The Great Qin Empire---Qin Li

On October 4, General Bin Bai led a group of county soldiers to Yunmengze to hunt down bandits, but after searching for several days, he still found nothing. It was not until the morning of the ten-day military exercise that he returned to the parade ground angrily.

After returning, General Bin Bai felt something was wrong: the county soldiers who had stayed in the parade ground dared to whisper to him from afar, and his rival General Chen Bai was even more smiling.

In the end, it was one of his confidants who whispered a few words in his ear, and General Bin Bai knew the whole story.

"Are you serious?"

His face was full of disbelief. How could it be possible? When he left, the Guishi led by Heifu could only stand and squat in the same place, without any progress. How come a few days later, it became "well-ordered" as everyone said?

But it was too late for General Bin Bai to find out the reason. Just after lunch, the two lieutenants of Anlu County had arrived outside the gate...

From a distance, General Bin Bai and General Chen Bai, who were waiting outside the parade ground, saw a chariot with two horses slowly approaching. Two military officers stood on the chariot. They wore knee-length jackets, colorful suspenders and colorful lace breastplates, long trousers, pointed shoes, and double-panel long crowns.

The two lieutenants of Anlu County stood side by side. After getting off the chariot, they gave way to each other and finally walked into the parade ground together.

The right lieutenant of the county was a regular official named Du Xian. He was from Guanzhong, Qin State. He was transferred to Anlu three years ago. He had a typical Guanzhong face, two thick beards on his lips, and spoke in Qinqiang, which was incompatible with the local Chu dialect.

The left lieutenant of the county was an adjutant named Yun Man, a native of Anlu. The Yun family has a long history, which can be traced back to the vassal state of Yunzi four or five hundred years ago. During the hundreds of years of Chu's rule, the Yun family also served as local doctors for generations. Until the Qin occupied Jianghan, some of the Yun family moved east with the King of Chu, and some stayed, becoming the largest local power in the area. Yun Man had a sparse beard and narrow eyes, and greeted the officials in the parade ground in a friendly way in the local dialect.

The two of them were smiling and looked very close, but only Bin Baijiang and Chen Baijiang's confidants knew that although the two county lieutenants did not fight on the surface, they were secretly competing.

It can be said that because the right lieutenant Du Xian was an outsider official, he tended to cultivate outsiders, local common people, or talents transferred from the county school, such as Chen Baijiang. The left lieutenant Yun Man represented the local power and liked to promote relatives such as Bin Baijiang and Huyang Pavilion Chief.

But no matter how different their backgrounds and personalities were, and how big the conflicts they had accumulated in their daily lives were, they still worked together under the laws of the Qin State, and had never torn their faces. Instead, their subordinates, such as General Bin Baijiang and General Chen Baijiang, were fighting happily.

Du Xian and Yun Man entered the training ground together and sat on the earthen platform, with Du Xian in the main seat and Yun Man in the deputy seat, and they still did not stop talking.

As local military commanders, in addition to today's weather, they talked more about the recent military actions of the Qin State.

"Has Zuo Wei seen the victory report delivered by the postman from the county this morning?" Du Xian smiled under his thick beard.

"I saw it." Yun Man also put on a humble attitude and said with a smile: "I just learned a few days ago that the king had raised an army to attack Yan. I never thought that there would be results so soon!"

"Of course." Du Xian stroked his beard and said: "After all, General Wang, the general of the Siche Shuzhang, was the commander-in-chief. Yan and Dai were all defeated by him. Although they sent troops to stop the king's army, they were like a mantis blocking a car and were easily defeated by General Wang on the banks of Yishui."

Yun Man nodded repeatedly: "Although the victory report was only delivered today, the battle was in mid-September last year. Now General Wang may have conquered the lower capital of Yan and besieged Jicheng! The general trend of Yan is gone."

"Hahaha, that's right. The only thing the Yan people can rely on now is the severe winter. I think in two or three months, when spring comes, you and I will receive the victory report that Yan has been destroyed and the King of Yan and Prince Dan have surrendered, but..."

Du Xian changed the subject and said with a gloomy face: "Although it is a good thing that General Wang defeated Yan, it has little to do with Nanjun and Anlu County. The county lieutenant also mentioned in the letter that Chu has been restless recently and has the tendency to send troops to harass the border, so at the beginning of the month, old soldiers from various counties were transferred to the border pass for defense. Anlu County is close to Chu, so it must be guarded."

Yun Man lowered his voice and said: "According to the right lieutenant, will Qin and Chu fight this year?"

"There will be a small fight. Chu has always been the leader of the coalition, and it has to send troops to attack from time to time. But I'm afraid there won't be a big fight."

Du Xian pointed to the north and smiled: "Don't forget, Wei in the north is still there!"

Yun Man seemed relieved: "It seems that you and I can still have a few years of peace."

"Yes, yes, the king has destroyed Han and Zhao, and Yan will soon be conquered. Sooner or later, he will send a large army to attack Chu. We will have to lead the army to participate in the war. Let's work hard to eliminate bandits, train soldiers, and wait patiently."

"Hahaha, the right lieutenant is right, but I don't know if the right lieutenant will still be in Anlu by then."

Du Xian's face froze, and then he laughed.

The two smiled at each other, but there was no smile in their eyes, and each had his own thoughts.

Du Xian showed that he was well-informed as the chief officer everywhere, while Yun Man did not confront him head-on, and only said at the end, "I don't know if the right lieutenant will still be in Anlu by then." Because he heard that the county intended to transfer Du Xian to Yan County, so that the old official in Guanzhong who had suppressed him for three years would be gone, and he might miss a war to destroy the country.

Both of them have their own support and their own little tricks, so they have been evenly matched for three years, and no one dared to turn against each other completely.

While they were chatting, the two lieutenants had already brought up all the guards who had been trained this month, and they were standing in a dense crowd on the training ground.

The two county lieutenants stopped talking, and the right lieutenant Du Xian nodded to Chen Baijiang and said, "Let's start!"

Chen Baijiang agreed and ordered the drums to be beaten. With the rumbling of drums, the ten-day competition officially began...

...

"Chen Baijiang, the guards this month have practiced the order of the troops very mediocrely."

Right lieutenant Du Xian knelt on the mat behind the table, watching the guards walk by in order, shaking his head.

Starting with the first rank, nine ranks have been marching in formation, demonstrating the four basic formations of sitting and standing up, walking and stopping, left and right, and front and back.

As for the division and combination, the knot and untie, all the guards will be trained together in the next few days, and some sticks and bamboo will be distributed at that time, which can be used as substitutes for halberds and spears. If you want to get weapons, you have to wait until you are officially conscripted. The Qin State has very strict management of military weapons.

However, in Du Xian's opinion, even in the simplest four formations, these guards are poorly trained.

The first squad is the best he has ever seen. The first squad leader Yuan Bai is an old soldier, and the guards he led are barely neat when marching. I don't know why, today is a cold winter day, but Yuan Bai is sweating profusely and a little absent-minded. When demonstrating "left and right", he almost turned the wrong direction.

Even the first squad is like this, and the other eight squads, Yi, Bing, Ding, Wu, Ji, Geng, Xin, and Ren, are even more disappointing.

Among them, some are scattered, some are out of order, some march in a different way, crooked, and some even walk forward in a daze when they shout to stop and stand, bumping into the people in front, making the queue even more chaotic, causing the people in other squads to laugh out loud.

Du Xian's face turned black when he saw this scene. This morning, the county had just asked him to strengthen the guard and speed up the training. He was really angry when he saw these night guards in such a bad condition at noon. General Chen Bai looked at the right lieutenant's face and felt guilty.

Yun Man was very optimistic and comforted him: "You can be relieved. After all, they are just night guards. Can they be trained into elite soldiers in just ten days? What's more, most of the old soldiers were recruited to guard the border. Most of the young people who came to serve this time were not yet strong. How can they be compared with county soldiers and old soldiers?"

"That makes sense."

Du Xian tried hard to suppress his anger. He had already seen that among these nine squads, the first squad was the best. As for the other squads... If possible, he really wanted to evaluate eight "palaces" and punish them severely to see who would dare not take military exercises seriously in the future!

At this time, General Chen Bai came over and said, "Two officers, there is still a squad that has not been practiced yet."

"It must be the same as the previous squads, so don't watch it." The left lieutenant Yun Man glared at General Bin Bai in the distance and said coldly.

This is not possible, General Chen Bai hurriedly said, "I dare to tell the county lieutenant that this Guishi is the best trained among all the guards. The squad leader is Heifu from Yunmeng Township, who was appointed as a public official a few days ago for capturing three thieves in Yunmeng Lake. Right lieutenant, do you remember him?"

"It turned out to be him!"

Du Xian nodded. He remembered that the county prison had specially informed him that Heifu could be allowed to be late for one day. Later, General Chen Baijiang also mentioned that because Heifu won the lawsuit against the head of Huyang Pavilion, he was angrily harassed by General Bin Baijiang, the son-in-law of the left lieutenant...

Thinking of this, Du Xian glanced at the left lieutenant's face, a smile appeared on the corner of his mouth, and said: "As a county lieutenant, it is my duty to hold the competition every ten days. How can I not finish it from beginning to end? General Chen Baijiang, let Guishi come up quickly and let us see who the brave warrior who captured the thief is."

"Yes!"

General Chen Baijiang smiled proudly at General Bin Baijiang, who looked livid. He waved the flag in his hand, and Guishi, who had been waiting for a long time on the other side of the parade ground, slowly walked over.

Du Xian stood up and looked, but saw that the first sergeant in front of the Guishi was a dark-skinned man. He was seven and a half feet tall, with steady steps and a solemn expression. Although he was holding an ordinary thick bamboo pole, in his hand, it seemed to have become a bright military flag or a sharp spear!

All the people in Guishi followed the leader's steps and walked into the field of vision in an orderly manner...

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