Chapter 24: The Stormy Weather of Yu Guan (Three)

  Pingzhou City is about 70 miles away from Yu Pass, and Li Chengzhong has already made up his mind to start training his troops from this 70-mile distance. The first thing he needs to train is marching, as an army that cannot continuously march quickly has little combat effectiveness. Therefore, he divided the 70-mile distance into seven sections, each section being 10 miles long.

  At this moment, there was still more than an hour before nightfall. According to Li Chengzhong's orders, all soldiers were issued with weapons, either holding knives and shields or carrying wooden guns. Squad leaders and above had to wear leather helmets and armor. Before departure, he called the nine squad leaders, excluding Zhao Da, to his side and announced the plan for tonight's march. According to the plan, each squad would start a forced march as a group, and no matter what method was used, they must arrive at Xiaosong Slope, ten miles away, before dawn. The first five squads to arrive could rest on the spot, while the last four squads had to cook for their comrades in the first five squads. When arriving, it would be based on the last person of each squad; as long as one person was missing, the entire squad would be considered not to have arrived.

  As soon as the plan was announced, the emotions of all the partners were mobilized, and they all rubbed their fists and prepared to compete with each other. Li Chengzhong gave each partner a time limit for planning and preparation, and also made an appointment with Feng Dao to meet at Xiaosong Slope before dark. Feng Dao observed the whole process of Li Chengzhong's announcement with some surprise, and asked in a low voice: "Li Chengzhong, what if there are soldiers who escape midway?"

  Li Chengzhong smiled and said: "If you escape, then escape. However many people are left, General Jia will take that many to Yu Guan. This is also a second selection."

  Feng Dao nodded and didn't say much, urging the civilians to hurry up and set off first. Zhao Da followed the civilian camp to depart, because Jia Du had only ninety people, he simply didn't lead any troops, but instead wore a deputy lieutenant's and squad leader's insignia, still doing his old job.

  After reorganizing the team, Li Chengzhong waved his hand and started jogging with Jiang Miao. The nearly 90 people suddenly scattered like a mess, blindly following them out. Wang Dalang was still loudly shouting and competing with Zhong Siliang: "Siliang, I'll go first, you guys come slowly, and when the time comes, cook me a good meal!" After that, he rushed out first.

  These soldiers rushed east in a chaotic manner, but instead they left Li Chengzhong and Jiang Miao far behind. Jiang Miao was getting anxious, wanting to pick up the pace, but was held back by Li Chengzhong: "Don't be impatient, come on slowly, follow my rhythm, those rabbits will soon be unable to run."

  As expected, without running two miles, some soldiers were seen bending over, panting heavily on the side of the road, while others with stronger willpower leaned on their wooden guns and moved forward step by step. Li Chengzhong quickly surpassed these lagging soldiers, turned his head to look at Jiang Miao, but Jiang Miao still had spare energy.

  When they ran three miles away, they saw Zhong Si Lang resting in front of them. Li Chengzhong nodded and continued to overtake. Further ahead, Li Chengzhong and Jiang Miao gradually overtook each group, including Meng Xuxing and Jiao Chengqiao's groups with all their brothers present, the civilian cart team that set off first, as well as many straggling soldiers along the way.

  It has to be said that Wang Dalang is indeed capable of running. Li Chengzhong and Jiang Miao only caught up with Wang Dalang, who was slowly moving forward with a wooden spear, when they were more than a mile away from Xiaosongpo. However, there was no one else around Wang Dalang, only he, the lone gang leader, his fellow brothers had all been left behind by him.

  When they ran halfway, Jiang Miao was really getting tired and couldn't run anymore. Li Chengzhong knew that this was the critical point of running, and once past this point, everything would be fine. He pulled Jiang Miao along, not letting him stop. Sure enough, when they reached Xiaosong Slope, Jiang Miao's face turned pale again, but he just kept coughing and panting heavily.

  Li Chengzhong picked a branch and waited on the small pine slope. The first to arrive was Wang Dalang, who panted and laughed loudly, proclaiming himself the first, but was beaten with the branch by Li Chengzhong, not allowing him to lie down and rest, only letting him walk around. Jiang Miao had recovered and asked Li Chengzhong why he didn't allow others to rest, then followed suit, breaking off a branch, shouting and making the soldiers who arrived later move around, pulling up those who lay down, making them stand and exercise their hands and feet.

  When it got dark, most of the brothers had arrived at Xiaosong Slope. Since Li Chengzhong had previously requested that everyone must be present to count, the first place was not Wang Dalang's group, but Meng Xuxing and Jiao Chengqiao, who arrived at the same time. The third complete team to arrive was Zhong Siliang's group. He noticed Li Chengzhong's requirement of "no one is allowed to fall behind" and sacrificed speed on the way to let two brothers who were not good at running catch up with the team, and instead got third place.

  The first to arrive, Wang Dalang was extremely anxious. He stood by the road, constantly looking around. Every time one of his own brothers arrived, he would go up and kick him, scolding "Can't you hurry up a bit?" By the time Zhong Si Lang's group arrived at Xiaosong Slope, he was already on the verge of rage. This anger didn't last long before it turned into despair. When night fell, all the groups had arrived except for two people from his own group.

  Wang Dalang looked at Li Chengzhong with a somewhat mournful face. Li Chengzhong asked coldly, "Still two short? What do you suggest we do?"

  Wang Dalang gritted his teeth and set off immediately. Li Chengzhong looked at the others in their group and said, "You're just going to watch your leader go by himself? What good soldiers you are!" The others exchanged awkward glances for a moment before following Wang Dalang as well.

  Li Chengzhong did not treat the civilians as outsiders, on the contrary, he was willing to consider them as his own people. Therefore, he bluntly asked Feng Dao to command the civilians to start setting up military tents and unloading grain. Feng Dao didn't mind Li Chengzhong ordering him around at all and fully cooperated to get the civilians busy. Of course, cooking meals wasn't assigned to the civilians, this was a task specifically left for those ranked sixth or lower as punishment.

  The small hill suddenly became noisy, the people who arrived first were enjoying the service of those who came later, while the latecomers were swearing and vowing that they would win in the competition on the second day. The two sides went back and forth, laughing and scolding, with all sorts of curses mixed together.

  After dinner, the night had already deepened, but Wang Dalang's companions had not returned. Li Chengzhong stood alone on the pine slope, gazing out at the road, which was still pitch black. After waiting for a while, he turned his head and saw that all the brothers were standing behind him, also looking out at the road. Li Chengzhong waved his hand and ordered everyone to return to their tents to rest, but he himself continued to wait with his back turned. After another while, he turned around again and saw that the brothers were still in the same place, so he said: "Why aren't you all going to rest?"

  Jiang Miao stepped forward and said in a low voice: "Everyone says we should wait together."

  Li Chengzhong nodded and stopped paying attention, still standing in his original position. Suddenly, a torch lit up the road ahead, and he vaguely saw someone moving around. After a while, Li Chengzhong finally let out a sigh of relief when he saw that the person holding the torch was Wang Dalang. Looking behind him, all ten members of the group were accounted for. It turned out that the two men had poor sense of direction and had taken a wrong turn from the rest of the group.

  Wang Dalar saw that all his brothers were waiting for him, and with a sense of shame, he hung his head and muttered: "I'm sorry... I'm really sorry..."

  Li Chengzhong nodded, and before he could finish speaking, he interrupted: "Don't apologize to me, because all of you brothers haven't rested yet. Lead your gang and apologize to the other brother gangs."

  Wang Dalang was about to lead his brothers to apologize one by one, but he had already been pulled away by the crowd. Seven mouths and eight tongues sent over hot soup and rice, and the camp was once again bustling with excitement.

  Li Chengzhong smiled and ordered Jiang Miao to arrange for someone to keep watch at night, but saw Feng Dao hadn't rested yet, still watching him from the side. He walked forward and said: "What's that... Brother Feng, not sleeping?"

  Feng Dao leaned forward: "Li Pei-rong, you can call him that. Li Pei-rong's subordinates are really close to each other, I heard they were all recruited the day before yesterday?"

  Li Chengzhong said: "Yes, but Brother Dao, they were all recruited yesterday. Look, not one of them has run away, isn't that pretty good?"

  Feng Dao nodded: "Rong's method of leading soldiers is impressive, I admire him."

  Li Chengzhong chuckled: "What's this, it hasn't even started yet." Looking at the brothers of the armored division united under the flames, he felt an indescribable comfort and relief. The taste of being a "company commander" was still pretty good, Li Chengzhong thought to himself, smacking his lips.

  Jiang Miao leaned over and asked in a low voice: "Li Lang, will it be the same tomorrow? Everyone wants to ask if we should continue competing."

  Li Chengzhong nodded and said: "Of course! What's wrong? Is someone unwilling to compete?"

  Jiang Miao shook his head: "They said that they want to ask Li Lang for half a time, and each group will have to deliberate carefully on tomorrow's route." The officers were all built from the original Jianzuoying camp veterans, these partners had always followed the rules of Jianzuoying, going to sleep at 5 o'clock every day, now wanting to rest later.

  Li Chengzhong smiled: "Alright, I'll give you all half a time unit, and after half a time unit, we'll rest."

  Jiang Miao passed down the order, and before long, the lamps in each camp were lit again. Li Chengzhong walked around the small campsite and saw people moving about in each tent, with occasional whispers of discussion. It seemed that there was finally some vitality, and Li Chengzhong nodded his head in relief.