Chapter 21: The Fledgling Form of the Horned Army

  Entering the county government office, Li QIN saw that it was only a main hall with two side rooms on either side, and this Fu Ping's government office was really not big.

  Tang Jie led Li Qin to a side room, turned around and shouted at a small official in the crowd: "Who told you to just watch the excitement? Hurry up and bring the name list, let Mr. Li choose his soldiers!"

  The little official just ran out to join the onlookers, listened to the county magistrate's words, and hurriedly came over, saying: "Please follow me into the house, Mr. Li."

  Li Qin said: "Thank you for your trouble!" The small official was just a famous pen official, and although his position was low, the person in charge of the name book was not someone to be offended, so he had to maintain a certain level of politeness towards him.

  Tang Jiadao said, "Let Li Lang go and recruit soldiers, he can choose whoever he wants, this official will not interfere!" If he let him stay with a commoner forever, it would be unrealistic. But instead of saying "I'm leaving, you're on your own", he said he wouldn't interfere, which is a way of speaking that sells emotions.

  Li Qin hastily made another bow with his fists, saying: "I bid farewell to Your Excellency!"

  Tang Jiachong smiled and walked through the main hall, returning to his rear residence.

  Li Qin followed the little official into the room, and the little official opened a large cabinet by the wall, took out a large bundle of bamboo slips from inside, piled them on the table, and said: "Mr. Li, these are all the name lists of new soldiers, I'll let you memorize one first, then you can choose!"

  Li Qin turned around and called in Xu Xiaoni, saying: "Both of us need to sign up, I'm afraid we'll need two bamboo slips."

  The little official took out two new bamboo slips, smiled and said: "In our government office, everything else is lacking, but these worthless bamboo slips are abundant." He took up the pen and ink, asked how to write Li Qin's and Xu Xiaoni's names, and recorded them on the bamboo slips.

  Li QIN looked at the bamboo slips and thought: "The chicken rib bow technique recorded in my book requires a lot of bamboo boards, doesn't it? These bamboo slips are not bad in quality!"

  The little official pushed the bamboo slips on the table to Li Qin and said, "Li Lang, choose people! This brother Xu is definitely what you want. Then choose four more to make a total of ten!"

  Li Qian was taken aback, thinking to himself: "Isn't one 'shi' equal to ten people? Could it be that this year's 'shi' refers to six?" He asked: "Add four more? That would make a total of six including me!"

  The little official smiled twice and said, "We are rich and peaceful, this is the rule. Originally, we should have 400 regular soldiers, but the lord can't afford it, so we changed to six tenths of the actual number, which is 240 soldiers. But in fact, our county only has more than a hundred soldiers. Didn't Meng Mu go to your village? The hundreds of people he brought were half of them!"

  Li Qin frowned and said: "With just this many soldiers, if the barbarians come, it will be difficult to resist."

  "So that's why we need to recruit soldiers!" The little official said, "In the past few days, not many have been recruited. I estimate that 240 people can be gathered, but as for the number of 400, you'll have to think of a way yourself. Li Lang, you go and recruit the remaining four yourself. If you succeed, it's your good luck. If you don't, don't worry. When the Hu cavalry comes south, the people will still defend their hometown, so you don't need to worry about having no one to command."

  This time Li Qingshan couldn't help but laugh, how could such a thing happen, it's really unexpected, isn't this just like the saying "when things reach a head, La Zhuangding" - exactly the same!

  The little official pointed to the bamboo slips and said, "Don't look at this big pile, but in fact most of them have been taken away. You can only choose from the remaining twenty people." He picked out those twenty bamboo slips.

  Taking advantage of the interval, Li Qin took out a purse from his bosom, grabbed a handful of five-cash coins and stuffed them into the small official's hand, saying: "A small token, brother, please don't despise it."

  The little official was shocked, looking at the money in his hand, saying: "What's this... Ah, I'm so sorry!" But his hands grasped tightly, without any intention of pushing it away, and a smile appeared on his face.

  Xu Xiaoni watched from behind, pouting her mouth, thinking: "Again sending things, my brother is really generous, whatever he has, he can't wait to send it out before it's even warm!"

  Li Qin smiled and said: "I haven't asked yet how to address you, brother, what position do you hold?"

  It seems that the little official rarely has the opportunity to receive money, he hastily put the money into his pocket and said: "My surname is Jing and my name is Ming, I am the county lieutenant of this county."

  Li Qin exclaimed, "This person is not a minor official, but the county magistrate. No wonder he can be in charge of the name register. But why does he look so shabby, like a lowly runner? He hastily said: "I apologize, I apologize, it turns out to be Lord Jing, my younger brother was just rude earlier, please don't blame me, Lord Jing!"

  Jing Ming sighed and waved his hand: "What's with the 'sir' stuff? Don't call me that, I'm just a poor official who can barely make ends meet."

  Li Qindao said: "Then I'll call you Brother Jing from now on, and we must get together more often in the future!" As he spoke, he picked up his bamboo tally and began to select people.

  It's really hard to pick just by looking at the name. Li Qin first looked through all twenty bamboo slips, and found only one that was familiar. The person's name on this slip was Wu Danzi. This man was one of the people who went to Fu Jiao Village to eat mutton last night, and Li Qin had asked everyone's names at the time. Since his name was easy to remember, he remembered it as soon as he saw it.

  He remembered that Ou Danzi was thin and tall, with long legs and arms, a pair of protruding eyes that were always moving, looking around restlessly when queuing up, sneaky and suspicious, obviously a sly and cunning person. This kind of person would be a troublemaker if he were an ordinary citizen, but if he became a soldier, he would be a good candidate for a scout.

  In the era of cold weapon warfare where information was not well developed, scouts were very important and belonged to ancient reconnaissance soldiers and spies. Mozi once said: When defending a city, start with scouts first; and "Records of the Grand Historian - Biography of General Li" also said: However, they also sent out scouts far away, never encountering harm. In the Han Dynasty, scouts directly belonged to the vanguard of princes and nobles. If a scout in an army was outstanding, the chances of winning battles would increase exponentially. Our military situation is unknown to the enemy, while the enemy's situation is clear to our military. Sun Wu also said: To measure the enemy and win, to plan for danger and distance, this is the way of great generals.

  Li Qin pointed at the bamboo slip and said: "I want this man!"

  Jing Ming glanced at the bamboo slip and shook his head, saying: "Li Lang, I advise you not to want him. This person is a habitual thief, but he's extremely hard to catch. Everyone knows he's a bad egg, but unfortunately, there's no evidence, so we can't convict him. If it weren't for the urgency of making up the numbers, he came to sign up as a soldier, and we wouldn't have accepted him."

  Li QIN smiled and said, "Then I must want him even more. I will reform him, let him change his ways and start anew!" He picked up the bamboo slips again and said, "I don't know if there are any fierce and pugnacious people here, but I'll also take care of them at the same time!"

  Jing Mingxiang looked at him with a strange expression and said, "Reform? Where did that come from?" He pointed to a bamboo slip and said, "If you want to talk about being fierce and fond of fighting, this Shen Yi is one of the best. He's a lone bandit who was caught unexpectedly and is still locked up in prison. In order to get out of prison, he wants to atone for his crimes and make amends, that's why he signed up."

  Li Qindao said: "How was he caught?"

  Jing Mingdao said: "He was knocked unconscious by a man named Wu Xiaosan, who also enlisted in the army and is now atoning for his crimes."

  Li Qin said in confusion: "Is he also trying to redeem himself? He caught Shen Yi, isn't that a merit?"

  Jing Ming snorted, saying: "He's a horse thief. Shen Yi robbed a few good horses from a Hu merchant, but they were stolen by him instead. Shen Yi chased after him, the two of them fought and both got hurt. Coincidentally, we received the Hu merchant's report and rushed to find the horses. As a result, we found the horses eating grass on one side, while the two of them were lying on the ground unconscious. We recovered the horses and put the two of them in jail!"

  Li Qinchao burst out laughing and said: "I want both of these people!"

  Jing Ming snorted, saying: "Li Lang, why do you always associate with such people? Habitual thieves, horse thieves, lone bandits... one is more vicious than the last, not a single good person among them! They're all rejects from other places!"

  Li Qin laughed and said: "Others don't want it, I want it, isn't that just perfect for relieving the county magistrate's worries?"

  Jing Ming sighed and said: "There is only one place left. Never mind, I will recommend someone to you, although he is not a good guy, but much better than these three."

  He picked up a bamboo slip, pointing to the name on it for Li Qin to see, saying: "This person is my cousin's son. My cousin Jingchun is a famous doctor in our Fuping County, and he is a kind and elegant man. However, his son is extremely mischievous, always dreaming of becoming a great hero, carrying a sword every day to find injustices, but ended up getting into trouble and was beaten up by thugs!"

  Li Qin looked at the bamboo slip and saw that the name written on it was Jing Qi. He said, "Our Fu Ping's unjust case is probably related to Tang Biao. Could it be that he offended Tang Biao?"

  Jing Ming nodded and said, "That's right. Last month, he saw Tang Biao bullying the common people, so he took justice into his own hands. As a result, he was beaten by Tang Biao and his men. He didn't become a great hero. My nephew, in a fit of anger, actually went to Tang Biao's house every night for a whole month..."

  Li QIN exclaimed: "Can't he want to kill Tang Biao?" This kid really has a kind, he just cut off Tang Biao's ribs, but Jing Qi actually had the idea of killing someone.

  Jing Ming sighed and said, "That's not it, he urinated into the well of Tang Biao's family for a month, making Tang Biao drink urine every day. Unexpectedly, he was discovered a few days ago, and after being scolded by my elder brother, this kid ran away to join the army. He enlisted when I wasn't around, and now it's easy to enlist but hard to remove his name, the rice is already cooked. I heard that Li Lang single-handedly knocked down Tang Biao and his men, if you're willing to help, take in my nephew and take good care of him."

  Li QIN nodded and said: "Alright, then I'll take in Jing Qi, teach him martial arts, and let him not fear Tang Biao again."

  Jing Ming glanced outside the door and said, "The county magistrate is not a problem, but the sons and nephews of the Tang family should be careful. The county's county lieutenant is the magistrate's nephew, named Tang Ren. This Tang Ren is Tang Biao's cousin, and this time Tang Biao joined the army, he was originally a minor official, and also a member of the Tang clan, as soon as he enlisted, he would become an officer, so Li Lang should be more careful in the future!"

  Li Qian frowned and said, "Isn't Tang Biao injured by me? That injury is not light. Without three months of rest, it's impossible to recover. Even if he can walk on the ground, it will take at least half a month!"

  Jing Ming bitterly smiled and said, "My elder cousin is a doctor, he's afraid that after the incident, Tāng Biǎo will take revenge on his son, so he risked his life to treat Tāng Biǎo's illness, wanting to resolve their feud. Tāng Biǎo recovered very quickly, but participating in the drill was out of the question, however, standing and pretending to be okay wasn't a problem, who would still dare to make things difficult for him?"

  Li Qin hummed, put the bamboo slips back on the table, and said: "What's the point of arguing? If you dare to provoke me again, I'll break all your bones! Thanks, Brother Jing. I'd like to see the people who were selected. Is it convenient?"

  Jing Ming nodded and said: "Jing Qi and Wu Dangzi are not in the government office, but Shen Yi and Wu Xiaosan are. Let's go to the main prison now!"

  ——

  The second update is delivered. Xiao Qin's supporting role is like a daredevil, with all kinds of sharp heads. Brothers and sisters, vote, collect, and thank you for your peace!