My older brother said I'm invincible.

Chapter 151 The All-Powerful Second Brother
As the two brothers rode their horses from the outskirts of the city, Li Shimin could not hide his joy and laughed all the way.

He was quite satisfied with today's results.

When the younger brother took out the imperial bow, the faces of those people changed. After a brief conversation, they stopped looking down on him and changed their way of addressing him. Finally, they stopped treating him like a child.

This is exactly the effect Li Shimin wanted. If I don't show you a few tricks up my sleeve, you'll think I'm still a child!

Li Shimin was in high spirits after successfully befriending these people.

Although these people were not high-ranking military officers and could not be compared with Chai Shao, Li Shimin was happy to befriend them. He could learn a lot from them, and if he needed to do something in the future, he could recruit them to his side.

These are all real officers. Ten officers can give you an army of several hundred men, and a hundred officers can give you an army of over a thousand men. If you can befriend a thousand officers... well, of course, all the officers in the Eagle Banner Prefecture in Loufan don't even add up to that many. But I'm not going to stay here forever; I can go elsewhere to make more friends later!
Li Shimin was also quite satisfied with his younger brother's performance.

Seeing that he was still somewhat confused, Li Shimin did not forget to give his younger brother a few pointers.

He said, “Xuanba, if you want to achieve great things, you need someone to help you. Look at these people, they are not necessarily worse than those noble sons. In fact, I think these people may be even stronger.”

“There are few sons of noble families like General Chai. Most of them are just good-for-nothings who can only get official positions through the protection of their fathers and grandfathers. There are many such people around you, but the best of those people just now were just big merchants. They were able to get to their current positions because of their abilities, but they can't go any higher because no one is promoting them.”

"Give them a chance, and they'll show their full strength. At that point, those noble sons will be nothing but trash."

“You shouldn’t be reserved. You should make more friends with people like that. I’m just a commoner now, but you already have a title. Many people are willing to rely on you. You actually have a better opportunity.”

Li Xuanba simply nodded slightly as he listened to Li Shimin's words.

"Thank you for your guidance, elder brother."

"Haha, you did a really good job today! You made your second brother proud! The thing you wanted, I actually prepared it yesterday. Come back to the manor with me, and I'll explain it to you in detail!"

Li Shimin hummed a tune as he led his younger brother back to the mansion at breakneck speed.

When the two arrived at his study, Li Shimin took out the thick maps and placed them in front of Li Xuanba. Li Xuanba could tell that these maps were drawn hastily and were not very complete. They did not include all the counties and prefectures, but the terrain and places marked were very directional.

“Look, this is Jingle. Go west to Xiurong, then Fenyang, Shouyang, and Pingcheng.”

Li Shimin's hand slowly moved down to Pingcheng. The cities and other towns along the way were not marked. These counties were obviously not from the same prefecture. He only roughly wrote down the locations of a few counties, and mostly the roads, the terrain on both sides, and the passes.

Li Shimin took out the second map and continued to explain to him, "Next, we will go to Liaoshan, then south to Zhibushan Road, to Licheng, then take the route through Shangdang, and head towards Baodushan."

He took out the third map. "The mountain road here leads all the way to Lingchuan. From Lingchuan, go down to the Taihang Mountains. Once you get there, you'll be close to your destination."

Li Xuanba looked at the maps in astonishment. "Brother, did you draw these yourself?"

"Otherwise what? Do you think your grandfather would have maps of this entire route?"

"What do you take me for? The Grand Chancellor of Hedong Circuit?"

"What happened to my brother?"

"Heh, that's why I told you not to stay indoors and in the car all the time, but to go out and move around more, right?"

"As we traveled, I kept observing. While you were sleeping, I was taking the knights around to check out the terrain. I wouldn't dare say I know the whole of Hedong like the back of my hand, but I will never forget the roads I've traveled."

"But this doesn't seem to be the route we've taken. We've never been through Shangdang before."

"Yes, I haven't been there either, but I know people who have. So, you have to make more friends."

Li Shimin laughed and pointed to the map in front of him, saying proudly, "Don't think this map is simple. I've thought it through carefully. First of all, I intentionally drew this map to be simple. Even someone who hasn't studied it can find their way to Taihang Mountain by following this map."

"After all, you don't know much about maps, so there's no need to draw anything too difficult."

"In addition, these roads are all major roads that I know well, which can be used by horse-drawn carriages. There are also large ferry crossings, so there is no need to unload the goods along the way."

“I even took a detour. If the convoy follows this route, it will be very difficult to find the real destination. They will generally assume that the destination is Shangdang.”

"And also, I've avoided all the checkpoints along the way, as well as the dangerous areas. I've even marked places with water sources suitable for resting, so we don't always have to go into the city. It'll be much more convenient no matter what we're transporting." Li Shimin nudged Li Xuanba with his elbow and asked excitedly, "How is it? How is it?"

Li Shimin was waiting for his younger brother's admiration and praise.

Li Shimin would never tell his younger brother that he had stayed up all night reading books and doing intensive study to get these maps, and even sought out some soldiers from the Yingyang Prefecture to find out some secrets. It took him two days to finally produce these things.

Li Shimin had studied maps in the past, and it was not a lie that he had checked the terrain along the way. However, making his own maps was different from stealing maps!
Mapmaking is an advanced skill. Even in Yingyang Prefecture, only high-ranking officers have the ability to survey terrain and create maps. Li Shimin suffered a lot to produce this rubbish, writing on several sheets of paper and cramming on his mapmaking skills.

But it was all worth it. As the older brother, I couldn't let my younger brother look down on me!
However, Li Xuanba did not praise him.

He seemed somewhat silent.

She then whispered, "My second brother must have suffered a lot to do all this for me."

Li Shimin waved his hand, "How difficult could it be? It's just a piece of cake."

"What has ever been difficult for me from childhood to adulthood?"

"Let alone making a map of Hedong, even making a map of the whole country would only take half an hour!"

Li Shimin was quite pleased.

Li Xuanba simply bowed his head in gratitude, saying, "Thank you, brother!"

Li Xuanba took the map, and Li Shimin saw him off. As they left the study, Li Xuanba looked towards the martial arts display in the courtyard. Previously, this was an empty space, but now it was filled with stone weights, stone locks, and even hammers.
Li Xuanba saw it when he came in, but he didn't ask about it because of the map.

At this moment, he finally asked, "Second Brother, are you also training in the manor?"

"Well, it's just something to do in my spare time. Why would I need to practice this? Lifting these stone loads is effortless; it's just a pastime."

"I see."

"Second Brother, if you're going to play around, be careful. These things are extremely dangerous."

"Ah."

"I just saw many classics in my second brother's study. If you need more, you can ask me; I have many more there too."

"Those are just for entertainment! Those books were given to you by Teacher Liu, how could you give them to others? You can read them yourself! I don't need any more books!"

Li Shimin then kicked the third son out, closed the door, and finally breathed a sigh of relief.

He glanced at the equipment in the yard and narrowed his eyes.

This kid is getting harder and harder to fool.

No, I need to keep trying!
Just as Li Shimin was making up his mind, a clap of thunder sounded outside the door.

"Dick!!!"

"Get out of here!!!"

Li Shimin was startled and quickly opened the door.

Li Jiancheng stared at him with wide eyes, his anger almost spitting fire.

"Big brother??"

Li Jiancheng strode over to him, grabbed him by the back of the neck, and shouted, "You brat! Why did you take the imperial bow with you today, Third Brother?!"

(End of this chapter)