That morning, Tong Guan led an army of 100,000 to Tangyin County, Xiangzhou. This was the official place of his former confidant Jiang Dadao. Tong Guan ordered the army to station on the spot, rest for a day, and continue north the next day.

Although Tong Guan was promoted by Prime Minister Cai Jing, the conflict between the two has been long-standing. The Song Dynasty's military and political separation, the army does not involve politics, and the government does not interfere with the army. However, Tong Guan is not an ordinary military minister. He is an eunuch around the emperor, and his actions often represent the will of the emperor.

Tong Guan used this special identity to repeatedly bypass the court and requested the emperor to directly appoint local officials, which angered the prime minister Cai Jing, but Cai Jing had no choice but to watch him appoint one local officials after another, gradually forming a powerful local force.

However, Tong Guan's forces were mainly on Shaanxi Road and Hedong Road. Hebei Road was not well-invested, and only three magistrates were appointed, and Jiang Dadao, the magistrate of Tangyin, was one of them.

In the military camp, Tong Guan was sitting in the central army's tent and drinking tea calmly. At this time, a personal soldier reported outside the tent, "Magistrate Jiang asked for a meeting!"

Tong Guan smiled slightly, "Let him come in!"

After a moment, Jiang Dadao quickly walked into the tent, crawled at Tong Guan's feet and cried loudly. Tong Guan was both angry and funny, "You little monkey, you didn't give a big gift when you saw this handsome, but you started crying. Do you think it was too thin for me to sign you as a magistrate?"

Jiang Dadao wiped away his tears and choked and said, "The child missed the general for three years. When he finally saw him today, he couldn't help but cry."

Jiang Dadao followed Tong Guan for ten years and has been his personal soldiers. If Tong Guan hadn't thought he was too rude, he would have recognized him as his godson and let him enter the palace without any hesitation.

However, when Tong Guan saw his former confidant, he was in a good mood and asked with a smile: "Tell me what political achievements have you made after being a magistrate for three years?"

Jiang Dadao's heart suddenly jumped. Unexpectedly, the general asked him about his political achievements as soon as he met. Is he eager to promote himself?

He was prepared in his heart and hurriedly said, "The child followed the command of the commander of the general to serve as the magistrate of Tangyin. To change Tangyin's weak literary style, the child considered that changing the atmosphere must start from the child. The child promoted martial arts skills in various primary schools and established martial arts departments in county schools. It took him three years to gradually reverse the weak spirit of Tangyin's young scholars, so that they could be both literary and martial. The child also set up an army of scholars in county schools."

Jiang Dadao's words did touch Tong Guan's heart. Tong Guan has been in charge of the army for many years. If he wants to use the army to participate in politics, he must have useful talents in his hands, but his confidant generals are all rough.

Tong Guan considered making a fuss about martial arts and cultivating a group of good talents who are both civil and military, and becoming his bargaining chip in power. These good talents started with martial arts and entered politics with literature, so that they could gradually reach a high position in the court and eventually form their own power in the court.

Otherwise, what kind of high-ranking officials can be a crude business like Jiang Dadao? It will only waste your own resources.

Tong Guan suddenly became interested in this army of scholars and smiled and said, "I want to see where this army of scholars is."

Jiang Dadao was overjoyed and hurriedly said, "They are outside the camp, please check with the Grandmaster!"

...........

At this time, a strange army came outside the Song army camp, so that the Song army sentries looked at them curiously, and saw that there were about a hundred people in this army, wearing the best vermilion armor and phoenix wings and crocodiles on their heads. They looked majestic and the team was very neat.

There were actually more than a dozen cavalrymen in front of the team, holding spears and fighting swords on their waists, which was quite as charming as a Tianlong Imperial Guard.

But soon the sentries discovered that these soldiers were actually a group of teenage children, and they turned out to be a group of child soldiers. The sentries laughed.

"Hey! Your mother is not here, she wants to drink milk and go home!"

"Are you here to find me? I seem to have a son who has been separated in Tangyin County for many years. Call me Dad!"

The soldiers teased the student army in foul language and burst into laughter without restraint.

However, the hundred student soldiers were not affected by them. They were all looking at the vast camp curiously. They had never seen a real military camp when they grew up so big.

I saw the big tents one by one, extending to more than ten miles away, several times larger than their Tangyin County. It made people unimaginable how spectacular the 100,000 troops would be arranged.

Li Yanqing was also curiously looking at the camp. Although he didn't know the rules of camping, he would observe from some common sense. He found that the camp was extremely tightly defended. Although the Song army had only been stationed for one day, it still installed the camp fence and surrounded the camp closely. Trenches and antlers were dug outside the camp, and tight patrols were deployed on the periphery. They were investigated three times along the way and were closely followed and monitored by fifty cavalrymen.

Li Yanqing despised Tong Guan in history quite contemptuously. An old eunuch who relied on being favored by the emperor took control of the military power of the Song Dynasty for twenty years and became one of the six thieves at the end of the Song Dynasty.

But now he witnessed it with his own eyes and found that Tong Guan was not as cowardly as he thought, and the marching and war were very rigorous. Even the temporary garrison behind Xiangzhou must be defended tightly and meticulously, which shows that this person is really talented.

The quality of soldiers is very low, but this is also a chronic disease of the Song army. Since the Tanyuan Alliance, there have been no major wars between the Song and Liao countries. Although there are often wars with the Western Xia, it is just the battle between the northwest border troops, which basically has nothing to do with the imperial guards in the capital. After raising idle soldiers for a hundred years, how strict military discipline can these troops be expected?

At this time, Zhou Tong urged the horse to walk in front of the team. He looked at the soldiers in the camp coldly. The hundreds of soldiers were silent. These imperial soldiers knew Zhou Tong and were quite afraid of him.

Soon after, the camp gate opened and a goalkeeper ran over. He clasped his fists at Zhou Tong and said, "Teacher Zhou, the Grand Marshal invites the scholars to join the camp!"

Zhou Tong nodded and turned around and ordered: "The military camp is not allowed to run horses, all cavalry dismount!"

The twelve scholars jumped off the horse in unison, and their movements were neatly arranged. The Song soldiers around them were stunned and suddenly burst into applause. They found that the training of these student soldiers was no less than that of them, and the dirty words completely disappeared from their mouths.

The cavalry led the horses in front and the infantry behind, three cavalry in a row, five infantry in a row, and one hundred soldiers walked into the barracks in neat steps.

.........

A wooden platform about meter high has been built to the south of the temporary school yard of Daying. The soldiers have arranged more than twenty seats. Except for the head coach Tong Guan, the others are all senior generals in the army. However, Jiang Dadao, the magistrate of Tangyin, did not have seats, so he could only squat beside the head coach.

The generals began to walk up the wooden platform one after another. At this time, the head coach Tong Guan walked up to the wooden platform surrounded by several personal soldiers. The generals stood up to salute one after another. Tong Guan waved his hands with a smile, "Let's take a look at the military formation exercises of Tangyin scholars today. Everyone relax and think it's rest!"

He walked to the middle of the first row, where there was a large tiger-skin chair. Tong Guan sat down. Jiang Dadao immediately squatted down at his feet tactfully, like a big dog squatting beside his master.

"Time is limited, start!"

Tong Guan gave a light order, and a messenger rushed away and shouted loudly from afar: "Start!"

The first spear army formation came out, a total of eighty-eight scholars. They held spears in their hands and ran in an orderly manner, shouting loudly while running. Soon they lined up into a military formation and began to wave the spears.

Tong Guan looked at it for a moment and smiled, "It's interesting, I've practiced for a month!"

Jiang Zhixian County became popular and the words of the Taiwei undoubtedly expose the illusion of establishing the Scholar Army, and it was just a temporary performance army.

He didn't know how to explain it, and couldn't say a word for a long time, but Tong Guan was not angry. He nodded and praised: "Although he lacked a little murderous aura, it was still neat. It would be good to be able to practice like this in a month. What is the following?"

He soon became less interested in the infantry spear formation, and Jiang Dadao hurriedly said: "There are cavalry drills!"

Tong Guan shook his head, and he was not interested in the student cavalry queue, so he asked, "Is there any performance like archery?"

"Yes! Yes!"

Jiang Dadao hurriedly introduced: "The third item is step bow, the fourth item is waist crossbow, and the fifth item is riding and shooting."

"Haha! There is actually riding and shooting, which is interesting, so start with the step bow!"

Tong Guan likes to watch archery. He often holds soldier archery competitions in the army. Those who are good at archery are often promoted. The archery trend in the late Northern Song Dynasty was very strong, which is largely related to the personal preferences of Tong Guan, the highest military commander.

Zhou Tong knew his hobbies well, so he arranged three archery events in a row. The first one to appear was Wang Gui and Tang Huai's step shooting.

The soldiers were resting in a clearing space surrounded by curtains, and the infantry soldiers sat on the ground and were depressed. Following the steps, they had to practice three sets of spear formations. As a result, the first set of spear formations was driven back less than halfway through, which was really frustrating.

The eight cavalry soldiers were already lined up, and they performed the cavalry gun formation, and had to rush out with a command.

At this time, a messenger rushed in and shouted, "Step on the bow!"

Everyone was stunned, and Zhou Tong hurried forward and said, "There are still cavalry formations that have not left the line."

The soldier waved his hand impatiently, "The cavalry formation has been cancelled, step on the bow quickly, don't waste time!"

Everyone was in an uproar. They worked hard for a month and were cancelled without even showing their faces. They were not as good as the infantry army, at least they even went up.

Wang Gui and Tang Huai stood up and looked at Zhou Tong nervously. Zhou Tong understood that Tong Guan might be out of interest, so he hurriedly urged the two, "Go! Don't be nervous, just shoot arrows according to your usual training."

The archery field was set under the stands, with the targets being hundreds of steps away. Two archers turned their backs to the senior officials on the stage. According to regulations, each of them shot five arrows.

Wang Gui and Tang Huai's arrows were like meteors. A month of hard training was not in vain. Five arrows hit the bull's eye, which caused applause on the stage. Tong Guan nodded reluctantly. It was okay, but nothing was outstanding. He was immediately interested and yawned, "Look! I still have military affairs to deal with."

He got up and left. Jiang Dadao was anxious and hurriedly caught up with two steps: "The Grand Marshal, there are also riding and shooting, the archer is Jinke Jieyuan!"

Tong Guan stopped suddenly and looked back at Jiang Dadao, "What did you say just now?"

"There are also scholars riding and shooting. The archer is the first name of Xiangzhou's test this year's "Xieyuan."

Tong Guan thought it was Jie Yuan at first, but later he realized that he was trying Jie Yuan. He was immediately interested and sat back on his seat and smiled: "Then just ride and shoot!"

Jiang Dadao secretly wiped the cold sweat and secretly called luck in his heart. If he hadn't prepared his last killer move, he would have been sad today.
Chapter completed!