Qimen Barracks. Flags fluttered, drums shook the sky, and dust flew up.

On the huge school field, the officers and men of the Hundred Battles Army are training their own skills, or practicing their ears, or training their ears and eyes, or practicing queues, or practicing boxing, everything is in order.

Although the subjects practiced by the soldiers were different, they were all sweating profusely and looking solemn. Next to each of them, the huge "leader" flag and the "no bird" flag fluttered in the wind, or told of honor, or told of unwillingness. The leaders are waving whips and scolding, or they are talking about the confession of their faces, or they are teaching by hand.

"Zhou Ming! How many times has Lao Tzu said that the key to learning to shoot a bow and arrow is to push Mount Tai with the front hand, and hold the tiger tail with the back hand! Slow open the bow and press the arrow! Your strength has been eaten by dogs, your hands are shaking, just like you, Taishan has already smashed you, and the tiger has already turned around and bit off your head! Force, retract, steady, steady, do you understand? Straight sissy thief! ”

"The head of the rule book only talks about it once, and when you hear it clearly, if someone does something wrong later, Lao Tzu will beat him to death! Practicing the queue, everyone is required to position, the ranks are neat, the left and right are advancing and retreating, all forming a rank, sitting and kneeling, and obeying the order. There are rules, so how do you do it? Listen well, the requirement is not to crowd the column, not to be sparse, to look at the heart in the front, to look at the back, and to look at the shoulders left and right! Don't understand? If you don't understand, then let's see clearly! ”

"Let me tell you, there are three major advantages for a sergeant to practice boxing: first, he can move his hands and feet, which is necessary to strengthen his body; Second, as the saying goes, 'boxing is also the source of martial arts', and boxing is also the basis for practicing all kinds of weapons; third, when it comes to the battlefield, once the weapon is damaged or taken off, it is necessary to fight hand-to-hand with the enemy and fight hand-to-hand combat......

Li Congjing inspected various areas to check the training of soldiers. There are nearly 3,000 soldiers in the Hundred Battles Army, and there are differences in the training subjects and the subjects that are practiced together, and some of the soldiers have just entered the barracks, and there are also veterans in the army, and their levels are also different.

He didn't say a word, he just looked with his eyes. As for the problems, he would ask the people who followed him to take detailed notes and raise them at the meeting at a later meeting.

After a routine inspection, Li Congjing called Meng San over and said to him: "The sergeants you trained have won the 'leader' banner for three consecutive days, and they are supposed to take the first or second school exams, so you will gather them here." ”

Meng San got the order, immediately assembled the five hundred sergeants, and asked Li Congjing for instructions, "Commander Du, which subject do you want to take the exam?" ”

Li Congjing said: "In the training of the army, the ears and eyes are the first priority, and the envoy will see how well the ears and eyes are trained." ”

The so-called "training of ears and eyes" refers to the ability of training officers and men to "judge the golden drum" and "distinguish the flag," and is the foundation of military training. Because of the large field and the large number of sergeants on the battlefield, it is impossible for the non-commissioned officers to hear the voice of the general, nor can they read the written orders of the general, so the actions of each sergeant in each unit depend entirely on listening to the sound of the golden drum and watching the changes in the command flag.

When Meng San heard this, he said "get the order", and then shouted to his subordinates: "Today, the commander of the envoy wants to test the training results of the school, and you have listened to me, how to train on weekdays, how to act at this time!" ”

As he spoke, he saw that with a wave of the command flag in his hand, the military formation of five hundred sergeants became a long snake formation, which changed in a compact and orderly manner, without a trace of chaos. Meng Sanling waved the flag again, and the drums in the audience were shaken, and 500 people strode forward neatly, with the same pace, and no one looked left or right during the period.

Meng San's face showed a look of satisfaction, and when the horizontal team reached the end of the school field, he waved the command flag in his hand again, the drum suddenly stopped, the gong sounded, and the horizontal team turned back. After that, Meng San increased the difficulty, waved the command flag up and down twice, and swung left and right three times, and the horizontal team immediately turned into a three-way column and continued to advance in the sound of drums. No one made a sound during the whole process, and no one made a mistake.

Li Congjing touched his chin and looked at it carefully, but did not speak.

Li Congjing didn't speak, and Meng San continued to wave the flag. The flag was waved twice, and the column turned into a horizontal line again; The flag waved again, and the horizontal team quickly turned back. After a while, the horizontal team marched to the side of the school field again, and Meng San was about to wave the order flag, Li Congjing suddenly waved his hand to stop him, and said loudly: "Beat the drum hard!" ”

When the drum officer heard Li Congjing's words, he immediately snatched the drumstick from the drummer's hand and beat the drum so hard that the drum sounded loudly.

The sergeants who walked to the edge of the school field heard the sound of drums and continued to rush forward, and they all hesitated. The sergeants stood still, and some of them looked back, at a loss, as if waiting for a change in military orders.

It's a pity that the military order has not changed. Meng San was sweating profusely, so he couldn't remind him out loud, so he could only do it in a hurry.

The leading junior colonel finally reacted and shouted loudly: "Go forward, don't look back!" "Walk out of the school yard with the queue.

Li Congjing waved his hand, signaled the drumming to stop, and said to Meng San, who looked embarrassed: "Summoning the sergeants to come and assemble." ”

Meng Sanling's flag waved, and after a short time, five hundred sergeants lined up again in front of Li Congjing.

Li Congjing stood in front of these sergeants and said loudly: "Since ancient times, the army that has always won has been strict in command, and under the military order, the soldiers behave in a moderate manner. When fighting against the enemy, if the drums do not stop, there is a mountain of swords and a sea of fire in front of you, and you must move forward; And once the gong sounds, even if there is a mountain of gold and silver in front of it, it needs to be returned immediately. In the army, the golden drum banner is the main general's order, and the military order refers to the fact that the army is running, and there can be no two. You must keep this training in mind and practice well, so that you can become a disciplined and extraordinary combat force, invincible, and ...... on the battlefield."

When leaving, Li Congjing encouraged Meng San to say a few words and asked him to hurry up training.

Back to the big tent, Li Congjing called Peng Zushan over.

Peng Zushan is the middle-aged man who arrived with Mo Li, Zhang Ziyun and others, and is the right-hand man of Li Congjing's father Li Siyuan, who is especially famous for being good at training soldiers and fighting well. He is quite knowledgeable about poetry and books, and he is a rare Confucian general. After returning to Qimen, Li Congjing asked Peng Zushan to quickly familiarize himself with all things in the army, so that he could lead the training of the army.

After Peng Zushan entered the account, Li Congjing beckoned him to sit down, and then asked, "Is Brother Peng already familiar with all the things in the military camp?" ”

"With the guidance of the people from the Gongzi faction, they are all familiar with it." Peng Zushan said, and there was no lack of respect for Li Congjing.

Li Congjing nodded and said, "If I use Brother Peng as a military envoy to preside over military training, why will Brother Peng teach me?" ”

Li Congjing is asking the right question, Peng Zushan knows that he has to come up with a training program, fortunately, he has already had a draft in the past few days, and he is already proficient in military training, so he said without hurry: "The key to military training is to take the precepts first, and take the ears and eyes, courage, queue, physical strength, boxing, skills and other subjects as the main body, and do the things of the ears, eyes, hands, feet, and heart, and do it day by day, so that there will be strong soldiers." ”

These words seem simple, but in fact, people who are not proficient in the art of war cannot summarize it, Li Congjing bowed his head and motioned for Peng Zushan to continue.

Peng Zushan continued: "Teaching precepts first, the so-called 'teaching' is 'teaching with etiquette and righteousness, teaching with faithfulness', so that the sergeant knows his master, knows the rank, is loyal to his master, and obeys the humble; ”

"As far as training subjects are concerned, there are slight differences in the subjects depending on the type of troops. This matter is simple and clear, but it is quite difficult for the sergeants to practice every day and strive for excellence, and the key lies in the supervision of the commander and the spur of rewards and punishments. Among them, the method of military training, do not train the heart first, and the hearts of the people are one, then millions of people, that is, the body of one person......"

Peng Zushan sprinkled and talked eloquently, and talked about the training program for half an hour. In the end, Peng Zushan concluded: "The strength of the army is in training, Sun Tzu is training the army, and he can fold and cancel the enemy, but he will beat the drum and join the army, and finally help Wu to break through the strong Chu in the west, Qi Jin in the north, and invade Yue in the south, making Wu the last overlord in the Spring and Autumn Period." If the son can train the army seriously, over time, the three thousand soldiers, all of whom are brave and good at fighting, will be invincible, and few people in the world can compete with the hundred battle army! ”

After Peng Zushan finished speaking, Li Congjing was silent for a long time, raised his head, but his eyes were already bright, he walked out of the general, went to Peng Zushan, and bowed to him, "I want to take Brother Peng as the deputy general of the Hundred Battles Army, and manage the training of the three thousand Hundred Battles Army, if Brother Peng can practice what Fang Cai said, he will succeed in the expedition one day, and he will live up to Brother Peng's grace!" ”

Li Congjing's behavior made Peng Zushan stunned for a moment, and in an instant, Peng Zushan hurriedly helped Li Congjing up, looked into his eyes, and asked seriously: "Does Gongzi really want to use Peng's method to train the Hundred Battles Army?" ”

"Why not?" Li Congjing asked rhetorically. He knew what Peng Zushan was worried about, there were many towns in the world nowadays, but the generals of each town were training their troops, and they all wanted to achieve rapid combat power so that they could do conquests, so they trained to have long skills and weak systems. However, Peng Zushan's training program requires "teaching and precepts first", and during the period, it even includes "training soldiers when the weather is fine, and learning to read poetry and books when it rains". In a word, Peng Zushan's military training program not only requires a comprehensive military training system, but also conducts cultural, ideological, and moral education, which is a level that is basically not covered in the world's festivals and towns at present, especially the latter.

Li Congjing said: "The world has been conquered for a long time, the population has decreased sharply, and it is difficult to find a good family. Although these sergeants were able to take advantage of the courage of the moment and make the army tenacious at some times, they were unruly and untamable, and it was not uncommon for them to betray their superiors and kill generals. If I can't reform them, I'd rather not have such an army! ”

Peng Zushan said: "But Gongzi knows that to train the army in this way, it must be extremely difficult and difficult. In the end, this method is not used by the old generals, but can the son think about it? ”

Li Congjing said with a smile: "If the husband does something, he will also do something." If you train in this way, you will get rare elites, why should Brother Peng hesitate? ”

In fact, Peng Zushan's method of training soldiers is not ahead of its time, which is discussed by many sages in military books. It's just that this Confucian general wants to realize it all, which can be said to be a bookish spirit. But Peng Zushan didn't expect that he met a Li Congjing from later generations who knew the stakes.

In the 20 th century, the Red Army did not die in a hundred battles, and on the Long March, only more than 20,000 of the 80,000 people remained, but their combat strength still existed. In any era, if an army suffers more than half of the casualties, and is running around on the road, it is not a government army, then it is strange that the rest of the people do not run away for you.

Li Congjing revered such an army, although he knew that because of the times, he could not replicate such an army, but he wanted to work hard to achieve the ultimate in this era, to get infinitely close to this mythical army!

With such an army, survival in troubled times can be guaranteed; Compete for the world, there is capital.

Peng Zushan was silent for a while, took two steps back, bowed deeply to Li Congjing, and sighed when he got up: "The ambition of the son, the last general will know it today!" ”