Jiangwu Hall, which had appeared on the shores of Xuanwu Lake only three years ago, was built on a grand scale and looked quite magnificent with its golden splendor. However, the buildings were too freshly constructed, and the surrounding walls too towering, built to prevent the students within Jiangwu Hall who might very well sneak over the walls in the middle of the night to cause trouble, as ordinary walls would hardly be able to stop these fellows. For safety’s sake, all the large trees along the walls had been cut down, leaving both inside and outside the walls nearly barren of vegetation, making the high wall appear all the more menacing.
Such a Jiangwu Hall, standing abruptly on the picturesque shores of Xuanwu Lake, compared to the Imperial Academy across the lake with its green shade, white walls, and black tiles, and winding secluded paths, inevitably reminded people of… nouveau riche.
Crude, uncultured nouveau riche reeking of money.
The students of the Imperial Academy sat by the lake, gazing across at the new batch of cadets being escorted into Jiangwu Hall’s gates by soldiers from Yingtian Prefecture, exchanging glances with smiles appearing on their faces one by one.
There would be another good show to watch.
02 – Chapter 1
Meng Jianqing had never imagined that the first lesson at Jiangwu Hall would be “taking a beating.”
One hundred and twenty third-term new students stood on the training ground, facing twenty second-term students selected by Instructor Ma.
The flag officer loudly announced the rules. Each new student had the duration of one incense stick to face off against one second-term student, but they were only allowed to parry and dodge—no striking back. If they could stay upright within the lime-marked circle for the duration of one incense stick without falling, they would pass this first trial and could face a different opponent next time—
When the flag officer reached this point, commotion had already broken out below. According to this, wouldn’t each of them have to take a beating from all twenty second-term students in turn? Seeing how those twenty looked at them with undisguised smugness, they must have endured the same treatment last year. Having held their breath for a whole year before finally getting to vent, they were naturally quite pleased.
Instructor Ma, on the command platform, swept his gaze over them and said slowly, “To learn how to hit others, you must first learn how to take a hit. If you don’t even understand this principle, you bunch of idiots, how did you even get into Jiangwu Hall?”
Instructor Ma appeared to be merely a small, unremarkable middle-aged man, his wrinkled face like dried orange peel. Walking on the street, no one would give him a second glance.
Yet he had no qualms about mocking these sons of heaven so sharply and disdainfully in the very first class.
Though the new students dared not contradict an instructor on their first day at Jiangwu Hall, their faces already showed indignation as they cursed silently while keeping their mouths shut.
They soon learned that Instructor Ma’s nickname was “Hornet.”
Upon hearing this nickname, everyone looked at each other and burst into laughter with a roar of amusement.
Wasn’t he just like a hornet that loved to sting people?
Although they knew this was Instructor Ma’s temperament—which was why he couldn’t get along in the military, couldn’t work well with superiors or colleagues, and could only be transferred to Jiangwu Hall where the stung students dared to be angry but not speak out—every time Instructor Ma extended his stinger, it still made them jump and curse inwardly, individually greeting Instructor Ma’s ancestors eighteen generations back.
But we’ve digressed—let’s return to Meng Jianqing and their first lesson on the training ground.
Meng Jianqing was matched against a very burly second-term student whose open palms were as large as fans. Later, he learned his name was Guanxi.
The three new students who had faced Guanxi before him had all been thrown out of the lime circle after he used grappling techniques to dislocate their joints. The attending physician walked over, picked up one student’s right hand, and said expressionlessly, “Remember this—I’ll only reset your joints once. After that, you’ll have to rely on yourselves.” With a series of light popping sounds, his technique so fast it couldn’t be seen, the joint was reset in a flash.
This left the new student standing there with a bitter expression. So fast—how could he possibly remember it?
Meng Jianqing had barely stepped into the lime circle when Guanxi, having easily won three matches in a row, kicked at him, apparently disdaining close combat and wanting to kick him out while his footing was still unsteady.
Meng Jianqing leaned back, Guanxi’s thick leather boot brushing past his chest and abdomen. Meng Jianqing had already slipped under his foot, braced his left hand on the ground, and flipped up to stand exactly in the center of the lime circle. Guanxi’s kick missed, and he immediately spun around, withdrew his left foot, and raised his right, using the spinning momentum to sweep horizontally. Meng Jianqing performed a backflip to avoid this kick and landed still standing in the same spot.
His two evasions were clean and decisive. Guanxi couldn’t help but grunt in surprise, stop his flying kick momentum, and close in. His right palm opened, reaching directly for Meng Jianqing’s left shoulder, while his left arm secretly gathered strength and extended, ready to catch him when Meng Jianqing dodged to the side.
Meng Jianqing quickly retreated several steps. Although he avoided Guanxi’s grab that contained a follow-up move, Guanxi seized this opportunity to suddenly sweep with his foot. Meng Jianqing instinctively leaped to the side.
During this leap, his left foot had already stepped outside the circle. Just as he was about to land, he suddenly heard Meng Jianchen’s cold laugh from among the spectators. Meng Jianqing realized his mistake and quickly pulled back his left foot. In this moment of hesitation, Guanxi’s foot struck solidly against his left shoulder. Meng Jianqing didn’t use internal energy to resist but fell forward with the momentum. Though he tumbled ungracefully in the dirt, he dissipated most of the foot’s force and escaped from the dangerous close combat situation with Guanxi.
During the duration of one incense stick, Meng Jianqing took more than ten kicks and nearly had his shoulder and arm joints seized by Guanxi several times, but he managed to hold on until the end and withdrew unharmed.
As Guanxi rested briefly, Meng Jianqing turned slightly toward Meng Jianchen and said in a low voice, “I should thank you.”
Meng Jianchen replied coldly, “No need to thank me. If you were thrown out, I wouldn’t have any face either.”
Guanxi’s next opponent was Meng Jianchen. Frustrated by his setback, Guanxi was filled with anger and determined to win. No matter how strong Meng Jianchen’s bones and sinews were, Guanxi still managed to find an opportunity to dislocate his left thumb joint. However, Meng Jianchen also gritted his teeth and held on until the end.
After withdrawing, the attending physician was treating another new student who had been kicked and couldn’t get up, so Meng Jianqing reset the joint for him.
Gongsun Yi, who had been defeated in a sorry state, looked at the two brothers with great puzzlement. When had they become so brotherly and respectful to each other? It was truly strange.
The Meng brothers suddenly looked up into the distance.
Gongsun Yi’s eyesight wasn’t as good as the Meng brothers’. Across a wall at least three men high, he could only see a distant high platform obscured by ancient trees, with vague human figures moving about on it.
The attending physician was passing by them and glanced up, saying nothing, but his medicine boy began muttering curses: “Those sour scholars from the Imperial Academy are watching the spectacle again!”
Gongsun Yi asked in surprise, “From such a distance, those sour scholars can see clearly?”
He couldn’t even see clearly—how discouraging…
The medicine boy curled his lip: “They’re just relying on the telescope borrowed from the Imperial Observatory! Spending so much silver to build an astronomical observatory for the Imperial Academy, but instead of seeing many scholars observing stars, they climb up there every few days to watch us train! Sooner or later, that observatory should be torn down!”
When it came time to retire for the night, everyone undressed to reveal bodies covered in bruises, helping each other apply medicinal wine to their injuries—the attending physician had given each person a large bottle of bruise medicine, a large box of wound medicine, and a bundle of clean bandages. However, today everyone only needs the medicinal wine. Looking at the wound medicine and bandages, they all felt a sense of great foreboding. The attending physician wouldn’t prepare these things for them without reason, would he?
Two second-term students making room inspections poked their heads in, saw the scene, and chuckled: “Yellow Weasel is being quite generous this year—last year he only gave us one bottle of medicine and one box of wound medicine per room.”
One room housed six new students.
Only then did Meng Jianqing and the others learn that the attending physician’s nickname was “Yellow Weasel.” It wasn’t hard to understand why—with his pointed chin and sparse yellow beard, he did bear some resemblance.
Before Meng Jianqing and the others could speak, the two second-term students laughed again: “What you should fear is that Hornet told him to prepare this for you. Hornet thought he didn’t bring down enough people last year and is determined to test his blade on you!”
They laughed quietly and closed the door.
Indeed, after passing the trial of twenty-second-term students’ fists and feet, weapons training came next.
In three months, Meng Jianqing suffered more injuries than he had in five years at Tiantai Temple.
As detestable as Instructor Ma’s cold, sarcastic mockery was, the malicious pointing and commenting from those sour scholars at the Imperial Academy’s observatory across the lake.
Until this course ended.
In the final class, there were more figures in the observatory than usual, clearly knowing that this spectacle wouldn’t be available again until next year.
But today, there was an additional person on the training ground.
Instructor Ma introduced him as their archery instructor, Kong Xuan.
The group of new students all showed expressions of great disdain. Military sons like them had been riding horses and shooting arrows since they could walk—what need was there for special instruction? Moreover, this young Instructor Kong wore luxurious clothing and had a handsome face with a pair of peach blossom eyes accustomed to flirting. Wherever he went, waves of fragrance followed, forcing the students in the front row to hold their breath.
Instructor Kong had grown accustomed to such expressions when meeting people for the first time. He smiled slightly, showing his teeth, reached back to grab the iron-core rhinoceros horn hard-backed great bow carried by a personal guard behind him, and in the same motion had already nocked an arrow. Settling his stance and rotating his arm, he shot an arrow toward the distant observatory across the lake.
A student from the Imperial Academy who was happily watching through a telescope cried out as his telescope was shattered by the arrow. The shock cracked the tiger’s mouth, of both hands gripping the telescope, causing blood to flow freely. The student cried out in alarm, holding up his hands at a loss.
The dozen or so new students with good eyesight saw this clearly and looked at each other with laughter, feeling that the stifling feeling in their chests had been completely expelled. They developed a great fondness for the dandy-like Instructor Kong. Those many new students who knew they lacked the arm strength and eyesight to shoot down that annoying telescope on the observatory looked at Instructor Kong with even more admiration—one cannot judge by appearances, just as seawater cannot be measured by the bushel. Instructor Kong was clear proof of this.
Instructor Ma, looking down from his elevated position, naturally saw all the changes in these new students’ expressions. He snorted coldly and said to Instructor Kong, “Playing to the crowd again!”
Instructor Kong smiled and said, “No matter. In three years, those grateful to you will far outnumber those grateful to me.”
Meng Jianqing and the others would not understand the importance of Instructor Ma’s lessons until three years later, when they were assigned to military service and engaged in battle—when surrounded by enemies, having to kill while inevitably being targeted for death, being able to withstand attacks from all directions, being able to instinctively contract or relax muscles when blades, spears, arrows, and lances pierced their bodies, adjusting their bodies to minimize damage at that crucial moment—for them, this was a matter of life and death.
Just as Instructor Kong had predicted, almost everyone would be grateful to Instructor Ma.
But now, what they liked and admired was the peacock-like, showy Instructor Kong, who was skilled at winning hearts and minds.