Chapter 6 - General Hong

After Li Guoxin and the others left, the soldier turned around and walked inside the gate, and in a short walked out again, and shouted at the dozen or so of Li Yan and the others. "Line up in formation as you are now, follow me, and when you go in, you may not walk around freely, talk freely, or talk to each other, or you will be directly eliminated. If your behavior angers the general, it is expected that you will also be punished by the military stick before you are eliminated and go home, do you understand?" As he spoke, he swept another glance at Li Yan and the others. This glance made Li Yan and the others immediately feel a chill, no one dared to touch their eyes with it, and one by one, they quickly lowered their heads. Although this was only a soldier, it was thought that he had killed many people. The killing aura that he unconsciously brought out from his body was not something that a group of young boys like them could resist. Li Yan only felt that when that eyes swept over his body, his pores stood up in an instant, and he could not help but think to himself. "What a terrifying eyes!" But he only knew that the other party's eyes were terrifying, but he didn't know that this was the result of the killing aura of a veteran who had truly experienced battlefield killings and did not die in a hundred battles. After that soldier explained this sentence, he looked at this group of half-big boys with obedient looks, and nodded slightly. Immediately, he also stopped talking, turned around and walked towards the gate. Li Yan and the others hurriedly and obediently followed behind, and even walked with added care, for fear of making a sound if they fell heavily. After Li Yan and the others entered the gate, they immediately saw the environment inside the courtyard. It's a bit wrong to say that this is a courtyard, but in fact, it should be a large square where horses can gallop. Their previous location is the entrance to the square, where they are now standing at the edge of the square. There is a high platform right in the middle of the square behind them, there are tables and chairs placed on it, and at the edge of the platform every few steps there is a big flag inserted on the platform. The rows of flags shook in the wind, sounding! Between the shaking of the flags, the words A, B, C, etc. could be vaguely seen embroidered on them, and at the same time, there were patterns embroidered on the top of the flags, which looked like vicious tigers, scaly dragons, and other totems. "This should be the military's schoolyard that teacher often talks about!" Li Yan thought of what the old scholar in the village had said. At this time, in addition to the brightly armored soldiers, there were already a hundred or ten people standing on the schoolyard. They were divided into three rows, with only five or six people in the row near the right edge of the schoolyard, making it seem a bit lonely. After Li Yan and the others entered, they quickly followed the soldier to the end of this row. "You and the others will line up here in order. Remember what I just said, otherwise, there will be consequences for you." The soldier looked at Li Yan and the others, and his voice was lowered to an extremely low level, becoming more and more stern. How could Li Yan and the others dare to disobey? One by one, they were obedient, and made themselves stand as neat and straight as possible, fearing that if they didn't do a good job, they would be directly thrown out. With Li Yan and these people joining, this row had as many as seventeen or eighteen people, and seemed to be slightly more lively. The row in the center had about forty people. The row on the left had the largest number of people, at this time there were about seventy to eighty people. There were a few soldiers in front of each row managing their own group. Li Yan could also occasionally hear some low, urgent reprimands. Whenever such voices rang out, someone would be kicked by the quickly approaching soldiers. The person who was kicked, however, did not dare to pant, and could only shrink his head and body to endure the pain, and his face was even a bit pale. Several rows of armed soldiers stood neatly around the square. Their armor is bright and shining, and they all have a firm gaze. They surrounded this group of people within the field, giving people a feeling of being watched by tigers. Li Yan even felt that if he was not careful, he would be stabbed into a hornet's nest by these people holding lances, so he could not help but become more and more nervous and panicked in his heart. He could only try to keep himself as calm as possible. He kept thinking in his mind about the method of holding his breath before rounding up the beasts in the Great Green Mountain, and slowly felt better. On that high platform, there is a wide chair behind the table, and right now there is a big man with a stout figure sitting on it. Even if the big man sat with his back leaning on it, it also felt like he was a head taller than the average adult. His face was slightly yellow, a bald head in the sunlight, vaguely glowing yellow. The big man's face is wide, with short and thick beard, a long scar from the right temple downward, extending to the right corner of his mouth, and the copper oil-colored muscles in the scar turned outward and twisted, like a mottled centipede crawling on his face. His waist was wide and his back was thick, although he was only sitting in a chair, it also gave him a kind of oppressive atmosphere. At this time, his eyes were looking at the left corner of the stage in front of the high platform, where there was a cowhide tent. This tent was where the line Li Yan and the others were standing in was directly opposite. Li Yan was also carefully peeping out and scanning the people and things in the schoolyard at this time. In his mind, he was subconsciously memorizing what he had seen and heard, but in fact, he didn't know what the use of memorizing this was. He stood at the end of the line, and the line he was in was at the edge of the schoolyard, so the scene on the platform in the schoolyard was not very clear. He could only see from afar that there was a wide table on top of the high platform in the schoolyard, and a huge chair sat in a big bald man with a big body behind the table. At this time the soldier who brought them in shouted in a low voice. "You guys have to be careful! That's General Hong on the stage! Don't look around carelessly. Wait in turn for the person in front to come out of the tent before the person behind enters the tent in turn." Then this soldier paused, with a trace of an unspeakable expression on his face, and then pointed to the center row of about forty to fifty people and continued. "After you come out of the tent, then stand in order to the back of the center row, and continue to wait in line for the test. There will be several types of assessments. Those who pass the final test will be able to stand over there." In the end, he pointed with his finger to the far left of the schoolyard, the row of about seventy to eighty people. The center row was surrounded by a high wooden fence. They couldn't see what was being tested inside the fence. They could only hear the sound of occasional exhaling, and the sound of footsteps running, as well as the sound of soldiers calling out names. But if someone can stand on the high platform, he can look down on the whole field. "If you are notified that you have failed one of the tests, you will be eliminated. Just go out directly from the corner door at the back of the schoolyard by yourself at that time. Someone will tell you in detail." After saying that, this soldier nodded with a few more soldiers in the front of the row, and then turned around and walked towards the gate again. Li Yan stood at the back of the line. After listening to the words of the soldier just now, his eyes also swept towards the tent in front once again. However, there was a thick curtain hanging low on the door of that tent, so one could not see the scenery inside at all. "We need to enter the tent first, come out and then line up in the center for the test. This tent should be the place to register!" Regarding the content of the test, Li Guoxin had also told him earlier on the road that it should be lifting stone locks, running, simple martial arts skills and whatnot. For Li Yan, he believed that with his own physique from running and hunting in the mountains for years, as well as some of martial techniques he had learned from those hunters in the village, he should have no problem. Li Yan started to think about it in a moment as he stood still, thinking about what he might be tested on in a while and how he would distribute his strength. As a hunter, he knew that there were trade-offs in using strength. It was unknown how long he had been standing there when suddenly, a voice rang in his ears. "Hey, that kid standing at the end, what are you still standing there for? Is it for someone to treat you to a drink?" Li Yan immediately woke up at the sound of the voice. Only then did he realize that the others who were standing in front of him had already gone. Due to the fact that people kept entering and exiting the tent, those people had moved forward for a long distance in turn. He had been lost in thought but had forgotten to follow the group. In addition to being the last position, there was no one behind him to urge him to move forward. At this time, he stood alone at the original place, separated from the team, very eye-catching. A soldier in front of him looked over and shouted sharply. Those young people in front of the team who participated in the recruitment heard this shout, and then looked back at Li Yan who was a bit dumbfounded, there were a few people whose eyes flashed with disdain and gloating. There were only one hundred and fifty Close Guards recruited this time. For them, anyone who came to participate in the recruitment was their competitor. When they saw someone else being reprimanded, they felt that the person had already lost a step in an invisible way. They had some invisible mentality of superiority. Li Yan hurriedly smiled apologetically at that soldier and hurriedly strode towards the front ranks at a fast pace. After that soldier glanced at him, seeing Li Yan's honest and obedient demeanor, after thinking for a while, he just hummed softly and said no more. Seeing that Li Yan was not kicked and beaten by the soldier, many people felt a sense of disappointment. Li Yan quickly walked to the last position, and the tent was already getting closer and closer in his eyes. "This should be the registration place but it's too narrow. It's not difficult to line up a dozen or so tables in this huge schoolyard. In that case, wouldn't it be faster to register?" He was thinking of these, and suddenly remembered something with some hindsight, that the soldier said about General Hong earlier. "General Hong ...Hong...That bald big man on the high platform is General Hong?" He is a war god like existence that repeatedly defeated the Meng Kingdom. Li Yan did not just hear Uncle Guoxin talk about General Hong, but had heard this name many times in the village. This person's achievements were like a legend to Li Yan, establishing a god-like existence in the young man's heart. Li Yan secretly raised his head to look toward the high platform, and at this time he has been closer to the high platform, can basically see the person on the high platform. "General Hong turned out to be like this, with such a domineering and peerless look, no wonder he was able to deter those enemy thieves." Once this person determines someone or something, there is a preconceived feeling, either forming an extremely good sense or an extremely evil thought. Like General Hong's appearance, in the eyes of a normal person, that should be a bad-looking, vicious and evil person. But at this time in Li Yan's heart not only think it is not a vicious person, but is extraordinary overbearing. Li Yan secretly looked at the high platform for a while and found one thing. General Hong seemed to be very concerned about this side, whenever the tent curtains were raised, his eyes would immediately shift here. Every time a person entered or came out, his eyebrows would occasionally raise slightly without realizing it, as if he had an idea. Comparatively speaking, when the middle row of people entered the high fence for assessment, he did not pay much attention to them.