Chapter One: Perplexity

  Fei Wenlong was exhausted, following the person in front of him as he ran up the mountain. He felt like his lungs were going to explode, and his breathing sounded like a broken bellows. But he didn't dare stop running, for reasons even he couldn't explain.

  He also escaped from Henan with his parents, and his parents died on the way. He thought that this life would be over, but unexpectedly someone came to him and asked if he wanted to follow him, so he came to this place.

  But after arriving here, he found that this place was completely different from what he had imagined. Although he had signed a contract to sell himself as a servant, it didn't feel like being a servant at all. Although the young master and his two subordinates were strict with them, they could eat their fill and dress warmly. What surprised him most was that someone was even arranged to teach them literacy and martial arts training.

  To sum it all up, everything is not as he thought it would be. Life here is tense and busy, even a bit dull at times, but yet full of novelty. He himself doesn't know when he started to like this place, and has truly become a part of it.

  The young master seemed strict, but his heart was much better than imagined. He established a strict system with clear rewards and punishments, yet it was full of human touch. Fei Wenlong still remembered that when a brother named Jia Qi fell seriously ill, the young master was anxious and rushed out on a stormy night to fetch a doctor, spending a large sum of money to bring him back. When he returned, his clothes were soaked in mud and water, but thanks to his efforts, Jia Qi's life was saved.

  Jia Qi was just like him, an orphan. They were orphans who had once been left on the side of the road, without anyone giving them a second glance. But after arriving here, Young Master treated them as if they were more precious than anything else. Fei Wenlong felt fortunate to have met that steward surnamed Xue, who brought him here at his most desperate time.

  Today is the second physical assessment this month, and the goal is the top of this mountain. Fei Wenlong still can't quite understand why he and his fellow servants have to undergo such training. What does Young Master want them to do in the future? Does he want them all to become guards or something? But does he really need that many guards?

  "Hurry up and run! The first one to reach the top can have a day off! Come on!" Huang Yan shouted loudly from one side of the team.

  Although they were all exhausted, everyone still lifted their spirits and continued to drag their heavy legs forward.

  The little brothers around him were all of the same virtue, running with only the sound of quick breathing and no intake of air left. Everyone was using their last bit of strength to move forward towards the top of the mountain. At this time, someone finally couldn't hold on anymore, fell to the ground with a thud, and burst into tears.

  "I'm done! I can't run anymore... Waaahhh...!" This young man's body was a bit weaker than others, and he really couldn't hold on any longer. He collapsed to the ground and couldn't get up no matter how hard he tried.

  Others looked at him as they walked by his side, calling out his name: "Jiang Peng! Get up quickly, don't be a coward!"

  But no matter how hard Jiang Peng tried, he ended up failing, his legs were so weak that he couldn't even stand up. At this moment, a hand stretched out from the side and was inserted under his armpit, lifting him up with one move. Only then did Jiang Peng see that it was Young Master Gao Huaiyuan who had helped him up, and he cried: "Young Master! I'm useless, I really can't run anymore!"

  "Get up, believe in yourself, you can make it to the top! Our Wohu Village shouldn't leave anyone behind!" Gao Huaiyuan dragged him and continued climbing up the mountain.

  At this time, another person fell down. Zhou Huan stretched out his hand to help him up from behind the team, but he was refused: "No! I can get up!"

  Jiaqi struggled to get up from the ground, staggering and swaying, continuing to move his legs one step at a time towards the top of the mountain. His life was given by Young Master, and Young Master said that they must climb the mountain, even if it means death! This had become his conviction.

  When the last one, Zhou Yi, sat down on the ground with a thud, everyone cheered up, as if they had accomplished a great mission. On this road, they helped each other and supported each other, and finally arrived here together. Now they have become an integral whole, no matter who falls, will not be abandoned by this group.

  Gao Huaiyuan also wiped the sweat from his forehead, feeling very satisfied with everyone's performance today. This was exactly the spirit he needed: tenacity, unity, cooperation and obedience! These were exactly the qualities he wanted them to possess, and in this period of time, he had achieved this goal.

  Looking at his increasingly robust body and powerful arms, Fei Wenlong felt grateful to Gao Huaiyuan in his heart. Now, let alone being asked to come out and practice, even if Gao Huaiyuan told him to go die, Fei Wenlong felt that he wouldn't hesitate for a moment. Moreover, he believed that this wasn't just his own thought, the younger brothers around him must be thinking the same way. In his eyes, Gao Huaiyuan now existed like a god.

  Every day's training, plus Gao Huaiyuan's generous provision of sufficient nutrition for these young men, under the good food and drink and exercise, the physique of these young men quickly became strong. At the age of 13 or 14, in modern times, they would still be considered children, but in ancient times, this age was already considerable. In a wealthy family like Gao Huaiyuan's, many people were married and had children at this age, which may also have something to do with the short lifespan of ancient people. Anyway, the growth rate of these young men far exceeded Gao Huaiyuan's expectations.

  Moreover, the culture of ancient people made this generation pay attention to loyalty and righteousness from a young age. When they were bought by Gao Huaiyuan, they all had a sense of self-awareness as slaves. As house slaves, they knew they should be loyal to their masters; otherwise, they would receive severe punishment and even be despised by many people. A slave who betrayed his master could not continue to mix with others once discovered. No one would want them again, even if they were given freedom, as long as they had this stain on their reputation. It would be very difficult for them to stand in the world. Therefore, the situation Gao Huaiyuan initially worried about did not occur. Additionally, he took good care of these orphans' lives, so from the beginning until now, there has been no phenomenon of running away, which also made Gao Huaiyuan feel relieved.

  After observing them for some time, Gao Huaiyuan had a thorough understanding of the inherent nature of these young men. Personality is something that is born with and cannot be easily changed through training. Among these young men, people like Huang Yan, Zhou Huan, Fei Wenlong, and Zhou Jun have personalities that are strong and resilient, so after a short period of training, they will naturally exhibit a strong and fierce temperament.

  And youngsters like Zhou Yi, Jia Qi and Jiang Peng, because of their innate personality being relatively weak, although their daily training also strengthened their bodies, they seemed to be born not suitable for being warriors, always showing a weaker side. With such a personality, if you want them to reach the level of Huang Yan and achieve something in the military, it would be more difficult, especially Zhou Yi and Jia Qi, even though they no longer have any physical problems, but both of them seem to have an innate aversion to weapons, always ranking last whether practicing sword or archery.

  However, it can't be said that they are such people. Gao Huaiyuan doesn't need to say much. Zhou Yi seems to like reading more than his older brother Zhou Jun. He also has a natural talent for arithmetic. The methods of calculation and Arabic numerals taught by Gao Huaiyuan were all mastered by Zhou Yi first, and he could apply them skillfully. Even when it came to the abacus, after being told how to use it, he quickly grasped it through self-study. His speed on the abacus was so fast that even Gao Huaiyuan, a mediocre teacher, felt ashamed. This kind of talent is innate and can't be explained by any reason.

  Gao Huaiyuan saw that Zhou Yi had such skills, so he was moved in his heart and handed Zhou Yi over to Liu'er. Now his family business has grown bigger and also needs someone to help Liu'er. Moreover, in the future, he wants to do something, which will inevitably be related to money. Rather than letting Zhou Yi become an unqualified warrior, it's better to cultivate him as a qualified financial manager, which can make him play a role.

  Jia Qi, who had almost died from a sudden illness the last time, was saved by Gao Huaiyuan and became absolutely loyal to him. Although he worked very hard after recovering from his illness, his personality made him unremarkable in terms of martial arts and leadership. However, he had another advantage: like Zhou Jun's brothers, he came from a family of scholars and had been taught to read by his father since childhood. As a result, he was far more cultured than the other young men. Jia Qi loved reading books and was very interested in the military strategies and tactics that Gao Huaiyuan taught them. He was good at thinking deeply about problems and often saw things that others missed. When discussing battle examples, Jia Qi could always think more deeply and see more profound things. His analytical mind was sharp, and sometimes he would point out problems that even Gao Huaiyuan, with his knowledge from the future, had not noticed. Occasionally, Jia Qi's insights would make Gao Huaiyuan admire him.

  After discovering Jia Qi's special feature, Gao Huaiyuan also treated him as a treasure and cultivated him into a qualified warrior. Relatively speaking, it was simple, just listen to what he said, follow the instructions, and with a strong physique, he could do it!

  Cultivating an officer is relatively more difficult. In addition to having the basic conditions of being a warrior, one must also have leadership ability, that is, be good at controlling others, and can influence others with their own actions. After cultivation and guidance, it's not too difficult.

  But if you want to cultivate a good thinker who can plan for him, it's probably the most difficult thing. However, Jia Qi happens to have this trait of being good at thinking and analyzing problems, and his brain is also very agile. So, Gao Huaiyuan made a decisive decision, handing over all the military books and strategies he had collected, including some left by San Shan San Ren, to Jia Qi, letting him study them alone when he was free, increasing his knowledge, and making him a teacher as well, taking over from himself. Every day, he would tell stories to these young people, teaching them about tactics and strategy.

  The fundamental purpose of doing so is to enable Jia Qi to form a good and independent thinking ability, and to guide these young people onto the path of becoming military officers, rather than just letting them know how to be brave and fight fiercely, becoming a group of rough men. Therefore, in this matter, as long as Jia Qi is lecturing, even Huang Yan and Zhou Huan must listen honestly and think carefully like the other young people, and with time, most of them will eventually become qualified military officers!

  As for Jiang Peng, his personality is also on the weak side. Apart from being able to grasp numbers quickly like Zhou Yi, he doesn't delve deeper into it like Zhou Yi does. However, this doesn't mean he's useless; he has his own strengths!

  That's why Jiang Peng likes to follow Gao Huaiyuan and fiddle with all sorts of new things. When others see Gao Huaiyuan come up with soap or glass, they just feel surprised, sigh a bit, and that's it. No one asks why, no one knows the reason behind it. But Jiang Peng seems to have a natural interest in these things. Whenever he sees Gao Huaiyuan in a good mood, he carefully finds him and asks this and that, asking how these things can be mixed together to become new things.

  Gao Huaiyuan was also generous with Jiang Peng, taking the time to give him detailed lectures on subjects like physical chemistry that he had studied before. In his view, although China had once been ahead of the world in many areas of science and technology, after the Ming dynasty it fell behind, lagging far behind the Western world. The key reason for this was not that later generations of Chinese were no longer as intelligent as they had been before, nor was it solely due to the influence of China's institutional systems throughout history.

  In the view of Gao Huairen, the main reason is that ancient China never formed a systematic theory in physics and chemistry like the Western world did later on. Many things were discovered by the ancients through countless trials and errors or created by sudden inspiration, but they were not systematically organized into disciplines for people to study and learn from. As a result, when development reached a certain period, it stagnated and eventually led to the reason why there were no longer many bright spots in China's science and technology in later generations.

  So when he found that Jiang Peng was very interested in this aspect, he couldn't help but feel a little moved in his heart, thinking that this might not be a bad thing. If he could use the knowledge of later generations to establish systematic theories in physics and chemistry on this land of China during this era, it's possible that the history of China would have a great impact on future generations. Moreover, since Jiang Peng liked this kind of thing, why not let him take charge of these soap factories, glass factories and other workshops in the future, and be his industrial manager?

  After deciding on this matter, Jiang Peng also received special care from Gao Huaiyuan. Every day, he would take some time to teach him some knowledge of physics and chemistry, and use his self-made goose feather pen to organize the knowledge in his mind, write it into a book, and give it to Jiang Peng for study.

  What Gao Huaiyuan brought out was something that many of these young people had never heard of, and it was as if they were refining elixirs. When they occasionally learned about Gao Huaiyuan's life experience from others, their gaze at him would be different again, as if they were looking at an immortal!

  It's no wonder, such a thing would make anyone feel incredulous, but they couldn't find a suitable reason, so they secretly speculated that Gao Huarong must have met some immortal after being struck by lightning and had his spiritual aperture opened, otherwise how could he, a former fool, not only recover his sanity in a short period of time but also acquire a powerful kung fu and know so many strange and bizarre things?

  Thus, Gao Huaiyuan's body seemed to have an additional layer of mysterious color, and the crowd had another layer of reverence for Gao Huaiyuan in addition to respect and admiration!

  Gao Hua Yuan also quickly noticed the change in the eyes of these young men, and from Huang Yan, who had always been outspoken, he heard about the reason behind it. He could only smile wryly and follow them, after all, this kind of thing couldn't be explained by common sense, even he himself didn't understand how his own soul had ended up in this era. So he let them guess, which would actually be more beneficial for him to control these young men, making them more reverent and loyal to him. Overall, it was a good thing.

  In short, during the time Gao Huaiyuan stayed in Wotou Village, he made some adjustments to his previous ideas about how to build his own strength. From initially just planning to create a private armed force that he could control, he expanded his thinking and taught these young people according to their strengths, allowing them to play to their greatest abilities. If things went smoothly, in the future he would have a group of talented individuals who could be used by him, which would play an even greater role in helping him achieve his goals in this world.

  These young men are not just talented in certain areas, such as Zhou Yi and Jia Qi. Others also have their own strengths, for example, Zhou Jun is very skilled at managing the other young men. Although Huang Yan and Zhou Huan are Gao Huaiyuan's deputies, when it comes to controlling the young men, Zhou Jun's words carry more weight. This may be due to his cultural background or innate ability. Therefore, Gao Huaiyuan also values this first young man he recruited and has given him more power, gradually treating him as a third deputy alongside Huang Yan and Zhou Huan.