The sound of beetle leaves colliding was endless, and the long team trudged hard on the muddy road.

Zhang Ren couldn't help cursing the camp commander in his heart. This piece of shit actually asked everyone to wear a full set of armor during an ordinary march.

The armor weighing dozens of kilograms is draped on the body, plus the knife, gun, bow and arrows, bedding, dry food and other items on the back, it weighs at least eighty kilograms.

What's even more unlucky is that the rain last night made the road extremely muddy. When you step down, the mud can cover your insteps. Each step requires more effort than usual.

But he just cursed in his heart, because the battalion general himself was also sitting in the middle of the team, fully clothed. He originally had a horse, but now there was an injury mark on the horse, and the guy twisted his foot.

My ankles were swollen and shiny red.

This is a team transferred from Xiayi City in the rear to the front for rotational defense.

Zhang Ren, on the other hand, is a recruit who has just been drafted into the army since the spring of this year.

Among the new recruits like him, in this battle camp of 500 people, 50 were from the Jiangnan area, but they were not from the same county.

Zhang Ren originally had a very good family background. Although his father was not a big official, he was only a county manager who joined the army. He was an eighth-grade junior official, but he was still an official. And his grandfather was a state magistrate.

The Zhang family is considered a family of officials in the local area.

Originally, life was quite peaceful, but as the new king came to the throne and Xiao Cheng took charge, everything began to change.

Originally, their family did not have to serve in the military, nor did they have to pay for military service.

But now, nothing is inevitable.

Fortunately, the fat corvee can be redeemed with money. People like them are naturally registered in the household, so each household gets a hundred yuan. For their family, this is just a small amount of money. Although it is a little uncomfortable, it is a loss of money.

It doesn't matter if disaster is avoided.

Next, the family will have to pay a lot of money to pay for the food together.

We have 500 acres of paddy fields, about 20 tenants, and a hilltop planted with mulberry trees. We also have a small weaving workshop with seven or eight weavers. The annual income from this is about a thousand dollars.

income.

It’s not much, but it’s a very lively life locally.

As a result, a government decree was issued and tax collectors came to calculate the tax. Their family had to pay hundreds of dollars in taxes a year.

What's even more annoying is that the family has to pay a poll tax on behalf of the tenants and weavers. Each person has to pay ten coins a year.

It's true that no one resisted, but those who took the initiative to cause trouble did not end well.

Xiao Erlang's people are very shady. They don't just blame these people for rent and tax resistance, but they dig out a lot of old accounts and dig out all the things these people did in the past.

.

I don't know where they found those things.

I knew clearly that they were deliberately trying to harass people, and that as long as they paid the taxes honestly, nothing would happen to them. But now that they were found out, they had nothing to say, because the evidence for all those things was conclusive.

It was fine if no one chased me in the past. Once someone comes to investigate seriously, of course they won't be able to escape.

Zhang Ren's father was frightened.

He joined the army as a manager and was in charge of a county's prison litigation. He had done a lot for the plaintiff and the defendant. Otherwise, where would such a huge family fortune come from?

So as soon as the tax collector came to the door, his father immediately paid the tax.

Pay as much as the other party says, no matter what.

I thought this would be fine.

But the next recruitment method suddenly tricked Zhang Ren.

They have three sons in their family.

He is very inappropriate, he is the second child.

His family wants to punish one person.

Naturally, the eldest son can't go, and the third child is still a baby. If he doesn't go, who will?

I am a scholar, but I want to be a soldier?

He also wanted to roll around, but when his father stood in front of him with a stick, he wilted.

It’s no good if I don’t go. Who makes daddy’s butt unclean?

If he resists military service, he will probably be arrested and thrown into jail next. The charge is of course corruption and perverting the law. Isn’t it easy to uncover the dirty information about his father?

He went to serve as a soldier out of humiliation.

Because their family cooperated extremely well with the new laws of the imperial court, they also received rewards from above, and his father was promoted. The eighth-rank manager joined the army and suddenly became a seventh-rank county magistrate.

However, this county is in Yunnan.

His father didn't even utter a word, and took his eldest son to take office, leaving his mother-in-law at home to take care of the family business.

It is said that because his father left quickly and was praised by the superiors, he was set as a benchmark. Before leaving, the official Cao who came from the province quietly told his father that no matter what his father did this year

No matter what, the province will give him an excellent performance appraisal.

After three years of performance evaluation, as long as they are all top-notch, they can be promoted to the top.

Zhang Ren didn't know whether to cry or laugh.

No matter what happens next, his father will definitely benefit from his eldest brother. As for himself, the second oldest, he doesn’t know if he will survive.

If you go to be a soldier, you may die.

Who doesn’t know that the current chief assistant is only thinking about the Northern Expedition!

Who doesn’t know that the generals on the front line are all the confidants of the chief minister!

The chief minister thought of the Northern Expedition, so they concentrated on provoking troubles on the front lines and were delighted to hear the battle.

One general's success will lead to ten thousand bones drying up!

Isn't it so dry that it means the lives of these little soldiers?

I originally thought that since I was a son of an official and my father had been commended, I would be special. However, when I entered the military camp, I didn't have such excuses at all.

Two months of recruit training was simply a life-and-death journey to hell for Zhang Ren.

The recruit training camp in Xiao County was an unforgettable experience for Zhang Ren.

There, he had thick calluses on his hands and feet. Originally, he only had calluses on his fingers, which was a symbol of his hard work in studying. But now, his palms are also full of calluses, which are where he holds the knife.

It was grasped.

He used to have fair skin, but now he looks like the long-term workers and tenants at home, with a dark complexion.

It was so hard in the training camp.

I heard that the killers who specially trained them were all from the army, and they were all extremely arrogant. Their training method was only one, which was whipping and bending tendons and legs.

If you are not convinced, you can come and challenge.

This was the only opportunity these officers gave them to offer their opinions.

Of course, the outcome is basically not good.

There will be no second result other than being beaten up in front of everyone.

Occasionally, a brave person will win once, but next time, a more powerful guy will definitely appear and beat the winner even more miserably.

No one escaped.

Anyone caught for the first time will be whipped for thirty years.

If he escapes again for the second time, he will be punished with thirty whips and one day in the pillory.

The third time I ran away, oh well, my head was gone.

There were three headsless guys in two months.

The three people's families are all high-ranking official families.

As a result, the trend of fleeing no longer disappeared.

Zhang Ren did not dare to run away, because before leaving, his mother told him in tears that if something happened to him, it would definitely affect the family.

No matter how hard it is, he has to get through it.

The poems and books that originally filled Zhang Ren's mind have retreated into the corner, and what occupy more space are the cold military disciplines.

Because of his good performance, he became a commander in the recruit camp.

Of the ten people under his command, except for three whose families were farmers, the remaining six were either officials or wealthy businessmen.

In the past, the profession of soldiering had nothing to do with them, but now, they are brought together because of a law.

Two months later, they finally left the Abyss of Hell and were assigned to the army.

The familiar figure can no longer be seen.

There were only five of the fifty recruits who came out of the Xiao County training camp, and all five of them came from different camps. They were at most a little familiar with each other. Only then did Zhang Ren know that the same training camp existed in every province.

one.

In the new army camp, Zhang Ren was a great leader, but when he arrived in the army, he was nothing more than an ordinary soldier.
To be continued...