The south gate of Dengzhou City.

Li Siye, who had just been promoted to the commander of the First Regiment, was sitting outside the city gate, and the 280 officers and men of the New Army under his command were busy.

The South City Gate has been closed to ordinary people since early yesterday morning, and Li Congyan has set up a conscription office here, and has already registered and made registers in Penglai County, Huang County, Wendeng County, and Muping County.

Li Xiye was ordered to receive young people from all over the country outside the south gate and conduct a preliminary screening.

In fact, there is no need to screen anything, these young men have passed the screening of various places, and they are all honest and young in the countryside, which fully meets Li Congyan's recruitment standards. And what Li Siye's department needs to do is to check whether there is an impostor or whether there is fraud.

It is no wonder that Li Congyan is cautious, after all, the conditions offered by the new military system are too generous, hundreds of acres of land, and a generous monthly military salary, for those poor people, it is an opportunity to ascend to the sky, and it is difficult to guarantee that no one will take advantage of the loopholes.

Here, Li Xiye divided his subordinates into several groups, and every five soldiers formed a check-in point to be responsible for specific receiving matters, and set up a total of twenty such check-in points, while the rest of the soldiers of the new army cooperated with the officials of Dengzhou City to maintain order.

"Name!"

"Tang Yi."

"Age!"

"Twenty-two."

"Where?"

"People from Muping County."

"Who else is in the house?"

"Grandpa and his brother are farming at home."

After the new munitions chief finished asking, he checked the identity certificate issued to Tang Yi by Muping County, and after confirming that it was correct, he stamped it with his seal and said: "Follow the team to the next receiving point to receive the new army's uniforms, bedding, and toiletries." ”

"Whoa!"

Tang Yi put away his identity certificate, and then went to the next receiving point excitedly, following the team, Tang Yi looked around, only to see that all around him were young and strong like himself, and everyone was proud to enter the new army, and their faces were full of excitement and longing.

When they arrived at the receiving point at the city gate, the soldiers of the new army here checked Tang Yi's information again, and then began to hand over the items.

"Two single clothes in summer, two thick coats in winter, a fur cloak collar, two sets of bedding, a ponytail toothbrush, one green salt, one wooden basin, and two towels!"

After counting them one by one, the soldiers of the new army handed the items to Tang Yi and said, "Toothbrushes and green salt are used to brush your teeth every morning and evening, but don't use them during meals." ”

"Whoa!"

Tang Yi struggled to hold so many things, but his heart was beautiful, it was the first time he saw a toothbrush, and he was even more amazed that the new army was so luxurious, and he actually used good green salt to clean his teeth!

"Eh, dare to ask the military master, why are there two sets of clothes and bedding? Can the villain leave a set for the grandfather at home? ”

Tang Yi looked at the thick bedding and clothes in his hands, which were all good fabrics that ordinary people were reluctant to use, so he had the heart to leave a set for his father.

"There are sanitary regulations in the new army, winter clothes must be changed every three days, bedding every half month, summer clothes must be changed every day, and bedding must be changed every three days! You leave a set for your family, how will you change it when the time comes? ”

Tang Yi was taken aback when he heard this, he didn't expect the military regulations of the new army to be so strict, and he even had to stipulate when to change clothes, so he immediately confessed and didn't dare to say anything more.

"Take your things and wait for the arrangement when you enter the city!"

"Whoa!"

Tang Yi entered the south gate with the things distributed, and then saw that the city was crowded, and there were no less than hundreds of people gathered here, most of them were young people from all over the world. There are many soldiers of the New Army here who are maintaining order, constantly letting the young men stand in line, barely maintaining a huge phalanx.

"Everyone, listen up!"

Chen Zhizheng, who was also promoted to brigade commander, stood on a large table and shouted vigorously: "Look at your respective numbers for a while, and whoever you call, you will immediately go out of the ranks!" ”

After speaking, Chen Zhu waved his hand, and a team with a loud voice was standing on the table in place of Chen Zhu: "Yellow character 312!" ”

The yellow character refers to Huang County, for example, Wendeng County is the character, and Penglai County is the Peng character, so as to distinguish the counties from the young and strong.

A tall man came out of the ranks, and after one of the New Army soldiers had verified the information one last time, he was led aside and formed into a third team.

"Mou Zi No. 112!"

Tang Yi suddenly became excited, hurriedly responded loudly, and walked out of the queue with his own things. After verifying the information, the soldiers of the new army pointed to the side and said, "Go to the second team and stand by!" ”

"Whoa!"

"Next, Pengzi No. 138 ......"

Tang Yi waited in the crowd of the second team for half an hour, when he saw a general riding a horse coming.

The person who came was Zuo Guoyi's lieutenant Wang Zuhe, and the brigade commander Chen Zhu hurriedly greeted him when he saw this.

"I've seen Captain Zuo!"

Wang Zuhe wiped his sweat and said, "This ghost weather is about to scorch people!" ”

"Haha, Captain Zuo is too strict, it's just recruiting soldiers, just wear regular clothes, and come out in Mingguang armor in such weather, so naturally it won't be cool."

Li Congyan designed a regular uniform for the new army according to the flying fish suit of the later Ming Dynasty, and used patterns and patterns to distinguish the rank of soldiers. Ordinary soldiers are black without patterns, fire commanders are white without patterns, team members are red without patterns, brigade commanders are red flying fish figures, school captains are red bullfighting pictures, and Zhichong Du Lieutenant and Guo Yi Du Lieutenants are all red python robes.

Li Congyan also plans to make a distinction in the armor in the future, although the soldiers of the new army are uniformly equipped with Mingguang armor, but in order to distinguish the upper and lower ranks, they are prepared to print a pattern on the chest plate, which is consistent with the color and pattern level of the regular clothes, so as to distinguish them.

At this time, the regular clothes of generals at all levels had become popular, and Li Congyan specially placed a large number of orders for the clothing workshops opened by merchants in various places, and began to order regular clothes for ordinary soldiers.

Wang Zuhe laughed and said: "The regular clothes issued to us by the Lord are good-looking, but I still like this bright light armor, and I am reluctant to take it off anywhere." ”

Chen Zhi also smiled.

After a few jokes, Wang Zuhe asked, "How is the recruitment?" ”

Chen Zhijiao said: "Captain Zuo, there are a lot of young people sent by various counties, and these two days are only registered before, and a large number of newly registered young people will come over in a few days." ”

"That's for sure. The new government military system implemented by our lord is well paid, and recently a new clause has been added to exempt soldiers' families from field and oral taxes for two years, which will naturally attract a large number of young and strong people to vote. ”

Chen Zhu nodded in agreement and said, "Today, four teams have been organized, with a total of 1,200 people, please take it first." ”

As he spoke, Chen Zhu pointed to Tang Yi and the others who were waiting next to him, Wang Zuhe waved his hand, and a group of soldiers of the New Army behind him went over and began to lead people.

"I'll bring them back first, and you will continue here, and every time you have three teams of people, you will send them to the school field."

"Whoa!"

"Let's go, let's go!"

Wang Zuhe rode his horse to the newly established school in the north of the city, and a group of soldiers of the new army and Tang Yi and other young men followed.

Tang Yi followed the crowd, at this time the streets in the city were surrounded by onlookers, full of envy for everyone, after all, Li Congyan only needs honest peasant children in the countryside, and rarely wants children in the city, unless they are very good.

Seeing this, Tang Yi's heart suddenly burned with pride, and his waist inadvertently straightened up.

When they arrived at the school, Tang Yi and others stood in the venue according to the detachment, only to see dozens of doctors and craftsmen rushing to start checking the body for everyone, and soon several young people were dismissed because of physical problems, which scared Tang Yi for a while, but fortunately he passed the inspection successfully.

Wang Zuhe had already taken off his sash at this time, and the people also hid in the shade, and the medical officer in charge of leading the team rushed over, and said with a forked hand: "Captain Qiqi Zuo, this batch of young people of the new army has been inspected, please instruct!" ”

"Take them all out of the city from the north gate and take them to the boot camp!"

"Whoa!"

The New Army Training Camp is a military camp newly established by Li Congyan, just three miles north of Dengzhou City. A brigade of recruits was stationed in the training camp to train recruits.

This is Li Congyan's preparation for the normalization of recruiting soldiers, so that in the future, the soldiers of the new army can be continuously trained from Dengzhou City.

From this day on, Tang Yi began his career as a recruit.

Every day at three o'clock (less than five o'clock in the morning), the instructors of the new army will wake up all the recruits and drive them out of the barracks, and then order everyone to complete the tasks of washing, making beds, housekeeping, and going to the toilet within a stick of incense. If anyone does not finish it within the allotted time, they do not need to eat breakfast for that day, and they can run around the barracks at breakfast time.

Then it was breakfast, Tang Yi was very satisfied with the food in the training camp, there were Hu cakes, egg drop soup, pickled vegetables in the morning, white noodles, various vegetables and meat, broth at noon, polished rice and various dishes in the evening, and the prince drank two pots every ten days!

Of course, in the training camp, these are the only ones that Tang Yi is looking forward to, and the rest is endless practice.

According to the training plan formulated by Li Congyan himself, the daily training volume of Tang Yi and other recruits is only a base number, and there is no upper limit on the upward movement.

Every day, there is a ten-mile long-distance run in the morning and evening, and a physical training in the morning, noon and evening every day, the content is 500 push-ups, 500 sit-ups, 500 squats, one mile of sprints, and three miles of crawling close to the ground.

There is also a queue training every day, once in the morning and once in the afternoon, the content is the change of various queues, the various states of the phalanx, such as marching, turning, running, etc., and there will be training of various formations.

In the evening, Tang Yi originally thought that it would be more comfortable, who knew that the training camp opened a study class in the evening, Li Congyan specially invited dozens of scholars from all over the country, and there was an hour of study time every night, so the young and strong of the new army had to learn to read and write, recite the poems designated by Li Congyan (mostly poems by the poets of the Tang Dynasty), learn the history of the Han and Tang Dynasties, learn the history of the Great Qin Dynasty and so on.

These young and strong recruits can endure a lot of training during the day, but it is painful for reading and reading, and Tang Yi also wants to cry without tears.

However, everyone did not dare not learn, because the training camp has a time limit of one month, and after a month, there will be an assessment, which will not only include the drill items, but also the cultural knowledge. If anyone fails to pass the assessment, they will be cleared on the spot, the 100 acres of land that the family has received will also be recovered, and the various items sent down will be recovered.

So no matter how painful it is, even if the instructors continue to create difficulties for everyone, such as intermittently increasing the amount of training, such as when everyone is asleep in the middle of the night, suddenly holding an emergency assembly, etc., Tang Yi and other young people are gritting their teeth and persevering, even if they cry bitterly in the quilt at night, they refuse to give up.

A month later, the first assessment was held in the training camp, in which 3,000 young men of the New Army, including Tang Yi, participated, and all of them passed the assessment.

When the results were announced, Tang Yi and countless companions around him cried bitterly, and the one-month training was like a nightmare, and it was finally over!

"Thorn History!"

"Stand upright!"

Just when everyone was full of emotion, Li Congyan rode his horse and rushed into the training ground, and the three thousand recruits immediately stood up and held their heads high to accept Li Congyan's review.

Li Congyan looked at the three thousand recruits with a new mental outlook, and his heart was also surging, and he directly stepped up to the review stand, and then said loudly: "Today you will be integrated into the various units of the new army, start a new stage in your life, and say goodbye to your past. From today on, you are no longer Zhang San or Li Si, you only have one name: Dengzhou New Army! From today on, you will no longer live for yourself, you will use the horizontal knife and spear in your hands to defend Dengzhou and the people behind you! ”

"You are the sword in my Li Congyan's hand, I will lead you to cut through the dark night that covers the sky and bring infinite light to the people of the world! You will also follow me to leave a name in history and be praised by thousands of people! ”

Tang Yi only felt that a stream of blood was about to burst through his chest, and he suddenly raised his arms and shouted: "Long live Li Tingshi!" ”

"Long live Li Tingshi!"

For a time, the hosts rejoiced.