Xin'er stood on the top of Asahi Mountain, looking far to the west, and an orange-yellow sunset slowly disappeared into the end of the field of vision. After seeing that the sun had completely set, the girl's eyes also dimmed, and her little face couldn't help but show a trace of worry.

"Another day has passed. After saying lightly, Xin'er walked to a huge stone wall, picked up the small stones on the ground, and drew a horizontal on the stone wall, which was carved with many such marks.

Since Yang Ming left Jiang Guo, Xin'er will come to the top of Asahi Mountain every day after cultivating, looking at the direction of the border pass in the west, if Yang Ming comes back from outside, maybe he can see his figure from here, with such expectations, the girl will come here every day, until the sunset sinks, the moon hangs in the sky, and when Yang Ming returns, Xin'er picks up the stone and carves a horizontal on the stone wall to record how many days he has gone.

"One, two, three......" The carvings on the stone wall increased day by day, and the girl raised her little hand and counted the carvings on the full side, "Six hundred and ninety-six, six hundred and ninety-seven, six hundred and ninety-eight!" When the carvings counted to six hundred and ninety-eight, Xin'er's little face gradually showed a smile, she raised her little face, looked to the west, and her eyes suddenly lit up, because the carvings on the stone wall told her that two years were about to pass, and Yang Ming should come back.

......

With the passage of two years, the Great Zhou Dynasty's four-year "natural selection" examination is about to begin, the entire continent, the princes and hundreds of countries are all immersed in such a first-class examination, many countries even push away all the complicated state affairs, all to prepare for the "natural selection" examination as the priority, up to the princes, down to the students, gearing up, eager to try, the whole country is dedicated to preparing for the "natural selection".

Because participating in the "natural selection", one can demonstrate the strength of the country and win glory for the country; the other is that once they pass the examination and selection, they can send their own students to the holy capital "Muguang" to cultivate, and cultivate a strong combat power for the country.

In order to send their own students to the holy capital for cultivation and to train the country's "famous generals," the vassal states can be said to have devoted all their energy and financial and material resources to the students; and the students of various countries, who have received the favor of the country and shouldered the heavy responsibilities of the state, have worked hard to cultivate, almost forgetting to sleep and eating, and working day and night, just to pass the "natural selection" examination.

In the past, the "natural selection" examination, all the selection, competition, evaluation and other affairs were undertaken by the Great Zhou Dynasty alone, first in the entire continent for selection, and then the students who met the requirements of the "natural selection" examination all went to the holy capital "Muguang" to participate in the formal competition. However, in recent years, the Great Zhou Dynasty has been declining, and the national strength is not as good as before, and it takes huge financial, material and human resources to undertake the "natural selection" examination, and the treasury of the Great Zhou Dynasty has been "stretched" and difficult to undertake. Therefore, at the request of several great powers, the Great Zhou Dynasty divided the "natural selection" exam into four and held them at the same time in the four frontiers, and was assisted by the four major powers, so that the students of the four frontiers did not need to go to the holy capital "Muguang" to take the exam.

In the eastern territory, the one responsible for assisting in hosting the "natural selection" examination is the largest country in the east, Wei. Wei has hosted two consecutive "natural selection" exams, and now this is the third time. Although other countries in the eastern frontier, especially Liang and Zhao, complained about this, but helplessly, Wei's national strength was too strong, and other countries could only complain in vain if they could not fight.

The date of the "Heavenly Selection" examination was approaching, and the Wei State, in coordination with the selection commissioners of the Great Zhou Dynasty, sent more than 200 teams to various vassal states in the East to select qualified students according to the examination standards, which was also the primary selection of the "Heavenly Selection" examination.

......

Thirty miles outside the border of Jiang.

Facing the morning sun in the eastern sky, a black ironclad army marched with heavy and neat steps, with heavily armed chariots in front of the road, cavalry guards in battle armor on both sides, and infantry teams holding battle axes and wearing pitch-black iron armor.

The cavalry walking on the right side, holding high a black flag embroidered with a lion, flying in the wind, the lion totem, representing that this ironclad army is the army of Wei.

In fact, even if there is no lion flag, people can recognize this as the army of Wei just by the heavily armed chariot. Because, in the entire Eastern Continent, only the "heavy armored army" of Wei would have such a majestic chariot. There were twenty chariots in total, each of which was drawn by four horses of the same color, each of which was dressed in a hard iron armor; on top of each chariot stood three soldiers, one in the middle of the chariot, one on the left with a bow and arrow, responsible for long-range attacks and arrows, and one on the right, with a spear, for melee stabbing; in addition, the carriage was surrounded by ten bows and crossbows, each with ten arrows on them, and the ten bows and crossbows were cleverly designed to be controlled by a soldier, as long as the rope was pulled, the ten bows and crossbows could be fired in an instant, and a hundred arrows could be shot at a time around, and as long as the enemy approached the chariot, they could be shot into holes by random arrows in an instant。

In addition to the weapons, the chariot is also inlaid with steel armor, each piece of armor is a centimeter thick, which is very strong and can withstand the pressure of 10,000 catties of boulders. Moreover, there are long iron spikes on the axles of the wheels, and as the wheels turn, the iron spikes will roll like a meat grinding machine, which is very terrifying.

When the vassal states went to war, tens of thousands of troops would fight in Makino, because of the fast speed and strong impact of the chariot, especially in the open area, it had the advantage that the infantry could not resist, and gradually, the charioteers became the main combat force of the army, thousands of chariots, charging into battle together, like a torrent of steel, can break the opponent's formation in an instant, completely defeat the enemy.

Therefore, in today's continent, the military strength of each vassal state is often calculated and judged by the number of chariots, and chariots also represent the most advanced military armament of a country. The reason why Wei is the first power in the East is because the army of Wei has "more than 300,000 armor, 1,000 chariots, and 10,000 horses." In addition to the large number of chariots, Wei was also the most well-equipped and sturdy in the entire continent. People say that among the hundred kingdoms of princes, the chariot of Wei is the most powerful.

Wei's "heavily armored army" was known for its "strong armor and sharp axe", and in addition to equipping thousands of chariots, there were also heavy and strong armor and sharp and shiny battle axes on the soldiers. The armor and battle axes on the Wei soldiers, in addition to the conventional mineral iron bronze, are also specially mixed with a small amount of "armor iron", compared with ordinary armor weapons, whether it is strong or sharp, it is more than twice as strong, so their armor is unusually heavy, a body of armor is enough to weigh three or five hundred catties, in exchange for ordinary people, if they wear such heavy armor to march, at most one or two hundred meters, it is already exhausted. However, the Wei soldiers are different, the soldiers of the "heavy armored army" of the Wei State, from the age of seven, began to receive high-intensity training, including strict physical training, after ten years of military training, each Wei soldier has the strength of a thousand catties in both hands, can easily lift thousands of catties of boulders. That's why they can march and fight with such heavy armor and battle axes. In addition to the armor, each Wei soldier also wore a black iron mask, and only two pairs of resolute eyes were exposed on his entire body, worthy of the name of being fully armed.

Wei's army has always pursued the principle that "if you want to win a war, you must first sharpen your weapons." "If you want to win the war, you must have advanced weapons. Among all the countries, in the study of weapons and armor, Wei is the country that has invested the most financial and human resources. Therefore, the army of Wei is the most well-armed army in the entire continent.

The soldiers of the Wei State continued to march with hard steps, the dust on the road, and the sound of metal clashing resounded in the sky, and the momentum was so majestic that the earth trembled. After the Wei army marched, the dust settled for a long time, and I saw two clear and profound footprints left on the ground......

Looking at the direction of this Wei army, it is obvious that it is going to Jiang Guo, and then thinking that the date of the "Heavenly Selection" exam is approaching, it is not difficult to guess that this Wei army should be escorting the responsible examination officials to Jiang Guo to select the students who should take the exam. As usual, the examination officials were generally two people, one was an official of the Great Zhou Dynasty and the other was an envoy of the Wei State. Wei Guomei's name is to assist the Great Zhou Dynasty in selecting students, but in fact, he is taking the opportunity to understand the strength of the students from other countries, and at the same time, he can also secretly probe the "bottom line" of each country and collect relevant information.

However, if this Wei army came to escort the examination officials to Jiang State, then the scale of this Wei army was inevitably too powerful! Twenty chariots opened the way, hundreds of cavalry escorted them, and three thousand heavily armored infantry troops were held back, and the generals who led the army in front were military guard generals of the fourth rank of official residence, and the rank of the fourth rank belonged to the rank of the Praetorian Guard. With such a lineup, it is not an exaggeration to attack a small and remote country.

Observe carefully, in the middle of the march of the Wei soldiers, there is a richly decorated carriage, very conspicuous, the carriage is guarded by cavalry on the front and back, the left and right, obviously, there is a dignitary man sitting in this carriage.

The wind blew the curtain of the carriage, revealing a corner of the carriage, and through the gap in the distance, I saw two people sitting in the carriage, one of whom was a man, about thirty years old, wearing the official uniform of Dr. Wei Guoshi, he sat on his knees, his eyes were lowered, his expression was very respectful, his demeanor was dignified, and he did not dare to have a trace of rudeness, and opposite this scholar, there was a very young "young man", "he" leaned on the body of the car at will, covered with an expensive silk brocade quilt, "he" His eyes were half-closed, and there was a hint of nonchalance on his fair face.

At this moment, the body suddenly jolted.

"Whew, I almost fell asleep, where is this?" the young man suddenly opened his eyes and asked.

Hearing the question, I saw that the scholar doctor straightened up, raised his hands, and replied respectfully: "Hui Gongzi, you will soon arrive at Jiang Guo." ”