Guiyi Fei Tang

Chapter 8: Being inferior to others
"Sorry..."

The next morning, as the sky gradually brightened, Zhang Yichao, who had not had a good rest the night before, had no time to rest and began to preside over the distribution of land for the people of Jiuquan.

The distribution of land has existed since ancient times. Tubo was not good at governance, and the frequent internal strife led to the decline of agriculture and commerce in Hexi.

Now if Zhang Yichao wants to move eastward steadily, he must restore agriculture and commerce in the three states.

Zhang Yichao divided the farmland outside Jiuquan City equally among households. At the same time, all males over the age of 23 in each household were required to join the army.

After the land was distributed, recruiting soldiers became much easier.

From early morning to noon, the four regiments requested by Zhang Yichao were all recruited. Liu Jilong, who had not slept all night, also met his own soldiers in the afternoon.

"I have brought you the soldiers. Here are the armor and military rations. Since you are injured, you should train the third group of soldiers in Jiuquan."

Inside the Jiuquan military camp, Zhang Huaishen, dressed in military uniform, was talking to Liu Jilong beside him.

In this regard, Liu Jilong had nothing else to say except bowing and making a promise.

Looking at him in silence, Zhang Huaishen frowned slightly, lowered his head and walked into the earthen house behind Liu Jilong.

As he walked into the house, a complex and pungent smell entered Zhang Huaishen's nose, making his already frowned brows even deeper.

Liu Jilong followed in, and when he saw Zhang Huaishen frowning, he bowed and said:
"Although the Jiuquan military camp has mud houses to protect us from the wind and rain, the bandits are slovenly and the smell is a bit pungent. I will bring my group of soldiers to clean up this place later."

"How to clean it? The smell may have seeped into the soil. It smells foul." Zhang Huaishen sat on a wooden bed that had just been cleaned.

After sitting down, he looked at Liu Jilong and said something meaningful: "We will take over the entire Suzhou Prefecture soon. It is still unknown whether we will attack Ganzhou by then."

"You stay in Jiuquan. When I return victorious, are you going to go back to Shazhou with me, or stay in Jiuquan?"

"I..." Liu Jilong was about to speak, but Zhang Huaishen raised his hand to stop him, and added:
"Suzhou is a place that produces iron. The governor will not trust this place to anyone else, so this place will be guarded by our Zhang family's troops."

"If you want to stay in Suzhou, I'll tell you a few words."

"Thank you, Captain." Liu Jilong bowed and saluted. Zhang Huaishen nodded with satisfaction and said, "Please think about it."

After he finished speaking, he stood up and walked out of the mud house filled with the smell of urine, and Liu Jilong followed him out.

He saw with his own eyes Zhang Huaishen leaving with more than a dozen armored soldiers. Only after the other party had gone far away did he turn his gaze to the open space on the side.

There, ten men including Zhang Chang were waiting for his instructions.

Liu Jilong walked up to them. They were standing in a group and turned to look at Liu Jilong, extending their hands to bow.

Liu Jilong looked at them, and seeing that their ages ranged from twenty to forty, the joy in his heart outweighed the worries of leading troops.

"Zhang Chang, take them in and dismantle this mud house and rebuild it. Don't damage the bed."

"Yes!"

As Liu Jilian opened his mouth, Zhang Chang led the other nine people to kick down the four walls of the earthen house, which showed its quality.

They used simple tools to scrape a foot of dirt from inside the house, then dug soil from not far away and spread it on top, tamping it with their feet.

They mixed the soil from the collapsed earth wall with water, used the tools used in the early military camp to make long bricks and then dried them.

While they were working, Liu Jilong also set up the military tent by himself and went to meet the captain and brigade commander who stayed behind.

Since the generals who stayed behind were members of the Zhang clan, they did not embarrass Liu Jilong. They just explained some rules and let him go. Returning to the corner of the military camp, the entire housing area of the military camp became lively.

During the time that Liu Jilian was away, newly recruited soldiers were brought here one after another, totaling more than 200 people.

Each group of soldiers had an earthen house. Some of the relatively clean houses only needed to be cleaned, while the rest were demolished and rebuilt.

The third group of soldiers started working the earliest, so when Liu Jilian returned, they had already rolled hundreds of bricks in the tent.

These earth bricks need to be dried in the shade for several days before they can be used, so they are all placed in the tent.

"Zhang Chang, from today on you are the sergeant!"

Seeing that Zhang Chang completed the task well, Liu Jilong appointed him without hesitation.

Zhang Chang was very excited when he heard the news. He didn't even bother to wipe the mud off his hands. He bowed in return and said, "Thank you for the promotion!"

"Get to work."

Liu Jilong gave instructions and said to the other nine soldiers, "There is still one vacancy for a sergeant. Who will get this vacancy will depend on your performance in the next training."

"Yes!" Everyone responded with all their strength, while Liu Jilong nodded and remained silent.

He dared to appoint a sergeant because he was now on the side of the Zhang family. With the addition of four new regiments of troops, the major families in Shazhou simply looked down on a small sergeant.

Although the major families in Shazhou are called families to the outside world, their populations only range from dozens to hundreds of people, and there are only so many positions that the children of the family can occupy.

The Shazhou Army not only has military positions, but also civilian positions.

At present, the Shazhou Army occupies five counties and three passes, and will recapture Fulu County soon, so a large number of literate people are urgently needed.

The literacy here means not only knowing Chinese characters and Chinese, but also knowing Tibetan characters and Tibetan language. After all, there are many ethnic groups within the Shazhou Army, and Tibet has restricted the speaking of Chinese in the past. Therefore, speaking Tibetan language and writing Tibetan characters have become necessary skills for officials.

Although each county has its own powerful people, they are not the big families that started out in Shazhou, so the positions they can get will not be high.

Historically, Zhang Yichao's action this time was to recover four counties in Gan and Su states.

For such a large territory, at least three hundred people are needed to take care of the internal officials and miscellaneous positions in the four states and eight counties, and about three hundred people are also needed at the rank of captain and above in the army.

As a result, at least 600 literate people are needed to make the four states and eight counties operate.

The several major families in Shazhou together have no more than 600 people, and among them, there are no more than 200 males who can serve in the army.

The four states and eight counties are such a big cake that the big families cannot eat it all, but they will not divide the cake easily, so the powerful families in other states and counties have to take sides.

In Liu Jilong's opinion, following Zhang Huaishen is the best choice, but he has to demonstrate his own worth, otherwise this small team leader will be the pinnacle of his life.

Thinking of this, Liu Jilong felt the injuries on his body.

These injuries would take ten days or half a month to heal, so he certainly could not participate in Fulu's war. However, he had to participate in the subsequent march into Ganzhou and the recovery of Zhangye and Shandan, and he had to demonstrate his own value.

He had endured the feeling of being inferior to others for his entire life in his previous life, and he had endured it for seventeen years in this life.

Now that he has the opportunity, he will definitely not let it go.

What he wants to do now is to move up step by step until he reaches the highest position he can reach!

(End of this chapter)