Eternal Empire

Chapter 24 - Let's Make A Wager

After the bow and arrow test was over, a soldier went over and told Zhuang Yong that he had a visitor. Due to the fact that Mr. Shen had visited twice in the past, the soldier recognized him and was aware that he was a good friend of the general, hence he quickly made his way over to report to him.

Zhuang Yong went back to his study and realized that Mr. Shen had already brewed himself some tea. He did not stand on ceremony at all.

"Did you come here to thank me for sending someone over to buy your vegetables?"

After Zhuang Yong sat down, he hinted to Mr. Shen to pour a cup of tea for him. However, Mr. Shen acted as if he could not bear to part with it, making Zhuang Yong second guess if the tea was even his in the first place.

"I guessed that it was you."

Mr. Shen sipped his tea and leaned against the chair comfortably. "Even though the person who bought the vegetables had changed into casual clothes, the moment he said that he wanted to buy all of it, I knew you were the one who arranged for it.

Zhuang Yong replied, "Even if you might be patronizing me, you should still thank me."

Mr. Shen responded, "Thank you. This is what you were supposed to do in the first place. I hope that you will work harder to do better."

Zhuang Yong was speechless.

Mr. Shen asked, "How's Leng's evaluation coming along?"

Zhuang Yong lamented, "I knew that you did not come here just to thank me. You will not make a trip here just to see me. Shen Leng had passed all the tests in the first segment in the morning. Additionally, he had broken all the records within the Navy. In the first test of the second segment in the afternoon, putting his bow and arrow skills to the test, he fired four arrows in rapid succession, and all ten arrows shot through the bull's eye. You taught him well."

Mr. Shen replied, "Oh.that's not too shabby."

Zhuang Yong looked baffled. "Not too shabby?"

Mr. Shen nodded. "If not, then what?"

Zhuang Yong answered, "He's such an outstanding child, and yet all you can say about him is 'not too shabby'?"

Mr. Shen replied, "If I say too much, I'm afraid you'll become too proud."

"He's your child, why would I be proud?"

"He's your soldier."

Zhuang Yong was slightly taken aback by those words.

Mr. Shen poured more tea for Zhuang Yong once again. "I suddenly feel slightly regretful. Can I take Leng back now?"

"On what basis!" exclaimed Zhuang Yong in a low voice.

"On nothing. I simply don't want him to be in the Navy. Taking him back to catch some fish and sell some vegetables is a pretty good plan too. Today, I earned almost two taels of silver from just selling vegetables. Initially, I wasn't going to earn that much, but when the man you sent came over to buy from me, I increased the price a little."

"Do you think the Navy is a place you can send him to and take him from as you wish?"

"It's better than sacrificing his life."

Mr. Shen lifted his head abruptly and looked directly at Zhuang Yong. "When your man came over to buy our vegetables, I suddenly thought of something.why would you get someone to buy my vegetables? Because we're friends. In simple terms, you're doing me a favor. When I think of the word 'favor', I think about Mu Zhaotong and His Majesty. If Mu Zhaotong were to support His Majesty, the latter would definitely return him a favor."

Zhuang Yong's face started to turn pale. "You said it earlier, Leng is my soldier. As a general, I know how to protect my own soldier."

Mr. Shen was silent.

Zhuang Yong felt his throat was rather dry. Even though Mr. Shen did not look directly into his eyes again, he felt that he had already seen through him and everything he thought of before clearly

"That's right, I thought about it before, and I know what the most appropriate solution to that issue is. But I don't intend to go through with it.

Zhuang Yong added earnestly, "If you trust me, allow Leng to stay in the Navy."

Mr. Shen got up, and grabbed the jar of tea leaves before leaving. "I trust you."

Just these three words.

Zhuang Yong was very touched by his words and his eyes were slightly red. However, he snapped out of it and thought to himself: That fella took my tea leaves, why do I have to feel grateful to him?

What kind of logic is this!

After Mr. Shen left, Zhuang Yong sat there for quite some time. All he thought about was what Mr. Shen said from before - the thing about Mu Zhaotong supporting His Majesty, and His Majesty returning him a favor.if he passed this favor on to Mu Xiaofeng, what would happen to Shen Leng?

Even though he is the commander of the Navy, could he truly protect Shen Leng in the future?

At this moment, Yang Qibao ran over quickly, and reported his presence outside the study. It broke Zhuang Yong's train of thoughts. He shook his head and told himself not to be bothered by this for the time being. Thereafter, he called for Yang Qibao to enter the study.

"What happened?"

"General.something happened to Shen Leng."

"What?!"

Zhuang Yong stood up abruptly. "What happened to Mu Xiaofeng?"

Yang Qibao was in a daze. "General, it's not Mu Xiaofeng. It's Shen Leng."

"Oh."

Zhuang Yong laughed bitterly to himself, wondering what was wrong with himself.of course, he had heard Yang Qibao mention Shen Leng's name. However, when he heard that something happened to Shen Leng, he could not help but think of Mu Xiaofeng immediately.

"In the knives technique evaluation, Shen Leng completed it in the shortest possible time. His current ranking in terms of results is number one," said Yang Qibao as he was gasping for breath.

Zhuang Yong heaved a sigh of relief. "Oh.is that so?"

Yang Qibao continued, "That's not all. According to the rules of the new recruits' evaluation, they would have completed the first two segments of the evaluation after they completed the knife technique test, and if they passed every single test, they would be able to join the combat military. After the knife technique test the new recruits would be able to go to the knives and swords storehouse to pick out a hengdao (note: translates to horizontal sword) as their personal weapon. After Shen Leng entered, he broke six or seven steel swords, and got surrounded by the people in the storehouse."

"What was he trying to do?"

Zhuang Yong was slightly taken aback. He took huge steps and walked out of the study.

The venue of the knife technique test was not far from the knives and swords storehouse. Hengdao was the soldiers' standardized peidao (note: translates to belt sword) in Great Ning. The blade of the hengdao was smooth, and was made from steel. It was extremely sharp.

Be it the Cavalry, the Armed Forces, or the Special Forces, regardless of which weapon they specialized in, the hengdao was the standard weapon used by all of them. Every single soldier was required to have it - it was the symbol of identity for these soldiers. When Shen Leng broke six swords in succession, he had broken the rules in the military too.

Nevertheless, there were not many people who could casually break a hengdao.

When Zhuang Yong rushed over to the knives and swords storehouse, he could not help but think that ever since this fella named Shen Leng entered the Navy, he seemed to be more troubled. Thereafter, he couldn't help but think of the two words 'mother hen'. Immediately, he became more vexed.

"Shen Leng, what were you trying to do?" asked Zhuang Yong in a deep voice. He sounded rather solemn.

Shen Leng had an innocent look on his face and explained sincerely, "The invigilator said that I can come to the storehouse to pick a hengdao of my own. I assumed that we were truly allowed to pick and choose, instead of casually taking one. If I had known, I wouldn't have gone through the trouble of picking one."

Zhuang Yong understood that this fella was not trying to create any trouble intentionally, but rather, he was earnestly trying to pick out his own sword.

"Even so, you didn't have to break the swords!"

His tone was still as grave as before, but the anger in his voice had evidently dissipated.

"An item that is supposed to go through life and death situations with me on the battlefield must not be casually picked."

Zhuang Yong was deeply moved by Shen Leng's reply. This fella seems to be a lot, a lot more mature than his peers of the same age. More often than not, such level of maturity would somewhat cause one's heart to ache.

"I will dock half a year's worth of pay to compensate for the damages you've caused."

"Ok."

"Find it hard to accept that punishment?"

"No, I accept it."

Shen Leng nodded his head. He thought to himself: You scared me. I thought you were thinking about my gold ingot."

Zhuang Yong saw how he looked and was unable to get mad at him. He gestured and instructed him, "Go get a well-tempered sword."

Within the standardized equipment that was being distributed from the arsenal, all the hengdao were known as well-tempered sword. But in reality, there were no actual high-grade well-tempered swords there.

Workmanship, construction cost, huge time consumption were factors that shackled mass production of actual well-tempered swords. Hence, more often than not, the actual well-tempered swords were allocated only to squadron leaders and military officials of higher statuses.

Apart from them, the actual well-tempered swords that were distributed to each military force would be split amongst generals themselves to be used as a reward for their subordinates who did well.

The people in charge of the storehouse were stunned. They thought to themselves: This bastard destroyed six swords and yet the general only docked half a year's worth of his pay? However, they did not dare to voice out their feelings. Hence, they had no choice but to go right to the inside of the storehouse to retrieve a well-tempered sword against their will.

A well-tempered sword and an ordinary hengdao did not have that much of a difference, appearance-wise. If one did not pay close attention, it was impossible to tell them apart. However, if one were to take a closer look, the color of the cord that was coiled around the shaft of the sword was different. The cord coiled around an ordinary hengdao was red, whereas the one that was coiled around the well-tempered sword was entwined with another black cord.

Within the military, the well-tempered sword was also known as the black cord sword.

"Take this black cord sword."

Zhuang Yong realized that in front of Shen Leng, he seemed like a muddle-headed father who doted on his little son dearly. He knew that he should not pamper him, but he could not help it; a muddle-headed father who doted on his son - it sounded better than 'mother hen', at least.

"Black cord sword huh."

Shen Leng was overjoyed. Naturally, Mr. Shen had told him the difference between a red cord sword and a black cord sword. This was the reason why he wanted to try his luck by attempting to break the ones from before, to see if he was able to chance upon a black cord sword. Right now, it can be said that he got what he wished for. He drew out his black cord sword and tried to break it.

"You tried to break it again!"

After Zhuang Yong yelled at him, he realized his voice trembled a little. It was indeed beneath his dignity.

Shen Leng laughed, feeling embarrassed. He put the black cord sword back into the scabbard. "Fine, I won't try to break it. thank you, general, for bestowing this sword upon me. I like it very much."

Zhuang Yong thought to himself: If you like it, why did you try to break it?

"Ahem.go back to the camp and have a good rest. Summon all your strength for tomorrow's martial arts competition."

Shen Leng stood respectfully and did a military salute, before taking his leave. When he walked to the door of the storehouse, he suddenly stopped in his tracks. He turned around and smiled slyly at Zhuang Yong. Upon seeing his smile, Zhuang Yong knew he was up to no good.

"What do you want again?"

"General, shall we make a wager?"

Zhuang Yong felt as though his entire worldview was about to make a 180 degree change. His throat got drier and drier. "What are you saying to me? Make.make a wager?"

Shen Leng grunted and said solemnly, "If I come in first in the entire martial arts competition tomorrow, after I enter the combat military, I want a ten-man squadron.

Zhuang Yong secretly heaved a sigh of relief. Ten-man squadron.even if you didn't bring this up, I would have considered it myself.

"I thought you'd want to be a squadron leader."

Shen Leng looked as though he was being put at a disadvantage. "Can I negotiate further?"

Zhuang Yong said, "Get out."

Shen Leng grunted and hugged his black cord sword before walking off. As he walked, he thought to himself: If I asked to be a squadron leader, would the general have acceded to my request? After pondering for a while, he confirmed that he definitely would not have acceded.

Ten-man squadron.guess I should look for my own subordinates in advance.

One by one, Shen Leng started filtering the new recruits that he had paid special attention to. He realized that according to his standards, in truth, not a single one of them qualified. They were completely lacking.

"Could it be that I'm in the worst unit?" He muttered to himself.

Zhuang Yong looked at Shen Leng's figure from the back and shook his head while smiling. Sometimes, the favorite soldier of a general was not necessarily one that followed all the rules and norms. Shen Leng was a fella with a lot of personality. Zhuang Yong felt that Shen Xiaosong was indeed a good mentor. For a fella with a Daoist background to turn an unpolished jade into something this dazzling, it was not an easy feat.

But did this piece of jade truly have no defects?

Zhuang Yong pondered carefully. He felt that he did have some flaws, but as long as he wasn't as shameless as Shen Xiaosong, that would be good enough.