"This old man, we haven't had such a large-scale recruitment in Luzhou for a long time, what is going on this time, is it because of the disadvantage of the war with the Wu army?" In the surrounding crowd, a burly, dignified-looking young man asked an elegant-looking middle-aged man beside him with a flash in his eyes.

The middle-aged man was dressed more exquisitely, and at a glance, he knew that his identity was not simple, at least he should have a certain status in Luzhou City.

This person was originally going to say a few perfunctory words, but seeing that everyone around him was a little curious, he said: "There is a reason for this, the king and the Wu army have been fighting in Henan recently, and the battle has not been very smooth, and it is said that many soldiers have been lost; In addition, the war in Zhenzhou, Weizhou and other places also made no progress, especially in Zhenzhou, where our marshal died in battle; Therefore, of course, our Zhaoyi Army must expand its army. ”

Everyone around them nodded when they heard this, in their opinion, the Zhaoyi Army is part of the Jin Army, since the Jin Army has been unfavorable recently, it is normal for the Zhaoyi Army to expand its army.

Only the young man before flashed his eyes, pretending to be curious and continued to ask: "If this is the case, it makes sense, but I heard that after the death of the marshal, the king originally planned to let the marshal be buried in Jinyang, but several sons disobeyed the king's order and buried the marshal in Luzhou. I heard that the king was very angry about this; And except for our Zhaoyi Army, the other feudal towns have not heard of the expansion of the army, I wonder if my brother knows why? ”

Li Jitao and other brothers insisted on welcoming Li Sizhao back to Luzhou for burial, which was not a secret in the first place, and everyone present had basically heard of it.

However, the local festival envoys have always been unruly, and it is not a strange thing to violate the decree of the imperial court in this era, so everyone did not care about this matter before, and only felt that although Li Jitao and others violated the decree of the King of Jin, their behavior was still within the normal range.

But now that young people are mentioning it like this, some well-intentioned people immediately notice that there is something abnormal in it.

There is no large-scale expansion of the army in other places, but the Zhaoyi Army, which has just had an unpleasant quarrel with the King of Jin, is expanding the army, and it is still expanding the army when the original marshal Li Sizhao has just died in battle, and the new marshal has not yet been appointed, and the problem here is not simple.

The middle-aged Confucian glanced at the young man meaningfully, and said, "It's just a small people, how do you know the reason for this?" And even if you know, you don't dare to talk nonsense. I don't think everyone should discuss this matter, anyway, now that the world is in turmoil, it is where heroes come into play; If you consider yourself to be a man of great valor and strength, you may be drafted into the army. Maybe he can get ahead in the future and become a marshal? ”

"It's a pity that in the next study, this thing of dancing knives and guns really can't be done, otherwise I would have been recruited as a soldier and fought for the future!" The middle-aged man sighed.

Everyone was encouraged by him, and many people suddenly moved.

The young man, in particular, was even more impressed, for he was already a burly man and full of courage, and it would have been a pity that he had not been recruited as a soldier.

What's more, in this troubled world, if a person from a civilian background like him wants to become a master, the only way is to fight on the battlefield.

As for whether Li Jitao has any other intentions to recruit troops on such a large scale, and what does this have to do with him? As long as he can be given a chance to make a contribution, even if he follows Li Jitao to rebel, why not?

Thinking of this, the young man made a quick decision and joined the ranks of the recruits; In front of him, hundreds of people were waiting in line.

……

"Second son, there are more soldiers who have come to recruit in the afternoon than in the morning, and eight hundred have successfully passed the selection so far; It is estimated that by this evening, there should be about 1,500 soldiers who have finally passed the selection. ”

In the barracks, a young general wearing black armor with a scar on his face respectfully introduced Li Jitao, who came to inspect.

This young general is Li Sizhao's pro-army general, and he is also Li Jitao's confidant, named Shenmeng; This was the person who escorted Li Sizhao's coffin back to Luzhou.

This recruitment operation was also carried out by Shen Meng.

"We can recruit 1,500 troops in one afternoon, plus 1,000 in the morning, which means that we can recruit 2,500 people today; And the deadline for our recruitment is still a few days away, and it seems that it will not be difficult to recruit 10,000 troops. Li Jitao said with joy on his face.

Beside Li Jitao, staff member Wei Zhuo spoke: "Second son, we haven't recruited troops on a large scale in Luzhou for a long time, and it's normal to be able to recruit so many soldiers this time. However, after all, recruiting soldiers is only one aspect, and the more important thing is to obtain the righteous name as soon as possible. ”

Li Jitao frowned and said: "I naturally understand what you said, but you also know that there are still many people who oppose me in the entire Zhaoyi Town, whether it is Zhang Juhan, the prison army, or Ren Yuan, the judge of Jiedu, and Pei You, the assassin of Zezhou, these are all against me." You know their prestige, but it's hard to get them to obey me! ”

He paused, and then hesitated: "What's more important is my brother, after all, he is the eldest son, and he also serves as the assassin of Luzhou, not to mention anything else, it is not so easy to deal with my elder brother." If we act rashly, in case we fail......"

Li Jitao's elder brother Li Jiyu served as the assassin of Luzhou, this person has a weak personality and has no majesty in the Zhaoyi Army, but no matter how he says he is also the eldest son, even if the son inherits his father's business, his name is more than Li Jitao.

Previously, Li Jitao's staff Wei Zhuo suggested that he directly launch a mutiny to imprison Li Jiyu, and then wrote to the king of Jin in the name of all the soldiers, asking the king of Jin to set up Li Jitao as the queen of the festival.

Now that the Jin army is fighting on three sides, the Khitans in the north have invaded year after year, the Zhenzhou of Hebei has not yet been pacified, and the Wu state in the south is eyeing the tiger, in this case, Wei Zhuo believes that the king of Jin will definitely compromise and appease Zhaoyi Town through an edict.

However, this also means a complete break with the Jin State, and Li Jitao can't make up his mind now.

"The second son, the so-called wealth and danger are sought. Now that the superintendent Zhang Juhan is in Weizhou, and the judge Ren Yuan is in Zhenzhou, if these two people return to Luzhou, I am afraid that it will be more difficult for the second son to gain more power. And don't forget, the second son insisted on letting the marshal return to Luzhou for burial, which has made the king dissatisfied. If the second prince still hesitates now, the king will be liquidated in the future......," Wei Zhuo persuaded him.

"This ......" Li Jitao hesitated a little, but in his heart he was already inclined to accept Wei Zhuo's suggestion.

Although he was reluctant to break with the Jin State, he knew that as long as he still wanted to inherit the power of Zhaoyi Town, it would be a matter of time before he broke with the Jin State.

What's more, this recruitment of the Zhaoyi Army was actually an order given by him himself, and he did not get the permission of King Jin.

To some extent, he is now separated from the King of Jin.

Wei Zhuo continued: "On the other hand, if the second prince can inherit Zhaoyi Town, with the strength of our Zhaoyi Army, even if the king wants to liquidate, he will not dare to do it at will; What's more, as long as we have the strength, we can find another way. ”

Although Wei Zhuo didn't say it explicitly, Li Jitao understood what he meant, and this was another way, of course, to use the power of Wu to resist the Jin State.

I believe that as long as he is willing to take refuge, Wu Guo will gladly accept him.

Just as Li Jitao was thinking about it, there was a burst of cheers outside the barracks.

"Good!"

"Awesome!"

Listening to these cheers, Li Jitao's heart moved, and he hurriedly asked Shen Meng, "What's going on?" ”

Shen Meng hurriedly went out to inquire, and after a while, he returned and said, "Second son, in the selection process of our army's recruitment just now, there was a young man who showed great courage, so he attracted everyone's applause. ”

"Oh? How does this person behave? Li Jitao suddenly became interested.

"This person just pulled a stone bow and shot six arrows in a row from a hundred paces, all of which hit the bull's-eye, so it attracted everyone's applause!" Shen Mengdao.

"And such a man, bring him to me!" Li Jitao immediately ordered.

He knew that according to the selection criteria of the Zhaoyi Army set when Li Sizhao was still in the past, as long as he could shoot a stone bow and shoot three out of six arrows from a distance of fifty steps, he was an extremely good soldier and could join the Zhaoyi Army.

However, it is precisely because the selection standards are somewhat high, so the number of soldiers who can pass the selection has not been much, so this time Li Jitao deliberately lowered the selection standards.

But at the moment, there are people who can shoot six shots from a hundred steps away, which is much stronger than the original standard, such a brave person, even in the era of Li Sizhao is extremely rare, Li Jitao of course wants to win over.

After a while, Shen Meng walked in with a burly young man.

Li Jitao immediately showed an appreciative look when he saw it, and said directly: "Who are you?" I'm going to let you be a soldier by my side, what do you think? ”

The young man was the person who asked the elegant middle-aged man on the side of the street before, he already knew the identity of the noble son in front of him at this time, and when he heard that the other party wanted to serve as his own personal soldier, he suddenly felt happy in his heart, and said: "In Xia Guowei, Yaoshan people, willing to serve as the prince's personal soldier, go to the soup for the son, and do not hesitate!" ”

"Guo Wei? Okay, what a good one to go to the soup and go to the fire, don't give up! As long as you are loyal to me, my son will ensure you a rich future! Li Jitao laughed.

……

A few days later, Li Jitao staged a mutiny in Luzhou, and the rebellious army rushed into the Assassin's Mansion and imprisoned Li Jiyu; He also made the soldiers make a scene, pretending to kidnap him, and asked him to be established as the queen of the Zhaoyi Festival.

As expected, although Li Cunmiao, the king of Jin, was furious after learning the news, he had to compromise with Li Jitao under the current situation, change the Zhaoyi Army to the An Yi Army, and take Li Jitao as the Jie Du to stay behind.

At this point, the Zhaoyi Army, a feudal town that had previously made great contributions to the Jin State's expedition to the east and west, began to move towards independence. Stand; And Wu will also have one more breakthrough to attack Jin in the future, which will have a significant impact on Jin and Wu's struggle for hegemony.