The airship began to significantly lower its altitude at dawn. The destination was approaching.
A ray of morning light came in and shone on Qianye's face. He had actually woken up a long time ago, jumped out of the cab lightly, walked to the porthole and looked out.
In front of us is the sloping land, and the steel city that submerges the horizon seems to be turning upside down at any time.
The most eye-catching thing in the field of vision is a tall tower, located in the center of the city. It is silvery white and dazzling, like a thousand-foot peak, with cloud-like white steam spewing out from the top. The base of the tower is extremely wide, covering three or four blocks.
That was the first time Qianye saw the heart of a human city, the Perpetual Tower. The cheapest black stone and the cheapest steel were used to build the miraculous Perpetual Tower, which ran day and night to supply the entire city.
of energy.
The cargo airship slowly passed by the southwest of the city. There were more and more airships in the airspace in front of them, with different styles. Several of them were light boats with exquisite and complicated bow reliefs.
Sure enough, there were too many airships applying to enter the port, and they had to queue up. Cargo ships began to hover in the sky. From the driver's swear words and complaints, Qianye learned that in addition to public passenger stage boats and cargo ships, there were many more airships today.
The private airship and the family crest embossed on the bow are all symbols of immense power and vast wealth.
Xiangyang is one of the permanent recruitment sites for the Imperial Military. At this time every year, it attracts thousands of young people from all directions. This year, there are particularly many people coming, including many children of nobles, because there are two more recruits on the list.
Two behemoths: the broken-winged angel and the red scorpion.
The Great Qin Empire places great emphasis on military merit. Even for a wealthy family, it is a shortcut for the children of the family to join the army and make meritorious service. Being able to join a special legion is almost synonymous with soaring into the sky.
The Broken Wing Angel and the Red Scorpion have always been among the top five among the hundreds of special legions in the empire. It was their recruitment that alarmed many wealthy families, who would not hesitate to send the best members of their clans over thousands of miles to participate in the assessment.
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Because the aerostat carried by Qianye belonged to the military, it had a relatively advanced entry position into the port. Only after he landed did he feel the grandeur of the recruitment day.
The airship base should be just one of the transportation hubs, but it was already crowded with people of all kinds in the morning. Most of them were young people in their twenties, who were confident, energetic, and full of hope. Outside the base, there were all kinds of people.
There are already long queues for land transport.
Shi Yan started the heavy-duty truck. Even among the many vehicles, it was still a big one. It roared out from the military passage. Xiangyang is the third largest military industrial city in the entire empire. Except for half of the city's blocks, it is occupied by the military.
Outside the control area, both ground roads and air channels are equipped with exclusive military passages.
Qianye had been looking out the window intently. The route they were traveling on was a military zone. Compared with the simplicity of the Huangquan training camp, which only focused on practicality but not beauty, the architectural style on both sides added a lot of decoration, but still maintained its toughness and majesty.
The recruit camp is at the end of the road, and you can see the long registration queue forming through the arch from a distance.
In the noisy crowd, Shi Yan loudly said to the officer in charge of registration: "I want to go directly to the review area!"
He showed his identity certificate, took Qianye directly into the camp, went through the registration procedures for him, and then handed Qianye a copper nameplate representing his identity. On the nameplate, the three characters Lin Qianye were mechanically stamped.
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Looking at the word "Lin" on the nameplate, Qianye felt an indescribable feeling in his heart. For the first time in his life, he felt that he belonged. The word "Lin" was not only imprinted on the nameplate, but also imprinted on his heart.
Next, Qianye was taken into the inner camp by a soldier. The inner camp was the assessment area, and Shi Yan was not allowed to enter.
It wasn't until he entered the inner camp that Qianye realized that the military camp was much larger than it looked outside the door.
Thousands of young people who have passed the preliminary screening of basic qualities are arranged into various barracks according to the numbers on the nameplates. Tomorrow is the day of the official assessment. Today they will have a day of rest in order to perform at their best.
Many young people come by car or even passenger boat. These public transportations used by most civilians are all driven by Blackstone steam power. The common characteristics are noise and bumps. Such long-distance travel is very hard, and it is very difficult for them.
Your physical fitness has a great impact, and it will naturally affect your exam performance.
When it comes to military assessments, the empire has always been very fair and rarely gives special care to the children of powerful families.
This is also the foundation of the empire. Otherwise, if an incompetent dude leads troops to the battlefield, it will be a disaster. The dark race kills people, but they will never care about your status.
There are three examination contents for the empire's recruitment, namely force strength, combat skills and firearms use.
After dinner, the candidates were rushed back to the dormitory and went to bed. Qianye was used to obeying orders. He went to bed as soon as the lights were turned off and fell asleep quickly. However, some of the other candidates in the dormitory were excited and nervous, and they all fell asleep no matter what.
No. Two young people from the same remote city simply chatted quietly.
I don't know how long it took, but Qianye, who was already sleeping soundly, suddenly felt a palpitation in his heart and immediately opened his eyes. On the surface, his body did not move. In fact, all the muscles were tense, ready to kill at any time, and his eyes only opened a slit.
gap, quietly observing the surroundings.
At this moment, Qianye was shocked to find that the face of a middle-aged man had appeared in the small window of the door, looking at everyone in the room expressionlessly!
But except for Qianye, no one else noticed this middle-aged man! One candidate clearly glanced at the window, but he didn't seem to see it at all.
The middle-aged man suddenly glanced at Qianye, turned around and left.
It wasn't until he disappeared that Qianye recovered from his shock. But this time, he couldn't sleep.
After a while, a middle-aged man with an unattractive appearance left this dormitory building and then entered another one. When he finished walking through all the dormitories, he saw that on the thick stack of lists in his hand, next to most of the names
They are all marked with an X, and only a few names have numbers next to them, ranging from 1 to 9.
There is an asterisk next to Qianye's name. In the thick list, only fourteen names have this mark next to them.
Qianye didn't know that he had passed the first level unintentionally.
In the early morning of the next day, the harsh ringing of the bell woke all the candidates from their sleep. Qianye rushed out of the barracks with the flow of people and lined up on the playground. Here the candidates were divided into three groups and then took different exams.
Qianye's group will first take the Force firearms shooting test.
The candidates were all issued special force guns specifically for the exam. The power was greatly reduced, and the force consumption was also reduced. Even first-level soldiers were able to fire six or seven shots in a row. Only in this way could they complete the test.
All test subjects. If he were to switch to a regular force gun, even the most basic first-level firearm, I am afraid that even Qianye's thick and condensed force power, which is far superior to his peers, would be difficult to complete all the shooting subjects.
After inspecting the force gun, Qianye and nine other candidates stood in front of the shooting line. Ten fixed targets rose a hundred meters away, all of which were images of human-faced spider demons.
While he was getting familiar with the weapon and waiting for the shooting order, a young man on Qianye's left glanced at him, suddenly grabbed his crotch, whistled again, and said, "Boy, have you ever played with a gun?"
Paired with his winking expression, this was a double-entendre and extremely obscene provocation.
Qianye glanced at him and said calmly: "I haven't played it before, but I have squeezed it into pieces a few times. Do you want to try it?"
The young man suddenly laughed exaggeratedly and said, "I'm really scared! Boy, do you know who I am? How dare you talk to me like this?"
"No matter who you are, it won't increase your score by one point, right?" Qianye asked calmly.
The young man's face suddenly turned red and he said angrily: "You are so arrogant, boy! But don't talk nonsense. The imperial family is not that shameless yet and would try to tamper with you in this kind of exam! Since I don't like you,
Of course you have to win clean and beautiful!”
"Beat me? You have no chance." Qianye still had the kind of indifference that could drive people crazy.
The young man's face immediately darkened, "Then let's have a bet?"
Qianye raised his eyebrows and said, "What are you betting on? I'm too young to be interested!"
The young man reached out and pulled off the necklace from his neck, holding it in front of Qianye. The necklace was silver, with a thumb-sized square plate hanging at the end, with an eagle's head engraved on it.
The young man said: "Just bet on the results of this exam! If I lose, this thing will be yours!"
Qianye stretched out his hand, twirled the small sign curiously, and asked, "How do you use this thing?" From his tone, it was obvious that he had already regarded the necklace as a treasure.
The young man was so angry that he sneered, "Do you really think you've won?"
Qianye nodded seriously: "Of course." Then he asked again, "How to use this thing?"
The young man was itching with hatred and said angrily: "This is my token! With this thing, you can make a request to my family. As long as it is within my scope of authority, no matter what the request is, I can satisfy it."
you!"
At this time, other candidates also noticed the dispute between the two and looked over. They all noticed the eagle head on the square card, and some of them immediately changed their expressions, obviously recognizing the emblem.
"It turns out to be a member of the Wei family!" Someone whispered.
Hearing the whispers from the people around him, the young man immediately perked up and raised his chin, looking as arrogant as a little cock.
But Qianye didn't have the reaction he expected. He just said "Oh", and then looked at the young man with more suspicion in his eyes. The meaning was too obvious: With a bear like you, how much authority can you have?
The young man was angered again and shouted: "Is it a gamble or not?"
Qianye finally nodded: "It's a bet."
The young man no longer talked much, but picked up the Force gun and quietly waited for the exam to begin.
It was time for the exam. After a whistle, all ten candidates picked up their Force guns and began to aim seriously.
The shooting accuracy of most force guns is not very good. It is easy to hit a target a hundred meters away, but it is very difficult to hit the bullseye. You can get 100 rings in the bullseye area, but it is only about the size of a fingernail. If you fall
Outside the bullseye, there are at most 80 rings. All types of shooting targets are scored in this way.
Not long after, there was a gunshot. A thin red light hit the target, the metal target shook, and a small hole was made in the upper part of the target that was as tall as a person. This shot was very powerful, but it was very accurate.
But it wasn't great, it just barely hit the target.
"20 rings!" the examiner announced the target loudly, and another examiner wrote down the score.
The gunshots rang out in order, and all eight people hit the target, but the highest one only had 50 rings. In a blink of an eye, the only ones who hadn't fired were the young man and Qianye.
The young man had been aiming for a long time, and Qianye had been watching him from the side. Under Qianye's gaze, the young man always felt a little impatient. When he pulled the trigger, he immediately screamed in his heart: "Oh!"