POV: HEAD OF THE LIN KWEI SU MIN
LOCATION: THE CRANNIES
TIME: THE DAY BEFORE THE NEW YEAR (THE FINAL RICE HARVEST)
On this day you wake up that morning and find that someone was sitting by your bed. Being the cautious person that you are, you pretend to asleep, carefully reach for your hidden dagger and strike. However the person who seems to be prepared, quickly leaps back to avoid your strike. Without giving him a chance to recover you throw your three daggers but to your surprise he dodges two and catches the last one. You reach for your second dagger but before you could strike, the mysterious stranger leaps forward, grabs your dagger hand with his off hand and places the dagger he caught at your throat.
It was then you see that the man you had been fighting was no other than the imperial prince Liu XIE who must have come to wake you up.
Is he getting a little bit tall for his age?
You shake off the thought
"i take it you have been training your highness." You say trying to make it seem like a test.
"Did you expect anything less since I began visiting the crannies?" He asks casually
"I never knew you were a heavy sleeper Su Min"
"I was really tired yesterday my prince." You reply defensively
"Training the lin kwei is not easy"
"What happened?"
"The spies had their practical test yesterday." You reply casually
"Nothing major, just some low level scams and deception."
"And?"
"They were all gifted performers." Your expression then turned serious
"Do not take this the wrong way but you better start making some enemies my prince."
"Why is that?"
"Those manuals on deception,the manual on how to kill and that fast reloading sniper crossbows have built up a blood lust in every scorpion that will eventually be dangerous if left unexpressed." You explain
"Do not worry too much about assassination missions Su Min." He replies
"I have already made enemies out of the most powerful eunuchs at the imperial court by showing myself to be against their interests. Do you think they will let me live long enough to be a threat to their interests?" He reasons
"Besides if my instincts are right, this new year will bring a host of troubles for me. I will need them to make it go away."
You nod lightly at his words and say
"May I ask why you are here my prince?"
"Today is the final grain harvest of the crannies. I plan to go after the second watch (early afternoon)"
"And I take it you wish me to accompany you?" He nods
"All due respect my prince I do not see the need for that."
"The people of the crannies equates your presence with mine." He explains
"Besides you have played a big part in the policies I made concerning the crannies, do you not want see how they have played out?"
You look into his eyes and you see this was not negotiable
"I will get ready"
Soon after the start of the second watch, you begin to ride towards the crannies alone. This was because when you went to inform the prince about the second watch, he simply informs you that he has changed his mind and you should go in his stead to get things ready. You heavily suspect a trap but what other choice did you have?
On your way to the crannies, you could not help thinking about the little conflict the prince's constant visit to the crannies caused.
The thing was news about the prince constantly leaving the palace unaccompanied reached the empress ears and she was not happy about it. So she called the both of you, demanded an explanation and eventually banned you both from ever leaving the palace.
Neither of you were going to take that decree sitting down so you both went to the empress dowager. Suffice to say the empress dowager's response was so swift and so loud that you are expecting the empress to retaliate at one point or the other.
The surprising thing though is that, you find out that you are not as afraid of her reaction as you should be. You know that if she comes after you that you can tolerate, but if she dares takes her misbehavior towards your prince then you will just have the lin kwei members in the palace serve her a bowel of strange wine.
On getting to the crannies, you could hardly even recognize the place anymore. This is because of the two imposing structure that seems to dominate the entire view of the crannies. One of these structures was beautifully built, had an impressive smell and was filled with people both merchant and peasents who were going in and out. The place was well guarded and on the top of the building was a big beautiful plaque that read FREE FLOWER TAVERN.
You could still remember the time when you and prince had first opened the free flower tavern. The prince had given a speech and had declared the first round free. After that, he announced the very cheap price for the wines. At first the customers refuse to believe but when the prince confirmed it himself, that alone set the tavern on fire. You and the managing siblings literally sold out of stock in matter of seconds. Even till today you can see that the tavern still manages to attract all sorts of customers with it's quality yet cheap beer and fruit wine and so far the specialized production strategy had stopped your recipe form getting out. Well either that or that the members of the lin kwei posted to the tavern have done a very good job at identifying and eliminating potential spies
You turn your attention to the second building. It was not as beautiful decorated nor was it as large as the first because it was built to be efficient, but you know that of the two buildings this was the one the prince holds to be more important. That is because the second building was the armory/ training center that the prince built out Xu Chu insistence. He and the siblings had argued that the men and women need a proper place to train and store their training equipment and the prince had caved in to their arguments. They had built the armory/ training center in the early mornings before their farm work and when it was completed the prince surprised even you by bringing two professional blacksmith and presenting every single one of the soldiers with a steel long sword, steel large shields, steel very long spears and a red coloured steel complete set of armor that offered a sort of protection that you could not find even if you wore the royal armor. Since that day, there has never been an evening where the armory has not seen people training on it.
You can remember the evening that.....
"I have been expecting you lady Su." You turn around to see Xu Chu who was dressed in his white tiger armor looking every li the fearsome tiger general the prince describes him as.
"We were waiting for either you or the prince so we could close the tavern for the day."
"Wait did you not work in shifts so the tavern never closes?" You ask
"This is the final grain harvest " he explains
"We need everyone to participate"
"Including the management siblings?" You ask slyly
"Especially the management siblings." He replies
"You know I was hoping to show the prince the state of his army."
"If I am here, the prince is here." You declare
"Show me army"
He nods and begins leading you towards the armory/ training center.
To be honest, you were looking forward to seeing the army's training. The truth was that this was not the first time you have seen the army train and you could confidently say that the intensity of their training was second only to the lin kwei training. This was because the prince had once told Xu Chu to put the men and women through the fire so that anyone who was wood would burn and anyone who was iron would burn brighter. Needless to say Xu Chu took that saying to heart.
You both eventually get to the training grounds and the sight you see there is more than enough to strike fear into the heart of a lion.
Initially the soldiers in the training grounds were taking it easy on themselves but as soon as Xu Chu entered he cries
"Tercio formation"
In response the soldiers move out of reflex and arranges themselves in a type of formation that have the infantry in the front and the archery in the center.
When you take a closer look at the formation you realize that the archery is placed in a way that they can help the infantry and reinforce the flanks should they be attacked.
"Testudo!!!!" Xu Chu yells
In response the men in front got behind their shields and the rest got under theirs forming a very large turtle. Your sharp eyes scanned for any gap but you find none.
"Is this for an arrow barrage?" You ask
"That is the idea." He replies
"After all the prince finds it despicable for his men to die by arrows. Testudo march!!!"
To your surprise the huge turtle of large shields begins to move in a coherent and precise manner that not even one shield was out of place.
"Arrow reversal"
A small hole opens at the top of the turtle and you watch with wonder as five salvos of deadly well aimed arrows fly out. You know for certain that any army that was shooting at these men would have lost half it's archers if not all. So imagine your surprise when the action was repeated not once, not twice,not thrice but five times from different holes in the turtle all aiming towards one direction.
"It was the prince's basic archer policy." Xu Chu explains
"He made it compulsory for every archer to be able to grab at least five arrows in one shot and to be able to reload them in quick succession."
"So all the archers here can fire five arrows in quick succession?" You ask trying to hide your absolute shock
"Certainly." He replies with a hint of pride
"Most of them can fire up to six arrows in quick succession and the good ones can fire up to eight. The gifted ones like the management siblings especially shang can fire up to ten arrows in quick succession"
You look at him in surprise and he puts up his hands
"Do not ask me how they do it because I have no idea." He admits and turns towards his men
"Tercio charge!!"
The army charge and you quickly notice that even while charging, they still maintain their line.
"Impressive ant master." You turn to see Ming carrying a large pile of paper.
"I had expected you to train an impressive army but this is the stuff of legends. At least I know now that the money the prince spends on maintaining the army equipment is not a waste."
"Thank you manager Ming." He replies with respect
"However, was I expecting too much when I expected the prince to be here physically?" She asks with a bit a scorn
"The prince is still getting ready." You reply
"Besides if I am here, then he is here"
"All due respect lady Su, while your presence is much appreciated, it does not carry the same force as his physical presence."
For some reason those words shook you to your very core.
You walk up to her and say with a voice sharper than ten blades
"Are you doubting my ability to serve as his representative?"
"My apologies lady Su." She then turned to leave
You were not going to take that insult sitting down so when she takes the first few steps away from you, you throw three daggers in her path.
"The prince tells me he has been training you and your brother." You say with a deceptive smile
"Do mind showing me what you have been learning?"
"Are you sure you wish to see what I have been learning?" She asks with a gentle smile of her own.
Rather than answer, you pull out one your dagger and take a fighting stance. She placed her books down and displays a sword you had not noticed with a smile.
"Are you sure you want to do this?" She asks with a mocking smile
"Draw your sword" You command