The start of a great journey

KouRyu PoV

I lowered my bow with a tired smile as the Qin soldiers cheered with an earth shaking roar. The Wei soldiers were in a state of shock as Sima Yi died. Without any commanders, they could only run for their lives.

I sent the order to not pursue the remaining soldiers as there's no need for further bloodshed. Zhao Yun and Zhang Liao came rushing to me and checked to see if I was injured.

Apart from a few cuts, I was mostly unharmed. It was rather easy with my current strength and healing factors."

*Flashback

Kyugen with about 15,000 troops stopped my advance as He yelled," you have come far enough Qin barbarian. This is where you die."

I didn't reply and took a deep breath. Then I spoke to my soldiers," Everyone, follow my back. If you feel you can't fight anymore, just follow as I clear a path. As long as you see me fighting, never stop until you see all enemies perished!"

My soldiers followed me with a loud cheer as I charged straight ahead, cutting through hundreds of Wei soldiers. I lost count how many I have killed, but I managed to stop when I came to face the horrified Kyugen.

I looked around to surprisingly see all my soldiers were going on a bloody rampage. Its true that I only gathered the most well built and experienced looking soldiers on the first day, they are truly an elite army. If that idiot Gang Jin actually managed to use them, he might have survived.

I smiled as I rushed at the petrified Kyugen and managed to send him flying. Doing so, put me face to face with Sima Yi who was shocked to see his vassal being killed without effort. His guards came in front of him to buy him time to escape.

They actually put up a good fight. Took me some time to get rid of them as I noticed Sima Yi managed escape and went towards Wan castle. He is probably gonna go by the side towards Rongyang. I immediately started heading towards the nearby hill to get a clear shot.

The only skill I never needed to practice much due to training it in my past life was archery. I nocked an arrow to Heartseeker as I focused on my target. The distance was quite far, about 250 yards.

Sima Yi looked at me with surprise as our eyes met and I smiled and released the arrow.

*Present time

I asked Zhao Yun and Zhang Liao about our casualties. They both lost around 200 soldiers and only 1,200 remained of the 2,000 I had. In return, Wei has lost almost 50,000 troops, almost 80% by my army alone.

Suddenly I came face to face with General ChouTou himself. He looked pissed as he stared me down. I put on a lazy smile and spoke," Hello Supreme commander, congratulations on winning the battle. "

He glared at me for a few seconds and I kept smiling. His expression shifted as he smirked and replied," By how things went down, you should be called that. If you didn't take command and played those tricks, we would have lost completely.

Not to mention, aside from capturing and defending the castle, you slayed both Sima Yi and Kyugen by yourself. Your prowess in battle is commendable. "

He stepped forward and surprisingly ruffled my hair with a smile and spoke," you have talent boy. I believe someday you will represent Qin against all the nations and everyone will marvel at Qin's talent.

But the road isn't easy, and you will face many challenges. Sometimes you will be faced with mountains of obstacles that may seem impossible to overcome. But Never lose that light you have in your eyes. I'll be watching your journey." He left after saying that.

That grumpy old man is actually a softie huh? good to know. I heard snicker and I looked behind to see Zhao Yun whistling and Zhang Liao looking to the side, probably the culprit.

I grinned and spoke," Maybe I should tell that Nezuko girl about you fell from your and fell headfirst into some horse shit, how does that sound Wenyuan kun?"

Zhang Liao immediately put on a respectful demeanour and spoke," I believe the lord is magnanimous and graceful enough to overlook and forgive small petty matters."

I and Zhao Yun both laughed at his fake flattery as we prepared to return. Our destination is the capital Kanyou(Xiangyang).

Kanyou (Xiangyang), capital of Qin

Ryofui was in a weird mood. The kid delivered on his promise but overdid it. He thought they would lose crushingly when they heard Wei actually sent Sima Yi with 80,000 troops.

But to their shock KouRyu not only rallied the survivors of left flank, he went on to do a night raid to both gather armours from Wei camp, they killed just enough so the enemy focused on defense only to fall for his scheme. Then he took the castle without losing a single soldier and dealt with remaining soldiers and civilians.

Then he defended the castle with only 3,000 troops against Sima Yi's 78,000 soldiers who attacked from 3 sides. But even here he overturned the odds and dealt with the other forces without moving his own and even planned a death trap for Sima Yi.

He slew Kyugen, a vassal of Sima Yi and his troops. He then cut down a path to pursue the running Sima Yi and managed to take him down with an arrow from over 250 yards. They killed and captured almost 40,000 troops by themselves.

This superhuman achievement is enough to promote someone directly to general considering the situation he was under. He wanted the boy to succeed as their cooperation was quite profitable. It's just he could have been of use to Ryofui if he was under him.

If he was his 5th pillar, he can easily take over Qin. But alas, the boy had his own plans. He specifically made an agreement that he would stay out of politics once he retires after 5 years and rule his territory.

It would be a loss but he won't force the lad as he has seen what the boy is capable of. Rather, he would ask the king to reward him properly and be generous.

Wei Capital, Dalyang

King Oukotsu of Wei shaking with rage and the whole court was in a somber mood. Reiou had a sad smile as he reminisced about the young boy he took under him few years ago.

The King yelled loudly," Who is that KouRyu? I never even heard Qin had such a talent! Without Sima Yi, Wei has lost its shield and therefore cannot focus on offence anymore. We are pulling back our troops." the declaration was met with approval and Reiou looked for a moment with narrow eyes but then sighed and left.

Chu Capital, Shouchun

The Chu King asked his most trusted general," Kou En, do you believe that boy is truly capable enough or it was a fluke?

Kou En, The Tiger of Chu, replied," it was no fluke, your Highness. Everything was planned by him ever since or before the first day. That kind of reading of the battlefield is truly frightening.

His marital prowess is already enough to be a General of Chu and he is only 15 years. This boy can be really troublesome if we let him grow up."

The Chu King ordered," increase the amount of standing army by 10,000 for every 100,000 soldiers."

KouEn bowed and left. The King then turned to a young man standing nearby with a zither in his hands and asked," What do you think we should do, Zhou Yu?"

The youth put the zither down and replied, " we need to develop and increase our military along with 10 more generals at least. We must unite all of Chu and start developing our infrastructure that has made our nation weak."

The king nodded and spoke," Tell Bofu to start gathering troops then."

Kanyou, Qin Capital (KouRyu PoV)

The ceremony was pretty nice. We received a hero's welcome and I remembered to pay all the dead soldiers family and took their names to build a pillar of Heroes in my territory where every soldier who fought under me will be remembered and praised. This alone drove everyone to sign up for my army.

At the ceremony, the king personally praised me and wished me good luck on my next campaigns. I received a first class reward of exemplary achievement along with a bonus reward of extra promotion. I directly jumped to 4,000 man commander while Zhao Yun and Zhang Liao got promoted to 2,000 man commanders. I also got extra territories in Hanzhong and Wudu with some iron and oil mines.

Now I can be called self sufficient to defend against any threats and rich resource wise. I also reassured Ryofui that our previous agreement will be followed which placated him.

Zhao Capital, Kantan

Ren Pa laughed heartily and spoke, "it seems one more of us was born. Another great general of the heavens huh? How amusing the times are."

The Zhao king looked at him helplessly and asked one of the newest additions to his court," What do you make of this, General Riboku?"

A handsome man of about 20 years old came forward and spoke, " I believe we should be very cautious about that person."

KouRyu PoV

With permission to command 8,000 troops I went all out to equip and train them. Zhang Liao and Zhao Yun both commanded 2,000 cavalry. My 4,000 unit was made of 1,000 formation breaker, 1,000 archers and 1,000 heavy infantry along with 500 light cavalry and 500 heavy cavalry.

This was a good fighting force and all of them were trained well. With them, my battles will be much easier. Most of the battles in this era was about holding the infantry down while the cavalry flanks them or archers shoot them to cause disarray.

My business was running well and the castle and the town was well taken care of. I decided a make a school for strategies and management in future as this will give me loyal and well trained people. Zhuge Liang was a bit miffed after we returned as heroes while he did paperwork. I promised next time I'll take him with me.

My days were busy but it was fun. People actually loved me because I had modern standards of ruling which was more than they ever thought of. Their lives were bad before I came and now they can live comfortably. Their devotion could be more frantic compared to Rigan's devotion to Kisui.

But among them, I felt someone was watching me and it was unsettling. After a few days, I found out my stalker actually a woman whose face was covered with a white scarf. She had these weird pattern on her clothes which made me remember that there was an assassin's clan located in Zhao called the "Chi Yu".

I wonder whose toe did I step on to have an assassin following me. I hope she doesn't try to kill me when I sleep. Aside from that, everything was going nicely.

We have now almost 200,000 people in the city and a guard unit of 30,000. If I wanted, I could muster a total of 80,000 troops. But I'm gonna train my army secretly and keep them as a hidden trump card to be used later. I also don't want to be overly militaristic and ruin the economy. I have to maintain a balance between army and civilians.