In the next nearly half a month, the Weisheng army successively had nearly 2,000 displaced people to the boundary of Tongtao County, most of these people's property was forcibly seized by the thieves in Hedong, and even the houses were burned to the ground. During this period, the county lieutenant Li led the horse army and infantry army in the county government to do their best to maintain order inside and outside the county, and simple tents were also set up around Tongluo County, so that more and more people here would be sheltered from the wind and rain.

Although there is no worry about food, clothing and shelter for a while, but those people who are in trouble and suffer from disasters have to think of a way out for their future livelihoods, Luo Jian, Wang Jin and others took the opportunity to recruit strong men to form a new army in the name of the government, although the ordinary people complained that the officials and troops in Hedong were lazy and cunning, and they only cared about blackmailing the villagers, but they did not have a livelihood to rely on, and secondly, they saw that the officials and soldiers who had just arrived in Tongluo County were all fierce and fierce, and after some thought, there were not a few homeless people who decided to join the army.

However, Xiao Tang put forward his own requirements to Luo Jian, Wang Jin, Guan Sheng and others for the selection of soldiers: compared with the people in the state capital and county, who work in the fields every day, farmers from Zhuanghu farmers are more suitable to be selected as the new army; Among the recruits, those who have served in the government, those who are over forty years old, and who are very white in appearance are not considered; Those who seem to be extremely timid during the expedition, and even those who are very bold, do not need to be recruited; On the contrary, among the homeless people, those who are black and stout, with strong skin and flesh, simple or mighty faces, and those who are a little afraid of the government and the public are the best choice for recruitment.

Because Xiao Tang remembered that during the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty, Zhejiang and Fujian were burned and plundered by the Japanese invaders, and Hu Zongxian, the inspector of Zhejiang, suffered from the low combat effectiveness of the officers and troops of the Zhejiang Guard, and he never believed that he could train good soldiers in Zhejiang, but Qi Jiguang, who was transferred to the Zhejiang Metropolitan Division as a servant and general, tried his best to disagree with the public, recruited new troops locally and received their guidance and training, and in the case of limited time, he also trained the elite force "Qijia Army", and now Xiao Tang's conditions for recruiting new soldiers are undoubtedly to imitate the Nanping Japanese Invaders. Qi Shaobao, who made great achievements in the north of Mongolia.

In the Northern Song Dynasty, the main criterion for recruiting soldiers was only to be physically strong, in the past, Zhao Kuangyin, Taizu of the Song Dynasty, had personally selected a batch of strong military athletes as a "template", and sent them to various military departments to let the generals rely on the model to recruit recruits, and later waited for the long staff, recruited soldiers according to the size of the body, tall and strong as the forbidden army, short and thin as the van soldiers, as for the character of the recruits? A large part of the soldiers of the Northern Song Dynasty marching army came from the "thieves with the army" who were sent to serve as the army after a lawsuit, and there were also refugees and people who could not eat in various places, what unified standards could there be?

According to Qi Jiguang's selection criteria, the physique is strong, and the temperament is not the most suitable candidate, for the official and public officials are timid, and the honest farmer who has a strong body and does manual work all year round will obey the orders of the head and officer, then the time for this army to be built into a well-trained force will be greatly reduced. Until the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom uprising in the Qing Dynasty, Zeng Guofan also imitated Qi Shaobao's selection standards, only recruiting strong and simple peasants with calluses on their hands as soldiers, and never chose soldiers and scoundrels, which created the Hunan Army, which is also a well-known force in Chinese history.

When Xiao Tang recruited soldiers and horses from all over the country in the green forest, he could certainly choose those who were rebellious and were not afraid of the power of the government, because he now also had time to order Lin Chong, Yang Zhi, Xu Ning and other leaders in the village to slowly improve the combat quality of those rebels, but now that he was acting on the official face, the obedience of the new army had become the most important criterion for selecting personnel.

After listening to Xiao Tang's analysis and discussion, Luo Jian, Wang Jin, Xiao Jiasui and others all felt that his suggestion was very reasonable, so they all ordered to go down to inspect the strong men according to Xiao Tang's standards, and then reorganize them into unified training under Wang Jin, who was good at teaching and drilling.

After another three or four days, the sentry scouts rushed back to the county seat and eagerly reported to Xiao Tang: the day before, Hao Siwen led a horse army to search along the northwest of Tonglu County, and when he was looking for the people in the village, he ran into a small group of thieves, and after a fight, Hao Siwen led his troops to annihilate seventy or eighty thieves, but he was also shot by a cold arrow without taking precautions, and now he is retreating to the county seat along the same road.

Xiao Tang was shocked when he heard this, he hurriedly stood up, and asked the scout again, "Where was the arrow of the Hao army?" What is the injury? ”

"Marshal Xiao Jie, Hao Jun's arm was hit by an arrow, it is not an important position, and there is no big problem at the moment. It's just that he was afraid of alarming the other thieves, and now he was wounded and unable to fight, so he had to lead his troops to retreat. ”

Listening to the scout's details, Xiao Tang, Guan Sheng, Xuanzan and other generals who were brothers and sisters with Hao Siwen breathed a sigh of relief. Immediately, Xiao Tang issued another order to allocate some manpower, and rushed out of Tongyu County with Guan Sheng and Xuanzan on horseback, and went to the north to meet Hao Siwen's troops.

It didn't take long for Xiao Tang to see a group of people running straight towards the county along the official road, although some of them had minor injuries on the body, but seeing that their morale had not fallen, and even some of the soldiers of the Ma Army were talking and laughing, it seemed that Hao Siwen led his troops to have the upper hand in that small-scale encounter.

Hao Siwen saw Xiao Tang, Guan Sheng and others coming to greet him in person, so he rode out and ran in front of Xiao Tang. Xiao Tang also greeted the general, and asked Hao Siwen as soon as he looked at him: "Envoy Hao, how is your arrow wound?" ”

"Why bother Xiao Jieshuai to ask? The last general didn't care, but he was hit by an arrow in the arm and the gun was weak, but he could be healed after a few days of rest, and it didn't interfere with the big thing. ”

Hao Siwen also immediately replied to Xiao Tang with a fist, but the action was a big pull on the wound, which still made him frown.

At this time, Xuanzan also urged the horse to rush forward, and gritted his teeth and scolded: "That gang of thieves and birds is really rampant, and they even touched the left of Tongyu County!" Are the thieves going to gather men and horses to attack the county seat? ”

Hao Siwen groaned slightly, and then said: "It's not like this, I led my troops to search along the way, and it was only by chance that I ran into that gang of thieves." Seeing that their movements seemed to be heading westward, it was fortunate that they were not surrounded by a large number of thieves and horses, cutting off their way. It's just that in my opinion, several thieves have gathered in the northwest of Tongyu County, and it seems that they are going to send troops to loot the villages and villages of Zhuangzhen under the rule of Mianshang and Pingyao counties in Fenzhou. ”

Xiao Tang's heartstrings moved when he heard this, if the information that Hao Siwen found out was true, Tian Hu led the thieves in Hedong to find innocent people in the northwest of Tongluo, although it is not appropriate to move lightly according to the current situation, but Tongtao County is not far away from Mianshang, Pingyao and other places in Fenzhou, can he really watch Tian Hu lead the thieves to kill people and set fire under his nose, and be indifferent?