Chapter 23 - Not Too Shabby

Zhuang Yong did not know how he managed to get persuaded by that fella. Was it just because he said he wanted to buy good tea leaves for Mr. Shen?

He thought about the life Shen Xiaosong used to live, as compared to his current situation, where he was hard pressed for money because he had to raise two children. He had to even deliver vegetables for the kitchen here…even though on the surface, they used Cha Yan wanting to see Shen Leng as an excuse, it was evident that they used that excuse to conceal the fact that they did not have much money left.

Zhuang Yong gestured at him. “Continue with your evaluation. We will discuss this matter again at a later time.”

Shen Leng finally released his hands that were grasping tight. He bowed and said, “Thank you, general.”

Zhuang Yong thought to himself: So in your eyes, I’m still a general?

He shook his head and did not utter a single word. Shen Leng did not say anything else either and left the viewing stage immediately.

Zhuang Yong spent the whole night rushing back the day before; it was more than 30 miles to and fro from Anyang’s dock to the Navy camp. He was worried that Mu Xiaofeng would take advantage of the fact that he was not around to do something despicable. Du Weiming’s family’s circumstances were so-so. Naturally, it was impossible for them to be in possession of a gold ingot. When the garrison soldiers with sinister eyes witnessed it, they immediately reported it to Yang Qibao, who immediately reported it to him. That was when he knew that ultimately, something was going to happen.

However, this was not something that was easy to deal with. Mu Xiaofeng was Mu Zhaotong’s only son. Presently, His Majesty needed Mu Zhaotong to declare his loyalty. Not to forget, Zhuang Yong’s status was also very special. The direction in which the Navy would be heading towards in the future would most likely be uncertain because of the feud between Shen Leng and Mu Xiaofeng.

If Mu Zhaotong was resolute in his decision against taking the Navy to the south, the officials in the imperial court who followed him would do their utmost in preventing from happening. Even though His Majesty was the emperor, he would still be unable to do anything to sway their attitude towards that matter.

Hence, Zhuang Yong had to be very careful in handling this matter. Even though it was entirely against his wishes, he could not help but think that if…if Shen Leng were to receive unjust treatment, he would have to let it happen - for the sake of the Navy.

After Du Weiming was being badgered by the invigilator for quite some time, he decided that he had no choice but to reveal his weight in order to get away from him. After Shen Leng’s results were calculated, without a doubt, nobody else was able to top his results in the dumbbell item.

When Du Weiming found Shen Leng, that fella was just about to take part in the five meter rope ladder speed climbing test. This was an item that every soldier in the Navy was required to train in. Naturally, the length of this rope ladder had to be longer than the actual rope ladder that was suspended from the battleship. It was being suspended on the high wall that was specially constructed for it.

When Du Weiming saw Shen Leng, he started climbing up with all his might, and when Shen Leng saw Du Weiming, he immediately started to climb even faster. One chased, while the other picked up speed. Ultimately, Shen Leng emerged the winner, and Du Weiming was second…

The invigilator saw his timing and became so agitated that he almost cried. “The record is broken, the record is broken!”

The invigilator of the dumbbell item smiled. “That’s nothing…”

As they were competing with each other, Shen Leng finished all the different items in the physical evaluation. By noontime, Shen Leng was still being hounded by Du Weiming, who kept attempting to get his gold ingot back.

Shen Leng looked at him scornfully. “Can’t afford to gamble?”

Du Weiming was embarrassed. “I... exchanged it with my life!”

Perhaps he truly panicked at that moment, but the moment Du Weiming said it, he immediately regretted it. This is bad. When he reached his hand out, it was trembling.

He did not expect Shen Leng to pat him on the shoulder. “Since you exchanged it with your life, let me give you another one.”

Du Weiming stood there completely stunned - he did not know what Shen Leng’s words meant. As for that fella, he had already rushed into the dining hall for his meal.

At the same time, right outside the camp, Master Cha looked disapprovingly at Mr. Shen. “Isn’t this stupid?”

Mr, Shen shook his head and sighed. He looked at his cart full of vegetables. “He said five days, but who knew the evaluation would take three days? This is why I find the words of the leaders in the military unreliable. Their so-called one million troops were in fact only 600,000. What Zhuang Yong meant by five days was nonsense. In truth, it is eight days.”

The two of them had already waited outside the military camp for half a day. Mr. Shen was too embarrassed to look for Zhuang Yong. After all, he might be mocked over something so stupid. He wanted to protect his ego.

Hence, both of them discussed the matter at hand and decided to set up a stall not far from the military camp to sell the vegetables at four-fifths of the price. There were quite a number of people who wanted to buy from them, but when Zhuang Yong changed into casual clothes and headed out to discuss the matter pertaining to Shen Leng and Mu Xiaofeng with Mr. Shen, he happened to see both of them somewhat struggling to sell their vegetables. He felt bad and instructed people to buy from them, before heading back into the camp. He could not help but chastise himself for thinking about allowing Shen Leng to be subjected to unjust treatment.

Being dealt with bad cards in life was not scary, but throwing in the towel when placed in such a predicament was scary.

In the afternoon, Shen Leng went to the other site to take his fundamental skills evaluation tests. Perhaps Du Weiming was afraid of embarrassing himself, he did not immediately badger Shen Leng. Or perhaps, Du Weiming decided to let his gold ingot go, since he had already sold Shen Leng’s life to Mu Xiaofeng.

Before he entered the second site, Shen Leng received the news about himself breaking the records in all the items of the physical evaluation. He did not think it was a feat to be happy about. In Shen Leng’s eyes, the past records were of ridiculously poor standards in the first place.

Yang Qibao was even happier than Shen Leng. The moment he got wind of it, he ran over to look for Shen Leng. He looked so excited, like a child. Hence, Shen Leng thought about buying him a meal that night at the dining hall.

The fundamental skills evaluation was more important than the physical evaluation. In Shen Leng’s words, physical evaluation could only prove that one was qualified to be a man. As for the evaluation that put bow and arrow skills, knife techniques, etc. to the test, it proved whether or not one was qualified to be a soldier.

The first item was bow and arrow. In order to pass, the recruits needed to get six out of ten arrows on the target over a distance of 40 meters. For the combat soldiers who went through gruelling amounts of training, this was an easy feat. However, for the recruits, it proved to be difficult. After all, prior to entering the new recruits’ camp, they had no exposure to such weapons. In Great Ning, the bow and arrow was a weapon that was strictly controlled.

Shen Leng entered the evaluation site according to sequence. There were three different types of bows he could choose from - a stone and a half, two stones, two stones and a half…bows that were three stones and above could not be casually used by anyone as they wished.

Du Weiming looked for Shen Leng once again. “Are we wagering once again?”

Shen Leng asked, “Do you have enough money?”

Du Weiming scoffed. “Can’t we bet on something non-monetary?”

Shen Leng replied, “That’s being disrespectful to gambling.”

Du Weiming was left speechless. He had no other choice either - indeed, he truly did not have enough. The new recruits’ pay was not much. Even though they did not have to spend much money in the camp itself, who would not want to drink with their friends on their days off?

It could be said that Du Weiming understood Shen Leng rather well - he was completely not interested insubstantial things. Hence, betting a year’s worth of pay would not interest him. He could not think of anything else that was worth staking on. He clenched his teeth and suggested wagering on an arm.

Shen Leng narrowed his eyes and looked at Du Weiming. “Before you make a decision, you should consider your parents’ feelings first, instead of your own.”

杜威名脸色一变，想到自己答应了沐筱风的事，如果一旦没有成功的话，自己什么下场，爹娘什么下场？

Du Weiming was taken aback and thought of the promise he made to Mu Xiaofeng, as well as what would happen to him and his parents if he did not succeed.

However, he could not tolerate being talked down by Shen Leng this way. “How about this, if we ever go to war, I will block an attack on your behalf!”

Shen Leng was silent for a brief moment and answered, “Alright.”

Du Weiming thought to himself: You won’t get to enjoy an opportunity as such. After I kill you, I will go to Garrison B. Ten years later, I will become a true general, whereas your corpse would be entirely decomposed, with nothing left but bones.

Du Weiming could not help but ask, “Before you agree to it, did you spare a thought for your parents? If you were to block an attack on my behalf, I’m afraid you will die without a doubt.”

Shen Leng shrugged. “I don’t have any parents.”

Du Weiming was taken aback. His mouth opened slightly, not knowing what to say.

Shen Leng laughed, “However, I have people who are more dear to me than a set of parents. So I will not lose.”

Du Weiming scoffed and pointed to the front. “Go on, then.”

This time, Shen Leng did not tell him to go first. He walked over to the test area and stood properly. He picked up a two stone bow and tried to get a feel of it. Even though it was rather light, the distance was only 40 meters. It was good enough.

Du Weiming stood behind him and said disdainfully, “I only got taken advantage of during the dumbbell item because you were shameless enough to play tricks. This time, I want to see how you’re going to beat me. I’m going after you, so no matter what your results will be, I will be better than you.

Shen Leng answered, “Ok.”

He was not in a rush to shoot the arrow. Instead, he held the bow in his hand and observed carefully. He adjusted the bow earnestly, holding the bow in his left hand, and the arrows in his right. He grabbed four feathered arrows with his right hand and nocked them. It seemed as though he was about to shoot all four of them at the same time…This was a highly advanced technique. After Du Weiming saw this, he laughed.

Firing four arrows at the same time - it was impossible for all of them to hit the bull’s eye.

This technique looked very eye-catching and fancy, but in an actual war, it did not make that much of an impact.

Just as he was thinking about this, Shen Leng had already made a move. Contrary to what Du Weiming expected, Shen Leng did not shoot all four arrows at the same time. All five fingers of his right hand held onto the four arrows. After the first arrow shot out, he slightly adjusted the angle of his bow. He did the same for the second, third and fourth arrow…Du Weiming thought that Shen Leng was trying to flaunt his skills, but little did he know that it was simply because Shen Leng was too lazy to nock the arrows one by one.

Four arrows were shot in succession. He was so quick to the point that the invigilator was left speechless with his mouth opened slightly, and his eyes widened.

All four arrows hit the bull’s eye in succession. The first arrow created a hole in the center of the target; the second, third and fourth arrows shot through the hole with precision and accuracy.

Shen Leng did not seem to be elated. He sincerely felt that this was not a difficult feat to accomplish. When he was in the Daoist temple, with Mr. Shen supervising him while holding a wooden stick, the target he had to shoot at was a small ring that was not much bigger than the feathered arrow. It was suspended in the air, swaying from side to side as the wind blew. If the arrow did not shoot through the ring, Mr. Shen would hit him with the wooden stick.

Whenever this happened, Master Cha would pretend to be napping, refusing to witness the harsh training.

After all four arrows hit the target, the invigilator cried out, forgetting his status. His cry attracted everyone’s attention, including Zhuang Yong, who had specially gone over to the evaluation venue.

The four arrows were shot so quickly, one after another, such that they formed a long line. The flight path of the arrows created an arc in the sky that was pleasing to the eye.

After witnessing this, Zhuang Yong his index finger moved involuntarily, as though he was tugging on the bowstring.

Lieutenant Wan Shandi, who was standing at the side, cupped his fist and said, “Congratulations, general, for attaining a talented individual.”

Zhuang Yong smiled without saying a word. He could not help but sing the praises of Shen Xiaosong in his heart.

After Shen Leng fired the four arrows, he picked up another four arrows before firing them in rapid succession. They shot through the hole created earlier in the bull’s eye with precision, thus making the remaining two arrows seem ordinary. All ten arrows hit the bull’s eye, and he completed this test in a fifth of the time taken by other people.

The invigilator could no longer stand still; he rushed over to the viewing stage and reported to Zhuang Yong. Zhuang Yong had already witnessed the entire thing clearly, and pretended to be calm as he gestured to him, implying that he already knew. However, deep inside, he was not any less shocked than the invigilator.

Du Weiming had already went pale. He stood still like a statue.

As Shen Leng headed back and walked past Du Weiming, he casually said to him, “In the future, on the battlefield, there truly aren’t many people I’m able to block an attack for. Right now, I’m only certain about one thing - you are still a distance away from me; probably as far as the distance between Anyang and Changan city.

Once upon a time, in an abandoned warehouse in Yulin town, there was a fella who told him to make a run for it first, while he held down the fort.

As expected, Shen Leng got called over by Zhuang Yong once again. In front of all his subordinates, including the lieutenant, etc., Zhuang Yong purposely asked Shen Leng in a calm tone, “You can’t shoot five arrows in rapid succession?”

Shen Leng nodded. “I can do it.”

“Then why didn’t you do it?”

“Because there are no stakes involved, so I could just casually complete the task. Besides, taking five arrows at one go is rather troublesome. Why should I go through all the trouble?”

Shen Leng answered earnestly. Thereafter, he realized that the big guns present, including Zhuang Yong himself, had a strange expression on their faces. Shen Leng thought to himself: You people are far from being as mentally resilient as Mr. Shen. If sir were to see this, he would simply say…not too shabby.