Fenghou

Chapter 62 Sharpening the Knife
In the early morning of the next day, before dawn, the drums in the barracks were rumbling.

The sleepy soldiers were awakened one after another. After yesterday's march and battle, they more or less restrained their previous tiredness and became a little bit of a soldier.

No matter how sleepy they were, the soldiers had no choice but to curse and get up, put on their armor indiscriminately, and ran towards the school field without even washing their faces.

Chen Qing already had one available army, fifty scouts led by Zhao Xiaoyi.

These scouts were all selected elites with good physical strength and strong bodies. Although they had many faults, they could become Chen Qing's temporary military police with a little guidance.

Otherwise, Liu Qiong and Zheng Ping would have to do things like pull it down and hit the board.

Not long after, the two thousand soldiers arrived, and Chen Qing watched the last dozen or so soldiers coming.

Before dawn, the soldiers held up torches, Chen Qing said loudly: "Let's talk about the assembly in the morning first. Thirty-seven people were late when we assembled for the first time in the barracks. We assembled this morning, and the number was less, and there were [-] people." Being late, in any army, being late is a felony, today is the last time I don’t care about it, but starting tomorrow, if you are late once, you will be beaten with [-] sticks, and if you are late three times, you will be beheaded for public display!”

The two thousand soldiers were silent, and everyone felt the sternness of the general.

Chen Qing continued: "I brought you to suppress bandits, not to bring you to die, but with your current physical strength, not to mention fighting, you don't even have a chance to escape, so from now on, I will train you to become a A real army, even with only [-] men, can still beat the shit out of the gangsters!"

Chen Qing erected a tall bamboo pole on the school field, and said to everyone: "Start running now, run around the city, start from this bamboo pole, and end here. The top ten will each be rewarded with a consistent amount of money. I won’t fine you for the top ten, but I will put your names on the shame list and show it to the whole city!”

The running started. Whether they wanted to or not, the two thousand soldiers followed the large force and ran towards the north city gate. Several generals rode horses to monitor the running of the soldiers. Anyone who wanted to be lazy and slippery would be whipped mercilessly.

The circumference of Chun'an County is about eighteen miles, which means that soldiers have to run about twenty miles. Compared with the hundreds of miles of the Western Army's zip and running, this distance is not worth mentioning.

But even so, the twenty miles of running still exhausted the two thousand soldiers, and many of them squatted in front of the moat and vomited.

There were also many soldiers who couldn't run anymore, so they turned into turtles and crawled slowly on the ground, attracting groups of children to clap their hands and laugh, and the women all hid their mouths and snickered, it was so embarrassing.

Chen Qing set the time to finish the run in half an hour, that is, to run about ten kilometers in an hour, but it took a full hour and a half for the first soldier to run back after three quarters of an hour.

The soldiers finally ran back one after another, all of them collapsed on the ground and could not move. It took two hours for the last soldier to come back.

"Next, I will report the names of the top ten. After the training is over, each person will go to the military account to receive a consistent money reward. The first one is Xu Sheng; the second one is Wang Ping who lives in Wulingmen; the third one is Ma Shao "

After reporting the top ten, Chen Qing sneered again: "There are top ten, and naturally there are bottom ten. The tenth from the bottom is Wang Zhanjiang; the ninth from the bottom is Li Balang; the eighth from the bottom is Zhu Xiaobao. The first from the bottom , golden.

Each of you will reward a snail, and I will also post your names on the gate of the city for the people of the whole county to look up to. If you don’t want to lose face, run as hard as you can tomorrow, and don’t let me post your names on the door of your house. "

Chen Qing's move was so vicious that he actually wrote the names of the last ten soldiers in bold characters and pasted them on the gate of the city, just like posting a list, attracting countless people to watch.

If running makes the soldiers feel pain and suffering, then the squatting training in the afternoon is simply hellish torture.

The instructor who squatted was Zheng Ping. Although he was fat, he squatted very well. Even Xu Ning was full of praise for him.

More importantly, he was ruthless and beat the lazy soldiers with sticks, without any ambiguity.

"Training with the fat man, you will feel that the commander is a living Bodhisattva, but the fat man will save your life and let you survive the fight against the enemy."

As Zheng Ping spoke, the stick in his hand slammed toward the soldier's leg.

After practicing for less than half an hour, many soldiers cried bitterly and couldn't hold on anymore.

"Practice for me, who dares to be lazy, watch the fat man punish him to death!"

On the high platform in the distance, Hu Yantong looked at the ferocious Zheng Ping from a distance, and smiled at Chen Qing, "I practiced so hard at the beginning, I think it's better to do it step by step?"

Chen Qing said lightly: "I also want to take it step by step, but time does not allow it! It won't be long before Zhang Kui will know the truth and will make a comeback soon. We must let them have a significant improvement in the shortest possible time. .”

"But what if they run away?"

"This is one of the purposes of my training them. They didn't train before, they could do whatever they wanted, their own conditions were poor, they didn't have any confidence, and they wanted to escape when they fought. Now they are under strict discipline, no matter how hard they train. Physical strength, once they feel strong, they will have confidence, and people with confidence don't run away."

"So training at night is also for a strengthening purpose?"

"Evening training is to cultivate the ability to fight at night. Soldiers of the Western Army have night combat training, and the effect is very good. Every time they fight at night, the Western Army will remain undefeated."

At this time, many soldiers practicing horse stance couldn't hold on any longer and fell to the ground one after another. Chen Qing ordered the soldiers: "Go and tell General Zheng that the soldiers can rest for a quarter of an hour."

The soldiers rushed away, Hu Yantong pondered for a moment and then asked, "Just now you said that Zhang Kui will know the truth soon, do you mean that they have eyeliners in the county?"

"Hmph!" Chen Qing sneered and said, "It's no wonder it didn't exist!"

"In this case, I have a suggestion for you."

"you say!"

"I'm worried that the soldiers will be attacked by thieves when they run in the morning. It's better to let them run on the top of the city and stop going out of the city."

Chen Qing nodded, this suggestion is not bad, and running on the top of the city is easier to manage, "Yes, starting tomorrow, the soldiers will run on the top of the city!"

After a day of brutal training, every soldier slept to the point of death, but unfortunately, the sweet dreams did not last long. At Maoshi the next day, the fierce battle drums sounded again, 'Boom!Boom!Boom!Boom! '

The sound of the drums was thrilling, and the soldiers woke up from their dreams. Although everyone was exhausted, but thinking of the commander's warning, everyone put on their armor as quickly as possible. run away.

Standing on the school grounds, Chen Qing watched the soldiers rushing towards them with a stern expression. One hundred and eight drums stopped, and another five or six soldiers ran in a hurry, but they were stopped by law enforcement soldiers.

Chen Qing glanced at the six people, and said coldly: "I have already said something beforehand, but some people are still late, then follow the military regulations, pull them down, and give each person thirty sticks!"

A soldier struggled and shouted: "General, I don't want to be late, but I can't find my shoes."

"You can come barefoot to assemble, drag down!"

The six soldiers were dragged down, pressed to the ground and beaten hard. When they heard the crackling of sticks and the howling of ghosts and wolves, the faces of the soldiers twitched.

"Continue to run, let's go!"

Two thousand soldiers ran out of the barracks with sore legs and ran towards the northern city. They didn't have to go out of the city today, but circled the city wall.

Another day of nightmare has begun.

In the south of the city near the city gate, there is a butcher shop called Wang Yang Ji.

The sign of this butcher shop has a word for sheep, but in fact it mainly sells wild game. Every day, hunters will deliver the goods to the door. Occasionally, it also deals in fur, and the business is not bad.

On the fourth day after the officers and soldiers entered the city, a hunter in his thirties came to the butcher shop carrying a deer.

The hunter put the deer on the table and shouted: "Shopkeeper, take the meat!"

The owner, Wang Long, came out quickly, and when he saw the hunter, he was startled. He quickly looked around, gave the hunter a wink, and led him to the backyard.

"General, why are you here in person?"

This hunter is none other than Zhang Kui, the bandit leader that Chen Qing came to exterminate this time. He usually wears armor, but today he is dressed as a hunter, with half of his hair hanging down to cover his face, so no one recognizes him.

Zhang Kui was about [-] years old, with a long face, dark skin, and a long scar on his face, which made him look very cruel. Zhang Kui used to be the infantry commander of the Imperial Army.

He was an important participant in the Liu Miao Incident that occurred the year before last, and he was also one of the seven people who were finally convicted by Emperor Zhao Gou. The other six were all killed, and he was the only one who escaped.

Zhang Kui's core is a [-]-man Imperial Guard soldier. With this army, he keeps recruiting soldiers and horses, and the number of thugs under him has reached [-].

Recently, because of the lack of food, he decided to set up the idea of ​​prefecture Chun'an County. On the one hand, he wanted to get food, and on the other hand, he also wanted to build Chun'an County into his old nest.

The tall and solid city walls of Chun'an County met his requirements very well.

Zhang Kui picked up a bowl of water and drank it all in one gulp. He wiped his mouth with his sleeve and asked, "I want to know the situation of the new officers and soldiers!"

That day he retreated to the south in a panic, the more he thought about it, the more he felt something was wrong, the other party obviously had cavalry, but they didn't chase them down, something was wrong.

Zhang Kui became suspicious, so he simply came to inquire about the news in person.

(End of this chapter)