Chapter One: Perplexity

  Gao Huairen sorted out his thoughts, although he was not very familiar with this period of history, but he knew a little about it. If things continued to develop in this way, the fate of the Jin and Western Xia dynasties would inevitably be doomed to destruction. How much time would history leave for him?

  A sense of urgency arose, and Gao Huaiyuan felt that it was time to speed up the pace! After thinking for a while, considering that things on this side of the old house were basically cleared up, he let Xue Yan stay in the old house to take care of things here, and took Liu Er with him, rushing back to the mountain villa, starting to busy himself with things over there!

  In the south of the Yangtze River, winter is relatively short. With the warm breeze blowing, soon after the Spring Festival, this place is full of spring scenery. In the mountains and fields, there are birds singing and flowers blooming everywhere. Walking on the road to the mountain villa, I see layers of clear and serene mountains and forests, dense bamboo forests that are lush and upright. The surroundings are quiet, with only the sound of birds chirping in the valley. My mood, which had been dormant all winter, suddenly stirred up a bit. The peach blossoms, like a yellow carpet, unfolded across the mountains and fields, and my mood became lively again with the vibrant yellow color.

  Such scenery greatly improved Gao Huaiyuan's mood. Since he had come to this era, being overly tense was futile. As long as he did what needed to be done and didn't have any regrets later on, that was enough. Although the Song Dynasty might ultimately fall under the Mongolians' iron hooves, there were still some days left. If he remained mired in worry, he would no longer be able to enjoy this life; wouldn't that be equivalent to having come for nothing?

  After understanding this, Gao Huaiyuan put down the anxiety in his heart and sang loudly: "A burst of laughter on the vast ocean, surging tides on both shores, floating and sinking with the waves, only remembering today..."

  Liu'er had never heard Gao Huaiyuan sing before, so she stuck her head out of the car window and listened carefully. Gao Huaiyuan was singing in Cantonese, a language Liu'er wasn't very familiar with, but she couldn't help humming along to the tune, which sounded fresh and pleasant to her ears.

  The mountain villa was still bustling, and looking down from the foot of the mountain, among the green trees, it was indeed a wonderful place. Being able to have such a good foothold here, Gao Huaiyuan was truly grateful to that old man Gao Lagen. If it weren't for him, how could he have had such a quiet place to stand? Poor old man Gao Lagen, who knows where he ran off to now and what kind of life he's living, but Gao Huaiyuan wouldn't think about missing him at this moment.

  Since Gao Huaiyuan moved to the mountain villa, the construction speed on this side has also accelerated. With Gao Huaiyuan's relatively abundant financial support, the originally planned three-month completion of the villa was basically completed in less than two months.

  Standing in the newly built house, smelling the lime on the wall, a group of young men all had happy faces. Although it was hard work during this period, seeing the houses finally completed with their help, everyone felt a strong sense of belonging here. From now on, this would be home for these orphans!

  Gao Hua Yuan is generally satisfied with the overall quality of these houses, but he feels that the walls made of gray mud are not as solid as those made of cement. However, in this era, where can you find cement? He can only make do with it! But in his heart, he is thinking about whether to see if there are any large projects nearby and burn some cement too. After all, this thing's technological content is not high, and the raw materials are readily available, so if used, it would be a way to get rich.

  After settling the wages of these artisans and tenants, they quickly cleaned up the yard, then thanked Gao Huaiyuan's generous reward with a smile, left the villa, and the villa suddenly became quiet.

  Looking at the tall walls, Gao Huaiyuan and the people here all feel very fond of it. If you want to see the situation inside from outside, it's basically impossible now. Huang Yan glanced at the empty door frame and suddenly said to Gao Huaiyuan: "I say, boss! Our place can also be considered a mountain villa, right? Without a name, it doesn't feel dignified enough. We can't just call it Gao Family Villa, that's too common! Why don't you give our place a more impressive name? Let everyone remember our name in the future?"

  Even Zhou Heng, who didn't like to talk on ordinary days, nodded repeatedly: "Exactly! Big Brother might as well give us a loud name here!"

  Gao Huaiyuan thought that what they said wasn't wrong, if you want to make the people here truly have a sense of belonging in the future, taking a loud name is not bad either. After thinking about it for a moment, he immediately said: "Since you've all said so, from now on this place will be called Wò Hǔ Shānzhuāng!"

  The crowd heard the news and immediately erupted in cheers. Gao Huaiyuan even brought out a string of firecrackers, hung them on the doorframe, lit them up, and they crackled away for a while, bringing good luck before everyone rushed into the mountain villa.

  Although there was still some dampness inside the house, these young people didn't care about this and immediately moved into the new house in the back, tidying up.

  Gao Huaiyuan watched as they tidied up the room neatly, nodded in satisfaction, and finally looked like a proper barracks. It seemed that during this period of time, these newcomers who had arrived years ago had also adapted to life here, and their awareness of obedience had long been deeply ingrained. Although they were still young, Gao Huaiyuan believed that as long as he gave them enough time, he would definitely be able to train them into a group of skilled warriors.

  In the following days, life in the mountain villa returned to its previous state. Every morning, as soon as the rooster crowed, they would immediately get up and line up for exercise, conducting daily physical training. At the same time, these young people also had to receive some simple and practical training in boxing and weapons. Previously, Huang Yan and Zhou Huan were responsible for teaching them sword fighting, but after Gao Huaiyuan arrived, he took over from the two of them and personally took charge of this matter.

  These young men finally knew the true extent of Gao Huaiyuan's abilities. Every day, they would go out for exercise, each wearing light clothing, and follow Gao Huaiyuan as he ran. After running a lap, they all felt like they were about to suffocate, but looking at Gao Huaiyuan, who wore a helmet filled with iron sand every day and ran with them, even Huang Yan and Zhou Huan had to wear sandbag helmets and exercise together. These young men were left speechless!

  In the past, they sometimes had some reservations about such running in their hearts, but Gao Huaiyuan told them that this kind of running should not be underestimated. It is a very good exercise for people, and often when you feel exhausted, you still have to persevere, which is a great test of willpower and can greatly strengthen their physique. So after getting used to it, these people would feel uncomfortable all over if they didn't run for a day, and as a result, their bodies became much stronger.

  After the morning exercise, it was time for breakfast. After eating, everyone busied themselves under Gao Huaiyuan's command in the backyard workshop, tidying up various things and preparing for the soap factory to go into production. This matter was only entrusted to the young people by Gao Huaiyuan, and other servants in the manor were not allowed to enter the backyard, in order to keep it a secret. Only these young people were trustworthy in his eyes.

  Apart from this, Gao Huaiyuan continued to insist on teaching these young men literacy, with Zhou Jun continuing to teach them. He also personally took on the role of arithmetic teacher, instructing the young men in Arabic numerals and commonly used arithmetic methods. With his abilities, teaching such things was a piece of cake; it didn't require any particularly profound knowledge, just knowing addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division would do. Later, after these young men grew up, even if they weren't suited for being soldiers, they could still help him with tasks like managing accounts.

  Before, the bows and arrows that Xing Captor had sent them were finally starting to take effect after these young men underwent rigorous training. Generally speaking, Song Dynasty bows are divided into three grades: the strongest is usually the nine-dou Huangxia bow, followed by the eight-dou bow, and at least the seven-dou hemp-backed bow. As for the two-stone strong bow used by Gao Huaiyuan, it's absolutely a non-standard weapon, belonging to an ultra-variant category that can't be considered within the normal range! To know that even the strongest god-arm crossbow in the Song Dynasty army was only two stones and one dou, which relied on foot pedals and required full-body strength to pull open. Now Gao Huaiyuan is playing with a two-stone hard bow, so it can't be measured by common logic!

  Xing captured the head and gave them the seven-dou hemp-backed bow, which just made up for the lack of strength in these young people, allowing them to practice shooting skills.

  For this, Gao Huaiyuan specially cleared out a piece of land behind the mountain villa and set up targets for archery practice for these young men. In this aspect, Gao Huaiyuan was also one of the best among Huang Yan, Zhou Huan and the three of them, so he personally took charge of the guidance without hesitation.

  Only those who can pull open the seven-dou bow have the opportunity to train in archery in the backyard, so it also becomes a symbol of honor among them. Who says that archers are the weak in the army? Gao Huaiyuan doesn't believe this nonsense. He wants to elevate the status of archers and says that archers are the masters of the battlefield. Only fools would be at the front as cannon fodder! So, it immediately ignited the enthusiasm for these guys to practice shooting.

  During this period, Gao Huaiyuan frequently left the mountain villa to go to Daye County or nearby Yangxin County to procure raw materials. However, he was somewhat frustrated with buying salt, as it had always been a monopoly of the government throughout history. But in the Southern Song Dynasty, official salt was of poor quality and high price. If they bought it back, they would have to refine it again, wasting a lot of time and effort. Fortunately, Xue Yan had previously mixed with people on the road and knew where to buy good-quality private salt. So Gao Huaiyuan immediately let Xue Yan go and purchase a batch of private salt, which was transported to Wohu Villa in batches for storage. The rest were purchases of grass alkali or soil alkali, and they also contacted many butchers to deliver a fat sheep to Wohu Villa regularly.

  After all this fuss, everything is finally arranged, just waiting for a good day to start work!