In the middle of summer, the rice paddies outside the city are golden and the sun is dazzling.

In front of the South Gate Public Relations Temple in Macheng County, several gongs sounded, attracting the people who came to the market early in the morning to shop and sell.

Under the row of large willow trees in front of the Guan Gong Temple, there were several wooden tables, and in front of the table stood a row of people, all wearing red robes, similar to military robes. One of them was beating the gong with all his might, and it was very energetic. On one side, two flagpoles were planted, one flag was painted with "recruitment", and the other flag was embroidered with the word "Xiangyong".

The literate man stood there and introduced to the other people who gathered around, "It looks like this is recruiting village soldiers." ”

A large circle was drawn in lime in the open space in front of the flagpole, and several sturdy young men were standing outside the line to maintain order and keep the onlookers from squeezing across the line.

The person who recruited the troops was Liu Jun, and yesterday he came to the county seat with a group of brothers and Lu Xueqi. After meeting with Li Chunjiang, Li Chunjiang was supposed to come over today to personally preside over the recruitment, but because of temporary matters, Liu Jun was finally appointed to recruit first. A few more family members were sent over, but it was obvious that these Li family members did not pay much attention to Liu Jun, the vice president of the future horse team.

Although people came, they deliberately didn't make any effort, so they sat on the side, yawning lazily, and didn't care about recruiting soldiers at all.

Liu Jun is very clear about these guys, but he doesn't bother to pay attention to them, anyway, he has more than a dozen brothers to help him now, and he doesn't need these guys to work, so it's more worry-free to not have them. As a person who has been a soldier for seven years in his previous life, and has spent two years in martial arts in this life, how can he make it difficult for Liu Jun to recruit a few township soldiers.

Liu Jun looked at the crowd that was gathering with the sound of the gong, and his face showed a satisfied expression.

"Swing our wooden man to the left."

"Third child, you carefully read out our recruitment conditions to everyone."

"Okay." Wang Qian replied. While pasting a few pre-written recruitment notices on the trunks of the willow trees, he was still standing under the trees and reading them.

"Listen, listen. This is the township regiment horse team established by the prince of Chunjiang of Xie Yuan and the son of Liu Jiye of Xiwan, which belongs to the Baoshengbao township regiment under the command of Shen Zhuang Meigong. Those who are willing to participate in the front registration, once the conditions are suitable to pass, each person will have five taels of silver for settling-in, and then two taels of silver per month, in addition to six buckets of monthly rations, for clothes and shoes"

Wang Qian's loud voice shouted, and the crowd of onlookers suddenly became excited.

"This is really fake, can you have two taels of silver in a month? And six buckets of monthly rations? A young man who had entered the city with a string of fish to sell the fish asked in a loud voice.

"Give me back the clothes and socks." Another middle-aged man carrying a basket of eggs also said excitedly.

"Give me back the salt, oil, and pickles!" Not to be outdone, an old lady driving a donkey shouted.

"It must be a lie, there can't be such good conditions." A merchant in a robe thought he was well-informed, but he didn't believe it at all, "I heard that the government in Shaanxi has soldiers, and it only costs ten taels of silver a year." How can this recruit village soldiers have so much silver. Deceiving, certainly deceiving. ”

"This brother, you have to be careful when you speak, and you don't look at who recruits people. Of course, the imperial court recruits less money, but this is the recruitment of the prince of Chunjiang, so can the treatment be the same? Who is the prince of Chunjiang, Xie Yuangong, the genius of the four Shangshu families. ”

"That's it, this soldier is still from the Meigong Township Regiment." Someone shouted.

The merchant was robbed of white, his face was red, but he was still not to be outdone, "I don't believe it, I'm here today to watch, whether it's true or not." ”

Many young people ignored this businessman, but they had already asked Wang Qian how to sign up. For a while, countless young people flocked to the person to sign up.

The treatment of two taels of silver a month is really very tempting, you must know that the archers of the imperial court's inspection department are also selected from the children of local good families to serve, and they generally select young children from families with fifty or sixty acres of land at home. At first, it was used as a kind of service, and later after a whip law, all kinds of service were paid by a whip law, but all kinds of service still had to be served, but at the same time as the service, the court would give the work food silver.

And the archers of the Inspection Division only have seven taels of silver a year. In addition, there are also soldiers in the express shop, which is about the same number a year, and there are not even so many of them in various services such as serving fast shifts and strong classes guarding the treasury access control.

Although Macheng is a rich land, because of the large number of gentry, most of the land is concentrated in the hands of a few landlords and squires, so most of the people rely on tenants or even manual livelihood.

And what is the salary of those craftsmen at this time? Generally speaking, there are two kinds of craftsmen and husbands, and craftsmen and husbands are divided into long-term and short-term workers, and the wages of craftsmen are higher than those of husbands, and the wages of long-term workers are higher than those of short-term workers, but the difference is not very large. Wages vary depending on the type of work.

For example, a painter has six cents of silver a day, a bookbinder has seven cents of silver a day, a charcoal loader and a scaffolding maker have five cents of silver a day, a porter has one and two cents a day, and a female sedan chair man has four cents and eight cents a day. The cleaner had only two cents of silver a day.

In general, an ordinary laborer in Macheng at this time, if he is engaged in unskilled work, is three to four cents of silver a day, some labor-intensive jobs may have five cents of silver a day, and craftsmen with specialized skills may have about five to seven cents of silver a day.

A tael of silver has ten coins, and a penny has ten coins.

An ordinary man with no skills, three or four cents of silver a day, and a full thirty days a month, is only about one or two to one or two dollars.

And now, Liu Jun is recruiting, and the price offered is two taels of silver per month. In addition, there are six buckets of monthly rations, not to mention hair, clothes, shoes, fabrics, oil, salt, etc., and there is also a huge amount of five taels of Anjia silver.

This is far beyond the monthly salary that a craftsman can earn, who is not impressed. Besides, they are just village soldiers, not officials and soldiers of the imperial court, the reputation of the Li family and the Mei family is very good, and everyone is not afraid of being deceived.

There are a lot of people who have signed up, some young people, some middle-aged people, and even some old men with gray hair, who are also crowded to sign up, and there are also some thin little guys.

Zhang Shan stood there with a few people, and there were several wooden figures next to him.

The first choice that applicants have to go through is height.

These wooden figures were made by Liu Jun improvised by the carpenter yesterday, and they were very rough and had human shapes. However, the role of these wooden figures is to compare their height, and several wooden figures are all the same height, each five feet two inches. In the Ming Dynasty, each foot was about 32 centimeters, so five feet and two inches was about 1.66 meters.

It's not too high to set this height standard, but it's not too short either. At the end of the Ming Dynasty, the people in the south were generally not too tall, and the height of 166 should be relatively high.

"I don't see these wooden people, but I can't do it if I am lower than the wooden people. Taller than the wooden man, between the ages of eighteen and twenty-eight. ”

A height of five feet two inches is the first condition for recruitment, and the second condition is age. Liu Jun's age requirement for recruiting recruits is between 18 and 28 years old. It's not appropriate to be too young, it's not appropriate to be too old. Although the upper limit could have been relaxed to forty or even forty-five years old, since it was recruiting new recruits and the conditions were so good, Liu Jun was not afraid that he would not be able to recruit people, so he simply tried to recruit younger ones.

As soon as these two conditions came out, a large number of eager people were immediately discouraged. Many people are either out of age or not tall enough.

"I'm only thirty years old, I'm still young, much more suitable than those guys who haven't grown their feathers yet." There were a few people in their thirties who shouted there unconvinced, but unfortunately the standard is the standard, and there is no possibility of accommodation.

The gang of family members sent by the Li family was sent by Liu Jun at this time, and they had a cold face that was not merciful at all, and drove all those who opposed the protest aside. Several people stood on the white line like door gods, and none of the people who were brushed off should not think about passing through them.

However, even if you pass the two basic conditions of height and age, you will not be happy.

There are many more tests waiting for them.

Applicants who were screened by height and age were taken aside, all in groups of young lads. Liu Jun nodded with satisfaction, I have to say that Macheng is indeed rich and has a large population, even if many places in the late Ming Dynasty were generally sad, but it seems that it has not been affected much.

"The third test of strength, there is a row of stone locks here, which are 100 catties to 300 catties, everyone can choose according to their own ability, you can try a few more times. After the test, each person can go to that end and get two biscuits to eat. Liu Jun said loudly to the group of applicants who had passed the first two levels.

The first level measures height, the second level measures age, and the third level measures strength.

The minimum standard is to carry a 50-pound stone lock in each hand, and lift it ten times to be qualified. Of course, if the more natural the strength, the better, the higher the score, if you can directly lift the two hundred catties of Qinglong Yanyue Knife borrowed from the Guan Gong Temple, and dance, then you can get the highest score.

Liu Jun can lift the two-hundred-pound big knife, but he can only barely dance a few laps. Of course, it's just barely dancing a few laps, and you can't hold the battle, which is just a test of strength. In the Ming Dynasty, except for the Liu Dadao who really used a big knife of more than 100 catties as a combat weapon, there was no second such a bull.

Many people were ruthlessly brushed down in the third level, even if it was the minimum requirement to lift fifty catties of stone locks on each hand ten times, not everyone could pass. Most people can't do it, so they can only take two baked cakes outside the line to watch the excitement.

Although many people have been swept down, they can still receive two fragrant pancakes after such a while, and they are still very satisfied.

On the side of the table, a family member from the Li family looked at the lively scene, but frowned, and smiled disapprovingly, "Why are you making such a trouble, just lead the horse out, put the bow on the table, and let people try to ride and shoot." "This man has broad shoulders and a narrow back, and he is full of beard, and he is very burly. Among the gang of family members from the Li family, this person is obviously a head.

Liu Jun smiled and said, "Macheng is not the north after all, let alone the land of the nine sides, where are there so many people who can ride horses and shoot arrows." Therefore, I have no choice but to try to choose the ones that are closer, let's recruit a group of young and strong ones, and then go back to training. ”

"If you pass the strength test, take it over there and let them try it on horseback!" Liu Jun said to the bearded man, "You are an expert in this area, so you will test it yourself." ”