Thirty-Nine, Official Titles and Rewards and Punishments

  "Jiuhé, how dare you pour away the water I boiled!"

  Xiao Lian stormed out, her face filled with anger. Seeing her, Luo Jiuhe stuck out his tongue and said to Ye Wuyue, "You see, you see, if I hadn't made arrangements ahead of time, we would have definitely fallen into a trap."

  "As expected, it's still you who is cunning." Ye Wuyue nodded and said.

  "Are you praising me or mocking me?"

  "In the words of a minor official, it means combining two into one, exaggerating and toning down at the same time."

  Even in such a joking manner, Yu Guozhen's influence on them was already extremely profound. Seeing Xiaolian about to come over, Luo Jiuhe dared not let her really come here: "Xiaolian, rest assured, this vat is raw water, you and Gao Shu's boiled water haven't been moved over yet, their personal belongings haven't been distributed yet, how would I dare give the boiled water Xiaolian sister worked hard to boil to them?"

  Xiao Lian's tense face relaxed, and she retreated back to the tree edge. Then, she winked at Liu Ruo Si: "You saw that, right? Jiu He is the most cunning!"

  Liu Ruyi burst out laughing with a "heh heh", it turns out that Xiaolian was also a bit sly, at least she had just pretended to be furious, and it really was quite convincing.

  "Listen up, our young master will be here soon. Now all of you stand at attention." Luo Jiuhe shouted again: "Don't surround this place, stand at attention, stand at attention!"

  He said as he walked forward, now his courage had been exercised, even if he was facing more than eighty completely strange peers of the same age, he was calm and composed.

  He pulled out one of the two sticks that had been used to carry water, and with it in his hand, he poked at those who were still crowded together, although not very hard, but those who were poked understood that they were being scolded, and they all stood up.

  Luo Jiuhe drank a few more, but still wasn't satisfied. He turned his head to look at the distance and then shouted loudly: "Old Cow! Old Cow!"

  He was called Old Cow, a sturdy young man with thick eyebrows and eyes. On that night, in the nocturnal battle against the Taohu Lake bandits, he was one of the three who followed Yu Guozhen to charge forward. However, he also knew that waiting until Young Master wanted to take responsibility for the matter would be too late, so these past few days he had been somewhat anxious, fearing that Young Master would investigate and make him roll back home.

  When Luo Jihe called out to him, he slowly walked over.

  "Hurry up, old cow! You really are an old cow!" Luo Jihe cursed in dissatisfaction.

  "My name is Ziniu, not Laoniu!"

  "Stand up straight and let me take a good look at you, give these fools an example!" Luo Jihe said.

  "What makes you think I should listen to you?"

  "What makes you think that? Just because you're all cowards, intimidated by a few water bandits disguised as Brocade Guards?" Luo Jiuhe said with a smirk: "I saw through their disguise at a glance..."

  "It's the young master who has seen through it, not you."

  "In that case, I'm still better than you no matter how I look at it, so you have to listen to me!"

  Upon hearing this, Qi Niu felt a bit helpless and could only stand up straight. As he was a straightforward person, his posture was the most standard among the 16 boys. He fully met Yu Guozhen's requirements without any compromise: chest out, abdomen in, slightly raised chin, eyes level, arms naturally hanging down, fingers together, middle finger touching the seam on his pants, heels together, and toes forming a straight angle apart.

  There were two or three lives on his hands, and he was a bit of a stubborn person, so at this stop, Qi Niu's momentum was completely different from the silly and naive young man at the beginning. There was almost a murderous intent in his eyes. Those eighty-three young men originally looked at him with ridicule, but seeing him standing upright under the scorching sun without moving a single hair, they gradually felt that he was not ordinary.

  Standing like this is what it means to be majestic!

  "Look, this is the standing posture. All of you stand like this, pay attention, I'm talking to you, with your heels together, not your toes!"

  Luo Jiuhe and Ye Wuyue wielded their sticks, correcting the posture of each young man as they went along. Although not a few people returned to their original state shortly after being corrected, it took about half an hour's effort to finally get the eighty-three young men into formation.

  Liu Ruyi sighed helplessly.

  She, as a bystander, has already learned how to stand upright and line up, but among the 83 teenagers, at least 30 have not fully mastered it, and seven or eight are still completely bewildered.

  Perhaps they don't understand why they need to line up, or perhaps they don't know that there are so many details to standing upright. Whatever the reason, Liu Ruyi can think of it, and it's not easy for them to learn from Luo Jihe and Ye Wuyu!

  If she is Yu Guozhen, what method can be used to achieve this?

  After thinking for a long time, Liu Ruo was still clueless. At this moment, she realized that some of the books she had read before seemed to be taken for granted.

  Just then, she saw Gao Da Zhu and Gao Er Zhu appearing at the edge of the school field. The two of them had returned, proving that Yu Guo Zhen had also come back from town. Liu Ru Si was somewhat anxiously searching for Yu Guo Zhen's figure, and soon spotted him.

  The same outfit as the young men, the only difference being on both shoulders, Yu Guozhen's shoulders each had a two-finger-wide strip of cloth sewn on, with a star embroidered on it in red thread.

  Then, a loud and clear voice sounded: "All present! Fall in!"

  The household guards who were scattered around suddenly jumped up like startled deer, and they quickly ran from their positions to the front of the high pillar. Seeing this scene, the newly arrived boys who had just formed a line became disordered again.

  However, at this time, no one paid attention to them, and Yu Guozhen just glanced at them without saying anything.

  Gao Dazhu arranged the people in order, then ordered them to report their numbers. He then ran quickly to Yu Guozhen's side: "Reporting to the official, there are eighteen household guards who should be present and eighteen who are actually present, not a single one is absent, please give your orders!"

  "Fall in!"

  "Yes!"

  To those eighty-three new boys, everything seemed like a play, novel and interesting, but Liu Ruzi saw a little bit of doorway.

  "Every word, every move, has a rule to follow. If everything can be done in this way, then the camp and the army will be strictly disciplined... Lord Yu... Ah no, young master is truly a master of military strategy!"

  She thought so in her heart, but didn't say it out loud. Xiaolian watched for a while beside them, she had seen too much of this kind of thing and found it uninteresting, so she pulled on Liu Rushi's hand saying: "Rushi sister, shall we go back?"

  "Take another look?" said Liu Ruyu.

  After Gao Da Zhu returned to the team, Yu Guo Zhen walked over with big strides and came to the front of the team. His movements were also neat and tidy, with clear edges and corners. He looked at the young guards in front of him, then glanced at the eighty-three new young guards behind them.

  The young Wei had only been training for a little over three months, and there was still so much he needed to learn. But Yu Guozhen knew that the time left to him was not long.

  In the north, the Eastern Turks are unstoppable, in the Central Plains, the bandits of Gao, Zhang and Li are causing chaos for thousands of miles. The Ming dynasty has become a cancer to the country, while the self-proclaimed "clear stream" Donglin is actually digging at its own roots. Yu Guozhen does not think he will have 30 or 40 years to recover, he only has a few years, first with the bandits and then with the Eastern Turks, he will have to fight them head-on.

  So he must seize the time.

  "On the night of July 5th in the fifth year of Chongzhen, fifty-one bandits from Taihu disguised themselves as imperial guards and attacked our Xiang'an."

  Yu Guozhen spoke up, and as he did, the originally idle Home Guard youths immediately stood at attention again. The 83 new youths also quieted down from their whispers.

  "In this night battle, the Home Guard youths fought bravely and killed 19 bandits, capturing 32 alive. Not a single bandit escaped." Yu Guozhen continued.

  When they heard him say that, the eighty-three young men suddenly "buzzed" again in discussion. At this time, everyone looked at Jia Wei's young men with solemn and respectful eyes. They had actually killed nineteen water bandits!

  Who doesn't know the ferocity of bandits from Donglai's escape?

  Led by Da Zhu and Er Zhu, the eighteen teenagers involuntarily puffed out their chests. At this age, they had an unparalleled yearning for admiring glances from their peers.

  Naturally, among the newcomers, there were also those who thought they were clever and believed that this was the master's way of giving them a warning, but in fact, it was just boasting.

  Yu Guozhen paused for a moment, then continued: "Rewarding diligence and punishing laziness, praising bravery and penalizing cowardice is the rule of our Wei family. Today, we are presenting rewards for the previous battle."

  All the young people are invigorated, and every time they come to this moment, it is the happiest moment for everyone.

  "Great pillar!"

  Yes!

  Dazhu took three steps forward and arrived in front of Yu Guozhen, performing a hug-fist salute. The family's hug-fist salute is divided into two types: one is the formal ceremony, with both hands holding fists, waist slightly bent forward, using Yu Guozhen's words, it means the upper body leans forward 45 degrees, eyes straight at the recipient's toes; the other is a simple ceremony, that is, hugging fists and straightening the waist, eyes level with the recipient.

  Now Da Zhu is performing the correct ritual, and the eighty-three young men watching him find his movements extremely neat. Two of them can't help but imitate him by trying it out themselves.

  "In the battle that night, Gao Dazhu had three merits. Firstly, he led his troops as a company commander with great skill. Secondly, he fought bravely and killed three enemies. Thirdly, in the face of danger, he resolutely executed orders. Among these three merits, resolutely executing orders was the most outstanding!"

  Yu Guozhen's words came out, and some of the young people lowered their heads in shame. That day, the water bandits pretended to be Jin Yiwei, and some of them wavered. Yu Guozhen was actually using praise to criticize, rebuking their hesitation at the time.

  "Henceforth, I appoint Gao Dazhuang as Zhengzheng, and promote him to third rank."

  To prevent being reported for training private soldiers with ulterior motives, Yu Guozhen did not simply adopt the current Ming military system. In his vision, his future army should have two sets of ranking systems. The first set is "position", which commands ordinary soldiers and is called "Lianzheng". The second set is "rank", where ordinary soldiers have no rank, old soldiers are first-level, partners are second-level, and Lianzheng is third-level.

  After finishing, Yu Guozhen beckoned to the back, and Gao Buping brought up a wooden tray. Yu Guoren took two pieces of cloth from the tray, which were the same as those on his own shoulders, and showed them to everyone: "These are shoulder badges, three red lines, that is, third-level."

  Xiao Lian looked from afar and softly cheered: "Big Brother Dazhu is third place!"

  Liu Ruo Xi looked at Yu Guo Zhen with a complex gaze as he handed the epaulette to Gao Da Zhu, Xiao Lian didn't understand the meaning of the epaulette, and Liu Ruo Xi couldn't fully comprehend its significance for an army often in chaos, but there was one thing she had thought of.

  With this title, Yu Jiajia Wei will be even more disciplined!

  Train such a household guard, young master... what kind of ambition or, wild heart does he have?

  Divider line

  "I didn't expect this, originally tomorrow a big shot was going to release a new book ranking, we had the chance to fill in... but now it's heartbreaking. Our recommendations aren't few, what's lacking is clicks, especially effective clicks from members. In short, don't be discouraged, everyone add oil! Thanks to Zhiyi and Zhier for their rewards."