Wang Chang asked implicitly, but his meaning was very clear. This is a good start, and Guo Ning is naturally happy.
He immediately laughed: "Mr. Wang, please!"
In fact, at the beginning, Guo Ning considered not relying on others to train these young obedient people, but to do it entirely by himself. In Guo Ning's eyes, this is the most important and urgent task at the moment.
In the eyes of outsiders, Guo Ning rose out of the wilderness, and in an instant he gathered 2,500 elites, entrenched himself in Huzeyuanso, Hebei, and his sphere of influence covered five states. If he is willing to serve the imperial court, all commanders and envoys will be at his fingertips, and even the Jiedushi envoy will not be unable to consider it.
But Guo Ning himself did not become arrogant because of this, but became more cautious.
He himself was the standout among the defeated troops. Because of this, he understood the bad nature of the defeated soldiers better than others. These soldiers are fierce and cunning enough, but they have no loyalty and no scruples. The vast majority of them are people who can't afford to fight early without any benefit.
When Xiao Haohu, Yang An'er and others threaten their safety, they will stick together and elect leaders to fight; when someone like Hu Shahu, who is hated by everyone, appears, they will hope that someone can take revenge on their behalf.
But at other times, the defeated soldiers were accustomed to being unrestrained, and each one of them became a soldier actively and passively. Therefore, these thousands of people have been living in Hebei for two years, and they have always remained in a state of scattered sand.
Guo Ning's ability to gather them this time seems to be based on his reputation of fighting to the death. But didn’t Guo Ning have any reputation two years ago?
At that time, Guo Ning came to Hebei after the bloody battle. How many people were willing to follow him?
Guo Ning's reputation has always been there, but the difference is that at that time, Guo Ning had neither money nor food, but now Guo Ning has used force to subdue the local tyrants and formed a compromise with local officials, thus obtaining a source of food and salary. .
To a certain extent, the loyalty of the 2,500 soldiers is partly to Guo Ning, and partly to the monthly military pay, the jingling money, and the white rice. The proportion of the latter is probably much greater than the former.
Changing this situation cannot be achieved in a day.
Guo Ning was born in a military camp and grew up in fighting fields, so he understood the basic principles. As long as he is willing, there is no shortage of means. To the officers and men, he offered practical benefits, strictly controlled military discipline, and was as close as brothers, offering them food and clothing.
The troops assembled in this way were enough to intimidate the neighbors, but they could not meet Guo Ning's requirements.
Where do the people who can meet the requirements come from? At this time in this world, such people can only be cultivated slowly by themselves.
Therefore, as soon as Guo Ning gathered the manpower, he immediately proposed that he was short of personal guards and asked the leaders of each defeated army to recommend young men who were capable of fighting and had quick minds to serve under his tent.
At that time, Monk Luo, Li Ting and others thought this was a means to obtain hostages.
It's actually more than that.
What Guo Ning needs is not just a group of ordinary personal guards, but also more than just a group of personal guards.
He needs reliable people who are truly loyal to him, a strong backbone who can support the entire army in times of crisis, and partners who can always step in step with him and embark on a long journey.
Therefore, Guo Ning feels that time is too tight every day. He can't wait to pour everything he knows and thinks into the minds of the teenagers so that they can grow up immediately.
But after spending some time getting to know everyone, Guo Ning also realized that the young men were all warriors who dared to die, but their foundation was too poor and their vision was too narrow. They couldn't understand the content of Guo Ning's words that were a little in-depth, let alone follow Guo Ning's words to start imagining.
Therefore, literacy, which did not exist in the original plan, had to be put at the very beginning. Fortunately, Mr. Wang, the teacher recommended by Xu Quan, was very effective, so Guo Ning was able to free up his hands to pay attention to the heavy arrangements of military affairs. He only took time to chat with the teenagers every day and tell some anecdotes that could arouse their interest in learning. thing.
Two months have passed since the young men and women gathered at the Xiangjunhe camp. The teenagers are generally making progress. Even Ni Yi, who has no talent in this area, can still write his own name, plus more than a hundred commonly used characters such as numbers and directions. There are more than a hundred other words, which he can recognize, but cannot write.
According to Guo Ning's request, Wang Chang also taught the teenagers counting.
In this regard, Lu Han, who did not follow the lectures seriously but occasionally listened in, was the most powerful.
In addition, the young man who was thinking about ropes, bamboo baskets, and wind gates on the way back was also very talented in mathematics and the miscellaneous knowledge Guo Ning talked about.
This young man is from Bohai. He has no surname and his simple name is Aduo.
A Duo was born in an arrow-making workshop in Xuande County. Although he is thin and small, he has outstanding shooting skills and a good mind. In the past few days, he has memorized the multiplication tables thoroughly, and has begun to try addition, subtraction, multiplication and division operations within one thousand.
This situation makes it difficult for Guo Ning to "tell stories" every night.
He must take into account different receptive abilities and maintain consistent interests. This requires too much mental energy and can no longer be solved by improvising on the spot. This also prompted him to make up his mind and take the time to write teaching materials.
Now that Wang Chang is willing to invest in one place, it will certainly greatly reduce Guo Ning's burden.
After all, it is the nature of a Confucian to be a teacher. With so many students who are willing to learn from them, and with sufficient training and safety guarantees, how could Wang Chang relax? With him as a serious teacher and villain, Guo Ning can play more freely.
As for whether Wang Chang can teach according to Guo Ning's wishes...
Guo Ning slowed down a little and saw Wang Chang holding the stack of writing paper, as if he had found a treasure. Guo Ning's handwriting was really messy, and the sky was a little dark. The more Wang Chang looked carefully, the closer his eyes were to the paper, and he saw that the paper covered his entire face.
Guo Ning smiled secretly in his heart and raised his hand to support Wang Chang's arm: "Mr. Wang, be careful of hitting the wall, come this way."
"Oh! Yes!" Wang Chang responded several times and stared at the writing papers endlessly.
Guo Ning's calligraphy paper is divided into four parts, including stories and battle examples, situations in various parts of the world, the application of calculations in military affairs, and miscellaneous knowledge that was completely derived from dreams but is somewhat scattered.
Guo Ning originally thought that even if a Confucian scholar like Wang Chang could accept these, he would focus on the first two items. Unexpectedly, he instead stared at arithmetic and miscellaneous studies endlessly, as if he was very interested?
I'm afraid he is not a simple old Confucian, but Xu Jin has sent a wonderful person.
"Mr. Wang, I promised before that I would explain the magical effects of Qi to you in detail. In addition, I also planned to talk about Ban Chao's deeds of pacifying the thirty-six countries in the Western Regions during the Later Han Dynasty. I have not read the book seriously, so I am afraid that there are fallacies in my words. Quite a few, Sir, just let me hear it for now, do you hope you won’t interrupt?"
"Have you never read a book seriously?" Wang Chang sighed: "Oh, Mr. Lang is too modest. I just wish I could be like Mr. Lang and lose to the great sage!"
"Ah...yes, my master's knowledge is really extraordinary."
As the two of them said this, Lu Han and Ni Yi followed behind and crossed the backyard door together.
The teenagers have carried back the fallen hot air balloon and now dismantled it into seven or eight parts. Someone was spreading out the dark silk cloth that had been painted with raw lacquer, and someone was lifting up a soft piece to see if there were any spots on it that had been burned by the fire in the afterglow of the setting sun. While Ado was smearing on the wall with a pen, he was giving instructions to a few others, probably explaining the angle of the flames when they hit the wind.
When the sharp-eyed people saw Guo Ning coming in, they all laughed and said hello.
This is not rude, but Guo Ning's request. In the military camp, he is the commander-in-chief, and his subordinates are his subordinates. When the commander-in-chief gives an order, his subordinates have to walk through mountains and seas of fire. But outside the military camp, in daily life, he is more like an elder brother and a tribesman.
At this moment, the teenagers laughed a little and saw Wang Chang standing next to Guo Ning.
Everyone suddenly became serious, and quickly threw down the silk cloth in their hands, bowed and saluted one by one, and said in unison: "Greetings, sir."
Wang Chang coughed lightly and stretched out his sleeves: "You don't have to be polite, please get up."
The young men then stood up.
Guo Ning had only seen such a neat state when giving military orders, but he never thought that this old scholar could discipline dozens of brave young people so well even though he had no ability to restrain a chicken.
Previously, Guo Ning entrusted Wang Chang with the task of teaching writing. In order to prevent the teenagers from causing trouble, he deliberately placed their class opposite the hall of his office. However, he was busy with his own affairs and did not pay careful attention to the specific situation during classroom teaching.
Only then did he realize that he might have underestimated the old scholar around him.
