At dinner that day, two tables of banquets were set up in the second entrance of the Zhao family's courtyard, and Chen Xin's closer people came to participate, including Tan Shunlin, the chief of Erdao Street, who knew that Chen Xin was not what he used to be, so he came to witness to close the distance. Chen Xin had no elders in Tianjin, and Mrs. Zhao was originally a little suspicious, but now that she saw that the general armor had come, she was completely relieved, and Zhao Xiang only came out to meet everyone, and then went back to the boudoir. Of course, no one dared to mention the Xiao family flower during the banquet, so the host and guest enjoyed themselves, even if the family affairs were settled.

Chen Xin was a little drunk, and said goodbye to everyone before the curfew, he and Zhu Guobin first sent the drunken Lao Cai father and son back to Liye Fang, and then went back to Erdao Street. As soon as he got home, the twilight drum of the Bell and Drum Tower rang, Chen Xin suddenly remembered that he had made an appointment with Zhao Xiang to talk at night, and he actually forgot to have a curfew, but he couldn't lose his promise, he still had to go, Chen Xin turned his head to look at the courtyard, everyone was here today because of the family wine.

"Sea dogs, come with me." Chen Xin still calls this dogleg, Zhu Guobin has been a regular subordinate since then, and it is not easy to take it to see his own private affairs.

The sea dog didn't ask where to go, so he followed Chen Xin out, and the two of them first went to the pharmacy on Erdao Street to open the door, and bought a pack of medicine for the cold at random. Then went north out of Jingdongfang, the shop at the entrance of the fang happened to be Zhou Shifa duty today, he saw the two of them go out, came over and said: "Brother Chen, still going out now, don't panic." ”

Chen Xin saw that he was roasting in the middle of the shop, and remembered that he was also going to Weihai together, and happened to ask Zhou Shifa about the situation at home, this Zhou Shifa is also hob meat, never keep money, and has not married in his twenties, his mother passed away last month, and only one younger brother is left, who also became a family, so he plans to follow Chen Xin to Weihai.

Chen Xin thought about his personnel arrangement, so he arranged him to be a guard by his side, this person has been mixed in the Ming army, don't bring those bad habits to the team, take them with you to hone them first.

"Thank you, Brother Chen, I will do a good job, in the future, Brother Chen will beat whoever he tells him to beat, and he will kill whoever he calls." Zhou Shifa rubbed his hands happily.

Chen Xin smiled and said in a low voice: "Shifa, have you ever killed someone?"

Zhou Shifa nodded: "This time I went to Shanhaiguan and cut off the heads of a few deserters." ”

Chen Xin listened to his flat tone, and it seemed that he had a good heart. After a few words of encouragement, Zhou Shifa opened the door to them, and Chen Xin took the sea dog to sneak up on the street outside.

Fortunately, not far from the Confucian Temple at the entrance of the north side, the two of them were cautious all the way, dodged a patrolman, and touched the alley behind the shop. Recently, it has been snowing, the sky is cloudy, there is no light at night, the street can still be distinguished by the white of the snow, and when you enter the alley, you can really reach out and see your fingers.

The sea dog took out the fire fold and wanted to fight, but Chen Xin stopped him and said, "Don't fight, this black light is blind, and you can see it from afar." The sea dog had to put it in his arms again, and the two of them touched the wall all the way forward, and estimated that they had reached the position of the third entrance, and the two took off their gloves and groped carefully on the wall to see if there were any small holes.

After touching it hard for a while, Chen's novice was numb, and finally saw a little light in front of him, and reached out to touch it, and sure enough, there was a thread.

"Mom, I've finally found it." Chen Xin put his eyes to the hole to see, it was still a wooden plank, it seemed that he was impatient, Chen Xin first pulled out the thread a little, put his hand in his arms to cover the heat, and then slowly put the thread through the small hole under the paper tube.

"Hey, hey." Chen Xin screamed twice at the paper tube, but there was no response.

"Dog, slap the wall. Tap and tap that way. ”

After the sea dog slapped a few times, the wooden board inside was removed, and a big eye leaned over to look at the entrance of the cave, still talking, the hole was too small, the wall was thick, Chen Xin put his ear to the hole and couldn't hear clearly, he had to pull the rope a few times, and finally felt that the rope was also pulled twice, and Chen Xin fed the paper tube again. Then put his ear on the paper tube.

"Hey, there's a sound in there." Juxiang's voice came from inside the paper tube.

Chen Xin said to the paper tube again: "Straighten the line." ”

After a while, Zhao Xiang's clear voice came from inside, "Straightened out." ”

"I hear you."

"Ah, it's so clear, villain, what did you get over there, how can there be a sound in the paper tube?"

Chen Xin said proudly: "I am the greatest physicist of our time, and I invented the world's first telephone. ”

Zhao Xiang's voice came from inside the paper tube: "You little man is eccentric, a paper tube can be blown like this, what kind of phone, is it for the electric mother." ”

Chen Xin turned his head to the sea dog and said, "Dog, go to the alley and wait for me to come out." ”

"Oh!" Chen Xin could imagine the smirking expression of the sea dog just by listening to the voice in the dark.

After the sea dog left, Chen Xincai continued: "Lady, you don't understand, Lei Gong speaks like thunder, and the electric mother can hear it without a paper tube......"

"Who told you to scream, I'm not your lady now."

"It's all married, the names on the Sansheng Stone are all written, and they can still run away."

"Little man, are you cold?"

"It's not cold if you accompany you."

There was silence in the paper tube, and Zhao Xiang's voice came faintly: "You have to treat me well in the future, I like you so much, I think about you every day." ”

A long-lost feeling hit Chen Xin's heart, it seemed to be the feeling of first love many years ago, he may have many purposes for looking for Zhao Xiang, but he still likes this little girl very much.

"Little girl, I'll treat you well."

Chen Xin said softly, and then neither of them spoke, quietly listening to the faint sound of breathing in the microphone, enjoying the strange silence. The snowflakes in the sky began to fall again, gently falling on Chen Xin's body, and slowly piling up on his shoulders......

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"All lined up."

Zhu Guobin took the roster and stood by the boat, it was still the original simple wharf, there were many such wharves nearby, and every year some grain in the south was transported to Tianjin by guò shading foreign ships, all of which were in the style of lucky ships, so there were some such wharves nearby.

Chen Xin stood on a box so that everyone could see him, and in front of him were five neat teams of slender men, all standing with their heads held high, their hair tied into a bun with a net scarf, and all of them trimmed their hair (Note 1), and put on a new fat jacket, a piece of cyan, the fat jacket of the Ming army was worn on both sides, the inside was cyan and the outside was red, and the general recruits used cyan to distinguish them from the veterans. And it's not so eye-catching in Tianjin.

During this time, Zhu Guobin and the others trained a little, and these slender men already looked a little, while the group of people in Yanggu led by Dai Zhenggang next to them were much worse, standing crookedly, looking at the queue here stupidly.

Liu Minyou got on the boat first, ordered bedding and food with Zhang Dahui, and also came to the deck to watch the excitement. Liu Minyou looked at the back of Chen Xin in front of the queue, knowing that this old friend was still on the road to hegemony, he couldn't listen to himself, he had his pursuit, Chen Xin was a very determined person when he was studying, and he was definitely not able to change it.

But he kept tossing like this, when would he be able to give birth in peace, Liu Min subconsciously looked in the direction of Tianjin, and touched a pair of gloves in his arms, which was given to him when he went to the store to say goodbye today, and Shen Li didn't see it, and they were all sewn up piece by piece with the scraps left over from making clothes, and I don't know how long she did it, Liu Min sighed in his heart.

Zhu Guobin was beside Chen Xin, and after listening to Chen Xin's muttering respectfully for a while, he came to the group of crooked people in Yanggu and said loudly: "Now regroup, twelve people in each team, the original team members do not move, and the names of those in Yanggu come out." ”

Dai Zhenggang hurriedly asked them to stand better, half of these people in Yanggu are complete farmers, they have been busy cleaning their personal hygiene for the past two days, they have never been trained, Zhangjiawan Slender Man has learned a lot all the way to Tianjin, so it looks like a world of difference.

"Huang Yuan, Jiang Zhe."

"Here we are." Huang Yuan and the others stood up.

Zhu Guobin pointed to the first team and said, "Make up to the end of the team." ”

The two of them stood cringely at the end of the team, and the Zhangjiawan slender men around them turned their heads to look at them, Chen Xin looked at them lightly, and a little thing made the queue fluctuate, after all, the discipline had not been strengthened, and it was not bad to have the current appearance.

When the five squads are completed, this is the soldier planned by Chen Xin, a total of five Mandarin Duck Formation squads. Chen Xin coughed and began to speak: "I am Chen Xin, Weihaiwei Baihu, remember your teammates around you, from now on, you must eat and sleep together." You may be arranged to do things at any time on the ship, you find a way to complete it yourself, if you don't complete it, the whole team will be punished, your five squads are a squadron, I am the squadron leader, this Zhu Guobin is the training officer, responsible for your weekday training, and another team is directly led, Lu Chuanzong and Dai Zhenggang are the squadron deputies, each leading two squads, and the rest of the discipline will be announced by Zhu Guobin later. Start getting on board. ”

There was a buzz in the queue, everyone looked around, and many people were worried about what this punishment was, and it was not unusual for the Ming army to cut off their ears and noses, and to kill their heads. How did they know that Chen Xin's disciplinary provisions had not yet been formulated, and they were desperately turning over new books every day.

Chen Xin didn't explain, he stood by the gangplank, and every soldier passed by, Chen Xin gave him a silver ingot, and encouraged: "This month's salary, do a good job." "Every slender man knelt down and kowtowed.

Chen Xin helped Zhou Shao'er carry the iron pot to Tianjin all the way, and asked Zhu Guobin Dai Zhenggang and others to help the weak, discipline is very important, but not all, he admired the Prussian army during the Franco-Prussian War, and at the beginning he had to cultivate comradeship within the army, fortunately, these three captains have come from a hard time, and they have not been any leaders, they are obedient to help those who are weak, people are not fools, whoever is good to them will be good to whom, the slender man from Zhangjiawan is all very respectful to Chen Xin and others, and they are glad to have come to the right place, Meet a good owner.

I can eat a full meal every day, I took a shower after arriving in Tianjin, I put on brand new clothes, everyone has a new look, and now I have received silver, which cannot be faked, and the people who were a little worried about the punishment just now also let go of their worries.

After the five teams of soldiers went up, it was the craftsman household A, said that it was a first, in fact, there were only five households, there were more than a dozen people, and the leader was a man named Tang Zuoxiang, who looked like an honest peasant, they were all military craftsmen in Tianjin, and the life was really unbearable.

In order to calm people's hearts, Chen Xin gave everyone silver before boarding the ship, so as not to cause some trouble at sea. After the craftsman Hu Jia went up, it was the remaining people from Yanggu, and there were eleven people left, all of whom were simple farmers, and Chen Xin also organized them into a team for the time being, planning to let them do some logistics work first.

After the family members got on the ship, there were more than 100 people on the ship, and the ship could still be loaded, but it was a little crowded, this time the ship was hung with the military flag of the Tianjin Navy Division, and Song Wenxian spent dozens of taels of silver to get through a thousand total to buy, which was really much more economical than the original.

The two teams of twenty-four slender men, they are all people who have been in the canal for a long time, they have seen too much of these, and they will help them to leave the port with bamboo poles and sail into the Weihe River, which is already floating with ice floes, Lao Cai, Deng Keshan and others who came to see them off hugged their fists on the dock, and Liu Minyou and Chen Xin also bowed down and said goodbye to them.

After entering the river, the slender men assisted Scar and the others on the deck to pull up the sails, and some others held pennies, ready to push away the large ice blocks.

Liu Minyou came to Chen Xin's side and said, "Isn't Zhu Guobin a member of the combat corps, how did he become a training officer again?" ”

Chen Xin replied lightly: "I thought about it for a while, I still want to be the leader of the team, and I am all assigned, what do I care." ”

Liu Minyou knew that he was not at ease about handing over the army to others, so he looked at the cyan figure on the deck and asked Chen Xin: "You are really willing to spend money and make new clothes for them." My store's profit this month is not enough. ”

Chen Xin was surprised: "Didn't I ask Zhang Dahui to go to the clothing store to settle the money?" ”

"It's over, I just feel that raising soldiers is too expensive. This time, each person has a fat jacket, a lining, a short suit, two pants, and two pairs of shoes. I haven't counted the expenses you spent from Zhangjiawan, but fortunately, the boat is your own, otherwise, you will have to use it. ”

Chen Xin took a deep breath: "What is this, they still need more than 100 taels of silver a month, and when they get to Weihai, they will spend money on building houses, farm tools, seeds, cattle, weapons, armor, and grain." ”

"Then you still buy so many clothes, and you don't know how to save a little."

Chen Xin pointed to the slender man in front of him and asked, "Boss Liu, look at them, when I first saw them in Zhangjiawan, they were like the African refugees we have seen, dirty, sluggish, numb, and timid. What do you see they have now? ”

"Hope?"

"There is also a sense of honor, don't underestimate this beautiful new clothes, this is the most intuitive change they feel, is the basis of the sense of honor, before the formation of a modern army, the sense of honor is the most reliable spiritual power of an army, more than the spirit of sacrifice, heroism and sense of responsibility, so the money is well spent."

"Hey, how do you know this, who said this?"

"Comrade Jomini (Note 2)!"

"Who is Jomini?"

"A general under Napoleon, a strong military theorist, he and Clausewitz are called the two great authorities of Western military thought."

Liu Minyou joked: "Then you plan to buy them new clothes, and you will cultivate an army that is good at fighting." ”

Chen Xin laughed: "Of course it's more than that, it's just a necessary condition, not a sufficient condition." I don't know much, I'm still learning, and I'm slowly exploring in Weihai. ”

"Learn more, if you really go to the battlefield one day, you will pay less tuition at the cost of human life."

The two stood side by side on the helm tower, watching the silhouette of Tianjin City get farther and farther away, and finally disappear into the sea level.

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Note 1: It's not a shaved head, it's a haircut, and in ancient times, it was possible to cut the hair short when it was long, otherwise the hair would grow to a few meters long, but the nature of the shaving order is completely different, and this does not need to be explained.

Note 2: Jomini, a French general, whose main military work is "Introduction to the Art of War", as a general who participated in Napoleon's many battles, several of his works are the most authoritative works on Napoleon's military thought.