Cultivating Common Sense In A Xianxia World Chapter 51: Day One

Characters in this chapter.

Pei Liang — Founder of the River Fork Academy. Junior to Fei Liao in the district chain of command.

Wei Suyin — Head of the clinic. Pei Liang's partner. Accepted into the formation.

Fei Liao — Lieutenant of the district. Commander Xu's second.

Pei Hao — Pei Liang’s older brother. Currently unconscious.

Xu Bing — Garrison soldier at Hekou. Commander Xu's younger brother.

Luan i — Luan matriarch. Head of household.

Luan Feng — Sixty-one. Missing two fingers.

Commander Xu left at dawn.

She ca out of the garrison building with Fei Liao at her side and spoke to him briefly at the door. She left him six soldiers while she herself took the rest, and she walked to where her horse was being held at the east gate.

She stopped when she passed .

"The outpost construction begins at the northern ridge," she began to say. "I will coordinate it from there for two weeks and then make my return to Lanyu." She gave a once over with her eyes. "See this as an opportunity to learn."

She mounted and rode out through the east gate with her soldiers. I watched the gate close behind her and stood in the cold briefly.

Then I went to find Hao.

He was still gray and breathing shallow breathes. Suyin's pulse record was on the side table and I read that it had been low during the nights but stronger during the day. I sat on the floor beside his mat and looked at his face.

"You have always been the kind of person who trusts people before they have earned it," I said to him fondly. "That is yours strength, but I realize that it is not mine, and sowhere along the way, I lost sight of myself.” I pressed my hand against his arm.

I knew how to be cold when the situation required it, especailly in my previous life. Unfortunately, I had let myself forget that.

I stood and went to face the day.

Fei Liao began the conscription at the first notch.

He sent Xu Bing from household to household with the garrison roll in a leather case, the ink and brush kit strapped to his belt, and two soldiers behind him carrying the second and third copies of the registration ledger.

The roll was already written. It had been written the night before, at the table in the garrison building, from the household registers Wen had maintained as part of the quarterly reports to Lanyu for the last three years. Every household at Hekou was listed. Every adult in each household was listed by na, age, relationship to the head of household, trade, and by year of arrival.

The list was thorough because Wen had been thorough.

I stood at the garrison building door and watched Xu Bing approach the first house.

He knocked once and waited. When the door opened he bowed to the head of household the way the protocol required, spoke the na of the household aloud from the roll, and then read the nas of every person on the roll between the ages of fifteen and fifty.

The head of household was required to present each nad person at the door, in sequence, to confirm their presence and their fitness for military service. Any nad person who was not present had to be accounted for by the head of household on penalty of the household's grain allotnt. Any nad person present who was not on the roll had to be added, with the household paying the registration fine for having concealed their residence.

Xu Bing did his work well.

He had trained under Wen's successor for the administrative portion of his garrison duty. He read the nas clearly. He waited long enough between nas for the head of household to produce the person. He made the mark in the ledger as each person presented.

Fei Liao walked behind him. He stayed three paces back with his hands behind him, watching the thresholds. The lieutenant did not speak during the household calls.

At the third house Luan i answered the door.

Xu Bing bowed. "Luan household. By the authority of Lord Shen Yue and the command of Commander Xu ifen of the Western Reaches Army, I call the conscription roll for the northern district."

Luan i inclined her head. Her hair was bound properly and her outer robe was the dark grey one she wore for formal occasions.

"The Luan household is present."

"I call Luan i."

She inclined her head once more. "I am here."

"Age sixty-four. Head of household. Exempt under age provision."

She nodded her head too him.

Xu Bing made the mark.

"I call Luan Feng."

Luan Feng stepped into the doorway behind his sister. He held up his left hand with the two missing fingers visible.

Xu Bing looked at the hand. He had known Luan Feng for two years. He made the mark. "Age sixty-one. Exempt under injury provision and age provision."

Xu Bing then moved on to the next person. "I call Luan Dai."

Luan Dai ca to the door and Xu Bing continued on. "Age twenty-four. Trade: stonework and carpentry. Step forward to be marked," Xu Bing said.

Luan Dai stepped forward. Xu Bing noted it in the ledger and moved on.

"I call Luan Bai. Age nineteen. Trade: farr. Step forward to be marked,” Xu Bing called out.

Luan Bai stepped forward and Xu Bing continued on.

“Planting season begins in five weeks and the household dependency on farming status will be reviewed by the end of the quarter."

Luan Bai stepped forward. Xu Bing made the note in the margin and continued.

And so on, through every adult Luan in the compound, until the household's list was complete. Xu Bing noted the total at the bottom of the Luan entry: eleven presented, two exempt, nine conscripted pending physical assessnt. He bowed to Luan i and moved to the next house.

The next household was smaller and faster. The one after that took longer because an adult son had been out at the eastern fields and had to be sent for.

He continued.

The conscription continued until the fifth notch.

By the end Xu Bing had walked to every household in the compound and the adjacent settlent, had read every na, had marked every presentation and every exemption. The total at the bottom of the roll, written in his careful hand, was:

Presented: sixty. Exempt by age: eight. Exempt by injury: three. Exempt by infancy dependency: three. Exempt by sole-provider provision: three. Available for physical assessnt: forty-six.

He brought the roll to Fei Liao at the training ground. The lieutenant read it before he then wrote his seal at the bottom of the page.

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"Assemble them."

The forty-six stood in a loose line on the training ground at the sixth notch.

Fei Liao walked the line with his record book in his left hand and a brush in his right. Two soldiers stood at his shoulders with the second and third copies of the ledger. Wei Suyin stood at the far end of the line with his dical kit, present at Fei Liao's request, to certify any dical exemption the lieutenant ruled on during the assessnt.

The assessnt was simple.

Fei Liao examined each candidate in turn. He checked the hands for calluses that indicated trade or weapon use. He checked the forearms and shoulders for muscle developnt under the robes. He tested grip by having the candidate compress a bundled cloth roll until Fei Liao said stop. He had each candidate hold both arms at shoulder height for a slow ten count. He checked the feet and the legs for healed fractures that had not set properly. He asked each candidate the na of the trade they practiced and the number of sumrs they had worked it. He asked each candidate whether their household depended on their labor for the coming planting.

He was looking for three things. Strength, health, and the absence of critical agricultural responsibility.

The first he saw in the body. The second he saw in the body and confird with Xu Bing when anything was uncertain. The third he read from Xu Bing's trade notations on the roll and from the candidate's own answer, and he weighed both against the size of the household and the number of dependents.

A young Luan cousin who was the only adult farr in a household with three children and an elderly parent was deferred under the sole-provider provision. Fei Liao granted the deferral without hesitation.

A Pei arrival who had worked as a clerk in an eastern settlent was accepted but logged as a potential administrative assignnt rather than formation duty. A man who had been struck in the knee by a falling timber two sumrs ago and walked with a slight favor was held at the assessnt while Suyin examined the joint, and was then accepted on the grounds that the knee was stable enough for formation work though not for long marches. Fei Liao noted the limitation in the record.

A woman in her late thirties stepped forward when her na was called and held her arms out for the assessnt. When Fei Liao had her do the ten count, he watched her face. Suyin stepped closer and laid two fingers under the woman’s jaw. She then moved her fingers to the inside of the woman’s wrist. She then turned to Fei Liao and shook his head once.

"Exempt under dical provision," Fei Liao said.

The woman bowed and stepped back.

Suyin made a note in his own record book.

The assessnt took three notches.

By the end, of the forty-six presented, Fei Liao had accepted forty-one for formation duty, deferred three under the sole-provider provision, exempted one under dical assessnt, and reclassified one as an administrative assignnt. The totals were written at the bottom of the roll and the two soldiers copied them into the second and third ledgers and Fei Liao sealed all three.

Wei Suyin herself was one of the candidates that had to be assessed.

Fei Liao looked at her hands and recognized the Polearm calluses on the inner fingers of the right hand and the outer fingers of the left.

He made his mark.

"Accepted."

She stepped out of the line and ca to stand beside .

My assessnt took even less ti. Fei Liao made his mark and moved to the next candidate without comnt.

When the last candidate had been logged, Fei Liao handed the three ledgers to the soldiers and turned to the formation.

"Assemble at the river."

The river was loud at the ninth notch.

Fei Liao had chosen the bend south of the compound where the water narrowed and ran fast. Forty-one recruits stood on the bank in the cold before midday. Six soldiers stood behind them with rods. Fei Liao stood at the waterline with his hands behind his back.

"Strip to the waist and enter the waters until it is level with your chest. You will stand until I say otherwise."

There were weary mumurs among the group and as such, nobody moved.

"You will stand until I say otherwise," Fei Liao said again, "or you will be marked absent from the first drill and your household will be fined in grain.”

The first man went in, and then the second, and finally the line broke and the recruits went in with their breath catching as the water closed over their stomachs.

Suyin went in beside . She did not make a sound when the water reached her chest and her eyes remained fixed upon the horizon.

I stepped into the water and let the cold co up around .

I had learned to read the ambient Qi from the bank, then from the shallows, then from the channel where the current pulled strongest and the ambient draw ran cleanest, so for , this was a harmonious reunion.

The ambient Qi around carried its own directional current and I drew on it the way I drew breath.

The recruit three paces to my right was shaking so hard that the water around his shoulders had begun to slop in small waves. The recruit two paces to my left had closed his eyes and was counting his own breaths under his teeth. Suyin's jaw was locked shut against the cold and she had not made a sound, but her shoulders had begun to tremor slightly.

Fei Liao was watching as I stood and must have seen that I was the only one who did not shiver.

He was standing at the bank, six paces from where I had entered the water, and his face had not changed since the recruits went in.

He made a small mark in the record book he had brought to the bank.

"Count of ten."

The soldiers counted aloud from the bank. One. Two. Three…. The cold pressed harder at five and the recruit to my right made a small sound. At seven the recruit to my left began to slip sideways and the soldier behind him waded in and steadied him by the shoulder without hauling him out. At nine one of the Pei arrivals dropped. A soldier was in the river before he went under, hauling him up by the collar, his mouth blue and his eyes unfocused. He was dragged to the bank and laid on his side.

"Ten. Hold."

We held.

"Count of twenty. We begin again."

The second count broke more of them. By fifteen a Luan cousin was on the bank being wrapped in a blanket by Xu Bing. By eighteen a second Pei arrival had dropped and been hauled up. By twenty, four of the forty-one were on the bank and the rest were still in the water. Suyin was white to the color of old silver, but her eyes remained fixed on the horizon and she had not made a sound.

"Twenty. Hold."

Fei Liao walked along the bank.

His eyes went across the line, recruit by recruit, checking who was failing and who was holding. When he reached the point on the bank closest to he stopped in his tracks.

Then he looked in the eye from the bank, and made the mark again in the record book, and walked on.

"Out."

We ca out.

The recruits who could walk walked. The recruits who could not walk were helped. The four who had dropped were laid in a row on the bank with blankets, and Suyin was already kneeling beside the first of them with her fingers at the pulse.

I went to Suyin as she worked and held out the blanket Xu Bing handed . She took it and wrapped it around her shoulders.

I pulled my outer robe on over my wet inner layer and continued on behind her once she was done assessing the patients.

Xu Bing caught before I reached the clinic where Hao was laid.

"The lieutenant will see you at the garrison building."

I raised a brow. I did not want my surprise to carry any further than that, so I nodded once and kept walking in the direction Xu Bing indicated.

The garrison building had been the administrative office of the Hekou compound since the first quarterly report to Wen. It had Fei Liao's record books on the table now, and his rolled maps in the corner where Wen's agricultural surveys used to sit. He was at the table with a lamp and a cup of water with the conscription roll open in front of him.

He gestured to the opposite seat.

I sat.

He set the cup of water down on the table and looked at the conscription roll between us and pulled a second docunt from beneath it. I recognized that the paper had Commander Xu's seal on it.

"Commander Xu left orders for before she rode out," Fei Liao said. "These are the portions that concern you."

He read.

The first was that Pei Liang of Hekou was to be taken under the district lieutenant's personal instruction in the conduct of soldiers, the command of squads, the reading of terrain, the discipline of formation, and the maintenance of chain of command.

The second was that the district lieutenant was to evaluate Pei Liang's progression in these matters on a standing basis and to report that evaluation to Lanyu at the close of each cycle.

The third was that Pei Liang's performance in the upcoming spring campaign would be assessed against the standard of a junior officer of the Western Reaches.

The third line was the one that held my attention.

The spring campaign…

ishan.

The Western Reaches would mobilize once the thaw cleared the passes and the grain from the autumn stores was moved forward to the staging depots, and the force she had been preparing for the past three years would move on the prefecture. She had told to see this as an opportunity because she ant it as one. She had arranged for to stand next to a district lieutenant for a winter and a spring so that when her force moved south I would move with it.

She was building a role in the campaign.

Fei Liao folded the paper and set it at the corner of the table.

"Those are the orders, and I intend to follow them. I am not a man who disputes her decisions."

I nodded along with him. I recognized that he perhaps didn’t exactly agree with Commander Xu’s regard for , but I was sure he could tell that she was intent on grooming for a larger role.

He picked up the brush and turned it between his fingers.

"You will be given the rank of Squad Captain over the cultivators of this compound. Every cultivator you have trained, every cultivator you are training, and every cultivator you will train from this day forward now falls under your command. You will docunt how you train them and you will present them on the training ground when I call for them. They will report to you and then you in turn will report to . The squad is part of this garrison. Is that clear."

I bowed my head to him. "Yes, Lieutenant."

"I want a written training regin on my desk by the first notch tomorrow,” Fei Liao ordered.

I bowed my head to him once more.

My mind began buzzing with possibilities, and I suddenly realized that I had been making this far more complicated than it needed to be. I had set out to create a Sect that did not bury those in search of immortality, as I believed that it should have a more collectivist approach to teaching and learning. In that case, then all I had to do was create a system that encouraged that line of thinking.

Qi Refinent.

Foundational.

Master.

Refinent for those who had opened all twelve pathways and could circulate without error. That would be no different than a child entering elentary school, that is the basis of one’s own knowledge base.

Foundational for those who could draw ambient Qi, store it in the core, and docunt one original technique. This would be a track similiar to middle and high school, where one must show understanding and critical thinking of knowledge and systems.

Master for those who held full channel control under sustained pressure and contributed a technique to the Academy record for every practitioner after them to access freely. This was more or less a graduate program, where one would have to write a dissertation on their chosen subject of their life’s work, and then share it with the Academy to advance Cultivation as a whole.

I would have it on his desk by the first notch.

Fei Liao leaned back in his chair and gestured towards the door.

"You are dismissed."

I rose, bowed my head to him, and then made my way out.