The Great Qin Empire---Qin Li

The "Southern Army" led by Meng Wu has 150,000 soldiers, of which 80,000 are combat troops, led by eight captains, with a total of 80 commanders.

When General Wang Jian, the commander-in-chief of the 600,000-strong Qin army, came to inspect the Southern Army, among the 80 commanders, only Hei Fu had the opportunity to accompany General Wang to inspect the military camp with Lieutenant Meng Wu, Lieutenant Li You and others...

Hei Fu was personally called forward by Wang Jian to talk. Wang Jian asked if he had come up with the idea of the "football" play. Hei Fu hesitantly said yes, saying that he thought of it from Cuju and just wanted to give his soldiers something to do.

He did not boast, but said sincerely: "I dare to say to the general, as Lieutenant Li once said to us, since the soldiers entered the military camp, they are no longer free people, and they should forget their relatives and themselves when pointing at the enemy."

"But staying in the military camp for a long time, there is nothing to do except eating, sleeping, training, and occasional routine inspections. After a few months, it is inevitable that it is boring and even produces resentment. These resentments are prevalent in the army, just like the poison in the human body. If there is a war to fight, at least the poison can be expelled from the outside, but now there is no war to fight, and if it is left alone, the poison will accumulate inside. Recently, there are often soldiers in each camp who are restless, gambling, fighting privately, and entering the curtains of women in the military market. The captain ordered us to investigate strictly. Although all of them were severely punished, they still continued to happen. On the contrary, after the football game, my soldiers had something to do and settled down..."

Hei Fu's words were very realistic, but Wang Jian nodded secretly. When he was in Xianyang, he had heard of this man's name. After all, he was a hero who followed Li You to fight the Battle of Yingyang. Li You also praised Hei Fu a lot just now.

He was right. Letting soldiers wait for a long time and get tired is not good for the management of the army, and it may even affect the morale.

Sun Tzu said: The morning spirit is sharp, the daytime spirit is lazy, and the evening spirit returns. Therefore, those who are good at using troops to fight always avoid the enemy's initial sharpness, and wait until the enemy's morale is low and exhausted before launching an attack. Use your own strictness to deal with the enemy's chaos, use your own calmness to deal with the enemy's frivolity, treat the near with the far, treat the rest with the tired, and treat the full with the hungry. This is the general rule of estimating the enemy.

After Wang Jian arrived at the front line, he deliberately did not fight, but waited for four months, in order to exhaust the morale of the Chu army to defend against the enemy, and let his soldiers forget the haze of the Qin army's defeat in the previous battle, so that the morale of the Chu army would be increasingly low, and the Qin army's desire for war would be increasingly growing, so as to achieve a balance between the morale of the enemy and us.

If the morale of the Qin army itself fell sharply during the stalemate stage, what would happen?

In the past, the kings and generals of the princes thought of many ways to solve the morale problem.

For example, Guan Zhong of Qi and Gou Jian of Yue, they recruited women to the barracks to comfort the soldiers. When the army had no battles to fight, the soldiers vented in the women's brothels, and through a cloud of rain, they regained their masculinity.

However, this method was gradually proven to have more disadvantages than advantages. First of all, the military Yin-Yangists believed that if there were women in the army, the morale would decline, and if there was a woman in the army, the minds of thousands of people would not be on training and fighting.

Therefore, from the beginning of the Mohist defense of the city, it was stipulated that: "When women arrive at the army, men should walk on the left and women on the right, and no one should walk side by side. All should guard their positions. Those who disobey the order will be beheaded."

And Shang Yang also changed the law: "No women are allowed in the military market!"

Since the Qin army could not rely on prostitutes to motivate soldiers like the armies of the six countries, they could only relax the restrictions on the soldiers and let them do some amateur activities such as wrestling and throwing stones. A few people play games and hundreds of people watch. In addition to killing time, it can also boost morale and exercise the soldiers.

But no game has ever been as popular as "football", which is not actually football, and made the soldiers jump as the small ball rolled, and roared and cheered like they were conquering the enemy's formation on the battlefield...

In addition to letting the soldiers kill time and forget the boredom of the barracks, Wang Jian also saw some shadows of military struggles and tactics in it.

At this time, Li You also held the ball and sighed:

"I have heard a legend. It is said that Huangdi fought with Chiyou in Zhuolu. After capturing and killing Chiyou, he peeled his skin and made it into a dry marquis. He asked people to shoot it, and those who hit it more were rewarded. Cut his hair and made a flag, named Chiyou's banner. Fill his stomach with a ball, and ask people to kick it. Those who hit it more were rewarded. This is the origin of Cuju. Gradually, this thing is often played in the army to entertain and train warriors, especially Qi and Chu like it the most."

"But those Qi and Chu Cuju are mostly martial arts games to show off their skills, which are useless for battle. However, the football played by people in Nanjun today is different. It can not only entertain people, but also practice battle formations. Ten people work together to win."

So Li You suggested: "General, this football game should be promoted in the army, so that the soldiers can practice defending the enemy as line forwards, the soldiers in the trapped team can practice charging as forwards, and the grassroots military officers can practice commanding as squad leaders on the field. It can be a game, and everyone can do what they are good at. Isn't it wonderful?"

This is what Hei Fu has been instilling in Li You for several days. Li You finally made suggestions to Wang Jian. Seeing that his superior quoted classics and finally overshadowed himself, Hei Fu was very happy. Now he didn't have to worry about stealing the show.

Although Wang Jian was the commander of the Qin army, Hei Fu's thigh for the next ten years was still the Li family. Even Wang Jian's own grandson Wang Li would have to rely on Li Si for support in the future. This must be clearly understood. If he gets carried away and tries his best to show off in front of Wang Jian, it will be bad for his boss Li You to lose face and cause a rift between the two of them...

Wang Jian is a wise man. He looked at Li You and then at Hei Fu, who bowed his head and smiled, but did not say anything. He just laughed and said, "Yes, you can let the soldiers of the Central Army and the Northern Army learn from it. But if so, I'm afraid that the pig bladders that were thrown away casually in Shangcai, Ruyang and other cities will start to sell for money."

The commander-in-chief told a joke, and of course others laughed along. After Hei Fu laughed for a while, he bowed and said, "General, I have an unwelcome request..."

It's okay to be low-key, but he also wants to leave an impression on Wang Jian.

"Why? Just say it."

Hei Fu said: "At first, this game was called football, but now it seems inappropriate. I hope the general will give it a name!"

Wang Jian did not refuse or hesitate, and stroked his gray beard and said: "Lieutenant Li said that Cuju originated from Chi You's stomach. Chi You was the master of soldiers in Qi and Chudong. Today's game is also derived from Cuju, and our army will use this method to let elite soldiers practice military tactics and military struggles... How about calling it Bingqiu?"

Bingqiu? I don't know if it will be confused with table tennis in the future... Hei Fu secretly complained, but it is better than calling it rugby, because this thing has not yet been introduced to China.

After some questions, Wang Jian was quite satisfied with Heifu's performance. It seemed that this young commander who didn't even have a surname really knew a little about military tactics and knew how to train and lead soldiers. After another question, when Wang Jian learned that Heifu was only 21 years old, he couldn't help but sigh:

"When I was 21, I was only the county lieutenant of Wu County in Hedong County, with only 500 people under my command..."

After saying that, he looked at Li You and sighed again: "When I was 30, I was just a small official, working as a palace attendant in Xianyang Palace."

He shook his head and let his gray beard flutter in the wind: "Young people are formidable, who knows if the future will be worse than now?"

"General, you are getting stronger as you get older!"

When Heifu said this, everyone also reacted and said in unison: "General Wang, you are getting stronger as you get older, you are the pillar of the country!"

Hearing this, Wang Jian also laughed: "Of course, Jingchu has not been destroyed, why do you say you are old?"

...

In the camp of the Nanjun soldiers, Wang Jian still ordered people to kill pigs and dogs, provided high-quality food to comfort the soldiers, and personally ate and drank with them, which moved the soldiers very much. He even ignored his advanced age of over 60 and kicked the ball to the two teams of soldiers as the starter of a ball game, which caused another round of cheers...

Wang Jian can be said to be the person with the strongest aura among those Hei Fu had seen since he came to the era. He was stronger than the deliberately displayed authority of Ye Teng, the governor of Nanjun. He was awe-inspiring without anger, and treated the soldiers kindly and kindly like an old sergeant, but people respected him from the bottom of their hearts. This attitude of getting close to the soldiers won the love of everyone.

After General Wang's inspection, the Nanjun soldiers, who were already in good spirits, were even more excited. So, just as he was about to get on the car and leave, someone in the more than 10,000 soldiers who were seeing him off suddenly shouted loudly: "May I ask General Wang, when will we go to battle? We are willing to fight!"

"Yes, when will we go to battle? We can't wait any longer. We want to kick the heads of the Chu army like a ball!" someone responded.

After a burst of laughter, everyone's hearts seemed to be united. Ten thousand people knelt on one knee to Wang Jian at the same time, hitting their shields with swords, and asked in unison: "General, please lead us to fight!"

Wang Jian was very satisfied with the spirit of the people. He supported the car and asked the messenger to reply loudly to the soldiers.

"The opportunity for battle is coming, you two or three do not need to wait any longer!"

The reason why Wang Jian dragged on for so long in this battle and only defended but did not attack was because he considered that the Chu State was large and had a large population. If he led the army deep into the country, the Chu army would be scattered everywhere and it would be difficult to capture its main force. If the troops are divided, they may repeat the mistakes of Li Xin, who does not like to play hide-and-seek with Xiang Yan.

If the army holds on here, it will surely attract the Chu army to the front of Qin and hold on for several months. Seeing that the busy farming season in February is approaching, the Chu army is running out of food, and the soldiers of Chu should be infested with lice in their armor and are anxious to go home to farm!

Sitting in the car on the way back to the camp, Wang Jian thought to himself: "Seeing Hei Fu, I know that the military officers can be used; and now, I also know that the soldiers can be used... The opportunity to take advantage of the situation and strike the Chu army and destroy it in one fell swoop is coming soon!"