First Minister of the Tang Dynasty

Chapter 174
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Hearing Rong Zheng's words, Gao Chong admired it quite a lot. Rong Zheng has a lot of emotional intelligence, and his words and deeds are also very decent. Gao Chong is not a freshman here. In this harmonious atmosphere, he will soon be Hang out with the crowd.

"Shangjin is the hometown of the ancient Yong state. According to legend, the Rong Cheng clan who invented the calendar is the founding monarch of the Yong state." Gao Chong held his wine glass and said, "Brother Rong is a native of Shangjin. Could it be related to the Rong family of the ancient Yong state?"

Rong Zheng's eyes lit up when he heard the words, and he immediately said happily: "The general is very knowledgeable, and he knows my ancestor Rong Cheng?" Rong Zheng said with pride, "The general is not wrong. After the fall of the ancient Yong kingdom, I and other mediocre people take the Rong family as their surname and respect the Rong Cheng family as their ancestors."

In this era, in addition to praising a person's talent, praising his appearance and his origin are very common topics.

Gao Chong looked admiring, and praised directly: "No wonder Brother Rong has a dignified appearance, gentle and martial arts, he is originally a descendant of the Yong Kingdom, thinking that the ancient Yong Kingdom was one of the "Eight Kingdoms" and followed King Wu of Zhou to destroy Shang. The world is Hou Bo, so noble, with a vast territory, and very powerful forces, which can be seen by the alliance of the three kingdoms of Chu, Qin and Pakistan to destroy him."

Hearing this, although Rong Zheng didn't understand it very well, he was quite proud, and felt close to Gao Chong from the bottom of his heart.

After three rounds of drinking, the atmosphere was almost ready, so Gao Chong went straight to the topic, "Shangyong Hussar's Mansion is the upper mansion, and the number of soldiers is at least 800, but now there are only [-] people on the register, and the previous ones are ignored. Tomorrow At the time of Mao, I will count the soldiers in the school field, and I will personally inspect them, and weed out the old and the weak, what do you think?"

Everyone was a little stunned when they heard the words, Rong Zheng slowly put down his wine glass, looked around, and could only ask, "May I ask the general how much you want to eliminate?"

Gao Chong stretched out three fingers, "Three hundred, I only keep five hundred of the 800 people."

"There is absolutely no objection to low rank, but in this way, wouldn't there be fewer soldiers in the Shangyong Army Mansion?" Rong Zheng asked with a frown.

"Recruit, recruit another 2000 people, make up the number of two thousand and five", Gao Chong said firmly, "I don't believe that the huge Shangzhou can't recruit 2000 people."

Seeing that the generals were a little puzzled, Gao Chong immediately said: "I said before, I am not here to fool around with my qualifications. The Tang Dynasty was established at the beginning, and there will be powerful enemies from all directions. From now on, there will be wars. If you want to seal your wife and son, and make contributions , just follow me."

After the words fell, other people such as Chang Shi and the captain didn't respond, but Rong Zheng's eyes lit up, "What news does the general have?"

Gao Chong was expressionless, and said directly: "Just prepare in advance, be prepared, and act according to the order."

Rong Zheng understood, and immediately took the lead in agreeing.

The next day, before dawn, the school grounds were filled with black people, all dressed in armor, very majestic.

"General, I don't know how to weed them out?" Rong Zheng stepped forward and asked. After they dispersed last night, Rong Zheng issued strict orders to all the lieutenants under his command that he must obey General Gao's words, because Rong Zheng was keenly aware that he wanted to follow the mountain nest. Gao Chong may be his chance to stand out in the nest. So far, Gao Chong is the closest person he has come into contact with to the power center of Datang.

"Anyone who is born in the market, has fair skin, and is not afraid of officials will be eliminated," Gao Chong said, looking at the [-] or so black people in the field.

All the generals were puzzled when they heard the words, Rong Zheng hesitated for a while, but Gao Chong looked over slowly, and immediately gave the order: "obey the order", and then immediately went down to screen them one by one.

Gao Chong also thought about this set of selection criteria for a long time. He was leading the army for the first time, and he had no confidants in the army. Regardless of combat power, the first thing was to firmly grasp the military power, although it seemed that Rong Zheng was very cooperative.

Those born in the market are slippery and cunning, those with fair skin do not work much, and those who are not afraid of officials do not obey military discipline. What Gao Chong wants is an army that is easily influenced and convinced by military orders.

After some selection, there are more than [-] people left. Shangyong is a mountain city, which is remote and barren. Lai Rongzheng was indeed strictly implementing his military orders.

Then Gao Chong eliminated all the people over the age of 40, so that there were only more than [-] people left.

Then he sent an order to recruit troops and set up a recruitment platform at the gate of the Shangjin Military Mansion. In the evening Gao Chong personally went to Shangjin City to visit the county magistrate and county lieutenant. To recruit troops locally, the support of the local chief was needed.

Gao Chong seemed to have underestimated his own identity a bit. The Gao family of Bohai, the fourth-ranked son of Duke Yan, came to visit. The county magistrate and county lieutenant of Shangjin were flattered. They begged Rong Zheng to allow him during the welcome banquet. The two attended, but at that time Rong Zheng was not sure of Gao Chong's temper, fearing that the crowd would annoy Gao Chong, so he refused the two to attend.

Now when they heard that Gao Chong only needed to recruit 2000 soldiers, the two hurriedly patted their chests in response.

Fubing is just a radish and a pit. In this troubled world, joining the army for a living is also a good choice.

"Don't be in a hurry, you two." Gao Chong waved his hands and said, "This is my recruitment requirement." Gao Chong took out a piece of paper and handed it to the two of them.

The two took a look, and looked at each other, "One, only farmers. Two, dark and thick skin. Three, fear of the government. Four, stocky personality."

"This... isn't this the honest mountain people?" The county captain said quickly.

Gao Chong clapped his hands, "What Lieutenant Wang said is right, I don't want those knight-errants with high martial arts skills, but honest people with strong limbs."

The county magistrate also nodded when he heard the words, and immediately praised: "General Gao is really a good general. Such a person endures hardships and stands hard work, and obeys military discipline. He must be a strong army."

There are many mountainous areas in Shangjin, and there are many people like this. In just two days, after careful selection, they finally gathered 500 people, and Shangyong Hushi Mansion became the largest military mansion in Shangzhou.

It's a pity that there are few horses in Shangjin. There are only dozens of horses in Nuo Da's Shangfu. This is also related to the terrain of Shangjin. Time consuming and costly.

Looking at the [-] mountain people sweating profusely on the school grounds, Gao Chong was confident in training them into an iron army.

No cavalry, no crossbowmen, just infantry, Gao Chong knew that the battle against Zhu Can was coming, time was running out, and only infantry could do it quickly.

The horizontal knives were handed out one by one, and Gao Chong personally led the team to practice them every day. Gao Chong briefly condensed the horizontal knives that Song Laosheng gave him into several simple and practical techniques such as chopping, blocking, sweeping, and teasing. pass on.

In addition to running around the Shangjin Military Mansion with heavy loads every day, and focusing on training formation formations, in the era of cold weapons, Gao Chong has learned in the past. The importance of formations is particularly important. This formation is not just a square formation or a circular formation. , Geese-shaped formation and other formations represent a kind of unity and cooperation.

(End of this chapter)