Hearing Yue Fei's words, Xu Rong relaxed significantly and cupped his fists toward him.
"In that case, I shall seek your guidance. Hyah!"
With that, Xu Rong spurred his warhorse forward, swinging his long blade directly at Yue Fei.
"Well done!"
Yue Fei gripped his silver spear tightly and charged toward Xu Rong.
On the high platform, Yuan Shu received two system notifications simultaneously.
"Ding! Yue Fei's skill 'Spear Master' activated, increasing his martial strength by 5 points. Yue Fei's current martial strength: 99!"
"Ding! Since Yue Fei's martial strength is higher than Xu Rong's, Xu Rong's skill 'Counter Victory' activated, increasing his martial strength by 5 points. Xu Rong's current martial strength: 94!"
Oh? Interesting.
Yuan Shu knew that Xu Rong's base martial strength was 89.
A martial strength of 89 was just shy of reaching the threshold for a first-class general, placing him at the peak of second-class generals.
Originally, there was no suspense in Yue Fei fighting Xu Rong—it should have been even easier than fighting Ju Yi.
But now that Xu Rong's skill had activated, things were different.
A martial strength of 94 was already at the pinnacle of first-class generals, just one step away from being a super-class general.
With a martial strength of 99, Yue Fei could easily dominate Ju Yi, who had a strength of 91, controlling the fight at will.
Against Xu Rong, who had a martial strength of 94, the gap was still large, and victory was certain.
However, it was no longer realistic for Yue Fei to toy with him as he did with Ju Yi.
As soon as they clashed, Yue Fei immediately felt that Xu Rong was putting up much more pressure than Ju Yi.
Several times, he even felt a sense of danger.
He began to see Xu Rong as a true opponent and fought him seriously.
Under Yue Fei's overwhelming strength, Xu Rong struggled to hold on.
He focused more on defense than attack and was defeated within just over thirty exchanges.
To most of the soldiers watching, Xu Rong was strong, but he didn't seem as brave as Ju Yi, yet he managed to last so long against Yue Fei.
However, Yuan Shu's generals and the dark unit captains with martial strengths over 80 saw things differently.
They had sharp eyes and knew that Yue Fei had just been fighting at full strength.
For Xu Rong to last more than thirty rounds against him meant his martial prowess was truly exceptional.
Ju Yi, in particular, was shocked—he had always thought Xu Rong's strength was below his own.
But today's fight against Yue Fei completely overturned his perception.
Since when did this guy become so strong?
Defeated, Xu Rong accepted the result with grace and said to Yue Fei,
"General Yue, your martial prowess is truly admirable.
I am not your match, and from now on, I shall strictly follow your commands."
Seeing Xu Rong's calm and composed demeanor, Yue Fei nodded inwardly.
Unshaken in adversity and undiscouraged by defeat—he was indeed a general with great potential.
Yue Fei responded warmly,
"I had to give my all to barely defeat you just now.
We will have plenty of time together in the future, so let's spar more when we get the chance."
Xu Rong gave Yue Fei a firm nod, fully acknowledging his qualities as a great leader.
It seemed that their lord truly knew how to pick the right people—he should never have doubted Yue Fei's abilities.
After the martial tournament, the bond between the generals became much stronger.
Yuan Shu took the opportunity to host a grand banquet, rewarding the army and—incidentally—adding to his 'bankruptcy quota.'
Though it wasn't much, even a little gain was still something, right?
From then on, Yue Fei was fully accepted by the generals, becoming the Grand Marshal of Wan Sheng Manor and overseeing all military affairs.
Each general also focused on training their troops rigorously.
A few days later, Yuan Shu summoned Yue Fei to his study.
Patting Yue Fei's shoulder, Yuan Shu asked,
"Pengju, now that you're overseeing the military of Wan Sheng Manor, are you getting used to it?"
Yue Fei smiled warmly and replied,
"Big Brother, all the generals here are outstanding.
Especially the Imperial Army commander—his strength is far above mine. Being the Grand Marshal is actually quite easy."
Yue Fei made it sound effortless, but Yuan Shu knew that overseeing the entire military was no simple task, involving many aspects.
Only someone with exceptionally high leadership ability, like Yue Fei, would find it easy.
Yuan Shu chuckled and asked,
"Pengju, be honest with me.
Watching the other generals train their troops—don't you feel tempted?"
Seeing every general commanding powerful forces, Yue Fei, of course, wanted to train his own army as well.
He said to Yuan Shu with some hesitation:
"Big brother, actually, I also have a lot of knowledge about military training.
But right now, I want to train a cavalry unit, and we don't have many warhorses in Wansheng Manor, so I thought I'd wait for an opportunity to bring this up with you later."
Yuan Shu leaned back in a chair he had exchanged from the system and said to Yue Fei:
"Lack of horses is not a problem. If we don't have enough, we'll just buy more. I know people who sell horses!"
Yue Fei pondered for a moment and asked:
"Big brother, if we are to train a cavalry unit, we will need a large number of horses.
Such a large number of warhorses must be very expensive. Do we have enough money to afford them?"
Hearing Yue Fei's words, Yuan Shu confidently replied:
"Maybe I can't guarantee other things, but when it comes to money, there's as much as we need.
Pengju, remember this—any problem that can be solved with money is not a problem at all. Got it?"
Seeing Yuan Shu's overwhelming confidence, Yue Fei thought to himself that his big brother was still the same as before—his habit of reckless spending hadn't changed at all.
He wanted to offer some advice, but after thinking about it, he decided against it.
Apart from being a spendthrift, his big brother had almost no other flaws.
Nobody is perfect, so he should be understanding.
Since Yuan Shu had already said that money wasn't an issue, Yue Fei shared his thoughts:
"Big brother, I want to establish a cavalry unit with both strong offensive and defensive capabilities.
This cavalry force will need at least 3,000 elite soldiers, along with 6,000 high-quality warhorses.
We also need to fully equip them with excellent weapons and armor."
The things Yue Fei mentioned were difficult for ordinary people to obtain.
Even for Yuan Shu, gathering all these resources was no small challenge.
However, thinking about the powerful Beiwei Army, he felt that all the effort would be worth it.
Yuan Shu said to Yue Fei, "I'll take care of the horses. In the meantime, you can start selecting soldiers from the young and strong men in the manor."
Yuan Shu had already decided where to buy the horses—he would go to Zhang Shiping and Su Shuang, those two rich fools.
If he mentioned Liu Bei's name to them, he would probably get a huge discount.
With everything at Wansheng Manor properly arranged, Yuan Shu took Shi Ah and his personal attendants back to Luoyang.
With Yue Fei and Xi Zhicai in charge of the manor, he had no worries.
After returning to Luoyang, his life quickly returned to normal—studying with Cai Yong every day, taking little Cai Wenji out to spend extravagantly, and making time to visit his uncle Wang Yun (though his real goal was the little Diaochan).
However, before Yuan Shu could enjoy a few days of peace, Cao Cao came looking for him.
In the early morning, Yuan Shu had just stepped out of Miss Zou Rong's room.
His steps were unsteady, clearly from overexertion.
At this moment, Yuan An suddenly came to report:
"Young master, Cao Mengde has come to visit. He is already waiting in your room."
Yuan Shu asked, "What is Cao Cao here for? And why did he go straight to my room?"
That bastard Cao Mengde sure is shameless—does he really think this place is his own home?