However, he can really bring in strong men, and they are all mountain people brought from Taihang Mountain, simple and reliable.

There is also a guest of Ma Zhi, Fengming Mountain from Yiwu Lu Mountain. is also a reliable mercenary leader, and all the people he brought are poor Han people in Liao.

The last one is a high-roller on the local rivers and lakes in Hebei, named Su Zhilian, who sold smuggling between Song and Liao before the opening of the Jiehe Commercial Market, and practiced a good skill on horseback. After the opening of the market, it was difficult to do the smuggling business, so he became a utility knight under the introduction of Ximen Anguo and went to the northwest battlefield. After coming back, he became a horse master at the Boundary River Racecourse, and also had a mercenary shop, specializing in the trading of high-level horseback riding mercenaries.

Just these three mercenary heads, a team of two or three thousand people can pull out Zhang Yuan!

Of course, Zhang Yuan must be able to afford it.

"Shuaiji, why are you here? This is ......"

When Wu Haogu was about to introduce other mercenary leaders to Zhang Yuan, the main gate of the Zhao Mansion had already creaked open, and Brother Zhao Zhong, who had not yet changed into his uniform, had already brought a few henchmen and retainers to greet him.

"We haven't seen each other for many days, and I heard that you came back today, so I can't wait to come to the door, and I didn't delay your rest, right?"

Wu Haogu took Zhao Zhongge's hand, he really looked a little missed, and then pulled Zhang Yuan to his side, and said to Zhao Zhongge with a smile, "This is Shilang of Zhang Xiang's family, Zhang Zhiping, the great teacher of the Anxi Great Education Group." ”

"It turned out to be Zhang Da's teaching, long admiration, long admiration." Brother Zhao Zhong laughed, hugging his fists all over the world. At this time, a group of mercenary leaders outside the door also saluted him and said "Zhao Junshi".

Brother Zhao Zhong also hugged them, "Okay, okay, everyone go to the mansion to sit down, and come to drink with Zhao later!" ”

Next, the Hakka retainers who had their own Zhong Ge'er dealt with a group of mercenary leaders for him, and he himself accompanied Wu Haogu and Zhang Yuan into his own mansion and entered the middle hall together.

"Zhao Junshi," after sitting down and chatting for a few words, Zhang Yuan led the topic to the mercenaries, and he was the same as those mercenary leaders outside the door, calling Zhao Zhongge "Zhao Junshi", he asked with a smile: "Those utility men who take money to fight wars, are they really reliable?" ”

In the Northern Song Dynasty, utility was actually the meaning of mercenary, being hired by the imperial court or the military generals and marshals of the imperial court was a utility, working for merchants was a thug and guard, and being hired by the Jiehe merchant market was a mercenary.

Brother Zhao Zhong smiled and asked rhetorically: "Why, didn't the forbidden army of the Great Song Dynasty take money and sell their lives?" ”

"That's different," Zhang Yuan shook his head, "The forbidden army is to serve the imperial court, and the mercenaries are doing business, and whoever gives money will give their lives." ”

Wu Haogu smiled beside him and added: "There is another difference, the forbidden army is raised by the imperial court. These mercenaries don't have such blessings, not a penny, a penny, but they don't have a good meal. If you really want to be careful in your calculations, hiring utility men is much more cost-effective than raising a forbidden army. ”

"How so? Utility soldiers can get more money than the forbidden army. ”

Wu Haogu shook his head and smiled, "That's Brother Zhiping, who won't settle accounts!" ”

"How?"

Wu Haogu said: "The period of service in the forbidden army is long, often twenty enlistment, fifty or sixty can be retired, and it is thirty or forty years to work." But how many years does the strength of ordinary soldiers last? Brother Zhiping has also practiced martial arts, and he should know the way of martial arts, such as sailing against the current, and if he does not advance, he will retreat. And after old age and decay, martial arts will also decline. If you don't work hard, you'll have to go downhill after the age of thirty. And to work hard, this cost is not something that ordinary soldiers can bear.

Therefore, the imperial court spends thirty to fifty to raise a soldier and supports him for thirty years, and the real usable one is fifteen years. And because the forbidden army has to serve for a long time, it is all dragged with their families. Therefore, it is impossible to be in the camp at four o'clock and train non-stop. Often, only one of the three days is in camp. This fifteen-year period of availability has to be discounted again.

In addition, the serious lack of the forbidden army is also well known. There are 550,000 soldiers of the forbidden army on the books of the imperial court, but how many are there? It would be nice to have more than 300,000. And these more than 300,000 yuan are often appropriated by the governor to do all kinds of private work...... In this way, the imperial court spent so much money to raise 550,000 forbidden troops, and I don't know if there are 50,000 if it can really be used? In order to get a usable forbidden army, why does the imperial court have to spend hundreds of taels a year, right? It's far more expensive than hiring a utility person. ”

"Shuai Si only counts the labor," Zhao Zhongge interjected, "and the expenses for the equipment and horses have not been calculated...... In fact, the imperial court only had 50,000 available forbidden troops, but it had to prepare equipment and horses according to the standard of 550,000 forbidden troops. The officials and soldiers who were responsible for the preparation of equipment and horses had to make a fortune up and down. Most of the utility equipment's horses are self-buried, and although they have to pay a purchase fee, they are still cost-effective. Otherwise, the Great Song Dynasty would not have frequently recruited utility soldiers to accompany the expedition. ”

Wu Haogu smiled, "I raised 550,000 forbidden troops, but when I was fighting, I was a utility soldier and an archer...... Raising soldiers in the imperial court is really a deal that has lost its capital! Brother Ping, our Great Sect can't do this, and we don't have so much money to lose. ”

Zhang Yuan asked: "Is the Great Enlightenment Regiment fully utilitarian?" ”

Wu Haogu smiled and asked, "In addition to utility, what other soldiers can be used in the Great Education Regiment?" ”

Zhang Yuan thought about it seriously and shook his head, "It's true, it's just ......."

"It's just that it's not easy to use it well." Brother Zhao Zhongge interjected.

"That's right," Zhang Yuan said, "the utility hired from those mercenary leaders outside can't be used according to the methods in 'Cavalry Studies', 'Infantry Studies', and 'Tactics Theory', right?" ”

Wu Haogu smiled: "This has nothing to do with who hires the utility from, but who hires the utility." ”

Zhang Yuan didn't understand.

Wu Haogu explained: "Who hires, who equips, who trains. Brother Ping, you must first have a military command, which must not be sloppy. Second, it is necessary to have a number of generals, preparation generals, and team leaders who can lead troops in accordance with the methods in "Cavalry Studies," "Infantry Studies," and "Theory of Tactics." Then directly send them the money for the constituent units, battalions, and teams, and let them talk to the people in the mercenary and equipment shops and train themselves. Then let the military commander supervise them.

Of course, you have to have someone to help you manage your accounts, grain, and territory...... There is no shortage of these talents, right?

In the end, there must be a suitable method of rewarding, punishing, and compensating, so that we can supervise and urge the battle. ”

Wu Haogu's method is actually to commercialize military management -- military command is an efficient management team. The generals, preparation generals and team members who can lead troops in accordance with the methods of "Cavalry Science", "Infantry Science" and "Tactics Theory" are branch and branch managers under the contract system. Mercenaries and equipment are the suppliers.

This kind of commercial army is certainly not as good as a revolutionary army, and it may be a little worse than a well-managed feudal army – but the management of feudal armies is usually very poor. However, compared with the bureaucratic army of the Northern Song Dynasty, it has obvious advantages.

The army of the Northern Song Dynasty also made a lot of money, but the bureaucratic management made the powers and responsibilities at all levels unclear, the incentive and punishment mechanism was out of control, and even the effect of reverse incentives appeared. The Song army implemented an incentive system of high salaries and low merit rewards and low bereavement pensions. In other words, the mixed military salary is the most cost-effective, and it is unlikely that it is impossible to be promoted from a small soldier all the way to a general if you work hard to make meritorious contributions, because there are too many ranks on the way to promotion. And the pension for the dead and wounded in battle is too small, and if anyone is killed or disabled, it will be a great loss.

Therefore, the Song army not only had low management efficiency, and the proportion of troops that were really capable of fighting was very low in the total number of troops, but also the incentive mechanism failed, resulting in a lack of motivation for the troops to fight to the death and the battlefield.

Therefore, after returning from the Northwest Battlefield, Wu Haogu instructed his Military Command and Knight Academy to begin compiling a new military textbook, "On Governing the Army". When completed, it will also become a compulsory course at the Knight Academy.

"Brother Chongdao is really talented! Brother Chongdao has used the way of doing business in the military, I really didn't expect it to be like this......"

Zhang Yuan listened to Wu Haogu's introduction, and already had a feeling of epiphany - people have a high IQ of more than 130, and their comprehension ability is not comparable to ordinary people.

Wu Haogu nodded with a smile, and said: "Brother Zhiping has won the award, supervising the army with business is just a crooked way, and it is not as good as the new government soldiers of the imperial court...... That's the right way! If you can succeed, why worry that the world can't be calm? To Brother Ping, the younger brother has also asked people to study this matter recently, maybe you can have some experience, and when you return to Beijing to restore your life, bring the Jianbai book prepared by the younger brother, and dedicate it to Cai Xianggong in Brother Ping's own name. ”