Qian Song

Chapter 12
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Because Li Cun served as a soldier here, paid the army, ate meat every meal, and could bring the whole family to eat and drink. As a result, only the next day, more than 200 young and strong people came to vote for Li Cun.

Plus the original more than 70 young and strong.

Li Cun already has more than 280 soldiers.

If this is placed in the 21st century, Li Cun can almost be a battalion commander.

This is of course a good thing.

but--

This also brought two big troubles to Li Cun.

First of all, these nearly three hundred recruits brought Li Cun more than a thousand old and weak women and children.

This is a very heavy burden.

Not to mention anything else, the food consumed by these 300 people is as high as [-] shi per day, and this does not count meat, vegetables, etc.

To be honest, if possible, Li Cun would definitely not want to carry such a heavy burden.

But for one thing, compared to Fang La, a local celebrity in Qingxi, Li Cun, an unknown man from other places, really has no advantage in recruiting troops. Therefore, otherwise, Li Cun must not be able to develop Fang La.

And once Li Cun's development is not as good as Fang La's, he will be annexed by Fang La. What's more, Li Cun may be killed by Fang La, whom he has offended.

Secondly, Qingxi can be used as Fang La's base camp, but not Li Cun's base camp.

You know, in history, Qingxi was attacked by the Song army earlier.

Even if Li Cun intervenes, it is unlikely that Qingxi will survive.

The key point is that there is no point in protecting Qingxi——Qingxi is located in the hinterland of the Northern Song Dynasty. If the Song army cannot be blocked to the north of the Yangtze River, it will definitely become a place of death. The ending of La in history is the best proof.

Moreover, Li Cunqingxi will definitely not have a political and popular foundation—Fang La and the others, who are natives of Qingxi, will never give Li Cunqingxi a chance to develop and grow.

Therefore, Li Cun must choose Yangzhou, Zhenjiang, and Hangzhou as his base camp where he can advance, retreat, and defend, and no one restricts his development.

In addition, choosing places like Yangzhou, Zhenjiang, and Hangzhou as Li Cun's base camp has another advantage, that is, if the future development does not go well, Li Cun can retreat to Taiwan by water, and then develop slowly. Then make a comeback to compete in the Central Plains.

In short, Li Cun will definitely not stay in Qingxi.

And the best way to make these Qingxi soldiers go with Li Cun willingly and never want to go back to Qingxi in the future is to bring their whole family with them.

Thirdly, Li Cun also needs auxiliary soldiers.

In this period of war, the transportation of materials and so on has to a large extent relied on people, unlike later generations, which can be transported by trucks, trains or even planes.

Moreover, when fighting, especially when defending the city, there must be auxiliary soldiers to help.

So these family members are not useless people.

Fourth, no matter where Li Cun chooses to be his base camp in the future, he will need a political foundation and a popular support, and those who are willing to go with Li Cun in the end must be Li Cun's greatest political and popular support.

There are so many reasons, no matter how heavy this burden is, Li Cun must carry it.

When the hour was about to arrive, Li Cun asked Zhang Shi to call all the registered recruits of the Huben Army to the sun-grain field.

When the new recruits were assembled, Li Cun came to the sun-drying ground and said straight to the point: "I will give you a stick of incense time, divide yourself into groups of 12 people, and choose a temporary chief and a temporary corps leader. Once the time is up, there will be no groups." People will be punished with three lashes, if no team leader or team leader can be selected, all members of the team will be given five lashes each, and the time will start now."

As soon as Li Cun finished speaking, the soldiers running errands for Li Cun lit a stick of incense and put it in the incense burner beside him.

After that, Li Cun said nothing, let alone interfered with the free combination of more than 280 recruits.

Seeing that no one cares about them, a group of recruits were laughing and jokingly forming teams and discussing who should be the leader and who should be the corps leader. They didn't take Li Cun's words and the stick of incense to heart at all.

When Li Cun saw it, he stood there quietly watching.

When the time came, Li Cun suddenly ordered: "Those who have been divided into groups stand to my left."

Hearing Li Cun's order, twelve groups of recruits went to Li Cun's left and stood separately.

Li Cun then ordered the fifteen groups of recruits: "Warrior and Shichang come out."

This time, two of the eight groups of recruits came out.

Among the remaining four groups, only one person came out in one group, no one came out in two groups, and three people came out in another group.

"The biggest difference between the mob and the elite army is not the equipment, but the orders and prohibitions, and the mission must be fulfilled. Only in this way can an army have the foundation to become an elite soldier. Otherwise, even if each of you puts on the best armor and takes Even the sharpest weapon, you can only be a mob!"

Li Cun didn't care whether these recruits understood or not, so he continued: "Zhao Han'er, Kong Lengzi, Sun Sandai, Er Ganzi, Zhang Goudan come out."

The five people Li Cun called out can be seen from their names. They all have a common characteristic, that is, they all have a stubbornness that is almost stupid.

In Li Cun's view, they also have a common characteristic, that is, they execute their orders without reservation.

"Take the cane."

Hearing Li Cun's next order, the five Zhao Han'er immediately went to fetch a rattan whip and stood still.

Li Cun turned to those recruits who hadn't completed the task, and said in a clear voice: "I am a tiger army, and the most important thing is discipline. Orders and prohibitions must be fulfilled. Therefore, I will give you the only chance. Those who do not want to be punished, take your family and leave immediately." If you don’t want to leave the barracks of our Huben Army, then take off your clothes and receive the punishment you deserve.”

Sun He, who used to be a grocery store clerk, is a very self-motivated person.

Therefore, when the corps leader and Shichang were just elected, Sun He competed with the other two for Shichang and refused to give in to each other, which led to the situation that three people came out in their group.

According to what Li Cun said before, Sun He must also be whipped.

Sun He thought to himself: "Being passive is worse than taking the initiative. Maybe this is the chance for my Sun He to succeed."

Thinking of this, Sun He said loudly: "Sun Wu trains troops and kills his concubine in order to train a strong army of iron and blood to help Wu achieve hegemony. Now we ignore the military order and fail to complete the task, so we should be punished!"

While speaking, Sun He took off his shirt, walked up to Zhao Han'er, then turned around and said to Li Cun, "Sun He is punished!"

As soon as he saw Sun He, Li Cun knew that this was a trick.

When Sun He came to stand in front of Zhao Han'er who was familiar with him, Li Cun became more sure of his judgment on Sun He.

However, Li Cun also needs the help of people like Sun He, otherwise, he will easily be hung up there and unable to step down.

Therefore, Li Cun kept Sun He in his heart.

Li Cun didn't talk nonsense, just spit out a word majesticly: "Beat."

Hearing this, Zhao Han'er picked up the rattan whip and gave Sun He five lashes without hesitation, beating Sun He grinningly.

Sun He cursed in his heart: "Zhao Han'er, you are such an ass, you don't care about your neighbors at all!"

On the other hand, Sun He forced out the burning pain and said loudly: "Thank you, General, for the reward!"

"Return to the team."

Li Cun gave orders to Sun He, who had five blood marks drawn from his back.

After Sun He returned to the team, someone immediately asked Sun He if he was in pain?
Sun He said: "Of course it hurts, but compared with Sun Wu training soldiers and killing concubines, the general is kind enough."

Someone asked again, what is Sun Wu training soldiers to kill concubines?
Sun He immediately told everyone the story of Sun Wu training soldiers and killing his concubine vividly.

Hearing from Sun He that during military training, if you are disobedient, your head will be beheaded, even the princess is no exception, and everyone feels a chill in their necks.

"Hey, we have walked through the gate of hell!"

With Sun He taking the lead, the clever one immediately stepped forward to receive the punishment.

The five Zhao Han'er really did not discount Li Cun's orders, no matter who was punished, they strictly followed them.

Because Zhao Han'er's five people beat people too hard, in the end, more than a dozen people chose to leave.

Li Cun didn't talk nonsense and asked their family members to leave with them.

Then, amidst the ridicule of the crowd, these dozen or so families walked out of the grain drying field in desperation.

There was the thin-skinned one, who blushed when he heard the ridicule of the crowd, and cursed at his own son or man.

Some of them couldn't help their family members scolding them, and wanted to come back and continue to be punished.

But I'm sorry, but Li Cun didn't give them a chance.

After this incident, no matter what Li Cun said, this group of recruits all reacted immediately, no matter whether they could do it or not, at least their attitude was right.

……

(End of this chapter)