Tiger Guards

Chapter 133 Hostage Issue
After meeting with Zhao Yan, Jia Xu took Zhao Yan's letter and went out of the city to meet Zhao Ji again.

He came by carriage and found Zhao Ji shooting arrows when he approached the military camp.

More than thirty soldiers wearing double-leg armor lined up and took turns to move forward.

From thirty to fifty steps, only a little over twenty people could look Zhao Ji in the eye without dodging his arrows.

Even though the squad leaders who were taking the test knew that Zhao Ji was an accurate archer from a hundred paces away, they could not suppress their instinctive fear.

The flying speed of arrows is relatively slow. When you are in a melee or when you are not paying attention, the arrows fly past your eyes, or when you are watching the arrows fly by, it is basically difficult to see anything clearly.

And when you are highly focused and stare directly at the arrow flying towards you... in that instant, you will enter a state of immersion.

You can almost clearly observe the flying, rotating and swimming postures of the arrow!
Not to mention arrows, even if a stone is thrown at you, other scenery in your field of vision will fade, and you can basically only observe the flight trajectory of the stone.

Most stones are irregular in shape and tend to spin when thrown, leaving a spiral trajectory.

After Zhao Ji completed this round of assessment, he picked up the pen and signed the test list.

The ten or five captains who passed the test were reassigned to new posts; those who failed the test were also disbanded and reassigned to the vacancies in the century-man squad.

To take the assessment, you must be separated from your original organization.

When the Tiger Infantry was reorganized, the regional and hometown ties were broken up, and they would be broken up again when the squad leaders were selected.

After being nominated, a sergeant who fails to pass the test three times in a row is destined to be transferred to the county soldiers and serve as a sergeant.

Recently, Zhao Ji has been doing this every afternoon to select new squad leaders to fill the vacancies.

The powerful sons of the Tiger Step Army were more respected by the emperor, and Zhao Ji was also willing to give face to Fu Wan.

As the expedition was about to begin, these powerful sons of wealthy families left the Tiger Infantry with the support of their families and joined the growing Lang Guard.

Not only the sons of powerful people, but also some powerful people in their forties and fifties got in touch with Fu Wan and were recruited as Wuguanlang.

As long as it does not hinder the training of the Tiger Infantry Army and the production of military supplies and equipment, Zhao Ji will naturally release them.

After shooting almost all the arrows, Zhao Ji felt much better. He took off the ring made of ox horn from his right thumb. This is also called "韘", pronounced as "she".

Previously, he used cowhide, and today he specially used a cow horn ring found in the armory, but the feel was still not as good as cowhide.

Using a cowhide thumb ring did not prevent him from throwing a spear or fighting with weapons.

Throwing the ox-horn ring to Han Shu, Zhao Ji said, "Knowing that I'm a good archer, I only passed 70% of the test. This means that most of the brave warriors in the camp have been used. The rest are getting worse and worse."

Han Shu tied the ring with a thin leather cord and fastened it to his wrist guard: "Once we fight the enemy army, we will have no shortage of brave warriors who dare to fight."

"Well, that's true."

Zhao Ji turned around and saw Jia Xu and Wei Ji, and said to Han Shu, "Tomorrow I will give you 300 men to escort the fleet north. Rest early tonight so as not to interfere with tomorrow's work."

"Here!"

Han Shu agreed immediately and transported grain to Beijiang every day during this period.

They were first loaded onto ships and sailed north along the Sushui River, where they were split into two streams. Part of the cargo was loaded onto the city of Tongxiang on the east bank, while the rest was transported to Beijiang by carriages, horses, and wheelbarrows.

There was no shortage of workers who could build ships and cars in Hedong, but due to the influence of war, these people could not make a living by their skills, so they mostly relied on the powerful and government officials to repair existing vehicles.

Now that these people are organized, the vehicles and ships can be assembled in an assembly line.

Everything was developing in the expected direction. Even if the consequences of military remonstration and offending the emperor and the ministers were more serious, Zhao Ji still felt it was a good deal.

He hasn't been to the city for the past five or six days. The farther away from the court he is, the less he feels his thoughts and actions are suppressed and interfered with.

After sending Han Shu away, Zhao Ji turned and walked quickly towards Jia Xu and Wei Ji. When they were about five or six steps away, Zhao Ji observed Jia Xu, bowed, and asked with a smile, "Is this Mr. Wenhe of Xiliang?"

"It's Jia."

Jia Xu was also impressed by Zhao Ji's bravery. Even though the thing in front of him was just an embroidered straw bag, it was still a top-quality one among all the embroidered straw bags.

Jia Xu cupped his hands and smiled, "I never thought that even the Minister would know about my humble reputation."

Zhao Ji felt that he was referring to the two phrases "Poisonous Scholars of Xiliang" and "Wenhe Luanwu" that only he and Zhao Yan had said.

Pretending not to understand, Zhao Ji extended his arms and invited, "Sir, come here to help me. I have a 90% chance of winning."

"Then what were the chances of victory for the Minister before Jia came?"

"Less than 70%." He took Jia Xu and Wei Ji on board the chariot, which was covered with a green umbrella and headed towards the Beiguo military camp.

Zhao Ji asked, "What does Duan Zhongming mean?"

"Minister, here is the handwritten letter from Lord Zhao."

Jia Xu didn't want to answer this question, so he took out Zhao Yan's letter. The matter of Duan Wei was difficult to explain.

In the eyes of orthodox officials, Duan Wei was not considered a loyal minister because he refused to raise an army and fight to the death with the Li-Guo coalition.

Objectively speaking, Hedong lacks Duan Wei's response and support.

It is hard to say exactly how many Li and Guo rebels can be held back, but the key is to boost the morale of Hedong and stabilize people's hearts.

Zhao Yan understood Duan Wei's difficulties. After Jia Xu explained it to Zhao Yan once, he didn't want to explain it again to Zhao Ji.

Flipping through the old man's handwritten letter, Zhao Ji looked relaxed, without any sense of loss or anger. "It's understandable. He has so many people under him who need to make a living. It's only right for him to bow his head temporarily to preserve his strength."

After folding the silk book and putting it into the wooden box inside the carriage, Zhao Ji asked, "I am worried about the attack from the combined forces of Zhang Yang and Dong Cheng. What do you think, Mr. Wenhe?"

Jia Xu stroked his beard, pondered the question seriously, and asked, "Has the imperial court yet recruited the sons of Zhang, Yang, and the other generals from Henei to serve as imperial guards?"

"I understand."

Zhao Ji said, "Since they have long harbored rebellious intentions, if they invade our Hedong territory without an imperial decree, I will punish them myself."

Jia Xu made no comment, but urged: "I also ask the Minister to urge the court to recruit the sons of the generals in Henei as guards. Those who serve in the court to defend the emperor will be promoted. This way, when the emperor personally leads the army, Henei will be unable to do anything."

Zhao Ji nodded in agreement. He had noticed this before, but instinctively felt that recruiting a group of imperial guards would make it difficult to determine the collective stance of the Hanoi generals. He sensed a strong likelihood of a war in the future and worried that the Hanoi imperial guards, if brought to court, would leak secrets and accelerate the emperor's communication with the Hanoi forces.

They killed Dong Zhao by taking advantage of the fire and cut off the main communication node.

Recruiting the officials from Henei again gave a strange feeling of proactively building a ladder for the emperor to escape over the wall.

Jia Xu added, "Henei is home to many talented individuals. We should recruit more of these distinguished men to serve at court. Since the emperor is now in Anyi, we must not neglect literature. We should also send envoys to the prefectures and counties to recruit great scholars and renowned figures to serve at court, so as to revive the Imperial Academy and cultivate talented individuals for the nation. This will allow the people of all regions to know the power and virtue of the court and draw their respect."

Get the person here first, then we can talk about other things.

The more people there are, the greater the legitimacy and influence of the Anyi court.

At the beginning of last year, the emperor was relatively free to move around in Chang'an and sent people to distribute grain and silk from the inner treasury for disaster relief. However, this time the disaster relief was interrupted by Li Jue, who stole the supplies.

At the same time, the emperor personally went to the capital to select scholars, and appointed various scholars who were gathered there and were almost starving to death as palace officials.

Although many people's test scores were not ideal, the emperor relaxed the restrictions in order to prevent them from starving to death and to allow them to receive a salary from the court.

Basically, all literate people were recruited as palace officials.

Although most of these people died in battle during their eastward migration, those who survived will ultimately be grateful for their lives.

When it comes to saving people, the emperor is quite proactive.

The key point of Jia Xu's proposal was to restore the Imperial College. As for recruiting well-dressed young men, great scholars, and famous people from all over the country to serve in the court, this work had already been started.

When Dong Zhuo was in power, the Imperial College still had a framework in place.

Since the chaos in the Three Prefectures, the Imperial College has collapsed and the students have suffered heavy losses.

Zhao Ji nodded repeatedly after listening to it. No matter what, he had to set up the framework first.

Later, many people followed the emperor, and those who stayed were able to benefit from Hedong for a long time.

If the Hedong Huben want to have better development, they must make up for their shortcomings in academic qualifications and knowledge.

I just hope that the Zhao family’s fellow villagers, their only former officials, and in-laws can have a positive influence.

As for plans for next year and the year after, Zhao Ji has no longer made any plans in this regard.

Even Jia Xu, who is now giving advice, may turn around and run away with the emperor if he is not careful.

I just hope we can cooperate well in the future... and get Jia Xu's family members from Duan Wei.

This guy keeps saying he's recruiting the sons of the generals in Henei as his guards, but he actually ran away from Duan Wei without any family members...

It's really a bit difficult to let go when working with such a cool person.

(End of this chapter)