Chapter Sixteen: Marksmanship

  Song Qing's big gun in Xuzhou Wei was very famous, and the ones that could be mentioned together with it were Song Hu's big knife and Wang Jian's long knife. In the past, only the latter two had a reputation, but martial arts have always been about how many people you can kill. Song Qing became famous overnight, and the number of lives taken by his gun exceeded that of his father Song Hu, so his marksmanship naturally rose to the top in an extremely short period of time.

  Wang Jian's long knife was known for its extraordinary deadliness, but it had never taken a life, so naturally it still ranked last. This was a widely circulated story among the military families. When Song Qing said he would teach them some skills, these young whippersnappers naturally chose the large spear first.

  The first person to shout out was still Luo Xiaobei, Song Qing's current right-hand man. The little guy had been following Song Qing and his status at home had gradually improved. In the past, because he was too young and didn't like doing farm work, he was often nagged by his parents, saying that he wasn't as down-to-earth as his two older brothers.

  However, after following Song Qing, this seemingly promising young flag, his parents no longer said much. Every evening at dinner time, the two brothers would also ask him about Song Qing's affairs, which made him feel a bit of the so-called "privilege". Although Song Qing was just a small sesame official and he was only a runner for the sesame official, this feeling of eating imperial court food still made him feel very unusual. It seemed that he had become an adult overnight, and his desire for skills naturally became even stronger.

  With him leading, the ten children also shouted "dà qiāng" in unison, their voices no longer chattering and chaotic like when they first arrived. Song Qing nodded his head in satisfaction and said: "Since you all want to learn dà qiāng, I'll teach it to you. However, learning dà qiāng is very tough. I'm saying this again, if you can't take it, you can leave anytime. You should consider this carefully for yourselves. If you leave now, it's still okay, but once I start teaching you, if you want to leave, you'll have to ask my family's few big dogs!"

  With the example of the previous half month, everyone knows that Song Qing will not joke around. But at this time, no one wants to leave either. The torture of the past half month has been endured, and now that they are finally about to learn the big gun, it would be stupid to quit.

  After asking repeatedly and seeing that no one was leaving, Song Qing led Luo Xiaobei and Ma Cheng to the armory to ask the old soldier on guard for some equipment. This Xu Zhou Garrison had been peaceful for a long time, and the armory hadn't seen anyone in a while, only being disturbed once when they were suppressing bandits, normally it was idle to the point of boredom.

  Now that Song Qing, a man in his prime, has come to ask for weapons, and with Old Tiger Song's face at stake, the old soldier naturally wouldn't make things difficult. He hurriedly led them inside, selected ten long guns, and Song Qing, seeing that these guns were decently made, gave the old soldier a string of copper coins. Anyway, he would have to come back to this arsenal later, so it was good to establish some connections first.

  Luo Xiaobei and the other young men, although also from a military family, had grown up seeing only farm tools like hoes and rakes. They had never seen any real weapons before. Even when they went to suppress bandits last time, all they did was help carry things. At most, they would be given a wooden staff to hold. Now that they saw these genuine standard-issue rifles, they were naturally excited beyond measure. Without waiting for Song Qing's orders, each of them had already grabbed one and begun waving it about on the drill ground, shouting and whooping. Song Qing watched for a while, then when he saw they had gotten tired out, he cleared his throat and said, "Alright, that's enough fooling around! I'll teach you some practical moves first!"

  It's said that Song Qing was about to teach, a group of children hastily put away their weapons and watched quietly. Song Qing didn't hold back either, stabbing at the virtual enemy in the air with a few swift and fierce moves, at least making himself very satisfied. However, the group of children didn't see anything special, thinking it was just a warm-up exercise. After being stunned for half a day, they found that Song Qing simply had no follow-up actions. Luo Xiaobei asked uncertainly: "Big Brother Song, is that all?"

  Song Qing didn't say a word, his single hand grasping the end of the long spear, fiercely swinging it outward, and with the momentum, he pointed the spearhead at Luo Xiaobei in front of him. The snow-white spear tip drew a silver-white afterimage in the air, Luo Xiaobei originally hadn't paid attention, but when she reacted, she found that the spear tip had already reached her throat, suddenly scaring her so much that sweat broke out all over her body instantly. She was about to retreat several steps, but suddenly felt as if she had been cast with a petrification spell, unable to move even one step.

  The gun tip stopped half an inch from Luo Xiaobei's throat, and Song Qing had a faint smile on his face, asking: "Kid, do you understand?"

  Lu Xiaobei nodded with a lingering fear, took half a day to calm down, and stuttered: "Understood..."

  "Understand? Then practice according to my method!" Song Qing demonstrated once and then became impatient, shouting loudly: "Don't think that the gun technique of this big gun is something fancy, like 'needle can't pierce water' or 'water can't penetrate', those are just nonsense made up by storytellers. Practicing it isn't impossible, but if you really get to the battlefield and encounter someone like me, you won't even have a chance to make a move, you'll be killed in an instant! You all saw it earlier, the most authentic killing technique with a gun, it's just a few moves back and forth, as long as it can kill people, that's enough!"

  "Yes!" These kids aren't stupid either. On the contrary, after training with Song Qing for a few days, they've learned some things that don't belong to this era. For example, distinguishing left from right is now barely possible. The only left-hander was also taught by Song Qing's several rods and understood the direction. Moreover, the gun techniques on the battlefield aren't anything groundbreaking, and simpler moves are actually more effective in battle. Luo Xiaobei and others are all military households, so they've heard some of this before and don't find it difficult to understand. After Song Qing taught them a few times, they all learned it and enthusiastically stabbed at the air.

  Watching these kids practice shooting, Song Qing's mind was actually thinking about making money. At first, he didn't think much of the money, but once he started supporting his subordinates, he immediately felt the problem. The reason other officers didn't worry about this was that they treated their subordinates like household slaves and had them earn money, taking a large share for themselves. But Song Qing not only didn't let these ten kids work in the fields, but also spent his own money to feed them meat, losing even more in the process.

  If these kids are useless, then it's easy to say, but after half a month of work, Luo Xiaobei and the others have clearly shown great talent, and with a few more months of practice, they can become their own helpers. In the future, there will definitely be fewer occasions for eating meat, and at critical moments, they'll even need to give some reward money. After all, they can't always rely on Song Hu to support them.

  After thinking for a long time, Song Qing still didn't have any good ideas. After all, his predecessor was an otaku and didn't know where to make money in this place. The memories he inherited were naturally unclear, and he had just arrived recently and spent the past few days busy training troops. Similarly, it was all a blur, and in the end, he couldn't be bothered to think about it anymore. He waved his hand in the formation and called over Luo Xiaobei, who was practicing with great enthusiasm, and asked: "Little guy, do you know if there's any business that can make money around here?"