145 The Journey North 5

Five days later ...

Qin Feng was groaning as he heaved himself out of the saddle, and trying to stamp the blood back into his feet. His enthusiasm for the journey was already sputtering out like a candle wick. Whatever else he may have learned from this little trip, he knew now that he was totally unsuited to work in the military.

The whole march North had been nothing less than a nightmare for the young man!

First, from everything that he had heard from dealing with Lady Xie and the Second Ducal Prince, he had the impression that the whole situation in the Southwest needed to be deal with quickly. And that sending word of the out-of-ordinary assault by the Barbarians to the Duke of the Westlands was a rather urgent matter.

Which made it completely incomprehensible why Li Changhai, and the small troop under his command, was taking so long just to cross what appeared to be such a short overland distance!

And the whole lot of them didn't seem to be bothered by their slow progress either!

Every day, the soldiers would wake shortly before dawn, and spend about a half-hour to an hour to clean themselves up and to stand for inspection. Thereafter, they would take close to another hour to break camp and prepare themselves for the march.

By the time that they actually started to move, they would actually send out the three to five scouts that they had, to move ahead first. The rest would then follow, at what Qin Feng considered a crawl!

And that wasn't the worst of it:

Li Changhai had also stopped at intervals, to swap the scouts about. To keep them from getting too accustomed to what they were doing, and to ensure that more of their number got a chance to put their skills to practice.

At least, that was what the Second Ducal Prince had told him, when Qin Feng asked why he was going through all of that trouble. There was that boring devotion to training that everyone in the troop was obsessed with again!

And it seemed that even Li Changhai appeared to have fallen under that spell!

Which was enough to have Qin Feng cursing under his breath, and hiding away whenever he could. That is, when he was not stuck to the saddle. All that ceaseless riding was enough to wear out the cheeks of his buttocks already!

Still, he had to admit that the Second Ducal Prince was appearing to get a lot closer to the soldiers. Especially Wei Xu'an, the lieutenant who was supposed to be leading the escort party. After Li Changhai had taken to joining the troops in their daily practice, every day before dinner, he seemed to have gained their trust. And since he regularly practiced with almost all of the soldiers already, he appeared to have improved as well.

Despite that, the Prince was still closely watched by those two large, hulking Bodyguards that accompanied him everywhere that he went.

Well, the unending cycle of training and fighting had also built up the Prince's stamina, not to mention his reputation as a hardened warrior. Most of the ordinary soldiers who had faced the man had learned that his nondescript appearance hid a power that was sufficient to toss them out of their simple makeshift fighting pit every time. So far, except for his two Bodyguards, Zhan Long and Tie Hu, only the leader of the escort party, Lieutenant Wei, could handle the Prince's attacks.

Qin Feng, on the other hand, had avoided all the physical training when he could, and only trained using his simple Breathing Exercises, that worked on his qi rather than his body. Which meant that he kept to himself, and stayed mostly in his tent, when the Second Ducal Prince was out training with the rest of the soldiers.

Of course, that was enough to make all the soldiers wonder at Qin Feng, and what he was capable of. After all, why would the Second Ducal Prince treat him with such respect, if he was not at least his equal when it came to the fighting arts?

Added to the rumors that surrounded his part in that shock attack on the Marquis' Training Camp outside Changqing City, Qin Feng found himself the center of attention, every time that he strode through the camp.

Which, to Qin Feng himself, was nothing more than another source of irritation. Why did everyone have to watch him so closely, when he walked here and there? And what was with all those strange looks that they shot him, when he rode next to the Second Ducal Prince every day?

Did they think that he was so blind that he didn't notice all of that?

Then Qin Feng sighed, and lifted his arms over his head and deliberately stretched. The ride wasn't very long, but he could not help but feel exhausted every evening when the troop stopped and began to set up camp. Well, he couldn't really complain, since he was getting free food, and had the protection of the entire army troop along the way. It was certainly saving him a good bit of coin.

But he could not help but scowl when he turned to find that Li Changhai had strode off to talk with the lieutenant and his team of scouts while he was stretching and complaining to himself. From the look on their faces, there was evidently something unusual that the latter had found close by, that bade them draw the Prince's attention.

Yet, even as he started to move towards the group, a loud noise to the side drew his eyes away from Li Changhai and the band of soldiers that had gathered around him. Several birds - crows, Qin Feng thought, from their dull black plumage, had suddenly fluttered up out of the rolling hills to the side of the trail, filling the space around him with their loud caws.

Then he blinked, as his eyes caught sight of the figures that were rising out of the tall grass that covered the same, the late afternoon sun glinting off their bared weapons! And the ones bearing them were already shouting as they charged towards Li Changhai's little troop!

Barbarians! They were Barbarians!

An answering shout from the soldiers made it clear that he was not the only one who had sighted the same, and he felt a small twinge of pride as the same men, who had been relaxed and ready to set up camp, snatched up their weapons to meet the enemy!

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