Chapter 129 Departure (2/2)
”FOOk it! Minor official it is! But if something stupid happens, I'll quit it on the spot!”
Despite the irritation, Jia Xu stomped out of his room to the tavern on the first floor to order some food.
…
…
June 7th.
Lu Zhi packed his necessary belonging, he planned to take a journey back to Luo Yang as his family was still in the Capital.
He worried that once Tong and Zhang Jiao rebelled, his families would get implicated into this mess and would be executed for treason. Therefore, Lu Zhi had to go back home himself and migrate everyone back to Julu to be safe.
Tong dispatched Zhou Cang and 3,000 elite soldiers as Lu Zhi personal guards because he did not have a private army. It would be unnatural for someone with high status as Lu Zhi to travel alone.
”I'll gather the news in the Capital while I'm there. For now, don't do anything that will get Liu Ping and the Han Court's attention. I don't want my family dead before I get home.”
”I understand, master. Please take care.”
…
…
July 14th.
The deployment preparation was completed. A total of 40,000 soldiers which comprised of 5,000 light cavalries, 5,000 Qiang horse archers from Zhang Ji, 10,000 heavy cavalries from Zhang Liao, and 20,000 heavy infantries.
All of them was armed to the teeth. Each infantry equipped with a full iron armor suit, a large iron tower shield, a long pike, a sword, an all-purpose shovel, a repeating crossbow, and two hundred arrows. The horsemen even had extra spears and throwing javelins.
The logistics supply army of 10,000 men also took extra spare weapons and armors with them. Hundred thousands of crossbow arrows and the 20,000 tons of provision were the main resources that the logistic troops had to put extra care on.
Tong did not load everything into his inventory this time as he wanted everyone to experience a real war from the beginning to the end. The age of chaos was coming soon, he could not spoil his soldiers all the time or they would be too weak when Tong had to use them. In addition, once the territories expanded, Tong could not babysit everyone by tagging along in every campaign. The troops had to be ready for such scenarios.
Even though Tong let the logistic troops handled the supplies, he did not fully entrust them with everything. He still had double the number of armory, weapons, and provisions in his inventory, just in case the enemy was strong enough to ruin his logistic troops.
As usual, Tong would be the grand commander of this army and he would be in charge of the 20,000 foot-soldiers with Li Feihong, who recovered a bit, as his aide. However, he had to sit in a wheelchair at the moment as he had not completely healed yet.
Bo Cai was now a 5,000 men commander who was responsible for the light horsemen.
Zhang Ji and Zhang Xiu retained their former troops of 5,000 Qiang horse archers and were promoted as 5,000-man-commanders. Although the horses Tong provided them were weaker than their former horses that Lu Bu confiscated, they were satisfied that they could be in charge of their subordinates.
Gao Shun and Zhang Liao were dragged along with this army as well with their heavy cavalries. Each of them was in charge of a unit of 5,000 heavy horsemen. Since Ding Yuan joined hands with Tong, they had to follow Tong's command. The two of them already held the rank of a general, so Tong did not need to promote them again.
Ding Yuan, Hua Shi, Zhang Bao, Zhang Liang, and Zhang Jiao remained in Julu to protect their headquarter stronghold.
”Men! Move out!”
With a signal, the flag bearers waved their color flags to relay orders to the troops. Tong and his leading troops started their march toward Ganling City.
Before Tong and his men could march, a young teenager with bandages all over his body rushed to the side of Tong.
”Sir! Let me go with you!”
The teenager was none other than the young Zhao Yun who was disguising himself as ”Zhao Tian”.
”You're the messenger from Ganling, right? You've done your job. The rest will be up to us.”
Tong pretended to stop Zhao Yun from following them. This was an act to get this heroic figure to join his army in the future. Though he said that, Tong predicted that Zhao Yun would insist following them anyway.
”Sir, Zhang Yan's boss is not ordinary. I've fought with him many times before. I'm afraid that he might still have more tricks in his sleeves. Let me go with you! I'll fight alongside you in this battle!”
The elite soldiers behind Tong gazed at the young man in half-admiration and half-mocking. They looked down on Zhao Yun as he was still injured and he was too young for the battlefield. None of them believed that their young lord would let him tag along.
Tong raised his eyebrows when he heard that Zhao Yun knew something about Zhang Yan's army. His curiosity was piqued.
”Fine, you come with me then. Since you know about Zhang Yan's mysterious boss, I'll make you my personal guard for now.”
”T-Thank you, sir! I'll do my best!”
”Men, get him a horse! Oh, I forgot. You do know how to ride a horse, right?”
”Err, I can try…”
Tong shook his head in secret. It seemed like this young Zhao Yun was similar to Zhang He as he had not blossomed yet.
In the historical timeline, Zhao Yun first debuted as a leader of a volunteer force when he joined Gongsun Zan in the year 189, which was seven years from now on.
But the current Zhao Yun's condition was too weak in the eyes of Tong.
'I guess he still has a long road ahead of him. But I don't mind that. If I can raise this young boy into a flying dragon like his style name, any kind of investment is worth it.'