Chapter 361: Training Methods

In the tent, Lu Bu said to Lu Lingqi in a deep voice: "Tell me in detail what happened that night."

After Lu Lingqi finished telling what happened that day, Lu Bu fell into deep thought.

To be exact, he was in a stagnation.

With his cognition and understanding, he cannot make a correct judgment on such a complicated matter in a short period of time.

No one knows a father better than his daughter. When Lu Lingqi saw Lu Bu's expression, which was exactly the same as when he was scolded by Yan, she knew that she could not count on him.

She was brought up by Lu Bu since she was a child, and she knew that her father was a skilled warrior, but extremely confused when it came to domestic affairs.

Ever since Lu Lingqi could remember, Lu Bu had always listened to Yan's advice on household affairs. Because Lu Bu had some self-knowledge and knew that he could not make decisions, he handed over all household affairs to Yan. However, Yan was not a girl from a wealthy family and her knowledge was limited. Her views on many things were also quite biased.

As Lu Lingqi grew up, she was forced to think on her own for many things. In terms of independence, she was much stronger than the average women from aristocratic families.

This problem of Lu Bu is not a big deal at home, but as a lord, it is very fatal.

This is manifested in the fact that he is easily deceived and easily bewitched, from killing Ding Yuan and Dong Zhuo to trusting his own generals.

Fortunately, in the past two years, Lu Bu had Chen Gong's assistance and did not make any major mistakes. But now that Chen Gong is under suspicion and is not around, Lu Bu is obviously at a loss.

Lu Lingqi asked in confusion: "Why didn't Father bring Mr. Gongtai with him?"

After Lu Bu explained a few words, Lu Lingqi finally understood that Chen Gong was also suspected of rebellion!

Her first reaction was that maybe someone had framed Chen Gong and made him lose Lu Bu's trust. Then Lu Bu would be at a loss as to what to do, and wouldn't that be exactly what the other person wanted?

But there was no evidence to support this speculation. Lu Lingqi was afraid that this would influence Lu Bu to make a wrong decision, so she remained silent.

Lu Bu's mind was also buzzing. There were too many suspects, including Hao Meng and Yang Chou who were openly causing trouble, Chen Gong who was suspicious, Gao Shun who posed a great threat, and countless others who had not been exposed. Who could he still trust?

He was panicking and had no idea what to do. He couldn't help but ask Lu Lingqi, "Do you think Hidden Tiger, no, Fierce Tiger, can be trusted?"

Lu Lingqi was speechless. Father, you ask me, who should I ask?

If I tell you that he knocked me down twice and his hands and feet were still not behaving properly, you would probably rush out right now and string him up with your Fang Tian Hua Ji, right?

When Lu Lingqi thought of this scene, she found it somewhat funny. She said helplessly, "Father, I don't know about this kind of thing."

After hearing this, Lu Bu asked again, "Is Qu Yi really dead?"

After hearing this, Lu Lingqi suddenly felt depressed and nodded slightly, "I watched Master die."

"In the end, I helped carry his body into the coffin, so it couldn't be faked."

After hearing this, Lu Bu felt upset. Qu Yi's reputation in the north was no less than his own, and he died in such a way, which made him sigh.

He said in a deep voice: "Speaking of which, I actually owe that fierce tiger a favor."

"You really didn't see that he had any ill intentions?"

Lu Lingqi thought for a moment and whispered, "At least from my daughter's perspective, he has no ill intentions."

Lu Bu was relieved at this point, and patted Lu Lingqi on the shoulder and said, "I understand. I'll meet Xiong Hu later, and we'll go back to Huaicheng together."

Lu Lingqi nodded, but she felt inexplicably lost.

Not long after, Zhang Liao returned to the tent and went to interrogate the Black Mountain Army prisoners.

When Yuan Xi was chasing Yang Chou, most of Yang Chou and Yang Feng's subordinates were killed, some fled into the Black Mountains, and the remaining few were captured and locked up by Yuan Xi. Yuan Xi had interrogated these people once and kept them for future interrogation by Lu Bu himself.

Zhang Liao was the first to reply, "Marquis Wen, I have just interrogated him."

"Yang Chou's subordinates confessed that the fire at the two gates in the city was indeed caused by Yang Chou."

When Lu Bu heard this, his face darkened and he asked, "Why did he betray me?"

Zhang Liao replied, "These people don't know either, but there is a Black Mountain soldier who is Yang Feng's bodyguard. Yang Chou and Yang Feng have met several times before, and it seems that they have a special relationship."

Lu Bu frowned and asked, "Yang Feng?"

Zhang Liao explained: "Yes, Yang Feng, the Black Mountain Captain, is the only female general in Black Mountain."

Lu Bu was furious when he heard this. "So, the Black Mountain Army was behind this?"

Zhang Liao hesitated and said, "Although he may not be the mastermind, he is closely related to it."

Lu Bu said angrily, "How dare you, Zhang Yan, bully me by saying that I dare not invade Black Mountain?"

"Gather the troops from Huaicheng for me. I want to attack Heishan and demand an explanation from Zhang Yan!"

Zhang Liao hesitated for a moment and said, "Marquis Wen, the situation in Huaicheng is unstable. If we raise an army now, I'm afraid..."

After hearing this, Lu Bu suppressed his anger and realized that he was no longer the same person as before.

Although he had many generals under his command, he had lost more than he won since he started to fight against Cao Cao. Now his subordinates were disunited and had experienced several rebellions, and Lu Bu's courage was weakening.

Seeing that Lü Bu was hesitant, Zhang Liao had no choice but to advise him: "Even if we raise an army, it would be best to communicate with the Youzhou army in advance. This fierce tiger of the Yuan family is very strategic. If we can get his help, we will get twice the result with half the effort."

Lu Bu's eyes flickered, "Oh? Wenyuan is not afraid that this fierce tiger will harm me?"

Zhang Liao was about to speak, but stopped talking. Seeing this, Lu Bu waved his hand and said, "Go ahead!"

Zhang Liao heard this and said, "I am a lowly general, so I don't know whether it is true or false."

"But Liao heard that although this fierce tiger has many clever strategies on the battlefield, he always leads the charge in every battle and personally goes to the front of the battle, which shows that he is responsible in doing things."

"Even though he has the power of Marquis Wen, he still traveled thousands of miles to see Marquis Wen, which shows his sincerity."

"If it were Liao, if they had any evil intentions, they would never dare to run to Marquis Wen and pretend to be so. They would have lost their composure and fled long ago."

After hearing this, Lu Bu couldn't help but laugh and said, "Does Wenyuan know that I still have some power?"

"Well, I'll go and listen to what this fierce tiger is up to!"

After hearing this, Zhang Liao secretly wiped his sweat. He actually didn't know whether the ferocious tiger was really okay.

He only knew that when he came, he saw that the soldiers under Xionghu were well-armored and well-mannered, and were no less capable than Gao Shun's trap camp.

If Lu Bu starts a fight, both sides will suffer heavy casualties, and it is still unknown who will win or lose.

The purpose of this visit is to bring back Lu Bu's daughter. Besides, Lu Bu has enough troubles, and it would be unwise to fight to the death at this time.

Lu Bu stood up and walked out, "Let's go and meet the fierce tiger!"

"Where's Gao Shun?"

Zhang Liao hesitated for a moment and said, "When I came here, I saw General Gao being held by a fierce tiger and talking to him."

After hearing this, Lu Bu paused and his face suddenly turned grim.

Outside Yuan Xi's tent, Gao Shun wanted to pull back his hand, but Yuan Xi held on to it and said, "I've heard that you have mastered the essence of military training, and your Xianzhen Camp is a world-famous elite force. I am a humble boy, but I want to ask you some questions."

Gao Shun was quite helpless, thinking that if Lu Bu saw this, he wouldn't know what he would think!

He said helplessly: "My lord, you are really too kind. Looking at your soldiers, they advance and retreat appropriately and follow strict rules. They are even better than Shunzhi's Xianzhen Camp."

Yuan Xi sighed, "General, you don't know how I know how to train soldiers. Brother Qu helped me train them. Now that he has unfortunately passed away, I am afraid that my soldiers will become worse and worse in the future."

After hearing this, Gao Shun sighed for Qu Yi, but at the same time he had to admit that Yuan Xi's words made sense.

Because the method of training troops is indeed in the hands of a small number of people.

The military training method mentioned here is not the military method that is circulated in the world, such as Sun Tzu's Art of War and Sun Bin's Art of War, but refers to the actual method of training troops, which is the secret that is mastered by the aristocratic families.

The widely circulated Sun Tzu's Art of War, including the Thirty-Six Stratagems, actually refers to the military and tactical thinking.

Even if you study this kind of stuff thoroughly and learn it by heart, it is just theoretical talk and does not mention how to train soldiers at all.

The story of Sun Wu training his troops gives us a real glimpse of this.

At that time, he took the military strategy he wrote to see King Helu of Wu. Helu did not trust him at first, so he asked him to train his concubine.

The concubines did not take the order seriously at first and did not obey it at all. In order to enforce the order, Sun Wu resolutely killed Helu's two favorite concubines, which shocked everyone.

This kind of practical example is not mentioned at all in the general discussion of Sun Tzu's Art of War on how to train soldiers, because these things were secrets kept secret by aristocratic families in the past.

Qu Yi trained the vanguard death squad, and Gao Shun trained the trap camp. These were all methods of training soldiers that the aristocratic families had developed over a long period of time using countless lives. These were methods that outsiders had no access to.

Throughout the dynasties, these methods were controlled by the gentry and military families and kept secret, and the relevant content could not be found in any military books.

It was not until the Ming Dynasty that Qi Jiguang wrote the Jixiao Xinshu that detailed military training methods were made public for the first time. Previous similar military training methods had all been lost for various reasons.

But in fact, something similar to Jixiao Xinshu also appeared in the late Han Dynasty and the Three Kingdoms period.

The Art of War, written in twenty-four chapters by Zhuge Liang, as well as the questionable General's Garden and Sixteen Strategies of Convenience.

Strictly speaking, Zhuge's military capabilities, especially in training troops, were underestimated.

Before Liu Bei entered Sichuan, the quality of local soldiers was very poor. Not only did they often rebel, but they were also deeply influenced by the Tianshi Dao and often collapsed in battle.

After Zhuge Liang took over the military training, he was able to train these soldiers into a strong army that could "come and go in and out like guests" in enemy territory, fight under strict discipline, and march without disturbing civilians. In the process of many expeditions against Cao Wei, the Shu soldiers fought better and better. The Shu soldiers were able to suppress the Wei army, which was mainly composed of cavalry, so that they dared not confront the enemy head-on. No one has been able to do this since his death.

Sima Yi was invincible before, but he could not defeat Zhuge Liang. Wang Shuang and Zhang He, who dared to fight against Zhuge Liang, were all defeated and killed. After the demise of Shu, Wei was extremely wary of Zhuge Liang's military training methods after obtaining them, and hid all the practical training methods. Most of Zhuge Liang's works were lost.

The same is true of Cao Cao's Meng De Xin Shu. The Book of Wei records that he wrote a military book of 100,000 words with extremely detailed content. If the generals obeyed his orders, they would win, but if they violated them, they would be defeated.

This kind of specific practical method would obviously be extremely detrimental to the rule if it were obtained by someone with rebellious intentions, so the book was eventually banned by the Sima family.

This was why Yuan Xi shamelessly went to please Gao Shun. He had just learned from Ju Shou that Gao Shun's military power had been taken away. He thought that Lu Bu did not value talents at all, and he would be betraying his conscience if he did not poach him at this time.