Chapter Forty-six: Inspection

  Xiao Tianjian continued to stroke the stubble on his chin, and then asked: "What about the reputation of the Lin family in this Fourth Lin Fort, and the two families with the surname Fan outside?"

  "Feng Dogzi immediately chimed in, 'I've heard of these two families. The Lin family's four brothers mainly have a lot of land left to them by their ancestors, and I haven't heard that they have a bad reputation. In fact, it's said that the four brothers get along well and are very close-knit, with many children and grandchildren. Not many people dare to provoke them. On the other hand, Fan Fucai from the Fan family is not a good person, he's deceitful and has done many bad things, and he's notoriously stingy, even more so than Liu Bapi! If you ask me, we should target the Fan family's fortress. This old man occupies a lot of land, and his household should have stored up a lot of grain! If that doesn't work out, we can go back to the Liu family's fortress again. Last time, we only managed to get two carts of grain, it was too easy for that old man!'"

  Xiao Tianjian nodded, thinking to himself that this Feng dog, although a rascal by birth, still had some conscience and a sense of right and wrong, and even a bit of a sense of justice. If he weren't so bad at riding horses, he would have made a great scout. Now, making him a long spearman was a waste of his strengths!

  Xiao Tianjian patted his leg, made up his mind and said: "According to what you said, Linjia Fort seems easy to attack, but I think the risk is actually a bit bigger. The strongmen inside the fort are probably all relatives of the Lin family. People in this kind of place are united and willing to fight to the death. If we attack Linjia Fort, it will probably drive them to desperation! Moreover, the Lin family has a bad reputation, and we don't need to provoke them."

  Since this Fan guy is no good, don't blame us for targeting him. Let's attack the Fan family fortress! We'll start preparing today and set off at dawn tomorrow!

  You all go down and get ready, the soldiers are all gone, Zhang Fu brought a few carpenters and coachmen with him, and picked out more than ten slightly stronger new recruits to follow Zhang Fu, and help out at the right time! Also let them gain some experience!

  The rest of you stay behind and watch the house. Let the leatherworker and the woman hurry up and finish the tasks I entrusted to them. They must hand over the goods to me early tomorrow morning!

  "Afternoon, everyone will gather at the school field for another practice session. Tonight, let's have a good meal and rest well, as we'll be busy soon! Everyone can go ahead and get ready! Shi Yan, stay behind and also ask Luo Ying Jie to come over, I have something for him to do!"

  The crowd immediately dispersed, shouting and gathering their brothers to start working. Before long, Luo Yingjie ran over, his legs together, and said to Xiao Tianjian: "Please give orders?"

  "Bring me paper and pen, I need to use them! Get another low table over here!" Xiao Tianjian said with his head down to Shi Yan, and casually instructed Luo Yingjie.

  Luojingjie was a bit curious, wondering what Xiaotianjian wanted to do with paper and pen, so he quickly ran to prepare, and soon came over with an auxiliary soldier carrying a newly-made low table, on which were placed inkstone, paper and pen.

  "Take note, from now on you'll be in charge of this matter! Shi Xiong can't read, so you'll have to help him out later. Shi Ran, please elaborate and let's draw a map of the surrounding area, so that later when you guys mention some place, I won't have to rack my brains thinking about it!"

  Xiao Tianjian picked up the brush, dipped it in ink and began to draw on the paper according to what Shi Yan had said. Shi Yan occasionally pointed at the paper to indicate the roads, villages, mountains, ridges, gullies and other features, as well as the locations of several wooden stakes that he knew about.

  Xiao Tianjian drew while asking, this brush is really not used to it, a piece of paper quickly became a big flower face, this ink mark, where is a pile of black blocks, the more ugly the better.

  "No way! This brush is useless to me! Go, go, go! Get me a charcoal stick, I'm more used to that thing! What's this stuff!!" With that, Xiao Tianjian threw the brush onto the table.

  Luojunjie couldn't help but secretly laugh when he saw Xiao Tianjian's posture holding the pen. After getting to know this guy, Luojunjie thought that Xiao Tianjian was quite capable, but today, seeing him pick up the brush, he was still clumsy. So, he felt a little happy, thinking that at least in the future, Xiao Tianjian wouldn't be able to leave him behind, and his status would be higher among these people if he stayed under Xiao Tianjian's command.

  After responding with a sound, Luo Yingjie rushed to get a thin wooden charcoal stick for Xiao Tianjian. After trimming it with a small knife, he roughly made it look like a pencil and began drawing on a new sheet of paper.

  This time he did it with ease, holding the charcoal stick and quickly sketching out a clean map, although rough, but all places were clearly marked, overall it was clear at a glance, making one's eyes light up.

  Luojing Jie's eyes widened in surprise, he didn't expect Xiao Tianjian to be so skilled with a broken charcoal stick, and soon a map appeared before them. From then on, he no longer dared to underestimate Xiao Tianjian, thinking that this guy was indeed a versatile person who could do anything!

  It wasn't until Luo Yingjie saw Xiao Tianjian's signature that he noticed there were some typos in the names, and some of the characters had been simplified, but the handwriting was very clear and distinct, with a unique flavor to it.

  "Alright! Shi Ran, take a look and see if there's anything wrong with it! It can only be like this, if you could draw it yourself that would be great, it would save me the trouble!" Xiao Tian Jian threw down the charcoal, patted his hands together and looked at his own work with some satisfaction, asking Shi Ran.

  Shi Rang's jaw dropped to the ground, he didn't expect that just by his words, Xiao Tianjian would draw out a map of the surrounding area so quickly, and it was so clear at a glance. In his heart, he couldn't help but admire Xiao Tianjian even more, this palm-sized object not only could draw maps, but also write words, what an amazing person!

  "It's really well-drawn, this map! I'm truly impressed by your skills with the brush! Unfortunately, I don't recognize these big characters, so I couldn't have done it myself!" Shi Yan looked at the map with a face full of admiration and said to Xiao Tianjian.

  "It's not like you can't learn! I'll give you a notebook later, and you can also get a carbon paper to draw out the map. Don't worry about labeling the place names for now, we can add them later when we get back. This way, you won't forget!" Xiao Tianjian asked Luo Yingjie to put away this map, then he copied it again and kept a copy.

  As for this time going out to fight the village, the news quickly spread to everyone's ears, and suddenly Xiao Tianjian's subordinates became lively, with different moods, thinking of all sorts.

  Some people are excited, waiting for the success and reward afterwards. Some are nervous, afraid that they won't be able to come back this time. Some are numb, feeling indifferent. However, most of the old brothers still have some eagerness to try, both nervous and excited.

  In the afternoon, forty men formed a small square formation on the empty ground, with four rows of ten people each. The knife and axe holders stood in front, followed by three rows of long gunners. Under Xiao Tianjian's command, they marched forward in unison, halted, and then performed various defensive and offensive movements. For a time, the old nest here was filled with shouts of killing, making it very lively.

  Watching these brothers' neat movements and fierce killings, the new refugees looked at each other with some excitement and couldn't help but get excited. Some people gathered together, secretly pointing and discussing the brothers in the arena.

  "Wow! Our squad leader is really something, just look at these brothers of ours, each and every one of them is as fierce as a wolf! I've seen soldiers on the road before, but never such robust ones. We're lucky to have such good fortune! To be able to follow such an awesome squad leader is our blessing! When can I become like them? That would be something... Wow..." Someone gazed at the brothers in the field with envy, and whispered to the person beside him.

  "You don't have to show off your ugly face! You're so thin and weak, you'd better not embarrass yourself! I think the most you can do is follow Tang Fu's assistant! But I'm sure that one day I'll be just like them too! Hehe!" A short man with his hands in his pockets replied with a look of envy.

  "What's wrong with me being like a thin monkey? You don't even look at yourself, you're like a dwarf pumpkin! How dare you not weigh your own weight? I think you're not even qualified to be a supporting soldier for Zhang Fu!" The guy who was scolded glared and immediately got angry, and fiercely insulted the short guy.

  The short guy was about to glare back, when another person beside him said: "Forget it! What are you guys fighting for? If you want to be like these brothers, you have to be able to take a beating first! You've seen how we train with the palm plates, no mercy at all. They're so tough because they've been beaten into shape. Can you two handle that kind of beating?"

  "This isn't something I'm bragging about, but since I was a kid, I've been herding sheep for the wealthy family, and every day I'd get beaten up without fail. No one can take a beating better than me, I can definitely withstand it. Looking back, I think I'd be great at this!" After saying that, this guy actually had a look of longing on his face, as if he was fantasizing about getting beaten up in the arena someday.

  It's really strange, there are still people who take being able to withstand a beating as an honor, it seems that withstanding a beating has become a skill. As soon as he finished speaking, he was met with contempt from a group of people.

  When the exercise ended, Xiao Tianjian nodded slightly, still generally satisfied with these subordinates. After all, some of them had already experienced several fierce battles and had begun to show a bit of the spirit of a seasoned soldier. With just one poke, they really did have an air of unspoken intimidation. This momentum was stronger than before. The new recruits were at least former soldiers who had seen bloodshed, so their training progressed faster than that of the people from Zhaojia Fortress when they first arrived. At least they had a sense of self-awareness as soldiers and would restrain themselves according to the requirements of their superiors. Therefore, after dispersing and reorganizing them, these men made rapid progress under the leadership of the old brothers. Moreover, the big stick was not vegetarian, and if they didn't do well, they would be subjected to real corporal punishment. So, these men couldn't help but make progress.

  Moreover, after the selection, the remaining soldiers are all brave and strong, with better quality. After training, their spirit is naturally more energetic. Although the training time is still short and far from reaching Xiao Tianjian's ideal level of fierce warriors, Xiao Tianjian cannot wait for them to reach that level and can only use them in battle to temper them!

  As soon as Xiao Tianjian gave the order, three rows of long gunners, under the cover of knife and shield hands, simultaneously switched their guns to their left hands, swung their right arms with force, and threw out the javelins in their hands. Suddenly, a group of black lines appeared in front of the team, like a swarm of yellow bees, and instantly fell on a row of straw men.

  Although these javelins were just wooden javelins without iron heads, some people still hadn't grasped the accuracy of the javelin, and the javelin didn't hit the target scarecrow, but those more accurate javelins still pierced several scarecrows like a porcupine, looking at them made one's heart feel apprehensive.

  Such an attack, indeed made Xiao Tianjian happy for a while, if he encountered an ordinary opponent, it would be enough to make the opponent drink a pot, I estimate that if the opponent was weak enough, just this round of spear would be able to knock the opponent down!

  "Attention! These days, you brothers have done a good job! Although I'm not entirely satisfied, the fact that you've been able to achieve this level is already quite good! From now on, as long as you continue to work hard and train diligently, I believe that sooner or later, all of you will become elite soldiers! On this point, I have no doubt whatsoever!"

  Tomorrow we'll have to go out and do something! As a stick, you must have the awareness of being a stick. We are forced to live without a way out, and can only survive by robbing those rich people. There's no need to be polite with them, nor is it necessary to feel ashamed! In this world, only the strong can survive, and we must become the strongest among the strong. Only in this way can we live a little longer!

  You all know the emphasis on discipline, when you go out to do things, everything must be done under my command. I won't say much about what happens to those who don't respect orders! You're on your own!

  Tonight, I'll let everyone have a good meal, and today, I'll make an exception to give you some wine to drink, so that everyone can enjoy themselves! Then, have a good sleep, this is the reward for your hard work during this period of time.

  Everyone is present, dismissed!

  "Thanks for the treat!" More than 40 people cheered in unison after hearing Xiao Tianjian's words, and then dispersed with a whoosh, rushing towards the place where the fragrance was coming from.

  Updated, read it, time to vote! Hehe!

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