With the cooperation of Ding Juncheng, the recruitment was carried out very smoothly.

Since the grain and salary allocated by the imperial court and the money and grain transported from the Gaoling Marquis Mansion were not in place, Cao Liang proposed to Ding Juncheng to borrow a sum of money and grain from Hedong County on credit first, and then repay it after the imperial court had paid for it.

Ding Juncheng agreed without hesitation, in his opinion, Cao Liang will have a bright future, if he can befriend Cao Liang now, it will definitely be of great benefit to him in the future, not to mention that he is using the money and grain in the Hedong Mansion, and it is not his personal assets.

After having this sum of money and food, Cao Liang has the confidence to recruit soldiers, otherwise, he will talk about it for a long time there, and there is nothing substantive at all, and it is strange to be able to recruit soldiers.

When Cao Liang recruited soldiers, the salary he gave was very generous, thirty percent higher than that of the imperial court conscription, and as long as he was recruited and naturalized, he would be given three months' salary so that these soldiers could settle down.

As soon as the news came out, there was a crowd of people at the application point, and the people nearby rushed to watch.

Among them, most of the people who watched the excitement were driven, and even if they didn't have the idea of becoming soldiers, they couldn't help but come over to take a look.

Of course, there are many people who sincerely want to join the army, and ordinary ordinary people, facing the loess with their backs to the sky all their lives, will not have a day to come out after all. Under the system of the nine products, ordinary children of the poor generally do not have the opportunity to study, even if they have, there is no use, this year and month of birth determine everything, the upper grade has no poor family, the lower grade has no scholars, no matter how hard you work, it is difficult to enter the official career.

Ordinary civilians want to get ahead, there is only one way, that is, to eat food and become soldiers, as long as they kill the enemy on the battlefield and make meritorious contributions, then they have the opportunity to change their fate.

Although it is said that it is risky to go to the battlefield to fight, and if you are not careful, your life may be lost, but wealth is in danger, even if you stay at home and don't go out, will there be fewer people who will starve to death in the famine years? Not to mention anything else when you enlist in the army, the most important thing is that you don't have to worry about food and clothing, as for life or death, and you go to the battlefield, it's all up to luck.

Therefore, those young and strong men who are unwilling to be trapped on the land for a lifetime and half-dead are very enthusiastic when they hear the news that Anyi has recruited soldiers.

After all, the treatment given by Cao Liang was very generous, and even the county soldiers of Hedong County were a little red-eyed, if it weren't for the restrictions on the army, they would all hate to switch to General Pingbei.

Although there are a lot of people who sign up, Cao Liang doesn't accept everyone, first of all, age, Cao Liang requires the lower limit of fifteen, the upper limit of thirty-five, too small don't, too big don't.

After all, Cao Liang is looking at cultivating his own strength and quelling the Xiongnu rebellion, which is just a matter for the moment, and in the long run, the competition with the Sima family, this is a real protracted war, Cao Liang recruits troops, he must make long-term considerations, ten years or even longer, if he recruits some forty or fifty-year-old people now, he will be old in a few years, and he will not need it at all.

This is not a nursing home, so Cao Liang requires that the applicants must be young and strong.

The second is the physical condition and skills, the old, the weak, the sick and the disabled are all gone, and priority is given to those with skills and skills, such as those craftsmen who were originally blacksmiths, carpenters, doctors, and craftsmen, Cao Liang will give priority to admission, and even relax the age limit according to the skill level.

In this regard, many people do not understand very much, Cao Liang only recruits young and strong men, which is completely normal, but Cao Liang deliberately recruited some blacksmiths and carpenters into the army, and they were puzzled, the army is a team of wars, what is the use of these craftsmen?

In this regard, Cao Liang just laughed and said, these craftsmen are of great use to Cao Liang, the army's combat effectiveness is not only dependent on brave and good soldiers, the quality of ordnance equipment can also determine the strength of combat effectiveness, Cao Liang plans to set up an ordnance battalion to design, build and maintain ordnance equipment.

Only when he really has his own army can Cao Liang dare to take out the counterweight catapults, repeating catapults and repeater crossbows that have been hidden before, mass produce them, and truly equip them in the army.

Of course, there are many improvements to the current weapons and equipment, which also need to be developed by Cao Liang.

I have to say that Ma Jun is indeed a genius in manufacturing inventions, he not only developed the continuous catapult and repeating crossbow, but also has ingenious ideas in the improvement of many weapons, but it is a pity that Maxima often has, Bole does not often have, because no one appreciates and no one reuses, Ma Jun's inventions and creations can only be sealed in the dust in the old paper pile.

Later, Ma Jun simply handed over all the drawings to Cao Liang, because he knew that only Cao Liang in this world could really turn his inventions and creations into real objects and apply them to the military.

Therefore, when Cao Liang formed his own army, he thought that craftsmen were urgently needed to join, and the more the merrier, because these ordnance manufacturing involved a variety of technical craftsmen, so Cao Liang had a great demand for these craftsmen, and he did not refuse all of them.

At the same time, Cao Liang gave these craftsmen a higher salary, and he divided the recruited craftsmen into three grades according to their level: low, intermediate and high. The low-level craftsmen were equivalent to the apprentice level, and Cao Liang gave them the same salary as ordinary soldiers, while the middle-level craftsmen Cao Liang increased the salary of ordinary soldiers by two percent.

As for those high-level craftsmen with exquisite craftsmanship, Cao Liang directly gave them double the salary.

Originally, these craftsmen, regardless of their skills, were all untouchables, farmers and industrialists, and their identities were still ranked behind the peasants, and their social status was extremely low.

But when they arrived at Cao Liang, due to the increase in salaries, their status was also improved invisibly, so after the news spread, many craftsmen rushed to the conscription point one after another to see what was going on.

Many people think that this is a false rumor, and it is unbelievable that a lowly craftsman can still get double the salary.

But when they arrived at the recruitment point, it was clearly written in black and white, and they couldn't believe it.

Many of the craftsmen simply signed up on the spot, and the officials in charge of the conscription paid them three months' rations according to their salaries.

A middle-aged blacksmith over forty years old was in tears with excitement when he received double the salary.

What Cao Liang gave them was not only a generous reward, but also a respect and affirmation for them, it was not easy for craftsmen to have today's status!