On the first day of the fifth month, Liaohe County at the southern end of the Liaohe Plain.

The Liao River is the largest river in eastern Liaoning, with abundant water, and nearly 200,000 of the 290,000 people in the four counties of Liaodong live in the Liaohe River Basin, which is also the largest farming area in Northeast China.

The Liao River is also a large river composed of three bifurcated tributaries, two of these three tributaries converge in the south of Liao Tunnel County, and less than 30 miles north from the Liao Tunnel, the tributary on the east side will fork into two more streams.

These three tributaries, the westernmost one connects Wangping County and Liaoyang County.

The middle one leads to Gaoguryi County (Shenyang) and Xigaima County (Fushun) in Xuansu County.

The easternmost side leads to Xiangping (Liaoyang).

It can be said that all the counties in the entire Liaohe Plain are locked by the key of the Liao Tunnel, and if you don't break through here, you can't reach other places along the waterway.

And the waterway is the key to ensuring that the attacker's grain route is not cut off, so it is not surprising that the enemy and us put the core of the battle for the Liaohe Plain in the Liao Tunnel.

Zhang Chun's last 20,000 soldiers and horses, as well as his new strong men, were mostly distributed in Liao Tunnel and Xiangping.

And Liu Bei's men and horses have also set up camp on the east and west banks of the Liao River south of Liaochuan County, facing each other across the river from Liaochuan County.

Since the end of April, the number of Han troops stationed south of the mouth of the Sancha River has been increasing. Because of the high proportion of recruits, the battalion is in full swing every day, and even if there is no preparation for war, it has to be practiced daily so that the recruits can form combat effectiveness as soon as possible.

The mansion in Changli City was repaired, but Liu Bei and Li Su didn't have time to go, but soaked in the front-line camp. All of a sudden, this field camp on the front line of the Liaohe River has become the political center of the entire Liaodong, and any major government affairs are reported to the barracks for disposal. Even with famous men and warriors who came to Liu Bei, they all went straight to the camp of the Liaohe River and did not go to Changli City.

Considering that Li Su had no family and had always lived alone, only a few personal soldiers had helped him wash and clean for more than a year, and the meals were all in the camp with everyone.

When Liu Bei repaired the mansion this time, he specially selected a few little girls who looked clean from the hungry people to be Li Su's maidservants to clean up. But because Li Su is on the front line, there is no need for anyone to serve him for a while.

……

Early in the morning, Liu Bei got up and was just about to go to the camp to see how the training of the recently recruited recruits and grassroots officers was doing, and whether some good seedlings could be selected.

As a result, while I was still having breakfast, I heard a report from my subordinates, saying that there were a few celebrities who came to vote.

Liu Bei hurriedly put down his chopsticks and asked his subordinates to invite Li Su to meet him together.

Li Su is still underage, and it is the time to grow his body, so he has more sleep and will not be as diligent as Liu Bei. He was dragged in almost as soon as he was washing.

When he came to the big tent of the Chinese army and said a few words to Liu Bei, he saw two very personable young scribes outside the door come in and defect.

"Beihai Guan Ning, Bing Yuan, come to meet the prince! In just a few months, Wen Fujun calmed down tens of thousands of hungry people in Liaodong, and also came up with a miraculous strategy of cashing out work, so that the people would be happy and convinced, and would not suffer from inequality.

We were originally living in seclusion, seeing the world raging, shepherding and greedy, and we have always been determined to be unwilling to be officials. Today, I see that the prince loves the people and herdsmen so much, and he feels that he is the master, so he comes to the same place. ”

Liu Bei doesn't read much, and he is not very interested in celebrities - mainly because he hasn't seen celebrities come to him before, so he doesn't quite understand what level of fame Guan Ning and Bing Yuan is for the time being.

But Li Su read the allusion of "cutting the mat and breaking off the relationship", and knew that Guan Ning and Hua Xin were classmates, but Hua Xin was greedy for glory and wealth, so Guan Ning cut the mat he usually sat on when he studied and broke off the friendship.

And Hua Xin is strictly the same as Lu Zhi and Zheng Xuan, so Guan Ning's seniority is quite good.

He whispered: "These two are today's celebrities, as famous as Hua Xin, and they are similar to the respected teacher Lu Gong." Although he is known for his clean talk, I don't know if he has any administrative experience. But as an official of culture and education, he is in charge of the etiquette and education of one party, and he will definitely be competent. ”

Liu Bei nodded, and planned to retain the two of them as the education officials in charge of Liaodong.

And at this moment, the curtain of the Chinese army's tent was knocked open, and a general rushed in: "Big brother! I heard that Mr. Guan, a famous scholar in Liaodong, is here? Where is it? I'm going to see you! ”

Liu Bei didn't even need to look at it, just hearing his voice, he knew that it was the third brother Zhang Fei, an old problem of "celebrity control", who had an attack, and came to befriend the celebrity again.

He had to smile embarrassedly: "Let the two gentlemen laugh, this is the younger brother Zhang Fei, who has always admired the Magi." Since the gentlemen can afford to be prepared, they will be the chief of ceremonies and shrines of Liaodong vassal countries, although the level of Yulu is not high, it is only a rank of 300 stones, so please don't be too slight. ”

Guan Ning said solemnly: "It's a great fortune to be able to get what you want, and it's not important to be in good quality." The people of the palace make the best use of it, and they are willing to educate us with our palms and music, and dare not to serve. It's just that Sun Tzu said: The one who can but does not win wins. Everyone has their own strengths, and when they are in daily governance. What to teach, what not to teach, I hope that the prince of the palace will not ask. ”

After speaking, Guan Ning and Bing Yuan both gave Liu Bei a deep look.

Liu Bei replied: "That's natural, as long as it's not a remark that endangers the imperial court, the two of you can deal with how you want to educate the people in Liaodong." ”

People like Guan Ning, like Hua Xin, were all recruited by the imperial court in the name of "Youdao", but Guan Ning was high and did not apply.

Therefore, even if Guan Ning's research is useless, as long as he is willing to do things for Liu Bei, he can greatly improve the attractiveness of Liu Bei's camp to upper-class celebrities and improve the brand image.

Look, even Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty asked the Three Dukes to conquer Guan Ning, but because he found out that Liu Bei was determined to build a paradise and support the people, he came to vote, what a stark contrast!

In addition, one more thing to mention, Guan Ning's knowledge is really useless, and what he likes to research most in his life is the sacrificial etiquette of ancient dynasties.

For example, since the Shang and Zhou dynasties, how should the Son of Heaven/princes ascend the throne, how should they do the sealing of Zen, funerals, marriages, birthdays, canonizations...... A bunch of flashy things, the peaceful years can show the prestige of the court, but in troubled times, there is no use.

In addition, Guan Ning also likes to research the bloodline of various nobles, the origin of all surnames in Huaxia, and the initial separation, in short, it is a bunch of research work.

If Liu Bei is a penniless person with a different surname and a humble bloodline, then reusing Guan Ning may have an additional benefit, that is, "research how awesome his surname and ancestors are", so as to put gold on himself.

For example, in history, the Gongsun clan did this, and Guan Ning was asked to verify the origin of the surname "Gongsun", and wanted to recognize a bullish ancestor to become noble.

But Liu Bei is a relative of the Han family, and the surname Liu no longer needs Guan Ning to verify this, and Guan Ning can only be a mascot.

……

Liu Bei spent half a day comforting these celebrities, and personally accompanied them to lunch, and sent some daily necessities that were not very valuable but could show that the prince cared.

In the end, Zhang Fei personally sent them back to Changli City and found another Qingjing Pavilion to settle down.

Guan Ning said that he didn't want to live in Changli City, and wanted to set up a house in the countryside outside the city.

Liu Bei also agreed, and asked Zhang Fei to get them two sets of residences at that time, and they had their own buildings in the city, and they would find a quiet place outside the city to build another villa.

After sending Guan Ning and Bingyuan away, Liu Bei had time to patrol the camp to see if the newly recruited officers and soldiers in the previous decade had any available talents to stand out - this kind of inspection work, Liu Bei himself must take time out every ten days to personally inquire about it, and in normal times, it will be handed over to Guan Yu for training.

Today, because Li Su is also there, I pulled Li Su together on a whim:

"Brother Bo Yaxian, it's better to accompany Brother Yu after dinner, just to eat, and see the military might of the newly recruited soldiers and horses."

Li Su smiled and agreed: "Dare not obey your fate, it just so happens that I haven't ridden a horse for a long time in the past few days, and I lack exercise." ”

With that, Liu Bei pulled him to ride to the school with him.

Li Su was busy with government affairs in Lusu before, and it was the first time in this month to visit the school field of Liaohe Daying.

Before I got closer, I saw that there were more than 3,000 recruits in the queue for drills, and the officers were also watching and supervising from the sidelines, and by the way, according to the soldiers' martial arts, they were selected as grassroots backbones who could serve as captains and team leaders.

Soldiers also participate in sparring with wooden swords and swords, or demonstrate their archery skills to determine the initial division of arms.

Li Su saw at a glance that these soldiers were all very young, most of them were only in their early twenties, and there were even teenagers of seventeen or eighteen years old.

"These soldiers look young and strong, which is really good." Li Su was sincerely admired.

Liu Bei pointed at the tip of the whip, turned his head and said to Li Su: "This is not to listen to the advice of the virtuous brother, in order to ensure the loyalty of the soldiers, they are all trying to pick hungry people with their brothers, and if the elder brother has already married a wife, and the younger brother has not yet married, let the younger brother join the army and send it to the brother and sister-in-law Tuntian."

They will also feel that they are fighting to defend their homeland, and their morale will be higher and higher, so that they will not flee as easily as ordinary unaccompanied soldiers. At the same time, it can also have the courage of being alone and having no relatives, and being downsitish about life and death. ”

Li Su smiled in return, but did not answer.

Because of the reason Liu Bei said, it was indeed Li Su's blind last month.

But Li Su's original intention was just to let Liu Bei choose younger soldiers as much as possible when expanding the army, so as to extend the service life of the soldiers and lay a good foundation for the perennial war in the troubled times in the future.

As for the excuses such as "do a good job, do a good job, and marry you a sister-in-law next year", they were purely made up by him in order to persuade Liu Bei.

In fact, Li Su also sympathized with these poor brothers who were conscripted and took out military salary rations to support their brothers, sisters-in-law and nephews who were also hungry people in Tuntian.

"These people are all young men who have brothers and sisters-in-law in the family, and they have not yet married? I really didn't expect that six or seven thousand of those tens of thousands of hungry people could be elected. Li Su couldn't help but be a little surprised, so he confirmed.

Liu Bei: "It can't be all like this, in order to expand the army to 20,000, there are really not so many that are completely compliant, and you can only rush to power." There are about 4,000 people in it, the kind of brother you said who has a brother and sister-in-law and a bachelor, and more than 2,000 people, who are pure singles in their eighteen to twenties and have no relatives.

However, these people do not know why they are fighting, and their military discipline will be worse, and they will not be able to form an army alone, and they will have to undergo more tests to serve as grassroots officers. I have instructed Yun Chang that if he encounters someone of unknown origin and no relatives, if he wants to award it to an officer, he must add additional test firing and imperial techniques, and only if he is really comprehensive can he be directly reused, so as not to be easily mixed in. ”

This is also human nature, people of unknown origin want to climb up, they must undergo some more tests, it is not unfair.

Liu Bei pointed with the tip of his whip, there was a shooting range at the end of the school field, and archery was being tested, including standing shooting and shooting on horseback, which was the place where the martial arts of these people of unknown origin and the potential of officers were tested.

Since he came, he and Li Su also went over to observe.

Li Su wanted to see with great interest how Guan Yu selected the martial arts of the soldiers, and after watching it for a while, he found that several young people shot well, and Guan Yu also awarded them the rank or team rate.

Just when Li Su looked a little numb, there was a young man with a thick mustache in the field, who seemed to be in his early twenties, taller than Liu Bei, but shorter than Guan Yu and Zhao Yun.

As soon as he saw the man pick up the bow, Li Su had an intuition: Is this a master?

Because I felt that the momentum of that person holding a bow was somewhat similar to Zhao Yun.

"Boom~Boom~Boom~" The three arrows, clean and neat, all hit the bull's-eye.

Guan Yu's eyes lit up, and he slapped his thigh: "Okay, sure enough, the martial arts are good, I will test your military discipline again, if you are literate and disciplined, you can be directly awarded the commander." Dare to ask where the strong man comes from? ”

The man arched his hand: "I heard that Liu Fujun recruits talents, and all elders with a skill can use it, so they came to vote, as for the origin, it doesn't matter, right?" ”