The sound of horses' hooves came from far and near, and when the two men on the horses saw the sentry in front of them, they slowed down their horses and finally stopped in front of the sentry. This is the third time that he has encountered the soldier who has been inspected, Zhou Kaihuang took out his waist card and handed it over, and the knight who accompanied him also handed over a piece and attached an official letter.

The Ming soldiers in red military uniforms and shiny armor checked their waist cards very carefully, and then raised their heads, stared into the eyes of the two people and asked a few questions. After not finding any flaws, the Ming soldier lowered his head again, checked the seal of the Chengdu Mansion Yamen on the official document, and finally returned the waist card to Zhou Kaihuang on the horse with both hands: "Lieutenant Colonel Zhou, it's rude." ”

As one of the five lieutenant colonels of the Standing Army, who doesn't know Zhou Kaihuang's name, and who doesn't know it? However, the guards here are still very strict, and the guards who accompanied Zhou Kaihuang from Chengdu were stopped when they encountered the first barracks, and the knight who was now beside him acted as a guide.

Zhou Kaihuang took back his waist card and carefully figured it out, drove in front of this military station as soon as he pulled the reins of the horse, and ran out of the road for two miles, the guide slowed down the horse again, pointed ahead and said: "Lieutenant Colonel Zhou, I can send you here, and the front will not be on guard by the standing army." ”

"Okay." Zhou Kaihuang took the official letter from Liu Jinge from the guide, said goodbye to the guide and galloped forward alone. No one could have imagined that in this desolate place, there would be three Ming army camps along the road, each of which contained hundreds of Ming officers and soldiers. After turning a small grove of trees, another sentry appeared in front of him, and behind this sentry there was not a military camp but a small pass in the middle of the road.

A soldier in a black military uniform stepped out of the doorway. When he first saw this soldier, Zhou Kaihuang thought that he had encountered the guards of the three walls, but now in the Ming army, only the uniforms of the three walls are all black -- after Deng Ming returned from Burma last year, he changed the three walls guards into new uniforms of this style.

However, Zhou Kaihuang immediately realized that he had made a mistake, because the collar of the new uniforms of the officers and soldiers of the Three Walls had a striking identification mark, and the pattern was their mahjong military flag -- although the officers and soldiers of the Three Walls were often angry at this title, the people of western Sichuan always called their military flag behind their backs, and the other standing armies also felt that this title was very vivid. Since Deng Ming changed the three walls into a distinctive black military uniform last year, this title has become even louder. Lieutenant colonels including Li Xinghan and Zhou Kaihuang all called them with a hint of jealousy: "guys who play mahjong tiles and embroider mahjong tiles on their collars".

Although this soldier was wearing the same black uniform as the three walls, his collar badge was not the familiar mahjong pattern of Zhou Kaihuang, but the pattern of three broken feather arrows.

"Rangers?" Zhou Kaihuang asked condescendingly, and handed over his waist card and the official document of Chengdu Mansion to the guards at the same time.

This unit is also not part of the guards directly under Deng Ming, which is under the command of the Command, and is also very clear about their origins. After the First Battle of Gaoyou Lake, the wounded Mongol Eight Banners were given military status, many of them were disabled and assigned to work as pavilion soldiers, and more than twenty Mongols were wounded but fully recovered, and the troops in western Sichuan had an opinion of these Mongols, so no troops were willing to accept them.

In the end, Deng Ming stepped forward and formed a separate military unit for the more than 20 Mongols, and also gave them the name of "Rangers", and put them in charge of training the riders in Chengdu. Although the Rangers were trained to be charged in the same rigorous way as the regular Standing Army cavalry, they included much more individual equestrian training than the Standing Army Cavalry, as Deng Ming wanted the cavalry unit to be able to handle the traditional cavalry tasks of reconnaissance and harassment.

Now the members of the rangers have reached more than 200 people, except for the first Mongols, the rest of the members are Han Chinese in western Sichuan. However, they still used the flag of the original formation of this army, three broken feathered arrows, which represented the oath of Deng Ming and the Mongols before the Shunzhi imperial camp. When the twenty Mongols stood together in front of Deng Ming because no Ming army unit was willing to accept it, Deng Ming loudly assured them that he would not forget his old oath, so when the Ranger unit was established, the members unanimously agreed to embroider the pattern of the broken arrow on their military flag.

Compared to the three walls, the Rangers are much more mysterious, because they have never appeared on the battlefield since the formation of the army, and the training content and recruitment members are not familiar with the Guò Sichuan Western Command, and it was only after Deng Ming's return from Burma last year that he began to expand on a large scale.

At present, the three walls and the rangers, the two cavalry guards directly under Deng Ming, have a total of more than 400 cavalry, which is more than the cavalry battalion of the standing army with a fixed strength of 300. For these two cavalry units with different uniforms, the military does not have command authority and is not responsible for their military expenses, so many people have a very strange feeling. The big-mouthed Ren Tang repeatedly refused to give up in the high command, claiming that this was a great waste of cavalry resources in western Sichuan, and that only by integrating the three walls and the rangers into the standing army could the maximum value of these two cavalry units be brought into full play - of course, that is, Ren Tang, a guy from a scholar's background, dared to say such a thing, and the other four lieutenant colonels never agreed with Ren Tang's remarks.

The black-clothed soldier who came to check the waist card and paperwork, like other emperors, had a military rank identification plate on his shoulder. Since Deng Ming established the military rank system, the highest principle of simplicity and memorization has been adopted, and soldiers are divided into first-class to third-class soldiers, non-commissioned officers are corporals, sergeants, and sergeants, and captains and colonels are also upper, middle and lower. Zhou Kaihuang glanced at the epaulettes of the person opposite and knew that this was a ranger second lieutenant.

"Should I call you a second lieutenant, or a squad leader?" When the Ranger officer checked the waist card, Zhou Kaihuang asked.

After changing to a black military uniform last year, Bao Guogong also changed the rank of the three walls, bringing a touch of retro meaning. Zhou Kaihuang knew that the third-level lieutenant of the three walls was renamed: Assault Team Leader, Assault Team Leader Tongzhi and Assault Team Leader Tongshi. But Zhou Kaihuang didn't know if the rangers had also changed their rank and title like the three walls, and the time for this unit to appear in front of everyone was too little, although Zhou Kaihuang was a senior general in the military, he was also a little uncertain.

"Assault squad leader," the ranger replied respectfully, "the equivalent of a second lieutenant of the Emperor's ** team." ”

After the inspection, the ranger returned the waist card and paperwork to Zhou Kaihuang, and waved his hand to signal the ranger companion on the pass to switch and let Zhou Kaihuang enter: "Officer Zhou, please come in." ”

"You called me?" This title made Zhou Kai stunned for a moment.

"Judge Zhou, aren't you my official?" The Ranger replied with a smile.

"Hmm." Zhou Kaihuang nodded, except for the names of military uniforms and ranks, it seems that the rangers have subtle differences from other emperor ** teams in many places.

After Zhou Kaihuang rode through the gate, the heavy wooden door closed behind him at the same time, and the rangers on the inside saluted him together: "Chief, welcome to the fifty-one pavilions." ”

Zhou Kaihuang has also heard of the reputation of the Fifty-One Pavilion, but the specific location was only known from Liu Jinge this time. In the outermost barracks, Zhou Kaihuang saw a convoy transporting food and supplies. Unlike other pavilions, the Fifty-One Pavilion does not produce any food here. But the men who carried the rations were not civilians, but the army's baggage brigades, and even the members of the baggage brigades did not know where they were carrying the food, and thought that the recipients were a garrison - and the outermost barracks was the outpost. If he hadn't come in person, Zhou Kaihuang wouldn't have thought that there would be a hidden town here.

The two rangers mounted their horses and escorted Zhou Kaihuang to meet Deng Ming, while the rest of the men continued to stand guard on the fortress.

The guard unit of the Fifty-One Pavilion is still under construction, so Deng Ming temporarily dispatched the rangers to be responsible for the internal security work. Later, Deng Ming came here, and all the Rangers followed—after the Battle of Burma, most of the soldiers of the Three Walls were on vacation, so now Deng Ming's personal security work was transferred to the Rangers. Originally, there were 100 people in the 51st Pavilion, and there were 100 people around Deng Ming, but now the 200 rangers are all here in the 51st Pavilion.

After receiving the task of close protection, the members of the Rangers were very excited, because this was the first time they had fully taken over Deng Ming's escort from the hands of the three walls. The first twenty Mongol members of the Rangers interpreted the Three Arrows oath as a deed of sale with Deng Ming—to sell their lives to Deng Ming, not to the Ming Dynasty, or to the Western Sichuan government, or anyone else. When training the recruits, the Mongols also passed on this contract to the new members: as long as they were loyal to Deng Ming until death, they could take shelter from the rain under Deng Ming's roof and get food from Deng Ming's dining table—in short, they would be guaranteed to be loyal to a person without food and clothing.

On the way to the town in front of him, Zhou Kaihuang looked at the ranger's collar badge many times, although he had heard that this cavalry guard used a broken arrow logo, but this pattern is still quite different from what he imagined: the arrow shaft is not broken at a certain angle, but the tail of the arrow is down, the arrow shaft is vertically upward, and a right-angle flat fold appears in about half of the position, and after going out a little laterally, a right angle is folded upwards again, and the arrow points straight to the sky, and the three broken arrows are exactly the same shape.

"That's interesting." Zhou Kaihuang couldn't help but comment, and it could be seen that this pattern took a lot of work.

"Thank you, Chief, for the compliment." The Rangers had a smile on their faces, and it was obvious that they were proud of the pattern.

Soon arrived near the town, Zhou Kaihuang suddenly pointed to the sign on a house in front of him and asked, "Is that your flag?" ”

The sign that Zhou Kaihuang saw was very similar to the logo on the Ranger collar badge.

"It's not." The Ranger hurriedly corrected: "That's called 'lightning pattern', which is the unique logo of the Fifty-One Pavilion. Officers note that this symbol indicates danger not to approach. ”

Zhou Kaihuang took a closer look at the logo, and found that it was still different from the Ranger's collar badge, there was no arrow and arrow tail, but the angle of the twists and turns and the overall inclination were exactly the same, so Zhou Kaihuang mistakenly thought it was the Ranger's banner at first glance.

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