Three Kingdoms: Jiangdong is no longer a rat

Chapter 39 Departure
On the fourth day of the fifth month of the first year of Xingping, the sky was clear, the air was fresh, and the wind was gentle, an auspicious day for departure.

Four thousand soldiers stood solemnly outside Baihu City, with swords and spears like a forest and flags fluttering. The sunlight shone on the armor and weapons, flashing a dazzling light.

Yan Yi was wearing a double-breasted Ming Guang armor, a purple-gold crown on his head, and snow-white crotch. He stood quietly in front of the 1,500 soldiers, his face stern, his eyes sharp, and his hands gripping the reins trembling slightly with excitement.

It has been more than two months since he came to this era, and this is the first time he has personally participated in a military assembly of such a scale. While feeling solemn, a sense of heroism surged in his chest, and a sentence he had heard in his previous life emerged in his mind.

A real man born in troubled times should wield a three-foot sword, traverse the world, and accomplish unprecedented achievements!

Today, for the first time, he clearly felt that this sentence was no longer a line in a book, nor was it just empty talk after dinner, but was right in front of him, tempting him to approach and touch it.

In the previous life, I lived in a peaceful and prosperous era. Although I lived a comfortable and affluent life with no worries about food and drink, I always felt that something was missing. Life was dull and meaningless. After a few decades, I turned into a handful of soil and a name that no one would remember soon, as humble as dust.

No, he didn't even wait for decades, and he breathed his last breath in agony of illness. Then, in less than seventy-two hours, his body was burned into a pile of ashes in the crematorium.

Only after losing something do you know how to cherish it, and only after experiencing regret do you know what to do.

Yan Yi couldn't help but look back. What he saw before him were the troops he had worked so hard to recruit, and they were also the starting point for him to realize his ambitions.

Nearly eight groups of people were arranged in a regular square formation.

Two cavalry units were in the first row. In addition to the cavalry unit assigned to him by Yan Baihu, the other cavalry unit was composed of his eighty personal guards and one hundred children of wealthy families who provided their own horses.

Behind the two groups of cavalry were two groups of sword and shield soldiers for close combat, one group of spearmen to resist the enemy's charge, and two and a half groups of archers.

Although the army had just been formed, the morale of this group was very high. The soldiers were generally tall and strong, and their equipment was also very sophisticated. A few wore iron armor, and most wore leather armor. The armor-wearing rate reached an exaggerated 70%!

Especially the three elite troops of the Yan family and the eighty personal cavalrymen, their military appearance was majestic, and it was obvious at a glance that they were brave soldiers who had experienced many battles.

A hundred steps away from this group of people, there was another group of people, which was the 2,400 soldiers led by Yan Yu.

The quality of these 2,400 soldiers was noticeably poor: some were tall, some were thin, some had ruddy complexions, others were sallow and thin. Furthermore, their weaponry was not up to par; only about 40% of the soldiers wore armor, and there were less than 100 cavalry, seemingly serving only as scouts. Furthermore, their ranks were rather disorganized. Despite having been in existence for several years, their military appearance was inferior to that of the new army formed by Yan Yi.

Yan Yu wore a basin-collared iron armor and a helmet that only high-ranking generals used, and rode his horse in front of the army.

He was about thirty-five or thirty-six years old, seven feet tall, with a strong build, a rough and angular face, thick lips, and a fierce look in his eyes.

For some reason, Yan Yu seemed to be in a very bad mood at the moment, with a gloomy face the whole time, until Yan Baihu, wearing black light armor, came riding on horseback, surrounded by dozens of riders, and then he perked up a bit.

The process of sending troops in this era was complicated and rigorous. Not only did they have to offer sacrifices to the gods and ancestors, swear military oaths and mobilize the troops, but they also had to inspect the troops and have generals receive orders. Sometimes, they even had to offer blood sacrifices.

Yan Baihu was there to preside over this series of ceremonies. As he stepped onto the makeshift platform, he looked around with a satisfied smile, then his eyes revealed a look of obvious surprise and anger.

What satisfied him was naturally the neat and high-spirited army under Yan Yi, which seemed to be even better than the army led by Yan Yu. As for surprise and anger,
"How come this guy has so many soldiers and horses?"

Yan Baihu's face turned dark. He had originally planned to give Yan Yi only two groups of soldiers, but Yan Yi persuaded him to increase it to three groups. Although he knew that Yan Yi had been conscripting soldiers from the rich families in the city recently, he had been negligent in supervising Yan Yi recently and had not asked about it in detail. Unexpectedly, seven or eight groups of soldiers appeared under his nose in the blink of an eye.

If he knew there were still four hundred soldiers who hadn't appeared here yet, I wonder what his expression would be.
The flag-raising ceremony was about to begin, and Yan Baihu could not lose his temper. He could only suppress his turbulent emotions and, with the assistance of the military chief, began to preside over the ceremony.

Flag-raising ceremony is a very solemn matter. First, six soldiers carry three animals to the altar behind the reviewing platform and place them in fixed positions. Then, they put wine, grains and other offerings on them. The military chief reads the sacrificial words, praying for the protection of the gods and victory.

After the military chief priest finished reciting the sacrificial speech, Yan Baihu read the oath as the main priest.

Yan Baihu did not understand classics and history, and had no knowledge of ancient books. He just recognized some words. The oath was written in difficult language. Even though he had read it beforehand, it was still quite awkward to read, which made people want to laugh. Fortunately, he had a loud voice and spoke with full energy, so when he read the oath, he sounded quite powerful.

After reading the oath, the sacrifice began. First, the blood of three animals was poured on the ground, which meant offering sacrifice to heaven. Then the blood was poured on the war drum, which was called the sacrifice drum. Finally, the blood was poured on the military flag, which was called the sacrifice flag.

After the sacrifice, the offerings were distributed to some ordinary soldiers, meaning that God's blessing had been conveyed to every soldier.

Finally, Yan Baihu called Yan Yu to the platform and gave him the seal, sword and knife, and then the ceremony ended.

Yan Yi's position in the army was merely an assistant military commander under Yan Yu, and he was not qualified to take the stage.

It took more than half an hour to complete the ceremony.

After the ceremony, Yan Yi began to instruct Xu Sheng, Chen Gan and other military commanders from each Qu to check the troops, organize their luggage and equipment, and count the food and fodder.

After everything was ready, the army was divided into five teams according to their battle formation: front, back, left, center, and right, and they left the city one after another.

Due to Yan Baihu's special arrangement, the troops led by Yan Yi were organized into the rear team.

However, the number of soldiers in this rear team was too large, and it looked like a separate army.

When Yan Yi led his troops past the reviewing platform and bowed to Yan Baihu, the annoyance in Yan Baihu's eyes disappeared and turned into obvious concern.

Yan Yi stared at Yan Baihu deeply, then turned around, rode his horse forward, led his troops slowly out of the city, and began the first expedition in his life.

(End of this chapter)