Chapter 121 A bit interesting

Within a few days, Lao Zhu recruited hundreds of fellow villagers in Taiping Township, his hometown.

Afterwards, he led his men to run all over Zhongli and finally recruited the full 800 people. Now they were almost approaching Nian.

This is in stark contrast to the situation in Jiangdu where Zhang Jian has a lot of support.

However, these eight hundred men were all from his hometown, and they were all men who had practiced boxing, kicking, guns and sticks since childhood, so the quality of the soldiers was quite good.

After gathering all the people, Zhu Yuanzhang settled down in Zhongli and trained soldiers all day long. It takes time for farmers to become elite soldiers. After all, it takes three months to train new recruits in later generations. His 800 soldiers were all new recruits. Only the 30 veterans from Xuzhou knew some military routines, such as the content of training, military rules, the meaning of various flags, what to do when hearing the orders, how to set up tents, how to line up, and how to march. Otherwise, even Zhu Yuanzhang didn't understand these things.

And these are just the most basic.

At the beginning, these rules caused the farmers a lot of trouble.

"Brother Chong, there are too many rules. Even peeing and peeing have to be controlled. We have to get up early in the morning for training and patrol and stand guard in the middle of the night."

"Yes, Brother Chongba, I got up in a hurry last night, so I peed next to the tent, and was caught by the patrolling Xuzhou soldiers, who wanted to whip me."

"That's right. There are too many soldiers from Xuzhou. They don't give them any face at all."

Several brothers from the same village surrounded Lao Zhu and talked in a buzzing voice. Lao Zhu's head was already buzzing as he looked at the "Spring and Autumn Annals" he had just bought from Zhongli County, and he became even more annoyed by what these people said.

He stood up suddenly and slammed the book on the desk.

"You still think you're right? Didn't I tell you before I came that the army has its own rules? What did you promise me? You can't stand it before the battle even starts? You have to control your poop and pee, how can you? If you let you guys do whatever you want, in less than two days, who will be left in the entire camp? Get out of here, everyone. Let me tell you, these veterans in Xuzhou have fought in the war with General Li, and they were specially sent to me to teach you how to be soldiers and to help me. If you dare to cause trouble for them one by one, don't blame me for dealing with you!"

"roll!"

After hearing this, several people from the same village were frightened and left in shame.

Old Zhu was promoted to a high position suddenly. He had never even been a soldier before, but now he directly led an entire battalion. Although there were only 800 people, he was learning on the job the skills of commanding and training troops.

On the other hand, Zhang Jian, a local tyrant, had it much smoother.

The Zhang family had tens of thousands of tenants, slaves, and hired workers, so it was easy for them to recruit 800 soldiers.

He also asked Chen Zhen, who was stationed in Guangling, to help him. He wanted several team leaders and veterans to help him train. Thinking of Lao Zhu, he mentioned it to Chen Zhen again.

Chen Zhen has now been assigned to Li Yuanhui's Pingnan General's Mansion and is under the command of Li Yuanhui. Thinking that although he is not familiar with Zhu Yuanzhang's side, it is not easy to refuse Zhang Jian's request, he asked his cousin Chen Qiong to take a team of people and several clerks to Zhongli, Huainan, to help Zhu Yuanzhang train troops and handle miscellaneous affairs.

Chen Qiong's arrival solved Lao Zhu's urgent problem.

He helped Lao Zhu train his troops during the day, and Lao Zhu came to him with the Spring and Autumn Annals at night.

Chen Qiong looked at Old Zhu holding the Spring and Autumn Annals and asked in confusion, "Brother Zhu, can you understand this Spring and Autumn Annals?"

The Chen family was considered a large family in Xia Pi, and their ancestors were well-educated. Even so, Chen Qiong himself could not fully understand the "Spring and Autumn Annals".

Old Zhu shook his head honestly, "I just heard that Guan Yu spent a lot of time reading the Spring and Autumn Annals at night, so I don't want to learn how to be Guanmen Shen."

Chen Qiong smiled when he heard this, but explained to him seriously: "This "Spring and Autumn Annals" is a history book of the State of Lu in the Zhou Dynasty. It is also a Confucian classic with profound meanings. Before Guan Yu read the Spring and Autumn Annals at night, he must have started by learning to recognize characters. It is a good thing that Brother Zhu wants to learn, but it is a bit difficult to read the Spring and Autumn Annals right away. You should start with the "Shuowen Jiezi" and "Thousand Character Classic". You have to study step by step."

After listening to this, Lao Zhu scratched his head, feeling that he had made a fool of himself.

Chen Qiong continued: "Now that I have nothing to do, I will teach you how to read."

"Thank you, Brother Chen."

After teaching for a few days, Chen Qiong felt that Lao Zhu was a very fast learner and could recognize dozens or even hundreds of characters.

He also gave himself a new name, Zhu Xingzong. And the 800 Huainan soldiers under his command gradually became like soldiers. In addition to reading and writing, Zhu Xingzong also learned daily drills, command formations, flag recognition, etc. very quickly.

This made Chen Qiong admire Li Yuanhui's ability to judge people.

Previously, he had been quite dissatisfied with Li Yuanhui's appointment of a monk who could not even read a single word as the Sima of another department, thinking that Zhu Yuanhui was just a brave man. But now, he saw that he was able to handle daily military affairs and training.

Moreover, his prestige among these Huainan soldiers was growing day by day, and his influence was growing day by day, which surprised Chen Qiong greatly.

While Zhu Yuanhui and others were making rapid progress, Li Yuanhui seemed to have nothing to do in Luoyang.

Liu Xuanji went to Chang'an with Li Shenfu's son Li Xiaoji for a blind date, and he would probably not be back until after the New Year.

Saint Murong Ying was not in good health, so Murong Jiayin rarely came back and stayed in the palace most of the time.

Li Yuanhui spent most of his time in the study reading. He needed time to digest what Murong Ju gave him.

In line with the saying that a good memory is not as good as a bad pen, Li Yuanhui started copying books directly. While copying and reading, he wrote down his thoughts and experiences.

At the same time, he asked his uncle, General Li Shenfu, to help him find a few staff members. After all, he was a third-rank official, so he couldn't do everything himself, right?
You can't write all the documents and military orders yourself, right?

It was not so difficult when he was a Tiger Guard General, but as the General of Pingnan, he had to officially set up his own government. There were a lot of trivial matters to deal with on a daily basis, and it was exhausting to do everything by himself.

Li Shenfu did not waste any time and soon found two unemployed scholars.

One of them was named "Xie Xun". When Li Yuanhui first heard this name, he wanted to ask him if his nickname was the Golden Lion King.

Later, when we met and exchanged names, I learned that his real name was Xie Xun and that he was from the Xie family of Chen County, which was considered a first-class aristocratic family in the Former Wei Dynasty, but had declined somewhat in this dynasty.

His brother Xie Rang once served as an aide to Li Shenfu in his court, and was later sent out as a county magistrate with the support of Li Shenfu.

The other one was named Zhang Fu, who came from a poor family and had served in Li Shenfu's court for several years.

In addition, Li Shenfu also asked Li Yuanhui to bring a few more brothers from the clan when he went to Huainan, one for support, and the other for care.

King Murong Chang of Shu also recommended a man, a member of the royal family of the previous dynasty, named Cao Ce, who was the cousin of Empress Cao.

When they heard that Li Yuanhui's court was short of people, many friends and relatives recommended some relatives and disciples.

In addition, some people came to recommend themselves, bringing with them their own hand-written scrolls and annotation experiences.

There were mostly poems and essays but few policy papers, which greatly reduced Li Yuanhui's interest.

For him, it didn't matter whether his staff could write poetry or not. The most important thing was that they had to be able to handle various documents and do math. It would be best if they were familiar with the art of war and could give advice.

Among the dozens of people who submitted their contributions, there was one whose essays and poems really made Li Yuanhui's eyes light up.

Poem title: The Knight's Journey

The signature and experience are interesting.

They are from the Longxi Li family, so they are distant relatives.

He was born in Shu and later traveled around the world. His name was Li Qinglian.

Interesting, really interesting.

(End of this chapter)