Choose With Your Heart

Chapter 25: Choosing with Your Heart

A quarter of an hour later, Li Dingguo and the other sixteen talented youths, having finished breakfast, split off from the main group of orphaned youths and arrived at their designated training ground for the next few days.

The four Spirit Beast warhorses brought by the Eight Great Kings, Zhang Xianzhong, along with a large wagon loaded with various equipment, also arrived nearby, led by several soldiers.

Zhang Xianzhong, who had also eaten breakfast in this large courtyard, stepped forward and stood tall, addressing the group, "Li Dingguo, Ai Nengqi, Liu Wenxiu, Zhang Huier, come over here."

"The rest of you, continue practicing the Tiger Roar Fist as usual, just like yesterday!"

"Whether it's horsemanship or learning various weapons, you little ones must first break through to become Martial Artists before you can do so."

He knew that the remaining twelve talented youths here were all exceptionally gifted and would definitely break through to become Martial Artists before the half-month deadline arrived.

Saying this was also to put a little pressure on them.

After all, Zhang Xianzhong wanted to cultivate these twelve talented youths, besides the four monstrous geniuses, into future grassroots officers.

A qualified army doesn't just need a main commander; it needs more grassroots officers to function smoothly.

Zhang Xianzhong had already planned to first establish an orphaned youth battalion soon and continuously expand it in the future to quickly accumulate talent for the Rebel Army.

A moment later, Li Dingguo and the other three were gathered together by Zhang Xianzhong, standing solemnly and upright, lined up in front of him.

"Starting today, until our Rebel Army withdraws from this county town, the four of you will begin to systematically learn the use of various weapons and horsemanship during this period."

Zhang Xianzhong stated his arrangements, "Of course, you can also focus on specific areas, choosing your main combat weapon for the future and practicing it intensely, with other weapons as supplementary training."

"Whether it's saber techniques, spear techniques, staff techniques, etc., I have excellent Cultivation Methods here for you to choose from."

"In fact, it's not just these. Beside the small school where you learn culture every evening, I will have a library set up today, containing various unconventional Cultivation Methods and books collected by our Rebel Army, including some medical skills."

"Among them are two Cultivation Methods practiced by military scouts, the Breath Concealment Technique and the Stealth Technique, which are very important for your future actions in the wild."

"After all, in those desolate wilds, deep mountains, and vast swamps, there are many Demons and Monsters. Without the deterrent of the Blood Fiend Qi from the army's soldiers, Body Tempering Realm cultivators will encounter various dangers. If you are alone outside and haven't learned these two unconventional Cultivation Methods, it's easy to be targeted by those Demons and Monsters."

"Every evening, after your cultural lessons, you can go to the library yourselves and choose some interesting books to study."

"In short, having many skills doesn't weigh you down. Learning more knowledge will be of great benefit to you in the future and will allow you to go further."

"I don't require you to know all eighteen kinds of martial arts, but besides specializing in one or two, it doesn't hurt to learn more if you have the time."

He paused here, then continued, "After another half a month, your evening cultural lessons will add half an hour of Military Strategy and Tactics study, which I will personally teach."

"The government won't give us much more time for such comfortable days. You must make full use of this precious short period of two to three months for learning."

To be honest, there is still a long time ahead, and these youths like Li Dingguo will have plenty of time in the future to learn various survival and life skills.

But they were rebels who had just risen up!

After the Rebel Army leaves Dingbian City, for a long time, it will not be as easy as it is now. Wandering and displacement will likely become commonplace, and such comfortable days will be rare.

If talented youths like Li Dingguo and Ai Nengqi don't have a certain level of self-preservation ability, they can easily perish in the chaos of war.

The government troops won't spare you on the battlefield just because you are a child.

As long as you are a rebel, if encountered on the battlefield, even the old, weak, women, and children are subject to their slaughter.

What's more, there are threats from various Demons and Monsters.

"Alright, now the four of you, come forward one by one and choose a main combat weapon and a bow and arrow."

Zhang Xianzhong beckoned the four monstrous geniuses in front of him to come forward and said, "You must follow your hearts and choose the weapon you are most interested in according to your preferences."

"Only in this way will cultivating a corresponding weapon Cultivation Method in the future yield twice the results with half the effort."

As someone with experience, Zhang Xianzhong's words were very reasonable.

Ai Nengqi was the first to come over. He thought for a moment, then picked up a long-handled saber and a bow and arrow.

Next was Li Dingguo. He chose a long spear and a bow and arrow.

Liu Wenxiu, like Li Dingguo, chose a long spear and a bow and arrow.

As for Zhang Huier, this fellow was different. He actually chose a wolf-toothed club and a bow and arrow.

The various weapons here were not ordinary items; they were all low-grade Spirit Weapons.

They were all carefully selected by Zhang Xianzhong, and their quality was quite good, presumably seized from the housecarls and guards of those wealthy gentry families.

As for the original garrison of Dingbian City, they were just a bunch of disorganized rabble with little fighting power.

Therefore, when Zhang Xianzhong previously attacked and occupied the county town, he led the Rebel Army soldiers in a surprise attack and easily took it without much effort.

Only the county magistrate himself, who held the official seal, and a few gentry families in the city caused the Rebel Army considerable trouble.

In the current Great Ming Dynasty, from top to bottom, "embezzlement" was extremely serious, and corruption was rampant.

Various military supplies, money, and grain were already embezzled by 30% before leaving the capital.

They were then further exploited layer by layer by officials at all levels, and by the time they reached the soldiers in various places, it was already quite good if 10% of the supplies, money, and grain remained.

Within the Great Ming Dynasty, those who lived the most miserably now were the military households who had basically lost their land and most of their military pay and grain sources, as well as the ordinary crafting households who had nothing but their skills.

Most of the military equipment used by the government troops was crudely made.

The reason why the Nine Border Garrisons had not collapsed until now was because the generals at all levels responsible for guarding various places were enriching themselves at the public's expense, maintaining more or less personal guards and housecarls.

Because they were willing to invest heavily in these personal guards and housecarls, who were like household servants, they could use the deterrence of their housecarls and personal guards to lead the ordinary soldiers and military households, who had basically become useless, to defend the already precarious border strongholds and various garrisons, maintaining the court's only remaining dignity and authority.

Even the barbaric Tartars outside the passes, who don't engage in production, are now far superior to the Great Ming Dynasty in terms of military equipment, thanks to smuggling with treacherous merchants within the passes and their plundering raids.

The shady dealings involved are self-evident.

However, Zhang Xianzhong has already ordered the collection of some crafting households to repair and forge the military equipment used by the Rebel Army.

Especially recently, he was fortunate enough to invite a great Crafting Master capable of forging Spirit Weapons. He offered him satisfactory compensation and treatment to forge various Spirit Weapons for the Rebel Army.

It shouldn't take long, with the various resources plundered from this county town, to fully arm at least three hundred Veteran Camp soldiers of the Rebel Army.

Of course, forging those precious Spirit Weapon armors would consume too many resources and too much time, making it impossible for now.

The few sets of Spirit Weapon armor the Rebel Army currently possesses were stripped from the bodies of several killed powerful clan retainers and city defense officers and claimed as their own.

The low-grade Spirit Weapons that Li Dingguo and the others now possess are quite valuable.

Within the Great Ming Dynasty, besides the ordinary crafting households who are not treated as human by officials and gentry, there are also Crafting Masters with high status.

Only a small number of Crafting Masters can forge the various grades of Spirit Weapons that allow Martial Artists to fully unleash their martial power.

Forging Spirit Weapons requires various spirit ores and spirit wood, as well as the Crafting Master's exquisite smelting and forging techniques, making every Spirit Weapon very precious.

Even the low-grade Spirit Weapons in the hands of Li Dingguo and the others are basically worth as much as a low-grade Spirit Beast Flood Dragon Scale Horse.

Spirit Weapons, like Spirit Beast warhorses, are graded into low-grade, mid-grade, high-grade, and top-grade.

Zhang Xianzhong currently only possesses a total of a few dozen Spirit Weapon weapons, and most of them are low-grade Spirit Weapons, all obtained through spoils of war.

In the fortuitous encounter inheritance he received several years ago, there was no mention of Spirit Weapons, which is the biggest weakness of the Rebel Army he founded.