The Qin family's New Year was very lively and warm. The eldest son Qin Tong and the second son Qin Bin took their wives and children home to celebrate the New Year together. The whole family is enjoying themselves.
Qin Shubao has been out of the court for many years and rarely interacts with anyone. During the Chinese New Year, there are very few people who come to visit him to pay New Year greetings, only Cheng Zhijie and a few others. During the Zhenguan period, the officialdom was clean and honest, and officials rarely gave expensive gifts when visiting relatives or friends. When a big shot like Cheng Zhijie came to pay New Year's greetings, he just gave him a bag of local specialties brought from Puzhou, and then the Qin family treated him with wine.
In addition to enjoying family affection, Qin Mubai is busier than everyone else, because the emperor's selection day on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month is getting closer and closer, and he must seize the time to practice martial arts. Therefore, even if it was New Year's Eve or the first day of the New Year, he would have to practice for several hours and would not neglect it.
Seeing him working so hard, Qin Shubao and Cheng Zhijie were naturally satisfied. Even the two brothers Qin Tong and Qin Bin were full of praise for Qin Mubai.
Generally speaking, the Qin family is a harmonious and warm family, and there is no big gap between the concubine and the concubine. The two brothers have been in the court for several years, one is a scholar and the other is a martial artist. Their experience and knowledge are of great benefit to Qin Mubai. After getting along for a while during the New Year, the relationship between Qin Mubai and his two brothers has also improved. The three brothers often get together to drink wine and talk about everything.
Seeing the Lantern Festival approaching day by day, Qin Mubai's anxiety increased slightly. It's not because of the tension caused by the emperor's selection of troops, but because of Qin Shubao's lifespan predicted by the great master Yuan Tiangang... Over the past few days, Qin Mubai has always paid attention to Qin Shubao's every move, and found that not only did he not have any chance of running out of oil, his life would be exhausted. The signs are that the more you live, the more energetic you will be, and your health will get better and better. One time, Qin Shubao got into high spirits after drinking a little wine, and even asked the three Qin Mubai brothers to fight against him alone, and they actually did not lose!
The whole family was amazed, and everyone was secretly happy.
On the evening of the fourteenth day of the first lunar month, Qin Shubao called Qin Mubai into the room and asked him.
"Sanlang, tomorrow is the emperor's selection day. I think your martial arts skills should be about the same. If nothing else, there should be fewer people in the younger generation who are better than you." Qin Shubao said, "However, Li Ke's Bian, what are you going to tell him? Even if it's just right to leave Prince Wu's house and work for the emperor, it's better not to offend him. After all, he only has good intentions towards our Qin family and has no ill intentions."
"Dad, this matter has actually been resolved a long time ago..." Qin Mubai told Qin Shubao about the conversation between him and Li Ke that day before the year before. Of course, things about Fourth Sister Shuang'er were omitted.
"Li Ke, he is such a smart man. He looks just like His Majesty the Emperor!" After hearing this, Qin Shubao shook his head in admiration.
"What do you say?" Qin Mubai asked.
Qin Shubao stroked his long beard and said leisurely: "Sanlang, although you are smart, you are still young and have little experience in officialdom. There are some things that you cannot understand when you are in the middle of the game. Maybe a father is a villain. I am the father of gentlemen, but don’t you feel that Li Ke is playing hard to get?”
"Is there any?" Qin Mubai was slightly startled and asked.
Qin Shubao smiled to himself and said: "Anyone who is in power has his own set of techniques to control his subordinates. The emperor is like this, and so is the emperor's son Li Ke. Invariably, they all used the most powerful ones. Weapon - Feelings!”
"Dad, I understand what you mean." Qin Mubai frowned slightly and said, "You mean that after Li Ke heard that I was going to participate in the military selection, he knew that he couldn't keep me. So he was willing to send me away as a favor, so that I would be emotionally indebted to him, right?"
"Yes, how similar is this to the emperor's handling of Wu Meiniang?" Qin Shubao smiled, "However, only a powerful person with great talent, broad mind, and a big heart can use such a technique to control his subordinates. When His Majesty was still the King of Qin, , who of his ministers, including his father, would not be grateful to him and repay him with all his heart? The reason is that His Majesty the Emperor is best at conquering his subordinates emotionally, and it is better to restrain his body than to kill his heart. How wonderful is this? What a means!”
"Father is right." Qin Mubai sighed softly and said, "Now, I feel a little indebted to Li Ke. He promoted me to an official position, acted as a matchmaker for me, promised to increase my official position, and treated me normally. He treats me like a brother with courtesy and never treats me as a subordinate or a slave. Now, I want to leave him and go to a higher position. Emotionally speaking, I really owe him. "
"A real man knows how to repay his kindness. Just repay the kindness when you have the opportunity in the future." Qin Shubao said, "Those who achieve great things do not stick to small details, especially small favors like this. Li Ke has done so much kindness to you, an important thing Isn’t it because of Si Ya’er? So, he also has an agenda, and you don’t need to carry any emotional baggage. Tomorrow, you can go to the emperor’s selection with peace of mind. You must win the first prize, otherwise you don’t have to. Go home!”
"Yes, father!"
In the spring of the eleventh year of Zhenguan, on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, it was sunny and breezey.
The early spring in Guannai is still as cold as winter. There are still unfrozen ice skates on the red walls and green tiles of the imperial city. Under the sunlight, colorful rays of light refracted, and strings of fine water droplets slowly flowed down, splashing small pits in the snow below and forming thin streams of water.
Entering the imperial city for the first time, Qin Mubai was in awe. The palaces of the Tang Dynasty were so majestic that they were ten times more powerful than the Purple Gold City of the Qing Dynasty that he had seen in his previous life.
The location for the emperor's selection of soldiers was located in the north of the Taiji Palace in the imperial city, a famous place - Xuanwu Gate, on the left gate guard campus. At this time, it was already overcrowded. Thousands of imperial guards strictly controlled the order of the scene. In the venue with nearly ten thousand people, there was no chaos at all.
Last year, Li Shimin carried out an "epoch-making" reform to Datang's military system. That is, the system of north and south government offices for the imperial capital and imperial city guards was implemented.
In fact, to put it bluntly, it was to concentrate more military power in the hands of the emperor and the court.
Beiya is the collective name for the Imperial Palace Guards. Li Shimin, who personally directed the Xuanwu Gate Incident, understood the power of the Imperial Palace Guards better than anyone else. In the past, the Imperial Guards of the Imperial Palace of the Tang Dynasty, like other imperial soldiers, implemented the ascending system, and often replaced different generals and imperial soldiers to take turns on duty. Now it has been fixed. The imperial army that defends the imperial city is basically selected from among the children of the official clan, and the generals among them are relatively fixed. The emperor personally appoints his trusted generals to lead them.
Nanya, on the other hand, is the collective name for the soldiers and horses from all walks of life who came to the imperial capital, including the field troops stationed more than ten miles away from the imperial city, and the soldiers and horses guarding the nine gates of Chang'an.
This time, Li Shimin once again carried out creative reforms in the military system - creating an imperial guard unit that was subordinate to the emperor's relatives, not affiliated with any organizational structure of the Twelve Guards of the Tang Dynasty, and only obeyed the orders of the emperor alone, known as: Baiqi!
In fact, Baiqi is the emperor's personal guard, with a unique identity and status. Since it was a new thing, everyone was interested and eager to join such a new army and work for the emperor. Being able to appear frequently in front of the emperor's eyes, the chances of promotion are much greater than suffering in any army. This is obvious.
However, the emperor's criteria for selecting a hundred knights were quite harsh. The five major conditions he laid out initially made most people feel discouraged and could only hesitate to move forward.
Article 1: Those who come to participate in the election of the Hundred Riders must first be the children of the Tang Dynasty’s official families. Children of the military and military families are given priority, and they must be between the ages of eighteen and forty. People from civilian backgrounds are not allowed, even if you are now an officer in the army. The Tang Dynasty valued family background, so there was nothing we could do about it.
Article 2: One of the candidates’ direct relatives must be a current seventh-grade or above capital official, or he must be a seventh-grade or above capital official. In other words, if you want to be elected as a Baiqi, someone must provide a guarantee, which is a bit like a mortgage when applying for a loan today.
Article 3: Be of good conduct and have no criminal records among the candidates themselves or their direct relatives. There must be no adulterers or criminals around the emperor, otherwise the emperor would definitely not worry about the safety of his concubines, children and property. This seems easy to understand.
Article 4: Outstanding appearance. The Tang Dynasty has always paid attention to appearance. It goes without saying that women are good-looking. If men are tall and powerful, it is also an intangible asset. This time the selection clearly lists the appearance standards: First, the candidates must be over six feet (one meter eight) tall, with a tall and erect body and well-proportioned facial features. If you have a hunched back and crooked legs, a disability or a crooked mouth or a crooked eye, even if you are the son of a prime minister or a general, it is best not to come. Beating him out with a stick will not look good.
Article 5: Be able to write. As a child of an official family, it would be unreasonable to be illiterate. It is said that the emperor will personally test the educational level of each candidate at the end. If you dare to cheat privately, the consequences will definitely be disastrous.
This is probably the most difficult soldier selection in the world. Fortunately, Qin Mubai can meet these five standards.
On the first day, he passed the first "political review" and "physical examination" that most people think are the most difficult. In this round alone, thousands of people have been eliminated, and there are even more countless people who are too afraid to run.
Then the emperor announced that he would personally check the selection of Baiqi this time. The number of soldiers was strictly controlled at six hundred. In addition, what attracted the most attention were the senior officers of this Hundred Cavalry team, four in total. With "Hundred Cavalry Envoys" as the leader, the official position is the fifth rank, and he is the governor of Hezhou and the lieutenant general of the Twelve Guards Yifu, which is equivalent to a full regiment-level cadre. Moreover, the salary of the Hundred Cavalry Envoys is higher than that of ordinary fifth-rank officials; below the Hundred Cavalry Envoys, there are three "Hundred Cavalry Deputy Envoys" as deputies, with official positions starting from the fifth rank; next, there are six brigade commanders and Twelve team members.
All twenty-two military attaches must be selected in this selection. Moreover, the conditions for candidates to be elected as officers are even more stringent - candidates for the election of Hundred Cavalry Envoys and Deputy Envoys must be high-ranking officials of the third rank or above or the nephews of prominent families in Guan Nei. Other officers at all levels must also be backed by senior officials from the capital.
To put it bluntly, he is an officer of Baiqi, as long as he is the nephew of a minister whom Li Shimin can trust. Those nephews who serve as state officials or generals in distant places should not have any illusions. Moreover, those who can be elected as officers must first go through a preliminary review like other ordinary candidates and have no privileges.
After one day of selection, nearly 10,000 people were eliminated, leaving less than 3,000 people. Tomorrow, these people will have a martial arts competition to select 600 sergeants and 22 military attaches.
Those who dare to come forward to stand for election are not just mediocre people. Among those eliminated by harsh conditions, there are many high-ranking officers in the army. Whoever can be selected into the Hundred Riders will be called "one in a thousand". If you can stand out in the end and become an officer, you will undoubtedly be one in a million.
And Qin Shubao's only request for Qin Mubai is to win the first prize - to become the only Hundred Rider!
After participating in the election on the first day, Qin Mubai saw a team of ten thousand people and countless young talents, and felt a lot of pressure for a while. There are people outside the world, and there is a sky outside the world. It seems that we must do our best!
Starting from the second day, there will be a formal martial arts test, and "dividing the soldiers into separate tests" will be implemented. In other words, those who are qualified to serve as counselors will be separated from ordinary soldiers and compete in the knockout competition at another venue.
Martial arts tests include: jumping, archery and horse fighting.
Lifting weights means lifting weights. Qin Mubai, whose soul has traveled through time, is equivalent to the strength of two people. He is extremely powerful and can easily pass this level. It was effortless to clean and lift the big stone lock, even easier than those tall and powerful men, which caused a huge uproar in Ruoda.
Not to mention the archery test. Whether it was a fixed-point "step shot", a "long stack" long-range shot or a difficult mounted shot, Qin Mubai proudly qualified with first place!
After two rounds of tests, Qin Mubai's results were the best, which is really eye-catching.
The third round of horse fighting test is relatively complicated. Participants must gallop into a jungle of puppets and must stab small wooden blocks placed on the puppets while the galloping horse is running. Whoever stabs more, takes less time, and knocks down the puppet without making any mistakes, wins. At this level, Qin Mubai's test results were still excellent. It is extremely eye-catching among all the candidates.
The second day of qualifying rounds ends. More than half of the officers who participated in the election were eliminated, leaving less than forty people. And the six hundred sergeants have been confirmed, so naturally some are happy and some are sad. Next, is the most eye-catching officer selection—the test will be conducted by the emperor himself!
Qin Mubai has been shortlisted for the final officer selection. Logically speaking, he should be very happy, but there is a lingering shadow in his heart that makes it difficult for him to be happy.
Because today is the sixteenth day of the first lunar month. In the middle of the night, it was the end of life that the great master Yuan Tiangang had calculated for Qin Shubao.
Qin Mubai returned home and saw that his father was no different from usual. He was very happy after hearing about his performance on the school field and drank more wine in the evening.
In the evening, Qin Mubai went to his father's room for some excuses and pestered him to talk, but Qin Shubao couldn't even push him out. It wasn't until after midnight that Qin Shubao had fallen asleep, and Qin Mubai finally left with some relief.
"It's okay!"
Listening to his father's even snoring outside the room until the horizon turned white, Qin Mubai finally breathed a sigh of relief and thought to himself: Could it be that my time travel has brought about the butterfly effect and changed some certain things in the world? Father's lifespan has been extended