Chapter 41: The Extraordinary Talent Ma Jun

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  The little kid almost in a mosquito-like voice replied: "Ma... Ma Jun..."

  But Liu Ze heard it clearly, and in fact, he had confirmed the child's identity from the moment he recognized the compass. In the Three Kingdoms era, only Ma Jun could create a compass. The south-pointing chariot is a device for distinguishing directions. Our ancestors created the south-pointing chariot very early on.

  According to ancient Chinese legend, over 4,000 years ago, the Yellow Emperor and Chi You fought a battle. Chi You created fog to confuse the Yellow Emperor's army, causing them to lose their direction. Later, the Yellow Emperor invented the south-pointing chariot, which helped him determine the direction and ultimately defeat Chi You. Another legend says that around 3,000 years ago, envoys from the distant land of Yue (now Vietnam) visited the Zhou Dynasty but lost their way back home. The Duke of Zhou then presented them with a south-pointing chariot as a directional tool.

  These stories, although legendary, especially the Chiyou making fog, are a kind of myth. However, the invention of the Chinese south-pointing chariot is indeed an extremely ancient thing. During the Eastern Han period, Zhang Heng had already used purely mechanical structures to create the south-pointing chariot, unfortunately, Zhang Heng's method for creating the south-pointing chariot has been lost.

  By the Three Kingdoms period, people only knew about the south-pointing chariot from legend, but no one had ever seen what it looked like. At that time, Ma Jun, a government official in Wei State, was extremely interested in the legendary south-pointing chariot and decided to rebuild it. However, some conservative-minded people who knew about Ma Jun's determination were skeptical and did not believe that he could build the south-pointing chariot. One day, in front of Emperor Ming of Wei, some officials had a heated debate about the south-pointing chariot and Ma Jun. Gao Danglong, Qin Lang and others not only disbelieved but also ridiculed Ma Jun, who argued with reason and finally Emperor Cao Rui upheld justice and ordered Ma Jun to manufacture the south-pointing chariot.

  Ma Jun, without any data or model, worked hard and repeatedly experimented. Before long, he successfully applied the principle of differential gear to create a south-pointing chariot. Facts speak louder than words, Ma Jun ended this debate with his actual achievement. The south-pointing chariot created by Ma Jun performed well on the battlefield where war fires raged and smoke filled the air. No matter how the war chariot moved, the wooden man's hand always pointed to the south, earning the admiration of all officials in the court. From then on, "the world admired his ingenuity".

  It was confirmed from the child's mouth that he held Ma Jun tightly in his arms, holding him tightly and not letting go for a long time.

  Liu Ze's heart, apart from the great joy, was more filled with guilt. Once these children left the camp, they would inevitably be on the brink of death. Many adults had starved to death on the road, who would believe that these children could fend for themselves and survive in a chaotic world? Liu Ze wasn't without consideration for the consequences, but he was more motivated by self-interest. Perhaps he had seen too many separations and deaths, perhaps he had experienced too many lives lost in vain, and having stayed in this social environment for too long, Liu Ze had also become numb and cold-blooded. In his eyes, people were only divided into two categories: those who were useful and those who were useless. Those with utilitarian value were treated like gods, while those without were left to fend for themselves.

  But today he almost strangled a genius, a great inventor. However, it's not too late yet, everything can still be salvaged.

  Liu Ze stood on the high platform at the gate of the camp, loudly announcing that the repatriation plan was cancelled, and all personnel immediately returned to their respective camps. All the children outside the camp cheered and jumped up.

  Returning to the main account, Liu Ze felt relieved and sat down on the armchair with a light body. The people below were in a daze, standing there in confusion.

  Liu Ze beckoned them to sit down, but Zhang Fei did not sit. He had other things to do today and didn't go to the camp entrance either. He huffed and puffed, saying: "Big brother, I originally thought you did a great thing, but in the end, you made another mistake. I don't know what you're thinking, leaving those few hundred useless trash behind, what's the use of them?"

  Liu Ze smiled and didn't answer him, turning to Guan Hai and saying: "Zi Qian, what do you think of that Ma Jun?"

  Guan Hai thought for a moment and said, "Ma Jun is a bit of a loner, he doesn't talk much usually. This time in the literary and martial exams, he was ranked near the bottom. I heard from people who manage the camp that he never interacts with others, only likes to play with some useless trinkets by himself."

  Liu Ze handed the compass to Guan Hai and said: "Take a look at this."

  He took over the pipe and looked at it from left to right, but no matter how long he looked, he couldn't figure out what was going on.

  Zhang Fei took it over and couldn't understand it either. He said, "This is just a toy made by a child himself, rough and unrefined, what's good about it?"

  Liu Ze walked over, placed the compass in his palm, and no matter how he moved his hand back and forth or left and right, the compass always pointed towards the south and north directions. Zhang Fei was amazed, couldn't help but take it again to fiddle with it, and clicked his tongue: "I didn't expect this thing to be so much fun."

  Guan Yu was well-read in poetry and literature, and also had some knowledge of the compass. He said: "This thing is probably the 'south-pointing needle' mentioned in Wang Chong's book 'Lunheng'. No matter how you turn its handle, it always points south. It just seems a bit crude."

  Liu Ze nodded and said, "That's right, this thing is a compass, made of magnetite. When moving horizontally, the needle always points to the south, whether it's for military campaigns, traveling in the wilderness or sailing at sea, this thing is an essential item."

  "Who would have thought that Ma Jun at such a young age could create something so exquisite, truly one cannot judge by appearance." Zhang Fei was also astonished.

  Liu Ze let out a sigh and said, "This Ma Jun is indeed a genius-like figure, far surpassing Pan Feng, Wu An, and Guo in combined strength. Yet, due to my momentary lapse of judgment, I almost committed an irreparable mistake. Everyone has their strengths and weaknesses, and sometimes a person's talent can be deeply hidden. Who can discern whether those who seem useless are actually hiding dragons or tigers? Looking back, I am filled with shame. I, Liu Ze, claim to want to save the world with benevolence and righteousness, yet I almost committed an act of unrighteousness. Knowing that sending him back would be a death sentence, I still intended to do so - my actions are no different from those of an executioner!"

  "Big brother, why must you worry? If it weren't for you buying them back, these children would probably have starved to death on the streets already. Life and death are all in your hands." Zhang Fei said disapprovingly.

  Liu Ze said dejectedly: "This is like meeting someone who has fallen into a well on the road. You have already pulled him out of the well and given him a chance to live, but then you push him back into the well again. What's the difference between this behavior and killing someone? Through Ma Jun's case, I have come to understand one truth: everything in the world has its own reason for existence, and no life should be taken lightly."

  "What will Master arrange for them?" Since they all had to stay, Guan Hai could only ask Liu Ze for his opinion.

  Liu Ze sank into thought for a moment, then said: "There is still much barren land in the valley. If we open it up and cultivate it, we can plant crops like wheat, millet, soybeans, vegetables, and so on. We can also raise cattle, sheep, dogs, and pigs. In short, as long as we work hard and are diligent, we won't starve to death."

  Those kids, although lazy and sloppy, suddenly woke up after this incident. Under the leadership of several old farmers hired by Liu Ze, they opened up wasteland, reclaimed wild fields, and created patches of good farmland. Although these children were neither well-read nor skilled in martial arts, their origins were all from farming families, and it seemed that they had some natural talent for farming. Without much instruction, they could skillfully engage in agricultural production. Liu Ze also bought back a large number of piglets, lambs, and chicks, and built pigpens, sheepfolds, and chicken coops.

  After settling everything here, Liu Ze finally solved a big problem. The next step was much easier, and all the personnel on the list were concentrated in a spacious large tent to learn new courses. Except for morning exercises, other training subjects were no longer conducted, and most of the day's time was spent in class, learning content also transitioned from literacy and numeracy to learning Four Books and Five Classics, poetry, astronomy and arithmetic and so on.

  The arrangement of the land character list is just the opposite, and the classes for recognizing characters and numbers are no longer needed. However, the intensity of martial arts training has increased significantly. In addition to the original physical training, combat training, weapon training, and archery training, cavalry training and military formation training have been added, and the intensity and difficulty of each subject have also been greatly increased.

  Liu Ze organized the over 1,000 people into a military formation of five men as one wu, ten men as one shi, with each wu having a wu head and each shi having a shi head. Five shi formed a team, with a team leader; two teams formed a tun, with a tun leader; five tun formed a qu, with a qu leader; and two qu formed a bu, with a bu leader, the position of which was held by Wu An Guo. Guan Hai remained in the position of General Instructor, responsible for overall work of the bu and qu.

  Ma Jun's arrangement was the most relaxed and carefree. Liu Ze specially selected a few people with quick minds and nimble hands to accompany him, except for going to class every afternoon, the rest of the time was left to his own arrangement, whatever he wanted to do, all the resources in the valley, whether it was gold, silver, copper, iron or wood, stone, hemp, were at his disposal.

  Under Liu Ze's suggestion, Ma Jun soon created a better compass, not only smaller in size and lighter in weight, making it easy to carry, but also with an additional degree plate, on which the eight directions of due south, due north, due east, due west, southeast, southwest, northeast, and northwest are engraved. When using it, just align the red pointer with due south, and the other directions will be clear at a glance.

  In the end, only the 500 people on the Tianzi list were left. Liu Ze divided them into ten teams, each with fifty people, and each team had a team leader: Zhang Long, Zhao Hu, Chen Biao, Li Bao, Guo Shen, Bai Ying, Zong Xiong, Fei Yan, Xiao Lang, and Wang Ling were the team leaders, while Pan Feng was the commander. Liu Ze attached great importance to these 500 elite selected from the Lin, and personally took charge of their training.

  In his heart, building a special forces and intelligence agency had always been a dream since he came to the Three Kingdoms. The kind of omnipotent skills that could reach the heavens and enter the earth made him eager, the kind of octopus-like silent and stealthy intelligence network made him yearn. Cultivating such an invincible force would be an important key to conquering the Three Kingdoms. These 500 elite all had the potential to become special agents, so how to cultivate them became the top priority.