C18 Solemn Use of Life

Hsu Shen said slowly, "When Wu Zi was training, he used to eat and sleep with the soldiers in order to keep the soldiers alive."

"One day, Wu Zi toured the military camp and saw a pustule on his head. Wu Zi personally sucked it with his mouth, so all the soldiers returned to their own hearts and gave up their lives. Wherever Wu Zibing went, there was nothing he could not do."

Wu Dinggrou nodded his head: "I understand, Master Xu is going to teach the students and soldiers to eat and sleep together, win the hearts of everyone, and then use their lives."

Hsu Shen nodded in satisfaction and said straightforwardly, "Not bad, disciple. Although you are talented, you can't charge into the fray. Learning martial arts isn't a day or two, so you should be able to attract attention."

Actually, many emperors had ordinary military capabilities. However, with their rich charisma, they were still able to expand their territories by commanding their soldiers to invade remote areas at the border.

At least for now, Xiao Yan would at most act as a mascot.

"Take these books and study them when you get home. If there's anything you don't understand, you can ask me."

In Hsu Shen's hand were two bound books. Although Cai Hou's paper had been invented by Cai Lun in the early Eastern Han Dynasty, its construction cost was not cheap, so most of the books were still bamboo slips.

Xiao Yan respectfully received the book and took a look. He saw that there were two books written in Chinese characters on top of it. One of them was "Liu Tao" and the other was "San Shu".

These two military manuals had great origins. Liu Tao Ge was written by the Great Master Jiang Ziya, who assisted King Zhou in exterminating his merchants, and they recorded down the ancient rules of the military before the previous Qin Dynasty.

For example, in the Zhou Dynasty, when the two armies fought, there was a procedure, which was to send out a large general from each army to ride a chariot and fight back and forth. This procedure was called "send a teacher", but it was very rare to fight alone now.

It was said that the Three Mysses was written by the Yellow Stone Duke, the old man who taught Zhang Liang the art of war on the bridge. It was said that Zhang Liang grew up to be a peerless man of his generation because he was taught by the Yellow Stone Duke.

Liu Tao and Zhu Liang were often put together, but in reality, the two books were completely unrelated. It was just that the title of the book was a bit similar.

Xiao Yan couldn't wait to open it and take a look. Aside from the original text, there were also Hsu Shen's own notes on it. He couldn't help but feel overjoyed.

"Thank you, Master Xu, for the book. I am deeply grateful!"

"En, go back. Remember to read two books. You still need to use your life." Hsu Shen instructed.

"Yes, Master Xu."

"..."

After leaving the Xu Estate, Xiao Yan, who had returned home, immediately began to read through all six books. In his previous life, he had been used to reading vernacular texts, so he was not used to them at all. Moreover, these two books were read from right to left, and no matter how one looked at them, they were not pleasing to the eye, so it was very difficult to read them.

"Duke, why did you also live here?" Xiao Shi opened his eyes wide with a puzzled expression on his face.

He saw Xiao Yan, who was packing up an ordinary mattress, actually living in the training camp. In order to prevent others from discovering the secret Xiao Mansion, Xiao Yan secretly built a military camp in the valley.

"From today onwards, I will eat and sleep with the warriors. I will eat whatever they eat." Xiao Yan said seriously.

"That won't do. Duke is a marquis of the imperial government. How can he eat with us, the barbarians?" Xiao Shi hastily waved his hands and shook his head.

"It's time to eat, it's time to eat!"

Dang, dang, dang!

The men in the camp were waving their spoons and shouting loudly, while the private soldiers were holding their bowls in their hands and lining up excitedly to eat.

Seeing this, Xiao Yan put down Liu Tao, picked up a clay bowl and walked over.

"Give me a bowl too."

"Alright …" Duke? "You-"

Seeing that the person in front of him turned out to be Xiao Yan, the kitchen man was dumbfounded. The spoon in his hand fell to the ground.

"Duke?"

"Duke is also eating with us?"

"Did I see wrong?"

The surrounding country soldiers were all whispering, all of them had a look of disbelief on their faces. It had to be said that in these days, there were differences in status. The poor people ate two meals a day, eating brown rice, while the aristocrats ate three meals a day.

"Don't just stand there. Give me a spoon and a bowl of rice. Dukes have to eat too." Xiao Yan said to the kitchen man.

The cook reacted and nodded like he was pounding garlic, "Yes, yes, yes. Duke, please wait."

He quickly changed spoons and scooped up two big spoonfuls of rice, some pickles and a bowl of soup. The food these days was still quite average. It would be great if the commoners could eat their fill.

Xiao Yan found a place to squat down and started to eat without a change in expression, as if he was eating with relish.

Many soldiers forgot to eat and just stared at Xiao Yan. Xiao Yan ate the rice in big mouthfuls and drank the soup. He looked very sweet and delicious as if he was a farmer and was used to eating rough food.

"I didn't expect Duke to be so noble, to be able to eat the same thing as me."

"Alright, alright, stop looking. Let's continue eating."

"Yeah, looking at how Duke is eating, I'm already hungry, let's eat!"

All of a sudden, all the soldiers started eating heartily. However, Xiao Yan was forcing himself to smile. What did he, from the future generation, not eat before? In this era where materials were scarce, many vegetables and seasonings had yet to be produced.

Originally, Xiao Yan could endure it, as the rice was very rough and the taste of the pickled vegetables was very thick. He really couldn't take it anymore and almost vomited.

No, I can't spit it out!

Xiao Yan restrained himself from laughing too much and swallowed the rice.

If he spit out the rice in front of everyone and let these soldiers see, all the efforts Xiao Yan had made would have been in vain. How could a man who couldn't even swallow the rice be able to "put his life on the line"?

Xiao Yan's performance that day was impeccable: he swallowed all the leftover food without a change in expression. That day, he personally watched Xiao Shi train his soldiers and worked hard for it. When night fell, Xiao Yan directly slept in the camp.

These days, other than the aristocrats, the commoners took expensive showers throughout the year. After a whole day of practice, their bodies reeked of sweat, which went into every pore of Xiao Yan's body.

"So smelly …" I really miss Yun'er. " Xiao Yan was a little regretful. Being squeezed together with this group of men made him miss the fragrant servant girls beside him.