Chapter Twenty: Training Soldiers

  After a bout of sparring, Wei Lu's jacket was completely soaked through. It wasn't from exhaustion, but from being scared out of his wits. Every punch aimed at his vitals, every kick threatened to take his life. If any of Third Master's moves landed solidly, Wei Lu would be either dead or crippled. Anyone who faced this would be terrified!

  "Bring out your knives and play with them for a bit, let me see how good your knife skills are?"

  Yang Meng was good at playing with daggers before, and this body also has a few wild road knife techniques, he can be considered an amateur in knife play!

  Thirty knife-wielding men, their dance-like movements with knives were also intimidating, but Yang Meng could see that most of these people's knife techniques mainly focused on chopping and slashing. With those black blades, even if you got hit a few times, it wasn't necessarily fatal.

  "Wei Luozu, why don't you use a spear? As the saying goes, 'a spear can kill, but a knife can only wound.' This sword technique of yours is quite difficult to take someone's life with!"

  Yang Meng said that, Wei Tuozi also made a clever move, originally wanting to let San Ye praise him for a few sentences, the knife hands also brought out their true skills, but these seemed not so good in San Ye's eyes.

  "Third Master, our knife techniques are mainly chopping and slashing. Sword techniques have more stabbing moves, but without a good sword, any technique is useless. Even with our iron knives, they're not bad, sharper than the Yunnan Green Camp soldiers' knives. When using a knife to stab someone, it's easy for the blade to get stuck in the bone and break."

  Wei Tuozi, a knife hand for over a decade, thought he was more formidable than the soldiers from Yunnan and had some experience. San Ye was right, stabbing someone to death with a knife is quick, but his iron knife could easily break, and without a knife, what's the point of being a knife hand?

  "Then find someone to make some good knives. This guy is scary and can hurt people, but killing is far from it."

  As for these iron knives, Yang Meng couldn't bear to look at them either. The thick-backed iron knife with a black lacquer finish was intimidating enough to scare people, but using this thing to kill someone would be somewhat far-fetched.

  "Hey! Third Master, you're wrong this time. These knives of ours were custom-made by the old master at a great price, taking ten days to forge just one. They're far better than those carried by the Green Camp soldiers. Good knives? It's not that easy to make good knives. I know an ironworker who spends at least a year or two making a single good knife or sword, and even then it's no guarantee of success. Those good knives can cost hundreds of taels of silver, and we're using them as if they were nothing!"

  Wei Luozu was a Zhuang nationality, and his personality was relatively straightforward. As soon as he heard Yang Meng say that the old master's expensive iron knife was no good, he first scolded on behalf of the old master.

  "Xīng Dǒu, you can use my sword! I have a fine steel sword there, but one condition is that you are not allowed to kill people indiscriminately. Bǎo Jūn, bring me my sword."

  Yang Shi-qin spoke up, "Good steel is hard to come by. Generally, skilled blacksmiths who can forge good swords have all been recruited by the imperial court. It's extremely difficult to find a good ironworker in the civilian world."

  "Dad, you're just in time. I want to train these people's hands a bit. Can you allocate some more manpower for me? That way, I can pick and choose."

  Do as you please, but go and tell Bao Jun about this matter. You're looking for a place to settle down and train your troops, don't provoke the imperial court's people. The imperial court is not something our Yang family can contend with. Don't look at how prosperous we are now, if the imperial court wants to deal with us, it would be easy as pie. The imperial court has 40,000 soldiers in Yunnan, and just one of their spits could drown us.

  Yang Meng's recent actions are a bit unusual, and Yang Shi-qin is also worried! Fortunately, he doesn't have many people in his hands, and Lao Ding is watching closely too. But the alarm bell still needs to be rung, this kid used to be silly and foolish, don't let him fall into old habits again and bring disaster upon himself.

  "Dad! I'm from the province, at most I'd kill a human trafficker, but the imperial court? I'm not stupid, why would I mess with them and get my hands dirty?"

  Dealing with Yiliang's Zhou Dabao, preparing to rob opium, these things cannot be said clearly, in case of failure, one would not have the face.

  "It's enough to know, remember! Our family has a lot of money, the best way to deal with the imperial court is to use money. There aren't many officials in this Qing dynasty who don't love silver, even if it's not a high-ranking official, you can find a lower-ranking one, and there are plenty of them who will take your silver, which can also bring down the higher-ups!"

  Yang Shi-qin pointed out Yang Meng, and then slowly left. His own silly old three can also talk eloquently now. Although the reason is not very good, at least he can deceive people now.

  Yang Shiqin's treasured sword was indeed exceptional, with a body full of cloud patterns, deep blood grooves, and a sharp blade edge. Although it was somewhat lighter, it was a hundred times stronger than those iron swords.

  "Uncle Ting, is this old master's only good knife?"

  Yang Meng also took a liking to this treasure knife, it's really good, just looking at it makes people like it.

  "There's also a precious sword, but you can't play with it. It's the dagger of a Manchu general, and his family fell on hard times. The old master spent a lot of money to get it back then. Your big brother cried and begged for it, but what happened? The old master glared at him, and your big brother slunk away with his tail between his legs."

  Yang Meng held the treasured sword in his hand and silently felt the deep concern of his father.

  "Uncle Ding, find some useful knife hands and have them surround the Wu Manor and run until they can't run anymore. The first fifty I'll take care of, Wei Tuozi won't need to participate, let him be the leader."

  As soon as he heard this, Ding Baojun was also confused. It's good to let people surround the Wu Zhuang and turn around in circles. Isn't that a hassle? But San Ye is San Ye, so just run!

  Ding Baojun went to select people, and Yang Meng also started ordering the kitchen staff, beginning to set up scarecrows in the courtyard. Old Ding had selected a good team of people, and Yang Meng's side had also set up nearly a hundred straw men.

  "Uncle Ting, are these people all from our family?"

  After hearing about Cen Yu Ying's way of recruiting people, Yang Meng also tried to establish his own power.

  "Except for Wei Huazi, the others are all hired swordsmen. Most of our family's men are in the horse team, these people are the bravest and strongest in the team."

  "Brave?"

  "Hmm! The old master still holds the title of Kunming Tuanzong, otherwise, supporting so many people would be against the imperial law."

  The old master of the house is really not simple, bearing the name of the imperial court, training his own armed forces, isn't this just like when he was in the Golden Triangle years ago?

  "Uncle Ding, you say if I were to divide some land and give it to these thugs, would they be willing to risk their lives for me?"

  Yang Meng took out the plan that Cen Yu Ying had said on the same day, without changing a word, and looked at Old Ding to see what he meant.

  "It should be possible, these downhill knife hands are all unable to make a living on the mountain or live poorly. They become knife hands just to support their families. You give them land and add some consolation money, they will guarantee to work hard for you. Our family's knife hands have always been obtained in this way. But there is one condition: the land still belongs to us, after they die, apart from a considerable amount of silver, we must take back the land."

  Ding Baojun also told the truth, how the Yang family lured the knife handlers, it's not that they couldn't make a living, who would be willing to do such a bloody business?

  "How many mu of land is suitable for them? Is there any idle land in our family?"

  Last time I lost out on a meal and wasted 500 yuan. Yang Meng was more careful this time too.

  "Yamada is a ordinary person, no one wants to have it, the output is too small, medium land, can produce more than 200 kilograms of grain per year, ten mu is enough. Good fields are divided into two types, double-season fields and single-season fields. Double-season fields can produce 400-500 kilograms of grain per year, which is a good field. Single-season fields are slightly worse, but still have an annual output of 300-400 kilograms. Such land can also be rented out, but we need to collect 30% of the rent. In other places, such good fields require 70-80% of the rent, and our village also needs grain, so there is this rule."

  One mu of land can produce at most 350 kilograms of grain per year, Yang Meng was surprised, his own plantation also had paddy fields that year, the yield per mu was at least 500-600 kilograms, this is a difference of almost half!

  "Alright, I know, I should give up 500-600 mu of land, no problem, right?"

  "No problem, our family has estates all over the place, five or six hundred mu of land is nothing."

  With a motivating means, one's own troops are guaranteed to be trained. Before long, a group of swordsmen with their tongues out were brought over by Wei Luosi.

  Including Wei Tuozi, there were fifty-one people in total. Yang Meng also assigned Ma Qinghu to join them for training.

  "Listen up, I'm going to train troops. If you learn what you need to learn, not only will your monthly salary double, but I'll also give each of you ten mu of good land. I guarantee that you and your families will have no worries about food or clothing. In return, you must sell your lives to me, kill people and set fires wherever I point. If you can't do it, get out! Those who can, line up behind Wei Tuozi!"

  As soon as they heard that the pay would be doubled and there were ten acres of good land, these individual swordsmen, not one of whom had intended to leave, all crowded behind Wei Zhongxian.

  "Wei Tuozi, you're the same. Your monthly salary will be doubled and you'll get ten mu of good land. What you need to do now is take them around Wu Zhuang every day, run ten laps, and then learn some moves from me."

  Wei Luozizi heard that he also had benefits, his dark face turned red, and his eyes stared like copper bells, waiting for San Ye's order to go kill people and set fires.

  "Take a good look at this, you old codger!"

  After finishing, Yang Meng picked up a straw man from the ground and carried it to the wooden stake. A set of killing techniques was slowly played out, once, twice, three times, until the fifth time, when he saw that all the knife-wielding men were nodding their heads, Yang Meng stopped.

  "Just do it like this, hit wherever you want, I don't care about the moves, these positions on the straw man must be hit. Playing with knives is the same, just attack these places, if you can't practice well, get out of here! If you practice well, San Ye's reward will definitely be fulfilled."

  After finishing speaking, Yang Meng took out the dagger he had made a few days ago and demonstrated it several times. He stopped only after they had learned it fairly well.

  "Third Master, let's follow your method and fight. Running ten laps around the Wu Manor, isn't that a few laps short? We're knife hands, not rabbits."

  Some people in the running circle look down on WeChat, mainly because running is too tiring, and it's not even training, what's the use?

  "Hey, camel's kid! Does my word not count? Get up early in the morning and shout out loud for me to run. If I don't hear it loudly, consider it as if I didn't say anything."

  These knife-wielding men are too frail, and Yang Meng is no immortal, so he can only slowly help them build their strength.

  "Uncle Ding, I want you to make sure the kitchen takes good care of the meals for these 52 knife-wielding men. I don't care if it tastes good or not, but they must be fed until they're full."

  Set up a poison production workshop on the other side, prepare and prepare tools, it will take more than a month. During this period, let these knife hands have a small degree of progress in their physical fitness, so that they can use them more smoothly.