The Ming Dynasty: My sister, Empress Ma

"you!"

The commander was furious, but there was nothing he could do about it.

He Tao had shown his face before the emperor.

"Don't be ungrateful!"

In his anxiety, the commander took two steps forward, leaned close to He Tao's ear, and whispered something only the two of them could hear.

"Do you know why you're still a captain? Because you don't know how to be flexible!"

"Think about it, if you can win over this man and go back to the battlefield, getting promoted to a centurion won't be difficult at all. Following this man, won't you be short of wealth and honor in the future?"

He Tao was stunned for a moment, then felt a little tempted.

The rank of centurion in Wude Guard was highly prestigious, with far better treatment than other guard posts.

Just as He Tao was preparing to talk to Wei Junjie, Zeng Qing, who had been curiously observing him, spoke up.

"What is a two-stone bow? Is it considered powerful if you can even draw it?"

Zeng Qing asked Ma Wenyuan.

He Tao's face, which he had finally managed to pull back, instantly hardened again, and he let out a cold snort.

"One in a million!"

In his view, this person was looking down on his record.

Zeng Qing frowned. "What do you mean?"

"That's really impressive."

Ma Wenyuan made a casual remark, then walked around these people and went inside.

Being an official parachuted in is not easy, something Ma Wenyuan had long known, and he was mentally prepared before coming here today.

This situation is not surprising now.

Ma Wenyuan already had a plan in mind, so he didn't want to waste time here.

He Tao had no idea what Ma Wenyuan was thinking.

He felt that the new centurion didn't take him seriously at all, which made He Tao both surprised and angry.

Because of his status as the emperor's brother-in-law, he didn't dare to show it; he was arrogant, not foolish.

After clenching his teeth for a while, He Tao suddenly erupted in anger.

"I am truly unwell and earnestly request the assistance of the centurion..."

"Get out of here!"

Before he could finish speaking, Zeng Qing pushed him away.

Zeng Qing didn't understand any grand principles; he only knew that his master had come, and since the man hadn't given him a friendly look, he couldn't possibly give him a friendly look either.

"You son of a bitch..."

Shoved off balance by Zeng Qing, He Tao regained his footing, his face flushed, and he muttered a curse under his breath.

Even though he stopped halfway through speaking, Zeng Qing still overheard him.

Zeng Qingmeng turned around, took a step back, and punched him in the face.

"How dare you insult my husband?!"

This is a technique he learned yesterday.

Zeng Qing, who was already as strong as an ox, did not hold back at all when he threw this punch.

Before He Tao could react, his body flew backward like a tattered sack, then crashed heavily to the ground and lost consciousness.

"Sir, he's insulting your mother!"

Zeng Qing was still a little angry and wanted to rush up and throw a couple more punches.

Fortunately, the commander and Meng Chong managed to stop them.

These two seasoned warriors were momentarily unable to restrain this brute.

Seeing this, Ma Wenyuan was in a real predicament.

He really needs to re-evaluate his student now.

He could knock down one of the most elite soldiers in the army with a single punch, and he could also overpower two other elite soldiers while fighting them alone.

It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that he possessed the strength to uproot mountains and the spirit to cover the world.

But things are fine now, at least I don't have to spend any more energy on He Tao.

After all, these arrogant soldiers wouldn't care about his status as the emperor's brother-in-law; these fierce warriors only respected those who were more powerful than them.

If you want them to submit to you, you have to be even more Dior than them.

Otherwise, at best they will outwardly comply, but in the end they will still outwardly defy them.

Now they probably know who's more Dior.

Seeing that He Tao was about to be finished off, Ma Wenyuan quickly shouted,

"stop!"

As soon as Ma Wenyuan spoke, Zeng Qing lost his strength, and Meng Chong and the commander breathed a sigh of relief at the same time.

Ma Wenyuan glanced at He Tao, who was lying unconscious on the ground.

He glanced again at the panting commander, his gaze finally settling on Zeng Qing, who remained completely calm and composed.

"What's the next step?"

The commander took a breath and waved to his soldiers, "Take him away for treatment."

After saying that, he looked at Ma Wenyuan again, "I'm sorry to have frightened the Imperial Brother-in-law. This man deserves to be punished, how dare he..."

The rest of the sentence was left unsaid.

The commander dared not speak further.

If he were to say it, He Tao would have to praise His Majesty's benevolence, even if he were to be beaten or his entire family were exterminated.

Afterwards, the commander made up an excuse and slipped away.

The commander left, leaving Meng Chong standing awkwardly in place.

He wanted to leave, but he had nowhere to go.

To be honest, Meng Chong was a little alarmed.

He Tao usually has enough strength to take on five of them by himself, but now He Tao has been knocked down with a single punch.

Meng Chong dared not imagine whether he would still be alive if that punch had landed on him.

"Don't be afraid, my student is reasonable."

Ma Wenyuan forced a gentle smile and offered an explanation.

"The students of Lord Hyakuho truly possess the courage of ten thousand men."

Meng Chong now felt that this brother-in-law of the emperor must be no ordinary person either.

To be able to teach students like this, one must be an extraordinary person oneself.

Otherwise, how could they have been taught?

You can't exactly say that Zeng Qing learned literature from the emperor's brother-in-law, can you?

What a joke! Wouldn't it be a disservice to the youth to send such a natural-born martial artist to study literature?

Ma Wenyuan changed the subject.

"Want me to go for a walk?"

"Here you go!"

Meng Chong breathed a sigh of relief and bowed.

……

Ma Wenyuan's three hundredth household was at full strength.

Including officers, there were a total of 112 people.

Among them, the centurion is in charge of two generals, each of whom has five junior officers, and each junior officer has ten subordinates.

According to Meng Chong, each person was equipped with a standard bow, two quivers of arrows, a waist knife, and some were also equipped with muskets.

When it comes to firearms, Ma Wenyuan wasn't very interested.

After all, the role of firearms is quite limited nowadays, and they have not even been able to replace bows and crossbows.

The main problem was the preservation of gunpowder, and another issue was the poor craftsmanship of firearms.

If the gunpowder gets damp, it won't fire. Even if it does fire, you can only fire one shot, and then you have to figure out how to reload.

The muskets of today are not the semi-automatic or even fully automatic firearms of the future.

Reloading a non-automatic musket is very complicated.

After wandering around for a short while, Meng Chong went to assemble the troops, while Ma Wenyuan himself began to look at the military manual.

……

Fifteen minutes later, Ma Wenyuan arrived at the training ground of the barracks, where more than a hundred soldiers were already fully equipped and lined up.

"Commander, the soldiers are all assembled. Please give your instructions, sir!"

Meng Chong stood at the very front, his face serious.

Looking at the disciplined troops in front of him, Ma Wenyuan took a deep breath, but he did not give any instructions or stand on the platform and say any meaningless words.

Ma Wenyuan simply walked up to an older soldier with a scar on his face.

"Your name is Wang San?"

"Reporting to the centurion, that's right!"

"You participated in the battle of Poyang Lake. Are the scars on your face from that battle?"

Wang San was stunned. He didn't know how this young centurion knew these things.

After a long pause, Wang Sancai finally answered.

"Reporting to the centurion! That's right!"

"You don't need to wonder how I knew."

As if he could read their minds, Ma Wenyuan smiled and said to everyone, "I know all of your names, and I know your achievements."

This was somewhat unbelievable to Meng Chong.

Keep in mind that the transfer order would have been issued in just two or three days, and this centurion only arrived at the barracks today, having at most glanced at the military register for a quarter of an hour.

Meng Chong felt that Ma Wenyuan was exaggerating.

"Wang Xiaoyi followed General Chang on the Northern Expedition in the second year of Hongwu, and killed three enemies! After being transferred to the Wude Guard, he served as a junior officer."

"Chen Erniu, whose father passed away last year, is now a junior officer, having taken over his father's business."

Ma Wenyuan's voice, neither fast nor slow, reached everyone's ears.

He rose from a junior officer to a common soldier.

There is not a single error in the battle record or resume of each person.

Meng Chong was speechless. He couldn't understand how Ma Wenyuan remembered so much. Surely he couldn't have memorized it after just a quarter of an hour of looking at the roster?

He could only skim through it in a quarter of an hour at most. Rather than believing that, Meng Chong thought that this brother-in-law of the emperor had already done his research before coming.

Thinking this way, Meng Chong unconsciously had higher expectations for Ma Wenyuan, feeling that Ma Wenyuan was different from the other centurions.

At least this man was willing to spend time remembering his soldiers.