Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

What was the most direct way to draw out someone’s potential?

The answer was very simple — through rewards!

As the saying goes: ‘When a high reward is offered, brave fellows are bound to come forward.’ The eight hundred young men Yan Liqiang gathered from the Hui Clan Gathering returned to Pingxi Prefecture disguised as guards recruited by the Yan Residence in Liuhe Town. With the reward he offered, they began working hard on the first day of training. They were told that after twenty days of training, only two hundred of those who performed well would be rewarded with a rhinodrake steed, a suit of armor, and weapons. Not only that, but the top ten performers would also additionally receive a hundred taels of silver and a promotion opportunity.

Yan Liqiang’s reward definitely pushed the right buttons with these young men. Who wouldn’t wish to look impressive with a fine steed and a golden saber at such a young age? Rhinodrake steeds, armor, and weapons were extremely expensive equipment. Although the young men living in the Hui Clan Gathering or the surrounding mountainous regions had seen these items since young, they never expected to own them.

Whether it was for the sake of money or dignity, the eight hundred young men Yan Liqiang recruited were immediately fired up after hearing about the rewards.

The eight hundred guards were definitely eye-catching in other places. However, laws were generally lax in a war-ravaged border province like Gan Province, and the imperial court didn’t set a limit for the number of guards that squires and influential clans could hire. It was fine as long as they had enough money to maintain the cost and didn’t flout the laws or bring destruction upon their hometown.

In addition to the relationship between the Yan Clan and Prefectural Governor Wang Jianbei, no one in the Liuhe Town or Qinghe County was really shocked by the large number of guards Yan Liqiang recruited, and this entire thing didn’t cause much commotion. In fact, many people thought nothing of it because the Yan Clan was an influential clan that was wealthy enough to repair the defense wall for Liuhe Town. So, hiring a few hundred guards felt perfectly normal to them. In Pingxi Prefecture, there were multiple influential clans which also owned several hundred guards.

Training was very simple. For the first week, Yan Liqiang divided everyone into eight teams with a hundred people each. He then began to train them in formation and cultivate their team spirit and discipline. The exact same thing was done in the archery academy where everyone was trained like new military recruits. Seven days later, the formation training was starting to show results. The few hundred rhinodrake steeds and big batches of weapons like longbows Yan Liqiang ordered someone to buy had also arrived. For the other two weeks, Yan Liqiang had everyone continue formation training in the morning, then practice horsemanship and bowmanship in the afternoon.

The eight hundred young men had been living in harsh conditions. Every single one of them struggled against nature, terrain, and their peers since young, so they had long learned the ability to survive. Everyone basically knew how to ride a horse and shoot an arrow, only with varying standards. Now they lacked neither bows, arrows, or warhorses. They also had a well-known teacher to guide them through the essentials and the most correct way to ride a horse and shoot an arrow simultaneously. Under the condition where they also had unrestricted supplies of bows and arrows, everyone made significant progress in the shortest amount of time. By the third week of training, those who performed exceptionally well in the different trainings started to stand out among their peers and got noticed by Yan Liqiang.

On the 16th day of the ninth lunar month, Yan Liqiang held a big contest for those eight hundred young men. Everyone had to ride a rhinodrake steed in groups, up to two kilometers in a circle within a prescribed time limit. While doing so, they were also required to fire twenty arrows at twenty targets about the size of pot lids, situated a hundred meters away from the track. The winners would then be determined by the archery result. After a day of contest, the two hundred best performers among the eight hundred candidates were immediately revealed.

That made up about a quarter of the people he recruited. These eight hundred candidates were tougher than the average person when he recruited them. Those who were chosen through a contest like this were undoubtedly the best of the best among these young people. In Zhou Yong’s words, the average combat power of the chosen ones definitely exceeded most of the ordinary soldiers in Pingxi City.

Yan Liqiang didn’t expect he would be able to groom such an invincible armored cavalry in just a month’s time either. His objective was to only make these people useful enough to help him stall enemies for a short while during crucial moments.

Yan Liqiang also honored his promise and distributed two hundred rhinodrake steeds, two hundred sets of armor, shields, warbows, and weapons. The morale of those two hundred young men was at the peak after they gained their own warhorses, armor and warbows for the very first time in their lives. By nightfall the next day, Yan Liqiang led these two hundred people on their rhinodrake steed toward the border between the Gan and Yin Provinces with the excuse of conducting a field training. Carrying their bows with them, these people vanished into the night.

He was accompanied by about two hundred people, thirty four-wheeled carriages prepared by the manufacturing bureau, and about sixty soldiers from the manufacturing bureau led by Zhou Yong. The thirty carriages were transporting supplies like arrows, tents, and Yan Liqiang’s Dragon Spine Steel spear. If Yan Liqiang were to carry the spear, Snowstorm Cloud wouldn’t even be able to gallop under its heavy weight. Hence, he had no choice but to transport the spear via a four-wheeled carriage.

Yan Liqiang who led them to the border between Gan and Yin Province didn’t stay there. Instead, he ventured more than a hundred li into Yin Province where he then hid himself in an uninhabited mountain ridge where he examined the terrain and chose the ambush location. While making all sorts of preparations and relevant training, he waited anxiously for the arrival of the cavalry from the Northwestern Transportation Office.

…

At noon on the 26th day of the ninth lunar month, Yan Liqiang brought Zhou Yong, Shi Dafeng, Shen Teng, and Chang Kuan to hide behind a pile of rocks on the ridge of a valley. He pointed to a slope that was about three hundred meters ahead of them and less than twenty meters in width, which led up to here.

“This valley connects Yin Province to Gan Province. Not many caravans travel here because this place is very deserted and bandits used to come here frequently. Therefore, I deduce that the Transportation Office’s cavalry will definitely take this route as it is the shortest route to Gan Province. By going through here, the cavalry can travel two hundred li less, saving them half a day’s worth of traveling time and effort. When those people get the information, they will definitely mobilize their troops to travel to Gan Province. They’ll be rushing here with so much murderous intent that they’d wish they could fly here. In addition to their huge number, they will definitely pick this route as they are not afraid of running into any bandits. We’ll just set up an ambush here and catch them off guard. By the time we commence the ambush, the Transportation Office’s cavalry will realize that they have been trapped in the valley and will definitely rush up this hill. Your mission is not to rush down there to fight them. Instead, you all will help me defend this slope. Don’t let anyone come up here to bother me. I only need you all to help me defend this place for fifteen minutes and this battle is good as won…!”

Speaking up to this point, Yan Liqiang’s heart suddenly throbbed. He looked up to the sky and noticed a silver falcon coming from the distance and flying a figure 8. He quietly looked away and took a deep breath. “The people from the Transportation Office will probably be here in two days. We don’t have much time left. Have everyone get ready!”