Chapter 28 One in a million

The Qin family had a lively and warm New Year. The eldest son Qin Tong and the second son Qin Bin both took their wives and children home for the Spring Festival. The whole family is happy.

Qin Shubao has been out of the court for many years, and he rarely walks with anyone. There are very few people who come to pay New Year's greetings during the Spring Festival, and only a few people such as Cheng Zhijie. At the time of Zhenguan, the officialdom was incorruptible, and officials visited relatives and friends, and rarely gave any valuable gifts. Big shots like Cheng Zhijie came to pay a New Year call, that is, they gave a package of local specialties brought from Puzhou, and then the Qin family treated each other with wine.

In addition to enjoying family affection, Qin Mubai is busier than everyone else, because the emperor's military selection day on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month is getting closer and closer, and he has to hurry up to practice martial arts. Therefore, even on New Year's Eve or the first day of the Spring Festival, he has to practice for several hours and dare not neglect it.

Seeing him work so hard, Qin Shubao and Cheng Zhijie were naturally satisfied. Even Qin Tong and Qin Bin, two brothers, were completely impressed by Qin Mubai.

The Qin family, on the whole, the family is still very harmonious and warm, and there is no big gap between the concubines. The two brothers have been in the court for several years, one from literature and the other from martial arts. Their experience and knowledge are of great benefit to Qin Mubai. During the New Year, the relationship between Qin Mubai and the two brothers also improved. The three brothers often gathered together to taste wine and talk about everything.

Seeing that the Lantern Festival is approaching day by day, the trembling in Qin Mubai's heart increased. It's not because of the tension caused by the emperor's selection of troops, but the life expectancy of Qin Shubao predicted by the great god stick Yuan Tianang... These days, Qin Mubai has always paid attention to Qin Shubao's every move, and found that he not only did not have any signs of running out of life, but the more he lived, the more energetic he became, and his health was getting better and better. Once, Qin Shubao drank a little wine and became interested. He also let the three brothers of Qin Mubai fight with him alone, but he was not defeated!

The family was amazed, and everyone was secretly happy.

On the evening of the 14th day of the first lunar month, Qin Shubao called Qin Mubai to the room and asked questions.

"Sanlang, tomorrow is the emperor's military selection day. I think your martial arts should be almost done. If nothing unexpected happens, there should be fewer people in the younger generation than you. Qin Shubao said, "However, on Li Ke's side, what are you going to tell him? Even if it is right to leave the Wu Palace to work for the emperor, don't offend him. After all, he only has good intentions and no malice towards our Qin family.

"Dad, this matter has actually been solved a long time ago..." Qin Mubai told Qin Shubao about what he talked with Li Ke that day before the New Year. Of course, the matter about the fourth sister frost is omitted.

"Li Ke is really a smart man. He is just like His Majesty the Emperor!" After listening to it, Qin Shubao shook his head and praised.

"What do you say?" Qin Mubai asked.

Qin Shubao stroked his long bead and said leisurely, "Sanlang, although you are smart, you are still young and have short career experience. There are some things that you can't understand when you are in the game. Maybe the father is the father of a gentleman, but don't you feel that Li Ke is trying to be captured?

"Do you have it?" Qin Mubai was slightly stunned and asked.

Qin Shubao smiled at himself and said, "But everyone who is superior has his own set of imperial skills. The emperor is like this, and so is the emperor's son Li Ke. Coincidentally, they all used the most powerful weapon - feelings!"

"Dad, I see 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 could not keep me, so he was willing to send me away and let me owe him emotionally, right?"

"Yes, how similar is this to the emperor's handling of Wu Mei Niang?" Qin Shubao smiled and said, "However, only the male and powerful superiors are likely to use such a royal technique. When His Majesty was still the King of Qin, his ministers, including his father, would not be grateful to him for his death? The reason is that His Majesty is best at conquering his subordinates emotionally. 'It's better to kill his heart than to restrain his body'. What a wonderful means!"

"Father is right." Qin Mubai sighed and said, "Now, the child feels a little in debt to Li Ke. He appointed me as an official, told me to be a matchmaker, and promised to add me as an official. He usually treated me as a brother, and never regarded me as a subordinate or a slave. Now, I'm going to jump and leave him to climb Gaozhi. Emotionally, I do owe him.

"The man knows how to repay your kindness. You can repay him when you have a chance in the future." Qin Shubao said, "Those who achieve great things do not stick to small things, especially this kind of small favors and children's thoughts. Li Ke has done so much kindness to you. Isn't it because of the four children? Therefore, he also has something to do, and you don't have to carry any emotional burdens. Tomorrow, you can calmly participate in the emperor's military selection - you must win the championship, or you don't have to go home!"

"Yes, father!"

In the spring of the eleventh year of Zhenguan, the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, sunny, breeze.

The early spring in Guan is still as cold as winter. There are still unthawed ice on the red walls and green tiles of the imperial city. Under the sunlight, the colorful light refracted, and a string of fine drops of water slowly flowed down, splashing small pits in the snow below, converging into fine rays of water.

The first time he entered the imperial city, Qin Mubai was full of his eyes. The grandeur of the palaces in the Tang Dynasty was more than ten times stronger than the Manqing Zijin City he had seen in his previous life.

The location of the emperor's selection of troops is located in the north of the Taiji Palace of the Imperial City, a well-known place - Xuanwu Gate, and the left prison guard campus. At this time, it was already overcrowded. Thousands of imperial troops strictly controlled the order at the scene. Among the venues with nearly 10,000 people, the order was not messy at all.

Last year, Li Shimin carried out an epoch-making reform of the military system of the Tang Dynasty. That is, the north-south government system of the imperial capital and the imperial imperial guard has been implemented.

In fact, to put it bluntly, the military power is more concentrated in the hands of the emperor and the court.

The northern government is the general name of the imperial army of the imperial palace. Li Shimin, who personally directed the Xuanwumen change, has a deeper understanding of the power of the imperial guard than anyone else. In the past, the imperial guard of the Tang Dynasty Palace, like other government soldiers, implemented the upper system, often replacing different generals and government soldiers to take turns. Now it is fixed. The imperial forest army defending the imperial city is basically selected from the children of the official clan, and the generals among them are also relatively fixed, and the emperor personally appoints his confidant generals to command.

And Nanya is a general name for the soldiers and horses from all walks of life to the imperial capital, including the field army guarding 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 a creative reform of the military system - to create a royal elite army that belongs to the emperor's personal order, does not belong to any establishment of the twelve guards of the Tang Dynasty, and only obeys the order of the emperor, known as: Baiqi!

In fact, Baiqi is the emperor's personal guard, with a unique identity and status. Because it is a new thing, everyone is interested and eager to try, wanting to enter such a new army and go to the emperor. It is obvious that the opportunity to ascend to the emperor is far greater than to suffer in any army.

However, the emperor's standard for selecting a hundred riders is quite harsh. The five conditions put forward are the first to make most people sigh.

First, those who come to participate in the election must first be the children of the official family of the Tang Dynasty, and the children of the military martial arts family are preferred, and they are between the ages of 18 and 40. You don't want to be a civilian, even if you are now an officer in the army. Datang just attaches great importance to the origin of the door valve, and there is nothing he can do.

Article 2 is that one of the direct relatives of the candidates must be the current official of the capital above the seventh grade, or the official of the capital above the seventh grade. That is to say, if you want to run for Baiqi, you have to have someone to make a guarantee, which is a bit like the mortgage of applying for a loan now.

Article 3, check the conduct, and there is no criminal record among the candidates themselves and their direct relatives. There must be no adulterous men around the emperor, otherwise the emperor will definitely not be worried about the safety of those concubines and their property in his harem. This one seems easy to understand.

The fourth article is outstanding in 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, they are also invisible capital. This time, the selection of soldiers clearly lists the appearance criteria: First of all, he is more than six feet ( 1.8 meters) tall, and his body is straight and well-proportioned. If it's a hunchback, a disability defect or a crooked date with a crooked mouth, even if you are the son of a prime minister or a general, it's better not to come. It's not good to hit it with a stick.

Article 5, can write. As a son of an official family, if he is illiterate, he can't say it. It is said that the emperor will personally test the cultural level of each candidate in the end. If you dare to cheat in private, the result must be miserable.

This is probably the most difficult choice in the world. Fortunately, Qin Mubai can meet these five criteria.

On the first day, in the eyes of most people, the most difficult first "political examination" and "physical examination", he passed easily. In this round alone, thousands of people have been eliminated, and those who dare not dare to participate in the election are even more countless.

Then the emperor said that he would personally check the Baiqi this time. The number of soldiers is strictly controlled at 600. In addition, the most eye-catching one is the senior officer of this Baiqi, with a total of four people. With the "Hundred Horses of Horses" as the chief, the official position is in the top five grades, and the generals of Hezhou Assassin and the Twelve Weiyi Mansion are at the same level, which is equivalent to the regiment-level cadres. Moreover, the treatment of the hundred-rider is higher than that of these ordinary five-grade officials; there are three "hundred-rider deputy envoys" as deputy, and the official position is from the fifth grade; next, there are six brigade commanders and twelve team members.

All these 22 military officers have to determine the candidates in this selection. Moreover, the conditions for those who run for officers are more stringent - those who run for the Hundred Horse Envoy and Deputy Envoy must be a member of the court above the third grade or the nephew of the current Guannei Xunmen. Other officers at all levels must also be supported by Beijing officials.

To put it bluntly, he is an officer of Baiqi, as long as Li Shimin is the son and nephew of a trusted minister around him. Don't fantasize about those nephews who are distant state officials or generals. Moreover, candidates for officers, like other ordinary candidates, should have a preliminary examination first, and there is no privilege.

After a day of selection, nearly 10,000 people were eliminated, leaving less than 3,000 people. Tomorrow, these people will have a martial arts competition, from which 600 sergeants and 22 military officers will be selected.

Those who dare to run for the election are not a shortage of people, that is, among those who are eliminated under harsh conditions, there are many high-ranking officers in the army. If anyone can be selected as a hundred riders, it can be called "one in a thousand miles". If you can stand out as an officer in the end, it will undoubtedly be one in ten thousand.

And Qin Shubao's only requirement for Qin Mubai is to win the first place - to become the only hundred riders!

After the first day of the election, Qin Mubai saw a team of tens of thousands of people and countless young talents, and felt a lot of pressure for a while. There are people outside the world. It seems that we must do our best!

From the next day, it will be a formal martial arts test, and the "separation test" will be implemented. That is to say, qualified counselor officers are separated from ordinary soldiers to play the knockout match in another venue.

The martial arts test includes: warping, archery and horse battle.

Warping is weightlifting. Qin Mubai, whose soul travels through time, is equivalent to the power of two people. The power is infinite, and this level is easy to pass. It was effortless to lift the big stone lock, which was easier than those tall and horse-sized giants, causing a lot of noise.

Not to mention the archery test. Whether it is a fixed-point "step shot", "long stack" long-range shot or a rather difficult riding shot, Qin Mubai qualified with the first place!

After two rounds of tests, Qin Mubai's results took the lead, which was very eye-catching.

The third round of horse battle test is relatively complicated. The participant rode his horse into the puppet bush and had to stab the small pieces placed on the puppet on the fast-running horse. Whoever stabs more, takes less time, and knocks down the puppet without mistakes wins. At this level, Qin Mubai's test results are still excellent. It is extremely eye-catching among all the candidates.

The qualifying round of the next day is over. More than half of the officers were eliminated, and there were less than 40 left. And 600 sergeants have been determined, and naturally several families are happy and some are sad. Next is the most eye-catching selection of officers - it will be tested by the emperor himself!

Qin Mubai has been shortlisted for the final officer selection competition. He should be very happy, but there is a 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 his life for Qin Shubao.

When Qin Mubai came home, he saw that his father was no different from usual, and he was quite happy to hear about his performance on the campus, and drank more wine in the evening.

In the evening, Qin Mubai ran to his father's room for an excuse and pestered him to talk around. Uncle Qin couldn't get out. It was not until Qin Shubao had fallen asleep that Qin Mubai withdrew with a little peace of mind.

"It's okay!"

Listening to his father's even snoring outside the room until the sky turned white, Qin Mubai really took a breath and said in his heart: Did my time travel bring a butterfly effect, changed some of the predetermined numbers, and extended my father's life expectancy?