Archers, Drawn Cake

Murderers must die; those who injure others or steal must make restitution.

This Three-Article Law, seemingly the most basic, was actually very difficult to achieve. However, the effect it brought was extremely clear, as history has verified.

Sure enough, hearing Tran Mac's simple yet direct rules, this group of villagers all nodded in agreement, looking as if it should have always been this way.

That group of outsiders also secretly nodded.

"Good." Tran Mac's gaze shifted to that group of outsiders, saying, "If you can accept these rules of mine, you can register to enter the village and receive my protection. If you cannot accept, then go back where you came from."

Just as everyone was hesitating, the sky had brightened, and a sliver of light appeared on the horizon. In that instant, the red silk curtain-like horizon pulled back a corner, revealing one arched side of the sun, which then diligently rose higher, until its brilliance enveloped the entire Phuc Trach Village. A magical scene occurred.

Tran Mac was draped in a purple, cloud-like robe, and there was a purple halo behind his head.

Even those who had seen it once would instantly feel reverence.

Needless to say, those seeing it for the first time, some of the older ones, had already knelt down to pray.

"I can accept."

"I can also accept."

"Where do I register? I want to register."

These outsider villagers all chose to accept, willing to join this large family.

Vuong Binh and his three assistants, whose work was not yet finished, became busy again.

Tran Mac called Truong Ha over to help as well.

After tallying, this time, a total of nearly two hundred households had come.

Among them, there were one hundred and thirty-seven able-bodied young men.

A total of 566 people.

Han Vu was very lucky. To put it directly, Dai Han Village was much more united than Phuc Trach Village. Of those who had previously fled from the road to Phung Tien, apart from a portion who followed Han Tam into the mountains, most of the rest returned to their own villages.

Among them, several who returned to Dai Han Village told the Dai Han villagers what had happened on the road to Phung Tien. Thus, before the Thanh Dinh County government soldiers came to arrest people, the Dai Han villagers had already fled into the mountains, planning to return after the soldiers left.

Therefore, Han Vu's and their family members were not captured by the authorities, which was a blessing amidst misfortune.

Tran Mac's gaze shifted to the five sturdy men carrying longbows. He said, "Which village are you from, and what are your names?"

Those five sturdy men, hearing Tran Mac address them, their expressions immediately became apprehensive, thinking Tran Mac still wanted to punish them.

Looking at the purple qi surrounding Tran Mac, one of the sturdy men, his face filled with reverence, timidly said, "My name is Ho Cuong."

Then he pointed to the other four sturdy men and said in sequence, "This is Ho Thach, Ho Chi Dung, Ho Thiet, Ho Son. We are all from Thanh Dinh County... Ho Gia Thon."

"You carry bows; does that mean you all know how to hunt?" Tran Mac asked.

"Our generations have lived by... hunting."

"Good. Ho Cuong, right? Later, you five will go up the mountain with me. Let me see your skills," Tran Mac said.

As he understood it, archers were one oftec important military branches on the battlefield, and their treatment was usually higher than that of ordinary soldiers.

Similarly, to train a qualified archer, the cost was also much higher than training an ordinary soldier.

If these five men truly possessed this skill, Tran Mac would definitely nurture and heavily utilize them.

The truth was, he currently had too few capable people beside him.

...

After teaching Truong Ha the saber technique, the crowd's tasks were clearly assigned.

Han Vu led the fishing team to catch fish.

Truong Ha led the patrol team, responsible for patrolling and security work.

Han An Nuong also found Luu Thi, gathered several village women, and began a women's assembly.

The newly joined villagers began building houses in the village.

Tran Mac led Ho Cuong's group of five and over a hundred villagers in a vast procession straight up the mountain to find suitable terrain to build a mountain stockade.

After finding a suitable place, Tran Mac had these hundred-odd villagers build the stockade.

He then took Ho Cuong's group of five into the deep mountains to hunt, conveniently testing their skills.

Upon testing, Tran Mac discovered these five men truly had skill.

He drew a washbasin-sized target on a large tree and had the five men shoot from sixty paces away.

Ten arrows each, and everyone could hit at least four.

It seemed like a small number, but according to what Tran Dai had told him about archers in the army, at sixty paces with a bow of one shi and two dou strength, hitting three out of six arrows was qualified. If one could exceed eight arrows, that was a divine archer. (Translator's Note: "shi" and "dou" are ancient units of weight/capacity, indicating bow draw weight).

Furthermore, books also mentioned that those taking the Jinshi examination, if under forty years of age, had to undergo an archery test.

A target was set at sixty paces. To shoot a man-sized target at fifteen paces was compared to two shots, another twenty paces, then two zhang, with a rope stretched horizontally. Hitting three out of ten arrows, with the arrow passing the rope to the target, was considered a pass. (Translator's Note: "zhang" is a unit of length).

One pace here was equivalent to 1.5 meters.

Tran Mac had tried their bows; they were custom-made longbows, with a draw weight of at least one shi.

As hunters, hitting at least four out of ten arrows was already very formidable.

Among the five, the strongest was Ho Cuong. At sixty paces, he could hit six out of ten arrows. Within forty paces, he could hit seven out of ten.

Moreover, Ho Cuong was in his prime, only thirty-three years old, and worth cultivating.

However, Tran Mac was too poor at the moment and simply couldn't offer anything practical.

If not for these villagers being driven to desperation, only wanting to survive, Tran Mac, by not paying wages or providing rations, would find it impossible to command them to sell their hard labor.

Even if he used force, it wouldn't last long and would instead make them slack off and harbor resentment against him.

Therefore, Tran Mac decided to "draw a cake" for Ho Cuong and the others (make an attractive but possibly empty promise). He first called Ho Cuong aside alone and said, "Do you want to become a martial artist master?"

Ho Cuong was slightly startled. Who wouldn't want that?

But he didn't understand why Tran Mac was telling him this. Nevertheless, he still nodded.

"Very good." Tran Mac patted Ho Cuong's shoulder and said, "From now on, this stockade construction team on the mountain will be under your management. You will be the captain. If you perform well, I can teach you... immortal techniques."

Tran Mac had originally wanted to say "cultivation arts."

But he was now a reincarnated immortal master in the villagers' hearts, so saying "immortal techniques" obviously had more prestige.

Ho Cuong's eyes widened. Having eaten this "drawn cake," he said with some excitement, "Immortal Master Tran, I... I will definitely work hard and not disappoint you."

...

After assigning the tasks of building the stockade, patrolling, fishing, and spring plowing to others, the burden on Tran Mac's shoulders lightened considerably. But he didn't become idle because of this. He still had to survey the farmland and then distribute it to the villagers.

As for whether there was enough farmland, there was absolutely enough.

To be honest, these lands outside the city, even before the deeds were sold off, the fields owned by the villagers of several villages combined didn't even amount to one-tenth. Most of the land belonged to those gentry clans and martial artist masters in the city.

Tran Mac now occupied these villages, and naturally, he also occupied the farmlands of the gentry masters. He could completely distribute these lands of the gentry masters to the villagers.

Once these villagers' lives improved, those "deserters" who hadn't yet joined would naturally come to seek refuge.

And the remaining farmland was what Tran Mac had prepared for recruiting these remaining "deserters"...