Twelve: Heartfelt admiration and sincere obedience

  Yu Yiqin wiped away the sweat on his forehead, and those eighteen white candles seemed to still be dancing in front of him, making him sweat profusely.

  "Lao Wu...... what do you think?" He looked at his own brother beside him and asked in a low voice.

  "It doesn't matter, victory and defeat are common in the military. I was just caught off guard by a young whippersnapper..." Yu Yixuan's face turned iron-gray: "In another month, I will have trained my troops well, and then I'll challenge him again!"

  Yu Yiqin was just about to say something when he saw two young men, both seventeen or eighteen years old, running out of the town towards him, and stopped in his tracks.

  "Father, Fifth Uncle!"

  These two are Yu Yiqin's twin sons, Yu Guoning and Yu Guoan. They heard that the family guards who were practicing with their cousin were going to have a friendly competition with the young men from the neighboring village, so they rushed out excitedly to watch the commotion, not expecting their father and uncle to have already returned.

  "Wu Shu, you've won, haven't you? Did you beat Guo Zhen until he was defeated and fled in disarray?" Yu Guoning asked with a somewhat urgent tone.

  "That's inevitable, Guo Zhen's gang is just a small group of street idlers, what use can they be!" Yu Guoan said.

  Seeing them, Yu Yiqin's heart suddenly moved.

  These two sons of mine are not good at studying and can't do things properly, they just like to have fun and play around. If it were usual times, Yu Yi wouldn't worry at all, as long as they grow up a bit more and become more sensible, the power of the Yu family will still be handed over to them.

  But now it's not possible. Yu Guozhen's sudden rise made Yu Yiqin realize that his two sons, tied together, were no match for Yu Guozhen.

  He's an old man, nearly fifty years old. If he can live for another ten or twenty years, it would be a blessing. By then, his two sons will be facing Guo Zhen; what kind of situation will that be?

  "Get out of here! If I see you two causing trouble outside again, I'll break your legs!" Yu Yiqin shouted in anger.

  Why doesn't even one of his own sons turn out well!

  Yu Yiqin thought of the white wax stick that was handed to her, and her heart suddenly moved.

  I didn't have a falling out with Guo Zhen, and after his parents passed away, I was the one who helped with the funeral arrangements. Also, although I took over the three houses, I never moved in to live there, but only stored some miscellaneous items inside...

  There is still room for recovery, and at most, the clan power will be handed over to the third house. With Guo Zhen's ability, it is a certainty that the family will prosper!

  From a different perspective, he found that he didn't need to compete with Yu Guozhen at all - in terms of closeness, the extinct fourth house was his cousin, but Yu Guozhen's father was also his cousin!

  "Lao Wu, I think I understand now. Guo Zhen has made a name for himself, which is a great thing for our Yu family!" After drinking with his two sons, he patted his thigh: "Our generation has you to support the family gate, and in the next generation, we'll rely on Guo Zhen to glorify the family. Now that the world is in chaos, bandits are rising everywhere, and last year the slaves broke through the pass and looted the capital... With Guo Zhen being so capable, our Yu family has nothing to worry about!"

  He got more and more excited, pulling Yu Yixuan to turn around, Yu Yixuan was sulking, after all, he lost to Yu Guozhen, especially those young people who won cleanly and neatly, making the face of the Confucian scholar disappear. For a while, how could he put it down!

  "What's Second Brother pulling me into?" he asked.

  "Go back, go back and have a good talk with Guo Zhen. The money for the training of our family's guards was paid by our clan, and besides, all the guards in our household were also handed over to him for training." Yu Yiqin said excitedly.

  "What's this, Second Brother means to let those youngsters ride roughshod over us?"

  "Lao Wu, I've always admired your cleverness and resourcefulness, but today you're wrong. Isn't it what you often say that 'the young surpass the old' - isn't that exactly what's happening now? Why are you being so obtuse?"

  "You can get through, I couldn't, you go!" Yu Yixuan shook her sleeve and strode into the town.

  The two parted unhappily, without getting Yu Yixuan's support. Yu Yiqin ultimately didn't rush to find Yu Guozhen and could only swallow his temper again to persuade Yu Yixuan. After persuading for two days, seeing that Yu Yixuan was still unmoved, Yu Yiqin also got annoyed and came alone to Yu Guozhen's home again.

  Last time he came in a hurry to watch the exercise and didn't notice how Yu Guozhen's house was built. Now, taking a closer look, he couldn't help but repeatedly praise it silently.

  But in just a month, the high wall had been completely built, with a watchtower at each of its four corners. However, due to the lack of people, there was no one guarding the towers. The speed of construction far exceeded Yu Yiqin's imagination, as he had thought it would take until the second half of the year to complete.

  The new house built inside the courtyard has also taken shape, and several rooms that were deliberately built first can be inhabited. Yu Yiqin walked to the door and looked in for a moment before someone asked, "What are you doing?"

  "You're a crow who wants to die, don't you even recognize me?" Yu Yiqin cursed with a roll of her eyes.

  The one who asked the question was Ye Wu Ya. He stood behind the door, leaning on a white wax stick, and when he heard the scolding, he smiled slyly: "Don't blame the second master, this is the young official's rule, whoever comes in must answer questions first."

  "This kid, really thinks he's in charge here?" Yu Yi-qin didn't get angry, on the contrary, at this time he was hoping that Yu Guo-zhen's abilities would be even greater, with greater abilities comes a broader vision, and of course, he wouldn't compete with him for the position of family head, but rather would be of great help to the family!

  He stopped at the door and waved his hand: "Crow, you go tell Guo Zhen that I've come to see him."

  Ye Wu Crows smiled and responded, turned to leave but then turned back and said: "Second Master, the young master thinks that Ye Wu Crow is not a good name, so he changed my name. From now on, Second Master will call me Ye Wu Cliff, with 'Wu' from martial arts and 'Cliff' from steep cliffs... The young master also said that this name has another meaning, that 'Cliff' is also the 'Cliff' in Cliff Mountain."

  After finishing speaking, Ye Wuyue ran quickly towards the house. Yu Yiqin waited boredly and pondered his name: "Yayshan's yay... Yayshan, yayshan, this word is so familiar... but how come I just can't remember it?"

  He didn't have to wait long before he saw Yu Guozhen following Ye Wuyue out, Yu Guozhen was wearing a brand new set of clothes that were ironed to perfection, his face had an air of maturity that didn't quite match his age, looking extremely majestic.

  "Second Uncle, please come in and talk."

  Seeing only Erbo coming, Yu Guozhen could roughly guess his intention and a smile floated on his face. He invited Yu Yiqin into the courtyard and walked alongside him, saying: "At this time, Erbo came to find me with some instructions?"

  "Give orders?" Yu Yi Qinchuckled, he didn't dare give orders to Yu Guo Zhen. If it weren't broad daylight and in front of many people, he wouldn't even dare enter this courtyard. He was now more convinced than ever that the fourth house's affair was done by his own reckless nephew!

  Since he came, he didn't prepare to save face and said bluntly: "Guo Zhen, how much silver grain do you need to spend each month to train these young men? The clan will reimburse you."

  Yu Guozhen smiled faintly.

  "No need, I can afford this little bit of silver. The pearls I pawned earlier were exchanged for some silver, which will be enough for me to use for a year."

  As he said this, Yu Yiqin stopped in his tracks and handed over a bundle: "Take it."

  Yu Guozhen took it over and pinched it, saying in surprise: "What does Second Uncle mean by this?"

  "The IOU for the four houses is fake, I was unclear about the situation at the time and made a mistake, so I spent money to redeem the pearls." Yu Yiqin was very satisfied with his reaction, smiled and said: "There is also the house left by your father. Before, I was afraid that you were too young to manage the family business. Now that you have grown up and are doing things in a very orderly manner, this house can also be returned to you to manage."

  Yu Guozhen pondered for a moment, and what Second Uncle had done made him look at him in a new light.

  That house is worth 400 to 500 taels of silver, and the pearls are worth over 1,000 taels of silver. Adding these together, nearly 2,000 taels of silver have fallen into his hands. Although the Yu family is considered a wealthy household in Xiang'an, and the second house has the most prosperous industry as the head of the clan, this is still not a small expenditure.

  "I'll take the deed to the house, as for these pearls, let Second Uncle handle them." After a moment's thought, Yu Guozhen handed the pearls back: "If Second Uncle is willing, exchange them for silver grain and help me recruit some innocent refugees. There are only eighteen people now, not enough to be of any use."

  "Don't worry, don't worry!" Yu Yi-qin was relieved by Yu Guo-zhen's understanding and his spirits lifted. He secretly praised himself for being a good nephew. However, the more generous Yu Guo-zhen was, the more he knew he had to be even more impressive. He got an idea in his mind that after exchanging those pearls for silver, not only would he not deduct any amount, but he would also add some extra on top.

  "Second Uncle, if you have nothing else to do, you can watch how I train these young men." Yu Guozhen said, seeing that Yu Yiqin had not left yet.

  "Let's take a look!" Yu Yiqin was even more delighted in her heart, and this completely didn't show any difference from how she usually treated him. This time he came to mend his relationship with the third house, it seemed like the right thing to do.

  He didn't quite understand Yu Guozhen's training method, but at least he understood the basic "orders must be obeyed". Seeing these originally street urchins of boys, in just one short month, they could do this, Yu Yiqin's heart was even more respectful of his nephew.

  The morning exercise lasted for an hour and a half, with a 15-minute break every half hour. The boys repeated the same movements over and over again, although it was dull, they did it very seriously. What made them do so was the delicious smell of fish and meat coming from the kitchen.

  Yu Yiqin watched with great interest, and at noon he even had lunch with these young people. Their food was quite good, every eight people in a group of two meat dishes and two vegetarian dishes, all served on large plates. Even as the head of the Yu family, Yu Yiqin didn't eat like this every day.

  When they were halfway through their meal, Gao Erzhu ran over from outside. He looked a bit unusual and leaned in to whisper something to Yu Guozhen's ear. Yu Guozhen raised his head and glanced at Yu Yiqin.

  "What's wrong?" Yu Yi Qun was taken aback in his heart, because Yu Guo Zhen's eyes actually contained a murderous aura!

  "Some people have seen Li Jinbao, the one who went missing from the fourth house, and he's hiding in the river with a group of people." Yu Guozhen finished eating the last grain of rice in his bowl and said slowly: "Second uncle, do you want to come with us to take a look?"