Chapter 510: Instructor

In the Ming Dynasty, the average male height was around 1.67 meters. In a barehanded fight like this, three ordinary natives facing Wei Yuan — 1.9 meters tall and built like a giant bear — were under considerable pressure.

In a real combat match, body weight is a major factor. Otherwise, boxing competitions wouldn't need weight classes — just throw a 90-jin lightweight straight in against a 200-jin Tyson and be done with it, right?

Those cool, dashing scenes in movies actually all violate the laws of physics. If Tyson really threw a full-force punch, Donnie Yen wouldn't be striking a pose and blocking it with one palm — he'd be sent tumbling like a rolling gourd, with a broken arm to boot. That's the real outcome.

The laws of physics work just as well in the seventeenth century. On the drill ground, under the gaze of several hundred onlookers, the three experts who stepped forward to test Wei Yuan soon met their deserved end.

Wei Yuan, a former special forces soldier, was no slow-moving big lug. He was agile, could take a hit, and was well-versed in later-era hand-to-hand techniques. It only took a few exchanges before he had the three heroes flat on the ground.

"As expected of an old brother who rose up alongside the Grand Commandant — gifted by heaven, and formidable in a fight!"

Wu Sanye, watching silently from the crowd, nodded to himself in the aftermath.

Over the past few years, while the Transmigrators had been profoundly altering the course of history in this plane, the reactive forces of this plane had also inevitably affected the Transmigrators in turn.

So, after a period of ideological friction and entanglement between the two sides, the Transmigrators had now gradually worked out and accepted two distinct approaches to external propaganda.

For the common masses, General Cao and his brothers were simply a group of Ming Sea Merchants who had gone overseas to do business, and now, having struck it rich by opening up Western trade routes, had returned home in glory to take part in politics and governance.

But for a portion of the Transmigration Nation's upper echelons — such as the Pingfeng Mountain Bandits, who had been the earliest to join the great transmigration enterprise — the Cao Emperor and his One Hundred and Eight Generals were genuine celestial beings descended to the mortal realm, divine figures sent down from the heavens for a stint of tempered service.

Establishing this kind of persona was necessary. After all, countless high-tech items had appeared overnight from the Transmigrators' hands. If they tried to cover it all up and deceive people, the later generations of this plane weren't fools — they'd trace things back to the source, and sooner or later there'd be things that couldn't be explained, which would then undermine the legitimacy of the Transmigrators' descendants' rule.

So it was better to establish a vague concept like "celestial descent OR space-time crossing" from the very start — after all, the crossing had already happened, so space-time transition was real. By the time later generations figured out the laws of spacetime and could cross over on their own, who knew how many years would have passed? It wouldn't matter if the lie was exposed by then.

And so, under the subtle influence of the propaganda machinery established by certain individuals, the Ming People now had a precise understanding of the Transmigrators' identity: they were heroes akin to the Liangshan One Hundred and Eight Generals. As for who played the role of Song Gongming, their big brother? Well... that went without saying.

Today, in front of the many Edo folk in the Pioneer Army, Wei Yuan had once again reinforced the persona of the Transmigrators as people of extraordinary ability.

Among the onlooking crowd, there were quite a few knowledgeable people like Wu Sanye. They naturally had their own assessment of Wei Yuan's performance just now — that kind of fierce, lethal, one-strike-kill unarmed technique, there was truly no faking it. Even if General Wei had been of average build, among all the various people present, it wasn't certain anyone could beat him one-on-one.

After demonstrating unarmed combat, Wei Yuan laughed heartily, stepped forward to pull up the challengers he had knocked down, then put on protective gear, picked up a wooden knife, and sparred several more rounds with the natives who kept coming up to test him.

When it came to traditional cold weapons, Wei Yuan certainly couldn't dominate the field. After all, before crossing over, the only cold weapon he'd had real systematic training with was the dagger. As for wielding a blade, that was a personal hobby — he didn't have much practical combat experience.

In these few weapon bouts, General Wei traded wins and losses with the natives.

But the natives didn't think any less of the giant for it. Everyone knew that for a General-in-Chief leading troops, personally stepping into the ring to spar today was already impressive enough.

If they really met on the battlefield and someone came at him with a weapon to fight to the death, it would probably be suicide... the Repeating Flintlock Pistol at his waist wasn't just for show — he'd demonstrated it publicly earlier.

As a Guest Instructor temporarily hired by the Pioneer Army, Wei Yuan had only recently arrived at Huangpu. His purpose here was simple: to teach the native soldiers some combat techniques for subtropical regions, and for future operations in tropical areas. After all, most of the Transmigrators came from the regular military and had the fundamentals, but when it came to small-scale conflicts in the South Seas, they lacked practical experience.

After sparring a few rounds, Wei Yuan was drenched in sweat. In high spirits, he adopted the style from his army days and generously treated everyone to beer.

With that one cup of beer per man, Commander Wei instantly became hugely popular among the natives. After all, an officer of his standing, with real skill to back it up, who was also willing to "share in the common people's joy" — that was truly a rare sight in the Ming Army these days.

And so, having gathered a great deal of popularity, Instructor Wei spent the following days not only helping the native teams pair up personnel on the drill ground, but also holding classroom lessons, explaining some practical battlefield techniques.

Everyone loved Instructor Wei's drill-ground classes. After all, the natives had no concept of the more advanced flintlock rifles yet, nor did they really understand the tactics of using such advanced firearms in coordination with cold weapons. This was exactly the time when they needed someone to teach them, hands-on, how to fight.

As for the freely-attended classroom lectures... some people found them too much trouble and simply didn't come.

Wu Sanye and his group, however, made sure to arrive early for every single class. These men had experience — Wu Sanye had previously survived in Taipei and bounced back from rock bottom to become a budding tycoon precisely by relying on certain bits of information.

So, having once served as unofficial civil servants, they understood the Transmigrators' style fairly well: the things that could truly save your life, or even propel you to meteoric success, were all hidden in these civil affairs. Anyone too impatient to take part in civil affairs would probably be a laborer their whole life.

In fact, Wu Sanye and his group had pretty much grasped the Transmigrators' pulse: this "Sui Army Lecture Hall" that Instructor Wei was running was actually the core method for screening the Pioneer Army's command structure. The performance of every student who came to attend the lectures was being silently recorded by inconspicuous teaching assistants off to the side.

One day, half a month later, just as Wu Sanye was leading his squad of soldiers in drilling offensive and defensive formations, a large group of people in military uniform clustered around Wang Bo and Instructor Wei as they made an inspection round of the Scout Field.

After cordially chatting with the warriors of each squad, Commander Wang finally came before Wu Sanye and said with a genial smile, "Wu Sanye, is it? I've read your file. Mm, you've got the bearing of a great general — a real capable hand."

At this, Commander Wang reached behind him and pulled forward a tall, lanky young fellow, pushing him over. "Here, I'm recommending someone to you today. This lad's called He Biandan. He may eat a bit, but he's absolutely worth more than his keep — top-notch. You're responsible for training him up well for me."