Chapter 61: Heroes from All Sides Gather (4)

  "May I ask the name of this brave warrior?" Zhou Wenbo, having made up his mind to recruit these refugees, showed a very respectful and serious attitude, making those who were eagerly watching him, hoping for him to make a decision, feel that Zhou Wenbo was sincere about recruiting talents and valued them as brothers.

  "Song Tianbiao!" The head of the family also cupped one hand in his other and spoke out his own name.

  Zhou Wenbo did not step forward to salute with his arms, but instead led the heroes into the military camp with a warm and gentle smile.

  "First, take the women and children to have a meal. The rest of you follow me for registration." Zhou Wenbo saw that these people all looked like they hadn't eaten in days, so he made an exception and provided them with food originally meant for qualified soldiers.

  Don't despise the porridge, coarse rice balls and radish bok choy provided by Zhou Wenbo as being too simple. In fact, this standard of food is already high even in a peaceful and prosperous rural village, let alone in such a chaotic era?

  All the soldiers who had eaten this meal before were devouring it like a storm sweeping away clouds, finishing every last bit in their bowls. Some even used mantou to soak up all the soup, leaving the bowl sparkling clean as if it had been washed. The military dining standards set by Zhou Wenbo himself had already moved many men who had suffered from hunger to tears of gratitude.

  In fact, the physique of these refugees was not unworthy of Zhou Wenbo's enthusiastic hospitality. Among the seventy-eight people who met the recruitment standards, most had martial arts skills, and nearly fifty people even met the standards for elite soldiers, while the remaining three, except for being extremely hungry and weak, also reached the level of regular soldiers.

  After chatting with Song Tianbiao for a few sentences, Zhou Wenbo finally knew that the people of Hebei were indeed fierce and bold. Song Tianbiao was proficient in fist and footwork as well as spear and stick techniques, so he opened a small martial arts school on the farm, recruiting eleven indoor disciples. During the slack season, all the idle young men on the farm would come to practice a few moves, making this group of people truly excellent new recruits.

  By the time the sun was setting, it was already late in the day, and unexpectedly, over 200 new recruits had been enlisted, with nearly a hundred of them being robust soldiers. This achievement was truly an unexpected delight, making Zhou Wenbo, Duan Shichen, Liu Meng and others who were responsible for recruitment and personally handled the matter extremely happy.

  Just as Zhou Wenbo was about to order the soldiers to close the military camp gate and end today's recruitment, suddenly there came a rhythmic and crisp sound of horseshoes hitting the ground from afar, getting closer and closer.

  Zhou Wenbo raised his head and saw that the one riding over was a middle-aged man wearing iron armor, riding a tall black horse with an unsteady gait.

  Soon, the man and his horse arrived in front of the military camp. The middle-aged man dismounted and flipped over, and Zhou Wenbo took a closer look, only to see that this person was about 1.85 meters tall, with piercing eyes, a pair of thick eyebrows flying upwards, yet with a pale face and no beard, a pair of earlobes that seemed like those of a Buddha in a temple, majestic and powerful, with an extremely sturdy and robust body, the whole person looked very strange but also somehow harmonious.

  In ancient China, men considered having a beard to be beautiful. During the Three Kingdoms period, Guan Yu was so proud of his long beard that he even made a special beard cover to protect it, earning him the nickname "Beautiful Beard".

  This kind of pale face without a mustache is usually only found on eunuchs who have been castrated, but this man was so majestic and awe-inspiring that he didn't fit the image of a eunuch in Zhou Wenbo's memory.

  "Are you a strong man who has come to join the army?" Zhou Wenbo asked without thinking much, facing the big Han who had already led the horse and walked forward.

  "That's right." The middle-aged man's voice was thick and powerful, which dispelled Zhou Wenbo's suspicion that he was a eunuch.

  "May I ask your esteemed name?"

  "Li Mutang!" The middle-aged man solemnly spoke out his own name.

  For some reason, although it was only a short conversation of two sentences, Zhou Wenbo was certain that this person was not an ordinary person. If he hadn't used today's observation and divination technique on "Silver Gun Little Overlord" Hua Qing, Zhou Wenbo would have definitely tried to verify his own opinion by observing the person in front of him.

  The sun finally set below the horizon, and a group of newly recruited soldiers had a full dinner. Some family members who followed the recruits were temporarily arranged by Zhou Wenbo under Lan Zhi's care, and they also started working with the villagers in Zhoujia Village, doing some work within their ability.

  Zhou Wenbo initially set the organization of the new army to ten men as a squad, with a squad leader, ten squads as a brigade, with a brigade commander, five brigades as a division, with a commanding officer. Since Zhou Wenbo's forces would not exceed three thousand men in the short term, he did not establish any higher general organization.

  In this era, if a person directly commands more than ten people under him, there is a great possibility that he cannot manage them. Especially many soldiers are completely illiterate and don't even know how to hold a pen. If it's fewer than ten, they can still count on their fingers, but exceeding the number of fingers on both hands is truly difficult for them.

  Zhou Wenbo ordered people to put up partitions in the originally spacious barracks that could accommodate hundreds of people, dividing them into small rooms for every ten people. This way, after the teams were assigned later, exactly five people would sleep together.

  Today, the recruitment of more than 200 people was thoroughly dispersed. Zhou Wenbo randomly arranged them to live and sleep together, also hoping that they could get to know each other. If the soldiers in the army formed small groups according to their original relationships, it would be extremely unfavorable for the future development of this army.

  Contrary to the expectations of the soldiers, after dinner, someone even brought a basin of hot water for everyone to wash their faces and refresh themselves.

  The large kang in the barracks had mats made of grass, with layers of bedding and quilts on top. Although these quilts were not new, they had been aired out and sunned properly, which was quite satisfactory for the soldiers' treatment in the army.

  Today was just the first day of recruitment, and perhaps because they were not considered real soldiers in the army, there were no military personnel to discipline them at night. This allowed the new recruits who had eaten two full meals today and enjoyed a strange military life to lie on their beds chatting with each other.

  "Hey, young man, I heard that the Hu Tiger Army doesn't recruit anyone under 15 years old. How did you sneak in?" Song Tianbiao hadn't had a good night's sleep for over half a year now. Although the conditions here were far from what he was used to when he ran his martial arts school on the farm, at least it allowed the villagers and disciples who chose to follow him to escape and survive, rather than starving to death in this cold and unforgiving winter. He was already very happy about that.

  The heavy burden that had been weighing on his head for a long time has quietly disappeared, and Song Tianbiao couldn't help but feel joyful in his heart, teasing the little boy who was sleeping on his left side with a doll-like face.

  "My name is Chen Shaojun, and I'm already seventeen this year!" The former Dog Leftovers, now Chen Shaojun, couldn't help but retort.

  "Have you read books?" As soon as he heard this elegant name, Song Tianbiao couldn't help but turn his body to face the young man.

  "No, this is the name given to me by Mr. who was in charge of recruiting soldiers today, my previous name was Gou Sheng." Chen Shaojun didn't recognize a single character, honestly he told his origin one by one to the strong uncle beside him.

  "You're really lucky, kid!" After hearing the tragic story of how this young man's entire family had perished, even Song Tianbiao, who was used to seeing the cruel and heartless side of human nature, couldn't help but feel a pang of emotion. He reached out with his thick palm to stroke the young man's hair.

  "It was Lord Zhao who gave me a mouthful of rice to eat, letting me survive. I will devote my life to serving Lord Zhao!" Chen Shaojun, still just a young boy, couldn't read or write, but he knew how to repay kindness.

  "Hey, uncle, what did you used to do?" Chen Shaojun was still sleeping soundly under someone else's eaves last night, and he didn't know how many times he was woken up by the piercing cold wind. Now, however, he was lying on this hard kang, covered with thick quilts. This strange encounter made him so excited that he couldn't sleep, and he took the initiative to strike up a conversation.

  "This is our Song family village's instructor, proficient in spear, stick, fist and footwork, famous throughout the four counties and eight towns, people gave him the nickname 'Song Thunderbolt', which describes our instructor's swift and powerful movements, with great force and momentum!" Before Song Tianbiao could respond, someone chimed in.

  Song Tianbiao and his group of seventy-eight people exceeded the one-third recruitment quota for soldiers today. The young man lying on the side, eavesdropping on the conversation between the two, also followed Song Tianbiao to cross the Yellow River in the south and had practiced martial arts with him, so he couldn't help but boast about his own master.

  "It's too much, it's just some rustic tricks, the villagers are ignorant and rarely heard of, they gave me the title of 'Song Pili', I'm ashamed. In front of a stranger who didn't know him at all, Song Tianbiao was beaming with pride, his face itching with pleasure, but his words were still extremely humble."

  "I'll be going to the battlefield to kill enemies in the future, but I don't have even half a bit of martial arts skills. Song teacher, can you teach me how to fight?" Chen Shaojun was just a young man, and after hearing Song Tianbiao's legendary stories and that majestic name 'Song Pili', he was so infatuated that stars were almost popping out of his eyes. He admired this legendary figure so much that he immediately wanted to follow Song Tianbiao to learn martial arts.

  "You? Young General, look at you, so skinny and frail, you need to eat well and fill your belly for two years before you can learn some real kung fu from me. But in these two years, I can still teach you some superficial skills that will be enough for you to make use of." Song Tianbiao was undoubtedly a good teacher, otherwise he wouldn't have opened a martial arts school in the village and taught his students the art.

  The young man looked at him with a pair of bright eyes that shone like a lantern in the night, his eyes full of expectation, which made him feel very proud, and he patted his chest and agreed.

  Lying on Chen Shaojun's other side, the burly man with his head resting on his arms couldn't help but let out a cold snort.

  This was indeed the knight who had come to join the army at dusk - Li Mutang.

  With Li Mutang's eyesight, it is natural to see that this Song Tianbiao instructor indeed lives up to his self-evaluation of "Zhuangjia Ba Shi", saying he is roughly familiar with martial arts is a bit forced, it is truly like Guan Gong showing off his big knife and Confucius selling his articles.

  Zhou Wenbo had intended to treat Li Mutang with high standards, but unfortunately this kindness was rejected by him.

  Li Mutang was the middle-aged man who appeared on the second floor of the Qiming Chamber of Commerce. He could be said to have borne a deep blood feud and shouldered the lives of many people. Years of hardships had made his will as tough as steel.

  However, as time went on, his ideals became increasingly unattainable, like a flower in the mirror or a moon in the water, visible but unreachable.

  Suddenly, after learning the news of the young master, he naturally cast his eyes on Zhou Wenbo, who was young and held a high position. He wanted to carefully examine whether this young master had enough ability to make people believe in him, and whether he could take on the life and death of these refugees.

  This matter concerns the future of their group, and also relates to the young master's future. Therefore, Li Mutang cannot help but personally come close to examine and inspect whether Zhou Wenbo is truly a dragon among men, and whether he is a heroic master worth risking their lives for!

  So Li Mutang still wanted to get closer to the grassroots of the military camp, and he chose to live with ordinary soldiers without hesitation.