roccoschili Chapter 22 The Luo Family Army Recruits in 4 Locations
Chapter 22 The Luo Family Army Recruits in 4 Locations
"Besides, when I get back, I will recruit a group of regular French soldiers. Then I will let these villagers see the more magnificent uniforms of the French army, so that they can feel the difference between conscripts and regular soldiers."
"I want them to know that being a regular soldier is an honor, and not just any scoundrel can become a regular soldier, so I naturally have to show the difference between the two."
"When we select regular soldiers from among them, I will get them a set of French military uniforms and equipment, and then let them undergo even more rigorous training."
Rock didn't really know how to manage these villagers, but he knew very well that upward mobility was essential in the army.
He hasn't established a military system yet, and the various ranks and such haven't been set up. He also has no interest in making things that complicated for the time being, since he only has so many people under his command, and most of them are system soldiers.
For this reason, the promotion path that Rock plans to provide to these villagers temporarily is to encourage them to compete with those around them and strive to become regular soldiers first.
The ten guerrilla soldiers and the 30 villagers who joined Rock's team were left in the original Liu family compound for training.
It has to be said that the courtyard that Liu Sanpang had the villagers build for him was really big enough that a platoon of soldiers could easily fit into the front yard for training.
As for how to specifically deal with this house?
Rock intends to turn this place into his temporary base.
He had observed before that when Liu Sanpang was building his mansion, he treated it like a small fortress, and there were even firing holes in the walls.
If it weren't for the fact that Rock's cavalry's attack was so sudden that the enemy hadn't had time to react before the front gate was breached, they wouldn't have been able to take over the Liu family compound so easily.
Given that, he naturally couldn't let go of this important little fortress.
As long as he can hold this position, he can form a pincer movement with the surrounding villages, and with dozens of muskets, he can definitely make any invading bandits frown.
As for the original servants and women in the mansion, they were all dismissed by Rock.
For those who were not Liu Sanpang's close servants but just odd jobs, Rock did not make things difficult for them. Instead, he gave them some food and let them go out and make a living on their own.
If they wanted to farm, there was plenty of land around the village that they could cultivate, and much of it was still uncultivated. They could simply wait until spring to start farming.
As for whether the villagers will make things difficult for these guys?
No one could care about that anymore.
Now that Liu Sanpang is dead, if they hadn't bullied people with him before, these villagers wouldn't have gone to make things difficult for the group of laborers, especially since Rock had already told them not to involve innocent people because of Liu Sanpang's affairs.
If they really did bully these villagers with Liu Sanpang before, and offended someone to death, then they deserved to be retaliated against by the villagers!
As for the women who had been taken by Liu Sanpang, Rock gave them two choices:
If they wanted to go back to their own homes, Rock would just give them some food and send them home. What happened after they got home was none of Rock's business.
If they felt that the bully had ruined their health and they were too ashamed to go home, then Rock would simply tell them to come with his group and go back to the mountain stronghold in Little Black Mountain to help with odd jobs.
The village over at Xiaoheishan was full of Roc's system soldiers, and there were hardly any servants to do odd jobs, so the environment there was quite dirty and messy, and there was hardly anyone to clean it.
He didn't expect his elite soldiers to do things like sweeping, washing clothes, and cooking all day long, since in the past, when they were on campaigns, these kinds of things were handled by the logistics department.
Even Napoleon's army couldn't do without laundry women back then!
Moreover, if they happen to hit it off with any of his system soldiers later on, Rock wouldn't mind helping them get together. These soldiers around Rock are all loyal and follow him in battle, so he has to consider their marriage prospects. However, everything must be entirely voluntary!
To Rock's surprise, when he presented the two options to the women, very few were willing to return to their own homes.
Perhaps they also knew that women like themselves, whose bodies had been ruined by bullies, would have difficulty getting married. In this era of male chauvinism, they might even be considered a disgrace by their families, and returning home might not end well.
Even the few who might have originally wanted to go home, after reading the sisters' tearful stories, thought it over and decided to go with Rock instead of returning to their own homes.
Ironically, despite the fact that the Manchus were barbarians who invaded from beyond the Great Wall, their chaotic feudal ethics and the Three Obediences and Four Virtues reached their peak during this period!
Since they all chose this option, Rock simply hired them all, and they would work as factory workers, receiving their wages on time.
The name Liujiatun... oh no, this place has now been changed back to its original name, Zhangjiatun.
After settling things in Zhangjiatun, Luo Ke and his men decided to rest there for the night and then return to Wangjiazhuang the next day. After all, it was already late, and he didn't want his cavalry to travel through the snow overnight.
Upon returning to Wangjiazhuang, when the people of Wangjiazhuang saw that Luo Ke had indeed brought back the three girls unharmed, they no longer hesitated but immediately expressed their agreement, willing to pay Luo Ke a security fee and accept his protection.
Subsequently, Wangjiazhuang was also brought into Luo Ke's sphere of influence.
Compared to Zhangjiatun, Wangjiazhuang seems to have a smaller population, with only slightly over 300 people in the entire village.
Moreover, compared to Zhangjiatun, their loyalty to Rock was not as high, only reaching level two, which is the level of loyalty under effective control.
It wasn't until Luo Ke used the same recruitment tactics he had used in Zhangjiatun that he attracted another group of young men from Wangjiazhuang to join his ranks, which finally earned Wangjiazhuang the loyalty and support of the people.
Seeing the eager young men who had been selected to join Luo's army, Luo Ke smiled and shook his head.
It seems that the village's loyalty largely rests on these young and middle-aged men, since for most families these men are the pillars of the household, and their opinions are naturally of paramount importance.
Compared to Zhangjiatun, Rock recruited fewer people here, a total of 20, because the population here is smaller.
Instead of keeping the 20 men in the village, Rock took them directly to the village in Xiaoheishan to train with the guerrillas there.
He didn't want his soldiers to eventually become local militias, so if he could take them away from his hometown, Rock was willing to take them out on a journey.
As for Zhangjiatun, why didn't Luo Ke bring them to his village as well?
On the one hand, there was indeed a suitable training ground there, and Rock needed to control the Liu family compound. On the other hand, Rock didn't know when the bandits of Black Dragon Mountain would take it down.
Those militia forces were the initial force Zhangjiatun used to resist the bandits of Heilongshan. If they were withdrawn, not to mention whether Luo Kedan was worried about the safety of Zhangjiatun, even the young people who came from Zhangjiatun were worried about the safety of their hometown!
They certainly didn't want to train with Rock for a while, only to find that their hometown had been burned down by bandits!
In the following week, Rock led his team to the other three villages around Black Mountain and successfully brought those three places into his sphere of influence.
These three villages were quite sensible. When they heard that the bandits of Xiaoheishan had been wiped out and saw that Rock was so strong and well-equipped, Rock easily won them over and they agreed to pay security fees on time.
However, since Rock did not do anything for them when he arrived, and they paid Rock security fees out of fear, the three villages were ultimately only classified as initially occupied by the system.
Even when Rock tried to recruit people in the three villages, he couldn't fill all the positions. He only managed to recruit ten able-bodied men from each of the three villages who were willing to follow him.
But it doesn't matter, Rock knows that the other villagers are unwilling to go with him, most likely because they don't trust him enough.
When those young and strong men who followed him return home in glory, with their military pay and fine clothes, the other villagers will surely be eager to sign up as well.
Since it's impossible to build trust in the short term through some intense events, we can cultivate it gradually. Given enough time, trust can always be built.
Sitting on the throne in the village, Rock looked at the 50 militiamen who were busy training in the drill ground outside and couldn't help but yawn.
He had to admit that the training process for these 50 militiamen was a truly difficult experience to describe.
If college students' military training is enough to make people laugh, then the training of these militiamen in front of him makes Rock feel like elementary school students having a physical education class!
By having them wear a shoe on one foot and leave the other bare, letting them freeze in the snow, Rock successfully taught them to distinguish left from right over those days.
But the training progress these days has basically stopped there. They have only learned to distinguish left from right, to obey the basic orders of their superiors, and to figure out how to handle the flintlock pistols in their hands.
With such limited abilities, they were practically useless except for knowing how to fire a gun; they weren't even qualified to be militiamen.
But there was nothing he could do; training couldn't be rushed. Even though Rock was anxious about the villagers' condition, there was nothing he could do with them.