Seeing everyone's reactions, the Office of Protocol official realized the problem and hastily stressed, "An intermediate martial academy, not a lower one!"
Lower martial academies were akin to martial arts schools. Their martial artists mostly had to fight on the front lines, and even those from other countries were no exception.
Intermediate academies, however, offered some courses in command and deployment, while upper academies were advanced military institutions that taught how to direct campaigns from within the command tent.
The hostages from Jin were certainly surprised, but even attending a lower martial academy would have satisfied them. At least they would have escaped their cage.
Once they actually reached the battlefield, if they went missing or something... wouldn't that mean bidding farewell to their lives as hostages?
Yet purely in terms of feasibility, even that possibility did not exist. It would be an insult to Jin.
If Liang really dared send the hostages to the front lines, would anyone doubt that Jin would immediately launch another war?
Jin had merely lost. It had not ceased to exist!
Martial artists from intermediate academies were much less likely to fight on the front lines.
Considering the hostages' status, there was also no chance that Great Liang would help people from an enemy nation gain wartime experience.
Even if they accompanied the army to the front, they would struggle to secure so much as a staff officer's role.
More likely, they would be spectators... witnessing Liang's might and invincibility!
Martial artists from an intermediate academy going to the front lines-why did that sound... so implausible?
Shi Linyuan was the first to react. "The front lines... we cannot take part in wars between nations!" he said gravely.
"Of course. You would be fighting the Weird Race," the Office of Protocol official replied, his face a picture of righteousness. "You are, after all, distinguished scions of Great Jin!"
"The conflict between Great Liang and Great Jin is merely a disagreement between brothers, and the same holds true for the other kingdoms. Only the Weird Race is the common enemy of humanity!"
"As expected of Great Liang!" At the head of the crowd, a middle-aged man spoke with a smile. "Such vision and breadth of perspective. Admirable!"
He was not a member of the Hostage Prince Corps, but a Foreign Affairs Agency official dispatched to Liang by Jin's Court of State Ceremonial, accompanying them today.
The Liang official smiled and nodded. "We hope everyone will sign up enthusiastically. You are Jin's elite, and Great Liang thirsts for talent!"
Fine words, and such an upright stance! Wu Youren remained inwardly unruffled. As expected of a diplomat!
All that talk of "please sign up enthusiastically"-there was no need for encouragement to see the Jin hostages' enthusiasm!
"Thirsting for talent" should be understood as-outstanding talents were welcome to develop divided loyalties and split Jin apart as soon as possible!
How dull! Ancient Divine Poster felt he had seen through everything.
Still, he would not conclude that everyone involved in politics was dirty. From the standpoint of their own country's interests, they had done nothing wrong.
Instead, he thought Shi Linyuan had gone a little too far. "This is what you meant when you said His Highness secured a place for me?"
Thirty people would be selected from the Hostage Prince Corps—a whole damn thirty percent of the places... and he was supposed to be overflowing with gratitude?
"I thought... you had grown smarter." This time, Shi Linyuan's eyes held unmistakable contempt.
"Without His Highness looking out for you, would you ever get a turn?"
Wu Youren decisively shut his mouth. Showing a moderate amount of dissatisfaction was enough; going too far was as bad as falling short.
Things turned out exactly as Shi Linyuan had predicted. The hundred-person Hostage Prince Corps produced over a hundred and twenty applicants.
The seventeenth prince could not participate in the selection himself, so he recommended some people from among his guards, pageboys, and servants.
The other hostages were merely his personal guard, while his regular guards were a separate group.
Two other hostages of relatively high standing did something similar.
In short, the martial academy's recruitment could foster exchanges between the two countries, but His Highness hoped to keep more hostages by his side.
Everyone possessed this instinct for self-preservation. It could also be understood as a tentative attempt to overstep the boundaries.
For the hostages at the bottom, however, the competition became much more brutal.
Joy for some households, sorrow for others.
Now that the competition had begun, Wu Youren could no longer hole up in his quarters all day. His recuperation ought to come to an end, too.
The next day, he attended morning lessons.
Morning lessons covered both academic and martial subjects. The martial portion consisted only of stretching and building strength.
Liang's martial instructors would not teach any techniques or tactics, and the hostages would not practice their own families' martial arts either!
Man guarded against tiger, and tiger guarded against man. At most, they practiced the simplest routines of punches and kicks.
In fact, even with such basic drills, the hostages would not keep at it for long. An hour was the absolute limit.
Without adequate nutrition, practicing martial arts meant draining their blood and qi in a slow suicide!
Wu Youren trained for only about forty minutes. Feeling that he had more or less digested his breakfast, he did another ten minutes of stance training before stopping.
The academic lessons were philosophy classes, mainly promoting the strengths of Great Liang's culture and how much it helped bolster national power.
These were proper brainwashing sessions. The fly in the ointment was that Liang knew only how to boast relentlessly, with no roundabout methods.
Tactics such as overt criticism that was actually praise... did not exist. Their main approach was "a lie repeated ten thousand times becomes the truth."
Interestingly, those who did well in the academic lessons and ranked near the top in the monthly exams even received rewards!
These might be banknotes or blood food. The rewards were substantial, making it plain that they wanted to sow division within the Hostage Prince Corps.
It really did have some effect. Some people used them to supplement their means, and even the seventeenth prince's men did not dare confiscate these rewards.
Someone who refused to believe it had previously tried to seize a reward by force, only to be promptly taught a lesson by Liang's martial instructors.
Since when did people from a defeated nation get to allocate rewards bestowed by Great Liang?
His predecessor had never earned such rewards, however. The reason had nothing to do with his personal ability. It came down to this: unworthy!
If he truly dared set his sights on them, not only would he endanger himself, but his family back home would also be implicated!
Again, the Hostage Prince Corps' prospects were bleak, but they would show absolutely no mercy when purging their own.
Thus, his predecessor had basically lain flat and slacked off during these academic lessons. No matter how poorly he performed on the monthly exams, there would be no punishment.
He could even skip the exams, though missing too many would make it easy for Liang to target him.
After the academic lesson ended, Wu Youren deliberately hung back as he followed everyone outside.
A burly girl approached him, however. "What happened with you falling into the water this time?"
She was also a hostage. There were five female hostages in the delegation altogether.
The female hostages were not there for the seventeenth prince's pleasure, but to conduct security checks on women who approached him and provide services of that sort.
If ordinary women from Liang wanted to approach His Highness, male hostages could search them.
But women of status required the female hostages to step in.
Yan Sanmin also came from a family with a noble title, except that her family had connections in Great Jin's royal palace.
More precisely, she was a rather distant blood relative of the seventeenth prince's mother.
Both came from titled families, but the gulf between their positions in the Hostage Prince Corps was enormous!
"I lost my footing," Wu Youren answered coolly. He had little fondness for her either.
She had been his childhood nightmare, one of the hostages who had bullied him most viciously.
Only in the past two years had her attitude gradually changed, and he knew perfectly well why: he had grown into his looks!
Male and female hostages could marry, and even fleeting affairs were permitted, but... he was not interested in her!
People really did live in knots sometimes.
"Watch how you speak to me!" Yan Sanmin was displeased. "Who exactly bullied you?"
"No one." Wu Youren shook his head. "Sorry to trouble you with such a small matter, Sister Sanmin."
Leaving aside whether he could find her attractive, Yan Sanmin's position in the Hostage Prince Corps... was actually rather delicate.
Her relation to the seventeenth prince was simply too distant, and she came from only a titled family.
Had she not come to protect him on his mother's instructions, just how many people in the Hostage Prince Corps would have given her any face?
"You've really gotten capable, haven't you?" Yan Sanmin snorted. "Looks like you haven't suffered enough yet!"
What could Wu Youren say? He could only pretend not to hear.
Two days later, the first list of ten successful candidates came out. Wu Youren's name was on it.
Shi Linyuan came to see him again. Without another word, Wu Youren produced the remaining stone medicine and its preparation method.
This was a mess his predecessor had made, and he had no desire whatsoever to shoulder it. "Alcohol poison. It cannot be taken directly, or death is certain!"
"Do I need you to teach me that?" Shi Linyuan first snorted disdainfully, then a strange smile appeared on his face.
"Do you think making the list means your place is secure?"
"No." Wu Youren shook his head and answered very bluntly.
"I simply thought that, given my status, I wasn't worthy of you all going back on your word."
At this, Shi Linyuan rolled his eyes, shook his head, and turned to leave. "You really have made progress."
Watching his retreating back, Wu Youren curled his lip. He did not have much faith in these people's integrity.
The children of titled nobles cared rather more about their reputations and public personas. In a foreign country, they also needed to band together, so they would be even more mindful of limits.
But only someone with strength could receive such treatment. Given his status, the possibility of them reneging objectively existed.
Still, Wu Youren's expression remained relaxed, because he had finally handed off the trouble his predecessor had brought upon himself, once and for all.
Just how hot a potato was this trouble... consider how he had transmigrated.
The problem was that he could not give away the secret for nothing. Two lifetimes of experience told him that unrelenting weakness would only invite others to take a mile when given an inch.
In other words, as of now, he had finally weathered the most urgent crisis he faced after transmigrating.
As for the greater crisis-his status and circumstances as a hostage-there was no need to deal with it immediately. At least it was not trouble pressing at his eyebrows.
This was not something haste could solve. He just needed to remain calm amid change, counter each move as it came, and quietly await an opportunity.
The profits from blending strong liquor would have nothing to do with him, but that mattered even less.
What truly mattered was that his predecessor's actions had reminded him-counterfeiting could make a fortune too!
Wu Youren possessed plenty of similar information. At that thought, he truly did miss that age of exploding information a little...
At present, he was in an enemy country. He would feel not the slightest psychological burden over making and selling fakes.
He had just raised his cup and taken a sip of water when someone walked in through the door. "Youren, congratulations!"
The newcomer was Liu Jingming, a baron's grandson whose father had married into the family. His status was a little higher than Wu Youren's, but not by much!
The Hostage Prince Corps' members had all manner of peculiar circumstances, amply demonstrating the diversity of human nature.
Their relationship was actually quite ordinary, too. Liu Jingming had merely never bullied him.
"Greetings, Brother Jingming." Wu Youren rose with a wry chuckle. "It isn't the final list yet. Plenty of people have ways of getting things done."
"That's exactly what I came to discuss with you." Liu Jingming dispensed with pleasantries and spoke directly. "Someone wants to buy your place."
(The book is still new. Please support it by keeping up with the latest chapters, voting, and adding it to your collection.)