Zhang Ping, who styled himself Jingzhi, was about in his early thirties, was a normal-looking man with an ordinary body and a quiet voice.

Like Zhu Yun, he was also a trusted subordinate of Liu Yan, but Zhang Ping was not as voluble as Zhu Yun, who had the gift of gab. Most of the time, he acted as a shadow around Liu Yan, but Liu Yan trusted him deeply.

Zhang Ping arched his hands and saluted, saying, "I, your subordinate, will obey your orders!"

Liu Yan continued, "The second thing, tomorrow we will leave for Yizhou Province, and our mission is to destroy the barbarians who have fled to Hanzhong Prefecture."

Hanzhong Prefecture was located in the northeast of Yizhou Province and the east of Jingzhou, and the capital Changan was in the north of it. It could be said that the geographical location of Hanzhong Prefecture was extremely important, for the reason that it was the total logistics hub for the capital's army into Yizhou Province combat, and all the logistics supplies were basically hoarded in Hanzhong Prefecture.

Hearing this, everyone looked at each other with a heavy expression on their faces. They didn't know that the barbarians had already fought in Hanzhong Prefecture unexpectedly, and if they fought further north, wouldn't they have to rush out of Yizhou Province and take Chang'an straight?

It seemed that the battle of Lian Dan's army in Yizhou Province did not go well. How could they make a chance for the Barbarian Army to attack into Hanzhong Prefecture?

Seeing all his men's expressions, Liu Yan knew what they were thinking. He said, "The barbarians who fled to Hanzhong Prefecture are just a small group of brutal remnants of the Barbarian Army, and they were defeated by the capital Army and then fled to Hanzhong Prefecture in a panic, so we have nothing to fear."

Hearing this, everyone couldn't help but involuntarily breathe a long sigh of relief. It turned out that their mission was to enter Hanzhong Prefecture and beat down the falling dogs,, and this battle still had somthing!

Liu Yan raised his voice and said, "Well, that is all. Let's go back to make preparations, and get acquainted with our brothers by the way. We will leave tomorrow morning!"

In the Li Family, Liu Yan was the eldest brother. As an old Chinese saying went, the elder brother had the responsibility to educate and nurture his younger siblings like a father, Liu Yan had the authority and trustability at home, and his younger siblings always obeyed him. In the outside world, Liu Yan had a lot of friends. He was also the core. And now he severed as an officer in the Volunteer Army, he was pretty handy with calling the shots.

According to the establishment of regular arm, Liu Yan, who was a military commander, could command 500 people. But the Volunteer Army was not a regular army, Peng Yong allocated 1,000 men to Liu Yan. There were ten chiefs of Tun under his command, and each of chiefs of Tun command a team of 20 people respectively.

After the disbandment, the crowd jumped on the bandwagon and went to Zhang Ping in droves to get equipment and food. But Liu Xiu did not go out. He went closer to Liu Yan and said, "Eldest brother, I would like to introduce you two friends."

With that said, he turned back and waved to Li Tong and Li Yi.

Li Tong and Li Yi both quickly stepped forward. They respectfully bowed to Liu Yan and said, "Zaixia Li Tong (Li Yi), I am honored to meet you, Big Brother Liu."

Liu Yan looked at them up and down for a while, then waved his hand and said, "Since you are A'xiu''s friend, there is no need of that here. In the military, don't match the titles like 'Big Brother Liu'."

The implication was that if you should call me what you need to, and did not try to relate to me.

Li Tong and Li Yi were red-faced and scarred, both of them showing embarrassment. Li Tong then changed his voice and said, "Lord Liu."

Liu Yan merely said, "H'm", then turned to Liu Xiu and said, "A'xiu', eldest brother still has to go out to take a inspection around here." As he spoke, he took a step and headed out.

Now that he had a thousand men under him, there was no doubt that he had no time to dawdle here as quite a few things was still waiting him to be dealt with.

Liu Xiu went after him and reminded in a low voice:"Eldest Brother, Li Tong's father is Li Shou of Wanxian County."

Well, you should know that Li Shou was the richest man in Nanyang Prefecture. If you had made friends with Li Tong, it meant that you had also made friends with Li Shou. So if you wanted to make a difference in the future, it would be of great help to establish a good relationship with Li Shou now.

Of course, Liu Yan had also heard of Li Shou's name. Upon hearing Liu Xiu's words, Liu Yan turned around and took a look at Li Tong and said disapprovingly:"So he is a child of a wealthy family. That is totally like a drama prince!"

In his point of view, with the wealth of the Li Family, there was really no need for Li Tong and Li Yi to join any kind of volunteer army.

Although Liu Yan's voice were not very loud, it was still loud enough for Li Tong and Li Yi to hear clearly. Both of them showed more embarrassed expressions on their faces, and Li Yi even showed his indignation.

Liu Xiu wanted to say more, but Liu Yan had already walked out of the camp without looking back. Liu Xiu sighed helplessly, walked back to Li Tong and Li Yi, and said, "I apologize to you both on behalf of my eldest brother for the slip of the tongue he made just now."

Li Yi was about to speak, but Li Tong was one step ahead of him and said:"Brother Wen Shu, you do not have to do this. Big Brother Liu... Oh, Lord Liu...What Lord Liu said is also true. In many people's point of view, my elder cousin and I came to join the Volunteer Army is just like a drama prince."

Liu Xiu turned off the topic, shook his head and said, "Come on, let's go out and see if there is any equipment available."

After leaving the camp, Liu Xiu found Zhang Ping, who had indeed left Liu Xiu and Long Yuan each with a set of armor and weapons.

The armor and weapons that Liu Yan required from Lord Peng Yong were good. They were exactly the same as the regular army's equipment. The helmet was made of iron, the armor was a Yepianjia, and the weapon was a long sword.

But it could be seen that none of the equipment was new, and neither the helmet and armor or the weapons, were very old and rusty.

Anyway, it was better to have then than not anyway. After Liu Xiu and Long Yuan had collected their helmets and armors and weapons, they looked at Li Tong and Li Yi, who were standing aside, but did not collect anything yet, then asked, "Brother Ping, are there any helmets, armors or weapons?"

Zhang Ping shook his head. Zhu Yun picked up the conversation from the sidelines, "Bosheng is only coming with a total of 20 sets of helmet, armors and weapons. It is not easy to keep one set for you and one for Zhongbo."

"Not even a weapon to spare?" Liu Xiu asked unwillingly.

Zhang Ping silently took out two short swords from the bottom of a bamboo basket and handed them to Liu Xiu. The latter took a look at them. Although they were short swords, they were still quite sharp. He turned his hand and handed the two short swords to Li Tong and Li Yi, saying, "Anyway, at least this is also a piece of self-defense thing, you two take it and make do with this for the time being."

Liu Xiu and Long Yuan, with their helmets, armors and long swords, were well equipped with a complete set of equipment, but when it was his turn, there was only a poor short sword. Li Yi was dissatisfied and angrily took the short handed by Liu Xiu without saying a word.

Li Tong was younger than Li Yi, but he was much more sensible than Li Yi.

There was actually no decent equipment among the Volunteer Army, and it was already good enough to finally get a short sword. Looking at those soldiers around, the vast majority of them did not even have swords, but still held axes and hoes in their hands.

Taking a large packet of solid food, Zhu Ping patted Liu Xiu on the shoulder and said, "Come on, A'xiu', I'll show you the tent where you are going to stay for the night." Zhu Ping then led Liu Xiu to a camp tent.

This tent was arranged in a long line with a walkway in the middle and makeshift beds on both sides. and at least twenty makeshift beds were laid out as far as one's eyes could see.

Zhu Ping looked around and said, "The conditions of this tent of ours are fairly good, and only 20 people live in here. The other tents, all of them lived with people 30 and 40!"

With said that, he walked over to a makeshift bed inside and laughed, "This is mine, A'xiu', you can sleep next to me!"

Liu Xiu nodded in response. Zhu Ping did not spend much time in the camp. After settling Liu Xiu and the others, he gave a few more advice and hurried out.

The four of them sat down on their makeshift beds. Liu Xiu took out the solid food and gave Long Yuan, Li Tong, and Li Yi each a piece.

Liu Xiu and Long Yuan picked up the solid food and swallowed it with big stuttering. Li Tong and Li Yi looked at the black and hard solid food in their hands, neither had much appetite.

Liu Xiu said:"It is not the same as being at home. And now that you are out, you have to be prepared to endure hardship."

Li Tongxin was touched, and secretly said that these words made sense. He nodded, opened his mouth, and took a big bite on the solid food.

The solid food was not delicious, and it was sour and astringent in the mouth, but Li Tong toughened his scalp, chewed two bites, and finally swallowed it. Then, he took another big bite.

Seeing Li Tong eating the solid food bite by bite, Li Yi was no longer to pretend.

He tried to take a bite and almost spewed the solid food out. He swallowed one piece in one gulp, and then shoved the rest of the solid food from his hand into the leather pouch tied around his side waist and said, "I am not hungry yet, I'll eat it later."

Liu Xiu of course would not force him, and there was no need for him to do that. When people were suffering from starving, even if they saw the bark, they would want to go to have two bites.

No words that day, and the next morning, the Volunteer Army led by Liu Yan packed up their camp and set off a westward journey all the way to Yizhou Province.

This volunteer army was regarded as the vanguard of the Xiangyang Volunteer Soldier.

There were a total of more than 10,000 members of Xiangyang Volunteer Soldiers. Nevertheless, it was impossible for the main force to march blindly, there must be a vanguard army to explore the way ahead. And there was no better candidates to be a pioneer than Liu Yan.

After a long day of marching, Liu Yan and his army finally entered Hanzhong Prefecture of Yizhou Province.

Hanzhong Prefecture was a large county with twelve counties, including Nanzheng County, XunYang County, AnYang County, and the others.

As soon as Liu Yan and his army just entered Hanzhong Prefecture, they received a letter from the County magistrate of Yang County, saying that there were traces of barbarians found in the area of Jinqian River and Mountain Bai.

After reading the letter, Liu Yan asked the offcial of local Yamen who sent the letter, "How many barbarian troops were found in the area of Jinqian River and Mountain Bai?"

The bureaucratic official said in earnest:"The number of the barbarians is quite large, and it is estimated to be in the upper fifties."

the Barbarian Army that entered Hanzhong Prefecture was not many in total, at best only a few hundred or so, and they were not gathered together, but divided into many strands, and a barbarian army of more than fifty men would have been a large number.

But when he heard from the official that there were a lot of barbarian soldiers, Liu Yan's heart was still suspended, but after hearing the other party, there were only fifty people went up, his heart suddenly dropped again.

A mere fifty or so barbarians were not enough for a thousand of them to sink their teeth into!

Liu Yan asked, "Do you know the specific direction of these barbarians?"

The official of local Yamen took out a piece of sheepskin from his arms, on which was drawn a simple map of the area around the Jinqian River and Mountain Bai. The official, holding the map, pointed to one place and said, "It is here that the local populace who have come to report the news found those barbarians!"

Liu Yan seriously took a closer look, and it was the area of Mountain Bai where the official was pointing at. Mountain Bai was located along the Jinqian River. From the map, it was not a small area.

After reading the map, Liu Yan nodded and asked, "Can you find a local guide for us?"

The offical of local Yamne said in earnest:"Our Lord has thought of that, my Lord." With that said, he turned back and beckoned to the back.

A man dressed as a local hunter came over them. The official introduced:" His name is Feng Da. He is a hunter in the Mountain Bai area, and he is familiar with the terrain there. What is more, he was the first to find the barbarian soldiers in Mountain Bai area!"

Liu Yan looked at the hunter named Feng Da and asked, "Did you see the brutal soldiers with your own eyes?"

Notes:

1 zaixia在下: a self address denotes humbler and lower than you

2 yamen衙门: the government office in feudal China