Chapter 37:

Chapter 37

~~~~Tai Su~~~~

Feng Shan's camp was packed with people.

It would normally not be a noteworthy thing, of course camps would have people in them, but he fact that this was a camp in the first place was surprising.

There were somewhere between one hundred to one hundred and fifty Aspirants taking this Trial. Now there's somewhere between thirty and forty of us in his camp now, a solid one fourth to one fifth of the original people trying to take this Trial.

A quarter of the Aspirants and probably the majority of those that will pass this Trial this year now have a positive opinion of Feng Shan and his leadership abilities, and if most of those people were worth anything in a fight for now I would genuinely be impressed by it.

As it is, his group is more of a threat to itself than to me. Or anyone else.

"So you're saying the cherries are nearby?" I asked as I was looking down on the ground.

In front of me was the grand total of their armory, an eclectic bunch of wood axes, cooking knives ranging from small butter ones to a giant thing that's probably used to cut pigs and an honest to the ancestors pair of brass knuckles. I think they're even made out of brass too.

There is however a distinct lack of ranged weapons, something that's thankfully easily corrected, spears too for that matter, but thankfully Ya Xue is here with me to hopefully fix that.

"I'm not sure if they're nearby, but some of them shouted something about 'keeping the unworthy out of the shade' or something to that effect, and I assumed they meant that they'll bother us or keep tabs on us. Huang wanted to bring your wife back with him to make sure she and her group are safe for that reason." Feng Shan answered.

"He could have picked his words better when he made the invitation." I replied softly.

Ya Xue continued looking through the knives for something that she could easily use to cut through wood. She comes from a woodworker family, and unfortunately her kit was made for her by one of her aunts and said aunt did not put one of her knives in it.

Huang and I still need to talk, but the man's leader has done his job to mollify me slightly on my opinion of him. Huang apparently has a talent of digging his own grave with his tongue when he does not mean to and apparently he only wanted Bao and her group to be safe and not run afoul of the cherries and only accidentally made it look like he was threatening them.

Apparently and accidentally are doing a lot of work there, but hearing some of the past incidents did make it more believable.

"Any knife that would be fit for purpose Ya Xue?" I asked.

"Some of them could work, I just want one that isn't too uncomfortable to use, the last thing I want to do is leave splinters or uneven parts in the shafts." She said as she perused the frankly strange collection of knives.

She eventually settled on a small knife as wide as two fingers and as long as my pinkie and came back to show it to us.

"Couldn't we just use axes to cut wood branches?" Feng Shan asked and Ya Xue scoffed.

I was wondering that myself, but the answer was quite simple once I thought about it for a bit.

"You could just do that, but good luck finding a stick with the right shape, this knife will help me remove the imperfections in the spear shaft. Finding a good stick to serve as a spear is hard enough, finding one you can use comfortably even harder, so I need a good knife to make the sticks useful, have Mei Lin's brothers returned with them?" She replied.

"They've found some sticks that could be used for it, Da Xue is looking over them, he's near Yu Zong." I answered and pointed towards the man.

Each of us have decided to help the camp in some way. The Lins went with the civilians to gather sticks and branches that could be turned into spear shafts, Yu Zong and Bao were copying the map and our knowledge of the forest on paper and once they would be done, Bao will be making slings, and Yu Zong will be looking over the wounded to make sure everything is fine. Da Xiu is looking over the wood they found so far and selecting which will be turned into spears and which will be turned into throwing spears and Ya Xue would be making the spear shafts and a few other things.

"I'll go over to him then." She replied and did just that.

"Take care." I said and she was gone.

Now it was only me and Feng Shan again and he was looking awkwardly at me.

"Come, we need to disassemble the knives to turn into spear tips." I instructed and settled near the knifes.

Now, how do I disassemble these things? The metal part was glued to the handle more often than not, but hopefully the glue is not that good and a little finagling with a knife can separate the metal.

Feng Shan settled near me and started to copy me, or at least tried to. I didn't know what I was doing as I've never disassembled knives before, but hopefully I was lucky.

This turned out to be disturbingly easy, the knife basically fell apart with ease.

Feng Shan asked something but I wasn't paying attention.

"Did you say something?" I asked.

I was busy turning knives into pieces of wood and metal which was more entertaining than I thought, a few cuts, a bit of leverage and poorly made things just fell apart.

It was… captivating.

"Why are you helping us this much?" He asked again.

"Fuck the cherries." I replied and gave the only answer that mattered.

That caused him to stop and think and I continued dismantling knives. I never imagined I would find something that is actually fun to do, but I was to my fifth knife now while Feng Shan had just finished his first one.

"Why? Both you and them and bannermen." He asked.

My good mood was now gone and it died with a sigh.

"Do you know what is the difference between rules and regulations?" I asked.

"One is written and the other isn't?"

I shook my head, it was technically speaking correct, but it wasn't right as it missed the implications of it.

In my hand another knife came apart, the wooden parts put to the side to be used as fire wood and the metal put neatly one on top of the other.

"Regulations come from above, they are things imposed on you, rules on the other hand are things that those they apply to agree to be bound by. By Law or Regulation, the Banners are a part of the Prefecture's administration and outside of the times when the Prefecture is under attack the Banners are to listen to the Magistrate of the Orange Prefecture. By her decree no separation of the Banner's regional duties was made and we are to equally look over the various areas, but in practice the North belongs to the cherries and the south to the lemons and the Magistrate is a saggy assed half-wit that got her position decades ago because she was good at using her mouth for things other than speaking and nobody of actual power listens to what she's saying and the Banners do their own thing." I explained.

"What does that have to do with you helping us?" He asked.

I could see him trying to hold down a laugh when I described the Magistrate, well more like mimicked the description Lord Xi gave of the woman. The fact that Feng Shan did not see fit to even try to defend her, told me that Lord Xi's description wasn't inaccurate.

Lord Xi is respected by townsfolk and the people of the surrounding villages somewhat. He does try to do good and when disaster struck us he immediately went out of his way to burn what few favors he still had back in the capital to help us and bring down supplies and hire workers to reconnect villages and bring medicine. Everyone knew he did not like to be here and we did not like him for that either, but we could respect the fact that when he had a choice to make, he chose to help us.

However, even before that when people would criticize him, even the ones that did not like him much would mount some feeble defenses such as 'He's not that bad' or 'Could be worse'.

None did so for the Magistrate.

"Regulations are what the Empress expects of you, rules are what your peers expect of you and the Cherries fail to live up to either. The rules of the banners dictate that the bannermen protect each other, first those of your own banner, then those of the other banners, but we do look out over one another when put into danger. It's why I took Ya Xue in, sure she was a cherry, but she was a bannerwoman, there was no reason not to offer her to come with us. The other cherries took that to mean treason and tried to kill us and her and I decided that if they don't agree to act by the rules, then neither will I." I clarified.

I am arming the civilians partially out of benevolence, and partially out of spite. From what Feng Shan told me, the cherries harass them somewhat and have been close by for a few days. That's why they travel in large groups too and why they wanted to get any independents and small groups back to camp.

Giving them weapons means that the refugees can keep them honest, and the thought of cherries that thought to attack me and mine being scared to approach civilians or losing to them makes me feel all warm inside.

Breaking the rules means that you are no longer protected by them, which means that they are no longer bannermen as far as I am concerned. This means that I can and will find the most effective way to mess with them if given the chance, and this group represents the best chance I got.

"I see, are all bannermen as spiteful? I thought the cherries were a special case." He asked.

He was at the fourth knife now, while I was halfway through all of the knives.

"Yes." I replied with a smirk.

The Empress demands it, after all, we are to leave no slight left unanswered and nobody said that only applies to spiders. All things must be done in order, first one must turn knives into pointy metal spikes for spears, then make the lives of the cherries miserable.

'I wish this world had duct tape, we could have just used that to glue the knives to the branches, but I suppose not having them meant I managed to find something fun to do.'

Now I can only imagine what the morons will think once they see the same civilians they were too scared to fully commit to attacking hunting them with improvised spears. They have no armor and I doubt they figured out how to make shields, so their steel weapons are far less of an advantage now.

It almost makes me wish to see it. Unfortunately my duty is to my family and friends not to my desire to laugh at the misery of those without virtue.

~~~~Bao Xiaoli~~~~

I will dream of this map in the future, I know this because I have made ten copies of it now and I've dreamed of it before when I have only made three copies. It's not even a good copy, with it being my first map, but it is nonetheless something I am proud of.

Despite the fact that my hand hurts, despite the fact that I am annoyed at the fact I keep having to redo this piece of paper I did in a rush weeks ago, I can't bring myself to hate. It is my work, it helped our group, it made me feel useful and valued, and most importantly?

It will make the sons and daughters of the cherry banner miserable… somehow… I'll have to ask Tai how once we leave. It would not do to be seen as questioning him in front of strangers.

Better to handle this sort of thing in private, or I could just ask someone else that seems to have figured it out, like the woman in front of me.

"So we are here?" The woman tasked with being my minder asked.

Ya Ming was a subdued woman with little in the way of things that would make her stand out physically. Not unless you count the ability to make herself so unremarkable your mind proceeds to ignore her existence. She had managed to slip in and out of my presence while I worked and the only times I noticed was when her replacement made herself seen and felt, where her superior wouldn't have.

The woman was assigned by Feng Shan to make sure nobody bothers me while I make them copies of the map. I am not exactly sure why the copies would be useful to them as we are close to the sect now, but both Tai and Feng Shan were excited to have the maps on hand for some reason.

I would rather be making slings, those I know can harm the cherries, but Tai asked me to prioritize the maps.

"Yes, are the ropes and leather pieces I asked for ready?" I replied.

It took me hours to make these copies, it was noon now by all accounts. What is it taking them so long?

"Lee Kai will bring them once he gathered them all." She answered.

"What's taking so long?" I asked.

The other woman shrugged.

"Knowing Lee Kai, he's separating each rope by length and diameter and doing the same to every piece of leather we have to present them to you and know what you can use and what you can't. Also we need to check and convince people to give up their supplies, because there's people that don't want to do so or want something in return." She answered.

I took a deep breath to calm down, why do these idiots not just work together properly? I also started massaging my forehead to help calm down.

I hate large groups, they are always dirty, disorganized and always smell bad.

There were more people in the first day of the Trial than there were people back home and it was a pain to get them to do anything, but that was when you wanted to agree on little things. When there was an emergency the Su's or the Village Head could get people to shut up and do what needed to be done.

Large groups are loud, they don't work together and when you're in them you can't do anything because everyone else wants to do something else. The town was the same, too large to noisy and when lord Xi wasn't screaming at people to act they were lazy and weren't doing anything and this group was no different, no they were in fact worse.

They have the chance to take revenge on their enemies, they are being given weapons and once they had them some limited training to learn to use them and instead of seizing the opportunity they were given they decided to not give us the materials we wanted.

They couldn't even give us paper, I had to use mine, which I thankfully had plenty but the point stands.

"Why are you so interested in the map?" I asked Ya Ming.

She was entranced and looking at the first map I made for them, tracing her hand across the elevations and forests near the sect.

"We've spent a long time trying to figure out where we were, where to go and trying to figure out a direction. With this we can figure out where the sect even is and where the cherries are likely to stay at." She answered excitedly.

I pursed my lips. How does the map help them like that? It shows some points of interest yes and the location of the sect is useful but it does not tell them where to find the cherries.

"You do realize they don't have this map right? We were the only ones to go and make a copy in the Outpost." I asked.

It was eating at me, how and why they needed the map.

Her eyes widened, than she looked apologetically at me.

"Ah, sorry I guess we forgot to tell you, but we plan on hunting the cherries down, this is the only reason everyone is even here now that they know roughly where the sect is and we no longer need to move in blind. Feng Shan promised us that if we work together we will be safe and the cherry bannermen will pay for anything they try to do to us, and we've decided that it means we get to hunt the bastards down now that we have weapons." She answered.

Breathe in Bao. Breathe out.

Breath in.

Breath out.

'I am calm, I peaceful, I am a graceful woman, not some mad killer. Smile and speak softly Bao, we need to make a good impression.'

Feng Shan explained after he and Tai had their first meeting what we were offering, slings from any rope and leather they had, Ya Xue's wood carving talents to help them turn branches into spears, some lessons into how to use them and more. Now, instead of them deciding to work together on their shared goal they squabble.

"Why are you squabbling then and not pooling your resources together faster?" I asked in as collected a manner as I could.

My attempts at remaining calm did not seem to work if the way her face started to worry were anything to go by, but I was already in a foul mood from yesterday and the more time I spent with these people the worse it got.

Back home people do what they need to do, and even when they don't want to, they only make a scene after the work is done.

"The others are arguing on who gets the weapons, Huang and Sun are trying to negotiate with people to get the supplies and who gets what last I checked on them. Some are arguing to get a weapon themselves, others which have contributed more supplies are trying to get weapons for their friends and it's a nightmare to sort through, which is why I am happy to not bother."

I hate large group of people, they squabble for the most inane of reasons.

The answer to who should get the weapons should be whoever their leader decides can use them the best, not whoever can coerce the group into letting those that provide the resource into allowing.

They're not even guaranteed to win this fight they decided to settle on, the cherries are still trained warriors. It's not even an important fight either, the sect will most likely punish them for their behavior too and I doubt it will be anything lenient.

They could have just pushed towards the sect and the result would see them victorious and their enemies vanquished. I can respect their desire for revenge at being mistreated, but the idiots aren't even capable of organizing themselves into taking revenge and their leader must be some miracle worker to have kept them alive this long when none of them seem to know how living works.

The more chefs cook a meal the worse it gets, this is common sense and idiots with too many opinions and not enough wisdom should have some beaten into them before their stupidity sees them and those around them killed.

"They should first get the weapons then squabble over who gets them." I remarked.

The other woman shrugged.

"Probably, but I can't exactly blame them when they squabble for the chance to be able to fight, unlike some of the nobles in other provinces, there some nobles try to use their resources to avoid having to send their children to war, while here everyone seems to fight for the chance to do so." She replied plainly

I scowled, that was even worse. Being stupid is one thing, being a coward another.

"Both are stupid, but at least your unit are brave."

"Unit?" She asked confused.

I gave her an impish smile, it's always fun to think of it, but it was only Tai that noticed it as everyone else would have missed it, but sects are part of the army and we are technically soldiers now.

"Unless you have a better name for it, that is what your group is. Feng Shan is your leader, you are part of his officers and the others are soldiers. Sects are military units and we're performing a military mission as part of our admission process into it. It's why we received supplies from the sect, we requisitioned some and received what our superiors deemed enough for it." I explained.

"That… that I suppose makes sense, I wish we knew of it a few weeks ago." She mumbled and started gazing in the distance.

She was probably thinking of what she could have done with more supplies and food on her, I know I would have done the same if I was in her position.

I suppose Feng Shan did not have the time to explain things to them, and I am sure Tai explained it to him when they spoke among themselves. The two of them have been trying to look over things plan whatever it is that they are planning and do their work and now I need to continue doing mine.

"Show me to your quartermaster, I'll look over what he managed to get and see what I can turn into slings." I demanded as I rose up from the ground.

Tai Su said that we'll be leaving tomorrow morning, I have no time to waste waiting for Feng Shan's unit to get moving, I have work to do and hopefully the fools won't waste my efforts.