The morning light shines into the main hall from between a row of window lattices of the Jinxiang Palace, the hall is bright and clean, and the sunlight makes the magnificent and luxurious palace resplendent with gold, as if in the fairy world. The civil and military officials below shouted in unison: "My emperor has no borders." ”

"Zhongqing is flat." Guo Shao sat on the dragon chair with his legs spread apart, looking down.

Then the eunuchs on duty stepped forward to sing the lyrics, and the officials played the words one after another.

Guo Shao sits, looking back at the officials of the Hanlin Academy sitting in rows on the left, one by one they are writing hard, and the table covered with yellow tablecloths is placed with jade seals, edicts and other things, and the people and degrees of giving orders in the main hall are all available. He felt as if it was a big ship, he was at the helm, and every adjustment affected the direction of the whole country.

Some of the ministers praised the emperor's martial arts, and some praised the good growth of crops in various places. Guo Shao twitched the wording from time to time, asking the officials of the department to persuade the farmers; Anyway, in an agrarian country, there is nothing wrong with the imperial court attaching importance to agriculture.

The squire of the Ministry of Works played the strategy of repairing the Yellow River, but the prime minister had different opinions, and the two argued in the main hall on the spot.

Everything about governing the country is meticulous, and civil servants are prone to political disagreements, and there are countless reasons to support their ideas; Moreover, everyone still has the issue of taking sides and taking sides, and governing is a very complicated matter.

Guo Shao's approach was to order them to write their own recitals and play them before making a decision...... In fact, he is ready to throw the dispute to the political hall and continue to argue, and wait for them to pull out the ugly act; What Guo Shao has to do is to wait for the ministers to reach an agreement, and then give money and food.

He can distinguish the importance of the matter, and the most important thing in the Great Zhou at this time still has not gotten rid of the key (Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms), that is, the military!

Otherwise, no matter how meticulously the internal affairs are managed, once faced with a situation where the country is shaken by war, or there are military generals who support their troops and respect themselves...... Everything is for nothing.

No matter how the ministers say morality, Guo Shao also knows very well in his heart: now he must first maintain the militaristic system and take back the sixteen states of Youyun; Only then can we fundamentally adjust the military power system.

……

After the Great Dynasty, the cabinet minister Zuo You left the Imperial City, and seeing that it was still early, he went to the Huben Military Academy in Tokyo's North City. It's a different story.

A large group of men stood in a row on the dusty dirt floor, dressed in four pieces of plate armor and leather armor, the new armor shining in the sun, all sweating; They held spears and watched the movements of a big man on the earthen platform, and followed the spear dance.

"Huo!" Everyone shouted loudly as the spear stabbed out.

The general Zhou Tong rode a horse to Zuo You's side, and the two followed Guo Shaonan to fight in the north many times, and they were people they knew. Zhou Channel: "The forbidden army was attritional when attacking the Eastern Han Kingdom (Northern Han), and the Privy Council requisitioned elite soldiers from all over the country to replenish the source of troops. ”

Zuo You is a civil official, of course, he will not rashly point fingers at the soldiers, and immediately praised: "All of them are young and strong men with tigers and bears." ”

Zhou Tong shook his head and said: "Most of the elite soldiers in the Central Plains have been concentrated in the forbidden army, and it is difficult to select strong people with martial arts experience. Some of them were farmers who had just put down their hoes. ”

Zuo You was stunned when he heard this: "Can such a person use it?" ”

Zhou Tong said indifferently: "No one is born to fight, as long as the foundation is good, be a miscellaneous soldier first, and have more experience in battle, and there will always be one elite soldier left out of ten!" ”

Left is silent.

Zhou Tong said again: "In addition to the divine arm and hand, the other elites are all piled up by human lives except for training!" There are 100,000 forbidden troops in the imperial court, and there are more than one million sons and daughters who have been killed and injured on the battlefield in the past few decades?! ”

At this moment, Zhou Tong frowned and walked up to a young man and slapped him on the waist: "Your torso doesn't move, can you be strong with your arms alone?" ”

When the man saw the general staring at him, his face immediately turned red, and he stood there at a loss.

Zhou Tong took the spear of a soldier next to him, stabbed forward and demonstrated, pointed at the man and said, "Follow my movements!" ”

The man gestured nervously, but Zhou Tong was furious, strode in front of the man, patted his chest and shouted: "Thorn! Follow the thorn here! ”

The man's face changed, and he hurriedly shook his head, unable to even say half a word.

Zhou Tong said angrily: "If you are told to stab, dare to disobey the military order?" Didn't anyone teach you the rules of the army beforehand? Stab! ”

Zuo You didn't say a word, standing outside the queue and silently looking at the military general Zhou Tong.

Zhou Tong picked up the shaft of the spear a little, which seemed light, but it made the man scream "wow". The man finally stabbed him with his eyes closed, but he was immediately held by Zhou Tong with one hand, and the spear was fixed in the middle and couldn't move. Zhou Tong swept over with another shot, causing the man to stumble and scream.

Zhou Tongtie blushed and said: "With this little strength, if I have a knife in my hand in the battle array, your head has been chopped off!" There is only one chance to take a look, and everyone has nowhere to hide, so you have to stab hard, pierce the opponent's armor, and either he dies or you die! ”

He looked back at his surroundings and scolded angrily for a while: "The imperial court let you be fed and clothed, and pay you military salaries, not to let you rub here!" If anyone doesn't care and messes around, he will go to the lower camp and go to Tuntian. He|mother|, he can't learn such a simple move! ”

Zuo You looked at it for a while, and didn't say anything to interfere, and after watching it for a while, he said goodbye to Zhou. He heard the sound of "crackling" firecrackles in the same place, and immediately got on his horse and led people to follow the sound to change places to visit.

It was the people of Shenhuo Capital who set the fire, and Zuo You met the ordnance supervisor Zan Jurun there, and the two talked for a while.

…… Shenhuo has added some new pawns, killed and injured some in the Northern Han Kingdom, and recruited some new ones. At this time, Zhao Hu was already considered an old pawn, he had fought in battle, and in the eyes of the new soldiers, it was already different.

Ordinary soldiers were very flattering in their words, and some people even asked him with awe, I heard that he had killed people with his own hands?

Zhao Hu only said that killing and being killed in the battle array is not a big deal, as long as it is in front, it is difficult to avoid. When asked how he killed people, he didn't want to say more...... He didn't want to reminisce about those experiences, and he didn't think there was anything to say.

However, after going into battle, Zhao Hu is really different from the beginning, at least now he is not too dazed, he is very calm in the queue, understands the use of practice, and understands what he should do.

"Ready!" At this time, they all shouted.

Zhao Hu picked up the firearm with his right hand, clamped the wooden handle with his right arm, and raised the firepot with his left hand to bite the wooden stopper with his teeth, and his movements were swift and skillful. When he looked at the soldier next to him, he saw that he was in a hurry, his left and right hands and mouth were very messy, and he was sweating in a hurry.

Du Tou raised his saber and pointed at the target in front of him, shouting, "Release!" ”

"Bang bang bang ......" a row of explosions sounded in the smoke of gunpowder. Soon the loud shouting and scolding of the generals was heard again, and there were always some soldiers in each platoon who could not successfully launch for various strange reasons.

At this time, the military general ordered a rest, and everyone took their own iron cups one after another, and scooped water to the water tank on the side of the field to drink. The sun is scorching, and the first thing everyone takes to drink water is every time they rest.

Zhao Hu took a sip of it, it still tasted the same, a little salty. It is boiled cold boiled water, put salt, so salty...... As for why salt is put in it, only the people above know it, and it is said that it is good to drink it after sweating. Salt in Tokyo is very expensive, but there is no shortage of salt in the army, because salt is expensive because it is sold by the government.

Someone next to him muttered, "Can this thing really kill people?" ”

Another soldier turned his head to look at Zhao Hu and asked, "Brother Zhao, have you killed enemy soldiers with firearms?" ”

Zhao Hu's mind came up with the scene on the battle formation, a whole row of more than 30 people released their guns, and they couldn't hit ten people, who knew who hit it? casually said: "A volley can always hit a few." ”

The soldiers talked a lot and felt that it was useless, and some people said: "This thing is really strange, how can the forbidden army use it?" ”

Zhao Hu remembered that he was almost killed in a scuffle with the enemy soldiers, and said: "The martial arts of our soldiers in the Shenhuo Capital are not good, and they can't beat the elite of the enemy army in battle, and they can bargain with this." ”

Everyone sighed.

At this time, Dutou came over and said a few words to the soldiers while drinking water. Zhao Hu saw that the general's mood was not bad, so he asked: "Dare to ask the general, should we fight Youzhou from now on?" ”

Du Tou smiled and said: "You call me a general, but Lao Tzu has no part to speak in the court, how do I know where Your Majesty is going to fight?" ”

He paused and said, "However, according to the brothers' guesses, it should be Youzhou." Wu Yue and the Southern Han Kingdom are left in the south, Wu Yue is obedient to the Great Zhou, the Southern Han is so far away, and the force is not good, so we are forbidden to go all the way to the expedition?

Shenhuo is also a man and horse in the left wing of the Tiger Ben Army, and most of the battles are to follow the emperor to personally conquer. ”

At this time, another ten generals came, and echoed: "The official family definitely wants to collect the sixteen states of Youyun." ”

When Zhao Hu heard this, the flame in his heart immediately ignited again! He seemed to see the blackened home, the unrecognizable father, and the broken women's clothes in the grass shed in the courtyard of the Xu family, and the blood stains on the thatch...... That's the little lady who worked hard to get married.

Zhao Hu was ashamed and angry in his heart, his teeth were clenched, and his fists were clenched so that his knuckles turned white.

The ten generals looked at Zhao Hu in surprise: "What's wrong with you?" ”

Zhao Hu came back to his senses and said busily: "Fight Youzhou, I must rush to the front, I will never be afraid of death!" ”

The tenth general slapped Zhao Hu's shoulder: "The army wants a brave man like you." ”

Zhao Hu said again: "General Wang Shi must have good martial arts, teach us when he is free." I think firearms are still too stupid, and people will always rush in front of me to fight. ”

The ten generals smiled and said, "Don't worry, let the newly recruited soldiers learn firearms, and teach you to use other weapons." Our Shenhuo originally used firearms, and we can't put important things aside, and we have to blame Shangfeng. ”

Zhao Hu said: "As long as I can kill the Khitan people in Youzhou, I will have no regrets if I give my life." Kill all the Khitan thieves in Youzhou! ”