"Thank you, old man."
Fang Yun thanked him and walked to the bronze mirror. He found that the lines on his face were thicker and his skin was slightly darker than usual. It was obviously just a change in details, but he looked like a different person. Perhaps only Yang Yuhuan could recognize him at a glance.
While the old man was writing, Fang Yun only felt a light breeze on his face. He did not expect the change to be so great.
Fang Yun guessed in his heart that this old man had at least the strength of the third level of painting, and might even have reached the fourth level.
"Xiao Mo likes you very much." The old man looked at the girl in the ink.
The ink girl seemed a little shy. She dived slightly and put her nose into the ink, leaving only her eyes exposed. Then she blew gently with her mouth. The ink bubbled in front of her, making Fang Yun smile slightly.
The old man sighed and said, "If you have an inkstone turtle, take Xiao Mo away. It's a pity for Xiao Mo to follow me."
Ms. Mo turned her head to look at the old man and blinked, as if she didn't quite understand what the old man said.
"Thank you, old man." Fang Yun didn't know what to say, because the Inkstone Turtle was a rare object of the same level as the Ink Girl, and was extremely difficult to obtain. Among the four rare objects of pen, ink, paper and inkstone, except for the holy page which could be mass-produced, the Pen Old Man, the Ink Girl and the Inkstone Turtle were all rare treasures in the world, and there were not many in total.
These rare objects only exist in the hands of the saints or the saints' families, and some of the saints' families even have to give them away, because these rare objects need to be "raised", otherwise they will slowly degenerate and eventually die out completely. A few semi-saint families cannot even afford to raise the rare objects.
Fang Yun only has the Holy Page at the moment, and he does not have the other three rare objects. It is a fantasy for him to have an Inkstone Turtle now. It is even more difficult to raise two rare objects at the same time. Not to mention him, even a great scholar may lose everything because of the rare objects.
The old man took out a document, but he did not use the ink of the ink girl. Instead, he used ordinary ink to draw Fang Yun's portrait.
"Here is your military service document. Take it." The old man threw it casually. The military service document flew in front of Fang Yun.
Fang Yun took it and looked at it. The upper part of the military document was his current portrait, and the lower part was his information. Nothing else had changed, except that his identity had changed to a student. Fang Yun nodded. It was okay for a student to be called Fang Yun, but if a scholar was also called Fang Yun, it would definitely attract a lot of attention, and it would be too eye-catching for a scholar to be an ordinary soldier.
Fang Yun said, "I'll take my leave." Then Fang Yun waved to the ink girl, just for fun. But the ink girl was so happy that she immediately waved back at him, then scooped up ink with both hands and threw it at Fang Yun.
Fang Yun subconsciously took a step back to avoid it, but the ink turned into a small black stone in mid-air. Fang Yun reached out to catch it, and after a closer look, he found that his hands were not dirty, it was just a small black stone.
"This is Mo Nu's ink stick, which can be directly dissolved by talent and used. It is much better than Li Wenying's dragon blood ink stick. Humph." The old man seemed reluctant to part with such a good thing.
Fang Yun put away the ink ingot from the Ink Girl, smiled at her and said, "Thank you, Little Mo."
Xiao Mo shook his head repeatedly, saying "you're welcome." He then shyly dived back into the water, leaving only his head exposed.
After leaving the house, Fang Yun felt that it was extremely bright outside, and when he turned around, he saw three blurry words "Ya Shan Ju" on the black plaque.
Fang Yun glanced at Yashanju again. In the dark little house, an old man was sitting on a bamboo chair, sipping tea slowly. A little ink girl, with only her little head exposed, was blowing ink bubbles.
Fang Yun was in a good mood.
Fang Yun walked at a leisurely pace all the way to the Dinghai Army's base.
The military organization of the Ten Kingdoms was from small to large: squad, ten, team, battalion, guard and army. A squad had five people, a ten had fifteen people, a team had fifty people, a battalion had five hundred people, a guard had three thousand people, and an army had at least ten thousand people.
Fang Yun, holding the military documents, quickly entered the Dinghai Army Recruiting Camp and met the clerk in charge of the registration of soldiers. The clerk had no rank and was at the bottom of the army, but he also had some power.
The clerk glanced at the military documents, then looked at Fang Yun and said, "Fang Yun? Are you also from Dayuan Prefecture? Tell us about your situation in detail."
Fang Yun immediately briefly explained his own situation.
"When did you pass the imperial examination?" the clerk asked.
"I was a student last year, but since I felt that my talent was limited, I decided to gain experience in the army first." Fang Yun said.
The clerk asked, "Oh? Do you want to be a clerk or a soldier?"
"Mr. Jianmei also started out as a soldier. He is my role model," Fang Yun said.
The clerk smiled kindly and advised kindly: "Grand Scholar Li is naturally extraordinary. You should know that there are not many Tongsheng in my Jingguofu Army, but there are a lot of Tongsheng in the armies that are facing the monsters. For example, my Dinghai Army has a total of 10,000 people, and there are 3,000 Tongsheng. Most of these Tongsheng are much older than you, and they will never be able to pass the exam, so they use this method to contribute to the human race. You are so young, do you really want to be a soldier?"
"Yes." Fang Yun said.
"Well, let me think about it. The third team of the first battalion of the second guard is short of people. You can go there."
Fang Yun walked out the door, took a look at the sky in the afternoon, smelled the fishy wind blowing from the East China Sea, and looked down at the temporary wooden soldier's badge in his hand.
"From now on, I am a member of the third team of the first battalion of the second guard of Dinghai Army. According to convention, I can be called a soldier of the second third team of Dinghai. In a few days, this wooden badge can be replaced with a real iron badge. The students of Jing Kingdom really live up to the title of scholars. There are nearly 3,000 students among the 10,000 Dinghai Army soldiers. This ratio is too scary. These people are silently protecting the human race. They are all respectable people."
Fang Yun held the soldier's card and walked forward slowly.
The buildings here are simple and neat, consisting of rows of bungalows that look no different from each other, separated by some trees.
There were patrolling soldiers everywhere. Fang Yun took a quick look and saw more than a dozen teams of soldiers patrolling within his field of vision. Even in the hottest weather in June, they were wearing armor and holding spears, sweating while on duty.
Through the gaps between the houses, you can see several large parade grounds where many soldiers are training.
Fang Yun knew that the average quality of soldiers on ancient Earth was poor, and only a very small number of elite soldiers were physically strong. However, Shengyuan Continent had a strong natural energy, and there were a large number of scholars, so drought relief, flood control, disaster relief, and grain harvest were all very convenient, and agriculture and animal husbandry were relatively developed, so the soldiers here had excellent food and were very strong.
Fang Yun took a few glances and found that, just like what he had learned in the book, the military training of the Ten Kingdoms was divided into four parts: the first was physical training, the second was weapon training, the third was formation training, and the fourth was joint attack training in coordination with the war poems of the candidates or scholars.
The most complicated part was cooperating with the scholars and jinshi to attack together, and the second most complicated part was constantly practicing the formations. In Fang Yun's view, this formation practice was the same as the drills in later generations, which enhanced the soldiers' obedience, cooperation, discipline and so on, and was a very good way to train soldiers.
The weapons were also very complicated, including swords and shields, spears, javelins, bows and crossbows, archery on horseback, catapults, etc. The simplest way to strengthen the body was to lift stone locks, march quickly, etc.
Fang Yun had long known that the military strategists of Shengyuan Continent were very powerful. Although the training methods had flaws, the general direction was correct and they were constantly improving.
Soon, Fang Yun arrived at the base of the third team. It was a row of bungalows with four rooms, three large and one small. A dozen soldiers were sitting or standing in front of the door chatting, and there were a few old soldiers smoking dry tobacco with pipes.
These people were talking and laughing, and only turned their heads when they saw Fang Yun coming over.
Fang Yun stood up, raised his soldier badge, and said, "New recruit Fang Yun reports in, and wants to see Captain Shi!"
Everyone burst into laughter.
"Where did these little soldiers come from? They haven't been drilled or put into battle. Why are you following such rules? Relax."
"Look at his delicate skin and tender flesh. I'm afraid he's going to suffer."
"Hey, come on, let's do some exercises. Let me have some practice."
"Is it the "yun" in "luck" or the "yun" in "rhythm" or something else? What does it have to do with the number one scholar Fang Yun?"
Fang Yun remained calm, knowing that these people were not bullying him, but were just old soldiers teasing the new recruits. However, he had seen such a big battle as inviting the Holy Selection, so it was impossible for him to lose his composure in front of a few old soldiers. He glanced at everyone fearlessly and said, "Tongsheng Fang Yun wants to see Captain Shi."
Everyone's expressions were no longer as distracted as before. Although a tongsheng was the lowest literary rank and was nothing in the Dinghai Army, he was still a tongsheng after all. It was commendable that such a young tongsheng was willing to join the army, even if it was just out of childish enthusiasm.
"Not bad, you didn't embarrass our student!" The old soldier who just said that Fang Yun was delicate and tender praised with a smile.
Another bearded veteran said, "He's a good talent, but he needs to be trained well!" After saying that, he looked at Fang Yun carefully from head to toe. Although he also had some teasing intentions, it was different from the teasing just now.
An old soldier laughed and said, "When I came to the third team, I lasted for three days before I was defeated. How long do you think this new soldier can last?"
"He's so young, much younger than we were when we joined the army, he'll be down in two days at most."
"day and a half!"
Fang Yun had a smile on his face. It was nothing more than a show of force from the veterans. They had to go through a period of high-intensity training to prevent the new recruits from being careless and getting killed by the monsters in the future. He thought that if he didn't write poems or articles during this period, it wouldn't be too high-profile to exercise a bit.
The bearded old soldier waved his hand at Fang Yun and said, "Let's go find Captain Shi and I'll assign you to our squad 1! I'm the squad leader, Hong Cheng."
"Thank you, Captain Hong!" Fang Yun said.
Hong Cheng said with a smile: "Then you won't thank me, but scold me."
Afterwards, Fang Yun met Captain Shi. Captain Shi was a serious man. After checking Fang Yun's temporary military badge, he instructed Fang Yun on some matters. Finally, with a trace of sympathy, he took Fang Yun out of his barracks.
When Fang Yun walked out of the barracks, he saw thirteen neatly dressed veterans standing in a row outside the door, looking at Fang Yun together, while dozens of veterans nearby were laughing and talking.
Hong Cheng patted Fang Yun on the shoulder and said with a smile: "These thirteen are all brothers from our squad, but..."
Hong Cheng's expression suddenly changed, and he shouted, "Military orders are as heavy as a mountain! Return to the team immediately and run around East City! The first three people who fall behind will not be allowed to eat!"
Fang Yun ran to the end of the team without hesitation, with his head lowered and a faint smile on his lips.
"I just finished eating the demon turtle eggs, so I'm going to verify whether that thing is useful or not."
"Run!" Hong Cheng stood in front of the team and took the lead.
One of the onlookers started to make a noise and asked, "New soldier, how long can you hold on? If you can hold on for half an hour, I will wash your clothes for a year!"
Fang Yun turned his head to look at the old soldier and said with a smile: "Then remember to come and get my clothes tomorrow morning."
Everyone burst into laughter. They didn't expect this new recruit to be so bold.
The old soldier was not angry, and said with a smile: "If you can't hold on for half an hour, you will have to wash my clothes!"
"This kind of thing will not happen." Fang Yun said.
The veterans laughed even more happily.
"This new recruit is very arrogant. Brothers of the First Squad, if you can't outrun him, you won't have dinner today. You'll be a disgrace to the veterans!" (To be continued...)