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Chapter 339 Selection of Elites
Zhuojun Yanwu Field.

The sun was shining brightly, the leaves were not swinging, and the weather was extremely hot.

After the three-way drum sounded in the martial arts arena, a row of county soldier archers with turbans and leather chest protectors stepped forward together and stood behind a white line.

The expressions on the faces of this row of county soldiers were solemn, and their eyes were fixed on the arrow stack made of grass seventy steps away.

There was another drum sound, and the archers of the county soldiers drew their arrows out of their leather pouches, and held the bowstring with their fingers to shoot the arrow.Everyone was breathing slowly and evenly, and the sweat on many people's foreheads had already flowed down their faces, but no one dared to reach out to wipe it off.

After the drum sounded again, the archers of the county soldiers began to shoot arrows repeatedly, only to hear the sound of the arrow feathers piercing the air, and the arrow stacks were full of arrowheads.

"I got it! I got it!" Someone was overjoyed.

"Almost." Someone's expression froze.

But no matter what, everyone's expressions were extremely concerned.

After the six arrows passed, the drum sounded again, and all the archers put down their bows, only then did they dare to reach out to wipe their sweat.

After that, the officials on the side, one on the left and one on the left, came forward with paper pens and ink in their hands, and went to the arrow stack one by one to record the results of each person's archery.

The archers started talking among themselves, but even though everyone's face was serious at this time, they didn't mean to relax at all.

In the far side of the shed, Yu Chigong and Xu Wuzheng were wearing armor, drinking buttermilk with Lu Chengqing to cool off the heat, and at the same time waiting for the archer's results.

Not long after, the statistician came forward and said: "I will report to the two generals, Lu Juncheng, and the thirty archers of the Junbing Jiazi Regiment, the results have been released."

"Read!" Xu Wu put the buttermilk aside and kept his body straight.

"Nuo, the bow with one stone and five buckets is used for the assessment. The distance is 30 steps. Three of the six arrows will be the upper arrow, two of the six arrows will be the middle arrow, one of the six arrows will be the lower arrow, and the one who misses one will be dismissed. 12 people There are two people who hit the upper arrow, six people who hit the arrow, ten people who hit the lower arrow, and [-] people who missed one arrow."

"En." Xu Wu took the roster to read it again, signed his name, and handed it to Yu Chigong.

Yu Chigong glanced at it, signed his name, and nodded to Lu Chengqing.After reading it, Lu Chengqing said: "The 18 people who hit the target will be pulled into the government army. Those who miss the target will try again at another day."

"promise!"

"Change to the second batch!"

Immediately the drum sounded again, and the soldiers who learned that they had been selected into the government army could not help but be ecstatic, while those who were not selected could not help but feel dejected, but for them, there was a second chance.

Outside the martial arts arena, thousands of untested county soldiers gathered and chatted with each other.

"He Laodao, you said that it is too difficult to open a bow with one stone and five fights. Tell me, tell me."

"Who told you that you don't want to work hard on weekdays, and you miss the girl in the reporter's brothel all day long. Your second brother is right. Sooner or later, you will die on the girl's belly."

"At this time, Brother He, you still say such sarcastic remarks, what tricks do you have, please teach me, brother."

"It's nothing, the trick, it's just a word of mind and hand."

"Wednesday and Saturday, you said that I heard from my brother yesterday that this five-strand bow is really too difficult. Back then, the emperor recruited Xiaoguo troops in Zhuo County in order to conquer Liaodong. If you can shoot two hundred steps, how can you shoot with five buckets of stone?"

"Then you are wrong, have you heard? General Yuchi broke three three-stone strong bows in the martial arts field that day, and finally opened a six-stone strong bow. What a fierce man."

"Hey, why didn't I know that, General Yuchi is the star of martial arts in the sky, and we mortals can compare with it. When I was in the county army, I could only open a stone bow. Now this half-stone bow is really difficult. "

"Just try your luck."

"Brother Xu, I heard that this time there are three grades: the upper arrow, the middle arrow, and the lower arrow. With your archery skills, Brother Xu, getting the upper arrow is just easy to get."

"Hey, it's so good on weekdays, but you have to try it before you know, so you can't say enough."

"Brother Xu, you are still like this. According to what the school captain told us, those who get the right arrow in the assessment will be the top soldier of the army who enters the government, and they can receive two buckets of rice for their families every month. There is only one pawn for one meter. Besides, those who are said to be good pawns can be given priority in the future to be promoted to team deputy, team leader, brother Xu, you have to cover me from now on."

"Haha, there are two brothers in the same world, what kind words do you say. If I, Xu, have a bite of food, there will be brothers and you."

At the same time, in another martial arts arena in Zhuojun County, nearly a thousand crossbowmen were undergoing assessment.

The assessment is roughly equivalent to that of an archer. Three of the six arrows are the upper crossbow, and the second middle crossbow is pushed forward. The standard for crossbowmen is that they must open the three-stone crossbow with one arm and shoot the one who hits the middle one hundred steps away.
Inside the Governor of Youzhou.

Wen Yanbo, Wei Zheng, Lu Chengqing, Yu Chigong, Xu Wu and others came together to report to Li Chongjiu about the government army's selection.

After reading the reports submitted by everyone, Li Chongjiu was still quite satisfied. This time, the selection of the prefectural army was made by the original county soldiers themselves, and the county government sent people to supervise them. Both methods were adopted. In just three days, all the soldiers from Youzhou County were assessed. Completed, the efficiency is still very high.

Li Chongjiu said: "There are [-] soldiers in Zhuo County, and more than [-] people are not ranked. How do you arrange these people?"

Yuchi Gong clasped his fists and said: "I will report to the county guard that there are more than [-] people who are not ranked. We are going to choose another day for another assessment. Even if they are selected as soldiers of the government army, we will have another assessment. Among the two scores, we will choose the best. admitted."
Li Chongjiu nodded and said: "That's very good. But what about those who fail both times? If so, wouldn't our army only evaluate soldiers with bows and crossbows? And miss out on other good talents."

Yuchi respectfully said: "The cavalry has another method of screening, and the humble ones will be rewarded."

In Li Chongjiu's heart, he still felt that this method of selecting soldiers was quite imperfect.He handed over the selection of soldiers to Yu Chigong and Xu Wu, in order to let them try first and achieve results.And it is understandable that they use bows and crossbows to assess soldiers. After all, county soldiers have always fought with strong bows and crossbows.

But this made Li Chongjiu think of the Song Army in history.The army of the Song Dynasty used bows and crossbows to select soldiers.

The combat philosophy of the Song Army is that Fan is superior to horses, Han is superior to crossbows, and crossbows are used to control cavalry.

The selection of the Song army is also mainly based on bows and crossbows. Bowmen are divided into three classes. The first class is for open nine-dou (Song Jin and Sui Jin). Seven buckets, second prize is two stones and four buckets, third prize is two stones and one bucket.For example, in the Tianwu Army of the Upper Fourth Army in the Imperial Army of the Great Song Dynasty, officers and soldiers must use nine buckets to open a bow, and two stones and seven buckets to open a crossbow.

Under such an atmosphere, the Song army went from top to bottom. According to the words in the history books, they were proficient in bows and crossbows, but a little practiced in knives and guns.This is true not only for the Song army, but also for the Ming army at the end of Ming Dynasty and the Qing army at the end of Qing Dynasty.

Li Chongjiu said: "Although our army is stronger than bows and crossbows, we must learn to fight on foot at the same time. In combat, everyone dares to fight for the first place, and swords and guns must not be ignored. If everyone is more important than bows and crossbows, no one dares to fight to the death. If things go on like this, it will become a weak army."

When Yu Chigong and Xu Wu heard Li Chongjiu's words, they all stepped forward to plead guilty, saying that they had indeed done something wrong.

Wei Zhengyan said: "Although General Yuchi has some shortcomings in his thinking, this assessment is just a way to weed out the weak and retain the strong. As for the swords, guns and sticks, it is difficult to be assessed by anyone, so there are some disadvantages."

Li Chongjiu knew that this was also the truth. Swords, guns and sticks had their strengths, and there was no specific standard, so it was easy to cheat. Unlike bows and crossbows, three out of six arrows hit one out of three, all of which were seen and weighed by everyone.There is no way this is the flaw of the system.

However, Li Chongjiu still said: "The soldiers of the government are the elite of our Youzhou. We should not lack any good talents in the spirit of rather lacking than indiscriminate. Anyone who is good at mo knives, knives and guns, and those who are elders in everything, after your approval , report it to me, and I can make him a government army."

Hearing what Li Chongjiu said, Yu Chigong and Xu Wu all followed orders and retreated immediately.

Finally, after this screening, Li Chongjiu selected 5000 people from more than [-] county soldiers, Fanbing, and Gao and Luo to join the army.

Among the government army, the treatment is naturally generous.

A soldier can have two shi of rice per month. If there is no young and strong man in the family, this rice grain is enough to feed a family of three or four.As for the stroke, one stone and five fights can be considered to survive the day, but at least the family can still eat enough.As for taking a single stone, it is very reluctant, and the family must find some other livelihood.

Although this system sounds unsatisfactory now, compared with the Sui government soldiers at that time, it is already in heaven and earth.You must know that the treatment of the Youzhou government army is equivalent to half mercenaries.At that time, the army of the Sui Dynasty only enjoyed the benefits of exemption from service, and had no other income except winning battles.

This is also one of the reasons why the Fubing military households gradually went bankrupt in the Tang Dynasty, leading to the collapse of the Fubing system.

As for the rest, they were all reduced to the township army, and more than [-] soldiers from Goguryeo and Khitan were incorporated into the township army. In addition, a certain number of township soldiers were recruited from the local area, and the number of township soldiers also reached [-].

The generousness of the township soldiers is that they are given quotas for two people, and the tax is halved for two years, and the two years of enlistment.Li Chongjiu adopts a compulsory military system for the rural soldiers, stipulating that after the men in Youzhou become men, they must be sent to the rural soldiers for rotation.

The township soldiers are different from the county soldiers. They are naturalized in the nearest counties and cultivate land in various places. The township soldiers choose one day out of every five days for military training, and they can go home five days a month to visit their relatives.Moreover, the township soldiers are not under the jurisdiction of the governor's office in Youzhou, but under the command of the captains and deputy captains of the six counties.
As for the government army, Li Chongjiu ordered Wang Mahan to be the general of Yiwei, the Wansheng army, the sudden cavalry regiment, and [-] cavalry of the Han army. A total of [-] soldiers were all organized into the Yiwei army and stationed in Yuyi Town.

Xue Wanche and Xue Wanshu are generals of Yingyanglang respectively.

Yu Chigong was the general of the Wuwei Army, leading an army of [-] Wuwei troops, and was stationed in Jixian County, Zhuo County.

Tan Zong was General Hu Benlang of the Xiaowei Army. He led [-] Xiaowei troops and stationed in Yi County, Shanggu County.

Wu Gunai was General Hu Benlang of the Xiaowei Army. He led [-] Xiaowei troops and stationed in Miyun County, Anle County.

The government army is divided into three armies: Yiwei, Wuwei, and Xiaowei. Although they are stationed in four places, they are not far from each other. If necessary, they can immediately reinforce the border counties for war.

(End of this chapter)