Young Blades Honed

By the time the last stretch of rammed-earth wall had been pounded firm and smooth, and the bottom of the trench had been cleared, the late-autumn wind already carried a bone-piercing chill. The sky had grown lofty and overcast, heralding winter's ever-nearing footsteps. Yet the Fire Tribe's valley felt especially warm and secure because of this newly completed ring of walls.

Within the walls, everything was busy but orderly. Everyone knew they had to make thorough preparations before the first heavy snowfall sealed off the mountains.

Food reserves: nearly every member of the hunting team (warrior team) went out for the final large-scale hunting and fishing effort. Thanks to the two small boats and their increasingly practiced skills, catches from the river were steady and substantial. The hunting team focused on large animals that had put on thick layers of fat for winter, such as bison, wild boar, and deer. Dried fish, dried meat, and smoked meat piled up like small mountains in the storehouse. The gathering team also brought the last batch of long-keeping tubers and nuts into storage.

Cold-weather supplies: the women became the busiest people of all. Their needles flew as they used the furs obtained through earlier trading and hunting to rush out fur coats, fur trousers, and thick hide boots. Wang Yan introduced the concept of "quilts," guiding them in sewing together multiple layers of soft hides and stuffing them with dry moss or feathers to make "hide quilts" far warmer than simply covering themselves with hides. Hemp clothing served as the layer against the skin, with fur coats worn over it, providing excellent warmth.

· Medical preparations: Granny Cao and her assistants carefully sorted and dried the various medicinal herbs gathered and traded for during autumn, ground them into powder or made them into salves, and stored them properly in dry pottery jars. They prepared ample quantities of herbs for chills, frostbite, and external injuries to deal with illnesses that might arise during winter.

Just as everyone was preparing to battle the bitter winter, Chief Jianshi and Wang Yan made another important decision-to comprehensively expand and strengthen the youth team.

Standing atop the newly completed earthen wall, Jianshi looked down at the dozens of half-grown children still persevering with their training in the cold wind and said to Wang Yan, "Yan, us old fellows still have some years of fighting left in us. But the tribe's future will ultimately depend on these boys. We have more people now, and more children of the right age. Take them all in hand and drill them hard for me! In a few years, they'll be the tribe's new backbone!"

Wang Yan had long had the same intention and immediately accepted the order. He gathered every boy in the tribe between eight and fifteen years old, forming a "Youth Brigade" of unprecedented size, numbering more than eighty! He appointed himself commander of the Youth Brigade.

Managing these eighty-odd energetic, half-grown boys, at an age when even dogs wanted nothing to do with them, was a tremendous challenge. Wang Yan adopted the model that had proved effective in reorganizing the warrior team, with some adjustments. He divided the eighty-odd boys into two companies. The first company, led by the steady, strong Shibang, whose prestige was steadily growing, had four squads under it, totaling more than forty boys; the second company, led by the brave, combative Yingmu, who was making rapid progress, likewise had four squads and more than forty boys. The leaders of all eight squads were drawn from the original companions who had been the first to train under Wang Yan, knew one another inside out, and had already distinguished themselves through these past few months of plentiful nutrition and strict training:

Kuaitui, Shimao, Changteng, Jiandun, Lichi, Heizhua, Shangou, and Niaodan.

All eight now had sturdy builds and keen eyes, had mastered basic fighting and hunting skills, and commanded considerable respect among the youths. With them serving as squad leaders, the other children, especially the youths who had recently joined the tribe, accepted their leadership wholeheartedly.

Though the weather was cold, the Youth Brigade's training blazed with fervor. Wang Yan knew well that winter was the best time to train troops. With few miscellaneous tasks to interfere, he could systematically hone these future warriors.

The training ground was set up on a cleared stretch of open ground in the center of the settlement.

Morning exercise: at first light, all eighty-odd boys had to assemble and run around the entire settlement, tempering their endurance and will. Before noon: they performed strength training, such as wrestling and carrying stone locks, along with the most basic formation and discipline training. Wang Yan's demands were exceptionally strict: their movements had to be uniform, and orders had to be obeyed absolutely. Afternoon: the uncles taking their turn off duty from the hunting team, or Wang Yan himself, taught them various practical skills. These included techniques for using stone axes and stone spears, simple throwing, setting traps, and reading the tracks of wild animals. They even began learning small-scale coordinated tactics for pairs and groups of three. General lessons: Wang Yan also devised an unconventional addition-"general lessons." As they sat around the fire burning in a large pottery basin at night, he not only explained the tribe's rules and the importance of unity, but also invited Granny Cao to teach them to identify medicinal herbs, Suyuan and Qingmu to explain the seasons for planting, and Zhouya and Shuihen to teach them about the river's ways. What he wanted to cultivate were not brutes who knew only how to fight, but knowledgeable future mainstays loyal to the tribe.

Training was arduous, especially in the cold of winter. But these youths enjoyed the plentiful food provided by the tribe and cherished dreams of becoming powerful warriors. Inspired further by role models such as Wang Yan, Shibang, and Yingmu, not one complained of hardship or exhaustion.

The sight of this youth force, beginning to take shape and already strictly disciplined, left Jianshi and the various team leaders deeply gratified.

"Good! This is truly good!" Dali grinned as he watched Yingmu hold his own while wrestling Shibang. "Give these boys a few more years, and they'll definitely be stronger than us old fellows!"

Dazhuang nodded too. "With Yan leading them, they can't go wrong!"