Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Nongqin firmly looked into Jiang Pengji’s eyes and kneeled on the ground in front of her. Her shoulder was still bleeding and the blood stuck to her shirt.
“I’m begging you to teach me, Langjun.”
Jiang Pengji gazed at her with a strange smile that made her very uncomfortable. After a while, Jiang Pengji finally opened her mouth. “What do you think I can teach you?”
Nongqin paused for a second. She was not sure what Jiang Pengji meant.
Jiang Pengji explained to her, “You work hard and you have fortitude and ambitions. These qualities are more than enough to help you succeed. The only thing I can teach you is how you can maximize your advantages and enhance your physical ability. The rest will still be on yourself.”
The body structure of women lost when compared to men, but it didn’t indicate that they were weak.
In Jiang Pengji’s world, the federal military consisted of fourteen corps. The head of each corp was the Supreme Conduct Officer who took direct orders from the Grand Marshal. Each corp had specific responsibilities––for instance, the Seventh Corp that Jiang Pengji led was the first line combat unit.
In other words, the head of each corp was the man with the apex of power, with the exception of the Grand Marshal.
There were eight female heads of the corps in her generation, overpassing the six male heads.
Whoever obtained the most power deserved the ultimate respect; sex didn’t matter.
Who dared to say that the eight female heads were weaker than the male heads?
In fact, Jiang Pengji’s personal combat ability actually ranked in the top three of all the heads of the corps.
Physical structure didn’t make everything definite. One’s success depended on if they were motivated to become stronger.
“If someone outweighed you with their strength, you have to figure out how to react swifter than them. If someone is swifter than you, you have to figure out how to kill them with one strike. If someone’s total physical abilities beat you, then you must find another way around it, and you can learn some warcraft about how to lead your troops into battle. Stop focusing on your own shortcomings. In the meantime, stop making comparisons between your disadvantages and others’ advantages. That is just unnecessary.”
Every word from Jiang Pengji made Nongqin’s heart pump harder without her control. She could feel that there was a strange emotion starting to surface.
Then Jiang Pengji said, “Just get up. I should teach you at least something since you’ve asked.”
Nongqin stood up and her knees were covered with dirt.
“I will come to visit here for a bit everyday. It will be entirely up to you about what you can learn from me.” Jiang Pengji pinched Nongqin’s limbs and talked to her with a serious look. “Your muscles and bone structure are both in pretty good condition, which means that, potentially, you can improve. Have you tried a massage after training?”
The list Jiang Pengji provided wasn’t just a piece of paper; it was designed to be used for students’ training in military school in order to help them perform to the best of their ability. Meanwhile, the massage would stimulate muscles and nerve activation and lessen the muscle fatigue from the previous day, which would increase the effect of the rapid training.
With the accumulation of months of training, the massage could even trigger regrowth in the younger soldiers’ bodies and effectively strengthen them.
Nongqin had a blush on her face and murmured, “Yes, the General Coach gave orders to one of the female helpers in the cottage to massage me after he saw how much I suffered from the training.”
It was shameful to do the full body massage, but one had to admit that it worked.
It felt like a hot bath after the massage when all of one’s muscles were sore.
She almost guaranteed that she was going to be too exhausted to get up the second day, which turned out she had a sound sleep and only a slight soreness in her limbs.
That type of tiredness wasn’t enough to affect her training the next day.
Jiang Pengji gave a hint of a smile and appraised, “Meng Hun was truly thoughtful in this case. You are dismissed to deal with your injury and get some medicine for yourself first.”
Nongqin responded with a yes that carried a sense of respect.
“There is a competition to choose the troop leaders in two weeks, isn’t there? “Jiang Pengji double checked the schedule that she had made earlier. There was indeed an election of a new troop leader every month.
Meng Hun replied, “That’s correct, Langjun.”
“Nongqin will be in part of the competition. Make an announcement to make sure everyone knows that whoever loses to her will take over the laundry for the whole troop.”
Meng Hun opened his mouth in astonishment and asked, “Nongqin certainly endeavours, but it will still be impossible for her to win…”
Her size immediately put her at a disadvantage.
Jiang Pengji said subtly, “Doesn’t mean she cannot win.”
No one knew better than her how to put someone to death in a moment.
One could kill a person even if they were in an inferior position.
Since she agreed to teach Nongqin, she might as well teach her something beneficial and useful.
Meng Hun felt a chill and his subconscious told him there was something off about the situation. But he could not tell what it was.
Cang Prefecture was one of the Six Prefectures and twenty one counties. The road for trading to the North Boardline was well-established, which created a tight connection with the North Boardline. There were goods exchanging from two places and it attracted a number of businessmen to travel there for business. That was how Cang Prefecture became a major prefecture in Dongqin and how the economy flourished.
Therefore, the prosperity was long gone and only economic recession remained in Cang Prefecture. Rampant bandits robbed the businessmen every now and then and the old bustling street, which was normally full of street vendors disappeared for good. There were only some civilians that were dressed shabbily sitting along the street.
Occasionally, the armed troops that were dressed in the Mengs’ uniforms would still patrol the street. They scammed the suspicious pedestrians one by one. Sometimes they swiped civilians’ possessions under the table and bullied them, and sometimes they detained those businessmen’s goods for extortion.
The entrance of Cang Prefecture, especially some of checkpoints around Meng County, had military forces guarding them. As a result of the bandits’ notorious killing and robbing, the civilians had to leave their homes and they were held up at the entrance gate. They wandered around the town, dressed in ripped and old clothes. They all looked sallow and skinny, and there was only numbness on their faces. It seemed like they had lost their souls.
“Those sons of bitches…” A grey-haired, old beggar covered his face and sobbed in a corner where the soldiers could see him. He had a boney little kid in his arms.
The kid’s face was pale and full of bruises. He had stopping breathing and his eyes were tightly closed.
The kid was picked up by the old beggar on the street. He was raised from a toddler into a twelve year old boy. The old beggar had expected to rely on the boy for the rest of his life. Nobody could foresee that the boy would get beaten to death by a soldier of the Meng’s because the boy dirtied his shoes by accident when he snuck out for food.
People called them the guardian angels to protect Dongqin and their civilians… They were truly demons from hell dressed up like human beings.
“What the heck did you just say, you old shit bag?”
A soldier with good hearing heard the man and he approached the old beggar, swearing.
The old beggar went for broke and spit at the soldier. “I’m swearing at you, sons of bitches!”
Not long after, there was blood splashing on the road––another dead body with some puncture wounds laid next to the little one.
The other homeless civilians were used to the scenery and they acted like puppets. Their eyes were like they were made of wood; they didn’t even move.
Suddenly, there was the sound of a horse galloping from outside of the gate’s entrance.
The strutting guards all of a sudden turned timid and adulate, like a rat that saw a cat.
The man on the horse didn’t regard the civilians in chaos and he flashed through the crowds.
“I have a critical message for County Chief, please notify him for me!” The guy’s eyes on the horse were red and he had dusty grease on both his hair and his face. It was obvious that he had been on the road and tried to hasten his way there for days, which explained his nasty look.
