The ancestors of the Fan family also had a book in the Tang Dynasty, and it is said that they were not angry with the power traitors in the court, hung up their crowns, and settled down in Xinyang Mansion on Jingnan Road. Since then, the Fan family has always been a cultivator and a heirloom, not only to study, but also to cultivate and self-worship, in the Great Song Dynasty, such a scholar is called "farming". Many cultivators are studying poetry and books hard, without the guidance of famous teachers, although they were born in a humble background, they also have the ambition of governing the country and the world together.

Before arriving in Xiangyang, working at sunrise and resting at sunset, men and women weaving, catching fireflies and stealing light, were all ordinary lives for Fan Changheng. Although the cultivation and reading are hard, they are also happy, and the scholars dominate the country behind closed doors. The rule handed down by the Fan family is that men in the past generations rushed to take the exam at most once, and if they missed the blow, they would drift away and stop taking the exam. This ancestral training seems to be chic, but in fact it is because for the Fan family, the cost of entering Beijing to take the exam is a heavy burden. However, Beiyu's entry into the Kou broke Fan Changheng's plan to go to the examination at the age of forty, and when he learned that King Jing Zhao Qi was stationed in Xiangyang and recruited talents, Old Man Fan made a lot of determination and gritted his teeth to send his son to try his luck. So, Fan Changheng came to Xiangyang with "Chao Wei Tian Shelang, Dusk Tianzi Hall".

During the period of being stranded in Xiangyang, for Fan Changheng, the most painful thing was not only the embarrassment of being penniless, the humiliation of being bullied, but also the most painful thing was the disillusionment of hope and the despair of heart death. When he was cultivating and studying in Xinyang Mansion, when he saw the arrogant and powerful officials, he could also think that this was just because the mountain was high and the emperor was far away, once the Holy Son of Heaven found out and sent one or two ministers to govern the place, all evil would be gone, and all kinds of waste would be prosperous. After arriving in Xiangyang, after hearing and witnessing many, many things, Fan Changheng has completely lost confidence, one after another the powerful ministers he once pinned hopes on, are all sanctimonious, forming parties for personal gain, his beliefs have been shattered by reality, and his life has become like a huge quagmire.

In Taibaiju, he was just a dead runner, in order to eat two meals a day, he ran before and after running in the middle of the night in the midst of the shouts of the guests, and at night dragged his tired body to sleep in the cold firewood room. Fan Changheng is getting deeper and deeper into the life of being trampled on by others and having no dignity, but he is becoming more and more accustomed to this life, and he almost forgets that he used to be a scholar. Only the moment of sobriety at dawn made Fan Changheng feel more and more pain, his eyes became darker and darker, and in the eyes of others, this young man seemed to be more and more honest and content with the status quo.

It's just out of instinct, while serving tea and pouring water, Fan Changheng will also leave an ear to listen to the guests' discussions. Other shopkeepers often talked about the latest current affairs, and on this day, he suddenly heard a guest say that Ezhou was recruiting scholars to join the army, and it was the Baoyi army that was said to have been established by the robber Kou Zhao'an.

"Bao Yijun, isn't it under the command of Mr. Yuan Zhi?" Fan Changheng suddenly had such a sentence in his mind, when he was ploughing and reading, he had also copied Zhao Xingde's article, and he had fought for who was red-faced. But there is no Son of Heaven in Ezhou, so he came to Xiangyang. He couldn't help but slow down and listen.

"After appeasing so many thieves, did Zhao Xingde finally regret it? Could it be that now he plans to reform those beasts? ”

"Hmph, ice and charcoal can't be in the same furnace, how can we be in the company of thieves?"

"I heard that it is said that Ezhou has a lot of military salaries, and I am afraid that some poor people will still be tempted."

"Hmph, these greedy people ......"

Fan Changheng listened and listened, and his already stiff mind suddenly turned and stood up, and a stream of heat surged from his heart, flowing all over his limbs. "Go to Ezhou and defect to Mr. Yuanzhi." He thought fiercely, "In this troubled world, if you can't kill someone, you have to be killed, and it is better to be a centurion than a scholar." ”

At this moment, he suddenly took a heavy blow to the back of his head. Another old man scolded and scolded: "Slow down, didn't you hear the guests ask you to add tea?" "If it was normal, Fan Changheng didn't feel anything, but at this time, he was furious in his chest, he suddenly turned around, stared at the old runner, and took a deep look, as if he wanted to see this person's appearance clearly." You, what are you going to do? The old runner was stared at by him, and he was a little hairy. Fan Changheng didn't do anything illegal, he just turned around and honestly went to fill the tea for the guests.

"Phew!" The old runner scolded, "This instigation, I thought I was suddenly fat!" ”

In the early morning of the next day, Fan Changheng wrapped up a few clothes, left the Taibaiju Inn without saying hello, and went out of the south gate of Xiangyang to Ezhou.

"It's a big deal," he looked up at the hot sun in the sky, and scolded, "If you have a kind, it will fall, and I will die with you!" "Since the Zhenguo army opened up Xiangyang. After the waterway, the Liao army was busy training the water army and building a camp to besiege Xiangyang, so the siege of Xiangyang was not strict now, leaving a passage for people from the south to the north. However, once Fan Changheng made up his mind, no matter how tightly the Liao army besieged him, he still had to go to Ezhou.

.............

With the help of the craftsmen of the Chunyu Iron Works, Ezhou soon imitated his own firecracker gun. At the insistence of Zhao Xingde, Ezhou resumed the tradition of the name of the worker. In other words, the names of the craftsmen and inspection officials were engraved on each musket, and if there was a problem, it would be investigated.

With the approval of the Prime Minister's Office, Chunyu Iron Works actually bought the mining rights of Daye Iron Mine, and after recruiting a large number of displaced people as apprentices, the output of iron ore increased rapidly. While devoting some of his energy to taking care of the iron factory, Zhao Xingde mainly focused on training the Baoyi Army. After the reorganization, two factions were faintly formed in the Baoyi Army, one faction was the leader of the Jingxiang thieves, and the other faction was the officers of the original Guanzhong regimental training army, and the soldiers below, whether it was the original regimental training or bandits, were mainly Kwantung people. The original thieves were accustomed to avoiding the real and attacking the false, and were good at hand-to-hand combat with swords and other blades, and it was difficult to find qualified archers among the homeless people. The Baoyi Army focused its training on the use of guns to fight in formation.

Some of the guns were originally transported from Shu, and the other part was imitated by Daye. In the process of training, Zhao Xingde found that the officers who had been turned into military orders had a faster understanding of military orders and were more resolute in their implementation. After adapting to life in the army, these officers were very popular with ordinary soldiers. In order to master the army more quickly, he specially proposed to Chen Dong to recruit another batch of soldiers to be used as officer seeds after training in the army. Originally, when Chen Dong was in charge of overseas territories, Zhao Xingde proposed a similar plan just like him. Considering that the scholars Xiaochang scriptures, well understood the righteousness, and used them to control the Baoyi Army, which could ensure the army's loyalty to the imperial court to the greatest extent and avoid the situation like the generals in the Zhenguo Army who only knew the temperance and the envoys, Chen Dong strongly supported Zhao Xingde's proposal, believing that Zhao Xingde had no ambition to control the private army. Therefore, the list of recruiting soldiers to serve in the army was quickly sent.

In the school yard of the Ezhou Baoyi Army's garrison, groups of soldiers were practicing the formation of muskets and guns. The officers were shouting "one, two, three," "forward," "backward," "turn left," "turn right," or "left and right." Most of the soldiers came from thieves and outcasts, and even simple drills and passwords were full of mistakes, and the original regimental training officers had to correct them over and over again.

"I saw General Yue's drill in the Zhenguo Army, and I thought that training was not very difficult, but I didn't expect that it would be so difficult to train a soldier and horse like an arm." Chen Dong sighed.

The invasion of the northern captives, the Xiangyang Imperial Court and the Jingdong Hou Huanyin, made the whole of Ezhou feel the pressure. Chen Dong understands that in terms of righteousness, Ezhou and Xiangyang are on par, or even inferior, and to resolve the predicament, in addition to the battle of etiquette and righteousness, it is still necessary to win the battle to let the world know who can clean up this mess. However, the previous encounter in the Zhenguo Army still made Chen Dong lingering, although he still had to rely on the Zhenguo Army, hoping that Yue Fei's Eastern Expedition would break the Liao Army and establish miraculous achievements, but the Prime Minister's Mansion attached significantly more importance to the Baoyi Army than before. The Science Society is also vigorously encouraging the scholars to devote their pen to the army and expand the strength of the Baoyi Army.

When he came to the camp of the right army led by Luo Xian, when the two battalions of thousands of soldiers were training, the officer did not notice that Zhao Xingde accompanied the prime minister, and still shouted and asked loudly as usual. Shouting questions and answers is a tradition in the training of the Guanzhong Regiment, and later it was also brought to the Baoyi Army, because it can stimulate morale, Zhao Xingde also formulated these three unified numbers for the Baoyi Army, and the left and right military systems and the battalion commanders can also set their own shouting numbers.

"What does Zhao Dashuai do when he trains his troops?"

"Protect the territory and the people, expel the northern captives, and welcome back the saints!"

All the generals replied in unison, because they usually shouted too much, and the sound of this trumpet was particularly neat. Chen Dong nodded with satisfaction. A smile appeared at the corner of Zhao Xingde's mouth, and these subordinates led by Lu Mingyu, Luo Xian and others made extremely fast progress.

The battalion officer Xia Mao'er, who led the troops, saw Zhao Xingde coming to inspect, but he didn't recognize Chen Donglai, and immediately shouted and asked according to Lu Mingyu's instructions: "Whose food are you eating?" ”

"Eat Zhao's meal!"

A thousand soldiers shouted in unison. Chen Dong's face was slightly gloomy, and Zhao Xingde's face was also strange, and he said embarrassedly: "It's obviously the food and salary of the imperial court." Chen Dong shook his head and smiled: "The soldiers in these battalions just don't know what to do, which shows that Yuan Zhi has won the hearts of the army, and he uses his life up and down, and he is a strong soldier again." ”

Xia Mao'er ignored this side and continued to shout: "Who are you serving for!" ”

"Die for General Zhao!" Thousands of people shouted together, straight into the sky.