Qingzhou Mansion is located in the central part of Shandong, west of Jinan Mansion, east of Laizhou Mansion, north of Bohai Bay, is one of the three provinces in the east and west of Shandong, and is also the military center of the late Ming Dynasty to fight against the Japanese invaders, gallop to aid Liaodong, and defend the Beijing Division.

At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, the army was set up by the imperial court according to the defense and strategic needs of each place, or a number of palaces and a guard, or a government and a number of guards, or a government and a state to set up a thousand households, depending on the importance of the strategic position of each place. In fact, in the early days of the Ming Dynasty, except for a few areas, most of them were a government and a thousand households, fixed stationed here, and these guards usually farmed and cultivated the land, and when they needed to fight, they put on military uniforms and became soldiers. It's just that in the middle and late Ming Dynasty, due to too many places that need to use soldiers and other reasons, there are full-time battalion soldiers, most of these battalions are recruited by the commander of the army himself, and the usual salary, food and accommodation are solved by the commander, of course, the imperial court will allocate a part of the silver taels, but after the layers of deductions, it will definitely be greatly discounted in the hands of the soldiers.

Take Shandong as an example, under the system of guards, according to the regulations, each province can only have one thousand households, and the strength of the army is about 1,120 people, and the six provinces in Shandong can only be equipped with more than 6,000 people. Moreover, the guards are hereditary, farming in peacetime, soldiers in wartime, there were many wars in the late Ming Dynasty, and many guards did not want their sons to continue to be soldiers to fight, and the soldiers naturally became fewer and fewer, but there were so many battles to be fought in the imperial court, so there were full-time battalions, and the battalion system (also known as the recruitment system) was produced, like the "Qi Family Army" belonged to this nature. Whether it is in the southeast or in the north to resist Mongolia, Qi Jiguang has brought his own 3,000 "Qi family army", to a certain extent, the "Qi family army" is somewhat similar to Qi Jiguang's personal private soldiers, it is said that Qi Jiguang in order to raise military funds for his army, but also bribed Hu Zongxian, the governor of Zhejiang, and even sent a geisha to Zhang Juzheng.

After Qi Jiguang became famous, the battalion system began to carry forward, and in the late Ming Dynasty, the army system was mainly based on the battalion system, but the guard system still existed at the same time, and the battalion system and the guard system coexisted, which was also one of the reasons for the serious phenomenon of "empty salary" in the barracks.

The supreme commander of the Qingzhou military camp was General Shi Changting, and there was an infantry battalion, a cavalry battalion, and a firearms battalion under its jurisdiction. The whole infantry battalion was about 3,000 men, each of which was led by five generals and about 600 men, with the chief below the sentry officer, the captain, and the chief, ten men as one serge, three sentry as the team, three sentry as the sentry, and five sentry as the general. The chief who led Zhong Nan is called Chen Kepeng, a typical Shandong man, tall and mighty, and his voice is also very loud, but he is very good to people, and he did not suppress and dislike Zhong Nan because he came to fill the army.

It is winter now, whether it is the Japanese or the Ming army, it is the season of cultivation. Although there is no battle to fight for the time being, the soldiers still need to practice every day, and the content is determined by the commanders, and the common ones are nothing more than formations, offensive and defensive drills, etc., as for the special personal martial arts training, there are not much, because no matter how high the martial arts on the battlefield are, it is not as good as tacit team cooperation, not to mention that there are thousands of generals in the first rank, which is also very rare.

During the time when Zhong Nan was a cook, in addition to training the strength of his arms, other parts such as his stomach and big and lower legs were all greasy fat. Fortunately, during the previous period of being escorted, the amount of exercise was large, the food was simple enough, and most of the fat was lost, and this achievement was useful in the army.

The soldiers' daily training is very boring, stabbing, chopping, chopping, poking, and picking with weapons...... Or running with Lingqi, spinning in circles, etc., most people will reject these, but Zhong Nan gritted his teeth and insisted, because he knew that the harder he practiced now, the easier it would be to survive on the battlefield in the future. And after the daily routine training, he will practice - running laps along the barracks, or push-ups, sit-ups, squats and other exercises, and sometimes using weapons as dumbbells. The results of such desperate training are obvious, not only is there no fat on the whole body, but the eight-pack abs are also sharp and angular, and the muscles on the back, arms and legs are full of lines.

As the weather in Qingzhou became colder and colder, the third Spring Festival after Zhong Nan came to this time and space arrived. The Spring Festival is of too important significance to the Chinese, so those soldiers and generals who are not local to Qingzhou will have family leave, but the big head soldiers like Zhong Nan do not have this benefit, they plus some soldiers who are willing to stay behind, generals and local guards, the troops retained during the Spring Festival in Qingzhou Mansion are not small, as long as it is not a large-scale enemy attack, it is enough to deal with it.

During the Spring Festival, everyone doesn't have to practice, only Zhong Nan still trains every day, and in addition to training every day during the holiday, he will also hang out in Qingzhou City with Chen Kepeng, the chief of the company, and Cui Dazheng, the big soldier. Chen Kepeng and Cui Dazheng are both local bachelors, a little bit of kinship, because they don't have a wife to care, they spend their monthly salaries every day, and sometimes they ask for money from their families. The two of them are really good to Zhong Nan, they won't forget him if they have anything to eat and drink, and they will get together wherever they go, if someone bullies Zhong Nan, the two will definitely stand up for him, and slowly, a small group of three people will be formed.

Chen Kepeng was 28 years old, originally a guard soldier, but was later transferred to the infantry battalion, fought several small battles, and got a junior officer. Cui Dazheng is 22 years old, he was in the infantry battalion when he was recruited the year before last, and he originally thought that he would be able to be a soldier and have enough to eat, but he didn't think much about whether he would not be able to come back when he went to the battlefield. Cui Dazheng also thought about it after going to the battlefield twice, if he was unlucky enough to die in any battle, it would not be wronged, at least it was much better than starving to death.

Not long after lunch today, Chen Kepeng and Cui Dazheng came together, and the two took Zhong Nan to the city to play. It turned out that Chen Kepeng was addicted to gambling, and Cui Dazheng was also said to be itchy, so the three of them found a gambling house where they often went to have a small gamble, and in the gambling house, Chen Kepeng and Cui Dazheng were gambling, Zhong Nan just watched, and did not bet. As a result, they were lucky, played until six o'clock in the afternoon, and won more than one or two silver.

Out of the gambling house, the three of them found a high-end restaurant, and had a good meal on the principle that it is a sin not to spend the money. After the wine and food were full, the three of them were full of wine, burped, and strode down the stairs, only to see a group of people coming to the door of the restaurant, the leader was a sixteen or seventeen-year-old boy, and there were two Chinese teenagers of the same age as him behind. ”

When the guy saw that the big customer was coming, he hurriedly trotted over and greeted him warmly: "A few sons, I'm sorry, the private room is full, why don't you deign it?" "It's true that there are no private rooms, but the guy doesn't want to miss this kind of generous guests, and he laughs and asks for advice.

I saw the family who was shouting just now saying, "Then make room for us!" A swaggering tone.

The guy was embarrassed, licked his face and asked the leading young man: "This son, there are guests in the private room, how can the small one be so easy to drive people, you say yes?" ”

The boy didn't speak, turned his head to look around, and suddenly froze, his eyes fixed on somewhere in front of him, and he froze without moving.

When Chen Kepeng saw this scene, he whispered to Zhong Nan and Cui Dazheng: "There is a good show to watch today!" ”

Zhong Nan didn't know why, he looked at Chen Kepeng suspiciously, Shi Chang pursed his mouth, motioned to look at the stunned young man, and at the same time covered his mouth with his hand and said: "That's Huang Gongzi of the Laizhou prefect's family, as soon as he sees a beautiful girl, he can't walk the road, and he will never stop until he ties it back." ”

"Aren't you afraid of reporting to the police?" Zhong Nan was surprised.

"What's the use of reporting to the official, his son is the prefect of Laizhou, and he is good friends with the deputy chief soldier Qiu, and I heard that there are relatives who are big officials in Beijing." Cui Dazheng on the side said.

"Can the prefect of Laizhou still manage our Qingzhou?" Zhong Nan was puzzled.

"Laizhou is next to our Qingzhou, and the officials know each other, who will offend him for a big thing!" Chen Kepeng explained.

While the three of them were talking, another sharp-beaked monkey-cheeked family member looked at his master's eyes, and saw that on the dining table in front of the right, there was an old man and a young man eating, the old one was an old man in his sixties, and the younger one was a fifteen or sixteen-year-old woman, and the two should be a pair of grandchildren. The woman was born with a good appearance, a delicate face, a graceful figure, it was the age of a flower, the family knew the virtue of his master, he must have taken a fancy to the girl, he strode to the table of the two, and said with a smile: "This girl, my son-in-law wants to share a table with you." ”

The little girl looked very innocent, and found that there were several empty tables in the lobby, she pointed to one of them, and asked puzzledly, "Isn't there still a place there, why do you have to share a table with us?" ”

Huang Gongzi hurriedly stepped forward and said with a smile: "Don't, girl, this son just likes to share a table with you." ”

The other two teenagers and a group of family members in the same company said: "Our Huang Gongzi likes to share the table the most!" The tone is indescribably debauched and lewd, and now even a fool knows what Huang Gongzi is going to do.

The little girl hurriedly hid behind the old man, and the old man also stood up and begged for mercy at the young man: "Son, you are good, let my granddaughter go!" ”

As soon as he heard this, Huang Gongzi was not happy, "What's wrong with following this son's fragrant food and spicy drink, a lot of girls can't ask for it, don't you know how to lift up, you can bear it if you annoy me!" ”