The three territories owned by the Zhu family and his son have a special population age structure.

Take Daming Township as an example——

0 to 14 years old, accounting for 33.6%.

Those aged 15 to 40 account for 58.2%.

Those aged 41 to 55 account for 6.7%.

Over 56 years old, accounting for 1.5%.

Especially the refugees brought back from Shaanxi rarely see the elderly, and they have died of hunger and disease in their hometown.

The high proportion of children is mainly due to the fact that in recent years, under Zhu Guoxiang's governance, the birth rate and survival rate of newborns have been very high.

After the 300 archers trained by Ju Ming were sent home, more than 90 people came to Daming Village with their families and their families.

Tong Ershun's brother is one of them.

His elder brother fell ill and died. Before he died, he asked Tong Ershun to bring his father, sister-in-law, nephew and younger brother to surrender.

My father is not yet 50 years old and his hair is already gray. He is now farming in Daming Village.

Tong Ershun married his sister-in-law and became the mainstay of the family.

This year, my younger brother Sanshun is also 16 years old, and it is time to arrange marriage.

But Tong Sanshun is very picky because he studied in the village school. He knows hundreds of words and can add, subtract, multiply and divide. He has been assigned to work as an apprentice in the warehouse and wants to marry a woman with better conditions.

"Er Shun, come with me!"

"okay."

Tong Ershun ran out quickly, and it was Jiang Yong, his neighbor's eldest brother.

When his brother was still alive, he worked as an archer with Jiang Yong and followed Zhu Dutou to suppress the bandits. The relationship was quite good. Both families came to Daming Village and Jiang Yong always took good care of Tong Ershun.

The two of them didn't go far when they met a few more villagers and walked towards Heifeng Village together.

"Brother Jiang, what are you doing?" Tong Ershun couldn't help but ask.

Jiang Yong said: "The government's miscellaneous taxes are getting heavier and heavier, and there are thieves in every village. My husband asked Brother Zhang to practice more village bravery."

"Can I also be a village hero?" Tong Ershun was very excited.

Although the village warriors do not receive military pay, they have good food during the training and their families can get some tax reductions.

If you reach the rank of captain or above, you can also be rewarded with land.

It’s not just reclaimed wasteland, it’s mature land that has been cultivated!

Villagers can apply to reclaim a lot of wasteland based on their own circumstances. If they reclaim five acres, they can keep four acres after it is fully cultivated, and the remaining one acres will be used as public land in the village.

These public fields are usually cultivated by tenants, and occasionally they are given rewards.

There is no shortage of tenants, because it is too laborious to open up wasteland, and the output in the past few years was not high. New immigrants often open up wasteland and plant a small amount of crops, while at the same time they share the land and cultivate mature fields to support their families.

New immigrants who are too far away from mature fields are even picked up by boats during the busy farming season and transported to mature fields several miles away.

Jiang Yong whispered: "I am a veteran, and I can be promoted to captain this time. If you are an honest person, don't be a soldier. Come to my team and be a fire soldier."

"What is a fire soldier?" Tong Ershun asked.

Jiang Yong said: "Each team is assigned a fire soldier, who usually has to carry iron pots and dry food. When fighting, he holds a knife in his hand and cuts off the thieves' ears to count their heads. The fire soldiers also collect the stolen goods captured by the team first.

, and leave it to the superior to distribute it after the war. If the thieves rush into the team, the fire soldiers will have to fight with their swords. Don’t be afraid, they usually can’t rush in. Your brother and I have a good relationship, so I won’t put you in danger.”

Tong Ershun suddenly realized: "I'm just helping my brothers."

"That's what I mean." Jiang Yong nodded.

Everyone went to Heifeng Village all the way, and Tong Ershun came here for the first time.

But I heard the rumble of horse hooves, and the cavalry had already begun training.

The horses in the village are not very good, most of them are horses bought from other places, and there are only more than 20 horses in total.

Riding skills are also relatively poor. It's enough for sentrying and sending messages, and it's good for chasing down defeated troops, but it's difficult to fight head-on.

Zhang Guangdao himself is riding a good horse, which is the daughter of Cornucopia and another mare. That mare is also a real war horse. She has given birth to two litters and is now pregnant again. The veterinarian is taking care of her carefully.

After the gathering was almost complete, Zhang Guangdao finally began to form a team.

There are 5 people in a team, with the shield or long player as the team leader.

A team of 12 is composed of a captain, fire soldiers and two teams of soldiers.

There are 49 people per sentry, consisting of the sentry commander and four teams of soldiers.

A capital of 100 people is composed of a captain, a deputy captain and two sentry soldiers.

The five capitals formed one battalion, with a total of more than 500 people.

The battalion officer is called the commander, and is also equipped with flag bearers, trumpeters, doctors, carpenters, tailors, etc. (the firearms unit will also be added in the future).

Zhu Guoxiang asked Daming Township to expand the army to 800 people, and Zhang Guangdao directly expanded the army to nearly 1,100 people, forming two full battalions and a cavalry team.

There are only a little over 5,000 people in Daming Township, and the five-to-one draw will seriously affect production.

Excluding the elderly, women and children, most of the young and middle-aged were drafted into the army, and they did not take into account Zhu Guoxiang's advice not to draft the only son in the family.

Fortunately, they are all trained during the off-season. Only a few workshops and shops are left to maintain the operation of Daming Township.

Shi Yuangong, Deng Chun and others were responsible for investigating the news in Sichuan Gorge, and they had returned during the Chinese New Year.

Shi Yuangong served as secretary.

Deng Chun served as the commander of the first battalion, and Xu Ning served as the deputy commander.

Sun Lan served as the commander of the second battalion, and Hua Rong served as the deputy commander.

Sun Lan was a veteran who followed Ju Ming in suppressing bandits. He brought his family to surrender four years ago. He performed extremely well in smuggling and was highly promoted by Zhang Guangdao. Moreover, this person knew a few big characters.

Xu Ning and Hua Rong were military officers in Tokyo, and their martial arts skills were quite outstanding.

But they were foreigners and lacked qualifications. Being the deputy commander was considered an extra promotion, and Zhu Guoxiang spoke behind his back.

As for Yang Zhi, Lin Chong and others, they all went to Jintan Village in Yangzhou and Tiemao Village in Jinzhou, and they will form their own troops separately.

Tong Ershun mingled in the army and received a sword, a pair of armor, and a helmet.

The armor is half-body leather armor, covering only the vital parts, and the helmet is also an ordinary rattan helmet.

Tong Ershun suddenly didn't want to be a fire soldier anymore. He wanted to be a combat soldier because it looked more majestic.

The soldiers all wore rattan armor and war skirts made of rattan, which extended to the knees. The rattan helmets were also different, with a circle of cloth falling down, and iron pieces hanging on the cloth, protecting the neck.

Tong Ershun looked at Jiang Yong and found that Brother Jiang had become a warrior.

Brother Jiang had a spear in his hand and a bow and arrow on his back. After putting on his armor, he looked majestic.

For several days, Tong Ershun was confused.

In addition to one hour of physical training every day, the rest of the time is spent on getting familiar with commands.

As a fire soldier, he only needs to know Jiang Yong's pennant.

But when squad leaders like Jiang Yong identify higher-level flags, the soldiers must also become familiar with them. The soldiers are not required to memorize them, but they must have the basic concepts.

There are also various orders with sounds: gongs, drums, trumpets, and whistles.

There are three types of trumpets: horn, trumpet, and polo.

The boluo is a musical instrument made of conch, and it can also be made of other materials. The "big blowing conch" is what it is.

There are all kinds of flags and all kinds of musical instruments. Not to mention small soldiers like Tong Ershun, even captains like Jiang Yong have difficulty adapting.

The training continued until the sixth day, and finally everyone made no mistakes.

But just this once, someone made a mistake in retraining.

Seeing Zhang Guangdao still continuing to practice flag orders, Shi Yuangong couldn't help but said: "General Zhang, is it time to practice military formations?"

Zhang Guangdao shook his head: "There's no rush."

Shi Yuangong was extremely surprised. Although he did not know how to fight, he had seen Xiang troops from various places. Those Xiang troops were considered elite if they could recognize orders, but Zhang Guangdao planned to follow the orders and prohibitions.

At this moment, there is no formation at all on the school field.

Many soldiers were organized into small teams, standing in a crooked group. But as soon as the order came out, under the command of the officers at all levels, the chaotic soldiers were able to respond quickly.

After practicing for half a month, Zhang Guangdao began to train the formation.

A month later, the Yuanyang Formation was combined with the command, and the formation took action according to the command.

In the blink of an eye, it is the busy farming season again. In order to ensure agricultural production, the soldiers of the two battalions can only take turns.

One battalion drills for three days in a row, while the other battalion goes home to do farm work, and so on. Neighbors must help each other, especially helping the soldiers who are practicing to collect food.

Zhu Guoxiang patrolled the fields all day long, and the li chief, security chief, and A chief reported their work at any time.

Taking Yijia as a unit, which field's grain matures first, all farmers in the whole Yijia have to harvest that field first. Work points are calculated based on headcount and number of days. Each family has a different number of acres. With mutual help, some people must have more work points.

, these people will give material rewards afterwards.
To be continued...