I am not a seventh-generation descendant of Lord Wu'an from the Qin Dynasty.

The next day.

Yongcheng, the military drill ground.

King Zheng of Qin, clad in black dragon armor, lightly leaped onto a thousand-mile-long black dragon steed.

Followed by.

Eight hundred spirited young warriors from Shanglin Garden, dressed in glossy black brocade robes, leaped onto their carefully selected warhorses from Longxi.

They will accompany King Zheng of Qin back to Xianyang to receive the thousand elite Qin soldiers and armor promised by Lü Buwei, as well as master workshops for making armor, crossbows, and ships.

Of course, there are also the necessary supplies of money and food for thousands of people, as well as the wear and tear of weapons and materials.

Bai Qi stood on the high platform and began to hum a song: "In the west lies the Great Qin, rising like the sun, sing!"

Eight hundred people chanted in unison, their chests thumping.

"In the west lies the Great Qin, rising like the sun, its Wei River flowing mightily, sweeping away all heroes."

King Zheng of Qin took one last look at Bai Qi, and with the first roar of a dragon, said, "Seventh Prince, I will be waiting for you in Xianyang."

"drive!"

The black steed leaped out.

The horses' hooves thundered, and the youths were like dragons!

"Banners flutter in the wind, obscuring the sun and sky; iron armor gleams, and a long wind rips through the earth!"

Meng Tian, ​​Gai Nie, and eight hundred other young men followed closely on horseback, humming and singing loudly.

"The mighty Qin! Reclaim our lost lands!"

"Blood stains our battle robes, yet our spirit soars to the heavens!"

"Having broken through countless formidable passes, our horses will drink from the Yellow River to the east!"

"Within the six directions, who can rival him?"

"The world will be unified, and only Qin Feng will achieve that!"

"..."

Bai Qi watched as the Qin cavalry broke through the dawn, galloping away into the dust and smoke of Xianyang.

He turned his gaze back to the approximately 1118 remaining auxiliary guards within the training ground and shouted.

"Riding alongside the king, galloping across Xianyang!"

Are you envious?

Silence reigned in the Yongcheng training ground. Everyone's eyes were red with envy, but they gritted their teeth and remained silent.

Aren't you envious? How could you not! Such a glorious moment is the dream of every young man of the Qin Dynasty.

He wields the weapon for the king, his horse galloping like a dragon!

But now, who can understand the regret of having it so close yet missing it?

Bai Qi is envious, very envious!

Bai Qi roared, "But it is because of you that Bai Qi, the Chief Inspector of Military Affairs at Shanglin Garden, missed the opportunity to ride alongside the King and gallop across Xianyang."

"Remember this feeling! Remember this humiliation!" Bai Qi's roar continued.

"Remember that feeling—that feeling of being just one step away from riding alongside the king, leaping across Xianyang, that person is you!"

"Turn that humiliation into motivation for training, and that regret into ambition to become stronger."

"Next month, the eight schools in Shanglin will adopt a bottom-ranking elimination system to dismiss 80 people and enter the left and right guard positions."

The young elite guards on either side, heads bowed, all lit up: "The opportunity has arrived!"

Bai Qi raised a finger, pointing at the rising sun on the horizon, and roared, "But the eight hundred warriors of Shanglin are not a place for trash to stay!"

"You possess the finest warhorses, the strongest armor, the sharpest Qin swords, the best meals... everything the best of Qin!"

"But the elimination process will be the most brutal!"

"Getting into the top eight schools in Shanglin is just the starting point for you. The goal you must pursue is to ensure that you don't fall below the cutoff line of the bottom ten every month."

"Now, tell Bai Qi, do you want to ride alongside the King and gallop across Xianyang?"

"Yes! Yes! Yes!"

The thunderous roar of nearly a thousand people, emanating from the depths of their hearts, almost dispelled the morning mist.

"So, what are you going to do now?"

"Train! Train! Train!"

"Then what are you waiting for?" Bai Qihu roared, his eyes wide with fury. "Waiting for dinner?"

The thousand-strong guards on the left and right quickly dispersed, and the sounds of swords clashing and spears wielding filled the air.

"Drink up! Kill!"

"Get moving! Find your best teammates to form a team! Find the strongest warriors who can lead you into the Eighth School of Shanglin."

"Follow in his footsteps, intensify your training, cooperate with his tactics, and ensure that all members of your five-person team pass the end-of-month assessment."

Bai Qi, his face stern, surveyed the area. Seeing someone whose legs were weak and whose sword strikes were slow, he kicked them. "Didn't you eat? Speak louder!"

"Yes, I haven't eaten!"

A commotion immediately erupted among the thousands of teenagers.

Bai Qi said with a dark face, "Do you think the enemy cares whether you've eaten or not on the battlefield? Or are you planning to tell them to wait until you've eaten before we start fighting?!"

The group of shameless teenagers choked on their words.

Training continues.

Shouts of battle rose again.

A short while later.

Seeing that people were starting to look tired, Bai Qi held up a finger and changed the subject, encouraging them.

"Your Majesty is merciful; all soldiers in Shanglin Garden, regardless of rank or rank, receive the same treatment."

"Food, clothing, daily necessities, soldiers, armor, crossbows, seasonal fruits and vegetables, and fine clothes for spring and autumn..."

"When I'm tired, I touch the shiny black brocade robe I'm wearing; when I'm hungry, I think about the meat and fruits I'll eat later; when I'm exhausted, I think about the glorious moments of riding alongside the king."

"None of these will be left there for you!"

"Sweat more in peacetime, bleed less in wartime!"

"If they can't even endure hunger now, what will they do in wartime? Gnaw on the enemy's neck?!"

"Bai Qizi once again solemnly promised that the training of troops at Shanglin Garden would only focus on one thing: 'Fairness, fairness, and fucking fairness!'"

"As long as you're strong enough, as long as you're number one in everything, you can have Bai Qi's current position as the Chief Military Officer of Shanglin Garden!"

"A soldier who doesn't want to be a general isn't a good soldier, and similarly, a Shanglin elite soldier who doesn't want to be a sergeant isn't the best Shanglin elite soldier of our Great Qin!"

"Train until you drop dead, as long as you don't die!"

Just as Bai Qi was enthusiastically spitting out saliva, the clanging of the kitchen's gong signaling the start of mealtimes finally rang out.

Bai Qi looked at the group of teenagers whose energy and spirit had visibly slackened, and said, living up to everyone's expectations.

"Dinner's ready!"

With a cheer, everyone rushed into the cafeteria.

As the saying goes, "A young man of sixteen can eat his father out of house and home."

A starving boy will always have the utmost enthusiasm for dry rice.

As usual, Bai Qi was at the end of the line, picked up a wooden lunchbox, and filled it with meat, vegetables, soup, and fruit in turn.

Then, I walked to the center of the cafeteria, put down my tray, sat down, and straightened my back.

"Whose food are we eating?"

"Eat the King's Rice!"

"Whose clothes are you wearing?"

"Wear the king's robes!"

"For whom do you serve?"

"I will serve the King, even unto death!"

"Have a meal!"

"Yes, Principal!"

Amidst the clattering of spoons, all that could be seen were figures with their heads down, wolfing down their food.

A strange sense of pleasure appeared on Bai Qi's lips as he ate heartily and at a steady pace.

Compared to others, he had more meat on his plate and a higher mountain of rice.

When the cups and plates were in disarray and the rice was almost gone, everyone let out a satisfied burp.

Li Si, dressed in simple clothes, led a group of scholars, pushing and shoving along pieces of dark brown panels as they approached.

Bai Qi nodded at him.

"After the meal, give yourselves three-quarters of an hour to digest. Each of you will be assigned a task: those who can read will study, and those who can recite military texts will recite them!"

Amidst a chorus of feeble wails, a group of burly men from Guanzhong, skilled enough to wield swords with dazzling skill, stood in the air.

Everyone held a wooden stick as thick as a finger, and each sought out a scholar or teacher to trace Qin Dynasty seal script characters on the ground, which were vaguely resembling the crawling of birds and insects.

Bai Qi found Li Si and said with dissatisfaction, "You've been struggling with simplifying the Qin script for over ten days, can't you hurry up?"

"Look at this progress in literacy. If we want people to know a thousand characters, when will we ever reach that point?"

With a bitter expression, Li Si took out a scroll of bamboo slips from his sleeve, opened his mouth, and then silently handed it over.

Bai Qi scattered with a whoosh, glanced at the familiar square seal script, and raised an eyebrow.

Then, under Li Si's extremely pained gaze, it was thrown back again.

"Not concise enough, revise it again, revise it again!"

Li Si pursed her lips, looking aggrieved as she recounted her hardships: "It's already the seventeenth edition!"

He really wanted to retort, "All you ever think about is changing things! If you're so capable, why don't you do it yourself!"

But immediately, Bai Qi patted him on the shoulder and comforted him, "Li Si, think about it, this square seal script of Qin should be promoted throughout the country."

"In the future, as the Qin Dynasty expands eastward and manages to conquer the six states, the entire world will have to use the script you created. What a magnificent world it will be then..."

Unexpectedly, Li Si, feeling bloated from eating too much flatbread, wasn't buying it at all. He waved his hand away, pushed Li Si's arm, and asked with a sheepish look in his eyes, "Okay, tell me, what do you want to change?"

Bai Qi's smile remained unchanged. "The characters are almost simplified, but they're missing phonetic symbols."

"In that case, you can use the elegant language of the seven states and add the phonetic symbols commonly used in Guanzhong. This time, it will definitely pass on the first try."

"You said the same thing seventeen times before!"

Li Si glanced at him resentfully, then silently lowered his head and continued compiling the new Qin square small seal script, striving for universal use across the seven states and a unified script for the entire world.

At that moment, Soul Exterminator, clad in black leather armor, arrived and immediately announced, "Empress Dowager, I summon you!"

"Summoned again?"

Bai Qi's brows furrowed, and in front of Li Si's perked-up ears, he weakly waved his hand: "Okay, I'll say I understand!"

Mi Hun nodded, and his figure vanished in an instant.

Li Si asked curiously, "Aren't you going?"

Bai Qi looked surprised. "It's still broad daylight. Li Si, what are you thinking?!"

Li Si: "Uh..."

Bai Qi stroked his chin, "That cunning old man, could he be thinking of taking a shortcut too?"