Heavenly Jewel Change

Zhou Weiqing smiled faintly and said: “That is fine, we will still stick to our old plan, guidance through profit. When they go through the registration, those who do so without any trouble, give them each a silver coin. We do not need to give too much, just a token silver coin will do. Those who cause trouble, beat them up; as long as they are not crippled or killed, that is fine. Once registration is finished, immediately split up all three thousand seven hundred of them.”

“We will split them up according to their cultivation level and power, equally distributing them to the ten Companies. At the same time, we will have to do some reorganization. Due to our unique qualities of our Peerless Battalion, we will add an additional establishment and rank. In the future, all ten of you original Company Leaders will now be Senior Company Leaders, each of you will have five Companies under you forming a sub-Battalion, each back down to the usual one hundred men. As for how you choose your Company Leaders, I do not have to teach you right. The same principle holds, might is right.”

“Each of your original one hundred and fifty men from your sub-Battalion, I want each of them to be mixed with and in charge of two to three of the new men. We do not need them to rush them into training or to actually lead them, but to first speak of them how our Peerless Battalion came to be and how we grew to such strength, as well as the rules, rewards and punishments of our Peerless Battalion.”

Mammoth asked curiously: “Boss, is there such a necessity?” Those of them from the original Ruffian Battalion all preferred to call Zhou Weiqing ‘Boss’. After all, a Boss was usually the one who gave out the pay right? Currently, all their waist pouches were at least filled.

Zhou Weiqing glanced at him and said: “Of course it is necessary. This is called ideological education, and it is extremely important to bring everyone on the same page. This must go on for at least ten days before we resume the original soldiers’ regular training. Let the new soldiers watch and see for themselves, they do not need to join the training yet. We will let this go on for another ten more days.”

Wei Feng took note of all that Zhou Weiqing had mentioned. History had already proven that Zhou Weiqing was usually right, and he had absolute confidence in him.

Zhou Weiqing continued: “Ten days after, we will hold a fighting competition for the entire Battalion. I want you all teach those new men a painful lesson in that competition. Vice Commander Wei, send someone to requisition a sum of pay and provisions from the Seventh Legion, to be used as the grand prize for this competition. Fei’er, you take notice and choose a few of those most exceptional amongst the new men, and give them Consolidating Equipment Scrolls. Also, choose a few who have Heavenly Energy and have good potential but have not Awakened their Personal Jewels, and help them Awaken it with the medicine. With all that, within a month I want all three thousand seven hundred new men to fully integrate into the Peerless Battalion. After the fighting competition, we can start bringing them along to the various trainings. Big bro Lin, as for our arms, weapons and armour, continue along with our original plan. However, in terms of Scrolls, ask Yun Li and Little Miss Muddle if it’s possible to increase the speed of production.”

Lin TianAo nodded and said: “We have been continuously producing and purchasing the required armours and Scrolls as per your previous requirements, and in this half a year, we have some accumulated. The only lack would be the Consolidated Wings, but as for the rest of the gear it will not be a problem. By the time the annual WanShou Empire armies attack, I estimate that all the new soldiers would have at least their Consolidated Bows and titanium mail. That, at the very least, will be no problem.”

Zhou Weiqing’s original estimate for the Peerless Battalion was about five thousand men, and as such, even after the original one thousand five hundred men had been fully equipped, they had continued production of equipment and Consolidating Equipment Scrolls in preparation for the future.

Shangguan Fei’er furrowed her brow and said: “The time might be too limited; with at most two months, and although we should have enough medicine, it might be difficult to help all of those who haven’t Awakened their Personal Jewels to do so.”

Zhou Weiqing nodded and said: “In that regard, we’ll just have to do our best. Vice Commander Wei, please assist Fei’er in that matter too. It just takes second level of Heavenly Energy and higher to help assist in the medicine to take effect. Choose a few men from our original crew to aid Fei’er after the fighting competition is over, and our target is to help everyone Awaken their Personal Jewels in the shortest possible time. At that point, you can inform the new members that they do not have sufficient merits earned, but we will advance this special treatment to them due to special circumstances, and they will have to pay back from their future pay and rewards.”

“Yes Sir!” Wei Feng agreed once more.

Zhou Weiqing smiled faintly and continued: “Besides that, everything else should be going according to our original plan. Training and equipment must be kept up to date to keep apace with all our progress. When the WanShou Empire armies attack, that will be the true test for our Peerless Battalion. Tell the brothers, losing more sweat in peacetime means losing less blood in wartime. I don’t want anyone dying on the battlefield, let them all know that if anyone dares to do so, all their money will go to our public funds. This time, after our fight with the main WanShou Empire armies, I will personally reward the top fifty soldiers with the best merits and contributions. Your Father, I, will bring them into the city to ‘eat chicken'”. “Eat chicken? Top fifty and you only reward them with a meal of chicken? Aren’t you being too stingy.” Shangguan Fei’er said with a dissatisfied tone.

The entire tent fell silent momentarily, as everyone had a strange look on their faces, with some of them struggling to hold back their laughter.

Zhou Weiqing glared at them with a swift, forceful glare. “No one is allowed to tell her what that means, at least not until I am gone. Anyway, I have already given out all the orders, everyone, let’s work hard to get through the next few months. Vice Commander, you, Master Hua Feng, Bro Lin and Fei’rer, you all can discuss to deal with any unforeseen problems that crop up. If nothing especially important crops up, do not disrupt my training. I will be going into training in an attempt to reach the Five-Jeweled stage within the next two months.”

After finishing those words, Zhou Weiqing did not sit around and wait for Shangguan Fei’er to react and flare up. With a quick Blink, he disappeared directly out of the tent, running to look for Long Shiya to train.

What kind of temper did Shangguan Fei’er have? With a quick lift of her hand, she grabbed the huge Mammoth who towered over her by more than half a metre, dragging him down closer to her as she said savagely: “What eat chicken, hurry up and tell me, otherwise… you know….”

Mammoth shuddered involuntarily and he quickly said: “Lady Boss, I’ll say, I’ll say alright.” His huge figure was about the same as Ma Qun’s, and with his current frightened look in front of this small lady, it looked extremely funny. However, no one around laughed at him.

Hua Feng smiled and walked out of the tent, while Wei Feng had to restrain his laughter as he followed behind outside. As for the other company Leaders, those fellows were definitely taking pleasure in Mammoth’s misfortune.

Shangguan Fei’er blushed deeply at him calling her ‘Lady Boss’, and she glared savagely at him once more, and he quickly bent down closer to her ear and whispered a few lines.

As soon as Shangguan Fei’er heard his words, her slightly flushed face turned as red as a ripe apple.

“ZHOU–WEI-QING, you bastard!”

A certain fellow who was running back to his tent felt a chill run down his spine, thinking to himself how lucky he was to have ran so quickly.

Alas, in the large tent, all the Company Leaders who had been watching in good humour were now in trouble… as their ‘Lady Boss’ Chief Instructor was extremely angry, and gave them all an ‘extra lesson’ without hesitation.

Of course, though they were beaten up by Shangguan Fei’er, none of these Company Leaders gave any complaints or grumbles. They had already truly accepted and respected Shangguan Fei’er for all she had done for them all.

In the Peerless Battalion, the one with the highest prestige and power was undoubtedly Zhou Weiqing, as it was exactly because of his arrival that had brought all these unbelievable changes to the Peerless Battalion, transforming them from a mere exiled Ruffian Battalion to the Peerless Battalion of today. It was Zhou Weiqing that had given them their power today, living a well fed and well clothed life, with hope for the future and strength to grow. This organization called the ‘Peerless Battalion’ had slowly been accepted by them all.

Besides Zhou Weiqing, the next in line for prestige was definitely Shangguan Fei’er. Even Wei Feng and the seven God Archers of the Heavenly Bow Unit were no match for her in this regard.

The entire Peerless Battalion’s close combat skills had been taught by Shangguan Fei’er, and their acceptance of her was not just because of her own personal power, but because of her teachings without reservations. In this half a year, under her tutelage, it could be said that every single Peerless Battalion soldier had experienced much pain and suffering under the tempering of her devil-like training. However, at the same time, their power had also grown significantly, almost as if their entire world had been turned upside down.

If not for the fact that what Zhou Weiqing had done was just too strong, perhaps her prestige would be far beyond even him.

After ‘taking care’ of all those fellows, Shangguan Fei’er went back to her own tent. Of course, she wasn’t really truly angry, and she needed to rush back to go through her own set of preparations in order to properly take care of what Zhou Weiqing had assigned her to do.

Having been at the Peerless Battalion for so long, Shangguan Fei’er had also experienced a totally new feeling, that of being swamped with work. The reason why she kept at it, persisting in doing all of this, even finding pleasure in doing so, it was not just simply because she wanted to help Zhou Weiqing.

Having been born from the Heaven’s Expanse Palace, Shangguan Fei’er had never felt that women were any lesser than men. However, she never had the opportunity to be given free rein to bring all she had into play, being protected as the Little Demon Girl of the Heaven’s Expanse Palace. She had always been a competitive person, and after coming to the Peerless Battalion, seeing with her own eyes and also through her own actions how this original Ruffian Battalion which had no sense of unity, just a mere heap of loose sand, had grown to such a state… it had truly given her a sense of satisfaction that she had not experience hitherto.

This was something that truly belonged to her, something that she had worked hard for and used her own efforts to flourish in. Although she was spending all her time together with a bunch of ruffians everyday, it was truly a unique experience that none of them treated her with that same caution and fear as in the Heaven’s Expanse Palace. Although they were also afraid of her, but it was one that was with true respect. More so, in private, these ruffians were more her friends than subordinates.

Such a feeling was truly very good. It could be said that even without Zhou Weiqing, Shangguan Fei’er was leading an extremely satisfactory life in the Peerless Battalion. As such, her hopes and expectations for the Peerless Battalion was no less than Zhou Weiqing; the amount of effort she had put in also no less, and she truly hoped that the Peerless Battalion would grow stronger and stronger, until they truly lived up to their name as being Peerless in the world.

After issuing the array of detailed commands to his subordinates, Zhou Weiqing resumed his role as a leader leaving everything to his subordinates. However, none of them would complain. Although it seemed on the surface that Zhou Weiqing did not do anything, it was exactly his big picture view, direction and plans, as well as his unique unconstrained style of thinking that had brought them so far; truly a respectable and outstanding leader indeed.

If the leader of an army always had to spend all his time troubling over everything, down to each and every minute detail, that could only prove that he was just mediocre. What was a leader’s true duty and responsibility? It was to lead, to find and seek out talents and all their various gifts, to develop them, to direct them, unite them together in a strong sense of camaraderie. In the most critical times, the leader had to be the spiritual pillar and foundation of the entire troop, and all this was the most important part of a leader’s duty. Without question, Zhou Weiqing excelled at all of the above. Although he did not personally do many things, with just all that, he had already brought up the Peerless Battalion to its current strength.

…

Finally reaching her tent, Shangguan Fei’er thought of Zhou Weiqing and couldn’t help but grit her teeth and scold inwardly:Hmph! Scoundrel!