Buying a Horse's Bones for a Thousand Gold

Three days later, Wuying secretly brought the officers ranked centurion and above from those twenty thousand troops to the forested hills behind Zhou Yao's home.

The banknotes Wuying had taken back had played a major part in bringing these officers there.

Even loyal subordinates needed to eat and support their families. Only after these soldiers' worries at home had all been taken care of would they risk their lives for him and swear loyalty to him. Zhou Yao understood the principle of buying a horse's bones for a thousand gold.

Zhou Yao was short of neither money nor grain now, only men. He wanted to build an army of his own, loyal to him and under his direct command alone, an army no one else could command.

The officers were filled with emotion and excitement. They were emotional because the young man before them was Prince Zhou Shun's only living descendant, the heir Zhou Yao.

They were excited because they had all been preparing to disband. Their pay and provisions had been six months in arrears, and they had been living from one meal to the next, never knowing where the next would come from.

But three days ago, their superiors had paid every one of them all the pay and provisions owed to them, along with an extra three months' worth. They had all been delighted.

When they heard that the pay and provisions had come from Zhou Yao, Prince Zhou Shun's only living son, they were excited.

Ever since Prince Zhou Shun had been killed and his household confiscated, they had felt as though they had suddenly lost their backbone, and they had been deeply uneasy.

But now that the heir was there, they had a backbone again. Moreover, the heir was very generous, which made them even more satisfied and strengthened their sense of allegiance.

Zhou Yao looked at the officers present, stepped forward, and bowed to them. His action shocked them, and they hurriedly said, "Heir, you mustn't."

Zhou Yao raised his right hand toward the sky to stop them from speaking further, then straightened up and said to all the officers, "Brothers, you deserve this bow from me, Zhou Yao."

"Because you brothers are members of the Zhou family, all of you are family. Family doesn't speak as outsiders do. Without you, our Zhou family couldn't stand with its back straight."

"Besides, I haven't yet avenged my father, Prince Zhou Shun! I, Zhou Yao, will still have to rely on your support, brothers."

"So from this day forward, I, Zhou Yao, will need to rely on all of you, brothers."

"But rest assured, brothers, if you follow me, Zhou Yao, you will surely eat fragrant food and drink fiery liquor. Your silver will never be withheld again."

"Here and now, I announce that your force of more than twenty thousand will be divided in two. Ten thousand will form a heavy cavalry force, and ten thousand will form a heavy infantry force."

All the officers present looked shocked at the heir Zhou Yao's words.

Zhou Yao continued, "From this day forward, each heavy cavalryman will receive five taels of silver in monthly pay and provisions, and each heavy infantryman will receive four taels."

All the officers present were utterly shocked by what the heir Zhou Yao said, but his next words shook them even more.

"Every squad leader will receive ten taels of silver a month, every centurion twenty-five taels, every chiliarch fifty taels, and every general one hundred taels."

"From now on, if a soldier dies in battle, his family will receive compensation of one hundred taels of silver, one hundred jin of rice, and one hundred jin of flour. Compensation for an officer who dies in battle will be doubled."

"From this day forward, all twenty thousand of you will eat white rice and white steamed buns at every meal, with meat and vegetables every time."

"When you capture cities and seize territory in the future, you need only hand over half of all the spoils you capture. The remaining half will be divided equally among the twenty thousand of you."

"Moreover, from this day forward, you twenty thousand will be my imperial guard, my personal guards, and will obey my orders alone."

"From now on, all recruits for the imperial guard will be drawn from the immediate family of you twenty thousand men, or from your sons. Outsiders will never be accepted, because what I want is absolute loyalty."

Hearing the heir Zhou Yao's words, every officer present felt his blood boil. Their eyes shone with golden light, and their fists clenched tight. Then they all fell to their knees and shouted in reply, "From this day forward, we and our families are willing to die in the heir's service. We shall never betray you in all our lives. If we break this oath, may heaven strike us with five bolts of thunder, and may we never be reborn."

"Good... if you do not fail me, I will surely not fail you."

Wuying watched it all from the side. She had been very apprehensive, but in such a short time, the young master had won over this group of proud soldiers and fierce generals. Her admiration for him could not have been greater, and the way she looked at the young master Zhou Yao was different now.

Wuying introduced the army's two generals to the young master Zhou Yao. One was Zhang Fei, and the other was Chen Dao. Zhou Yao thought, Why are their names exactly the same as those of the people in the Three Kingdoms?

But Zhou Yao paid no mind to it. From his conversation with the two men, he learned that the general named Zhang Fei was highly skilled at fighting on horseback, while the general named Chen Dao was among the best at fighting on foot.

So Zhou Yao appointed Zhang Fei general of the imperial guard's heavy cavalry, specifically to train the heavy cavalry. He appointed Chen Dao general of the heavy infantry, specifically to train the heavy infantry.

He also promised them that before the New Year, he would personally visit the camp of the twenty thousand men and fully equip them with all their weapons and armor.

He gave Zhang Fei and Chen Dao two military manuals, one each. After reading them, the two were greatly shocked. "This... this... this..."

Zhang Fei and Chen Dao could not have been more moved. They were both rough men who knew only how to lead troops into battle and understood nothing else, yet the heir Zhou Yao now held them in such high regard.

The two knelt on one knee and said, "We will surely train an army for the heir that will strike fear into every enemy at the mere mention of its name."

Zhou Yao offered them a few words of encouragement, then instructed them to return quietly to the barracks and train the soldiers well.