Chapter 144

Once everyone was accounted for, Commander Wei sent the other soldiers off to train. Soon, only two hundred soldiers remained, standing sparsely and looking quite odd.

Xue Jin'an called out the names, matching each face to the others, and then led his men to the sandpit next to them, which was specifically used for combat. In ancient times, there were no soft mats or rubber mats, so injuries were inevitable during combat. Injuries would affect other training, but if you wanted to hone your soldiers, just burying yourself in hard training was useless; you still had to practice in pairs. To reduce the probability of injury, training grounds usually had such sandpits.

Sand is loose and soft; it's always better to fall on sand than on the ground.

Commander Wei was very worried that Xue Jin'an would ruin the people. Although those troublemakers were difficult to deal with, they were all good candidates. Even if they couldn't join the army, the Military Service Bureau would still take them in. The Military Service Bureau wasn't afraid of lone wolves or troublemakers. In fact, it could be said that the Military Service Bureau's shady missions were more suitable for such people.

Commander Wei is quite shrewd in managing the talent under his command.

So, despite the Third Prince's unfriendly gaze, Commander Wei pretended to know nothing and followed Xue Jin'an, intending to see how Xue Jin'an would "torture" people. He would also rush out to stop them if necessary, ensuring that no one would die.

It's no wonder Commander Wei is so on edge; the Seventh Prince has a formidable reputation. He had just experienced it himself not long ago, when the Seventh Prince's sword grazed his face and disappeared into the ground.

Commander Wei looked on nervously, but before he could figure anything out, his view was blocked by a wall of people—it was the Third Prince.

The Third Prince stood with his arms crossed, watching him leisurely. Just as Commander Wei remembered what had happened before, the Third Prince had not forgotten either. In his eyes, Commander Wei was a scoundrel who had verbally abused and threatened his poor seventh brother. Now he was staring straight at his seventh brother, not knowing how to avoid suspicion at all. Who knew what he was up to?

The Third Prince sneered and mocked without any politeness, "What are you looking at? Commander Wei is a veteran, surely you know what you should and shouldn't look at? Stealing military training methods is a major taboo in military strategy, Commander Wei, don't be a petty person!"

The Third Prince might not understand the rules of other industries, but he knew the intricacies of the military better than anyone else. After all, his uncle, Qian Dezhong, was the commander of the Tiger Battalion, and the Qian family had been in the military for generations. The Third Prince had originally wanted to join the army, but now all those dreams had been dashed. However, he still remembered what he had learned.

There's an old saying that "teaching an apprentice can starve the master," which is understandable given the low productivity and inconvenient transportation in ancient times. Sometimes, having even one more competitor could lead to starvation. Therefore, many craftsmen would hold back some skills when teaching their apprentices. One person would hold back a skill, and the other would hold back a skill, and eventually, the skill would be lost.

Although this saying originated among artisans, it is not limited to artisans. In the military context, it is mainly reflected in military strategy. Military strategy not only involves the use of troops on the battlefield, but also includes methods of training troops. In this era without intellectual property rights, everyone attaches great importance to inheritance, so in this case, people usually tacitly agree to avoid suspicion.

Commander Wei knew he had gone too far. It would have been fine if others hadn't pointed it out, but now that he had, he couldn't stay there any longer. After all, he was no longer Tianqi of the Imperial Guard, but the commander of the Imperial Guard.

"It was my oversight that caused trouble for Your Highnesses. If you encounter any difficulties, please feel free to come to me. I will do my best to help you. Now, I have other important matters to attend to, so I will take my leave." He chuckled twice, then bowed and left.

The Third Prince chuckled at his retreating figure, but when he turned around, he was met with a mocking face that seemed to be smiling but wasn't—the face of the Prince Ping's heir.

The Crown Prince of Hei was completely different from the round and fat Prince Hei, who resembled Maitreya Buddha. His eyebrows and eyes were deep and sharp, and his pupils were very light in color, which seemed to have diminished his emotions. When he stared at people, he looked like a fierce beast, and his pupils seemed to emit a faint light. Perhaps because of this, although he had always been the Crown Prince, he was not particularly favored by Prince Hei.

At the beginning, Prince Ping's heir was not actually absurd. Before the Third Prince graduated from the Imperial Academy, he heard his teachers mention him a lot. Whether it was a highly respected teacher like Grand Tutor Li who taught the Four Books and Five Classics, or a martial arts master, they all said it was a pity that Prince Ping's heir was so talented in both literature and martial arts, yet he chose to degenerate.

No one knows what triggered this prince to suddenly become like this. In any case, ever since the Third Prince learned of this fellow, he was already the number one playboy in the capital. While the Third Prince was occasionally able to go out of the palace to play with his companions, this prince was sent to the army for training by his own father for burning down Prince Ping's study. For the past five years, Prince Ping has submitted a memorial every year at the palace banquet saying that the prince is ill and cannot attend. In reality, this prince has not stepped foot in Prince Ping's residence for the past five years.

It is a general consensus among the powerful and influential circles in the capital that Prince Ping and his heir are irreconcilable enemies.

It is worth mentioning that although Prince Ping's heir was of the same generation as the princes, he was actually the same age as Prince An. When he was born, Prince Ping was only ten years old. The heir's mother's identity was not very honorable. She was a woman in the late emperor's harem. The heir was beaten to death at birth, leaving the mother to raise the child.

It's actually quite strange. Logically speaking, under these circumstances, the position of heir apparent shouldn't have fallen to him. But no matter how bad their relationship was, or how many more children Prince Ping had in his harem, the position of heir apparent remained steadfast and never wavered.

When the Prince Ping's heir was discovered by the Third Prince, he neither dodged nor avoided him. He even laughed out loud, "You really are a double standard, allowing officials to set fires while forbidding commoners to light lamps. You are truly something else."

The Third Prince frowned and said in a deep, cold voice, "What do you mean?"

"Don't you understand?" Prince Ping's heir raised an eyebrow. "I'm saying, you and the Seventh Prince aren't even brothers, are you? You know to ask Commander Wei to avoid suspicion, but you don't? I remember your mother was from the Qian family? The Qian family also served in the military, right? Oh~ I get it now."

The Crown Prince of Taira drew out his words, making them sound even more irritating than before.

The Third Prince immediately rushed over and grabbed him by the collar, saying, "Who do you think you are, trying to sow discord between us brothers?"

"Brothers? We don't even share the same mother, what kind of brothers are we?" The Crown Prince Ping was not afraid at all, his gaze shifting downwards to land on the injured foot. "I heard your leg is crippled? So now you're groveling for mercy?"

Before he could finish speaking, he was punched in the face and sent flying into the sandpit. This sudden scene silenced the entire space.

"Third Brother, what's wrong?" Although Xue Jin'an had roughly heard their conversation, he had never really understood human emotions and didn't know why the Third Prince was angry, so he asked.

The Third Prince, who originally intended to step forward and crush the Prince of Ping's heir in the sandpit to his death, stopped when he met Xue Jin'an's calm gaze. He closed his eyes, took a few deep breaths, and his chest heaved violently before regaining his composure.

"It's nothing." He gritted his teeth and spat out the words, scratching his scalp with his fingers. He forced an awkward smile at Xue Jin'an and said in a hoarse and irritated voice, "You do your thing, don't worry about me. I'll just stand over there and won't bother you."

As he spoke, the Third Prince, limping, turned and headed toward the place he had pointed out.

"Why are we leaving? It's about to begin." Xue Jin'an planned to test the strength of these personal guards today to make sure their bodies could withstand the upcoming training. He looked at the Third Prince with some confusion, trying to understand him. "You can be the first to be tested if you want."

It took the third prince a while to understand what he meant. His eyes widened in disbelief as he stared at him, and when he opened his mouth to speak, he stammered, "You, I...I'll go with you too?"

"Don't you want to?" Xue Jin'an thought the Third Prince was following him because he wanted to be with him. He said, "Then are you coming to Jili tomorrow? I'll get you a room all to yourself."

"Jili" is the name of the shop where people play PUBG, taken from the phrase "Good luck, have a chicken dinner tonight" in the game. Cui Zui thought the meaning was quite good, so he used it directly.

With the success of Jiu Tian Yi Chess and Card Room as a precedent, many people know about this shop, but few know exactly what it does. Fortunately, the Imperial Guards and the Third Prince are aware of it. The Imperial Guards only know because Minister of War Xu Pingchuan can't keep things to himself. On the first day of the project's commencement, he couldn't resist calling a bunch of old comrades out for drinks, saying that he had found them an excellent new training ground that would be extremely useful for training troops, and that they would definitely thank him in the future.

Those comrades were all high-ranking military officers. When they heard this, they were overjoyed and told their soldiers. So the news spread. But they didn't expect that the new training ground would be completed in a year and a half. They thought they would never hear from it again, but it was completed quietly.

In fact, this project, which was led by three ministries, was originally scheduled to be completed two months earlier. The Minister of Works personally drew the blueprints, personally supervised the construction, and led all the craftsmen in the Ministry of Works to work enthusiastically. However, as they worked, they found that the land was missing.

"That shouldn't be!" Upon hearing this, Minister of Revenue Feng Yinshou sensed something was amiss. He took a closer look at the blueprints and discovered the discrepancy. "Zuo Mengchang, did you secretly alter the blueprints?!"

"No changes, it's been like this all along." Minister Zuo naturally refused to admit it, and instead urged Minister Feng, "Your Ministry of Revenue should hurry up and approve two more plots of land. I think the estate next door is quite nice, we're waiting to start construction here."

Minister Feng realized that this old man had been eyeing the land next door for a long time. He said angrily, "Isn't this much land enough for you to build on? Approve the land? I might as well just approve your life and throw it in my face!"

Minister Zuo also cursed, "You damned money-grubber, what do you know? This place is too small to operate properly, here..."

Minister Feng tucked his hands into his pockets and said, "We don't have any land."

Minister Zuo glared at him and said, "Fine, if you're so capable, then don't approve it. We'll just wait it out. My Ministry of Works can take on some more orders and still keep operating. Your Ministry of Revenue can just wait to die!"

"You poisonous man, Zuo Mengchang!" Minister Feng pointed at his nose and cursed him.

Minister Zuo sneered disdainfully, "You people in the Ministry of Revenue who manage money aren't even as rich as us, you damned paupers!"

Minister of War Xu Pingchuan sat motionless in his chair, slapping his thigh and wailing, "Hey, stop hitting him! Old Feng, don't you know Old Zuo? That's just how he is. Why are you arguing with him? You can't just hit him if you can't win an argument, can you? Oh dear, why did you actually hit him? Hey, hey, hey, Old Zuo, don't get angry, don't get angry. Let's talk this out, sit down and talk. A gentleman uses words, not fists, right? Biting him hurts you too, huh? Let go, let go—"

After trying to mediate, Minister Xu's voice was hoarse, and the two dignified scholar-ministers ended up in a full-blown fight.

However, despite the bickering, the issues still needed to be resolved. In the end, Minister Feng still granted Minister Zuo the land—free of charge.

Previously, the Empress Dowager had launched an attack and killed several ministers under the pretext of colluding with the Rong and Di tribes. Although their families were not implicated, their property was still confiscated. These assets were all under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Revenue. It is hard to say whether this place is too unlucky, but the estate that Minister Zuo had his eye on happened to be located here.

Not long after, the place was renamed "Jili," which is hard to say was not intended to bring good luck.

In short, the store is now completed and the opening is scheduled for the beginning of next month. Xue Jin'an will take people to inspect it.

The Third Prince had played sandbox games before, and after learning about this real-life PUBG game, he had been keeping an eye on it. Of course, he was tempted, but even without this store, the Third Prince would not refuse Xue Jin'an.

"No, I want to go too." The Third Prince grabbed Xue Jin'an's hand and said, "I want to go too, I want to go as well."

"Seventh Brother, my leg is lame, but I can still fight. I'm not crippled. Believe me, I—" he hurriedly explained, afraid that Xue Jin'an would take back his order.

Xue Jin'an nodded as if it were a matter of course and said, "I know."

The Third Prince felt that these were the most beautiful words he had heard since he had lost his leg.