Chapter 26: Adopted Son (With gratitude to Alliance Leader Pu Sanzhi_Sanren)

Time flew by. The troop followed the Luo Dai River into the territory of Maozhou, then turned southeast, winding through mountain passes.

Throughout this journey, the Nanzhao army did not pursue Song Jian, yet Zhao Huaian still saw the scouts returning daily with heads wrapped in their saddlebags, though he never knew whose they were. With the Nanzhao threat gone, Zhao Huaian finally had the time to begin teaching martial arts to his disciples.

Initially, he had intended to teach the German longsword, as it could build combat effectiveness in a short period. Back when he learned it, he spent three months mastering it, confident that with a longsword in hand, taking on ten unarmed and unarmored opponents would be effortless. Unfortunately, he had surveyed the army over the past few days and found no longswords of that type. The Tang army currently used only two types of practical blades: the *hengdao* (horizontal sword) and the *modao* (long-handled saber). These differed in length and had only one edge, whereas most techniques for the German longsword required a double-edged blade. Thus, Zhao Huaian could not teach it yet.

However, he did not intend to give up. He understood brand differentiation all too well; in the future, these two-handed longswords would be his signature, which was essential for spreading his influence. Beyond that, the German longsword was exceptionally well-suited for actual combat, often hailed as the premier martial art of old Europe. Teaching it to his disciples would serve them well on the battlefield. He decided that once they reached Qiongzhou or Chengdu, he would commission a batch to distribute to his disciples as a perk of joining his society.

Since he couldn't teach the longsword, Zhao Huaian spent these days teaching Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, focusing primarily on takedowns. There was no helping it; wrestling was too well-suited for the military. While other arts might be considered mere displays of showmanship, this was undeniably a killing skill. In the chaos of a battlefield, it wasn't just volleys of arrows or crossbow bolts that could end a life; simply being thrown to the ground was fatal, especially for armored warriors—once they fell, they were as good as dead. His disciples responded with great enthusiasm, practicing diligently. The techniques Zhao Huaian taught were so ingenious that it seemed as if one could throw an opponent with a single grip.

During one of these sessions, Li Shitai of the Zhongwu Army came by again. He wasn't there to pick a fight, but rather to offer a respectful apology, especially after hearing that Zhao Huaian was willing to impart his skills. He gifted Zhao Huaian a suit of iron armor in exchange for learning that "Tang Hand" technique that had knocked him out. Clearly, Li Shitai had no intention of joining any "Righteous Society"; he simply wanted to trade tuition for combat skills. This, however, put Sun Chuanxiu in a difficult spot. His Baoyi Army was truly destitute; they could hardly afford to pay a suit of iron armor for martial arts training. Yet they all knew Zhao Huaian’s skills were far more precious than any armor. In the end, Zhao Huaian told them to come and learn, and they could pay their tuition later. If it weren't for their genuine desire to learn, they would never have dared to owe such a debt, terrified of being unable to repay it.

Ren Tong and Song Yuan also came to learn. Having already learned a little from Zhao Huaian previously and deeply impressed by the ingenuity of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, they also decided to pay tuition, though they could only deliver it once they reached Chengdu. Zhao Huaian didn't mind; he was simply surprised that Ren Tong and Song Yuan were quite well-off. He had learned much about local prices during this time, and unlike before, when he didn't grasp the value of money, he now understood its purchasing power. The fine armor Li Shitai had gifted him would sell for at least eighty strings of cash on the open market. To put that in perspective, eighty strings of cash could buy four hundred *shi* of rice—enough for one person to eat for eleven years. If used for housing, it could cover half the cost of a standard two-courtyard residence in Chengdu. It was hardly something an average person could afford.

Since Ren Tong and Song Yuan insisted on paying, he couldn't refuse. They were old brothers, after all, and he would certainly teach them with care. Beyond those paying tuition, Zhao Huaian focused most intently on his core disciples, as they were his ironclad foundation; his future success depended on their combat prowess.

Yang Mao and Niu Li showed the most talent for Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, perhaps because of their small stature, allowing them to scramble over people like monkeys. Under this misconception, Zhao Huaian initially thought Zhao Wenzhong, Zhao Wenying, Zhao Wenhui, and Zhao Wenzun would also excel. These four were the "five-inch runts" who had come to apprentice under him alongside He Wenqin. Zhao Huaian had originally looked down on these four little radishes, but during the ambush on the Nanzhao, they fought with such reckless abandon that he changed his mind. He decided to cultivate them properly. When he later asked their ages, he found they were mostly twelve or thirteen, which made him feel quite guilty—to be killing Nanzhao soldiers at such a tender age was a tragic fate. Upon learning they were orphans from various mountain villages, Zhao Huaian decided to adopt them as his righteous sons, giving them his surname, Zhao. While they were terrible at Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, they were quite good at boxing, especially Zhao Wenzhong, who possessed very nimble footwork.

As for the others, Sun Tai, Zhao Hu, Wang Li, and He Wenqin were merely average, perhaps showing only slight aptitude for combat. The new recruits he had taken in from the Baoyi Army were also learning, and while they were generally good, three stood out: Han Tong (known as Han Da), a man from Qiongzhou whose family was long gone, who was a renowned warrior in the Baoyi Army with excellent archery and spear skills; and two sturdy men named Qian Tiefuo and Wei Jingang. Zhao Huaian noticed that the ancestors of the Tang Dynasty were particularly fond of Buddhist-themed names; he had met many others named "Jingang" among the Zhongwu troops. Qian Tiefuo and Wei Jingang were somewhat dim-witted; they had no interest in Jiu-Jitsu or boxing, preferring only to use iron maces. To accommodate this, Zhao Huaian scavenged two iron maces from Li Shitai for them to study on their own.

What truly surprised Zhao Huaian were the thirty captured Tang soldiers sent by Prefect Song. They were genuinely skilled, with four former *yabing* (elite personal guards) being the most outstanding. One was Lu Zhongyuan from the Dingbian Army, who excelled with the *hengdao*. The Dingbian Army was a frontier force in western Sichuan that had been a mainstay against the Nanzhao, with a reputation even more illustrious than Zhao Huaian's former Lizhou Army. Four years ago, the Dingbian Army had been devastated in battle against the Nanzhao, and Lu Zhongyuan had been displaced ever since. Another was Zhou Dexing from the Yanhai Army, a master of the *modao* and a true Shandong giant; Zhao Huaian’s previous life had been in northern Jiangsu, and he found the accent deeply familiar. The third was Chen Fahai, formerly a captain in the Shence Army who had been flogged out of the camp four years prior for offending a superior and had been forced to work as a laborer in Chengdu until he was re-recruited to support Qiongzhou, only to be captured by the Nanzhao.

The fourth man, Guo Congyun, was the one who truly shocked Zhao Huaian: he claimed to know how to use the *mashuo* (heavy cavalry lance). He had served in the Boye Army and had participated in the Battle of Chengdu four years ago. If his claim were true, he was a high-end talent in Zhao Huaian's team. In Zhao Huaian's group, only He Wenqin knew how to ride, having grown up on mountain pastures, but even he did not know the lance. In fact, even among the elite *tujiang* (assault troops) of Chengdu, few knew the *mashuo*. It was a mystery how such a talented man, despite his past military infractions, had ended up in Zhao Huaian’s team. It was a lucky find.

Zhao Huaian was initially quite pleased, but while drinking with the Zhongwu *yabing*, he was laughed at again. It turned out that in the Zhongwu Army, the *mashuo* was considered a basic skill for any professional soldier. That was just how formidable the professional warriors of the Central Plains' strongest feudal power were. They boasted that their Huai-Xi cavalry was unrivaled, fearing none of the northern factions. This shocked Zhao Huaian—did Huai-Xi even have room to raise horses? Doubts aside, he eventually dragged Li Shitai away to beat him up, teaching him a lesson about respecting his elders and teachers.

Regardless, these four *yabing* were elite warriors who had participated in the Great Battle of Chengdu. To be honest, aside from his hand-to-hand combat skills, Zhao Huaian had much to learn from them—not just archery, horsemanship, and the lance, but also the complexities of troop formations, drums, and flags. Without understanding these, how could he be a proper, arrogant warrior? Zhao Huaian appointed the four as instructors to train himself and his disciples. As they marched, they practiced whenever they rested, growing closer in the process.

By now, Zhao Huaian’s team finally possessed a sense of cohesion, though it was still limited. Throughout the journey, Xianyu Yue often visited, though his visits grew less frequent. Zhao Huaian sighed at how quickly their brotherhood seemed to be fading, but that was just his own oversensitivity; in reality, Xianyu Yue had been making rapid progress and had become Prefect Song's primary aide, managing all the affairs of the entire force. That he still found time to visit Zhao Huaian at all was a testament to how much he valued their bond.

Furthermore, Zhao Huaian’s benefactor, Song Jian, had recovered and even deigned to visit him once. Seeing the group practicing martial arts with such dedication, he remarked, "Very spirited," before leaving. This left Zhao Huaian even more uneasy; sometimes, receiving such heavy gifts made his heart truly anxious. Later, Song Jian sent a cart of rice to Zhao Huaian and had no further contact with him.

Thus, Zhao Huaian spent the eleventh month of the first year of the Qianfu era in a state of learning and suspicion. On the second day of the twelfth month, their force finally reached the Qiongzhou front, and then, the heavy snow began to fall. It was the first major snowfall of the season in western Sichuan.