“He is never serious,” Qing Muluan said, rolling her eyes. “It is better now. Tang Xiaobei is not here. You have no idea how shameless he and Tang Xiaobei were together back at Xihe Bay.”
“I think Miss Xiaobei is quite nice,” the Ninth Princess said.
“That is because you are a princess and not yet familiar with her. Once you get to know her, you will realise that Tang Xiaobei is a little demoness. To tease Xiaorou, she nearly got me into trouble too!”
Qing Muluan looked as if she had suffered greatly.
“In that case, this palace finds it rather interesting,” the Ninth Princess asked. “How did she get you into trouble?”
“It was just…”
Qing Muluan stopped suddenly at that point.
Jin Feng, however, burst into loud laughter.
Guan Xiaorou had always been quite conservative. To tease her, Tang Xiaobei once, during a meal after Xiao’e had eaten her fill and left, with only the three of them at the table, secretly added a bit of an aphrodisiac to the soup.
As it happened, Qing Muluan returned late from training and came to scrounge a meal. She saw Tang Xiaobei place a bowl of soup on the table, asked nothing, picked it up, and drank.
Fortunately, Jin Feng reacted quickly and snatched the bowl away. She had only taken one sip.
Even so, she felt parched and restless all evening.
“Eww, why did you stop?” the Ninth Princess asked curiously. “What exactly did she do to tease her?”
“Let us talk about serious matters first!” Qing Muluan recalled her state at the time and blushed with embarrassment.
Jin Feng had intended to tease her a little, but seeing the murderous look in her eyes, he quickly became serious. “Let us discuss the morale of the escorts instead.”
The Ninth Princess decided to ask Qing Muluan about it later that evening and also composed her smile.
“In truth, where is there any personal charisma? It is simply that I am willing to spend money.”
Jin Feng said, “If you want soldiers to fight for you, yet you do not even feed them properly, deduct most of their pay, and offer no compensation if they die in battle, who would be willing to risk their lives for you?”
“Sir makes a valid point. All the escorts know that merit brings rewards, and if they die in battle, their families will receive compensation. Naturally, they maintain strict discipline and charge forward fearlessly, oblivious to death.”
Qing Muluan agreed. “Whereas other spoiled young nobles only know how to drive their troops forward with supervision teams. Once the situation turns bad, they flee first themselves. Morale naturally suffers.”
Upon hearing this, the Ninth Princess could not help but sigh.
She was naturally aware of the issues Jin Feng and Qing Muluan raised, yet she had no way to resolve them.
Because it was not just one or two units doing this. Almost all armies in Great Kang operated the same way.
If they were dealt with, more than ninety percent of Great Kang’s generals would not escape punishment.
At that point, even without external enemies, Great Kang would collapse from within.
As the carriage passed the edge of the drilling ground and was about to leave the camp, the noise from behind suddenly grew much louder.
Then they saw a signal arrow shoot into the sky.
Jin Feng’s expression changed. He immediately closed the window of the Ninth Princess’s carriage.
Da Liu also instantly had his personal guards surround Jin Feng for protection.
Amei, Qin’er, and Zhu’er leaped from their horses onto the carriage at the same time.
One stood at the rear, one at the front, and one on the carriage roof.
All three looked as if facing a great enemy, scanning their surroundings warily.
Jin Feng reined in his horse sharply and turned to look in the direction of the signal arrow.
The arrow had been fired from the drilling ground, but the ground was filled with escorts, Weisheng Army soldiers, and Iron Tiger Battalion troops. It did not seem like enemies were present. Why fire a signal arrow?
Without needing Jin Feng’s orders, Da Liu called one of the guards. “Dashan, go see what is happening!”
The guard acknowledged and galloped towards the drilling ground.
They were at the edge of the ground, so the guard returned shortly.
“Reporting to sir, our men were sparring with the Weisheng Army. The Weisheng soldiers could not win, got frustrated, and called in another person to help. Our escort brothers were unhappy about it, and a conflict broke out.”
The guard replied, “There were more Weisheng soldiers, so one of our brothers fired the signal arrow to summon reinforcements.”
“Nonsense! Is that how signal arrows are used?”
Jin Feng’s face darkened upon hearing this.
He had just been boasting to the Ninth Princess about the escorts’ strict discipline and strong combat ability, and now an escort had immediately made him lose face.
“You all wait here. I will go take a look!”
Jin Feng shouted back towards the carriage and spurred his horse towards the drilling ground.
By now, the Weisheng Army and Iron Tiger Battalion also recognised the signal arrow as an alert, so dense crowds of people were surging towards the ground.
Many were still carrying weapons.
The escorts arrived a little later, but many had already donned their armour.
Zhang Liang and Meng Tianhai also came running over. Seeing Jin Feng there, they quickly asked, “Sir, what has happened?”
“Go ask yourselves,” Jin Feng said, his expression rather displeased.
The incident was simple, so the two soon clarified what had occurred.
Then they brought over the four individuals involved, under guard.
The four had clearly just been fighting each other and bore bruises on their faces.
“Sir, this is the one who fired the arrow!”
Zhang Liang pointed at one of the escorts and said helplessly, “The one who started the fight was another.”
Jin Feng was about to speak when Monkey suddenly darted over from the side. Without a word, he began punching and kicking the escort who had fired the arrow.
“Have you lost your mind? Are signal arrows something you fire casually?”
He cursed while beating him. Only after finishing did he repeatedly apologise to Jin Feng. “Sir, I failed to teach my subordinates properly. Please do not be angry. When we get back, I will discipline him thoroughly!”
Not everyone in the escort team was equipped with signal arrows.
Only scouts and officers at squad leader level or above had them.
This scout who fired the arrow was under Monkey’s command and had usually performed well. He was one of Monkey’s key protégés, so Monkey beat him first to show his stance, hoping Jin Feng would not expel the scout.
“I think it is you who needs disciplining!”
Jin Feng said with a dark expression. “I have said long ago that corporal punishment is forbidden in the escort team, yet you beat him right in front of me. Do you take my words as wind past your ears?”
“I was wrong, I was wrong!” Monkey quickly admitted his fault. “Sir, whatever punishment you give, I, Monkey, will accept!”
“Sir, I am the one who fired the arrow. I will accept any punishment, but this matter has nothing to do with the captain or Old Jian. Please do not punish them!”
The escort who fired the arrow said stubbornly, “I know I was wrong, but they started bullying us. We agreed to one-on-one sparring. When they could not beat Old Jian, two of them ganged up. I went to reason with them, and they beat me too. In my anger, I fired the arrow.”
“Knowing your mistake without making excuses shows you have some sense of responsibility.”
Jin Feng looked at Zhang Liang. “Brother Liang, what do you say? How should we handle this?”
