Chapter 25 Choose with Your Heart A quarter of an hour later, after having breakfast, Li Dingguo and sixteen other talented teenagers separated from the large group of orphan teenagers and came to their exclusive training ground for the next few days. The four magical war horses brought by the Eighth King Zhang Xianzhong and a large carriage pulling various equipment were also brought to the vicinity by several soldiers. Zhang Xianzhong, who had also had breakfast in the compound, stepped out from the crowd, stood up, and shouted to everyone, "Li Dingguo, Ai Nengqi, Liu Wenxiu, Zhang Huier, come to my side." "The rest of you, continue practicing the Tiger Roar Fist as you did yesterday!" "Whether it's riding or learning various weapons, you little guys must first break through and become warriors." He knew clearly that the remaining twelve talented young men were all geniuses and would definitely break through and become warriors before the half-month deadline. Saying this will also add a little pressure on them. After all, Zhang Xianzhong wanted to train these twelve talented young men, except for the four evil geniuses, into future grassroots generals. A qualified army not only needs a commander, but also more grassroots officers to make it run smoothly. Zhang Xianzhong had already planned to set up a camp for orphans and boys in the near future, and continue to expand it in the future in order to quickly accumulate talents for the rebel army.
After a while, Li Dingguo and four others were gathered together by Zhang Xianzhong. They stood up with solemn expressions and lined up in front of Zhang Xianzhong. "From today until our rebel army evacuates this county, the four of you will start learning the use of various weapons and riding skills in a planned manner." Zhang Xianzhong explained his plan, "Of course, you can also focus on electives and choose the main weapons you will use in the future, and focus on practicing them, and practice the other weapons as a supplement." "Whether it's swordsmanship, spearmanship, or stickmanship, I have some great techniques for you to choose from." "In fact, it's not just that. Next to the small school where you study every night, I will have someone set up a library today. It contains various unconventional skills and books collected by our rebel army, including some medical skills." "Among them are two books on the art of concealing breath and the art of hiding, which are very important for your future operations in the wild." "After all, there are many demons and monsters in the wilderness, deep mountains and swamps. If there is no bloody aura of the soldiers to deter them, the practitioners in the Body Refining Realm will encounter various dangers. If you are alone outside and have not learned these two unconventional skills, you will easily be targeted by those demons and monsters." "Every night, after finishing your cultural studies, you can go to the library and pick out some books that interest you to study." "In short, it is always good to have many skills. Learning more knowledge will be of great benefit to you in the future and will allow you to go further." "I don't ask you to know all the skills, but in addition to specializing in one or two, it won't hurt to learn more if you have time." He paused here and continued, "In another half a month, your evening cultural classes will be supplemented with another half an hour of military strategy study, which will be taught by me personally." "The government will not allow us to have such a comfortable life as we do now for much longer. You must make full use of the precious two or three months of study time in the future." To be honest, there is still a long way to go, and young people like Li Dingguo will have time to learn various survival and life skills in the future. But they are the rebels who have just started a rebellion! After the rebel army leaves Dingbian City, life will not be as easy as it is now for a long time. Wandering around will probably become commonplace, and there will rarely be such a comfortable life again. Young geniuses like Li Dingguo and Ai Nengqi would easily perish in the chaos of war if they did not have the ability to protect themselves. The government troops will not kill you on the battlefield just because you are a child. Anyone they encountered on the battlefield who was a rebel would be slaughtered, even the elderly, the weak, women and children. What's more, there are threats from various monsters and demons.
"Okay, now the four of you step forward one by one and choose a main weapon and a bow and arrow." Zhang Xianzhong waved to the four evil geniuses in front of him, signaling them to come forward, and said, "You must follow your heart and choose the weapon that interests you the most according to your own preferences." "Only in this way can I achieve twice the result with half the effort if I focus on a corresponding weapon technique in the future." As a person who has been through this, Zhang Xianzhong has experience in this area, so his words make sense. Ai Nengqi came over first, and after thinking for a while, he picked up a long-handled broadsword and a bow and arrow. Then it was Li Dingguo, who chose a long spear and a bow and arrow. Like Li Dingguo, Liu Wenxiu chose a spear and a bow and arrow. But Zhang Huier was different. He actually chose a mace and a bow and arrow. The various weapons here are not ordinary items, they are primary spiritual weapons. They were all carefully selected by Zhang Xianzhong and were of very good quality. They must have been seized from the servants and guards of those wealthy families. As for the original defenders of Dingbian City, they were a mob with little combat effectiveness. Therefore, when Zhang Xianzhong previously captured the county town, he led the rebel soldiers to launch a surprise attack and captured it easily without much effort. Only the county magistrate himself, who held the official seal, and several wealthy families in the city caused considerable trouble to the rebel army. In the current Ming Dynasty, from top to bottom, "embezzlement" is very serious and corruption is rampant. Thirty percent of the military supplies, money and food had already been lost before they even left the capital. Next, they were exploited layer by layer by civil and military officials at all levels. By the time they reached the hands of soldiers from all over the country, it was already very good if they could have 10% of the supplies and money left. Within the Ming Dynasty, those who are living the worst are the military households who have basically lost their land and most of their sources of military pay and food, as well as the ordinary artisans who have nothing but their skills. Most of the military equipment used by the government troops were crudely made. The reason why the nine important border towns have not collapsed until now is because the generals at all levels who are responsible for guarding various places are using their public power for personal gain and supporting more or less personal soldiers and servants. Because they were willing to invest in these personal soldiers and retainers who were like household servants, they were able to use the deterrence of their own household servants and personal soldiers to lead the ordinary soldiers and military households who had basically become waste to guard the already shaky border areas and garrisons in various places, and maintain the only dignity and majesty of the court. Even the unproductive barbarians outside the Great Wall, through smuggling with profiteers inside the Great Wall and looting by their soldiers, are now much stronger in military equipment than the Ming Dynasty. The trickiness of this is self-evident. However, Zhang Xianzhong had already ordered the gathering of some craftsmen to repair and forge the weapons used by the rebels. Especially not long ago, they were lucky enough to invite a master craftsman who could forge spiritual weapons, gave him satisfactory remuneration and treatment, and forged various spiritual weapons for the rebel army. It would not be long before, with the help of various resources looted from this county, at least the 300 soldiers of the old camp of the rebel army could be fully armed. Of course, it would take too much resources and time to forge those precious spiritual weapons and armors, so it is currently beyond our ability. The only few sets of spiritual armor that the rebel army now has were stripped from the bodies of several killed servants of wealthy families and officers defending the city, and taken as their own. The low-grade spiritual weapons that Li Dingguo and his men have obtained now are of great value. In the Ming Dynasty, in addition to ordinary craftsmen who were not treated as human beings by officials and gentry, there were also craftsmen with high status.
Only a small number of craftsmen can create spiritual weapons of various levels that allow warriors to fully exert their martial arts capabilities. To create spiritual weapons, one needs various spiritual minerals and spiritual woods, as well as the craftsmen's superb smelting and forging skills, which makes each spiritual weapon very precious. Even the low-grade spiritual weapons in the hands of Li Dingguo and his men, the value of each one is basically comparable to that of a low-grade spiritual beast, the Jiao-scale Horse. Spiritual weapons are graded just like spiritual beasts and war horses, and are divided into low-grade, medium-grade, high-grade, and top-grade. Zhang Xianzhong now has only dozens of spiritual weapons in his hands, and most of them are low-grade spiritual weapons, all of which were obtained through seizure. The inheritance he obtained from the adventure several years ago did not include things like spiritual weapons, which was also the biggest shortcoming of the rebel army he founded. (End of this chapter)