It's better to be an empress than a county magistrate

Chapter 121: Fighting

Lu Xingchen was given another official title, and was appointed as the governor of Yongzhou.

She had only occupied northern Yongzhou, and now the emperor directly appointed her as the governor of Yongzhou.

That is to say, the emperor gave her both North and South Yongzhou.

In addition, the emperor also gave him 5,000 weapons, 500 rattan armors, and 50 iron armors, and also gave her a piece of silver silk armor.

Lu Xingchen and Ling Xiao didn't dare to laugh until they were ten miles away from the capital.

"Girl, we've made a lot of money this time." Ling Xiao said excitedly.

"The crude stone made in one night, plus a few hundred taels of silver, was exchanged for a Yongzhou, and so many weapons and armor."

"Is the old emperor a fool?"

Lu Xingchen was also happy. Now they were far away from the palace and surrounded by their own people, so he let Ling Xiao be unrestrainedly excited for a while.

Yuan Tianshi smiled and said, "The emperor is smart, how can he be stupid?"

"These weapons are all crudely made and not very useful. They can only be used to garrison troops."

"Only these fifty sets of iron armor and the silver armor for the commander-in-chief are still valuable."

"But no matter how expensive it is, it can't match the value of the gift we give to the emperor."

"What about Nan Yongzhou?" Ling Xiao said unconvinced.

"Nan Yongzhou is not under the control of the emperor at all, and does not pay taxes to the emperor every year. Saying that it is a minister of Daliang is just empty talk."

"So the emperor's giving us Nanyongzhou is just empty talk."

Ling Xiao finally understood what was going on.

"I got fooled by this old guy." Ling Xiao angrily pointed in the direction of the imperial city and cursed.

"You can't say that we were fooled by the emperor. With this letter of appointment, it is legitimate for us to take over South Yongzhou."

"We are carrying the emperor's banner and expanding our sphere of influence openly and honestly." Lu Xingchen said with a smile.

A few days later, Lu Xingchen and his group returned to He County.

During the time when Lu Xingchen left He County for the capital, Pei Jun selected 900 men from the 4,500 soldiers.

He selected newly recruited soldiers, but he chose only the young and strong ones among them.

He discovered that the formation Lu Xingchen gave him was a rogue style of fighting.

This formation does not require a soldier's personal swordsmanship to be very strong, nor does it require the soldier's personal skills and tactics to be too strong.

The soldiers needed to be able to lift spears and carry branches.

These all require physical strength.

So he chose soldiers who were strong but whose swordsmanship skills were not particularly outstanding.

When he was selecting people, Wei Hu and Zhang Fan were both confused.

In fact, the two of them were afraid that Pei Jun would take away the best soldiers they had selected. After all, when Lu Xingchen left, he told them that they must unconditionally support whoever Pei Jun wanted.

As a result, Pei Jun selected people whose personal abilities were not outstanding.

Even the selected soldiers were a little confused.

When did they become the focus of training?

Only after the selected soldiers started training did they know why they were chosen.

Four of them were to carry particularly large shields, and were required to be able to shield the eighteen brothers from enemy attacks.

Also, they have to hold thick Qiang branches in their hands.

Qiangzhi is made of freshly cut branches, which are heavy and each one weighs at least fifty kilograms.

They have to fight like this non-stop. Although their movements are simple and do not require much skill, they require a lot of physical strength.

Wei Hu and Zhang Fan came to watch Pei Jun's training, and were shocked by the scene before them.

"Pei Jun, you are not messing around here, are you?" Zhang Fan looked for a long time, didn't understand, and asked.

"Give me ten days. After ten days, we will have a small-scale competition. If you can gain an advantage, I will consider you as a powerful person." Pei Jun did not explain to Zhang Fan and directly issued a declaration of war.

Is Zhang Fan the kind of person who gives up easily?

"General Pei... Just because I call you a general, you think you are a general. Go ahead and brag. Ten days... OK, ten days."

Wei Hu looked at Zhang Fan speechlessly. This kid has learned his lesson and stopped trying to be brave.

He thought Zhang Fan would buy a few more days.

When Lu Xingchen, Ling Xiao and Lu Yun returned to He County, they happened to catch up with the competition time agreed upon between Zhang Fan and Pei Jun.

This time, Ling Xiao and Lu Yun gained a lot of knowledge and broadened their horizons.

Originally they thought Jizhou was good enough, but after a trip to the capital, they found that Jizhou was not as good as they had imagined, and there were better places in the world.

A fire ignited in the hearts of the two young men.

"Did your trip to the capital go smoothly this time?" Lu Feng asked with concern when he saw Lu Xingchen.

Lu Xingchen nodded slightly, "It went smoother than expected."

Lu Feng smiled knowingly.

"General, we chose a very good day. It just happened to coincide with your return." Zhang Fan said excitedly.

"General Pei has been training for ten days and is ready to challenge me."

"I just don't believe... that his team, which has been trained for ten days, can compete with my team." Zhang Fan was eager to try and wanted to prove himself in front of Lu Xingchen.

"Well, show your true strength, but also ensure the safety of the soldiers." Lu Xingchen sat on the stands.

Pei Jun did not come to see Lu Xingchen. After all, they had only trained for ten days. There were still many areas where the team was not coordinated and the cooperation was not tacit. He was making arrangements before the station.

The soldiers' knives were wrapped in cotton cloth, and other weapons were also equipped with safety measures to ensure that they would not hurt each other.

The war drums sounded and the competition between the two sides began.

Pei Jun and Zhang Fan each chose a company to participate in the competition.

Pei Jun's team has eighteen people, and exactly ten teams can fight against Zhang Fan's company.

Because it was a close-range battle, Zhang Fan's side took away the archers and selected swordsmen and shieldmen from other companies.

This ensures that the number of people on both teams is relatively balanced.

Zhang Fan's side really did not take Pei Jun's side seriously and was very aggressive at the beginning. Unfortunately, Pei Jun's side had many advantages because of their long spears and long arms with long attack range.

所谓1寸长1寸强。

Zhang Fan's side couldn't get close at all.

As a result, many brothers were injured in the first round of attack.

Zhang Fan suddenly became anxious, he thought he could defeat Pei Jun's team with just the first round of attack.

Unexpectedly, not only did he fail to defeat Pei Jun, but he himself suffered heavy losses.

He reprimanded the company captain and took command of the battle himself.

After Zhang Fan took personal command, the battle situation between the two sides changed somewhat.

After all, Zhang Fan's team had trained longer and had closer coordination, so they quickly reversed their previous disadvantage.

Zhang Fan originally thought that the battle could be resolved in a quarter of an hour, but it lasted for half an hour.

They suppressed Pei Jun's troops at the cost of losing more than half of their soldiers.

Zhang Fan was very unwilling to lose this time.

"Do it again, do it again." Zhang Fan stamped his feet anxiously.

"What are you talking about?" Wei Hu said, "You haven't gotten over your habit of underestimating the enemy."

Zhang Fan showed a regretful expression.

"Although Zhang Fan underestimated the enemy at the beginning, his proper command later made up for the losses." Lu Xingchen said.

“The performance is still good.”