The boat arrived in Yangzhou.

My father was wearing a helmet and armor and a few servants were waiting at the dock, with gray hair, one of his eyes covered with a black eye mask, and he held the iconic iron-wrapped spear in his hand.

The veteran is old, but he is put on armor again.

"Dad, are you?"

"You want to go to Hebei to fight with the Goguryeo people, I must go."

My father looked very firm, "I can't go even if I fight the Turks, Tubo and Tuyuhun, I can ignore it, but I must go as far as the Goguryeo people."

"Dad, you are so old and you have retired." Li held his father's hand and persuaded him, not caring about his fatigue from the journey.

Lao Tieqian was extremely stubborn at this time.

"I have conquered Liaodong three times and left more than ten big scars in Liaodong. My countless brothers in robes died in Liaodong, and even my brothers died there."

Although he has retired, his father is willing to go there as a volunteer soldier.

During the Sui Dynasty, the conquest of Liao made countless people in the Central Plains leave resentment, resenting Yang Guang and the Goguryeo people even more. At that time, countless soldiers and civilians in Liaodong died in Liaodong, and a total of hundreds of thousands of people were added.

My father was going, but Li Lan couldn't stop him.

After hesitating for a long time, Li nodded.

After going ashore to rest and replenish supplies, local officials came to see Li. Regarding these local officials, Li just met and talked for a few simple words, and then went home with his father.

My father used to be from Yangzhou, but his family was in average at that time. Later, he left his hometown and his family was destroyed. When he was old, he was able to return home in glory.

Before my father returned to his hometown, Li sent someone to build a mansion in his hometown and build a grave.

When the father and the other two returned home, the father took Li to the ancestral grave first.

There were the ancestors of the Zhang family buried there, and Li kowtowed one by one and burned a lot of paper money.

Back to the manor, I went to the ancestral hall again.

Because my father has reached the point, he also helped the original family members. In the past, the Zhang family members have now built houses in the manor, started a school, and hired a teacher. The children of the Zhang family members can study for free.

Although my father's branch has been given a surname and entered the royal family genealogy, it is considered to have left the Zhang family. However, he is still a clan relative with the Zhang family.

When they arrived home, all the members of the Zhang family came to pay their respects. Although many of the people who came were elders of the Zhang family, Li could only be considered a junior, but after all, Li was the prime minister of the dynasty.

Li is still very polite about these tribe members who have no feelings for each other. Li has no feelings for them, but his father has feelings for them.

"The prime minister, there are many people coming outside. I want to meet the prime minister, and I want to volunteer to follow the prime minister to fight Goguryeo."

Li was a little surprised. My father wanted to volunteer to fight Goguryeo, but he didn't expect that there was another group of people going to fight Goguryeo now.

"I'll go over and see them."

At the gate of Li’s Manor, hundreds of people were focused on.

There are old and young.

Those old people claimed to be the ones who conquered Liao.

In fact, these people cannot grow old. Many people are about the same age as their father, and many are even younger than their father, but they look a little older because of the hardships of life.

After all, they are indeed not old.

After all, the three campaigns of Liaodong were from the eighth year of Daye to the tenth year of Daye, and it was only less than fifteen years apart. The military soldiers who were twenty or thirty years old were only thirty or forty years old. The older ones were only 50 years old.

"You are going to go to war?" Li asked.

"We are going to fight Goguryeo and take revenge!"

These soldiers of the palace were all veterans who participated in the Liao Dynasty. In the Liao Dynasty, they were always large in scale. Many soldiers went to the battlefield with their fathers, brothers, and nephews. Many relatives died there and never came back.

Li asked the young people again, "You are going to fight Goguryeo, too?"

"We want to avenge our father and brother!" shouted these young people. These people were the children of the Sui army who died in Liaodong back then.

Hearing that Li Su was appointed as the governor of Yanyun, he wanted to go to the north to command the war with the Goguryeo and the Turks, and to pass through Yangzhou, he rushed over.

The enthusiasm of these people and the desire to join the war made Li a little confused.

After chatting with them for a long time, Li almost understood what these people were thinking.

These people really want to fight the Goguryeo people and avenge their revenge.

Of course, this is just one of them.

It is too late for ordinary people to escape from war, even these veterans and the children of veterans.

The main reason these people want to go to war is that Li is the one who leads the troops.

Li was an invincible general in the Tang Dynasty and was the God of War. When did Li send troops, he didn't win? No matter how many troops he led, he could win in the end.

Following Li's soldiers, they can always make contributions.

Especially when Li was in the war, there have always been very few casualties.

In this way, following Li to fight is dangerous, but there are many opportunities to make contributions. Who wouldn’t be moved by such a good thing?

Although the world is unified now, the Tang Dynasty still values ​​military merits. Military merits are still the best way to get titles or promotions. If you can't get titles or become officials, at least it's easy to earn rewards.

These people are smart enough to get up early without profit. Besides, they do have resentment towards the Goguryeo people.

Volunteer soldiers.

Li remembered that in history, Li Shimin personally conquered Goguryeo in his later years. At that time, the children of Chang'an signed up enthusiastically and volunteered to follow the army to fight. Li Shimin called these people volunteer soldiers and took them to conquer Liaodong in person.

Unexpectedly, I have encountered these volunteer soldiers now.

"Take them with you." Dad said.

With Li’s current official position and a group of volunteer soldiers, no one can do anything. If it is spread, it will make people praise these veterans and young people for their loyalty and passion.

"All right."

After thinking about it for a while, Li finally agreed.

"These people will be organized into volunteer troops separately, and they will be led by Dad."

However, because these people are basically not soldiers in the palace, if they are soldiers in the palace, they would not have to use this form to gain the opportunity to make a fame on the battlefield.

If it is not a military soldier, there will be a problem. They have no equipment.

In addition to their lack of equipment, there is another problem. Among these people, except for some who had served as soldiers in the Sui Dynasty and participated in the Liao Dynasty, most of them were peasants. In vain, they were just people who could not choose the soldiers of the palace.

Nowadays, there are conditions to choose a military soldier in the mansion. It is either a bureaucrat or a landlord. At least it is a wealthy self-cultivating farmer, and most people cannot choose it.

If they are not a military soldier, they lack training. If they do not have military commands, they will definitely not be very good at all.

Regular soldiers are basically equipped with a bow, and they are often trained. However, ordinary farmers, except for some hunters, how can ordinary people use bows? And bows and crossbows cannot be practiced in three days or two days.

The other kung fu skills such as sword cards cannot be learned in a day or two.

It’s okay to bring them with you, and it’s not a problem to get them equipment, but the key is that they can’t use the bow and arrow machine when given them. Even if they are ordinary sword cards, it’s difficult to participate in actual combat without training.

Li could take these people to the war and make meritorious service, but he could not take them to die.

"It doesn't matter if you don't know how to bow and knife cards. Give them a spear each and form a long spear formation during war, which is also quite powerful." said the father.

Spearman.

This can be the lowest-level military service, because the spear itself is cheap. Even if it is a new recruit, if each person has a spear and a gun formation, the soldiers can still have some effect when they pick it up.

In general, especially in troubled times, the most powerful and violent soldiers from all sides are spearmen.

Spear soldiers are also the most valuable army, cannon fodder, and supplementary soldiers.

But after my father, Li remembered that the spearmen were indeed quite trash, but he didn’t have a gunpowder cartridge, so he could upgrade these spearmen to musketeers. If he was given a little grenade, he would still be a grenade.

Musketeers have an advantage. They do not require high quality of soldiers like archers, nor do they need a long training cycle. With simple training, they can basically be pulled onto the battlefield, and training spearmen is not much troublesome.

The long spear volunteer soldiers have been upgraded to musket volunteers, and their combat effectiveness can still be greatly improved.

Thinking of this, Li made up his mind that all these volunteer soldiers would become musketeers.

After hearing Li's plan, my father was a little curious about what a musket soldier was. Then Li called Zhu Zhendong. Now Zhu Zhendong has become a musket soldier. He worked very hard and was summoned. He skillfully practiced what a musket soldier was for my father.

Adding bamboo tubes to the spear, he became a musketeer?

This change surprised my father, but with his many years of combat experience, he also said that if he had never seen a musket, the fireworks ejected during the battle would indeed have an unexpected effect. Even if he had seen it, this time he could still make people panic.

For Li Lai, it is easy to equip the musket volunteers. Each person has a long spear, a gunpowder cartridge, a grenade, and a fuse rope, and that's enough.

At most, give them a helmet.

There is no need to be equipped with armor, no need to be equipped with crossbows and horizontal knives, nor do bayonets or shields. It is enough to have this musket.

It is simple to get equipment and low cost.

On that day, more than 130 volunteer soldiers were to be collected.

Then, more people came the next day and asked to be volunteer soldiers. When Li left Yangzhou on the third day, the number of volunteer soldiers of his father had reached more than 800.

But it is not over yet. Whenever you arrive at a stop to replenish supplies, many people will inevitably come to ask to be volunteer soldiers.

At this time, my father had to raise his conditions, as long as those young and strong people even asked for some skill to be given priority.

When I walked north all the way and passed by Qin Qiong's hometown, the volunteer army had reached 5,000.
To be continued...