The crisp sound of horse hooves approached from afar. After seeing the sentry in front of him, the two people on the horse slowed down and finally stopped in front of the sentry. This was the third time that they had encountered a soldier who had been inspected. Zhou Kaihuang took out his waist sign and handed it over, and the knight who accompanied him also handed over a piece and attached a document.

The Ming army soldier in red uniform and shiny armor carefully checked the waist card, then raised his head and stared at the eyes of the two people and asked a few questions. After not finding any flaws, the Ming army soldier lowered his head again and checked the seal of the Chengdu government office on the official document. Finally, he held the waist card back to Zhou Kaihuang in both hands: "Lieutenant Colonel Zhou, I'm rude."

As one of the five lieutenant colonels of the Standing Army, who doesn’t know who Zhou Kaihuang is known? However, the guards here are still strictly inspected, and the guards who accompanied Zhou Kaihuang from Chengdu were stopped when they met the first barracks, and the knight next to him acted as a guide.

Zhou Kaihuang took back his waist card and put it in carefully. As soon as he pulled the reins, he drove past the soldiers station and ran two miles away. The guide slowed down his horse again and pointed to the front and said, "Lieutenant Colonel Zhou, I can send you here, and there will be no permanent military guards in front."

"Okay." Zhou Kaihuang took the official document from Liu Jinge to him from his guide, said goodbye to the guide, galloped forward alone. No one would have thought that in this desolate place, there would be three Ming army camps along the road, each with hundreds of Ming army officers and soldiers. After turning a small forest, another post appeared in front of him. Behind this post, there was not a military camp but a small pass across the road.

A soldier in black military uniform walked out of the door hole. When he first saw this soldier, Zhou Kaihuang thought he had encountered a guard with three walls. Now only three walls in the Ming army are completely black. After Deng Ming returned from Myanmar last year, he changed the guards with three walls into this style of new military uniform.

However, Zhou Kaihuang immediately realized that he had admitted his mistake, because the collars of the new military uniforms of the Sanwu soldiers had eye-catching identification signs, and the pattern was their mahjong plaque military flags. Although the Sanwu soldiers were often angry about this title, the western Sichuan people always called their military flags like this behind them, and other standing troops also thought this title was very vivid. Since Deng Ming changed the unique black military uniforms to Sanwu last year, this title has become even louder. Lieutenant colonels like Li Xinghan and Zhou Kaihuang have called them with a hint of jealousy: "playing mahjong plaques and embroidering mahjong plaques on their collars."

Although this soldier was wearing a black military uniform that was exactly the same as the three walls, his collar seal was not the mahjong plaque pattern that Zhou Kaihuang was familiar with, but the three broken feather arrows.

"Ranker?" Zhou Kaihuang asked condescendingly, handing over his waist card and the official documents of Chengdu Prefecture to the guards at the same time.

This army was also Deng Ming's direct guard who was not under the command of the commander, and was also very clear about their origins. After the war in Gaoyou Lake, the injured Mongolian Eight Banners obtained military status, many of them were disabled and arranged to do the job of a pavilion. More than 20 Mongolians were injured but completely recovered. The troops in western Sichuan had opinions about these Mongolians, so no troops were willing to accept them.

In the end, Deng Ming came forward and formed a military unit for the more than 20 Mongolians, and also named the "Ranker" to train the riders in Chengdu. Although Rangers, like ordinary standing cavalry, need to undergo strict queue charge training, the individual equestrian items in their training content are much more than the standing cavalry, because Deng Ming hopes that this cavalry unit can shoulder the traditional cavalry tasks of reconnaissance and harassment.

Now there are more than 200 members of the Rangers. Except for the Mongols at the beginning, the remaining members are Han people from western Sichuan. However, they are still using the flag when the troops were established - three broken feather arrows, which represents the oath between Deng Ming and the Mongols in front of the Shunzhi Imperial Camp. When the twenty Mongols stood in front of Deng Ming because there was no Ming army willing to accept it, Deng Ming loudly assured them that he would not forget his former oath, so when the Rangers were established, the members unanimously agreed to embroider the pattern of the broken arrows on their military flag.

Compared with the three walls, the Rangers seem much more mysterious because they have never appeared on the battlefield since their establishment. They have not been recruited for training and recruiting members, but have not passed through the Western Sichuan Command. Last year, Deng Ming returned from Myanmar with a generous pocket and began to expand on a large scale.

Now, the two direct cavalry guards of Dengming, San Wall and Rangers, have a total of more than 400 cavalrymen, with more than the permanent cavalry battalions with a designated 300. For these two cavalry units with unique military uniforms, the military does not have command or are not responsible for their military expenditures, so many people have a very strange feeling. The big mouthed Ren Tang has been resolutely in the command department many times, claiming that this is a great waste of cavalry resources in western Sichuan. Only by integrating the Three Walls and Rangers into the Standing Army can the greatest value of these two cavalry units be played out - of course, that is, Ren Tang, a guy from a scholar, dares to say such words, and the other four lieutenant colonels have never agreed with Ren Tang's remarks.

The black-clothed soldiers who came to check the waist and documents, like other imperial soldiers, had military rank signs on their shoulders. Since Deng Ming established the military rank system, the highest principle has been based on the simplicity and easy memory. The soldiers were divided into first-class corporals to third-class corporals, and the corporals were corporals, sergeants, lieutenants, lieutenants and school officials. Zhou Kaihuang glanced at the epaulettes of the people opposite and knew that this was a Ranger lieutenant.

"Should I call you a second lieutenant or a squad leader?" Zhou Kaihuang asked while the Ranger officer was checking his waist card.

After changing into black military uniforms last year, Duke Baoguo changed the ranks of the Three Walls, with a hint of retro meaning. Zhou Kaihuang knew that the third-level lieutenant of the Three Walls was renamed: Assault Squad Leader, Assault Squad Leader Tongzhi and Assault Squad Leader Assault Squad Leader. But Zhou Kaihuang didn't know if the Rangers had also changed the title of military rank like the Three Walls. This unit had too little time to appear in front of everyone. Although Zhou Kaihuang was a senior general of the military, he was a little inaccurate.

"Assault squad leader," the Ranger replied respectfully, "is equivalent to the second lieutenant of the Imperial Army."

After the inspection, the Rangers returned the waist sign and documents to Zhou Kaiyuan, and waved his hand to signal the Rangers' companions to switch to Zhou Kaiyuan's land and enter: "President Zhou, please come in."

"You call me?" This title made Zhou Kaihuang stunned for a moment.

"General Zhou, aren't you my general?" the Ranger replied with a smile.

"Yes." Zhou Kaihuang nodded. In addition to the military uniform and the name of the rank, it seemed that many places of the Rangers were subtlely different from other imperial armies.

After Zhou Kaihuang rode his horse through the closing door, the heavy wooden door closed behind him, and the rangers on the inside salute him: "Master, welcome to inspect the 51st pavilion."

Zhou Kaiyuan has also heard of the reputation of the Fifty-One Pavilion, but the specific location was only known from Liu Jinge this time. In the outermost military camp, Zhou Kaiyuan saw a convoy transporting grain and supplies. Unlike other pavilions, the Fifty-One Pavilion does not produce any food. However, those who transport grain are not civilians, but military supplies teams. Even the members of the baggage team do not know where they were transporting grain to. They thought the recipient was a garrison - and the outermost military camp was an outpost. If they hadn't come here in person, Zhou Kaiyuan would not have thought that there would be a town hidden here.

Two Rangers boarded their horses to escort Zhou Kaihuang to meet Deng Ming, while the rest continued to stand guard at the fortress.

The independent guard troops of the Fifty-One Pavilion were still under construction, so Deng Ming temporarily dispatched Rangers to be responsible for internal security. Later, Deng Ming came here, and all the Rangers followed. After the Battle of Myanmar, most of the soldiers on the three walls were on vacation, so Deng Ming's personal security work was transferred to the Rangers. Originally, there were 100 people in the Fifty-One Pavilion and 100 people around Deng Ming, but now all 200 Rangers are in the Fifty-One Pavilion.

After receiving the task of personal protection, the Rangers were very excited because this was the first time they had completely taken over Deng Ming's escort from the three walls. The first twenty Mongolian members of the Rangers understood the three arrows' oath as a contract for sale signed with Deng Ming - selling their lives to Deng Ming instead of the Ming Dynasty, or the government in western Sichuan, or someone else. When training new recruits, the Mongolians also taught this contract to the new members: as long as they remain loyal to Deng Ming until death, they could shelter from Deng Ming's roof and get food from Deng Ming's dinner table - in short, they were guaranteed to have food and clothing by loyalty to a person.

On the way to the town in front of him, Zhou Kaihuang looked at the Ranger's collar seal many times. Although he had heard that this cavalry guard used the broken arrow mark, this pattern was quite different from what he imagined: the arrow shaft was not broken at a certain angle, but the arrow tail was down, the arrow shaft was vertically upward, and a right-angle flat fold appeared at about half of the position. After going out horizontally, a right-angle flat fold was then folded up again, and the arrow pointed straight to the sky. The three broken arrows were all exactly the same shape.

"It's really interesting." Zhou Kaihuang couldn't help but comment, and it could be seen that this pattern took a lot of effort.

"Thank you for the praise of the officer." The Rangers showed joy on their faces, and it was obvious that they were very proud of the pattern.

Soon he arrived near the town, Zhou Kaihuang suddenly pointed to the sign on a house in front and asked: "Is that your flag?"

The logo that Zhou Kaihuang saw was very similar to the logo on the Ranger's collar.

"No." The Ranger hurriedly corrected: "That is called 'lightning pattern', which is a unique logo of the Fifty-one Pavilion. Please note that this symbol means danger and do not approach it."

Zhou Kaihuang looked at the logo carefully and found that it was indeed different from the Ranger's collar. There were no arrows or tails, but the tortuous angle and overall inclination were exactly the same. Therefore, Zhou Kaihuang mistakenly thought it was the Ranger's flag at first glance.
Chapter completed!