noveltune Chapter 012 Target
Chapter 012 Target
Li Wanqing then called himself "Shooting the Sky," and his brothers naturally couldn't be left out with a similar title. Zhou Lun, Li Shoutian, and Wang Tieniu, these three core members, needed to have some catchy nicknames.
Li Shoutian pondered for a while and gave himself the nickname "Half the Sky," feeling that his imposing manner was no less than that of his elder brother. Upon hearing this, Wang Tieniu became envious and, not wanting to be outdone, slapped out the three characters "Over the Mountain Tiger," his voice so loud that the entire camp could hear it.
Zhou Lun, however, showed no interest in the nickname. But he already had an elder brother and brothers; it wouldn't be right for him, the second-in-command, not to have one too. Besides, in this day and age, a nickname is a valuable asset, useful everywhere. He, Zhou Lun, couldn't very well stand out from the crowd, could he?
That being said, he really had no idea how to come up with a nickname for the time being. Li Shoutian and Wang Tieniu were enthusiastic and helped him come up with a few, such as Shaking Tiger, Blood Washing the Sky, Trampling the Nine Provinces, and Overturning the Heavenly King... Each one sounded majestic, but Zhou Lun just felt that something was off.
It was loud, but it had a kind of childish, immature feel to it. It might sound impressive when someone else shouted it, but when he put it on his head, he felt uncomfortable.
In the end, Li Wanqing made the final decision: "Since my name is 'Shoot the Sky,' why don't you call yourself 'Shock the Sky,' Second Brother? Let's join forces, poke a hole in the sky, and ask God why He's so unfair. Let's demand an explanation together!"
Shocking the heavens?
Zhou Lun was both amused and exasperated after hearing this. But since his elder brother had spoken, and Li Shoutian and Wang Tieniu were clapping and cheering enthusiastically, he couldn't refuse them, so he had no choice but to bite the bullet and agree.
Galvatron it is, at least it sounds better than Megatron or Optimus Prime. Besides, Galvatron is an upgraded version of Megatron. After all, he is the second generation of the Decepticons, so there's nothing shameful about it.
Once the nickname was decided, Zhou Lun immediately put it out of his mind and continued with his work.
In the days that followed, he personally led Wang Tieniu in training his young men every day. To ensure the training was effective, Zhou Lun spared no expense, not only prioritizing the supply of the collected grain to them, but also searching far and wide for handy tools and equipment to build up, and then rigorously training them according to the subjects of his university military training.
But actually doing it is not that easy.
Among this group were farmers and soldiers. The farmers were self-explanatory, but even the soldiers mostly had never received proper military training and knew nothing about warfare. Before Zhou Lun and his men arrived, these people had been engaging in risky, low-skilled work under their previous leader, simply relying on their numbers to charge in without any strategy or formation. In short, it was no different from a peasant brawl in the fields—just brute force attacking haphazardly. They might be okay against ordinary people, but against tough opponents, they were utterly helpless. Just like when Zhou Lun and his men killed their previous leader, once the leader was taken down, the remaining rabble immediately went limp, losing all fighting spirit.
Since it's training, team formation and basic skills are unavoidable hurdles. But even something as simple as that gave Zhou Lun quite a hard time.
None of these fleeing households were literate, and what's worse, they couldn't even distinguish left from right and front from back. Just figuring out how to stand in a line was driving Zhou Lun crazy.
When the shout "Turn left!" was given, some people turned left, some turned right, some even turned right back, and some stood still looking around blankly without moving their feet. The scene was chaotic, and Zhou Lun was furious.
Finally, he remembered Yuan Shikai's method of training soldiers: he made them wear only one shoe and tie a cloth strip on one arm to distinguish left from right. He also used a rattan cane to "teach" them from time to time. It took several days to barely teach them to distinguish left from right and front from back.
Zhou Lun also put a lot of thought into selecting the right people.
He selected nineteen people from among the fleeing households, all of whom were young and strong, and he specifically chose those who looked honest and simple.
Anyone with shifty eyes and a quick wit would be rejected. Zhou Lun preferred those who were less intelligent but obedient. In his view, overly clever people were often afraid of death, and they were already short-handed. If they encountered a tough battle, and a clever person disobeyed orders and ran away, it would endanger everyone.
The people were carefully selected and trained rigorously, given three meals a day of solid food, and provided with ample benefits. Under this combination of kindness and severity, these people became obedient. After more than ten days, they gradually began to take shape, although they were far from meeting Zhou Lun's expectations, they were already vastly different from their initial state.
"Second Uncle! Father requests your presence."
On this day, Zhou Lun was leading his men in training when a young boy came running hurriedly from the camp.
This boy's name is Li Zhong, originally called Er Gouzi. He was also a local fugitive. His parents died of illness a few months ago, and Er Gouzi, who was only eleven years old, became an orphan. He relied on other fugitives for food, sometimes eating a little and sometimes not, barely surviving.
When the previous leader was in charge, a kid like him was just a burden. If left unattended, he might disappear any day. After Zhou Lun and his men took over the area, they reorganized the group, selecting nineteen able-bodied men for military training, and organizing the rest into households for unified management, each with their own responsibilities.
Because Er Gouzi was an orphan, young and weak, unable to do heavy work or exercise, Zhou Lun originally planned to assign him to a specific family for adoption. Unexpectedly, Li Wanqing saw his younger self in the child, after all, he too was an orphan who had lost both parents. Looking at the dirty and skinny Er Gouzi, Li Wanqing felt compassion and adopted him as his son, even giving him the formal name: Li Zhong.
In this way, Li Wanqing, who didn't even have a wife, became a father, and Zhou Lun naturally became the second uncle.
"Tie Niu, you keep practicing. I'm going to see my older brother." Zhou Lun instructed.
Wang Tieniu responded loudly and took over the team. Zhou Lun followed Li Zhong towards the camp, and soon they arrived at the thatched hut.
"Big Brother!" Zhou Lun greeted as he entered, his eyes immediately falling on Li Shoutian. "Shoutian's back? When did you arrive? Is there good news?"
"Second brother, sit down." Li Wanqing gestured for Zhou Lun to sit down, handed him a water bottle to moisten his throat, and pointed to Li Shoutian, saying, "Shoutian, tell us what you've learned, and we'll discuss how to proceed with this business."
"Alright!" Li Shoutian replied and began to recount the details of his trip.
Zhou Lun listened intently. It turned out that Li Shoutian had been out gathering information these past two days to prepare for the future, but he hadn't expected to make any progress so quickly. He didn't dare to delay for a moment and rushed back to report the news.
"Is this news genuine?" Upon hearing this, Zhou Lun immediately perked up.
"Of course!" Li Shoutian laughed without hesitation, "Brother Lun, you're late, so it's normal that you don't know about this. If you don't believe me, ask your elder brother. Every year during these two months, the Zhang family's caravan travels from the county town to the prefectural city via the official road. Your elder brother knows about this."
Li Wanqing nodded: "Shou Tian is right. I just remembered that too. The Zhang family is the biggest grain merchant in the county, and their boss is Zhang Xiuguo, the county magistrate. Every year around this time, when the government collects taxes, the Zhang family has to transport the grain they collect to the prefectural city. Judging by the days, it should be around these next few days."
"How many people and what was the typical size of the Zhang family caravan when they traveled?"
"I saw it once, there were about twenty or thirty people, in donkey carts and mule carts, at least a dozen or so, maybe more, maybe less," Li Wanqing recalled.
Zhou Lun secretly considered that this job was worth doing.
A donkey can carry 200 jin (100 kg), a mule can carry more, around 300 jin (150 kg), and if it is pulled by a cart on the official road, a cart can carry at least 600 jin (300 catties).
Ten cartloads would weigh at least six thousand catties, and seven or eight thousand catties wouldn't be out of the question. This is a considerable amount of grain. Based on the camp's current consumption, even six thousand catties would be enough to feed everyone for nearly three months. If there were more, with some wild vegetables mixed in, combined with the existing grain reserves, getting through the winter shouldn't be a problem. Besides, the Zhang family caravan isn't just transporting grain; they might also be carrying other valuable goods. This deal would alleviate their shortage of supplies for a while.
As for the number of guards for the caravan, Zhou Lun thought about it carefully and felt that it wasn't a big problem.
Li Wanqing said that usually there are twenty or thirty people, and even if we count thirty, most of them are Zhang's employees and ordinary laborers. Even with guards, the number would not be large. Besides, they are traveling on the official road, which is not their first time. As long as the plan is well-thought-out, the chances of success are not small.
It's done!