Shen Hao took the file and read it carefully. His expression quickly changed, from surprise to excitement, and he didn't bother to hide it—making sure Tang Qingyuan saw it clearly.
Because Shen Hao knew exactly how significant this document in his hands was.
After a long moment.
"Finished? Any thoughts?"
"This... should be a new institution that combines internal investigations and emergency responses to special external events, right? And it feels like it'll have a lot of autonomy."
"Internal investigations? Emergency responses to external events? Tch, that's a pretty apt description. Yes, what you've said are exactly the two main purposes of establishing the Black Banner Battalion."
Black Banner Battalion?
Tang Qingyuan continued, "These years, the Advisors in the court have been backed by the Left Minister, wielding their pens like blades with poison on their tongues. They treat our Xuanqing Guard like monsters, chasing after every little mistake and making life miserable. So, at the beginning of last month, Commander Lord Pang issued secret orders to every garrison, demanding that within two months they each set up their own inspection branch, named Black Banner Battalion.
Within our garrison, after much picking and choosing, you turned out to be the most suitable."
How could I not be "suitable"?
Shen Hao grumbled inwardly: For a job like this—clearly destined to offend people—they were definitely going to pick someone rootless and without connections like him to do it. If you screwed up, you could be smashed like a bug and used as a scapegoat, with no need to worry about offending anyone important; if you did well, Tang Qingyuan could take credit for recognizing talent. Moreover, the atmosphere in the Xuanqing Guard was unpredictable. No one knew if the Black Banner Battalion could really take root and thrive. So, to put it bluntly, he was just a little guinea pig pushed up as a convenient test.
But complaints aside, Shen Hao also understood that this seemingly unreliable business might be his opportunity—a chance to break through the ceiling of his bureaucratic career.
After all, in Li City, there had never been a case of a rootless outsider like Shen Hao rising to the position of General Flag—he was the first!
Seeing that Shen Hao had more or less understood, Tang Qingyuan laid out the conditions: "The Black Banner Battalion is set at the Senior Seventh Grade. If you come over, you'll serve as General Flag. All the staffing will be up to you to prepare. The garrison will allocate you some resources and give you flexible orders. Within half a month, I want to see you put the framework together. Any problems?"
"No problems, my lord. Please be assured, I will accomplish the task."
"Good. Then off you go. Take the file with you, study it closely. I'll be waiting to see what you can do."
...
The garrison issued orders quickly. By the next morning, all the official General Flag gear—the brocade robe, Yanji saber, waist token, identity documents and so on—were delivered to Shen Hao, and they even arranged for a high-grade small courtyard near the garrison as a perk for his new post.
When he entered the garrison again, an attendant immediately led Shen Hao to his newly assigned public office. It wasn't large, but all the setup matched the standards for a General Flag.
And as it happened, Shen Hao's office was right next door to Chen Tianwen's.
But Shen Hao had no time to enjoy this. He didn't even have the mood to sit around—he just exchanged a few pleasantries with Chen Tianwen next door, then immediately began to set up the Black Banner Battalion.
"First, funds... then, personnel..."
Funding was actually simple—he could apply directly to Tang Qingyuan. The initial funds shouldn't be a problem, anywhere between three hundred to five hundred thousand taels. The hard part was, where to find people?
Now that Shen Hao was a Senior Seventh Grade Flag Officer, comparing with other Flag Officers, he'd need to find three to four Small Banner Officers, six to eight School Commanders, and nearly three hundred Warriors and soldiers.
Where to find such people?
Transfer from the other banners? That's the fastest way to staff up. As long as he got Tang Qingyuan's support, even if other General Flag Officers resented it, they wouldn't dare obstruct openly. But the downside was obvious—easy to run into traps and sabotage, and if you weren't careful you'd get bogged down in endless crap—how ugly would that be?
It wasn't that Shen Hao was overthinking; it's that his position now was extremely delicate—he couldn't afford a single careless move.
If he didn't transfer people from the other banners, then he could only recruit them all himself. That would be a lot more troublesome and a lot slower, but it would be steadier; once the team was established, he'd be the one in control.
"Step by step. Let's start by pulling together a Little Banner Battalion first."
It didn't take him long to decide. There were plenty of idle "odds and ends" in Li City Guard Station's staff files. Most of these people, like him, were rootless outsiders, with a few fallen noble offspring thrown in; their Cultivation wasn't high, but they were stubborn, unsociable, and thus generally disliked—classic "invisible men" discarded by all the banners.
As for these invisible people, Shen Hao had always known of them. In the past, he deliberately kept his distance from these troublesome folk, but now, having power meant thinking differently—he looked at them with greedy eyes.
He went to the records room and pulled the files on all the garrison's auxiliary staff.
But the files couldn't be checked out; he could only research them on the spot in the records room, so Shen Hao spent his entire first day as an officer inside that room.
He only left late at night, carrying a handwritten roster of his own making.
The next morning, Shen Hao went directly to Tang Qingyuan. This roster couldn't be finalized without Lord Hundred Households himself signing off.
"Zhang Liao, Shen Guangli, Niu Ben... Did you pick these on purpose?"
Tang Qingyuan skimmed the list Shen Hao handed over and closed it, rubbing his eyebrows. He had actually been prepared to help coordinate staffing for Shen Hao, but he hadn't expected such a freakish list—everyone on it was someone who'd caused trouble and wasn't welcome anywhere.
"My lord, these people may be trouble magnets, but they're all genuinely skilled, not loafers. Plus their backgrounds are simple and they clash with the other banners. They're perfect for the kind of work the Black Banner Battalion needs. I hope you'll let this one slide."
No need to spell it out; Tang Qingyuan naturally understood their backgrounds. Once the Black Banner Battalion started operating, conflict with the other banners was inevitable. If you picked only those who cared too much about face and relationships, they'd be bound hand and foot instead."
"But there aren't enough of them. At most you'll only be able to pull together a Little Banner Battalion's worth. A full roster is still a long way off—what's your plan?"
"My lord, I want to first assemble a Little Banner Battalion and get operations started, and then build up my own people as I go along. For the future of the Black Banner Battalion, that's the best way."
"Even so, if you don't handle these people well, you'll end up with nothing but chaos. Are you really sure you want to draft them into the Black Banner Battalion?"
"My lord, I am certain these are the people I want."
Seeing Shen Hao's resolve, Tang Qingyuan didn't try to dissuade him any further. He nodded, told Shen Hao to go back, and said that by noon the people on his list would be in place, so he could collect his recruits on the training ground himself.
As for whether Shen Hao could really keep these troublemakers in line, Tang Qingyuan still had a big question mark in his heart.
...
Just as he returned to his office, he saw Wang Jian loitering at the door.
"Xiaoqi."
"Come in. What do you want?"
"Nothing, just wanted to congratulate you personally on your promotion."
Shen Hao snorted with a laugh. "You punk, you've followed me for years now—do you think I can't tell when you want something? Spit it out."
"Well, if you say so... Are you still short of people for your Black Banner Battalion?"