Chapter 118: Busy with Martial Training

The You Prefecture Guard beat gongs and posted relocation notices and lists in every ward. When civilians gathered, they shouted: "Look over here! The Great King plans to lay out the roads of You Prefecture City, as well as the water supply and drainage; some households' houses are in the way and must be demolished and moved!"

Upon hearing this, the civilians felt as if the sky had collapsed!

Some even went weak in the knees and knelt down, crying, "If our homes are demolished, where will we live?" "Exactly, I just repaired my roof!" "What? Building roads again—is the magistrate going to conscript laborers again?"

The officials: … Your reaction is really quick.

"Silence! Listen to me! The Great King will not forcibly seize your houses; those listed need to move out and vacate their homes, with each household compensated ten bolts of silk and ten taels of silver!"

What? Give silver and silk?!

This completely blew their minds—their shabby house wasn't worth ten bolts of silk; silk is valuable! Selling it could buy a bigger house, plus ten taels of silver!

The crowd grew excited again, craning their necks to see if their names were on the list.

The You Prefecture Guard had a literate person read the roster aloud; the scene was practically a massive morale‑breaking event.

Those on the list wept with joy, while those not on it were utterly devastated—why wasn't their house marked for demolition?

But before they could despair, the officials dropped another bombshell: this time they would recruit three thousand laborers. Good, hope returned.

"Those who agree to relocate should tomorrow take their household registers, grouped by ward, go to the South Gate of the Old King's Mansion to stamp their agreement, then find a place to live. Within five days move out and vacate your houses; on the sixth day you can take your household registers to the South Gate of the Old King's Mansion to receive your relocation compensation."

Inside the city it was bustling; people ran through streets and alleys, visiting each other, and the first thing they said when meeting was, "Has your household been relocated?"

The Great King followed through on his word and really went into seclusion to focus on suppressing bandits.

The Owl Cavalry also finally eliminated another five hundred, bringing its numbers up to a full thousand.

The Great King gave another speech, granting each formal member one warhorse, one curved blade, and one long spear.

He also encouraged the five hundred who had been eliminated, saying they were the Owl Cavalry's reserves; if formal members became lax or fell back, they could step up, and everyone was in a competitive relationship.

The Owl Cavalry finalized its personnel, and the Great King formally announced that Ling Yin would serve as Colonel, making him the leader of this cavalry unit.

From that day on, Ling Yin led them in studying the Great King's body‑refining technique in the mornings and practicing blade and spear techniques in the afternoons. The Great King also showed up on time to train with the Owl Cavalry, no longer fooling around elsewhere.

Once Wei Shen had initially gotten used to his wild horse and could finally ride it, he noticed that the Great King's petite figure was nowhere to be seen around the manor, and even the training ground was empty.

"No way, he must be causing trouble somewhere! Otherwise… he must have a secret!"

Finally they found the Great King at the new army camp by North Hua Gate, sweating profusely as he wielded a half‑black, half‑silver heavy blade that was almost as long as he himself. Ling Yin stood nearby giving guidance, while in the distance the cavalry practiced curved blades on horseback.

Good, they were all secretly putting in effort here!

Seeing him sway over, the Great King stopped his motion and called Zhao Bao over, saying, "Take the curved blade I prepared for my cousin and give it to him." The few hand‑crafted high‑end items were finally delivered; he had ordered a heavy blade and a long spear for himself, while his cousin received the curved blade—this time it truly could cut hair.

Wei Shen, thrilled to have received the blade, turned around and joined the cavalry ranks; from then on, there was one more person in seclusion.

His cousin now mingled with the cavalry all day, skipping studies; when the Great King studied, he would also hang out at the North Great Camp, and the Great King grew a little worried about shaking off his cousin.

Bai Ze neither affirmed nor denied the Great King's plan to ditch his cousin and lead a bandit‑suppression force himself; that Wei fellow just looked foolish, but wasn't truly stupid.

One month flew by; infrastructure construction in You Prefecture City was in full swing, and the Great King's deadline for suppressing bandits had only one month left.

You Prefecture entered summer unusually early this year, and the Great King, wanting to be safe, also didn't want to delay.

After a month of body‑refining training supplemented by Ling Yin's special drills, though no one claimed their skills had improved by leaps and bounds, the Owl Cavalry members' bodies had become considerably sturdier, and their physical fitness had seen a substantial boost.

Before departure, the Great King assigned Zhao Chuan a task: to take the West Great Camp out in batches for marching drills.

The Great King said, "Marching and fighting require practice; you can't just stay home doing martial arts. Once we're strong enough, if the Northern Barbarians dare come again, I'll drive them back to their homelands—can you get used to marching deep into the grasslands? You'll need to train and adapt. The troops from Ever Peace who rushed to You Prefecture are already exhausted enough, and they happen to have tents, so let's send them out in batches to practice!"

Everyone agreed this was a thoughtful good suggestion, and Wei Shen nodded along.

The Great King turned and added his cousin, "Please, cousin, come along once to inspect their martial skills, and then see how they differ from the Southwest Army that has been tempered by war."

That was quite reasonable; Wei Shen agreed without even thinking.

After that thousand‑person unit left, the Great King summoned Zhang Tu to guard You Prefecture City well, as the Great King himself was about to go out.

Zhang Tu hesitated a moment, then asked, "Your humble servant oversteps, may I ask where Your Highness is heading? Does the Chancellor know? The Chancellor previously ordered me not to let Your Highness go out alone; I must have either myself or Zhao Chuan accompany you. Zhao Chuan has gone out of the city for drills, I am staying behind—who will accompany Your Highness out?"

The Great King replied, "The Owl Cavalry will go out with me! What is Ling Yin afraid of? I myself will tell the Chancellor."

Only then did Zhang Tu leave.

As if saying the impossible, the Great King turned and opened the full terrain map of You Prefecture, skillfully locating Rock Sparrow Mountain on it, then zooming in repeatedly, and began delightedly counting the tiny figures' activities.

As the saying goes, "Know yourself and know your enemy, and you will win a hundred battles." The Great King had been counting this for many days since learning of the mission.

When he counted, it was impossible for everyone to be outdoors, so whenever he had free time the Great King would run through the numbers; sometimes, while skipping class, he would seek out Rock Sparrow Mountain, locate their core activity zone, watch what those coming and going were doing, and add it up to get a rough estimate.

The Great King dared say that, aside from the bandits, he knew the terrain of Rock Sparrow Mountain better than anyone.

Down below they were so poor they couldn't seize anything worthwhile; the mountain bandits could only set their sights on passing merchants. It's estimated that the bandits of Rock Sparrow Mountain already have a notorious reputation, so few merchant caravans pass through, and these people go down the mountain in droves several times without seeing anything brought back up— the Great King felt utter anguish, "If you have the leisure to lie around sunbathing, come down and reclaim some wasteland; before the first frost you could at least harvest a batch of white radishes and carrots."

One day, lost in thought, he blurted it out unintentionally; the Grand Tutor naturally asked, and the Great King related his thoughts.

The Grand Tutor couldn't help but start worrying about the Great King.

Your Highness is still young, your ideas overly naïve. The Grand Tutor directly told him that the mountain bandits, accustomed to licking blood from blades and living without labor, have long since tossed whatever humanity they had somewhere unknown; the Rock Sparrow Mountain bandits have even slaughtered villages.

After class, the Great King had Zhao Bao fetch the criminal case records concerning Rock Sparrow Mountain from the Sili Inspector; a glance showed it wasn't trivial—over the years the number of merchant complaints was innumerable, minor scuffles without casualties don't count, but the recorded cases involving deaths amount to several dozen. This doesn't even include total annihilations, or cases where people simply didn't trust the authorities and thus didn't report.

The most outrageous part is that, during the chaotic period when You Prefecture City fell a few years ago, they even came down amidst the turmoil to slaughter villages!

From then on, the Great King no longer said to have them come down and plant radishes; they are unlike those sturdy villages that waylay and rob travelers—they are desperate outlaws, serious criminals.