Chapter 702: The place where the dream begins (Part 2)
It is getting late, and smoke rises from the countryside courtyard.
Halfway through the meeting, everyone took a break.
Chang Can sniffed, with an intoxicated look on his face, and sighed: "When I was in the countryside, I helped a wealthy family in the village cook. At that time, I didn't like the smell of firewood. When the war broke out, the whole village was destroyed. It’s all gone, and I slowly started to miss this smell.”
After saying that, his expression was quite sentimental.
"The governor is so affectionate." Several acquaintances said with a smile.
“Get out!” Chang Can smiled and cursed, and the trace of reminiscence and sentimentality just now seemed to have disappeared without a trace.
In the military, weakness is looked down upon. Even if you are very scared, you should pretend not to be afraid. If you show sentimentality, these rough guys won't understand, and will instead look down on you.
"Xu Meng, do you know how to drink tea? How do you eat tea leaves?" Someone else laughed loudly.
Xu Meng, the military governor from Yingqiao, Xiangcheng, blushed and said, "You care about me? I can't kill anyone."
When Chang Can saw it, he was happy and said: "Xu Meng, you have been the governor of the department for several years, why are you still the same as before?"
"Has the governor changed?" Xu Meng asked .
"There are always some changes." Chang Can said bluntly: "Isn't it just for wealth and wealth that you work hard for? Now that wealth is in front of you, but you don't enjoy it, what's the use?"
"That's right." Xu Meng smiled and said, "This wealth was given to me by Liang Gong, but it's hard to impress him."
"Actually, compared to me, the following People need wealth more. What Liang Gong said just now really gives everyone a way out. "Who said that? I also want to earn merit, but the sub-part is still too small."
"Buqudu is too young."
"Haha."
While Chang Can and Xu Meng were chatting, others started to make noises.
Everyone present here is a minor official between the seventh and ninth ranks, and they were born as talented warriors. Many of them were even top thieves before joining the army. They really have no taboos in speaking.
Shao Xun walked over from a distance, followed by a group of soldiers, and brought dinner to everyone.
The meals are all made from local ingredients.
The staple food is wild rice harvested by the Ru River, and several large barrels of wild rice are made.
The dishes are seasonal vegetables, plus a few slices of dried meat and some fish soup.
Shao Xun sat at the top and said with a smile: "Everyone is in high spirits, and it seems that you are quite satisfied with the matter of being an officer."
Everyone laughed, and Chang Can came forward and said: "Why? Only Ming Gong can do what a warrior can do. In this world, if any warrior is not loyal to Ming Gong, he will lose his conscience and be struck by lightning."
Shao Xun stretched out his hand and asked him to sit down and said: "What's wrong with the sons and gentlemen who faced the edge with their flesh and blood and gained some wealth? When the world is in chaos, whoever exerts his strength should get the benefits. Warriors fight for their lives, exert their efforts and bleed, and deserve the benefits. It is true that scholars should also benefit. They have contributed their efforts, money, food and people, but the original benefits are all theirs, so it is normal for them to let a little out."
"The world's affairs are just a matter of rules." Shao Xun picked up his job and said: "Scholars give up benefits, and you wait until you get them. Everything depends on merit. This is the rule. If you want to get benefits without merit, you don't follow the rules, and neither scholars nor warriors can do it."
"Starting from next year, the Luonan Fourteenth Defense Forces will be the first batch of troops to try the honorary officer system. This system has just been launched, there may be shortcomings, and it will be changed in the future. Let me tell you first, please make it clear to the sons when you get back. , before the reform, the good things are considered advantageous to you, and the bad things are also affected. After the change, the merits will be calculated again, and the previous ones will not change."
"After the system is improved, I will choose the opportunity. Promotion. But how to push it, when to push it, and how far it goes depends on the current situation. Even I have to discuss it with others, and you can't do whatever you want. Not only will you break the rules. If the scholars lose, you will lose too.”
"That's all, let's eat." Shao Xun patted the table and said, "Anyway, this is a good thing. If you want to be rich in the future, just kill the enemy to pieces on the battlefield."
"As ordered." The officers responded with a bang, looking very excited, but they also put away some of their arrogance.
Liang Gong gave them benefits, but also beat them, so they couldn't satisfy their desires.
Scholars are also capable of resistance. It is not easy for them to give in. Don’t think too much.
******
The officers of the army left after eating.
They obeyed the order carefully. After returning to their respective defenses, they would summon the sergeants and tell them the details of the honorary officer.
There is autumn harvest in August, and after the autumn harvest, there is autumn sowing. But if nothing unexpected happens, Luonan Mansion soldiers will be summoned before the autumn broadcast and will go with Liang Gong to Guangchengze for training.
After sending away the soldiers, Shao Xun summoned the students who had also just finished dinner.
Everyone has a meeting gift, not much, just a piece of silk and a new amount of Yongjia money.
"Bai Tong, how many years have you been studying martial arts in Liang County?" Shao Xun asked a student as he sat down.
"The student entered school in the second year of Yongxing (305), and became a teacher in the fourth year of Yongjia (310), and it has been eight years since." Bai Tong stood up and answered.
"Sit down, sit down." Shao Xun said kindly: "I have wronged you by forcing you to study martial arts in Liang County for eight years."
Bai Tong stood up again, He said: "My servant is from Taiyuan. He lives here. His parents and relatives died together. Without Master Shao, he might have become someone else's food. How could he be here today?"
"How are you today?" Shao Xun asked.
"There is a house in the first area by the Ru River, with seventy acres of land, one wife and one concubine, and several children." Bai Tong said: "While serving as an edict, I received food and salary rewards and eight-rank officials. No different, he also has three hectares of land, which is so generous that outsiders cannot imagine. The students are so grateful that although they cannot fight for Master Shao, they can teach more disciples with good conduct and both civil and military skills for Master Shao. Praise for Master Shao’s great achievements.”
“Master Shao is very happy to think so, but Master Shao cannot treat you badly.” Shao Xun took the student to sit down again and said, “How old is your master? ?”
“Five years old.”
“Will you be sent to Liang Palace to stay with my son?” Shao Xun asked. Bai Tong was a little excited. After calming down a little, he said: "I wish."
"My students should be so straightforward." Shao Xun laughed.
Liangxian martial arts was taught by himself at first. Later, as time became less and less, he invited poor scholars to teach and teach cultural classes. He also invited military lieutenant generals to make temporary guest appearances to teach martial arts. , military strategy.
After surviving the first five years, Shao Xun ordered that from each batch of graduates, those with outstanding literary talents - relatively speaking - be selected into the teaching team, allowing martial arts to form a self-circulation.
Most of the other graduating martial arts students entered the army.
For more than ten years, the Silver Spear Army has expanded its army almost every year, and the demand for officers is very high.
For example, if you build a new building with a total of 600 officers and soldiers, including sergeants recruited from various places, a total of about 30 officers, clerks, etc. are filled by martial arts students.
Now the Silver Spear Army has thirty buildings (the original thirty-one), which theoretically requires more than nine hundred student soldiers and officers.
Although not all of the ten buildings of the Heijin Army are student officers, they account for more than 60%.
There are also a few mule troops.
Liang County Martial Arts has trained a total of 1,673 students so far. If you exclude those who have entered local political power in large numbers in the past two years, there will only be more than 1,300.
In fact, there are still many people who were killed, disabled, and sick in battle, as well as some people who entered the place, and there are even fewer student officers available.
Therefore, there are a large number of veterans in the Silver Spear Army, and not all of them are student officers.
The army needs people and places need people. Talents are not enough, and they are far from enough.
The good news is that at the end of this year, the first batch of Xuchangwu students who enrolled in the 8th year of Yongjia (314) will graduate. Liangxian Martial Arts School continues to provide a steady stream of students, and there are slightly more people available—— This year Bianliang Martial Arts also recruited 180 orphans aged ten to sixteen years old from the refugees as the first batch of students.
The situation is getting better step by step, and the foundation is getting solid bit by bit, and this is actually inseparable from the hard work of the evangelists.
Especially this kind of close disciple who went to school for five years and taught for eight years is extremely precious.
His level has improved a lot compared to eight years ago.
His loyalty is completely worthy of Shao Xun's trust. At least he will not teach anything messy and lead the students astray.
He was also grateful to Shao Xun because his destiny had been changed.
This kind of person is very safe to use.
Bai Tong is just a microcosm, there are many people like him.
In order to compensate for their loss of not being able to serve as officials or generals, in addition to improving their economic benefits, it is also appropriate to compensate their next generation.
Moreover, the effect was indeed very good, and Bai Tong burst into tears of gratitude.
Studying with Master Shao’s children is a blessing.
After giving Bai Tong the benefits, Shao Xun called the names of eight or nine more people. They were basically students from the first to fifth periods. Most of them were good at literary talents, and a few of them had learned military strategy well. He followed Each person will be rewarded one by one for their daily performance.
"Wait -" Shao Xun pointed to the dozen students behind the instructors and said, "Are they all from Dongping?"
"Yes." The students all said in unison The voice replied.
These are the students who enrolled at the beginning of the eighth year of Yongjia (314). There were a total of 165 people in that batch, all from Dongping Kingdom.
Because of the war, many orphans were born. In the past few years, the local area had also been purged of a group of powerful intellectuals who had been on both ends of the war, and many bankers had been fined and confiscated. Many students came from the families of bankers.
So, this group is not all orphans - in fact, as Henan becomes more and more peaceful, it is not so easy to collect orphans, unlike before, where we could catch a lot of orphans.
"The army has not been expanded for two years. In the twelfth lunar month of this year, I will recruit a small number of new soldiers and organize them into four buildings, which will be the right battalion of the black army. At that time, a hundred people will be selected from among you to serve as the officer's junior college." Shao Xun said. : "The two armies of Silver Spear and Black Iron are my right-hand men. You must be brave and diligent and practice hard."
"Once the soldiers are trained, there will be opportunities to fight in the future. Opportunities to be rewarded for meritorious service. After more than ten years of martial arts training in Liang County, more than a thousand students have come out. Now they all have families, wives and children, a prosperous life, and high status. There are plenty of opportunities to do things well and wait with peace of mind. Master Shao will not treat you badly.”
“I will follow Master Shao’s teachings,” the two people standing at the front took the lead and responded in unison.
"Each one will be given a bow and a sword handle." Shao Xun clapped his hands, and the soldiers immediately brought the instruments and distributed them one by one.
“Thank you Master Shao for the reward.” Everyone said again.
"Master Shao is your heaven, and the Yinqiang and Heiji armies are your home. Without Master Shao, you are nothing. As a human being, you must not forget your roots, remember." Bai Tong suddenly stood up , said to everyone.
Shao Xun patted him on the shoulder and laughed.
The Yinqiang and Heiji armies are a very united organization.
If outsiders want to enter, there are only two ways: first, to be recruited as a new soldier; second, to study martial arts in Liangxian, Xuchang or even Bianliang.
So far, the recruits are mostly trackers, dock laborers, miners and some farmers; most of the students are orphans, and a small number are children of ordinary farmers.
This is an upward path for people at the bottom. Shao Xun knows it, the scholars know it, and they themselves know it.
They are very exclusive and they stick together internally, only recognizing Master Shao.
This has advantages and disadvantages, but in the process of conquering the world and consolidating power, such a silver spear army and a black army are very easy to use. The so-called advantages outweigh the disadvantages.
Maybe it will do more harm than good in the future, but it’s not the time for renovation yet, so don’t worry.
(End of this chapter)