Outside the city of Yangzhou, the school field of the new barracks.

In the past month or so, there have been 121 children of the guards who have rushed to Yangzhou from all over the country, most of whom are the children of the hereditary guards of thousands of households, generals of Wujie and Zhaowu lieutenants, such hereditary officers of the five and six grades of the guards.

Liangguang, Guizhou, Huguang, Jiangxi, and the two southern provinces, most of these people are hopeless, and they are not willing to be a landlord and obscurity, and when they get the documents of the Ministry of War, they hear that the Jiangbei Governor's Office is recruiting officers for the guard, and once they are hired, they will be given real posts, and those who are interested in making meritorious contributions will come one after another.

At the end of the Ming Dynasty, although the guard system had been eroded, and the guards were unusable and had long been reduced to farmers, it has to be said that there were still many talents among the children of the guards. In particular, these hereditary children of officers, unlike ordinary military households, are mostly wealthy, completely free from heavy labor, and have the conditions and time to practice ancestral martial arts and learn the art of war from an early age.

Although the imperial court also had martial arts, it did not attach much importance to martial arts, and even if he was a martial artist, he was only a low-level officer in the army. These sons of the guards all have hereditary military positions, but they don't look down on the martial arts of the imperial court.

But now, under the instruction of Chen Yue, rumors of the reduction and cancellation of hereditary military positions are circulating everywhere, although the imperial court has not officially followed, but in the past few months, the procedures for inheriting the hereditary position have been difficult to do, coupled with the promise of the Jiangbei Governor's Office, once hired, they will be given a position that matches the hereditary military position, which makes many children of the guard come to Yangzhou thousands of miles away.

Unwilling that the prosperity of Yangzhou City would destroy the fighting spirit of these people, Chen Yue ordered all the children of the guard who came to Yangzhou to come to the new barracks in the north after reporting, and the assessment was also here.

The assessment is divided into two steps, one is to assess the individual's martial arts, which is divided into five links: bow technique (or gun), horsemanship, weapons, strength, and endurance. Each link is divided into five classes, the first class is the highest, the fifth class is the lowest, and only those who are listed above the third class are qualified. If the two links are unqualified, they will be eliminated.

I have to say that those who dare to come to Yangzhou thousands of miles away are basically incompetent. In addition, the assessment subjects designed by the Governor's Office are not too difficult, and basically all the children who came to the health office passed the first step of the assessment.

Of course, the first class of the five ranks is the most rare, such as archery, ten shots outside a hundred paces and nine Chinese are the first class, riding is the first class to be able to run horses and shoot arrows ten times and five Chinese sides, can skillfully use weapons and can defeat five Pingnan Army dare warriors to attack the first class, the strength can lift 200 catties of stones for the first class, and the endurance can run 20 miles in an hour without stopping is the first class.

The third class is easy, the first class is too difficult, but there are many good people who come to apply, and several of them are up-and-coming, ranking first in a certain subject.

Suzhou Yang Xiaolei's archery technique is 100 steps away, and he ranks first class, becoming the best in the assessment.

Gu Jincheng of Sichuan had an amazing force, and he relied on a knife to defeat the five daring soldiers of the Pingnan Army, becoming the only first-class weapon.

Mingzhou Shen Zijian's endurance is very good, and the distance of twenty miles was completed in only three quarters of an hour, and his endurance was rated as first-class.

Huguang Peng Tent is proficient in horsemanship, immediately riding and shooting ten shots and six hits, riding skills first-class, won the favor of the cavalry commander Yu Feng, and came to Chen Yue before the assessment was over.

The second step of the assessment relies on the art of war, strategy, and marching skills. After all, Chen Yue wanted to recruit officers who could lead troops to fight, not just martial artists who were proficient in martial arts. No matter how good his personal martial arts are, he can at most be able to fight a few enemies, and it will not play a big role in the formation of the two armies.

This step of the assessment is a set of written test questions after the consultation of everyone in the General Staff Division. Unlike the art of war, which relied on the martial arts of the imperial court, this assessment did not rely on strategy, but on basic skills in leading troops. The questions are all drawn from the "New Book of Discipline and Effectiveness" and the "Actual Record of Military Training," and they test their basic military skills.

The whole set of test questions is divided into 10 sub-questions, which respectively examine the contents of recruitment, training, marching, camping, marching, array, generals, rewards and punishments, ordnance, archery, etc.

Only those who are familiar with military books and understand them well can answer all the questions correctly.

Due to the superiority of life, the officers of the guard also pay attention to the cultivation of the knowledge of their children, and many people have the impression that the soldiers are mostly vulgar martial artists who do not know big words, in fact, there is no shortage of people with good knowledge in many of the children of the guard. And there are also a lot of jinshi who came from the military status of the guard.

And these people who can come to Yangzhou are the best among them, and most of the military books such as the new book of discipline and the actual record of military training have naturally been read.

At the end of the assessment, Chen Yue was pleased to find that most of them have high military skills, and there is no problem at all to be a middle-level officer, and he is worthy of being the most professional military in the Ming Dynasty!

As a result, the shortage of personnel in the shogunate and the army was greatly alleviated.

At the end of the assessment, Chen Yue took the heads of the shogunate to discuss how to arrange these people, and the turmoil in the coastal salt area spread to Yangzhou.

The guards of the Governor's Mansion came to the new barracks and told Chen Yue that Liang Huanping, the envoy of the salt transport, and Ma Ming, the prefect of Yangzhou, had asked him to return to the city quickly.

"Master Hou, why don't you go back to Yangzhou first, and the arrangements of these people will be delayed." Qian Fenglin said with a solemn expression, he knew that the stakes were very high, and the turmoil in the salt area directly affected the safety of the Governor's Mansion.

"No, these people don't arrange it first, and they are adding an assessment to them." Chen Yue thought about it and shook his head.

"Still want to be assessed?" Qian Fenglin was stunned, these are the only two things that have been arranged in advance!

"On paper, these people are not bad, but the actual ability to lead troops is not necessarily good. Isn't the training of recruits coming to an end? According to our plan, divide the battalion, arrange all these people into the recruit camp, each of them with two general flags, and then let them go to the salt area with the troops! It is a mule or a horse, and you must always see the real chapter on the battlefield, this is the final assessment! ”

Chen Yue said coldly.

"I'm afraid it's not appropriate to let these people lead the troops, right?" Qian Fenglin hesitated, he naturally knew Chen Yue's plan to deal with the salt merchants, and he also knew the move to send troops to the salt area. But is it really appropriate to let these people who are not familiar with the military system of the Pingnan Army lead the troops?

"There's nothing wrong with it, it's just ordinary stove households who are rioting in the salt area, not fierce and cunning thieves, and it's time to test their abilities. Besides, there are veterans who help them as deputies, and they can't get out of the mess. Chen Yue said lightly.

"Okay!" Since Chen Yue had made a decision, Qian Fenglin could only agree, although there was some worry in his heart.

Leaving Qian Fenglin to cooperate with Yang Zhengping to organize and divide the recruits, Chen Yue himself returned to Yangzhou one step ahead to deal with the riots in the salt area.

Liang Huanping, the salt transport envoy, and Ma Mingming, the prefect of Yangzhou, have repeatedly sent people to urge, and Chen Yue really can't delay. He, the governor of Jiangbei, has not shown up, and the officials in Yangzhou are at a loss in the face of this situation.