Super Dictator

The sergeants looked at Wei Jichen and his entourage with burning eyes. They had already heard the news that the Dingliao army would come here to select soldiers.

The Qing Dynasty had not yet reached the level of recruiting young men, so most of these soldiers voluntarily joined the army because of family life reasons or to change their own destiny.

The newly established Western-style army that the Dingliao Army prepared to invest a lot of financial and material resources for the court, whether in terms of food, salary, or future promotion, was not the same as the original army, not to mention the original army. The army would be demobilized, so all the sergeants hoped that Wei Jichen would choose them away.

Directly in front of the playground, there is a 17-foot high platform. On the high platform is a desk. Wei Jichen led everyone to step onto the high platform slowly.

Luo Rongguang was secretly curious and wanted to see how Wei Jichen selected the sergeants, so he stood behind and quietly observed Wei Jichen's every move.

After Wei Jichen stood on the high platform, he first glanced at the soldiers below. The eyes of thousands of people were focused on him. Without a certain concentration, he really couldn't control the scene.

The sharp gaze slowly passed by every sergeant in the front row. Anyone who looked at Wei Jichen secretly lowered his head.

The playground, which was originally filled with whispers, became silent and solemn.

Wei Jichen ordered with satisfaction: "Let's begin!"

Ruan Zhongshu and Yan Dunyuan waited for the order and quickly went down with a group of civilian officials. Not long after, they saw more than two hundred sergeants carrying boxes of things into the field.

Luo Rongguang had seen these boxes before, and now he was guessing what was in the boxes. Could it be gold, silver and other food, or firearms?

Apart from that, Luo Rongguang really couldn't think of anything else.

"The general has an order. Anyone who smokes heavy cigarettes should step forward." Seeing that the box had been placed properly, Li Chun immediately stepped out of the queue and shouted loudly.

"The general has an order. Anyone who smokes heavy cigarettes should step forward." The sergeants brought by Wei Jichen shouted in unison. Immediately, the sound spread throughout the entire playground, and all the sergeants heard it clearly.

More than 10,000 sergeants had expressions of shock and uncertainty. Some smart people estimated that Wei Jichen would not recruit heavy smokers and stood quietly, but more of the heavy smokers obeyed the military order and took a step forward.

In a moment, more than 2,000 sergeants came out. This ratio was very high. Wei Jichen was secretly shocked. Although he knew that opium was rampant in China, he finally had an intuitive understanding today.

Li Chun looked at Wei Jichen, who nodded slightly, and then shouted: "Open the box and distribute it."

The sergeant standing next to the box immediately opened half of the boxes, and saw that some boxes contained black smoking guns, and some contained black longevity ointment.

Luo Rongguang, who was standing behind Wei Jichen, took a clear look and was really shocked. He couldn't help but stare at Wei Jichen's back with a strange expression on his face. He didn't know what amazing things were contained in the small half of the box.

Ruan Zhongshu and Yan Dunyuan directed the soldiers to start distributing the smoke. All the sergeants who had just stood out were all missed. Some of the sergeants who received the tobacco were happy, and some were hesitant.

Seeing everyone's surprise, Ruan Zhongshu couldn't help but secretly laugh in his heart. Then he thought about the time when he and others were discussing how to select soldiers with Wei Jichen. When Wei Jichen ordered him to do so, the expression on his face was probably not much better.

After the tobacco was distributed, Li Chun ordered them to smoke on the spot.

Suddenly, the entire playground was filled with smoke. Looking from a distance, people who didn't know why might have thought there was a fire or something.

In the queue, those who had been smoking opium but did not come out of the queue saw the sergeant standing next to him puffing away, and they couldn't help but quietly swallowed their saliva. After a while, some people couldn't stand the temptation after all, and even came out to show that they Smoking opium.

Yan Dunyuan responded as he said, and secretly asked people to write down the names of the sergeants who came out one after another. These people had no perseverance and were dishonest, and would be the first group to be eliminated.

If you pretend not to smoke and just hold on to the end and hold it in with your own perseverance, Wei Jichen might be more lenient towards these people. After all, the entire social environment is like this, and it is not a personal fault.

As long as they join the Dingliao Army, Wei Jichen will have a way to keep them away from smoking and quit.

Half an hour later, more than a thousand soldiers came out. Only 7,000 people were still standing in the entire playground.

Wei Jichen let out a long sigh, turned slightly to the side, and told Li Chun and Chen Guangyuan: "The second batch of people who come out will be eliminated directly."

"Yes, sir." The two men quickly went down to give the order. Soon, more than a thousand people were kicked out of the playground.

The selection of soldiers entered the second process. Ruan Zhongshu and Yan Dunyuan gave orders, and the sergeants opened the remaining half of the boxes.

Luo Rongguang opened his eyes and took a look, but it was written in paper and ink. Luo Rongguang couldn't help but suddenly realized in his heart that Wei Jichen selected his soldiers according to the general conditions he had told him before.

Those who were still smoking had their pipes taken back immediately, and everyone was asked to come forward and write down their name, place of origin, and general resume.

At this time, they all looked at each other with big eyes and small eyes. I had never heard that Congjun had to read poetry and books.

However, since there was such a requirement above, everyone had to pick up their pens and rack their brains to think of signboards they saw on the street on weekdays, and let Houyi write them down.

It didn't take long for the paper filled with all kinds of strange fonts to be taken back.

Yan Dunyuan couldn't help laughing when he saw it. Yan Dunyuan was the 81st grandson of Yanzi, one of the "Top Ten Wise Men" among the 72 disciples of Confucius. He was smart since he was a child and had mastered the "Nine Classics" at the age of ten. Weng Tonghe Seeing that his article was concise and decent, he summoned him to meet him.

At this time, seeing these messy things, my eyes felt dark.

"What, Tongbao Bank, we want you to write your name, why are you writing these big characters crookedly?" Yan Dunyuan almost squeezed his hands, and then suppressed the depression in his heart.

"Is this called Tongbao Bank? I thought it was Tongyu Bank." The sergeant replied shyly.

"Go away! Go away!" Yan Dunyuan said, shaking his finger at the first batch of eliminated people standing at the edge of the playground.

Ruan Zhongshu did not react as strongly as he did, and said with a smile: "The army is full of illiterate roughnecks. If you want to select people who can read and write from here, it is really a coincidence. A thousand people can select a dozen people. It should be worthy of celebration.”

Yan Dunyuan could only shake his head helplessly.

In just a moment, the two of them selected a dozen pieces of paper from a large pile of paper. Some of them only had their names and places of origin written on them. As for their resume, there were only a few words, and there were a lot of typos and typos in them.

Out of more than 2,000 people, only a dozen people were left to observe the effects. Wei Jichen was also helpless. How could he not know that there were not many literate people in the army, so he deliberately relaxed the conditions. He did not care about taking opium, as long as he had menstruation. Just quit.

For example, Wang Shizhen's engineering team must have a large number of literate soldiers. Otherwise, like the surveying and mapping team, which can't even read, how can they survey and map maps, let alone the telegraph team and repair team in the engineering team? , it is better to be literate than to be uneducated, and the communication, armored tank, chemical and other units behind are all separated from the engineering corps, so this gap is very large.