The Great Qin Empire---Qin Li

On this day, just after dawn, there was a fierce drumbeat at the South Gate Parade Ground...

Heifu opened his eyes immediately. He didn't sleep well last night. This room, to describe it with a poem, is "There is no dry place at the head of the bed, and the rain is like hemp and never stops!" In addition, there is a musty smell in this small space, not to mention the smell of sweat...

This was their situation last night. It was not until the rain stopped in the second half of the night that they could barely fall asleep, so at this moment, everyone was still sleeping soundly.

Heifu looked at the dim light outside the window, got up and put on his clothes, and then started to wake up everyone in the room one by one, starting with Ji Ying and Dongmen Bao.

"Get up, Ersanzi, get up quickly!"

Dongmen Bao probably hated being called. He sat up suddenly, looked at Heifu fiercely, and almost punched him, but then he remembered who he was, touched his hair instead, and got up and got off the bed.

Ji Ying gritted his teeth and turned over. Hei Fu lifted the quilt off him, and then he started to cry out that he was cold.

The rest of the people were similar. Chao Bo and the brothers Zhui and Mu were already looking for shoes. Ke and Bu also got up with difficulty. What surprised Hei Fu was that the taciturn Xiao Tao rolled over before he called him. It seemed that he woke up early.

The hardest one to call was Ping. He was pushed and stabbed countless times and kept mumbling and unwilling to get up. It was not until Dongmen Bao got impatient and jumped up and grabbed his collar and scolded him loudly that Ping woke up with sleepy eyes.

After everyone went out, they found that it rained last night, but it was still a sunny day today.

"Wait until the afternoon, there will be something to bear." Chao Bo sighed. Unlike doing farm work in their own fields, the night watchmen prefer cloudy days when they are on duty.

After arriving at the parade ground, Heifu found that their squad was the first to arrive, and the personnel were neat. The rest of the squads arrived one after another, yawning and listless. However, no one dared to be lazy and not come, because everyone knew what the price would be...

When the sun rose completely, the huge parade ground, with a total of ten rooms, had gathered hundreds of people.

However, this so-called "gathering" was really just standing in a group, without any order at all. The night watchmen were all from the same county, and some were even from the same hometown and village, and they were related to each other. Of course, they had to say hello when they met, come over to chat, greet their families, talk about this year's harvest, and heard that you gave birth to another fat boy...

Heifu saw all this. He thought that many people here had participated in the night watch and had been trained in previous years, so there would be some order, but the reality surprised him.

Chao Bo also shook his head, obviously not satisfied with the performance of these young people. He said to Hei Fu: "Most of the people with titles and old soldiers were summoned by the prefect of this county to guard the border two days ago, so most of the people who came here are new soldiers."

"I see." Hei Fu understood. This was probably what the two merchants in the restaurant said yesterday. Because the King of Qin attacked Yan, attacked the north and defended the south, the Qin-Chu border needed to be guarded, so most of the people who stayed were new soldiers in their twenties, so their military literacy was generally not high.

In short, although no one was making a loud noise, there was a constant whispering, the order was very loose, and the parade ground was like a mess.

What finally made everyone quiet down was a harsh golden sound...

"Dong!" The copper hammer hit the bell, making a loud noise. Everyone stopped chatting and looked at the small earthen platform in front of the parade ground. There were already gongs and drums, and the county soldiers holding spears and spears trotted out to stand in a row, with their heads held high. Although in Heifu's eyes, their formation was not neat, but it was much better than the scattered soldiers.

At this time, two generals wearing painted armor also climbed onto the earthen platform. Heifu stood on tiptoe and saw that General Bin, who had troubled them yesterday, stood on the right, and General Chen stood on the left. During the whole process, the two did not talk at all, and they were completely cold in performing their duties, which showed the difference in their relationship.

Chen Baijiang was in charge of training the night watchmen. Seeing that the time was almost up, he stepped forward, coughed lightly, and started talking...

"The autumn harvest is over, and Anlu is very prosperous. We are ordered by the county magistrate and the county lieutenant to recruit two or three men to gather here as night watchmen. We will practice military exercises for half a month and do labor for half a month..."

"Why practice military exercises? The ancients said that men often die for what they cannot do and fail for what they cannot do. To not teach the people to fight is to abandon them..."

Chen Baijiang is indeed educated and graduated from a school. He speaks elegantly and can occasionally say a few "the ancients said". However, Bin Baijiang looked disdainful on the side, and the soldiers and night watchmen in the parade ground also looked confused. After all, what the ancients said two or three hundred years ago, they, the common people, would not understand.

Dongmen Bao and others were also confused. Hei Fu had to explain in a low voice that General Chen was talking about why he wanted to train the guards. If they were driven to the battlefield without training, it would definitely lead to a great defeat of "overthrowing the army and killing the generals", which was sending them to their deaths.

"It means sweating more in peacetime and bleeding less in battle... Do you understand now?" Hei Fu whispered to Dongmen Bao and Ji Ying.

"So that's it!" The two suddenly realized it. Dongmen Bao cursed in a low voice: "Such a simple thing, why make it so complicated, Hei Fu, it's better for you to go up!" He now has a layer of admiration for Hei Fu.

"I am just a public official, how can I be qualified." Hei Fu smiled, but thought of something in his heart.

He heard that the nobles in the Spring and Autumn Period would use hunting all year round to train the people in the territory, which was probably the origin of daily training.

After hundreds of years of development, this has become a system guaranteed by law in the Qin State today. Just imagine that more than a hundred guards are trained every month in Anlu County, and the number can reach two or three hundred in spring, summer and autumn. In a year, there are two thousand. There are nearly 40,000 people in the 18 counties of Nanjun. Qin has more than 20 counties, which means nearly a million people...

After calculating, Hei Fu couldn't help but take a breath. He finally knew how Qin defeated the 450,000 Zhao troops in Changping, and how it mobilized 200,000 and 600,000 troops to destroy Chu.

A tree that can be embraced by two people grows from a tiny seed; a nine-story tower starts from a pile of earth.

The invincible million Qin troops are made up of guards and soldiers like him who are as small as ants!

At this time, General Chen's speech was coming to an end. He said that although the guards were not formal soldiers, they were also subject to military discipline! Those who were cunning and disobeyed orders would be punished severely! Then he announced the specific content of the "military exercise" in the first half of the month.

"Wu Zi said, sit and stand up, walk and stop, move left and right, move forward and backward, separate and combine, tie and untie, practice every change, and then teach them weapons... This is what the guards need to train. As for martial arts and weapons, wait until you serve as regular soldiers and garrison soldiers, then practice in the army!"

As soon as these words came out, Hei Fu was relieved. Apart from playing with a short sword and dagger, he really knew nothing about the weapons of this era, let alone bows and arrows.

On the contrary, those walking, sitting, standing, left and right, front and back, are things that modern armies emphasize training even more than two thousand years later. China is even more happy with this, and has come up with many tricks. High school and college students who have experienced military training understand it, not to mention him, a graduate of the police academy.

Finally, General Chen Bai talked about the key point of today: "In the art of war, teaching comes first; one person learns to fight, and ten people can be taught. Ten people learn to fight, and a hundred people can be taught. It is the duty of this general to teach you a hundred people! A hundred people are divided into ten squads. Although the squad is small, it must not be without a leader. Today, we should select the squad leader and squad leader!"

He glanced at the guards standing in a mess, frowned, and ordered the county soldiers: "Let everyone stand separately according to the order of each house!"

The county soldiers came over and marked out ten areas on the parade ground, and arranged everyone to stand separately according to the houses they lived in. It seemed like a simple task, but it took a quarter of an hour. The ten squads were finally separated. They were assigned the numbers of Jia, Yi, Bing, Ding, Wu, Ji, Geng, Xin, Ren, and Gui in order from right to left.

The squad of Heifu and his team was the "Gui Shi".

"Those who have titles and are willing to be squad leaders or squad leaders, please step out!"

Hearing this, Heifu nodded to Dongmenbao, and the two of them stepped out together, but Heifu took two steps while Dongmenbao stopped one step behind him.

The two centurions walked down the platform and inspected the squads in order. A clerk followed behind them, counting the number of people in each squad and the names of the squad leaders and squad leaders.

When they arrived at Guishi, General Chen saw Heifu at a glance and smiled: "There are only two people with titles in Guishi?"

Facing this "lifesaver", Heifu said respectfully: "I dare to tell you, General Bai, only Heifu and Bao are public officers, and the other eight are all soldiers."

"Who of you two is the squad leader and who is the squad leader?"

Dongmenbao took the initiative to answer: "Heifu is the squad leader, and I am the squad leader."

"Good, very good." General Chen was very happy and was about to ask the clerk beside him to write it down.

However, at this moment, Bin Baijiang's contemptuous voice sounded from the side.

"This Heifu is just a night watchman who is serving for the first time. At most, he has some courage. What can he do?!"

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