Chapter Thirteen: Meng Qi Trains the Elite Troops

  "How old are you this year?" Little Hua continued to ask.

  "I'm fourteen this year." Ma Chao didn't tell the truth this time.

  "He's two years younger than me!" As soon as Little Hao said this, he was hit on the head with a fist.

  "Hey, Brother Sun, why are you hitting me?"

  "You're the one I've been looking for! Bai Chang may be young, but he's stronger than all of us. I, Sun Yi, have lived for 21 years and haven't yielded to many people, but I yield to Bai Chang's kung fu!" Sun Yi said, pointing at his own chest.

  "That's it, that's it. I didn't say anything!" Xiaohao hurriedly clarified himself, bringing a burst of laughter from the surrounding soldiers.

  "It's time for your daily training, Bai Chang," Sun Yi said.

  "Daily training?"

  "Yes, oh, right, Bai Chang just arrived and doesn't know much about our camp yet... " Sun Yi told Ma Chao some things about the camp.

  Because Zhang Yang was basically not in the military camp, and Gao Shun only managed his own trapped array camp, so Zhang Yang's nearly two hundred elite were all managed by Bai Chang. In addition to Sun Yi, there was another Bai Chang, who led the soldiers for daily training with them.

  Daily training, three shifts a day, one and a half hours in the morning, same in the afternoon. At other times, as long as they don't violate military discipline, soldiers can do whatever they want. But despite this, the soldiers of Zhang Yang's elite camp have never slackened off, because there is that competition following them.

  Many times, even Gao Shun admired him, his ability to command the army was the same whether the general was present or not. But Zhang Yang and his men were also able to do it, which is indeed very rare. However, he admired the person who gave Zhang Yang advice even more.

  It turned out to be the case, after listening to Sun Yi's explanation, Ma Chao understood. It seems that he had just become a hundred officials in a muddled way, and now the work has come, alas, life is hard. In fact, even if they gave Ma Chao a general now, he wouldn't want to be one, let alone just a hundred officials, but there's no choice, who made him get on this pirate ship.

  "Sun Yi, order the entire army to assemble!" Ma Chao commanded.

  "Alright!" Although Zhang Yang's elite camp and Gao Shun's ambush camp were both stationed in a mountain valley, whether it was training or something else, they never did it together, and didn't interfere with each other. However, if everyone needed to gather, there was also a place specifically for that.

  Before long, all 100 men under Ma Chao's command had assembled, and the speed was still quite fast. Because they had also arrived quickly before the assembly time, and these were all elite troops, of course not comparable to ordinary soldiers. However, there were only 100 people under Ma Chao's command, while more than 90 others were led by another hundred officials, but they were training in a different location.

  "Everyone, brothers, hello! I am your new commander, Ma Chao, from Liangzhou Longxi. My name is Ma Mengqi and I'm 14 years old!"

  Most of the soldiers below only knew that Bai Chong had been replaced. Although Ma Chao was young, no one dared to underestimate him, and no one dared to challenge him. It was hard enough for them to deal with Sun Yi, let alone Ma Chao who was even stronger than Sun Yi.

  The soldiers below listened quietly to Ma Chao's words, "Brothers, from this moment on, I will teach you the art of spearplay!" After finishing speaking, Ma Chao began teaching them how to wield spears, and it just so happened that they all had spears in their barracks.

  And what he taught was a kind of three-stream gun method that he had studied and innovated based on the gun method in Nan Hua Shu, although it was three streams, but more suitable for soldiers to fight on the battlefield, with a total of nine moves.

  The soldiers really listened, taught them what to learn, each one was learning seriously and practicing seriously. If anyone's movements were not in place, Ma Chao personally corrected and pointed out. Although the time was short, the soldiers slowly accepted this young new hundred long.

  It's been a month, and on this day Ma Chao had just come out of his military tent when he saw Zhang Yang walking towards him with a smile. When he reached Ma Chao, "Brother Mengqi, I'm back!" Zhang Yang said, punching Ma Chao's left shoulder with his fist.

  "Little uncle and brother, you're back! It seems that everything has been taken care of." Ma Chao said with a smile.

  "It's finally all over, it wasn't easy!" Zhang Yang let out a sigh of relief.

  "You're not leaving this time, are you?"

  "What's the point of walking anymore? I'm not going to walk anymore."

  "It's time to stop fleeing and start training our troops properly!"

  "Isn't everything left to Bailong for training?"

  "How dare you say that! When you just left, I was so confused and became the leader of everything. This month has exhausted me!"

  "You? Ba Chang? Blame me, blame me! Meng Qi brothers, how can you be a hundred long, isn't this a waste of great talent?"

  "Alright, alright, I don't want to be anything anymore, so spare me, Young Master."

  "I knew it, I knew it. Actually, this is also my fault, when I left at that time, I forgot to say it, can't let Brother Mengqi do anything, the result was still being bullied by a short-sighted kid..."

  "Little uncle and brother, isn't this all because of your good idea? As a result, Zhang Yang's words were not yet finished when he was interrupted by Ma Chao."

  "What? What good idea do I have? Brother Meng overestimates me, that idea wasn't mine!"

  Ma Chao's eyes lit up at the words, "Oh? Then whose brilliant idea was this?"

  "This guy, Meng Qi's brother, don't laugh at me, I don't even recognize him?"

  Ma Chao felt deflated after hearing this, originally he had been talking for half a day and it turned out that his older brother didn't know either.

  "But he should be from Liangzhou Army."

  "Someone from Liangzhou Army?" Ma Chao wondered.

  "It wasn't like that, it was like this at first..." Zhang Yang started talking about something that happened two years ago.

  At that time, Lü Bu, Gao Shun and Zhang Yang began to plan the recruitment of a thousand elite soldiers. Gao Shun was able to train and lead troops, and he easily recruited eight hundred people, starting training, while Zhang Yang poached from other camps.

  One time he was leading a group of crack troops back to the valley from somewhere else when several men were stopped by someone on a rather remote small road.

  That man was about thirty years old and a scholar. Next to him was a horse, and on the ground were several corpses.

  Zhang Yang saw this and took up his weapon, dismounting from his horse. The middle-aged scholar asked him: "Are you the Pingzhou army?"

  "Yes." Zhang Yang replied.

  "Please help deal with the corpses on the ground."

  Zhang Yang really listened and did it. He called up a few other people to dig a hole and bury the corpse on the ground together.

  He did this for two main reasons. Firstly, Zhang Yang is indeed a good person with a kind heart. Secondly, he felt that the middle-aged scholar next to him was absolutely not an ordinary person, just by looking at his eyes, he could tell he wasn't a common man.

  "I'm very grateful for your help, but there's one more thing I'd like to ask for your assistance with. However, I won't let you help me for nothing - if you have any problems that you can't solve, feel free to ask me and maybe I can offer some advice," said the middle-aged scholar.

  It just so happened that Zhang Yang's headache at the time was the matter of training soldiers, so he mentioned it. The middle-aged scholar laughed upon hearing this, "This matter is actually simple, you..." Then the scholar gave Zhang Yang an idea for competition, and Zhang Yang listened with great admiration, thinking to himself that today he had met a superior person.

  "Is there anything else I can help you with, sir?"

  "We were robbed by the nearby mountain bandits, and I was the only one left. After inquiring, I found that there are less than a hundred bandits, and since you seem to be an official from Pingzhou Army, can you help eliminate the bandits?"

  Zhang Yang hesitated, saying: "To be honest with you, sir, I can indeed mobilize troops to exterminate the mountain bandits, but I also dare not do so privately, that would be subject to military law."

  The middle-aged scholar smiled and said: "That's it then, there's nothing else, you've already helped a lot."

  At this time, Zhang Yang suddenly remembered Gao Shun, "However, I thought of it, I can take Mr. to find a friend for help, but it's not necessarily possible."

  "Then let's go together."

  "Exactly what I was thinking, sir! Please!"

  "Please."

  Then they returned to the valley together. After arriving at the valley, Zhang Yang introduced Wen Shi to Gao Shun, but Wen Shi never said who he was. Zhang Yang told Gao Shun all about what had happened on the road, and Gao Shun indeed kept Wen Shi behind to talk to him alone, so Zhang Yang could only withdraw.

  After a while, Gao Shun came out of the military account and immediately pointed to the soldiers. The 800 trapped array camps went out to exterminate the mountain bandits. Later, the mountain bandits were destroyed, and the middle-aged scholar also bid farewell.

  Zhang Yang also asked Gao Shun who the middle-aged scholar was, but Gao Shun said he didn't know either, only knowing that the man was from Liangzhou Army.

  Things are like this, Ma Chao heard it and thought he had already guessed the middle-aged literary man eight or nine out of ten, Liangzhou army, and his idea was so good at calculating people's hearts, that could only be him.

  "I wonder if Uncle and Brother still remember the appearance of that middle-aged scholar?" To confirm his guess, Ma Chao asked Zhang Yang about the appearance of that middle-aged scholar.

  Although it has been two years, he still remembered the appearance of that middle-aged scholar roughly. He described him to Ma Chao.

  "It's him after all!"

  "Could it be that Meng Qi and his brothers still know that person?"

  "We're not familiar, but we've met once before. That person should be Jia Xian of Liangzhou Wuwei, Jia Wenhe. One of the few wise and strategic minds in the world!"

  "Jia Yu, Jia Wen and." Zhang Yang muttered to himself, it was clear that he had never heard of Jia Yu.

  "Brother Mengqi, let's not talk about what's real and what's fake anymore. I have other things to discuss with you."

  "Please speak, young uncle and brother."

  "It's like this, you also know that our camp has gathered all 200 elite troops today. Previously, Feng Xian, Fu Yi and I had discussed that when my 200 men are assembled, we would first train and hone together for a month, and then have a mock battle with Fu Yi's Trap Array Camp to increase mutual understanding. Of course, not everyone will participate in the mock battle, but rather select a few elite troops to take part. Meng Qi brothers, you also know what kind of strength Fu Yi's Trap Array Camp has, I'm not too confident about our Elite Camp."

  Ma Chao smiled when he heard this and said, "What does Young Master Zhishu think?"

  "I didn't have much confidence, but that was in the past. Just now when I came back, my subordinates reported to me about this month's situation. I really didn't expect it, Brother Mengqi is not only excellent in martial arts, but also has a good hand at training soldiers. So I want to ask Brother Mengqi to help me train another month of soldiers, or else our camp will lose face!" Zhang Yang had a bitter expression on his face.

  "Little uncle, you... " Ma Chao didn't know what to say, he hated going to drill the soldiers. Originally, he thought that when Zhang Yang came back, he would also be able to relax, but now looking at it, it seemed to have increased his burden instead.

  However, he thought carefully and this exercise was indeed very important. It's not just a matter of face as Zhang Yang said, but more importantly, it's about whether an army can unite and fight together. The vanguard camp and the elite camp are two separate parts that do not interfere with each other, but on the battlefield, they still work together to kill the enemy, advance and retreat together, and fight on the same front line.

  Since the two camps were established, contradictions have always existed. The Trap Camp thinks it is the strongest, although it does not train with the Elite Camp and does not live together, but they are all stationed in the same valley. They look at the Elite Camp with great disdain.

  The elite troops are even more so, each of them was the elite of their former troops, it's impossible for them not to have some pride. Others can't even stand themselves, they certainly won't give others a good face either. They think, how did they end up stationed in the same valley as the Trapped Array Troops?

  This might not be apparent to Zhang Yang, but Ma Chao believed that Gao Shun would understand. Although the two camps had not clashed temporarily, they actually didn't have much contact either, as the saying goes, "well water does not offend river water", you walk your Yangguan Road, I cross my solitary wooden bridge.

  Zhang Yang was basically not in the military camp, he wasn't very clear about these things being normal. But Ma Chao had been in the military camp for over a month, training soldiers every day and getting along with everyone, so of course he already understood their thoughts very well. As for Gao Shun, he had been with the Vanguard Camp for over two years, if you said he didn't understand the thoughts of his soldiers, Ma Chao wouldn't believe it even if you killed him.

  Gao Shun understood, but he had never done anything about it. After Zhang Yang's words today, Ma Chao realized that Gao Shun might have put the solution to this problem in the two armies' big exercise, as long as both sides can bring out strength that each other recognizes, then the problem will be easily solved. Ma Chao knew that Gao Shun, a military expert like him, couldn't possibly not understand such things.

  "It seems it's come to this." Ma Chao muttered to himself.

  "What's going on?" Zhang Yang was bewildered by what Ma Chao had just said.

  "Ah, it's like this. Although I'm tired of practicing martial arts every day, since Uncle and Brother have spoken up, how can I, the younger brother, shirk my responsibility?"

  "Alright, alright. I knew it, I knew Mengqi brothers wouldn't refuse. Great, Mengqi brother, from now on you're my deputy general, temporarily taking over training for me. When the time comes, you mustn't bring shame to our camp!" Zhang Yang said with a clenched fist.

  "I will follow your arrangements completely." Ma Chao said respectfully.

  "Alright, let's start from today. In a while, we'll begin our daily training again. From now on, Mengqi brothers, you must train those kids well for me. This task is entrusted to you!"

  "Don't worry, Young Master! Leave everything to me!"

  It's just about time for assembly, so the two of them head towards the drill ground together.