Chapter 492: Inspection

Yan Liqiang called Shi Changfeng. Both of them went to the archery academy gate and saw Wang Jiangbei in casual attire with three personal attendants pulling along the horses. Wang Jianbei’s face was calm and genial, however, one of the personal attendants beside him who had strong build was glaring at a few students who were on duty at the gate. The students stood beside the archery academy’s gate with spears in their hands were blocking Wang Jianbei and his personal attendants.

“Greetings to the Head of the Archery Academy and Chief!” When they saw Yan Liqiang and Shi Changfeng approaching, one of the students on duty wearing the red captain armband came over and straightened up to salute Yan Liqiang and Shi Changfeng. He pointed at Wang Jianbei and his personal attendants, “These people came to the archery academy and that person claims that he’s the Pingxi Prefectural Governor!”

“Alright, I understand. You can continue with your duty!” Yan Liqiang nodded.

“Yes!” The young man who wore the red captain armband once again saluted Yan Liqiang. He made a left turn, ran in small steps toward the gate, and continued to execute his duty. Wang Jiangbei stood outside the archery academy gate, watching the whole process with a smile. When he saw the young man with the red captain armband run toward Yan Liqiang, straighten up to make a report and then run back, a glint secretly flashed across Wang Jianbei’s eyes. The so-called ‘You may know by a handful the whole sack’ meant that based from little details, Wang Jianbei had already sensed that Yan Liqiang’s archery club was not as simple as it seemed.

Yan Liqiang and Shi Changfeng did not stop; they walked directly to the gate to greet Wang Jianbei.

“Lord Wang, we are honored by your presence. Forgive me for not coming out to welcome you!” Yan Liqiang smiled as he greeted Wang Jianbei. He then introduced Shi Changfeng to Wang Jianbei, “This is Shi Changfeng. He was previously my teacher at the martial arts academy and he’s now the chief of the archery academy. Master Shi is basically in charge of the whole academy!”

“Shi Changfeng greets the Provincial Governor!”

Wang Jiangbei smiled as he nodded to Yan Liqiang and Shi Changfeng, “Not bad, not bad. You have turned the archery academy into a remarkable place. I made a sudden decision to come here for a visit today but I did not expect quite a number of rules here. The few young men at this gate even stopped me from entering!”

“Precisely. Your archery academy is too arrogant. The Provincial Governor came for an inspection and already explained his identity, yet he was still denied entrance. Is there any place that the Provincial Governor cannot enter in Pingxi Prefecture?” The personal attendant beside Wang Jianbei huffed in anger, seemingly displeased.

“Haha, please do not feel offended, Provincial Governor. I have set these rules because we’ve had some curious people trying to scout the archery academy and it became a nuisance. These young men at the gate were just carrying out their duties. Furthermore, they have never seen you before which thus led to the misunderstanding. Had I known that you were coming today, I would have led the students of the archery academy to clean the road from ten li out and cover the road with fresh flowers to welcome you. We never would have stopped Lord Wang from entering!” Yan Liqiang laughed, “If Lord Wang and the rest of the brothers have to blame someone for this, please put the blame on me!”

Yan Liqiang’s words had given enough honor to Wang Jianbei that his personal attendant’s anger immediately dissipated and he even felt a little embarrassed. Wang Jianbei wasn’t angry either. Even without considering Yan Liqiang’s relationship with Lei Sitong, Wang Jianbei wouldn’t be upset because Yan Liqiang’s words were pleasing enough to the ears.

Yan Liqiang was like an old fox in the officialdom. Was he really capable of discreetly exterminating a troop of over a thousand soldiers from the Transportation Office?

Wang Jiangbei muttered to himself in his heart. After laughing and greeting Yan Liqiang, he entered the archery academy under Yan Liqiang’s lead.

“Before I came to Liuhe Town, I heard that the villages nearby have started thriving ever since you started the archery academy and everyone is singing praises about this. Why is that so?” Wang Jianbei asked while he sized up the building structures inside the archery academy.

“Haha, do you know how many students we have in the archery academy?” Yan Liqiang asked while smiling.

“I heard there were about two thousand!” Wang Jiangbei swept his eyes over the surroundings and sighed in amazement, “Such a scale for an archery academy could be rated as number one among the northwestern provinces. Even in the Great Han Empire, it is rare to have an academy of this scale. It is indeed good fortune to the locals and a blessing to the common people to have such an archery academy situated in my Pingxi Prefecture!”

“Haha, thank you for the compliment!” Yan Liqiang smiled, “The daily food consumption of two thousand people in the archery academy is high. The nearby villagers are providing the food supply. We are offering them a good price, and in fact, it’s one or two times higher than the market price. Moreover, the quantity of our daily purchases is huge. Regardless of what they plant — grains, vegetables, or even poultry and eggs, we buy all of them. Furthermore, the clothing and handcrafted utensils that the students use were all passed to the neighboring villagers to make and are bought by me. With this, as long as the archery academy is around, the neighboring villages will naturally gain massive income. This is income that they never have had before. To them, it is as if they are selling at the market every single day. The villagers are, of course, delighted as they are becoming wealthier and leading better lives!”

“Perhaps only you, Yan Liqiang, have the ability to spend such a fortune to benefit the fellow villagers. This is totally admirable!”

“Haha, I am also a resident of Pingxi Prefecture. I also wish for the fellow villagers live a better life. I had always wanted to do this, it was just that I had no money. Now that I have money in my hands, it’s only natural for me to think of ways to benefit my fellow villagers too!” Yan Liqiang secretly bit his tongue as he almost blurted something about ‘the rich first pushing those being rich later’.

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“Not bad, not bad. Liqiang’s intentions are indeed noble,” Wang Jianbei nodded. The discussion topic suddenly took a turn as Wang Jianbei asked, “Just now I noticed that one of the young men who was on duty at the archery academy gate was wearing a red armband. What was that?”

“Oh, that’s the captain’s armband. It is used to indicate that the person wearing the armband is the captain in charge of the guards for the day!”

“Watching his movements, I noticed that he is slightly different from ordinary people. His actions were direct and efficient in a very organized way. Why is that so?”

Yan Liqiang and Shi Changfeng exchanged glances. Shi Changfeng smiled and briefly explained, “This is because there were a lot of new students at the archery academy. Some of the students were young and they naturally could not stay put. Yan Liqiang felt that the archery academy had too many people and it was difficult to manage with a lack of rules, so he implemented a set of rules to let the students of the archery academy follow the rules even while walking and running. This is to build a habit to adhere to rules before expanding the parameters!”

Wang Jianbei smiled, “I find it very interesting. Liqiang, are you able to give me some insight as to how the students of the archery academy are usually trained?”

“Of course!” Yan Liqiang also smiled.

Shi Changfeng glanced at Yan Liqiang —— Is this alright?

Don’t worry, they just want to have a look. —— Yan Liqiang winked at Shi Chengfeng.

Soon after, Yan Liqiang and Shi Changfeng brought Wang Jianbei and his men on the training field platform. At that time, a few students on the training field were taking their break. Groups of students gathered around the push-wrestling ring on the training field. The minimum number of people required to play push-wrestling ring was one versus one, while the most was a hundred versus a hundred in a complete chaotic warfare. The people inside the rings were striving to wrestle while the spectators outside of the rings were cheering and whistling loudly. There were over a hundred push-wrestlings that were in progress on the training field filled with youthful and cheerful energy.

“Haha, they are energetic and lively. That’s how young people should be!” Upon seeing the scene on the training field, Prefecture Governor Wang Jianbei laughed with joy. As the Pingxi Prefecture Governor, he was delighted to see the young, energetic youths of Pingxi Prefecture. He turned to look at Yan Liqiang, “When will the training start?”

“Any time!” Yan Liqiang smiled and nodded to Shi Changfeng who signaled the horn player standing beside the platform. The man took the cow horn that hung on his waist and blew it three times with all his might.

Upon hearing the sound of the horn, students who were playing happily on the training field began to move. Regardless if they were sitting on the floor, standing, playing push-wrestling, or spectating the wrestling, everybody promptly hopped up and stopped what they were doing at the sound. They quickly hustled and gathered at their respective team’s assembly areas.

The veterans of Gan Province who were appointed as instructors blew the whistles around their necks. With the tempo of the whistles, everyone hastily returned to their original positions. Looking from the top of the platform, those on the training field that were initially like a lump of loose sand, but in the blink of an eye, the lump of sand started to coagulate rapidly…

“Look forward!”

“Look right!”

“Stand at ease!”

“Attention!”

“Number off…!”

“One.””Two.””Three.””Four.””Five.””Six.”…

The troops that gathered hastily were stomping their feet. The ground of the entire training field shook and produced sounds like a beating drum. Amidst the tremor, the gathered troops started to align their standing positions followed by the sound of them calling out their numbers…

Before they finished numbering off, Wang Jianbei who stood on the platform was already stunned because in less than two minutes, he saw an orderly, huge standard square-shaped formation presented right in front of him. It was simply like magic. The few barracks of soldiers in Pingxi Prefecture were definitely unable to gather in such an orderly square-shaped formation in such a short amount of time. Even if they were given two additional hours, they might not be able to line up in such an orderly square-shaped formation.