Recruiting People

The has dinner together before they went to sleep as Zhao Yun woke up quite early and kissed his sleeping fiancee before leaving the room.

He put his armor on and went for the stable where the servant was awaiting him and he asks, "Mister Feng, how did you know I would be here this morning?"

"I served your family before you were born, young master. I know that you aren't good with goodbyes so you would either have left yesterday night or today early in the morning," says Feng knowing Zhao Yun since he was born.

"Your mother gives you her blessing and wishes for you and your father's a safe return," says Feng as he prepared some food for Zhao Yun to eat as breakfast while riding to the front.

"Thank you, Mister Feng. I will return in one piece," says Zhao Yun as he guided Thunder out of the stable while petting Huntress.

"Behave until we return. I don't want to hear that you went berserk that is Thunder's job," says Zhao Yun as Thunder agreed with his master while Huntress was still fearful of Thunder.

They left before the sun was up as Zhao Yun was wearing a hood to hide his face while Shadow was flying over them.

It took him two days to reach Guangzong finding his ten men running around the city. They seemed to have gained some stamina since he left because they seemed to not struggle like they did when he left for Luoyang.

"It seems you trained hard since I left," says Zhao Yun as Thunder stopped in front of the group.

"Commander!" shout the ten men as they stood firm.

"Relax, I have some good news for you," says Zhao Yun as he looked at Tang Shi.

"You will my second-in-command Tang Shi until my brother joins us. But every one of you will become a Squad Leader under me. You all will receive 50 men to lead," says Zhao Yun breaking the news to them.

"You mean-," says Tang Shi as Zhao Yun nods.

"That's right, I was promoted to a 500-man Commander. But let me meet my father, I have to tell him about something else," says Zhao Yun as he looked at them again and smiled before leaving to meet his father.

He leaves Thunder in the stable telling him to behave around the other horses as he left to meet his father. He arrived at what used to be the burnt down room that Zhang Jiao used.

He entered the room finding Zhao Xian looking at a map with some other commanders that were reporting about what was happening around Guangzong.

Zhao Xian sees Yun tells him to come forward. He joined the group as one commander reported that the North still wasn't calm while the south seemed to has already been reconquered by the Imperial Forces.

"What do you think would be the next move?" asks Xian everyone in the room already knowing what they will be ordered to do.

"We will be sent North to help them pacify the You Province and reclaim it," says a commander under Xian.

"That's right. We are only waiting for our orders since the Ji Province is calm once again but Rebels could appear out of nowhere again reclaiming Guangzong so they will only send a small force to the North and we are the nearest to them," says Zhao Xian as he moved some pieces placed in Guangzong toward the You Province.

"We will regroup with Colonel Zou Jing most likely to create a plan of attack to retake You Province since he is having trouble with it," says Zhao Xian informing everyone as he commands, "Prepare the troops to leave Guangzong at any moment. I want to leave Guangzong as fast as possible when the order arrives to move North."

"Yes, sir!" shout the commanders as they all leave.

"It seems you are back. How was the capital?" asks Zhao Xian already knowing why Yun didn't return earlier to the front.

"It was exciting to meet some important people," says Zhao Yun as Xian smiled.

"Good, it won't make you any good to antagonize important people. I heard the Emperor gifted you the post of a 500-man Commander and a horse. He must have not known that you have already Thunder," says Xian as Yun smiles.

"That seemed to be the case but the Mare called Huntress became quite a good gift for my fiancee," says Yun as Xian nods.

"Yes, indeed a horse can...," says Xian before he looked at his son and grabbed both shoulders while looking up to him he says, "You are kidding with me!"

"Not in the least. I'm late by two days because I had to ride to Zhending first. I left her at home before coming here. Mother fell unconscious when I told her about it," says Yun as his father smiled.

"It seems I will be able to see some grandchildren after all in this lifetime," says Xian happy that his son found a woman he wanted to marry.

"I was worried that you would never take a woman home to marry her because you only have training in your mind," says Xian as he hits his son's shoulder happily while taking a list out which he hands it over to Yun while saying, "You can choose 490 men from the relief forces. The others are already in another force. You will need to train them since they never trained before."

"I will only need 489. The last man can't join me yet," says Yun looking at the list.

There were many young men on the list with occasionally a bit older men in their twenties reaching their thirties. But Zhao Yun was looking first for people living in Zhending or around it since they needed to move towards Zhending if they joined his ranks.

He looked through the list when he found an unusual name that he thought wouldn't be in the relief force since he should have been in Donglai Commandery right about now.

"Is this person really in the Relief Force," says Zhao Yun pointing at a name on the list as Xian looked at the name.

"Yes, Taishi Ci was sent here from the southeastern commanderies to reinforce us here in Guangzong. They didn't join under the Imperial Banner since they were cut off from the Emperor because of the Rebels defending their commanderies until some weeks ago," says Xian explaining why Taishi Ci was right now in Guangzong.

"It seems he is too good for his own good. He puts his Lord over anything so it will hard to recruit him into your force," says Xian wanting Yun to give up on Taishi Ci.

"I will give it a try. If he doesn't join me then I will just leave him alone," says Yun as he leaves the office and looks for the men on the list he wanted in his ranks.

He recruited 200 men by now as he skipped the 40 men that left him before not wanting to have people that would abandon him just because the odds weren't in their favor when he reached Taishi Ci.

Taishi Ci seemed to be reading even now as Yun approached him when he says, "I'm not interested in anything. I just want to serve peacefully before joining Donglai Commandery again."

"You sure about that," says Yun as Taishi Ci looked up and saw Yun standing over him.

Taishi was already tall with his 1,8m when he saw Yun tower over him with his 2.1m he was surprised. He took a closer look at Yun seeing him wear a hood as he sat down across him.

"Are you some kind of spy?" asks Taishi Ci as Yun begins to chuckle.

"No, but I'm here to recruit you into my ranks. I heard you are loyal to your Lord and I will need loyal people between my men," says Yun as Taishi Ci looked disinterested in this topic.

"Like said before, not interested," says Taishi Ci as Yun smiled now and took Taishi Ci's book out of Taishi Ci's hand without resistance.

"How about this we have a little brawl. If I win you will join me if I lose you can return to reading this book," says Yun as Taishi Ci seemed pissed that Yun took his book away.

"You wanted this fight. Don't blame me if I hurt you afterwards," says Taishi Ci as he stood up.

Zhao Yun guides Taishi Ci to the training ground outside the city as his ten men were training right now there strengthening their bodies when they arrived.

"Commander!" shout the ten as Yun smiled at them.

"Look at how I will toy with our new comrade. I will be teaching you later on how to do that as well," says Yun as they nod while Yun gives the book to Tang Shi.

He then turns towards Taishi Ci and goes in position to fight. Taishi does the same as they looked at each other in their eyes before a giant fist stood in front of Taishi Ci with a bigger person behind it. Taishi Ci could only see Yun's eyes in the shadow of the giant.

"Let's finish this fast," says Yun as he rushed at Taishi Ci who tries to prepare for Yun's attack only to find out that Yun grabbed his arm and twisted it making Taishi fall to the ground before Yun grabs the back of Taishi's head while putting one knee on Taishi's back pinning him down to the ground.

"It seems your words were just hot air and nothing else. Now, will you give up or try to get out of this situation?" asks Yun as Taishi tried to fight back only to find out that Yun was an unmovable mountain on his back.

"Argh, I give up," says Taishi as he couldn't win against Yun.

"Good, I hope you will come here beginning tomorrow or I will drag you here," says Yun as Taishi was still inexperienced compared to him making it the best opportunity to recruit Taishi who still wasn't allied with any other warlord as he would normally after the incident with the letter were he had to escape Donglai Commandery.

"I will, can you release me now," says Taishi as Yun let go of him.

"Welcome to the Deathseekers, this will be your new home," says Zhao Yun as Taishi was confused since he never heard of them before when Yun continues, "I'm Zhao Yun, newly appointed Commander of the Deathseekers. I'm recruiting people and with you, I have now recruited 201 men. Tang Shi over there is the second-in-command so listen to him if he commands something or I will get angry, understood."

"Understood," says Taishi as he was sitting on the ground.

"Good," says Yun as he took the book back from Tang Shi and threw it to Taishi Ci while saying, "The Art of War by Sun Tzu is quite a good book but you still have much to learn from the book since you forgot his simplest rule."

"That would be?" asks Taishi Ci curiously.

"Overconfidence," answers Yun as he walked towards his men.

"You underestimated your enemy and overestimated yourself walking directly into his trap or better said my trap. Now I have a soldier that could become someone big like the other ten beside me. You will begin with the same training as them beginning tomorrow so be prepared there won't be a special treatment in my unit," says Yun as he then returned to recruit other men for his unit.