Chapter 227: Zong Ge’s Military Training

The Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps’ ships traveled through the ocean.

On the flagship, the White Bandage, Men Shi stood on the bow, surveying the scene before him.

His face was filled with worry, and he really hoped that the Iron Lump would appear at any moment, despite knowing this was impossible.

Behind the White Bandage, there were pairs of mercenaries doing weapons training on the second medium sized ship.

Of course, these weapons were covered with thick cloth, to prevent accidental harm.

Bai Ya was one of them.

He wielded a cutlass and was battling an older mercenary.

The old mercenary’s martial moves were shrewd and ruthless, he was very experienced in battle, and not long after fighting, couldn’t help but grow angry and impatient.

But the old mercenary lacked stamina, and he could only risk showing an opening to bait Bai Ya into attacking.

As expected, Bai Ya was duped and the old mercenary knocked his cutlass off balance and attacked Bai Ya’s weak side.

But a moment later, Bai Ya, stimulated by this, forcefully twisted his waist, and in that critical moment, blocked the old mercenary’s weapon.

As the old mercenary was startled, Bai Ya seized the opportunity to counterattack.

Swords clashed with a dull echo.

After a few tough clashes, the old mercenary’s weapon was knocked away, forcing him to concede, “The old can’t compare to you youngsters.”

Bai Ya was covered in profuse sweat, and he was gasping for air.

His stamina suddenly slid away, and he wanted to collapse to the deck in fatigue.

But he still strived to persevere, and with the cutlass still in his hands, he didn’t forget to console his opponent, “Uncle, you are not old, and there are still many things I want to ask you about.”

The old mercenary heckled back, “Asking me for advice huh, you can’t do without good wine and meat, smelly youngster!”

Zong Ge was presiding over the training, and after seeing all of the outcomes of these spars, he had Bai Ya, and the others leave and swap places with another group of mercenaries to train.

Bai Ya came to Xu Ma’s side.

Xu Ma considered Bai Ya his little brother and looked after him.

He clapped Bai Ya’s shoulder and encouraged him, “Your moves weren’t half bad, but there is still room for improvement.”

“You fell into a trap, and you would have lost. However, your opponent suffered from age, allowing you to win by a narrow margin.”

Bai Ya also thought back to his spar, and he swiftly asked for guidance, “Leader, how should I discern my opponent’s moves?”

Xu Ma smiled, and indicated at once how Bai Should recognize them, imparting his battle experience to him.

Bai Ya diligently listened, and after going through many battlefields, he deeply realized that a single crucial moment could decide victory or defeat, it could save his life.

Xu Ma summed up his words with this, “Actually, saying too much is useless. Let your body remember, if it is just your brain that remembers, then during actual combat, you won’t be able to react usually.”

Bai Ya immediately understood, “Therefore, I need more actual combat practice!”

His eyes lit up, and he stared at the mercenaries training, focusing his attention on them.

His hands still imitated moves from time to time, not letting any chance to derive from actual combat experience slip by.

Xu Ma was a spectator, and when he saw Bai Ya doing this, he sighed to himself, as if feeling regret, “This youngster is very hard working, a pity he doesn’t have a bloodline and will never become a cultivator. He will only ever be an ordinary person.”

Zong Ge inwardly praised the mercenary corps’ performance but remained tranquil on the surface.

“The Snake Rat Island naval battle, the Two Eyes Island beast tide defense, and that chaotic warfare.”

“The baptism of these battles have morphed the remaining mercenaries greatly.”

The spiritual essence of the mercenary corps had made remarkable progress since it had been established, and one could see a trace of elite troops in them.

“My Lord.” Tripleblade came to Zong Ge’s side, whispering, “Just now, the commander found me to collect my blood, the reason was to make medicine that would protect my willpower. But…this subordinate is somewhat worried.”

Zong Ge didn’t take his eyes off the mercenaries as he faintly mouthed back, “What are you worried about?”

Tripleblade took a breath, then said, “The situation is quietly changing, your Lordship.”

“The Quick Knife battle squad had an exceptional performance.”

“Now, you are beginning to train the water pigmen, they will certainly become a battle squad in the future.”

“Chi Lai and Men Shi have joined the corps, and if we add in Qing Xin, their ranks will have three additional silver levels.”

“There is also the most crucial bit, your Lordship has taken the healing potion, your injury is fully recovered. Gold level is just around the corner for you.”

Zong Ge shook his head, “I can feel that there is still a step between me and the gold level.”

“Don’t be so recklessly suspicious, our commander…is not a vile character.”

Tripleblade quickly replied, “This subordinate is not worried about the commander. But Lao Zhong (Cang Xu) and Hong Teng (Zi Di), they are unusual (necromancers).”

“Even if they aren’t devious right now, what about in the future?”

“What if their willpower is again influenced by a divine spell?”

“The Devil Gold Coins incident was two days ago, your Lordship.”

“Most of all, the matter of their betrayal is not something the commander has explained to us yet.”

Zong Ge faintly creased his eyebrow, then finally looked at Tripleblade, not concealing his discontentment, “What do you want to tell me? They were under a divine spell, if it was us, or any one of those people over there, they too would turn traitor.”

“It was not their subjective intent, they simply had some bad luck, and during the battle, they had always displayed their full abilities and fought valiantly, there is no need to give an explanation.”

Sensing Zong Ge’s dissatisfaction, Tripleblade immediately kneeled on the deck and earnestly growled out, “My Lord, you have to be wary. Didn’t they also put the water pigmen on the White Bandage?”

Zong Ge was expressionless, “Indeed, because the White Bandage is a magic ship, its giant bandages can not only heal, but they can also bind and control enemies. It is the safest place to put the water pigmen.”

But Tripleblade implored once more, “My Lord, isn’t this action a deliberate display to show how the water pigmen belong to? We painstakingly trained them up until now, what should we do if the Backwater battle squad falls into their hands?”

Zong Ge sank into silence.

He was once an imperial general, he loved soldiers.

After he successfully trained soldiers, they would fall into another’s hand, and Zong Ge would naturally feel great pity and regret.

Zong Ge muttered to himself for a moment, and didn’t reply to Tripleblade question, instead he ordered, “Time to train, bring all of the water pigmen here.”

Tripleblade accepted the order and left.

Not a moment later, the flagship White Bandage in front began to slow down and keep pace with Zong Ge’s medium sized ship.

Tripleblade quickly climbed up the mast, then leapt onto the White Bandage.

Soon after, he had the water pigmen slaves go to the side of the ship.

Under Tripleblade’s command, the water pigmen threw flying hook ropes from the White Bandage, latching onto the other ship.

Then, they put down ten long planks, building ten small temporary bridges between the two ships.

“Charge!” Tripleblade ordered, causing the water pigmen to step onto the planks and run from the White Bandage.

Most of the water pigmen performed terribly, some would have even fallen into the ocean if it weren’t for Tripleblade’s timely intervention.

Tripleblade brought up the rear as the last one, he stepped onto a plank, and after a running jump, he returned back to Zong Ge’s side to report, “My Lord, I have brought all of the water pigmen.”

Zong Ge nodded, then assessed, “The rope hooks and plank advance tactics are still not very proficient. Details on training those will be given to you after today’s drills.”

“Yes, your Lordship.” Tripleblade immediately answered.

Everyone was looking at the water pigmen.

The survivors had purchased these water pigmen from Hun Tong at a discount after the battle. 

They all came from the same village, captured by human traffickers to be sold as slaves.

The slave traffickers had trained the well, and no matter what the Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps ordered them to do, they would obediently do it.

But in Zong Ge’s eyes, that was not enough.

His next focus was to train these water pigmen into a battle squad.

A Backwater battle squad!

Last night, Zong Ge ordered Tripleblade to give the Backwater battle qi technique to these water pigmen.

The result delighted Zong Ge.

There were 16 water pigmen in all that were qualified to become a member of the Backwater battle squad.

This was a bit more than the Quick Knife battle squad he had set up previously.

Soon after, under Zong Ge’s direction, the water pigmen became the last group to train.

Halfway through the training, Zong Ge knew the score.

He inspected the people worth cultivating and also began to tentatively toughen a little of the water pigmen’s courage. But they were still a long way off from being allowed on the battlefield.

Many of them didn’t even have the most basic grasp of weaponry.

Thus, as they trained, the water pigmen behaved quite comically and moved very clumsily, often hitting themselves or missing opportunities to attack. The human mercenaries watching around gesticulated and wantonly jeered the oafish water pigmen.

When Zong Ge heard these jeers, he suddenly declared that after this training was finished, there would be solo training. 

The rules for solo training was that Zong Ge would pick whoever he wanted, ordinary against ordinary, bronze versus bronze, iron fighting against iron, a one on one battle.

“You, and you.” Zong Ge seemed to randomly pick Bai Ya, then picked a water pigman.

When Bai Ya saw Zong Ge looking at him, he suddenly had a premonition.

As expected, he was chosen for solo training.

“This is the benefit of being ‘one of us’.” Bai Ya inspired himself, this was more of actual combat experience he wanted to go through.

A large circular space on deck was cleared, and the water pigmen and mercenaries circled around.

Someone shouted something, and soon after the crowd began to create a clamor.

The human mercenaries were naturally on Bai Ya’s side, while the water pigmen of course supported their fellow.

In a split second, an antagonistic ambience settled in.

Bai Ya turned his wrist as he slowly approached his opponent.

He didn’t approach in a straight line, rather he moved from side to side.

The water pigmen was also holding a cutlass, constantly turning around to keep Bai Ya in front of him.

When Bai Ya had been observing from the sidelines, he also felt that the water pigmen were quite dull, however, when it came time to fight one alone, he felt the pressure his opponent gave off.

An adult water pigman was generally 2 meters and was very burly.

There was an obvious disparity between Bai Ya’s and the water pigman’s physique.

“Hit him now, stop wasting time.”

“Attack his leg.”

“Don’t be afraid, just do it!”

Bai Ya was in the end, young, and gradually grew impatient under the crowd’s rowdy jeering.

He gradually couldn’t bear it and launched an exploratory attack.

His opponent had been prepared and used his cutlass to parry.

When the two cutlasses collided, Bai Ya immediately changed color.

His cutlass nearly slipped away, causing him to think in alarm, “What strange strength is this?!”