When Li Jue heard the words "The soldiers of the Great Tang Dynasty live and die," he was suddenly touched. He realized that the people his two masters had found for him weren't so bad after all...
Seeing how proud these brats were, Yuchi Jingde's face was also full of smug smiles.
"Kid, the guy we found for you wasn't bad, was he?"
"It'll do alright!"
"They just lack discipline; their faces are all etched with arrogance!"
"Hmph!"
"Disciple, if you can train these guys to be powerful, I'm not saying you'll be able to roam freely in the Tang Dynasty, but you'll at least be a ruthless character that no one dares to mess with!"
Yuchi Jingde knew these people's backgrounds best; troublemakers were only a part of them, and most of them were sons and nephews of certain noble families.
Normally, Yuchi Jingde wouldn't have had the ability to summon these people, but since His Majesty the Emperor personally intervened...
His Majesty the Emperor intended to cultivate power for his eldest grandson, so he directly selected several hundred men from the Imperial Guard.
Compared to Li Shimin's underhanded tactics, what he and Li Jing did was really nothing.
Li Jue was unaware of these things. If he had known, he probably would have fled to the Western Regions or gone to the south to find a place to retire immediately.
"Captain, I have a question!"
"What's the problem?"
"I am a Righteous and Resolute Captain with an official title from the Imperial Court. Am I to stand at attention with them as well?"
The person who asked this question was none other than Shan Daozhen, who had been sent in after Cheng Yaojin had gifted him a piece of coral.
Shan Daozhen was proud and arrogant from a young age, and even harbored a little hostility towards the Tang Dynasty.
After all, his father was personally ordered to be executed by Li Shimin. The fact that he didn't run away to the mountains to become an outlaw and specifically oppose the Tang Dynasty was already a great act of filial impiety.
Therefore, he was able to commit such treasonous acts during his campaign against Gaochang.
There's only one reason: he's born rebellious!
"I'm a military commander, and I still have to stand at attention every day, don't I?"
"In my military camp, everything depends on your ability. Whether you can become a Righteous Captain depends on your performance a month from now!"
"If you fail the assessment, forget about becoming a Righteous Captain, you won't even be able to become a regular soldier!"
When everyone heard that there was an assessment, they were all dumbfounded.
In fact, Li Jing and Yuchi Jingde were also a bit confused, because neither of them knew anything about the assessment.
"May I ask, Commandant, how does our General's Office conduct its assessments?"
"The assessment has three criteria: academic subjects, martial arts skills, and drill!"
"At that time, Mr. Mu, Mr. Yu, and I will be the examiners!"
"If you want to become an officer here, you first need to excel in all three areas. Only then can you get extra points by pulling strings, giving gifts, and doing favors!"
"If you don't meet the assessment standards, even if you were sent by the King of Heaven himself, you'd better get out of here!"
"Uh..."
Upon hearing this, Yuchi Jingde's face turned red, a rare occurrence for him. This grandson must be implying something about me!
Li Jing, on the other hand, seemed indifferent. He only sent a few dozen people to the Zhechong Prefecture, and they were all from collateral or distant branches of his family.
After announcing the assessment criteria, Li Jue immediately ordered them to continue training.
As for himself, he personally led a class and occasionally gave demonstrations to other classes.
While Li Jue was busy training his troops, Yuchi Jingde and Li Jing sat on a high platform watching the spectacle.
"Old Li, do you think this grandson is any good?"
"I always felt that his training method was a bit unreliable; it looked like they were lining up to go to their deaths on the battlefield..."
Li Jing nodded upon hearing this.
"I think so too!"
“Although our Great Tang also values formations, we have never been as obsessed as our disciple. Everything must be in straight lines, whether horizontal or vertical, and diagonally. This is really a bit too exaggerated.”
"Moreover, the gaps between the soldiers are too small, which is not conducive to the use of weapons such as spears and short swords. Even if archers are firing in a dense formation, such a dense formation is unnecessary."
"After all, we need to give archers room to sit on the ground and kick the bowstring, right?"
Seeing that Li Jing had explained it so clearly, Yuchi Jingde immediately asked curiously.
"Old Li, since you know everything, why don't you correct this child's mistake?"
Li Jing chuckled upon hearing this.
You don't understand!
"It's not my turn to speak yet!"
"Although this method of training troops is inconsistent with the traditions of the Tang Dynasty, it has an extraordinary advantage: it can quickly improve the discipline and cohesion of the army!"
"We've found a bunch of troublemakers for this kid. They're certainly brave and strong, but their discipline is far from good!"
"Let the children train first. Once they understand battlefield discipline, I will teach them the commands of drums and gongs, as well as common battle formations used by the Tang army!"
In fact, Li Jing's judgment was very accurate. The root of Li Jue's military training method came from the Western tactic of firing squads in formation.
Although later weapons and equipment became more and more sophisticated, and it was no longer necessary to line up and shoot soldiers like in the beginning, this method of training soldiers was permanently preserved and used by the land forces of various countries.
The reason is simply that such training methods have an extremely strong advantage in training the organization and discipline of troops.
Suppressing her anger, Shan Daozhen stood at attention all day with a group of idiots who couldn't even tell left from right, and in the evening she was dragged to learn to read!
This really upset him. He could recite the Analects of Confucius when he was seven years old, and now he's in his mid-twenties, and they're making him learn the Thousand Character Classic!
Many people share the same troubles as Dan Daozhen.
The soldiers that Yuchi Jingde and Li Shimin gave to Li Jue may not have been the most elite in the Tang Dynasty, but they were definitely the group with the highest literacy rate and the most affluent families.
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