Chapter 29: Memories of Hatred

  The prince can make a decision, it's really not easy. When he saw the prince finally nodded firmly, Yun Qi finally breathed out the turbid air that had been pressing on his heart.

  At this moment, the crown prince's expression is uncertain. If a person has been kind and loyal since childhood, with virtues such as humility and respect for others, then after doing something terrible, not only will they feel uneasy in their heart, but also a thrill of unknown origin. The current crown prince is like this.

  "Your Highness, time is running out. The Shu army is closing in, and the defeat of Wei is only a matter of time. I will immediately draw up the plans for the crossbow, and Your Highness should also start production as soon as possible."

  Yue Qi pinched the tea cup lid on the table to represent the State of Wei, and then poured some tea from the cup onto the table to represent the large army of Shu. He saw him lightly lift one corner of the table, causing the tabletop to tilt, and the originally accumulated tea water quickly flowed down the slope.

  The tea water flowed to the edge of the cup and then divided into two streams that bypassed it from both sides before merging again and continuing to flow down. Although Yun Qi didn't give any indication, they all knew that next was the territory of Nanguo.

  "Bang!" The prince slammed his hand on the table, his face furious, and said angrily: "Shu has lost all sense of justice. Yunqi, you don't know that whenever Shu's army captures a city, they must first close the city gate tightly, and then let their soldiers burn, kill and loot, doing all sorts of evil things."

  "What's the difference between this and Little Japan back then?!" Yun Qi blurted out.

  "Huh?" The crown prince looked bewildered, staring at Yun Qi and asked: "Is the 'Little Japan' you mentioned also a country?"

  "Uh... Your Highness... it's like this. My hometown was originally a place of grandeur, with talented people and a rich land. We were the descendants of dragons, but at that time... uh... how should I put it? The world is always changing, sometimes united, sometimes divided. At that time, our country was in turmoil, and Japan, which was originally just a vassal state of ours, secretly built up its strength. When our country was at its weakest, they launched a war against us. They were like the Shu army, burning, killing, and looting wherever they went. In no time, they occupied nearly half of our territory, leaving our people in dire straits, with dead bodies scattered all over the streets and countryside. They would find women to vent their frustrations on, sparing neither children nor old ladies. They took pleasure in killing, competing with each other to see who could kill more people. Thirty million innocent civilians were slaughtered in Nanjing alone, not counting those whose deaths were not recorded. It wasn't until then that the sleeping dragon slowly began to awaken. The entire nation rose up in resistance and eventually drove the soldiers of this tiny country back to their homeland."

  The prince listened with relish, and when Yun Qi spoke, the prince would occasionally furrow his brow, apparently also deeply disgusted with Xiao Riben. When Yun Qi finished telling the whole story, he finally let out a sigh of relief: "Yun Qi, I didn't expect this country called Xiao Riben to be so inhumane. But why did they dare to invade a country even bigger than themselves?"

  Yun Qi took a deep breath and said in a low voice: "Guarding against theft! Colluding with the enemy! Self-inflicted slaughter! Shortsighted!" Yun Qi's words were powerful and sonorous, and from his tightly clenched fists and bulging veins on his arms, it was not hard to see how he felt at this moment.

  "Yun Qi... do you think the Southern Kingdom can resolve this crisis?" The prince asked cautiously. He didn't know why, but Yun Qi gave him a particularly strong feeling now, a sense of strength that made him ask this question.

  Yun Qi turned his head to look at the prince and said slowly, "It's possible. Those who follow the Tao will have many helpers, while those who lose their way will have few helpers. If the Shu army continues like this, even without our help, the people will rise up in rebellion on their own. Those who do not act righteously will surely perish; a tree that stands out in the forest will be blown down by the wind. This is the principle... But if we rely solely on ourselves, it's really very difficult. The Shu kingdom now has hundreds of cities and millions of soldiers, while we only have seven cities and a total of 100,000 soldiers. Through my observations over the past two days, our most fatal weakness is that our soldiers lack actual combat experience, which is a terrible thing. Once we encounter the enemy, it's very likely that we'll be defeated in an instant."

  The crown prince hastily asked: "Do you have a solution?"

  Yun Qi glanced at the prince and continued, "I'm not sure yet, but I'm preparing for an experiment. I plan to take about a hundred men from my side out of the city for training. Hehe, it's no harm telling Your Highness today, I plan to secretly take them to the border of Shu and Wei to stir up some trouble."

  "What! Yun Qi, you're too bold! You actually..." The prince's surprise had already fallen into Yun Qi's eyes.

  "He also said calmly: 'Your Highness, you don't have to worry. I already have a detailed plan. Wei State is our shield, and there's no better barrier than this one. As long as Wei State exists, it will be a safe haven for our Southern State. That's why I only brought 100 soldiers this time, to observe the training results. If it works out, I hope we can send more troops to reinforce Wei State. Your Highness, you should know that fighting on someone else's territory will never put us at a disadvantage.'"

  …………

  Coming out of the East Palace, it was already afternoon. Yun Qi rubbed her sore wrist all the way, silently sighing in her heart: Drawing the structure diagram of the crossbow with a brush is truly painful to the extreme. Not only did the lines have to be meticulous, but also precise, and using a brush to complete it was not easy at all.

  Fortunately, the crown prince had prepared a carriage for Yun Qi. He tactfully declined the escort of eunuch Zhu Ran and climbed onto the carriage alone, leaning against the soft couch to rest.

  Before long, he returned to the barracks. The guard at the entrance already knew Yun Qi and gave him a military salute without saying anything extra.

  Yun Qi didn't rush back to his tent, but instead went to the training grounds to see if the first hundred men were training. Although he hadn't given them any tasks before leaving, he believed that as a qualified soldier, they should always have the awareness of self-discipline at all times.

  The training on the field was still in full swing, with everyone engaged in various exercises. In the center of the field, a large empty space had been cleared out. The empty space was very quiet, with only about 100 people standing upright in several rows, at attention. There were few curious soldiers watching from around them, as everyone had already grown accustomed to it.

  This hundred or so people were the first hundred troops, and what they were doing now was the military posture that Yun Qi had taught in the morning. At noon, these big-headed soldiers were clearly exhausted, but unexpectedly, in the afternoon, they could still voluntarily train their military posture here. This made Yun Qi look at them with even more respect in his heart.

  "Not bad...... Have you been practicing your military posture here all along?" Yun Qi walked over and circled around the formation.

  No one answered him, and everyone didn't even look at him, just staring straight ahead as Yun Qi required.

  Yun Qi's heart secretly smiled and shouted: "Han Changsheng!"

  "Arrived!"

  "When did you start standing at attention?"

  "Report! We started after lunch."

  "Didn't rest?"

  "Report! None!"

  "Alright!" Yun Qi nodded and waved his hand, signaling Han Changsheng to return to his team.

  As they approached, Yun Qi saw that the soldiers' upper bodies had been sunburned to a deep red, and where the skin was peeling, it had been soaked in sweat and turned white. Some areas were already swollen and red. However, not one of the soldiers voluntarily withdrew, including the two who had fainted earlier that morning.

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  PS: Sorry to readers and friends for the past two days, I really had something on and no time to update. I don't want to say more, updates will resume from today. Thank you all for your support.