Chapter 262.1: Hello Chang'an
Chapter 262.1: Only Seeking a Defeat
Chang Kuo was strict in his military discipline. Since Li Yi’s death, Xiao Min had taken over command and, together with Chang Kuo, reorganized the army. The previous laxity had been swept away, and much of the army adopted the discipline of the Xuanzhe Army, greatly improving morale.
In the days before the New Year, they had faced several bands of rebel forces under Xu Zhengye and won all three engagements, boosting the soldiers’ spirits.
Today, the army permitted the soldiers to drink. On one hand, it was a feast to celebrate victory; on the other, it was New Year’s Eve, a time to ease the soldiers’ homesickness.
Victory and strong liquor combined to create a rousing, exhilarating atmosphere, which also led some to vent long-suppressed grievances.
In front of several bonfires, men sat or stood in clusters. Judging by their attire, most held ranks—either as company commanders or platoon leaders. At the center of attention was a man in his forties.
“...How can the responsibility for training the entire camp be handed to a young girl? What sort of reasoning is that? I’ve never heard of such a thing!”
“Our units normally have training overseen by various instructors. Now suddenly everything has to follow her orders? Previously, only the commander and deputy commander had this authority. And now she’s stepping in? How is that justified?”
“I heard that Commander Xiao and Deputy Commander Chang plan to create a position of General Instructor for her...”
“General Instructor?! There has never been such a post in our army!” One company commander, shocked and dissatisfied, asked the man by the fire, “Instructor Fang, are you aware of this?”
Instructor Fang led the instructors of one army unit—twenty-five thousand men. Positions like his were rare in the seventeen-thousand-strong army: only seven such posts existed, carrying considerable weight and experience.
Each army unit was subdivided into camps, each camp into battalions, each battalion with two hundred men and a junior instructor. Major training exercises were normally directed by the army commander. Under Li Yi, the post of General Instructor had never existed.
Yet now, this young girl was to serve as the General Instructor for the entire army?
Instructor Fang sipped his wine and, with a hoarse voice, said, “Who gave her this authority? She killed Ge Zong and Li Yi, and her fame has spread. And, coincidentally, her surname is Chang.”
“No matter what, she’s just a novice! What qualifications does she have to train the army?”
“Exactly. Training is the most important matter. Not anyone can give arbitrary orders. Soldiers go to the battlefield; if trained improperly, they risk their lives!”
“General Chang cherishes his daughter as his own life; we can’t speak on that. But this is the army...”
“Besides, who even saw her kill Ge Zong and Li Yi? How do we know it wasn’t exaggeration? Her body is smaller than my spear!”
“Exactly. Tomorrow, if she stands on the training platform, can she truly command the soldiers?”
“With arrangements like this, I do not submit!”
Their voices were loud enough to attract more listeners, and those who hadn’t gathered near began whispering.
Just after midnight, while the camp distributed dumplings, Jiang Cai carried two large buckets of freshly boiled dumplings and heard one instructor speaking disrespectfully to Chang Suining. She immediately slammed the buckets down with a “bang”: “How dare you speak!”
The instructor recognized her as one of Chang Suining’s female attendants, but instead of being intimidated, he scoffed: “The brothers only speak the truth!” He even tried a patronizing tone: “Women should stay at home, sewing and bearing children. Fighting and killing is beyond your ability. Overreaching will only get you killed!”
Jiang Cai mimicked his tone mockingly: “People like you, short-sighted and blabbering nonsense, should sew your mouths shut. Your chatter makes you sound like a frog in a well, croaking away, and only earns others’ ridicule!”
The instructor’s face turned red and black: “Women are truly unreasonable!”
Jiang Cai exclaimed: “You were hiding behind others gossiping, yet now I catch you and it’s unreasonable for me? You…”
“You what?” she interrupted, hands on hips. “Our Lady Chang can kill enemies and train troops! Back in Hezhou, she raised forty thousand new recruits from a city of civilians, training them in only five days! With paper armor and iron weapons, following her formations, they repelled Xu Zhengye’s hundred-thousand-strong army!”
“This I witnessed personally. You may choose not to believe it, but spreading whispers and inciting conflict behind our backs—what sort of heroes are you?”
Feeling all eyes upon him, the man, embarrassed and drunk, began speaking recklessly: “There has never been a precedent of women training troops as a General Instructor! This is an ancestral tradition! And she’s only sixteen!”
“No.”
A crisp dissenting voice spoke. The crowd parted to let a girl with a rat-fur-lined cloak approach.
Instructor Fang glanced at her, then returned to his drink.
“Speaking of traditions, I too am something handed down by my ancestors.” The girl, hair in a ponytail, walked in with her hands behind her back. Her face was calm, even smiling—after all, it was New Year, a time for harmony.
She asked politely: “If all ancestral traditions have reasoning, then surely my being older is also reasonable, isn’t it?”
Who isn’t a treasure left by the ancestors?
The instructor’s face flickered with confusion.
The girl continued: “Also, I am not a sixteen-year-old girl. New Year has passed; I am seventeen.”
Seeing her confidence, the instructor dared not speak further. Yet under so many eyes, he could not deny her, and mustered the courage to say: “Since Lady Chang is here, then we shall speak frankly!”
Chang Suining replied: “Please, Instructor, speak freely. I am willing to hear the full details.”
The instructor’s expression stiffened, somewhat surprised. He was only a junior instructor in charge of two hundred men, and had met Lady Chang just once before. Yet she remembered his surname? He considered himself neither handsome nor exceptional.
Ps. From now on I'll be using Jiang Cai instead of Jucai or Jicai
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