The ancestors of the Fan family also had a Shangshu during the Tang Dynasty. It is said that they were resentful to the fact that they had a traitor and had a family in Xinyang Prefecture, southwest Beijing. Since then, the Fan family has been studying and inheriting their families. They not only had to study, but also had to farm and serve themselves. In the Song Dynasty, such scholars were called "Gengsheng". Many of Gengsheng studied poetry and books hard, without guidance from famous teachers. Although they were born in a humble manner, they also had the ambition of managing the family and governing the country and pacifying the world.

Before arriving in Xiangyang, working at sunrise and resting at sunset, men farming and women weaving, catching fireflies and stealing lights are all ordinary life for Fan Changheng. Although farming and reading are hard, they are also happy. Scholars keep their doors and unify the country. The rules handed down by the Fan family are that males of all generations are at most once, and if they fail a single blow, they will float away and no longer take the exam. This ancestral teaching seems casual, but in fact it is because for the Fan family, the cost of going to Beijing to take the exam was a heavy burden. However, the invasion of the Northern Barbarians broke Fan Changheng's plan to go to the exam at the age of 40. When he learned that King Jing Zhao Qi was stationed in Xiangyang and recruiting talents, Mr. Fan made a great determination and gritted his teeth to send his son to try his luck. So Fan Changheng came to Xiangyang with "being a farmer in the morning and ascending to the emperor's hall in the evening".

During his time in Xiangyang, the most painful thing for Fan Changheng was not just the embarrassment of being a writer, the humiliation of being bullied by others, the most painful thing was the disillusionment of hope and the despair of death. When he was studying in Xinyang Prefecture, he saw the clerks and powerful officials rampant, he could still imagine that this was just because the mountains were high and the emperor was far away. Once the Holy Emperor discovered that he sent one or two ministers to govern the place, all evil would be gone and all the waste would be prosperous. After arriving in Xiangyang, after hearing and witnessing many things, Fan Changheng had completely lost his confidence. One after another, the powerful ministers he had once placed hopes were all hypocritical, forming cliques for personal gain. His beliefs had been crushed by reality, and his life was like a huge quagmire.

In Taibai, he was just a dead-end hall. In order to have two meals a day, he ran around in a daze during the day with the shouts of guests. At night, he dragged his tired body to sleep in the cold woodshed. Fan Changheng was trampled on by others and fell deeper and deeper in his life without dignity, but he was more and more adaptable to this kind of life, and he was even more and more that he was a scholar. Only when he woke up at dawn made Fan Changheng feel heartbroken pain, his eyes became darker and darker. In the eyes of others, this young man seemed to be more and more honest and contented with the status quo.

It was just out of instinct that while serving tea and pouring water, Fan Changheng would also leave an ear to listen to the guests' discussions. Other waiters often talked about the latest current affairs. On that day, he suddenly heard a guest say that Ezhou was recruiting scholars to join the army, and it was the Baoyi Army, which was said to have been recruited by robbers and bandits.

"Isn't Baoyi Army the only one under Mr. Yuanzhi?" Fan Changheng suddenly said something in his mind. While studying, he had copied articles by Zhao Xingde, and he had fought for him for the sake of this. But there was no emperor in Ezhou, so he came to Xiangyang. He couldn't help but slow down and listened carefully.

"Did Zhao Xingde finally regret it after so many thieves being recruited? Is it possible that he intends to influence those beasts now?"

"Hmph, ice and charcoal cannot be used together. How can we, the great Confucian scholars, join the thief?"

"I heard that Ezhou pays a lot of military pay, and I'm afraid it's a little poor and I'll still be tempted."

"Hmph, these greedy people..."

As Fan Changheng listened, his already stiff mind suddenly turned and stood up. A heat flowed from his heart, flowing all over his limbs and bones. "Go to Ezhou and join Mr. Yuanzhi." He thought fiercely, "In this chaotic world, if you can't kill someone, you will be killed. I would rather be a centurion than a scholar."

At this moment, he suddenly ate a lot of punches in the back of his head. Another old runner cursed and said, "Slowly, don't you hear the guest ask you to add tea?" If it were normal, Fan Changheng had no feeling at all. At this moment, his chest was furious. He suddenly turned around and stared at the old runner, and looked deeply, as if he wanted to see the person's appearance clearly. "What are you doing?" The old runner was suddenly stared at by him and was a little furious. Fan Changheng did not do anything illegal, he just turned around and honestly added tea to the guest.

"Bah!" the old runner cursed, "I thought I suddenly became brave!"

The next morning, Fan Changheng wrapped a few pieces of clothes, left Taibaiju Inn without saying hello, and left Xiangyang South Gate and headed for Ezhou.

"At worst, it's a death," he looked up at the hot sun in the sky and cursed: "If you have the guts, set down, and I will die with you!" Since the Zhenguo Army opened up the waterway of Xiangyang, the Liao army was busy training the navy and building camps to siege Xiangyang. Therefore, the siege of Xiangyang is not strict now, leaving a path for people from all over the south and north. However, once Fan Changheng made up his mind, no matter how tight the siege of the Liao army was, he would still go to Ezhou.

.............

With the help of the craftsmen in Chunyu Iron Factory, Ezhou quickly imitated its own musket guns. With Zhao Xingde's insistence, Ezhou restored the tradition of the name of the craftsmen and inspection officials. In other words, each musket is engraved with the names of manufacturing craftsmen and inspection officials. Once a problem occurs, it will be investigated to the end.

After approval from the Prime Minister's Office, Chunyu Iron Factory actually bought the mining rights of Daye Iron Mine. After recruiting large numbers of refugees as laborers, the iron ore output increased rapidly. In addition to casting muskets, the refined iron produced also created armor, swords and guns and other weapons to supplement military supplies. While dividing part of the energy to take care of the iron plant, Zhao Xingde mainly focused on training the Baoyi Army. After reorganization, two factions formed in the Baoyi Army, one was the leader of the Jingxiang thieves, and the other was the officers who were originally trained by the Guanzhong regiment. The soldiers under him were both the original regiment training, bandits, and the Guandong people. The original thieves and water bandits were accustomed to avoiding the real and attacking the virtual, and they were good at fighting with swords and other weapons in close combat. It was difficult for qualified archers among the refugees to find a qualified archer. The Baoyi Army focused on the training of troops using muskets and guns to form formations.

Some of the muskets were originally transported from Shu, while the other was imitated by Daye. During the training, Zhao Xingde discovered that the officers who were originally converted to Taixue scholars had a faster understanding of military orders and were more determined to implement them. These officers of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the rank of the ranks and used them as officers after the training in the rank of the ranks.

Seed. When Chen Dong was in charge of overseas territory, Zhao Xingde proposed a similar plan as he had proposed. Considering that the scholars were well aware of the scriptures, understood the righteousness, and used them to master the Baoyi Army to ensure the loyalty of the army to the court to the greatest extent and avoid situations like the generals in the Zhenguo Army who only knew the governors, Chen Dong strongly supported Zhao Xingde's proposal, believing that Zhao Xingde had no ambition to control the private army. Therefore, the list of recruiting scholars to join the army was quickly sent out.

In the school grounds of the Baoyi Army in Ezhou, teams of soldiers were practicing the formation of musket guns. The officers were shouting loudly "one, two, three," "forward," "retreat", "turn left", "turn right", or "left left and right" commands. Most of the soldiers came from thieves and refugees. Even simple practices and commands were wrong, and the original regiment training officers had no choice but to correct them over and over again.

"I have seen General Yue performing exercises in Zhenguo Army. I thought it was not difficult to train troops, but I didn't expect that it would be so difficult to train a soldier as if he were armed and fingered." Chen Dong sighed.

The invasion of the Northern Barbarians, the Xiangyang court and Jingdong Hou Huanyin, made Ezhou feel pressure. Chen Dong understood that in terms of the name of the great power, Ezhou and Xiangyang were equal and even inferior, and to resolve the difficulties, in addition to the dispute between etiquette and morality, they still had to win the battle to let the people of the world know who could deal with this chaos. However, the previous experience in the Zhenguo Army still made Chen Dong feel uneasy. Although he had to rely on the important Zhenguo Army and hoped that Yue Fei would defeat the Liao army in the east to establish a great achievement, the Prime Minister's Office attached more importance to the Baoyi Army than before. The Neo-Confucian Society was also vigorously advocating the scholars to join the army to expand their strength in order to protect the Baoyi Army.

When he arrived at the camp of the Right Army led by Luo Xian Shi, thousands of soldiers from the two battalions were in the midst of training, the officer did not notice that Zhao Xingde accompanied the Prime Minister and still shouted loudly as usual. Calling trumpet Q&A is a tradition in the Guanzhong regiment's military training, and later it was also brought to the Baoyi Army. Because it could inspire morale, Zhao Xingde also formulated these three unified trumpets for the Baoyi Army, and the left and right army commanders and the battalions can also be called by themselves.

"What does General Zhao do in training troops?"

"Protect the territory and safeguard the people, expel the northern enemy, and welcome the emperor to return it!"

The generals and soldiers replied in unison, because they usually shouted too much, the voice of the phone was particularly neat. Chen Dong nodded with satisfaction. Zhao Xingde showed a smile on his lips. The subordinates led by Lu Mingyu, Luo Xianshi and others also made great progress.

The battalion officer Xia Maoer, who was leading the army, saw Zhao Xingde coming to inspect, but he did not recognize Chen Donglai. He immediately followed Lu Mingyu's instructions and shouted loudly: "Whose food do you eat?"

"Eat the meal of Zhao's boss!"

Thousands of soldiers shouted neatly. Chen Dong's face was slightly dark, and Zhao Xingde's face became stranger, and he said awkwardly: "It is clearly the food and salary of the court." Chen Dong shook his head and smiled: "The soldiers in these camps are just not reasonable. It shows that Yuan Zhi has deeply gained the morale of the army, and the upper and lower levels use their lives. It seems that another strong soldier is coming."

Xia Maoer ignored this and continued to shout: "Who are you serving for!"

"So for General Zhao to die!" A thousand people shouted together and went straight into the sky.
Chapter completed!