It was late spring in April of the second year of Chongqing.
The forests around the Xiangjunhe camp are lush, with poplars and elm pods flying, and some wild animals and birds also appear in groups in the reed marshes. However, this year is not as severe as last year or the year before last, and there is less rain in the past.
Scenery of the year. A little further away from the rivers and swamps, you can see the cracked ground.
There are several fields along the river that were cultivated by the soldiers themselves. It is true that they put a lot of effort into it, but you can tell by looking at the greenery in the fields. It is really not as energetic as in the good years.
If you leave the camp and walk around Anzhou, you will feel more and more that this once prosperous place in Hebei is sparsely populated and full of silence and desolation. Occasionally, there are knights galloping past on the official road, but they don't know if they are passing by.
What, just looking at the anxious expressions on the faces of those knights, it doesn't sound like good news.
Fortunately, everything is not so desolate. From Bianwu to the south, passing through Gaoyang Pass, and reaching Xinqiaoying, some farms are still very prosperous. Those are the ones jointly led by Guo Ning's subordinates and the Yu family in Xinqiaoying, and the introduction of
Village Social Security A, which a small number of local wealthy people jointly invested in.
In the process of restoring these armors, several clans that did not know how to praise were eliminated and some people were killed.
The most disturbing event was when Monk Luo personally led a raid on the He family's manor in Xiongzhou. Monk Luo was very good at this. After killing all the local soldiers under the He family, he burned the manor.
It turned into a white field, and then turned back Shi Shiranly under the escort of soldiers under the command of the Yongding Army Jiedu Envoy several miles away.
The He family is a large family in the prefecture-level counties, and the subsequent issues took a lot of effort from the Yu family to solve. The Yu family relied on their own combined force to continuously destroy many strongholds of the He family members. Then Yu Jingchun, who was recognized as a great benefactor, came forward.
, supported a clan member from a distant branch of the He family, thus bringing this large clan into the scope of Anzhou Baojia.
More often than not, the soldiers would take turns attacking from the Junhe camp to wipe out the water bandits and thieves entrenched in the lakes and valleys of Wuzhou. Li Ting was mainly responsible for this matter, after all, he had previously been stationed in Wuguan.
When I was in Dian, I was one of the leaders of the water bandits, and I had a lot of blood on my hands.
Up to now, the farms are distributed in nearly ten counties in five states. The farms controlled by Guo Ning and the Yu brothers are almost connected and connected as one. Within a radius of dozens of miles centered on the Kuijunhe camp, the farms are completely controlled by
Guo Ning is under the control of his subordinates.
Recently, some people half-jokingly said that the Xijunhe camp is like the military commander's palace of the five states. So some people respectfully call Guo Ning "General Manager Guo". Even though Guo Ning himself has repeatedly refused to be called so, some people still call him that behind his back.
.
From the perspective of ordinary soldiers, it is really not easy to be able to command 2,500 soldiers in this kind of world and keep all the soldiers well fed. It is not easy to be worthy of the title of a general manager. Even if there is no name given by the court
, he is also a big shot.
But this big shot was very different from the big shots the soldiers were used to.
He has a very meager self-esteem and has no interest in gold and silver. He usually practices martial arts or hangs out with his own soldiers and young men. He doesn't even have a decent mansion.
No.
He was still stationed on the high ground north of Bianwudian and on the west bank of the defeated army river. However, because the number of soldiers and followers was much larger, the size of the camp was expanded.
At dusk, when Liu Cheng took the books and documents from the warehouse to the base camp, the road he walked was much longer than before.
Inside the camp gate, there is a roughly square courtyard more than ten feet wide. There is a gravel-paved corridor in the center of the courtyard, and there are earthen fields on both sides.
On the edge of the earthen field near the fence, there are racks of weapons and even stone locks, wooden stakes and other strength-training equipment, which look like they are often used. There are several soldiers holding long spears and they are sparring meticulously.
Further back is the meeting hall of the Chinese Army.
Many buildings in the camp are made of logs cut down nearby. They are neither painted nor smoothed. In some places, the bark is not even peeled off. The same is true for the meeting hall. Although the structure is rough, it is very strong.
.
At the back of the meeting hall is Guo Ning and his soldiers. The daily living place of the servants is a courtyard with two entrances.
Liu Cheng stood at the door of the meeting hall and listened for a long time. There were intermittent sounds deep in the hall.
He sighed.
On both sides of the hall, two armored soldiers standing upright also sighed.
"It will take half an hour, right?"
"almost."
"It really doesn't work? Have you tried everything?"
"I heard that he was sick when he was a child, and then..." A soldier made two hand gestures: "It became difficult to use."
"Nonsense! Why is it like this!" Liu Cheng said with a smile: "This kid is angry and anxious, he must feel embarrassed!"
Looking at the sky, he asked, "Where are the others?"
"Everyone else has already left. Today Li Erlang gathered some raw lacquer and came back. Zhao Jue is taking everyone to see it."
"Making lacquer?" Liu Cheng shook his head inexplicably, closed the books, and walked into the hall: "Then I'll go in. I think Ni Yi doesn't care if one more person sees his embarrassment."
The hall in the middle of the meeting hall was now empty. Liu Cheng walked further inside, walked around the back compartment, and saw in the small side hall on the right, an old scholar who had been recruited a few days ago was shouting impatiently.
: "Hurry up! I'm going to eat!"
Next to the old scholar, Lu Han, who was regarded as a family member by Guo Ning, said softly: "Sir, don't be anxious, we still have a while to eat."
She turned to the person standing in the middle of the side hall and said, "Don't be impatient, take your time! People have different temperaments. Maybe you can recite it slowly but remember it well?"
The person standing in the hall, with steam rising from his forehead, turned out to be Ni Yi.
He didn't finish today's homework for half an hour... This was not the first time. As the leader of the followers, Ni Yiyi was extremely ashamed and angry. After listening to Lu Han's persuasion, he only felt more and more impatient, and his head was rising.
The white air rolled up and rolled up visibly to the naked eye, almost becoming a columnar shape.
Seeing this situation, Liu Cheng couldn't help but want to laugh.
It turns out that after Guo Ning regrouped his soldiers, he often chatted with everyone. Sometimes he told various stories about the civil and military affairs of ancient monarchs and ministers, and sometimes he told some weird and weird principles of studying things to achieve knowledge, and then extended them beyond the mountains and seas.
, strange stories from foreign lands.
Someone asked how Guo Ning could have such knowledge and eloquence. Guo Ning blamed Gao Kezhong, a scholar who was killed by Xiao Haohu's men in a surprise attack before, saying that it was Gao Kezhong who taught him.
Guo Ning spoke vividly, and the teenagers listened immersed. Later, even young knights such as Rui Lin and Chen Ran also participated. After daily training and daily military affairs, they all came to wait for Guo Ning to speak. Hundreds of people gathered every time
.
About half a month later, Guo Ning suddenly said: "There are still some stories and anecdotes, but I'm afraid you don't have enough experience and you won't be able to understand them from now on. It's really a pity."
This statement made everyone unhappy.
Someone immediately said: Why don’t we have enough experience? No matter our age, all of us have experienced great battles. We have passed through deserts and grasslands, crossed deep mountains and ravines, and fought with thousands of armies. Speaking of experience, it is better than
Ordinary people are better. Why can’t they even listen to stories?
Guo Langjun, please tell us what we are lacking in knowledge, so that we can make progress.
When he said this, he got into huge trouble.
The time for the young Cong and the knights to listen to Guo Ning's stories every day has since been moved to after sunset. And the hour and a half before sunset has become the time for enlightenment reading!
This is suffering.
When it comes to fighting, Guo Ning's subordinates are all brave. But when it comes to literacy, among the two thousand and five hundred people, there are probably less than a hundred who can recognize their own names; and those who can write can probably count with two hands.
Gotta come over.
Who would have thought that Guo Langjun would suddenly make such a strange request to the men who were licking blood from their swords? At that moment, all the soldiers were extremely anxious, and some even couldn't hold on any longer and gave up on their own initiative.
Guo Ning did not force this.
He just invited a local old Confucian to teach him from the simplest words. But he paid little attention to these things.
The old Confucian preached and taught in the right side of the meeting hall, and Guo Ning worked in the left side of the hall every day without disturbing him. The soldiers who did not want to persist were ashamed at first, but later came back every night and wanted to continue listening to Guo Ning.
Guo Ning didn't mind the stories or jokes at all and treated them as usual.
As a result, fewer and fewer people were willing to try to study. Soon after, Lu Han brought some children to join, and the number of students was only twenty or thirty, including Ni Yi, who was not enlightened.