Wu Lu, Zhang Shao, Lan Wei, and Tao Zhang are from Ande County, Pingyuan County.

Wu Lu, whose name is Shouqing, is the magistrate of the county and township - You Jiao, who is responsible for patrolling and arresting and managing public security. His great-grandfather was a county magistrate, and his father was a county magistrate (similar to the clerk of the county government in later generations), and his personality was still chivalrous and martial, and he often danced swords and swords. He is friends and colleagues with Zhang Shao, Lan Wei, and Tao Zhang.

Zhang Shao, the word respectful, straight chivalrous, rough and written, is the pavilion chief under the jurisdiction of Wu Lu, Qin and Han Dynasty set up a pavilion every ten miles in the countryside, the pavilion chief is responsible for defense, patrolling the village.

Lan Wei, the word Xiuhao, has a smart temperament, and Zeng Jumao is not enough. He is uninhibited, likes to be a hero, is well-versed in literature, especially loves military affairs, and once served as Sima of other departments to fight against Xianbei with the Han army.

Tao Zhang, the word Huanqing, the family is poor, but the talent is intelligent, the eyes into the recitation, six years old into the village school to study, and also learn martial arts, at the age of fifteen in the hometown set up a museum as a teacher, the Mao is not enough.

Bian Xi was also a little excited for a while since he was promoted to the head of the tun, but this excitement did not last long. More specifically, just happy for one day. When the brothers of other troops still called him Staff Officer Bian, Bian Xi comforted himself with "I am already the commander of the tun" in his heart. When the brother of the reconnaissance unit also called Bian Xi by Bian Staff Officer, he was completely desperate.

Bian Xi's personality is not so strong that he has to rely on strength to subdue others no matter what, and he knows very well that his position is to march as a staff officer and a member of the general staff. As early as the time of Guangzong, Zhang Luo publicly announced that the level of the reconnaissance unit commanded by the marching staff officer (formerly the commander of the marching army) was equivalent to that of a tun, and all the soldiers of the reconnaissance unit were treated as captains.

Before leaving the Plains County camp, the name of the unit was changed again. When not addressing official positions, everyone should call each other "comrade" – which means "like-minded."

The worries of the job were soon squeezed aside by the heavy work, and the mapping of a hundred miles was no small task. According to the system, the reconnaissance unit had to go by water as well as by land, and at the same time draw simple maps. It took two days for the two reconnaissance units to finally converge near Jijia Town.

Looking at the main body of Jijia Town from afar, Bian Xi couldn't help but take a slight breath.

Bian Xi, who grew up in Guangzong City, is no stranger to the city, but the appearance of a fortress in the countryside cannot but make Bian Xi feel stunned. A fortress more than a foot high stood majestically on the slope of the hill, and on the right and left of the wall, facing the gate, there were two trebuchets - three each.

Bian Xi has excellent eyesight and can faintly see six trebuchets. Judging from the terrain, the trebuchets of Jijia Town held the main road, and the troops attacking intensively would be severely injured by stone bullets.

Moreover, Jijia Town made full use of a stream on the back mountain, and the stream was introduced into a moat around the town, which was more than a zhang wide and one zhang deep. Outside the city walls, which are not surrounded by a moat, is a dense bamboo forest. The soldiers of the reconnaissance unit went to reconnoiter and came back to report that a trench trap had been set up on the ground and had become a bamboo stick position.

"Wu Jun, have you ever attacked this town?" Bian Xi asked Wu Lu.

"Yes, we did!" Wu Lu gritted his teeth and said, "I have fought three times, and there have been many casualties!" Haoqiang of Jijia Town used the food money he stole from us to hire many people to build their town. The powerful Ji Tai in the town boasted that even twenty or thirty thousand people could not defeat their town. ”

Looking at Wu Lu's extremely hateful look, Bian Xi understood the power of Ji Jiazhen. With such a strong fortress, Jijiazhen can naturally rest assured and boldly exploit the surrounding areas. The small troops outside were no match for the armed forces that Jijiazhen had. As for the siege of a large number of troops, Jijiazhen can hide in this castle and hold on, as long as there is an official government as a backer, and the official government sends an official army to come, it can defeat the enemy from inside and outside.

And if you want to gather a large army, you need a lot of money, where does an ordinary village have so much financial resources. With the strength to gather such power, it is better to plunder elsewhere than to spend a lot of lives to break down this fortified castle. Between the advantages of one and the other, Jijiazhen is naturally growing his own strength quickly.

"Let's go to your village first." Bian Xi suggested.

There are a total of eight villages in the surrounding area, six villages of yeoman farmers, and two villages of Haoqiang Manor. The six villages of yeoman farmers are much larger than those of Lijia Village, with nearly 300 households in each village. In addition to the land in the mountains, there are also small plains that can be cultivated. It stands to reason that the lives of the people in these villages should be much better than that of Lijia Village, which relies solely on small plots of land near the valley. But Bian Xi saw that the lives of the six self-cultivated villagers were worse than those in Lijia Village.

Although the natural environment of Lijia Village in Guantao was harsh, it was this harshness that made there be no big villages headed by Haoqiang Manor around. Everyone eats on their own ability, and that's how life goes. With the oppression of the powerful economy, the villages of yeoman farmers are burdened with heavy taxes, and no matter how good the farming conditions are, life will only be worse.

After scouting the situation of the six villages, Bian Xi went to the two Haoqiang Manor villages under the leadership of Wu Lu. Obviously, life in a manor village is much better than that of a yeoman farmer. Although it does not have the same strong strength as Jijia Town, Haoqiang Village has also built its own small fortress. Long village walls, moats, traps, bamboo sticks. There are no less than these most basic defenses.

Bian Xi had seen these defense systems in Guangzong, and Taiping Dao was familiar with building these things. Seeing the posture of Haoqiang Village with his own eyes, Bian Xi knew exactly how Taiping Dao learned this kind of technique - learning while fighting.

Zhang Shao looked bitter and hateful: "These two villages also bullied us with Jijia Town. It's just that two villages can't beat our six villages, so they only often come out to help Jijia Town. These two villages cannot be spared. ”

The scale of the battle was far greater than expected, and Bian Xi felt that he had to rush back to report to Zhang Luo. Regardless of the fact that it was getting late, he took a few people to take the waterway and went straight to Plains City. The water was still fast, and by the next morning he had arrived at the camp.

Entering the camp, Bian Xi was immediately dumbfounded.

"One! Two! Three! Four! One two three...... Four! The team shouted the trumpet in unison. This was originally the normal training of Zhang Luo's troops, but now it is not only men who are shouting, but also the voices of women and children. After a closer look, I saw that the tun formed by the young women also participated in the running drill. In addition, boys and girls also formed teams and participated in the running exercises.

In the midst of consternation, on the other side are already "one", "two", "three", ......"eleven", "twelve...... shouted.

The shouting is the troops who do squat training, and every time they count, the fighters do a squat. In the neat phalanx, the warriors counted in rows in the shape of "self", and the direction of counting often changed. The counting method starts from the beginning, and the fighters in the back automatically add a number to it.

Bian Xi himself has participated in training, and in addition to training his body, he also has to practice arithmetic. Listen, listen, by the time it was sixty-seven, the panting warrior finally reported the wrong number. As soon as the miscalculated soldier shouted out "sixty-eight" out of breath, someone next to him couldn't help but correct:

"It's sixty-seven!"

"Shout now! Sixty-seven! ”

"Sixty-seven!" The fighters who shouted the wrong hurriedly corrected their mistakes after doing the squats. You don't have to do it all over again if you make a mistake, but each fighter has to do another squat until the one who makes the mistake is right. This kind of "motivation" works very well, and most fighters can count from one to one hundred relatively smoothly under normal conditions.

Everyone is used to doing more, but no one continues to talk more. There was a problem during training in the past, because of the gossipy, Bian Xi's unit originally only used to do a hundred squats, but he did more than 30 more. Because of the verbal conflict, there was almost a fight. The troublemaker was ordered to do his own criticism in the face of everyone, and promised not to fight with his comrades again in the future. Next, everyone discussed a method, if there was a wrong number, only two people to his left and right or before and after him would remind them, and everyone else would remain silent.

Zhang Luo did it with everyone in front of the battle, he didn't say anything, and these soldiers didn't dare to make a fuss. In the end, the entire training was completed with a hundred squats. When it was done, everyone was gasping. In addition to exercising the thigh muscles, squats also have a strong exercise effect on cardiopulmonary function.

Bian Xi waited for Zhang Luo to finish, and hurriedly ran over, and was about to speak, Bian Xi opened his mouth and was stunned. Not far from him, there were young women and teenagers who had finished running, each carrying a bamboo gun and began to practice standing still and began to practice the movement of holding a gun.

"Zhang Shuai! This...... What's going to be done? When Bian Xi spoke, his voice trembled.

"Oh? Women can also defend themselves by training, although they lack the skills and physical strength required for spear assassination, but if they cooperate with sword and shield soldiers to use gun formations, they can do it. There is no need to raise idlers in our troops! Zhang replied blandly: "If you have money, let women practice crossbows." ”