There is an alley in the west of the city called Northwest Lane, there are more than a dozen families living in it, close to the New Year, every household is busy killing chickens and sheep, next to the well, a young woman with a beautiful face is doing laundry, she looks at a small tree next to it from time to time, a boy of seven or eight years old climbs on the small tree, the young woman shouts uneasily: "Ah Hu, be careful!" ”

"Mother! I climb every day, it's fine. ”

The little boy climbed a few more steps, and suddenly pointed to the mouth of the alley and said, "Mother, Daddy is back." ”

The young woman hurriedly got up, only to see her husband coming back with two sheep and a bag of rice, and the woman smiled and said, "Huzi and his father, where did the sheep come from?" ”

"Lady, I have something important to say to you."

The man was Wang Jingxuan, who had just joined the army, and he shouted to his son, "Huzi, lead the sheep well, don't run away." ”

"Got it!" The boy led the sheep and ran to play.

Wang Jingxuan pulled his wife home, and his wife broke free of his hand and said coquettishly: "What's the matter, hurry up, I'm still doing laundry!" ”

"I told you not to be angry, I signed up for the army." Wang Jingxuan said in a hesitant manner.

"What?"

The wife was stunned, "Husband, you're kidding!" ”

Wang Jingxuan lowered his head, "I don't lie to you, I really signed up for the army, two sheep and one stone of rice are the rewards for joining the army, and there is also ten yuan for settling in." ”

The wife froze, her lips trembled, she couldn't say a word, and suddenly, tears welled up in her eyes.

Wang Jingxuan hurriedly hugged his wife in his arms and whispered in her ear: "If you sign up, you can get twenty acres of Yongye land, if you become a team, it will be forty acres, and you can get more land for killing the enemy and making meritorious contributions, I want to earn a family property for Huzi, I have martial arts." I don't want to be so mediocre and inactive. ”

The woman broke free from her husband, fell on the door and cried, "But I have a child in my belly, in case you have three longs and two shorts, how can we orphans and widows live?" ”

"I know. I will definitely survive for you, I will earn a piece of the family property, so that the tiger will have new clothes to wear for the New Year, and my wife will also have gold jewelry to wear. ”

The woman threw herself into her husband's arms and cried, "I don't want any gold jewelry, I just want you to be safe by my side!" ”

Wang Jingxuan stroked his wife's hair, let out a long sigh, and after a while, his wife gradually calmed down. She wiped away her tears and said, "Husband, I understand that you have ambitions, so you can rest assured!" I will take Huzi back to live in his mother's house in the countryside, you don't have to worry about our mother, as long as you can return safely. ”

Wang Jingxuan nodded, "I'm going to report to the barracks the day after tomorrow, I don't think I'll be able to make it this year, I'll send you to my father-in-law's house tomorrow." ”

"I'll clean up." With tears in her eyes, the woman hurried to the back room.

Wang Jingxuan sighed in his heart. hurriedly followed

Zhang Xuan didn't expect to sign up so enthusiastically, in just two days. Yidu County alone recruited 15,000 young people, Linzi County also recruited 5,000 people, and Qi County also recruited more than 10,000 people on the first day.

Due to the urgency of time, Zhang Xuan immediately ordered Wei Chigong to take charge of the training of recruits. And asked him to train an army capable of fighting in two months.

The new barracks is located in the south of Shouguang County, which is a large military camp covering an area of thousands of acres, with thousands of big tents, which can accommodate 50,000 soldiers, and the first batch of soldiers from Yidu County and Linzi County have already moved in first. A total of 20,000 people.

The rules of the Qingzhou Army are that veterans lead new soldiers, which is actually a way to promote, all soldiers who have been in the army for more than three years and have made meritorious contributions twice have the opportunity to be promoted, the team is promoted to the brigade commander, the fire commander is promoted to the team leader, and the soldier is promoted to the fire commander.

There are ten soldiers in the first fire, fifty people are a team, four teams are a brigade, five brigades are a battalion, five battalions are an army, and there are 5,000 people in an army.

The recruits received leather armor, military uniforms, weapons and military blankets, and were assigned camp tents, the recruits' tents were very large, 50 people lived in a camp tent, although they were recruits, but Wei Chigong was trained in full accordance with the standards of wartime, the conditions were very difficult, there were no bedding and straw mats in the big tent, just a layer of wheat stalks on the cold ground, and then wrapped in blankets and slept on wheat straw.

The soldiers were busy cleaning up their sleeping places, chatting excitedly, and although the conditions were difficult, the freshness of being a new soldier made them feel no shabby at all.

"Why aren't the fire chiefs and the team here?"

"The fire commander, the team and the brigade commander are all concentrating on training! It was our turn to train in the afternoon. ”

"Do you want to give our team some filial piety?" A soldier asked in a whisper.

"No!"

The curtain suddenly opened, and a cold wind blew in his face, and several officers in armor entered, and the fire captain and the team were coming, and the soldiers stood up one after another.

The leading officer was burly, wearing bright light armor, wearing an eagle helmet, and a horizontal sword at his waist, he glanced at everyone sharply, and said loudly: "My name is Wang Jingxuan, from today onwards, I am your team leader, because your safety will be responsible for me, so I have to set five rules, first, I will not ask you for a penny of bribes, but if you dare to disobey my order, it will be a capital crime!" Second"

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At noon on Chinese New Year's Eve, the streets and alleys of Jiangdu City were obviously quiet, families gathered at home, very lively, the streets were full of unmelted snow, groups of children in new clothes gathered to play together, the streets lit fires, from time to time children threw thin bamboo tubes into the fire, sounding the sound of firecrackers.

At this time, three men on horseback came in from the north city gate, all three of them were wrapped in fur coats, obviously from afar, two were entourage, and in the middle was a young and elegant son, this person was Zhang Xuan's army in the law Cao joined the army ****, in charge of military law regulations, this time he came to Jiangdu on the order of Zhang Xuan.

is the eldest grandson of the Huang family in Liyang County, Zhang Xuan was appointed as the Jianghuai envoy, as a cage for the Jianghuai family, **** was reused, becoming one of the six Cao in the army, **** was reused for another reason, that is, the Huang family controlled nearly half of the iron mines in Liyang County and most of the pig iron trading.

This time **** was sent to Jiangdu, Zhang Xuan was to get pig iron reserves, which is an extremely important strategic material, once the Huang family is controlled by Du Fuwei again, there is no hope for pig iron.

"Childe, we should go directly to Liyang County, now for the New Year, the old master should not be in Jiangdu!"

The two entourages were all members of the Huang family who followed **** to join the Sui army, and they were very puzzled by Gongzi's visit to Jiangdu.

Smiled and waved his hand, "Don't worry, I naturally have a purpose in coming to Jiangdu." ”

Not long ago, the three came to Nanshi, because it was Chinese New Year's Eve, most of the shops in Nanshi were closed, only a small number of shops selling incense, candles, grain and oil were still open, but the guys had begun to clean up the shop and were ready to close the store.

Coming to the pig iron shop in front of a large store, there are four big characters on the store: Huang's Steel, here is the Huang family's store in Jiangdu, although the store covers an area of only three acres, it is a big business, and the general retail business is not accepted.

stepped forward and knocked on the door hard, and after a while, the door creaked open, and an old man walked out, he looked up and down the ****, and suddenly recognized it, and was suddenly surprised and delighted, "It turned out to be Jing Gongzi, why did Jing Gongzi come?" ”

Gong Gong smiled and said, "Qi Bo, is my third uncle here?" ”

"He's here, come in."

At this time, someone in the courtyard asked, "Ziber, who is it?" ”

"The three masters, it's Jing Gongzi who is here!"

A middle-aged man walked over quickly, and he was pleasantly surprised: "Jing'er, why are you here?" ”

This middle-aged man is the third uncle of ****, called Huang Zhaonian, and he is also the person in charge of the Huang family in Jiangdu, **** smiled: "Third uncle, I came from Qingzhou." ”

Huang Zhaonian suddenly woke up and hurriedly let him in, he asked Qi Bo to take two entourages to rest, and he took **** to the back hall.

"It's strong, and it's a lot darker."

Huang Zhaonian looked at his nephew, smiled and asked him to sit down, and asked the maid to serve tea.

"Is there anything important about Jing'er coming to Jiangdu?" Huang Zhaonian asked nervously.

Puzzled, he smiled and asked, "I found that the third uncle was very nervous about my arrival, why is this?" ”

"Hey! Now there are a lot of rumors in Jiangdu, saying that your General Zhang has broken away from the imperial court and become independent, and the rumors are boiling, I don't know if it's true or not, you also know that Jiangdu people are very concerned about General Zhang, and there will be a statement about his little movement. ”

"Rumors! It will always be detached from the facts, our marshal has not left the court, a few days ago the marshal also asked the Son of Heaven for an order to suppress bandits, just because the Son of Heaven was suspicious of him, so the relationship with the court was a little unharmonious. ”

"Actually, we don't care, we're afraid that the general will become Yang Yichen's second, you know? Yang Yichen died violently three days ago. ”

Surprised, "What's going on?" ”

Huang Zhaonian smiled bitterly and shook his head, "Everyone understands in their hearts that the emperor's consistent method is to transfer to Beijing first to serve as a high-ranking official, and in a few months, there will be news of death, either violent death, accidental death, or death due to illness and soil, anyway, it is death, isn't this the case with Yujuluo?" Sick and dead in prison, who knows how? Anyway, we don't want General Zhang to be transferred to Beijing as an official. ”

Nodding silently, he said in a low voice: "I was sent to Jiangdu by the marshal, and I have something important to ask the third uncle, how much pig iron is there in our Huang family's warehouse?" (To be continued.) )