Chapter 156: Chapter 126: Primordial Emperor 2
Translator: 549690339
After receiving the new recruits, Lu Yuan did not return home but stayed in the barracks, personally supervising the training of the new soldiers.
The truth is, he didn’t know much about training soldiers. In the barracks, different formations and signals were managed by dedicated personnel.
Lu Yuan’s main purpose in sticking around was to let the new soldiers know who their leader was, who paid them, and whose commands they should follow in the future.
In short, it was to get these big-headed_soldiers to recognize their master and know their place.
However, even though he didn’t interject in the training, while supervising, Lu Yuan selected 250 men from both new and veteran soldiers.
Together with the fifty personal guards he had previously recruited, he set up a barrack of three hundred men.
After passing down the martial techniques to these 250 personal guards, Lu Yuan spent time instructing them for two days. He then assigned each of the older personal guards to teach five newcomers.
After a month of such training, these selected personal guards had made substantial improvements. Some, with exceptional talent, even developed internal strength.
This filled Lu Yuan with great delight. He even contemplated selecting some promising individuals from them and make them his registered disciples.
After all, having only one true disciple and five registered disciples was somewhat embarrassing for a top fist in Jianghu.
In spite of this thought, he never put it into action.
Instead, he decided to wait and see. Once these individuals perform exceptionally and stand out among the personal guards, he would make them his registered disciples.
In this way, not only could he gain disciples, but also use their achievements to motivate other soldiers, stimulating them to train harder and more diligently.
It’s a win-win situation.
As Lu Yuan was training his soldiers intensively, news arrived in October from Xichuan Prefecture. After a two-month siege by the Shu Army, Xichuan city wall was breached.
The Emperor of Xi Shu, Li Xiong, established his capital in Xichuan city. He not only held another grand oath-taking ceremony to the heavens but also declared his sovereignty over Xichuan Prefecture.
Then, the Xi Shu army of one hundred thousand soldiers advanced eastward, successively occupying the remaining two prefectures under the imperial control in Xichuan.
It was only when the imperial court dispa tched some reinforcements urgently from Dongting Prefecture,and took advantage of the local terrain in Wushan Prefecture, they barely managed to stop Xi Shu’s huge army, preserving the last prefecture in Xichuan Prefecture.
But even so, nine out of ten prefectures in Xichuan had been occupied by the Shu State, and half of Xichuan Prefecture had fallen.
Facing West Shu that has already established itself and growing in power, the imperial court would find it quite difficult to regain Xichuan Prefecture from this rebel.
However, as a martial artist from Jianghu, although Lu Yuan was shocked by the news of the fall of Xichuan city and the loss of Xichuan Prefecture, he was more concerned about the details of the city’s breach.
“The imperial court initially had twenty thousand elite soldiers stationed in Xichuan Prefecture.
Later, they urgently conscripted the local men, gathered fifty thousand defenders, and had ample food and money that could last more than a year, enough to wait for the imperial reinforcements next year.
Yet, the result was that the defenders only held out for two months before the city was taken. This is very suspicious.”
Although it’s not uncommon for defenders’ morale to plummet and the city being easily conquered.
But Lu Yuan always felt that the imperial soldiers in Xichuan Prefecture shouldn’t be so vulnerable.
There must be some unknown problems in it.
Indeed, just as he was feeling something was off, Cui Changqing came looking for him.
“The impostor emperor of Shu Thieves, Li Xiong, broke through to Innate Realm three months ago and personally went onto the battlefield, breaching
Xichuan Prefecture.”
The first sentence from Prefect Cui shook Lu Yuan to his core.
Li Xiong had broken through to the Innate Realm?
Hearing this news, Lu Yuan was taken aback.
No wonder, no wonder.
Innate experts possess profound martial arts skills, and in martial arts, they can be considered as grandmasters. They can single-handedly defeat an army and come and go freely even when facing an army of ten thousand.
If an Innate expert took action to sneak into the city, then it would not be surprising that Xichuan city was breached.
After all, the Xichuan army was just a remote border region of Da Yue. Although it was wealthy, due to the isolated terrain, the area never became renowned for its martial arts, hence no innate grandmaster had ever been born there.
‘Now that Li Xiong has broken through to the Innate Realm, should we say that this is a case of “the times making the hero,” or is it “the hero making the times?”‘ Lu Yuan couldn’t help but envy him a little in his heart.
Others have already become Innate, becoming emperors.
But he had traversed for more than a decade and is still only a senior first-rate fighter, without even having the martial techniques to advance further, not to mention the Innate Realm.
Li Xiong’s path even illuminated a direction for him.
‘Maybe I can