Chapter 32 The Shocked Xiahou Yong

On the fifth day, early in the morning.

Chen Zhiyuan stood at the entrance of the village. In front of him were 500 dark-skinned men who were half-naked. After eating meat every day for the past few days, everyone looked much better.

Under the training of more than a dozen bailiffs, they were able to form a simple line and learned to keep quiet when their officers were lecturing them.

Now, they could only wait for Wang Shan to bring back the weapons and armor from town before they could begin their training.

An hour and a half passed.

The sun slowly rose over the mountains, and it gradually became warm. Then, it hung high in the air and began to roast the earth.

Chen Zhiyuan had also been standing until now.

What he wanted to build was a strong army of elite soldiers! It was the foundation on which he relied to start his own business!

Therefore, he felt that it was necessary for him to lead by example, to train and guide them. If they could not even endure this little hardship, then he could only give up and look for someone else.

Fortunately, none of these honest farmers had any complaints. Except for two who had fainted from the sun and were carried out to relieve the heat, the rest persevered until Wang Shan returned.

Xiahou Yong also came back with him.

“Chief, I’m back! I’ve also got the weapons and armor.”

Wang Shan came to the village entrance with a few large carts of equipment. After shouting, he immediately ran forward. He glanced at Xiahou Yong beside the large cart, and he whispered to Chen Zhiyuan, “Commander Xiahou insisted on coming back with me. He even said that he had an agreement with you. I couldn’t stop him, so I had to bring him back with me.”

“Old Wang, you’ve worked hard. Go and rest. Commander Xiahou and I did have an agreement.”

Chen Zhiyuan smiled and patted Wang Shan’s shoulder, instructing him to go and rest. “Chief, it’s great that you know him. I’m going to rest. I’m so tired.”

Wang Shan led the bailiffs who were pushing the cart down to rest.

Chen Zhiyuan walked to the side of the cart and looked at the shocked Xiahou Yong. He smiled and said, “Commander Xiahou, how is it? The local soldiers I recruited are not that bad, right?”

Xiahou Yong’s gaze finally shifted away from a few wooden houses and a group of strong men outside the village.

“Constable Chen, you actually recruited so many people? Where did you get so much food!”

Xiahou Yong stared at Chen Zhiyuan in surprise as if he wanted to see through this person.

As a general of an army, he could naturally discover that these upright and strong men were budding soldiers for the army.

However, the prerequisite for them to stand here and be obedient was that they had to eat their fill.

If they couldn’t eat their fill, even if the emperor came, they wouldn’t be obedient.

“Don’t bother about that. According to the bet, did I win?”

Chen Zhiyuan laughed.

“You won.”

Xiahou Yong nodded happily. Then, he looked at the farmers and said to Chen Zhiyuan, “I guess that you want to become my sworn brother because you want me to help you train them into an army?”

“Hahaha, Brother Xiahou, you know me well. Otherwise, I wouldn’t acknowledge you as my brother for nothing, right?”

Chen Zhiyuan laughed and pulled Xiahou Yong. “Let’s go. Since you acknowledge me as your brother, I’ll show you how I recruited these people.”

With that, he pulled Xiahou Yong’s arm and came to the big tree at the entrance of the village.

Besides the two boiling pots under the tree, the people of Taoyuan Village also surrounded the area.

Not only were they not afraid when they saw Chen Zhiyuan personally bringing an outsider general over, they even took the initiative to greet him like they were Chen Zhiyuan’s supposed good friends.

They came to the stove.

When the woman who was lighting the fire saw Chen Zhiyuan bringing people over, she immediately stood up to wipe her hands and asked, “Zhiyuan, who is this general?”

“Aunt Zhang, this is the newcomer Commander Xiahou from the county, my sworn brother.”

Chen Zhiyuan introduced him enthusiastically.

“What kind of official is the commander…”

Aunt Zhang was puzzled.

She had rarely left the village in her entire life. In terms of understanding the officials, other than the emperor in the drama, there was also the county magistrate in the county office. Other than that, it was the bailiff who used to come to the village to collect taxes. Recently, she also got to know about a constable, which was Chen Zhiyuan.

“Granny Zhang, don’t ask anymore. Since it’s Brother Zhiyuan, then he’s our guest in the village. Commander Xiahou, come and try our potato meat soup. Zhiyuan asked us to make it. It’s delicious.”

Another woman who was lighting the fire saw that Aunt Zhang was still asking questions. She immediately pulled her over and picked up an enamel bowl beside the simple stove. She scooped up a bowl of potato soup from the pot, picked up a pair of chopsticks, and handed it to Xiahou Yong.

“T-Thank you, Granny.”

Xiahou Yong hurriedly took it. He took a bite and praised loudly, “It’s really delicious.”

When the woman who was serving the food heard this, she immediately beamed with joy. She turned to the surrounding villagers of Taoyuan Village and scolded them with a smile, “Look, even the lord from the town says that my soup is delicious. I want to see which donkey says that my cooking is not delicious anymore.”

“Hey, Granny Zhou, that’s because the lord is being polite for Zhiyuan’s sake. You can’t be taking it seriously, right?”

“Hahaha…”

The surrounding crowd suddenly burst into laughter.

Xiahou Yong looked at the people of Taoyuan Village with their blissful smiles on their faces, and the soup in his mouth became even more delicious.

But deep down, he was truly astonished.

Ever since the great drought, he had not seen such a village for a long time.

Everywhere he went, the people either hid when they saw the officers and soldiers, or there were only a few living people left in the village who were barely surviving. This was the only village that he had seen that was full of vitality.

Moreover, seeing the people never deviate from the word “Zhiyuan”, he knew that it was all because of Constable Chen that the situation had such an effect.

“Aunt Zhang, Aunt Zhou, the local soldiers will be here for dinner soon. Take it easy, don’t miss the time. We’ll be leaving first.”

Chen Zhiyuan reminded them with a smile.

“Zhiyuan, don’t worry. I’m very agile. I won’t miss anything.”

“That’s right, don’t worry!”

The two women immediately started to prepare the bowls and chopsticks.

Xiahou Yong and Chen Zhiyuan walked out of the crowd and said, “Brother Chen, the meat in the soup is beef. Did a cow die in your village?”

“Of course not. Look at our village. Does it look like there are cows? Just eat it without worry. I will tell you about the origin of this beef in the future.”

Chen Zhiyuan kept him guessing.

“Alright. Anyway, I have to help you train the local soldiers. I will find out eventually.”

Xiahou Yong stopped asking. He was stunned for a while before he raised his head and looked at Chen Zhiyuan again. “Brother Chen, your local soldiers eat this every day?”

“Of course. We have to train now and fight in the future. How can we have strength without meat?”

Chen Zhiyuan said matter-of-factly.

Xiahou Yong was stunned for a long time. He looked at the big pot at the entrance of the village in disbelief and muttered to himself, “Compared to you, the food in the barracks has food that is fit for pigs. No, it’s even inferior to pig food…”