knife

Chapter 436 First meeting
A large bowl of rice, a large bowl of steamed buns, a large bowl of boiled mutton, a large bowl of green leafy vegetables, and a large stack of wooden bowls and bamboo chopsticks. Ding Ergou rubbed his hands and looked at Quanxin and Zhang Quanyi, saying somewhat embarrassedly, "Generals, time is too short. There's no time to prepare any good food. Just make do with this meal. When we get to Baoping Prefecture, everything will be available there, unlike our poor and remote place."

"Commander Ding is joking. How can such food be called simple?" Quanxin cupped his hands in greeting, "On the contrary, we are the ones who have troubled you."

It's clear that Ding Ergou is a very meticulous person.

Knowing that one of these generals came from Sichuan and was used to eating rice, while the other was from the north and was more accustomed to eating noodles, their subordinates were naturally the same. The fact that they were able to prepare these things in such a short time was truly impressive.

Although there were only two dishes, the room was filled with a wonderful aroma. The boiled mutton had a lot of spices in it, which almost completely masked the gamey smell.

"Please continue eating, everyone. Someone will come to arrange your dorm rooms later. I must apologize, as I have a lot of preparations to do tonight, so I won't keep you company any longer!" Ding Ergou said with a smile.

"Please go ahead, Captain!" Quanxin and Zhang Quanyi both politely bowed to Ding Ergou in farewell.

After a long day of travel, the group had only eaten some of the dry rations they brought with them at noon and were already starving. With delicious food in front of them, they immediately picked up their bowls and chopsticks and started eating after Quanxin and Zhang Quanyi gave the order.

Even though the housing was cramped, Quanxin and Zhang Quanyi naturally had a single room, but the others had to squeeze into a large communal bed. Fortunately, they were all making a living in the army, so they weren't too bothered by it.

The clapper had just sounded at midnight when the melodious sound of a cow horn rang out.

As the horn sounded, the Zhechong Mansion became a hive of activity.

A series of hurried footsteps echoed as Zhang Quanyi pushed open the door and walked out. Quanxin also emerged from the opposite corridor.

"What happened?" Zhang Quanyi grabbed a soldier and asked.

"The first contingent of soldiers ordered to assemble has arrived! We must go and settle them immediately. Now that the first contingent has arrived, the rest will likely follow one after another. We originally thought they would arrive tomorrow morning, but it seems they have arrived earlier!" The soldier broke free from Zhang Quanyi's hand and quickly ran outside.

"Shall we go take a look?" Quanxin asked.

"Of course we have to go and see!" Zhang Quanyi nodded.

People inside the pass know that the troops outside the pass are fierce. Xin Quanyi doesn't have a direct experience of this yet, but he has fought against the Guan army led by Li Guohua and Chang Lei. The feeling of having a supposedly elite army defeated in one blow is really unpleasant.

If the current Beiting Protectorate army has the same combat power as Linghu Ye's legion, and as Ding Ergou said, such an army can gather more than 100,000 people, then Li Dachui can indeed expect great things.

But thinking about it, that's a very difficult thing.

The army of the Beiting Protectorate is divided into the standing army and the garrison troops. The standing army should be the elite force, while the garrison troops should be much weaker.

A group of farmers hastily assembled can't possibly be that strong!

As they spoke, the two had already walked along the street to the training ground outside.

Dozens of torches were lit around the drill ground, illuminating the entire area.

There, Ding Ergou was already standing fully armed. When he saw the two of them coming, Ding Ergou simply nodded.

At this moment, he was the general who was mustering the troops, while these two were merely spectators. No matter how high their status, they could only stay on the sidelines. The sound of horns rang out continuously. Standing on the drill ground, a fiery dragon was rapidly approaching from afar, and even faster than the fiery dragon was the clatter of hooves.

In a short while, a cavalry squad of more than ten men appeared on the training ground. The leader was a bearded man. When he saw Ding Ergou, he made a beautiful side leap. Before the horse had even stopped, he had already landed steadily. He trotted a few steps with the reins in his hand and stopped right in front of Ding Ergou. The horse also stopped steadily a step behind him.

This horsemanship impressed Zhang Quanyi and Quanxin, who were watching from the side.

However, the next dozen or so cavalrymen all made similar movements in unison, but these dozen or so men all stopped behind the bearded man.

"Captain, Pan Xiong, the village chief of Jishan Village and commander of the local militia, is here to report! Eleven cavalrymen and fifty infantrymen from Jishan Village are all present!" The bearded man's voice was loud and clear. He glanced around and, seeing no other troops, his face immediately revealed an uncontrollable smugness.

Han Si, who had rushed over, explained to Zhang Quanyi and Quanxin in a low voice, "Jishan Village is not the closest to here. He was the first to arrive, surpassing all the other teams."

As they spoke, a chaotic clatter of hooves sounded from behind. This time it was a jumbled mess. Dozens of men, some on horses and others on mules, dismounted as soon as they entered the drill ground. Ignoring their mounts, they trotted over, forming a neat five-row, ten-column formation in the process. Standing behind the bearded man and the ten cavalrymen, they stood tall and proud, clad in light armor, with swords at their waists and spears in their hands. Various weapons, some of which Zhang Quanyi and Quanxin didn't even recognize, hung from the leather belt buckles at their waists.

Ding Ergou nodded and waved his hand. A military officer stepped forward, holding a roll of roster, and began to call out names.

Each time someone was called, a loud response was heard.

Zhang Quanyi and Quanxin both understood that once the roll call was completed, these people would no longer be farmers, but soldiers, and would be subject to military law.

The sound of horns rang out again in the distance.

The second team has arrived.

When Quanxin and Zhang Quanyi returned to the backyard of the government office, the fourth watch had just been struck. Within this watch, all 1,200 soldiers of Gongqin Town, who belonged to Ding Ergou, had already arrived.

The two, who hadn't paid much attention at first, had a completely different mindset after seeing the performance of these guards.

If they hadn't seen with their own eyes that this was just a newly assembled team, less than a minor force, the two would have thought it was an elite army that had undergone rigorous training for a long time.

"All the junior officers are selected from the regular army!" Han Si continued to explain: "They usually train the people in the village, and then every quarter, the Zhechong Prefecture will have a drill, and every year there will be a senior colonel. The Beiting Protectorate uses the same drill manual, so the soldiers trained are naturally all from the same mold."

"Commander Ding said yesterday that such an army could be assembled to number over 100,000!"

"He's talking about the combat troops!" Han Si said proudly. "If you include the auxiliary troops and other special forces, the number is far more than that. Both generals say that the area outside the pass is remote, but in fact there are more than three million people there. It's just that the area is too large and spread out too far, so it seems sparsely populated. In the past, everyone acted independently and did their own thing. Now it's different. Everyone has to listen to the Beiting Protectorate. We have to work together and pull together, so the strength will naturally become stronger and stronger."

"Great, that's wonderful!" Zhang Quanyi and Quanxin were overjoyed. The stronger the forces outside the Great Wall and the more powerful their military, the stronger their forces would become in the future.

They had some doubts at first, but after seeing Ding Ergou's 1,200 men today, their confidence soared.

With such a powerful army, what cannot be accomplished?

(End of this chapter)