Chapter 42: Ma Chao Submits to Cao Cao

  More than two months have passed again, and Ma Chao and his men have been in Wu An Guo for more than three months.

  In his daily life, Wu An Guo practiced martial arts every day except when he was forging iron. After more than three months of hard work, his kung fu skills had made rapid progress, and everyone could see it.

  Now it's time to celebrate the New Year, today is the last day of Guanghe 2nd year. At this time last year, Ma Chao and Cui An were together with Ji Zhou and Tong Yuan Zhao Yun, this year they met Wu Anguo in Donglai, so they will spend the New Year together with him.

  Looking out at the heavy snow outside, Ma Chao couldn't help but feel a sense of melancholy. "Alone in a foreign land as a stranger, every time a holiday comes around, I miss my loved ones even more." If Guan Ning were here, he would probably be unable to hold back his praise, but unfortunately, Ma Chao was alone and could only sigh to himself.

  It's been almost two years since I left home, and now with the Chinese New Year approaching, Ma Chao still misses his family dearly. Unfortunately, he can't return home as he had set a goal for himself to travel through all nine states before the Yellow Turban Rebellion, but you never know what will happen, so it's necessary to have enough time to deal with various things.

  Now his plan is almost half completed, starting from leaving home, he has been to Bian, Ji, You and now Qingzhou. If he continues at this speed, Ma Chao thinks that he may return home early.

  At this time, Chui An came to find Ma Chao.

  "Fuda, do you miss home?"

  Cui An scratched the back of his head with his hand, "Don't want to!"

  It's no wonder, Cui An has no relatives left in his hometown of Fufeng, except for a house, there is nothing else, not even a living thing. The only old father who was still around also disappeared without a word, and there has been no news from him for many years.

  So in his eyes, there's nothing at home, and he doesn't want to go back. To be honest, staying at home is not as interesting as following the lord, which is also why Ma Chao was able to successfully threaten him by letting him return to his old home in Fufeng. Cui An really didn't want to go back to that uninteresting place.

  Of course, he can also leave Ma Chao and go wherever he wants by himself. However, since he listened to his father's words and acknowledged Ma Chao as his master, he cannot just leave casually anymore. Besides, Master is a good person, and even better to him, Cui An has great admiration for this master of his.

  There's another thing, being alone with the lord is absolutely not interesting. By the lord's side, you can come into contact with more interesting people and things, but if you're alone, you definitely won't encounter that many, so Cui An had long since made up his mind to stick with Ma Chao for this lifetime, wherever the lord goes, he'll go too.

  "It's also understandable, Foda, your situation and mine are different. I can understand!" Ma Chao thought for a moment after hearing Cui An's answer, and he realized that if he were in the same situation as Cui An, he would have given the same response.

  "Ah, Foda, what brings you here?" Ma Chao had just remembered that Cui An was looking for him. If there wasn't anything important, he wouldn't have come.

  "Ah, so that's what it is! It was Wu Xiaozu who asked me to come find the master, he begged me for half a day and I couldn't refuse him!"

  Ma Chao smiled, Cui An always called Wu Anguo "Wu Xiazi", actually he was only two years older than Wu Anguo. Wu Anguo also had opinions, didn't know how many times he told Cui An that his surname wasn't Wu, but unfortunately Cui An's abilities were greater than his, now it was a matter of who had the bigger fist, whoever did would be in charge, himself not as good as others could only acknowledge.

  But Ma Chao had his own thoughts on this, he thought it would be better if Cui An called Wu Anguo "Wu Xiaozhi" instead of "Xiao Wuzi", which would be even more interesting.

  "What's going on with Wu An? Is there something you can't say yourself that you need me to help with?" Ma Chao asked, looking at Cui An.

  Choi Ahn looked innocent, "Master, I didn't know!"

  Ma Chao saw Cui An's appearance and thought it was funny, "Alright, no matter what happened, let's go take a look and we'll know everything!" After saying that, he pulled Cui An along to find Wu Anguo.

  Wu An Guo is getting anxious in his own house, Cui Fu Da has been gone for quite a while, how come he still hasn't brought Master Ma over, if I had known it would be like this, I shouldn't have asked him for help, this guy is not reliable at all, why didn't I just go myself?

  Just as he was thinking about it, his train of thought was interrupted by a knock on the door. Finally, he has arrived, Wu Ankou thought to himself.

  After entering the house, Ma Chao and Cui An were invited in by Wu Anguo. After they sat down, Ma Chao spoke first: "I don't know what you've called me here for, Wu Anguo."

  "This, I should have personally gone to invite you, but I was somewhat timid." Wu Ankou said with embarrassment.

  "Wu An, when did you become timid? I won't eat you, there's nothing to be afraid of!" Ma Chao laughed.

  "Today I invited you, sir, because there is something that requires your consent!" Wu An Gu looked at Ma Chao and said.

  "Oh? It doesn't matter if I say it!" Having known each other for more than three months, this was the first time Wu Ankou asked him himself.

  "Well, young master, I'll speak directly then!"

  "Wu Xiaozu, be more straightforward! You're not like a man at all! Master told you to speak up, so just say it!" Cui An couldn't help but interrupt. Many times he didn't understand why people had to make things so complicated when speaking, saying several sentences before getting to the point, why not just say it directly?

  After hearing Cui An's words, Wu Ankou gave him a glance, but he didn't dare to refute anything.

  He stood up and walked to Ma Chao, then suddenly knelt down and said: "My lord is above, please accept a bow from me!" As he spoke, he paid his respects to Ma Chao with great courtesy.

  Ma Chao quickly helped him up, "No need for this!"

  Who would have thought that Wu An Guo was very persistent, "A humble man bows, Master receives! A humble man comes from a poor background, fortunately met the master to teach martial arts, the master's great kindness, there is no way to repay. Now willing to be by the master's side to hold the reins and stirrup, for the master to rush into boiling water and walk through fire, even if it means death!"

  Wu An Guo didn't know who he had learned these words from, originally not being very good at speaking, but now he was able to speak extremely fluently, it seemed that he had been preparing for this moment for a long time.

  Ma Chao could feel the sincerity of Wu An Guo and also heard his determination. Today's matter Ma Chao had expected before, but didn't think that Wu An Guo would say it out today.

  "Alright, but Wuan, stop calling me 'little man' all the time, it sounds really awkward!" Ma Chao laughed.

  "No, my lord, I won't, I'll change right away!" Although Ma Chao knew that Wu An Guo's martial arts skills would at most be first-rate lower level no matter how hard he tried, nobody would push away talented people who came to their doorsteps. Ma Chao wouldn't do such a thing either. He was currently searching for and gathering talents. Only with sufficient talents could they go further on the path of contending for hegemony in the future.

  "Wu An, since you've acknowledged me as your master, there are some rules that must be made clear first!" Ma Chao said seriously, Wu Ankou listened respectfully beside him.

  "A person's ability may be great or small, but that is not the most important thing to me! What I value more is a person's character. From my observation over the past few months, Wu An, you are not bad, but I still want to say this in advance: when interacting with others, you must not do evil and should try to do as many good deeds as possible. If one day I find out that you have done something evil, then I will be the first to not let you off!"

  "Yes, I shall obey your orders, Your Excellency!" Wu An Guo said respectfully.

  After more than three months of observation by Ma Chao, Wu An Guo was indeed not bad. If his behavior was not proper, he would not have passed on the hammer method to him. After more than three months of contact, a person's character can basically be seen.

  Ma Chao had been observing him for two lifetimes, and when he went to see a 20-year-old ancient man, there was no problem at all. Some things are not good to pretend, and there will always be flaws. After three months of investigation, Wu An Guo also passed the test and got Ma Chao's recognition. So he worshiped Ma Chao as his master, and Ma Chao accepted him without hesitation.

  Accepting Wu Anguo means that Ma Chao has gained another talent under his command. Although this talent is still growing, Ma Chao firmly believes that gold will always shine, it's just a matter of time.

  Ma Chao believed that the current Wu An Guo would definitely be stronger than the one in the legend who had his arm cut off by Lü Bu, and would have a brighter future.

  Wu Anguo himself would never know that because of Ma Chao, his tragic life was completely changed.

  But he is now extremely excited, because his wish has finally come true. Wu An Guo has his own ideas, although he doesn't have much talent and isn't very good at speaking, but he also wants to stand out and achieve something, otherwise he wouldn't have left the small village.

  But with more than a year of experience abroad, he deeply knew that with his mediocre skills, if he were to be an ironworker for the rest of his life, it would still be better than in a small village, and making a living wouldn't be a problem.

  But if I don't become a blacksmith, what else can I do? Maybe I can join the army and get some mediocre job, but my subpar skills won't take me far, and he's aware of that.

  It's not that he didn't want to improve his martial arts, but in today's world, being a master of the hammer is absolutely unheard of. Growing up, he had never heard of anyone who was skilled with a hammer, so finding a mentor was impossible, but giving up on the hammer as a weapon would be even more unbearable than death itself.

  It's not going to work this way, nor is it going to work that way. Wu An Guo himself knows that with the current situation, even if he practices martial arts diligently every day for another ten or eight years, his level will at most reach second-rate.

  At this difficult time, he met Ma Chao. When he learned that Ma Chao had the ancestral hammer method of Ma Yuan, Wu Ankou was excited. And when Ma Chao gave him the hammer method, he couldn't believe it all, just like a drowning person who was about to die and was rescued ashore, his gratitude to Ma Chao was beyond words.

  After more than three months of contact, he found that Ma Chao was a capable person and Wu An Guo was not a fool. Although he didn't know what Ma Chao's ambitions were, there seemed to be a voice in his heart telling him that he must make Ma Chao his master, or else he would regret it for the rest of his life. So he unhesitatingly made Ma Chao his master, and during this period, he also prepared for a long time and even found a knowledgeable scholar to learn many words, but was so excited that many new words were not used at all.

  But in this way, Wu An Guo was satisfied, after all, the ultimate goal has been achieved, and other things are not so important. He believed his feelings, the lord is not an ordinary lord, as long as he followed him, he would definitely make a name for himself and achieve great things.

  He has such great confidence in Ma Chao, it must be said that Ma Chao indeed has some personal charm, and more than three months have made Wu An Guo convinced from the heart.

  Ma Chao looked at Wu An Guo's attitude and was relatively satisfied, "Very good, Wu An, you just remember what I said today, and also, you should work harder! Although now you have made great progress compared to the past, but there is still a big gap between you and the mastery of martial arts!"

  Don't look at Ma Chao being only eleven years old, but as the master it's not just one or two days, when speaking indeed has the demeanor of a master.

  "Yes, milord is absolutely right! I will definitely work hard and strive to improve my martial arts skills!" Wu Ankang also felt that his current master, although nearly ten years younger than himself, was indeed the real deal as a master.

  He didn't think that Cui An beside Ma Chao had joined earlier than him, this young master was indeed young, but his experience wasn't lacking, let alone Ma Chao wasn't just eleven years old.

  Ma Chao nodded his head, patted Wu An Guo's shoulder with his hand and said in a tone of an experienced person: "Wu An, you can think like this, I'm very relieved! Haha!"

  Wu An Guo listened and had a kind of misunderstanding, he thought his master was not an eleven-year-old boy, but a senior in his forties. Looking at the tone, looking at the state of speaking, it was clearly a senior encouraging a junior.

  It seems that this master is indeed extraordinary, and Wu An Guo became even more determined in his thoughts.

  "It's just like, really just like, too much alike!"

  Ma Chao took a look and found that it was Cui An who said this beside him. "What does it look like?" he asked in a bad tone.

  Choi Ahn had just spoken out loud and knew it was wrong, blaming himself for not being able to hold back what he thought in his heart and saying it directly, but covering his mouth with his hand was already too late.

  "Like the master!"

  "Is it?" Ma Chao asked Cui An again.

  Choi An had no choice but to tell the truth, "It's like an old man!"

  Wu An Guo was on the side, wanting to laugh but didn't dare to laugh.