"There is no need to go into the city, just come with me." At the Chengdu dock, the person from Zhao's firm who was responsible for handling the news said with a smile.
Chai Rong and others took his family with him and followed him to the outskirts of Chengdu in confusion, becoming increasingly curious about Song Gongming's identity.
After walking for a while, they finally arrived at the huge military camp built of logs.
Even in the safe hinterland of Xichuan, it was still built like a regular military camp, with watchtowers at the four corners and flags fluttering on the wooden walls.
But that's not what surprised Chai Rong the most. What really stunned him was the long queue of young people at the entrance of the military camp...
When Chai Rong arrived, it was the day of Liu Chan's expansion selection.
Although the recruitment notice only reached Shu County, where Chengdu is located, and neighboring Guanghan, it still caused quite a shock.
Liu Chan did not select soldiers from Lao Liu's army. Although those soldiers had a certain foundation, they were basically accustomed to the life of an ordinary army.
Both daily drills and combat habits are very different from those of the Red Star Army. It is difficult to form habits from scratch, and it is even more difficult to change old habits and form new ones.
Therefore, he chose to recruit new soldiers, and the scope was the same as that of ordinary soldiers, recruiting "good family members".
But because registration was on a voluntary basis, something unexpected happened.
Different from the general conscription, which only recruits the children of farmers, this time the conscription was unprecedentedly grand, and the main force who signed up became the shadows of wealthy landowners...
Yinhu are different from slaves. A considerable number of Yinhu are actively attached to powerful families and are still legally free.
Of course, this is only from a legal perspective.
The legal principles talk about a lot of things, but how strictly they can be implemented is a matter of debate.
At least if these shelters are in normal times, no matter whether you actively rely on them or are occupied by evil powerful men, they have many ways to prevent you from getting out of control.
However, the situation this time is a bit special. This time the prince wants to recruit personal troops.
The farmers had land in their families, so they were not that interested in moving their family to become the prince's shelter. Besides, they had not actually seen the living conditions of the prince's military relatives.
If you have land at home, who wants to be someone else's shelter?
So there were very few responders.
But it's different for those wealthy households. They have no land to begin with, so who should they be? The conditions given by the prince are much better than those of the current family.
For a time, the Zhang, Du, Liu, and Ren families near Chengdu all had a large number of shady households to apply.
As the notice was conveyed in place, households from powerful families in other places also responded and prepared to go to Chengdu.
At the end of the Han Dynasty, due to the intensification of land annexation, the population of shadow households in many places even exceeded the population registered in official statistics.
The number of people who responded to the call for help was unprecedented.
Now, those wealthy and powerful people were worried. The prince was recruiting his own troops, and they couldn't stop him by force.
It is against the law to restrict the freedom of coming and going in a shade house. Normally, it only weighs a few pounds if it is not weighed. If you are not careful at this time, it will weigh more than a thousand kilograms if it is weighed.
And the prince did not forcibly recruit their servants, so he had no room to reason with them if he wanted to make suggestions.
Initially, a large number of powerful households left their original owners and fled to Chengdu with their families...
It was not until the landlords were forced to lower land rents again and again that this momentum was stopped.
Even so, their strength was cut off by this invisible knife, and there was nothing they could do.
Regarding the unexpected weakening of the powerful clans in Shu County and Guanghan, Prince Liu Chan outwardly expressed his sincere gratitude to the clans who fully supported the expansion of the Red Star Army, while at the same time he was laughing in his heart.
Thus, there was the current grand occasion.
Fortunately, Liu Chan saw that the number of people coming far exceeded expectations and set a deadline. Otherwise, people might come one after another in the future.
Today is the second day of screening for army expansion. All assessment work will be completed tomorrow and the expansion of the Red Star Army will be officially completed.
"Is this here?" Chai Rong and the people he brought looked at the grand scene in front of them and were a little at a loss for what to do.
The guide smiled and said, "Everyone, please wait here for a moment. I'll go in and make an announcement."
Liu Chan actually didn't let him wait for too long, but Chai Rong, who was worried, felt that he had waited for a long time.
Black brocade clothes and fox fur, Liu Chan's current attire made him open his mouth and didn't know what to call him.
"Master Chai Village, you've been away for a few months, are you okay?" Liu Chan cupped his hands and greeted him first with a smile.
Chai Rong quickly bowed and saluted: "I don't dare, I don't dare... I, this little man, Chai Rong, led his troops to come to meet me as promised. Gong Ming... dare I ask you your name?"
Liu Chan smiled and said, "You don't have to be so reserved. You have done me a big favor, and I haven't thanked you yet. My real name is Liu Mingchan. I concealed my real name for some reason before, so I hope you won't be blamed."
Solitary...Liu Chan...
Liu Bei's son?
The crown prince of Hanzhong? !
Plop!
Chai Rong immediately knelt down in fear.
As soon as they saw the commander kneeling, everyone behind him also knelt down along with their family members.
"Chai Rong didn't know that the Crown Prince of Hanzhong was in front of him, and his previous words were very offensive. I hope the Crown Prince will forgive me!"
No wonder he was suddenly so frightened. The identity difference between a gang leader and the crown prince was too great.
Then he thought about how he had dined with the Crown Prince before, spoke freely, and even invited the Crown Prince to be the bandit leader... How could he not be afraid.
Now the others were also shocked. General Gongming... was he the crown prince?
"Prince, forgive me!"
"Okay, let's all get up." Liu Chan personally stepped forward and lifted up Chai Rong with his arms, making him a little flattered. "I just wanted to hide it, so you don't have to be afraid."
"Thank you, Prince."
After experiencing the initial panic, Chai Rong's heart suddenly began to throb again.
The person he took refuge in turned out to be Liu Bei's son, the next controller of the Liu Bei Group.
This bet was right!
Judging from Liu Chan's previous attitude towards his soldiers, as long as he and others are loyal in return, he has a much better future than being a bandit.
Liu Chan pointed at the recruiting team behind him and said loudly: "Since you have come to join the orphans, you must follow the standards of the orphans, so you must participate in the selection before you can join the army. But even if you are not selected, the orphans will be properly placed and protected. You live a worry-free life.”
Chai Rong and others have no objection to this.
Then Liu Chan said to Chai Rong: "Now that you have joined our Red Star Army, you have to start from scratch and be equal to the new recruits. All the past general-general affiliations are invalid, have you thought about it?"
Chai Rong nodded without hesitation: "Everything will be subject to the arrangements of the Duke...Prince."
There was no turning back when he fired his bow. Now that he had arrived in Chengdu, he was determined to follow Liu Chan.
"Okay! The lonely Red Star Army will not bury talents. If you are really capable, you will have a place as a general." Liu Chan smiled and patted his shoulder, and then saw the baby in his wife's arms, "This is Your son?"
Chai Rong nodded: "Yes."
"Do you have a name?"
"When I replied to the crown prince, I only gave him my nickname." The person who answered was Chai Rong's wife.
The couple looked at Liu Chan with bright eyes. Did the prince want to name the child?
This is a great honor!
Liu Chan did have this intention. In any case, Chai Rong has done him a big favor. Even if he does not have any great achievements in the Red Star Army in the future, by virtue of giving his son a name, their family should be able to live here. Not bad.
Originally, when he found out that this person's name was Chai Rong, he became more playful and wanted his child to be called Chai Zongxun...but when he thought about it, it was a bit unlucky.
Moreover, at this time, a three-character name was a cheap name, and giving a three-character name became an insult, so I gave up.
"How about calling me Chai Jin." Liu Chan said with a smile.
"Thank you for the name given by the prince!" The two people who did not expect to be given the name by the prince were overjoyed and bowed again.
"Chai Jin, Jin'er, what a good name..." Chai Rong smiled from ear to ear. Unfortunately, he was uneducated and couldn't explain the word "Red Star" as brilliantly as Fazheng did, so he could only praise it constantly. I don’t know what’s good about it.
When the shanty town was first established, Liu Chan reserved many empty houses for subsequent army expansion.
Anyway, the cost of a yellow mud house and rammed earth walls is not high.
Arrangement of Chai Rong and others is not a problem.
However, since the number of other unsuccessful households far exceeded Liu Chan's expectation, it was impossible to receive this treatment.
What Liu Chan originally thought was that by recruiting good family members, they would already have a livelihood. Even if they were unsuccessful, they would not have to pay them a traveling fee to go home like they had done before to resettle the refugees.
But now that the powerful people are here, there is no reason to let them go back.
So Liu Chan threw this problem to Lao Liu. Lao Liu was also happy to see the results of weakening the powerful clans, so he decided to relocate these people to Hanzhong.
Each household was given land based on its population and given preferential tax exemption policies, allowing them to utilize the large amounts of idle land in the Hanzhong Plain.
After Boss Cao moved there, there was plenty of good land in Hanzhong, but there was a shortage of people to farm it.
After several days of selection, the Red Star Army finally expanded to 2,000 people.
Less than half of Chai Rong's people were eliminated, which shocked him at Liu Chan's harshness in selecting people.
But many of the people he brought were tough Danyang people, and they had been bandits for so long. It was a pity to let them lose the election and enter the shantytowns for fear of causing trouble.
So Liu Chan reciprocated the favor and recommended these people to Lao Liu, who were recruited into the Central Army, and some of them were even selected into the Baijie Army.
The Red Star Army, which has doubled in size, is about to undergo another round of military reorganization.
At the same time, Chai Rong, who came from Jiangdong, also brought the latest news about Soochow...
(End of chapter)
