Transmigrated To Ancient Time: Thrive With An Auction System!

Chapter 477: Choosing Disciples

After reading his disciple’s letter, Yu Wenzhou thought for a long time before he picked up his brush and wrote the reply.

His reply was only one word: Wait.

The current political situation was too turbulent, and the Emperor’s health was not as good as usual. If the Emperor learned about this news, he might use force to obtain the so-called health-preserving dishes.

For someone to be able to obtain such miraculous ingredients, their background was not simple.

Great Yan couldn’t afford to offend someone powerful and make more enemies, given its current situation. So, all they could do right now was wait for the right time.

After he sealed the envelope, Yu Wenzhou called his trusted aide and ordered him to send the letter as soon as possible.

At the same time, Ling Shi’er and his brothers had gathered a total of 579 children from the towns and villages around Northern City.

These children were either orphans, beggars, or from families that were too poor to feed them. So, their families sold them as servants in exchange for food or money.

Ling Shi’er had received orders from his Master to take in these children. Due to the high price of supplies, they rarely buy the children with silver. Instead, they often used grain, flour, vegetables, eggs, and meat.

Only the children bought from the broker were bought with silver.

They spent a total of 89 taels of silver, 278 jin of grain, 165 jin of flour, 320 eggs, 30 jin of vegetables, and 112 jin of meat.

At this moment, they were staying at a village located near the 2nd mountain of the Five Dragon Mountain. This village was abandoned by the villagers during the barbarians’ attack a few years ago.

This village was called Wang Family Village back then. But after Ling Shi’er and his brothers took over this place, they changed its name to Gui Village.

During lunch, Ling Shi’er said, “We are running out of grain. After lunch, I will go back to report to our Master. The rest of you can start checking the children’s constitutions first and assign them to the most suitable departments.”

Everyone nodded in agreement. “Understood.”

After the meal, Ling Shi’er took out all of the water, food, and horse fodder from his spatial ring, leaving enough for him to eat during travel.

While he was on his way back to the Northeast City, Ling Shiliu and his brothers gathered all the children in the open area located at the center of the village.

Since the number of children was more than they expected, they expanded the village and rebuilt it. All of the buildings had been demolished and rebuilt according to the Master’s design.

The central area was a circular open field with a diameter of 100 meters. The area was large enough for everyone to do their training.

Surrounding the training area were two-story houses used as management offices, large halls used as the school, clinic, library, cafeteria, granaries, and three-story houses as the Department leaders’ houses. This area was called the First Ring Area.

Dividing the First Ring Area and the Second Ring Area was a 5-meter-wide road. This road was currently paved with stones and rammed to ensure that there would be no puddles during the rainy season.

The houses built in the Second Ring Area would be allocated to the children who reached the top 25 on the ranking list in each Department. But for now, all the children were assigned to live in these houses. One house was shared by 20 children.

So far, they had only finished half of the Second Ring Area. When they finished, they would start building the Third Ring Area, where the houses would be used to accommodate the children ranked 26th to 100th.

The design was simple. The closer they stayed to the central area, the higher their rank on the list, and the better the treatment they received from the Master.

While the children gathered in the open field, the workers hired by Ling Shi’er couldn’t help but crane their necks to see what was going on.

They were curious but didn’t dare to overstep their boundaries, fearing that they would lose this lucrative work. So, after they saw that the children were treated well by this group of strangers, they continued with their work.

Ignoring the workers’ curiosity, Ling Jiu stood on the tall platform with his hands clasped behind his back. He scanned the children standing below in neat lines.

When they first took these children in, they were thinner than sick monkeys. But after they had been fed good food for a few days, they were no longer as weak as before.

Most of the children didn’t dare to look directly at him. Some of them continued peeking at him and their surroundings, and a small number of children met his gaze directly.

Based on this alone, he pointed at the children who met his gaze and said, “All of you, come forward.”

There were a total of 59 children.

“From today onwards, all of you will be my disciples. You will follow me to train in martial arts and military tactics.”

The moment the children heard his words, they were stunned.

They had guessed that they were taken in to be trained as guards, so learning martial arts was a given. But military tactics were something only the noble families were allowed to learn. Not to mention that they needed to learn how to read and write, each military book was a priceless treasure.

Noticing their shock, Ling Jiu said, “If you are unwilling to learn, you can go back and rejoin the lines.”

As soon as they heard this, the children returned to their senses and dropped to their knees. “Greetings, Shifu!”

After saying this, they kowtowed 3 times to Ling Jiu before walking to his side and standing behind him.

When Ling Jiu finished his selection, the rest of the Ling squad members started to pick the children as their disciples.

Those who were not picked were sent to the school to learn how to read and write. If they performed well, they might be chosen and trained under the Department leaders.