I, Liu Bian, Sanxing Han Dynasty

Chapter 401 Winter Hunting (6k completed)

Luoyang, Shanglin Garden.

The array of soldiers added a solemn and murderous atmosphere to the already chilly garden.

General He Miao was fully equipped with armor, but when he faced Liu Bian in the army, he simply dismounted and bowed with military etiquette without kneeling.

"Your Majesty, the Tiger Guards, Imperial Guards, Northern Army, and Western Garden Army have all arrived. The winter hunt is ready and we are just waiting for your Majesty's order."

Liu Bian was riding on a horse. Although he had not grown a beard yet as a father, he had an upright posture, a true heroic emperor.

"Approved! Pass on my order. This winter hunting, the rewards will be different according to the amount of spoils!"

As Liu Bian's edict was passed on, the soldiers who were ready to show their prowess in this winter hunt all expressed their gratitude in unison, as if they had rehearsed it long ago.

Well, I guess we did rehearse it.

At least Liu Bian, listening to such uniform voices, felt that he would definitely not be able to shout out the words the first time.

Of course, Liu Bian would not pay much attention to these small details.

According to the Zhou Li, the so-called spring foraging, summer harvesting, autumn hunting, and winter hunting are all held during the farming off-season.

However, nowadays, the role of the emperor's hunting expedition is similar to that of military parades, which is to review the combat effectiveness of the army, but the methods are slightly different.

This was the first hunting expedition since Liu Bian ascended the throne.

It’s not Liu Bian’s fault that he couldn’t remember it, because the previous emperor, who was his role model, had only reviewed the troops!

And why did Liu Bian remember it now?

Just because it involved his loyal Yulin Lang.

Liu Bian learned about the problems of the Yulin Lang from Huangfu Li.

Faced with these future generals, Liu Bian was not careless. After only a moment of thought, he made a decision - he really could not allow the Yulin Lang to form cliques.

Don’t let the time come when a war breaks out and our friendly forces end up standing idly by because of conflicts and estrangements between each other.

Although forming cliques is hard to avoid in reality, we can't just give up completely just because it's unavoidable.

Of course, it was not just for the Yulin Lang. The Huben and others also selected their elite soldiers to participate. If they could defeat Sun Ce's Yulin Lang, Liu Bian would certainly not hesitate to reward them.

Long before the winter hunt began, Huangfu Li had already made preparations for it.

Before setting off, Sun Ce looked at Xu Chu and Dian Wei standing behind Cao Ang and Tian Yu respectively, and couldn't help but complain in his heart why Huangfu Sima had to temporarily replace their subordinates at this time when the Yulin Lang was making a name for themselves.

Huangfu Li said, "No matter what the rules of the winter hunt are in other armies, I will still follow the rules I told you before - you can hunt in groups of five or ten, and the spoils will be divided equally, but you can only hunt in groups of five or ten as at present... Those who have obtained the consent of the squad leader can also leave the group and go to Shanglin Garden to hunt alone. Do you have any questions?"

Although Sun Ce and others did not understand why Huangfu Li wanted to lower his fighting power at this time, they did not ask at this moment.

After Huangfu Li announced that the Yulin Lang could prepare for the hunt, Sun Ce turned around and looked at Li Li behind him. It didn't matter if others wanted to hunt alone, but as a sergeant, he certainly couldn't abandon his subordinates - even though these subordinates were his opponents a quarter of an hour ago.

So he had to make preparations in the last period before departure.

Sun Ce remembered that Li Li was the nephew of a general named Li Jue under the command of General Du Liao of Bingzhou. He was somewhat similar to Zhang Xiu in that they were both familiar with military affairs. He was considered to be a more outstanding figure among the current group of Yulin doctors besides the five sergeants.

If Li Li is willing to help, Sun Ce believes that the hunting results will not be bad.

But before that - "Everyone, we have seen each other almost every day in the past seven or eight months. You all know what kind of person I am. If there is anyone who wants to hunt alone, stand up now, and I will never agree!"

No one in the queue answered, and no one stood up.

At the same time, the other four squad leaders - Zhang Xiu and Tian Yu recommended by Liu Bei - reacted the fastest, almost as fast as Sun Ce. Although Ma Chao and Cao Ang were a step slower, they also reacted immediately.

Huangfu Li, who was riding a horse on the side, was quite satisfied when he saw this scene.

They are worthy of being the five squad leaders selected by the emperor and him.

Although the backgrounds of the five people were inevitably taken into consideration when considering the candidates, their abilities are indeed top-notch.

The emperor is undoubtedly a man with a keen eye for talent, but as his assistant, he can at least be considered as someone who has the ability to recognize talent!

While he was pleased with himself, Huangfu Li completely forgot that he had once believed that "Sun Ce and Ma Chao were too young, and Tian Yu was just a nobody."

After praising himself in his heart, Huangfu Li looked at the Yulin Langs in the field. The five squad leaders did not disappoint his expectations, but what about the rest?

What he was most worried about were Dian Wei and Xu Chu, who had just arrived. These two people proved to him that the emperor might have made a mistake. Although these two were undoubtedly powerful generals in the world, their brains were not enough to make them good generals leading an army.

Huangfu Li thought that this also indirectly proved that he had made a contribution in selecting these five squad leaders by his ability to judge people.

Just as Huangfu Li thought, Cao Ang and Tian Yu looked at Xu Chu and Dian Wei respectively, and both of them were sweating.

Having these two people under his command gives him many advantages when facing the beasts, but once they leave the team, the situation will be different.

Dian Wei didn't say anything at first, but when he noticed that Tian Yu seemed to be looking at him all the time, he couldn't help but say, "Since I'm assigned to Tian Shichang's place now, I will obey Tian Shichang's orders during the hunt later."

"Good!" Tian Yu said happily after hearing this, "If we work together, we will definitely achieve good results!"

Then he glanced at the Yulinlang next to him, and seeing that no one was looking at him, he whispered, "When I was in my hometown of Yuyang, I once went hunting with my elders, and I have some experience to share with you... I have some plans for entering Shanglin Garden later... If you have any ideas, you can also tell me one by one now..."

……

“Let me be frank with you. Since no one wants to step out, we will all rise and fall together today… If there are those who deliberately don’t contribute, don’t blame me for being ruthless!” Sun Ce said with a serious face, “Besides, when you enter Shanglin Garden later, I will take care of everything…”

Looking at these scenes, Huangfu Li couldn't help laughing - these guys finally lived up to his earnest teachings over the past few days, at least they knew what comrades meant.

Originally, he thought that once things got out of danger, he would just change the ten-five permanently like now, but now it seems that it is no longer necessary.

Of course, this also proves that he teaches well!
The Yulin Lang were still preparing, but Liu Bian had already rode into the arena.

Although he had already understood the process before, when he actually went through it, the not-so-complicated process made Liu Bian feel a little novel.

Then, the first highlight of the day came. As the emperor, Liu Bian was the first to shoot.

In recent days, Liu Bian has been practicing hard in preparation for winter hunting.

The targets for hunting had already been driven to a special hunting ground by the soldiers who had arrived here in advance. Many of the animals were too tired to run, which greatly reduced the difficulty for Liu Bian to hit the target.

Liu Bian was riding on his horse, drawing his bow and shooting an arrow. Thinking of his practice in the past few days, he remained calm and aimed at a deer that was being driven in front of him.

The mounts under his command seemed to sense his master's mood and didn't even snort.

With the sound of the bowstring by Liu Bian, the arrow flew out, drew a graceful arc, and then, as expected, nailed the deer's feet.

The deer was frightened and the nearby animals ran away quickly, then ran around in panic under the pressure of the surrounding soldiers.

Liu Bian’s cultivation over the past few years was not in vain. After the failure, he was not discouraged at all and continued to draw his bow and shoot arrows!

Finally, Liu Bian’s hard work paid off and his second arrow successfully hit the deer he was aiming at... and a rabbit suddenly jumped out from behind.

Seeing this, Liu Bian immediately put away his bow confidently.

When the nearby knights saw that the emperor had shot the prey, they all shouted "Victory!", which frightened the prey and made them run around in panic.

At this point, the winter hunt officially began.

A gap was left in the south of the original enclosure, allowing the prey to escape.

Including the subsequent hunting, the south will be deliberately left empty. This is also a part of etiquette. Even during the hunting, one cannot kill all the animals.

On the other side, as soon as they entered the forest, Tian Yu discovered that Dian Wei seemed like a different person.

Although Dian Wei had clearly stated during the previous discussion that he had lived in the mountains for a period of time in order to seek refuge, Tian Yu now believed that this vague period of time was not simple.

Soon, Dian Wei abandoned his horse and began to search in the woods.

Tian Yu knew that Dian Wei was looking for the traces of wild beasts.

Although this made his presence seem a little insignificant, Tian Yu didn't care.

"Be careful, there are wild boars around here!"

After hearing Dian Wei's words, Tian Yu immediately asked everyone to be on alert.

"If you encounter a wild boar charging you, you must avoid it, or else a broken bone would be the least of your worries..."

Tian Yu emphasized: "Everyone remember what Dianjun said!"

He turned around and asked Dian Wei: "What about this wild boar..."

"Kill him!" Dian Wei had already found the direction while speaking, and looked at Tian Yu, "The horses can't pass over there..."

Tian Yu said decisively: "Then leave the horses here. Li Chong, you stay here and watch for now. I'll let someone else take over next time. If you encounter someone with bad intentions, shout at us immediately... The rest of you will follow Dian Jun with me and keep quiet."

After hearing the last instruction, Dian Wei said no more and led the way.

……

Sun Ce didn't expect his luck to be so bad that he didn't even encounter a ferocious beast...

Looking at the rabbits, crows and other small prey hanging next to his subordinates' mounts, he felt quite unwilling.

"I intend to go further into the dense forest ahead. What do you think?" Sun Ce asked.

"Shichang, if we go any further, won't it be too far?"

"It's not impossible to go forward, but we have to dismount and walk to get there..." Li Li looked at Sun Ce and said, "To be honest with you, Sergeant Sun, I really don't like these prey right now. I am willing to go with you. But if we want to go there, I'm afraid we have to split up into two groups."

"Then we will split our forces into two groups!" Sun Ce made a decisive decision. "Half of them will follow me into the dense forest, and the other half will stay here to continue hunting and look after the horses and prey... Who else is willing to go with me?"

……

Half a day later, Tian Yu and his team had a great harvest.

When Dian Wei returned from spying on the prey, he suddenly saw Tian Yu approaching him in a somewhat embarrassed manner.

"Mr. Dian, we just discussed that if it weren't for you, we wouldn't have been able to harvest so many prey this time. So we just discussed that we want to put the extra prey directly on Mr. Dian..."

"Humph, who do you think I, Dian Wei, am?"

Dian Wei was very unhappy. He had taken great pains to lead a group of people to capture so many prey. Was it for personal reward?
Although he wanted it too.

But if he was just doing it for personal reward, why didn't he just do it on his own?
Seeing that Dian Wei's reaction was so strong and didn't seem fake, Tian Yu apologized without hesitation: "Mr. Dian, what I just said was because I was judging you by my own mean mind. I hope you can only blame me if you want to!"

Dian Wei snorted again.

Seeing that Tian Yu's apology was sincere, he also vaguely sensed the mood of Tian Yu and his colleagues to give credit, so he said: "We didn't know each other before, so there was such a misunderstanding. But if there is a next time after today, you and I will pretend that we have never known each other!"

……

Before Sun Ce and other Yulin Lang returned, Liu Bian had already learned from Huangfu Li about their performance before entering the arena, and was very satisfied with the results of the past six months.

He smiled and said, "As long as Shida is here, I have nothing to worry about."

In the hunting ground, Liu Bian was not idle after his second successful shooting. He could not bear to be lonely and rode his horse to shoot a few more times.

Then, they returned empty-handed.

It would be much more difficult to let the prey run free than in an enclosure.

On one occasion, Liu Bian saw that the gray rabbit was about to run away, so he simply ordered Liu Bei, Huangfu Li, and Zhu Fu, the General of the Imperial Guards, who were with him, to shoot at him. If this time is included, it is not considered an air force.

(End of this chapter)