Chapter 50: Generals and Commanders After everyone left, Tian Ze was about to go back and rest, when he suddenly remembered something. "By the way, Zhongde, how is the progress of the military academy?" Now that the soldiers under his command have initially formed a scale, standardized management and construction have been put on the agenda by Tian Ze. In order to cultivate talents, he established Liaodong Academy and Engineering College in Xiangping City, and asked Cheng Yu to set up a military school in the barracks. Liaodong Academy is Confucianism-based on the surface, but in fact it integrates the theories of hundreds of schools of thought and mathematics. It was built by Tian Ze to train talents to govern a region. The Institute of Technology is based on Mohism, supplemented by scientific knowledge such as mechanics that Tian Ze can think of, aiming to develop scientific and technological talents. The military academy is based on military science and is designed to train generals in the army. The students trained by these three academies will be the main force for Tian Ze's future reforms and conquests. "I am pushing forward. However, we have too few military books and lack talents who are good at military tactics. For now, we can only let the generals take turns to teach, focusing on military books, battles and simulations. Currently, centurions and above in the army are attending classes normally, and the results are good." Cheng Yu said. "Can we try to purchase military books from various places?" Tian Ze asked. Cheng Yu smiled bitterly: "My Lord, this is very difficult! These military books and talents are in the hands of the aristocratic families. Besides, apart from you who are willing to give out so many military books, ordinary people are unwilling to share them with others even if they have them." Tian Ze couldn't help but sigh when he heard this. People in this era attach great importance to knowledge and skills, and basically regard them as treasures. Except for their loved ones, many people would rather take their skills to the grave than pass them on to others. "So be it." This was the way the world was, and he was powerless to change it. “However, the aspect of military science cannot just stop at the centurion level. The more practical tactics should be organized and taught to the squad leader and sergeant level. This will also make it easier to select the best among them for further training,” Tian Ze said.
"Yu understands." "How's the progress of the exploration of military system reform that I arranged earlier?" Tian Ze asked without much expectation. "My lord, we have tried the three-three system and the mandarin duck formation you mentioned many times, but we have not gotten the hang of them. The three-three system seems to be more suitable for scouting, while the effect of the mandarin duck formation is far inferior to that of the circular and square formations." Cheng Yu said hesitantly. Tian Ze sighed. It was just as he expected. It seemed that the famous three-three system and mandarin duck formation in later generations were not suitable for the current era of cold weapons. This formation, which was created because of the emergence of firearms, would not be very effective if used in frontal combat between infantry. "However, my lord, your proposal of the three-three system of one attack, one cover, and one support has inspired us. With reference to this tactic, we have further refined the division of labor in combat by using the squad as the unit, and used a 100-man garrison as the command unit. The army's combat command capability has been significantly improved." "Really?" Tian Ze asked in surprise. Unexpectedly, there was an unexpected gain. "Of course!" Cheng Yu smiled. "And the tactics you mentioned are actually very good. They are used for guerrilla reconnaissance and small-scale combat, and the effect is quite good. However, they are not suitable for large-scale promotion." "That's good." Tian Ze also breathed a sigh of relief. After doing this kind of thing too many times, which involved coming up with novel ideas but wasting a lot of manpower and material resources because they were not suitable for the actual situation, he unconsciously began to strengthen his own thinking and no longer simply passed everything on to his ministers. "Zhongde, what do you think of the generals in the army?" Tian Ze asked. "My lord, you have a keen eye for talent. Yunchang and others are all talented generals." Cheng Yu replied. He also admired Tian Ze's ability to judge people. Not to mention people with extraordinary talents like Guan Yu and Ma Teng, the officers of the centurion and above in the army were all outstanding in ability, which was truly amazing. "Who is a talented general? Who is a talented general?" Tian Ze continued to ask. "Guan Yu, Zhang Liao, Xu Rong, Yu Jin, Zhang He, and Xu Huang, all six of them have the potential to be leaders, and the rest can all become generals." Cheng Yu said. "Especially Guan Yu, Zhang Liao, and Xu Rong. If they are trained properly, they will definitely be able to stand on their own." Hearing this, Tian Ze couldn't help but sigh at Cheng Yu's sharp vision. History is the best proof.
Guan Yu, who was feared throughout China, is undoubtedly the most powerful general in Liu Bei's army. At his peak, he could compete with many famous generals under Cao Cao. The Five Elite Generals were all top talents from humble backgrounds. They were able to make a name for themselves under Cao Cao, who was nepotistic and valued the royal family. The talents of the five were undoubtedly the best in the world. Except for Le Jin, they all had the potential to become generals, but they rarely had the opportunity to lead a side. After all, the suspicious Boss Cao is well-known for only trusting his own family members, and military generals from other families can only serve as deputies. Although Le Jin was only a talented general, he was a rare one among them. In the history books, Le Jin was either fighting or on his way to a battle, and he never lost a battle. He was the first to kill the enemy many times, a true victorious general. If he had not died early, his status among the Five Elite Generals would definitely be in the middle and upper ranks. As for Xu Rong, although there are not many records about him in history, the fact that he once defeated Cao Cao and Sun Jian is enough to prove his talent. During this period of time, Tian Ze knew that Xu Rong's ability to lead troops was not inferior to Guan Yu and Zhang Liao. Moreover, compared with the relatively immature two, Xu Rong was the best among all the generals in the army, and his command ability far exceeded the others. "There are many talented generals in this world, but unfortunately not many talented commanders." Tian Ze sighed. Compared with generals, he needs more talented leaders. Because he has no shortage of food and elite soldiers, and has sufficient combat power, there is no need for him to take any unconventional measures. A fair and square frontal battle is the best option, and a general can better utilize this advantage. However, compared with talented generals, talented commanders are extremely scarce, especially among ordinary people, where they are few and far between. Being a general is different from being a commander-in-chief. It focuses more on leadership, strategic vision, and organizational and coordination skills. These are not only achieved by talent, but also require more accumulation. The powerful families have access to military books since childhood. If they have good qualifications, they have a relatively greater chance of becoming generals, such as Cao Cao, Zhou Yu and others. However, among those from poor families, no matter how strong their talent is, if they start too late, their thinking and vision will be limited and it will be difficult for them to become talented leaders, unless their talent is so extraordinary that it can be compared to Han Baiwei and Huo. If Guan Yu, Zhang Liao and others had not been exposed to books such as "Zuo Zhuan" in their childhood, and had not had some knowledge and thinking about military affairs, and had initially developed a certain way of thinking, they would probably have only been generals throughout their lives. Even so, it took them more than ten years to fully grow up, which is far from Zhou Yu, Lu Xun and others who became famous at a young age. This is the chasm between the aristocratic families and the common people, which is like a chasm that takes nearly half a lifetime to make up. "My lord, we only occupy a county, but we have so many talented people. It is a great blessing. Why do you need to worry?" Cheng Yu comforted. "There are countless talented generals in the world, but only a few can be recruited into your army, let alone talented commanders." In addition to population, what Tian Ze attached most importance to was talent, and he invested a lot of manpower and material resources. He arranged people around almost all the talents he could think of, and tried his best to bring them under his command. But unfortunately, most of these talents who have gone down in history came from powerful families, had great influence and deep roots in the local area, and were unwilling to accept his invitation. There is no need to talk about the civil officials, let’s talk about the military generals. The Huang family that Huang Zhong came from is more powerful than the Tian family behind Tian Ze. The Cao family and the Xiahou family have direct access to the upper echelons. Xu Chu, who came from a humble background, has a powerful family with thousands of people behind him. Some people had already known their historical masters and were unwilling to come out of friendship. For example, Zhang Fei from Zhuo County had become friends with Liu Bei, and Cheng Pu from Jiangdong had joined Sun Jian's army. Tian Ze wanted to recruit them in the early years, but his identity as a county magistrate could not attract these people. Now, these people have owners. Finally, there are some people who are still young and difficult to recruit. Even if they are recruited, it is hard to say whether they can become talents if their original growth trajectory is changed. Tian Ze's current lineup may seem luxurious, but only he knows how much effort and setbacks he has put in. The talents he has recruited are not even 20% of his plan. (End of this chapter)