First test of Li-Ban

He continued, "First, I will check you, if your soul is pure, your thoughts are bright, and you go by enlightenment. Then I will tell you a secret that will help you understand how to forge correctly"!

Li-Ban, what's the secret? which test? What are we waiting for?!

The blacksmith smiled, "how impatient you are! Come with me and you will know and see everything yourself!"

The blacksmith, led Li-Ban, in a secret passage through the cave, they turned right or left, climbed the rope ladders up, and went down into the underground abysses. They walked for a long time. Li-Ban, despite the fact that he was a general, began to run out of breath, he did not have enough air. His forehead was covered with cold sweat. Hands and body began to tremble. His eyes wandered, shadows began to appear to him, the objects which he saw were bifurcated. I wanted to drink incredibly. But he could not ask for water from the blacksmith. It was too humiliating for him! He is a military general, strategist! Good tactician! And here he will be less hardy than a simple civilian, albeit a highlander, albeit a blacksmith. His honor, as a representative of the great Tang Empire, meant more to him than his weakness. He tried to overcome the weakness of the body.

The fact was that Li-Ban was young, stupid, and the rank of general was given to him only because his bride was the daughter of a princess. And Li-Ban himself passed state exams, wrote an interesting treatise on strategy. But hell didn't knead the dust in the steppes, didn't swallow sand in the deserts, didn't walk dozens and hundreds, didn't eat only locusts and scorpions, since the supplies were stuck, somewhere in the thousands. He was an aristocrat, therefore, although he participated in battles, he was always covered by bodyguards. Although he slept in a tent, it was warm and the food was delicious. Senior officer. Yes, and on trips, he rode on a cart, then on horseback. I saw reality very little. And the strategy with tactics worked only on poorly armed mountain nomads.

His knowledge in Small-An would be ridiculous since the soldiers were trained in the BOSS empire, the weapons were stronger, the tactics tested in real battles, the strategy was different than that of the Tan empire. This, after 200 years, actually led to the fact that the Tang empire, possessing 10 times greater forces, lost to a small but very mobile unit, the Arab Caliphate.

But it will be in the future. In the meantime, Li-Ban did not understand that the test had already begun.

He was checked, not for endurance. not on strength, but on common sense, and the ability to give up pride. To be able to ask for this whole art. In Small-An, they said, for "demand - no fault!"

Two tests from a large list, Li-Ban has not yet passed. But these lists were not the main ones, but they determined how much information could be reported to him.

Alas, Li-Ban was not so smart in practice, the theory of books that he read, had to be able to apply in the real world.

Humility, patience, understanding that you are in another country, a different culture, you need to follow the traditions.

Much later, after 1200 years with a ponytail, the colonel of the British Empire decided to ignore the traditions of the Emirate Big Ahn, for which he lost his head. But first, he suffered a lot. Because of his stupidity, his friend, who first coined the term "Big Game" in 1813, also died. Poor Arthur Okonnoli!

Interestingly, Britain there also unleashed the execution of two of its officers. Before his death, the colonel was still injured. And his friend kept his cool, his prediction came true. Big An, like the whole kingdom of the CAO, turned out to be a colony for 200 years, a second empire. But this is a topic for another story (https://www.webnovel.com/book/13140161806891105/35451199717165406/Stories-about-merchants-or-cunning-merchant/Poor-Arthur-Conolly-1).

A blacksmith, therefore, decided to conceal part of the information, Li-Ban did not pass the side tests, but the chief still had to pass him!