Mayor Song drafted a detailed report on the situation there and sent it off to Longcheng.
When the Longcheng General Staff took one look at it, they were thunderstruck. So we can actually do it this way?
After some deliberation, the Staff concluded that this model was worth promoting across the board.
They also issued their directives accordingly.
Accept General Wu's terms.
Honestly, no one could quite find the right word for it—"surrender" didn't seem right, "amnesty" didn't quite fit either.
No matter.
Either way, within a few months they'd have thirty thousand more people, and not just any people—a battle-ready force stationed overseas. That made them genuinely valuable.
In the end, the General Staff decided to give them a special designation: mercenaries.
On the surface, they would still be soldiers of the Ming Emperor. If the Ming Emperor issued orders, they could look them over and decide whether it served their own interests.
Each man would receive five yuan per day in wages—that was their military pay.
Double it, in fact—because they were serving overseas.
They were mercenaries, after all, so their treatment naturally couldn't match that of the Wolf Soldiers, who were the home-grown sons of Longcheng. The Wolf Soldiers' base pay was already double standard; for overseas deployment it doubled again, giving them four times the standard wage.
Then this band of mercenaries would be given an additional role: construction troops.
Build in peacetime, fight in wartime.
For every day of labor, another five yuan—room and board included.
In other words, on an ordinary working day at their post, they'd be pulling in fifteen yuan.
During actual combat, the construction bonus went away.
Was that low? Not at all—it was already outrageously generous. But then, they had to work, and when the moment came, they had to put their lives on the line.
Longcheng wasn't going to begrudge them that much money.
Besides, within a few more months they'd be Longcheng's own people anyway.
Longcheng had always treated its own people well.
The chaotic imperial command structure would then be dissolved and reorganized under Longcheng's own system.
These thirty thousand men would be reorganized into a grand mercenary legion.
Eight to a squad, thirty-three to a platoon, one hundred thirty-three to a company, six hundred to a battalion, and from there up to regiment and division.
That came to three divisions of troops.
These thirty thousand men constituted a modest group army that would expand over time—a group army could accommodate three to five divisions, or even a dozen or more.
A four-by-four organizational structure.
From battalion level upward there would be logistics departments, though with smaller staffing than before, since vehicles now handled supply transport and the logistical burden had eased considerably, bringing the headcount down naturally.
A division at ten thousand men—that was a combat division, focused primarily on fighting. Though theirs would be a little different: when not fighting, they'd also be doing construction work.
A garrison division, on the other hand, would be growing vegetables, raising pigs, and the like—practically a little society unto itself, with departments for everything, and could run twenty to thirty thousand strong.
The Longcheng General Staff decided to designate General Wu as a Grade 13 Group Army Commander.
Quite something to reckon with.
He probably never imagined in all his life that he'd one day stand at the same rank as Jinyi.
Of course, rank was one thing—the actual power each held was another matter entirely.
Jinyi's current position as Premier was Grade 13 only because the level below was Grade 11 for the municipal tier.
When the next promotion came, it would go to Grade 15.
Still, even as things stood, it would surely be enough to send General Wu into a fit of delirious joy.
After the reorganization, all the associated benefits and entitlements would naturally follow—including, for instance, Longcheng's newly developed and fielded first-generation Shenlong rifle, a weapon that outclassed every other great power's arms by a full generational leap.
Beyond that, the model Mayor Song had pioneered on this expedition was outstanding and deserved commendation.
In addition to material rewards, his rank would be raised by one grade, making him a senior-designated mayor. Upon his return in a few years, he would be assigned directly to the post of deputy district or county chief, and when the next opportunity for promotion arose, no further accomplishments would be required—he could advance straight to district chief.
This young Mayor Song had a boundless future ahead of him.
When word from the General Staff reached them overseas, both men who had been waiting were left completely stunned.
General Wu very nearly went out of his mind with joy. Ha ha! Grade 13—the same rank as Premier Jinyi.
He was so happy he could blow snot bubbles.
And no more need to worry about the Ming Emperor coming after him—he was a Longcheng man now.
Even if the Ming Emperor didn't know it yet.
The Emperor was still congratulating himself on having gained an overseas colony, utterly unaware that his own home had been stolen out from under him—the walls were being undermined until they were ready to collapse.
With this first success in hand, Longcheng moved actively to open negotiations with other imperial courts and dispatched township construction teams to other regions.
Naturally, the parties they negotiated with were only the Ming Emperor and the Southeast Court—those other two.
One of them was effectively under Mingxin's iron grip—anyone with objections had no choice but to swallow them.
The other could barely wait for Longcheng to absorb it entirely tomorrow.
This new model was something else. Something very, very appealing.