Early next morning, the Mayor’s Mansion was in hustle and bustle again.
This time, those six hundred guards, who had been on duty the night before, were lining in the Square in front of the Mayor’s Mansion and getting their asses beaten. Six hundred naked butts were lining up and getting canned. Blood splashed from the shining white butts and painful screams resounded, seemingly loud enough to reach the heaven. It was a truly remarkable view.
Early in the morning, Wu Qi had prepared himself to witness this remarkable show. He had a bowl of porridge in one of his hands, two sweet and delicious pastries in the other, and was squatting right in front of the General Office’s front door. When those guards screamed, he would drink a mouthful of fragrant ‘Golden Rice’ porridge. When the Officer of Records, Internal Affairs, and Security howled, he would take a bite of the delicious pastry. What an enjoyable moment.
While Wu Qi was eating and drinking happily, Lu Chengfeng, who had just finished his porridge, walked out from the General’s Office. Some joy came into his eyes at the sight of those shining white butts on the Square, then he lightly kicked one of Wu Qi’s boot with his feet.
"Don’t be so obvious when you’re delighting in others misfortunes. Go back inside and eat, don’t squat here. If they see you here, they would know that you are enjoying watching their sorrow! This is not good for our image of someone from an influential family."
"Yes, yes." Wu Qi replied and stood up, taking a look again at those hard working City Guards who were canning their own colleagues, trying to memorize the scene. Then he shook his head, breathed out a long sigh and turned around, going back into the General’s Office.
Lu Cengfeng made a coughing sound suddenly and asked with a low voice, "Little Meng City was a peaceful place before we came. But, since we arrived, the Mayor and his siblings have repeatedly been visited by burglars. I heard even their silk underwear was stolen. This is weird, really weird!"
Holding the bowl with one hand, Wu Qi turned his head to Lu Chengfeng and said contemplatively, "Heaven watches us from above. Who are we to question its judgment?"
"Heaven’s judgment?" Lu Chengfeng cupped his chin in his hand and stared at the sky thoughtfully. After a while, he turned back and looked at Wu Qi’s back, who was strolling into the General’s Office, then shook his head. "Could it really have been done by this guy? Stealing everything from three storehouses in just one night, that would require an amazing amount of skill! But, it would be nice if really was him. The next time I go back home to pay my respects to the ancestor, I’ll bring him with me!"
Yi Yan and his siblings, four of the highest ranked officers in Little Meng City, were crying their hearts out, crying because they had lost the money they had spent several years squeezing out of the citizens in the city. In an outland like Little Meng City, it took them three years of hard work to save up this wealth, now their harvests had disappeared overnight. How could they accept this cruel fact?
The Mayor’s Mansion was in havoc. Therefore, nobody knew or even bothered about the incident where Lu Chengfeng had fired all four of his subordinates in the General’s Office.
Taking advantage of the havoc, Wu Qi brought Zhang Hu into the General’s Office. Together with nearly one hundred barbarian hunters, they had become Lu Chengfeng’s hanger-ons, and had also been transformed into the personal guards of the General of Little Meng City. Laohei, who was the new Bursary Officer, unlocked the weapons warehouse and carefully picked out some fine weapons and armors to give to Zhang Hu and his men, raising their combat strength by a few levels.
After a few restless hours, noon had come.
Everyone in the Mayor’s Mansion had stormed out in search for the culprit. They searched every single street and alley and caught anyone with unfamiliar faces. The embarrassed and angry Yi Yan and his gang didn’t care what these peoples were here for. As long as they looked suspicious, they would be caught and sent to the jail. In just a single morning, a few hundred unlucky guys had been locked up in jail.
Fear spread quickly throughout Little Meng City, and people stopped caring what Wu Qi and Lu Chengfeng were up to.
Noon time, on the drill ground west side of Little Meng City, a huge, black flag was whipping in the strong wind. On the flag was a Vermillion Bird with its wings spread. A character ‘吕’ was embossed on the body of this Vermillion Bird with silver threads. This was the national flag of the Lu Kingdom.
More than a dozen of these huge flags surrounded the drill grounds, making loud whipping sounds under the strong wind. A restless atmosphere covered the entire drill ground as over seven thousand City Guards were standing straight, looking nervous and feeling uneasy.
Black clothes and black armor, even all the weapons were painted in black. This huge pitch black army stood straight and no one dared to make any noise. Besides the whipping sound from those flags, the only sound that could be heard was breathing.
On the east side of the drill ground stood a dirt platform, with a big chair placed on it. Lu Chengfeng, wearing full armor and having a sword on his waist, was sitting on it with a straight back, examining these few thousand soldiers and officials. His face was dark, and a killing intent filled his eyes.
Zhang Hu and nearly a hundred personal guards of General were standing in a straight line in front of dirt platform, all of them with baleful looks, gazing viciously at the few thousand City Guards in front of them. With their experience of hunting barbarians in the mountain, these barbarian hunters were ferocious hunters, and they had killed many people before. Therefore, when they released their killing intent, these City Guards were suppressed and did not dare to move even a little bit.
Placing his hands on his back, Wu Qi stood beside Lu Chengfeng and stared at these City Guards thoughtfully.
Judging from Wu Wang’s experience, these City Guards had strong and ripped bodies and they were wearing fine armors and using the best weapons. But still, they lacked the true spirit of a soldier. These City Guards couldn’t be considered true soldiers at all.
"With the quality of these troops, if the barbarians come here, the city is going to have a tough time!" Wu Qi ground his teeth and spoke sarcastically.
Lu Chengfeng smacked his lips and snorted. He tilted his head and gazed at Wu Qi, and asked out of curiosity, "Wu Qi, you know how to train an army?"
Wu Qi nodded his head naturally, "If I don’t know how to train an army, then there isn’t anyone in this world that knows how to!"
Lu Chengfeng became startled by what he heard, and Xiaohei, who was standing on his left, also turned to Wu Qi in awe.
Wu Qi was not aware that, in this world, much of the knowledge was kept in the hands of those wealthy and influential families. The scrolls and books about military strategy and tactics could only be learned by few top families secretly. As an ordinary civilian, he may have learned strong and powerful martial arts, he may be talented, but there was some knowledge that he shouldn’t know at all!
Military strategy was one of the most important aspects of a kingdom. Those who were well versed in the art of military matters were usually top notch Generals of a kingdom. A military official with a poor background, such as Zhang Hu, could only become a General who led an army and fought in battle. It was impossible to ask him to train an army and apply strategies or tactics during warfare.
"You know how to train an army? When we are free, would you discuss this with me?" Lu Chengfeng looked at Wu Qi in doubt.
Wu Qi sighed, then nodded his head and said, "Fine, when I am in a good mood, I will teach you something."
Being lazy to discuss further on this topic, Wu Qi whispered to Lu Chengfeng, "Let’s have them stand for some more time. The sun is hot now, the perfect temperature to bake these City Guards. After they are baked for an hour under this hot sun, no matter if they have planned something before this or are trying to do something bad, I’m sure they will lose their spirit!"
Lu Chengfeng smiled and secretly gave Wu Qi a thumbs up, praising him with an evil tone, "Marvelous!"
Therefore, Wu Qi stood there and kept quiet and Lu Chengfeng sat on his chair without saying anything. Xiaohei, Zhang Hu and the others just kept their mouths shut too. With their superior sitting quietly in front of them, none of these few thousand City Guards dared to say a word. The hot sun kept pouring its energy onto the silent drill ground, and the temperature started to build up slowly.
From noon until now, they were let standing and baking for three hours.
Xiaohei had a dark skin. Therefore he absorbed more heat than others, and all of his clothes and armor were sweaty. However, he had good stamina and a strong body. Thus, he was still glaring at those City Guards.
Zhang Hu and his men suffered from the intense heat too, but among these barbarian hunters, the weakest were also protected by the innate energy of that thirty years of cultivation. As long as they circulated their innate energy, they could still strengthen their spirits and stand firmly.
Lu Chengfeng was sitting on his big chair, and it didn’t require him to use much energy.
Within the water energy meridians in Wu Qi’s arms, innate water energy was flowing like tidal waves and unleashing a cold breeze around his body. Therefore, he never felt even the slightest bit of heat at all. He didn’t even have a single drop of sweat. With both of his hands behind his back, he raised up his head and stared at the sky, like he was thinking about something.
This world was rich with natural energies. Therefore, the people here had ten times better physiques than the people back on Earth. But, the heat from the sun here was much worse than the Earth too. The energy poured out by the Sun was proportionate to the natural energies. After being exposed to the intense heat for nearly three hours, some guys had started to lose consciousness. A few deputy Generals, who were wearing fish-scaled armor, had their eyes roll back and fainted.
Lu Chengfeng was infuriated. He stood up hurriedly, pointing his finger at those fainted deputy Generals and scolded, "Useless fools, this is ridiculous. As a deputy General, you can’t even resist the heat and fainted in front of your own soldiers. Can an official like this lead an army? Does he even have the ability to lead his soldiers? Man, strip their helmet and armor, remove their weapons and chase them out from drill ground. Their military rank is removed!"
Zhang Hu and few of his men leaped forward like hungry wolves, stripping all the cloth and armor from these unlucky deputy Generals, leaving them with only underpants. Then they dragged these half-naked deputy Generals out from drill ground and dropped them under some trees outside of the field. Few memos drafted by Lu Chengfeng were thrown beside them; it was the official memo removing them as the deputy Generals.
Witnessing their colleagues being stripped and dragged away, few other deputy Generals started to yell.
"It is unfair for General to do this!"
These deputy Generals were trying to provoke all the other soldiers to challenge Lu Chengfeng. But before anything can happen, Wu Qi had jumped off from dirt platform and rushed in front of them.
"Unfair? What is unfair?"
Wu Qi hooted angrily at these men, then struck them with the Hand of Web. Forming an invisible freezing whirlpool in his palm, he grabbed the two deputy Generals who were yelling and pressed onto their dantian with his palms.
The freezing force from his palm penetrated into their dantian and shattered the tiny amount of energy in it. Simply throwing these two men away, Wu Qi pulled over another two deputy Generals who were also shouting and yelling, and with the same tactics, he pressed onto their dantian.
Before these deputy Generals could successfully create a disturbance, their cultivation had been completely destroyed by Wu Qi, and they suffered serious injuries and fell down.
Wu Qi retracted his hand and took a few steps back, then shouted with a stern voice, "Spreading false news, creating disturbances, according to military laws, they have earned themselves the death sentence! Xiaohei, chop off their heads!"
Xiaohei let out a dark laugh and jumped off the dirt platform. With a few quick steps, he had reached the sides of those deputy Generals and drew out his huge blade. Under the yelling and screaming of these soldiers, the heads of these five deputy Generals flew off from their necks, and their blood burst high up into the air like a fountain.
The killing spirit in drill ground became higher and higher. The orderly lined up soldiers had started to boil in rage.
Suddenly, Lu Chengfeng snorted coldly and shouted with a loud voice, "What are you guys doing? Trying to revolt?"
Revolt was a serious crime in the military. These soldiers immediately stopped their movements. The rest of the deputy Generals, Captains, and Lieutenants were still trying to provoke some soldiers beside them with a low voice, but under the threat of serious punishment, besides a few soldiers loyal to them, who else dared to make a sound?
Lu Chengfeng sneered, then grabbed a stack of official memos out of his bag.
"To all City Guards officials, you are fired! Strip your armor and leave behind your weapons. Then get the hell out of this drill ground. Those who dare to disobey will have their heads chopped off!"
Looking at the bloody heads on the ground, then staring at Zhang Hu and his vigorous men, all of the officials had blank faces.
Under the stern scolding of Wu Qi, all the officers of the City Guards were expelled from the troop.
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