Pang Tong

The next few weeks Yun spent his time plowing Diao Chan at night while he trained his men on the day. Huang Xu could finally join the training which made not only Yun happy but also Huang Zhong who believed that his son would never be able to do that.

Yun was sitting in his office inside his mansion while Snowflake was laying under his legs while Shadow was enjoying the sun, sitting on the window frame.

"It seems that everything is going as it should," says Yun as he looked at Shadow.

Soon Wei Ru could be heard outside the room and says, "Master Zhao, Master Tang has come to see you. He is waiting in the main hall."

"You can call him and me just by name, Wei Ru. It isn't like we are all strangers here," says Yun as he stood up from his seat and went to the main hall where Tang Shi was already waiting for him.

"Tang Shi, it is rare for you to visit me at this hour. What happened?" asks Yun as Tang Shi holds his fist and gave a slight bow when Yun noticed a young man behind Tang Shi.

"I am here because this person wants to join your troops," says Tang Shi as Yun looked confused at him.

"What is the problem? Is he too young?" asks Yun as Tang shi shakes his head.

"No, he isn't too young but he doesn't want to be a soldier but strategist," says Tang Shi which picked Yun's attention.

"Strategist you say," says Yun as Tang Shi nods.

"Yes, I don't know how I should progress with that since we are only recruiting soldiers at the moment," says Tang Shi which was true as Yun only needed soldiers at the moment.

Yun took a look at the young man that was still a teenager when he sees the birthmark stretching over his mouth until it covered the throat. Yun closed his eyes and began to think for a moment when a picture appeared in his mind.

'He is Pang Tong. He must be testing me if I would recruit him with such a horrendous birthmark on his face,' thinks Yun as he opened his eyes.

"You want to be my strategist?" asks Yun as Pang Tong was confused.

"Yes," says Pang Tong as Yun could hear his confusion.

"If that is so you will need to learn how my troops fight which means that you will be joining them in the morning training. That way you should become familiarized with the way we fight," says Yun as he turned around and began to walk towards his office.

"Wait don't you want to hear my name?" asks Pang Tong as Yun turns around.

"I will hear your name once survived a month in hell. By then I will know if you have the will and the strength to be my strategist," says Yun as Pang Tong felt cold shivers run down his spine from Yun's glare.

"Tang Shi, I want you to train him like any other soldier. If a strategist is on the frontline he needs to be able to defend himself," says Yun as he leaves for his office.

Once there he sees that Shadow is missing while Snowflake was still laying there. Yun knew that no mortal weapon can kill Shadow so he wasn't worried about her getting killed and a cage wouldn't be much of a problem for her talons that can pierce through steel easily.

"She must be hunting or watching the troops," says Yun as he continued going over his finances which he noticed have quite a dent in it.

"I think it is time for my troops to do some odd jobs around Zhending to strengthen their camaraderie," says Yun to himself as he petted Snowflake using his feet.

"At least the smiths have done a great job in creating the fifth batch of shields that I ordered from them," says Yun to himself while putting everything to the side when he looks out of the window and says, "Why does Peace feel like I am preparing to wage War."

Two days pass and Pang Tong was completely exhausted when he asks, "Doesn't the General join us?"

"He has joined us. You just haven't noticed him," says one of the recruits as he points towards Yun who was standing in front of a group of recruits that received their shields already.

"You hold your shield like this. You need to be able to guard yourself as well as the man on your left. We have time to adapt to the shields so take your time but remember that if one of you can't lift the shield like this," says Yun as he goes in position showing them how they must stand while saying, "Then you are a liability for the men beside you as well as for yourself."

The recruits followed his example and Yun corrected them if he needed to do so before he says, "We will stand like that for an hour. If someone drops his position you all will be punished to another hour of standing like that."

"Yes, sir!" shout the recruits making Yun nod as he was also standing holding his shield with them.

Yun concentrates on military discipline and on stamina. He can't have his men run out of strength just because they fought one battle. War is merciless you never know when someone is going to attack you and in the wars that they will be fighting in even a friend can turn into an enemy.

They stood for three hours in the scourging sun as Yun followed them in this practice. Pang Tong was surprised in seeing Yun join even the punishment instead of walking away.

"Why is he doing that?" asks Pang Tong himself when someone stood behind him.

"Because it shows how he feels for his troops. He wants them to survive every battle even if that isn't possible they will have a bigger chance now that he stood with them in the sun," says Huang Zhong who was behind Pang Tong.

"Motivation is a big factor and what will motivate a person more than training with his general who shows that he went through the same as they did to get to his position," says Huang Zhong as he was passing his hand through his beard seeing his liege train the troops.

"Shouldn't a General not be too attached to his men?" asks Pang Tong as Huang Zhong nods.

"I would have agreed with you if I hadn't heard from Tang Shi how they stick together to kill Zhang Jiao and Zhang Liang. Yun only took only the men that believed in him and infiltrated the city.

After everything was done his other men wanted to join him again but Yun sent them away because he couldn't trust them to stick to him if they were in another life-or-death situation.

That's why he is building rapport with his men so they know that he would be by their side when they charge into battle as he did in Zhuo where he was the spear tip," says Huang Zhong informing Pang Tong who was surprised to hear that.

"But doesn't he get exhausted?" asks Pang Tong as Huang Zhong lifts his shoulder.

"I have never seen him show exhaustion. Maybe he is but isn't showing it to maintain his image of who he is. He is after all a small Legend that drove everyone here. He needs to show those recruits that with hard training they can become just like him," says Huang Zhong as Yun walked over.

"It seems he hasn't given up yet, good," says Yun looking at Pang Tong.

"If he wants to be my strategist he must learn that stamina is the only thing that will keep you alive in this world. As long as you can outrun the enemy you can always win," says Yun looking at Pang Tong who was sitting on the ground.

"Outrun the enemy to win?" asks Pang Tong as Yun nods.

"What do you think happens when you show the enemy your back?" asks Yun knowing the answer.

"They will chase you most likely," says Pang Tong when he realizes something.

"You want to exhaust the enemy before striking back!" says Pang Tong as Yun nods.

"At least you are intelligent. Yes, once the enemy is exhausted you can easily defeat them. You can even make them run into a trap that you have set beforehand as we did in Zhuo," says Yun as Pang Tong was curious about what happened in Zhuo.

"You took the city under those circumstances?" asks Pang Tong as Yun looked at the sky.

"We baited the enemy out of the city by hiding our real number and once the enemy took the bait we waited until they were out of sight then we attacked the city while a cavalry unit flanked the enemy that took the bait," says Yun as he explained what happened.

"But it has a fatal flaw," says Pang Tong as Yun nods.

"Yes, my unit was new and not everyone could keep up even more so that I got another unit under me that didn't get training at all. I lost men in that battle but it was the only way to win," says Yun acknowledging the flaw of his troops not having the sufficient stamina to pull that off.

"But you still did that," says Pang Tong as he was seeing another facade of Yun.

"I did it because I could end a war faster. The death of those men brought peace to this Empire. I would do the same again if I had to and not regret it because those men believed in the cause they died for," says Yun as Huang Zhong smiled at Yun knowing now that his new master could be ruthless if he needs to be it.

"Anyway, I should leave everything else to you, Huang Zhong. The Madam must be waiting for me at the mansion," says Yun as Huang Zhong cups his hands and gave a slight bow.

"Of course, my lord," says Huang Zhong when Yun left the training ground followed by Dian Wei who was his bodyguard to return to the mansion.