C33

After these few days of observation, Ling Zhang felt that the standards of the family guards were too uneven. Some of them truely had some abilities, and some were just here to earn their pay without doing much work.

It was impossible to count on them to protect the entire Ling Family while facing the rampant bandits and State Guard.

His first thought was to clear out those guards who had no ability and muddled along all the day, leaving behind those who were truly capable.

The second idea was to find a way to train a strong team of guards!

He knew very little about the warcraft. It was impossible to train the guards like soldiers, but he could add up something else — the formation his mother had taught him!

There were Eight-Trigram military formation to trap the enemy in ancient times, and it was always passed down as legends, this made Ling Zhang, who had remembered a lot of knowledge about formations, want to try it out.

It was impossible to achieve a miracle like the Eight-Trigram military formation, but it should be possible to strengthen the guards' fighting capabilities and make the Ling Family's guards stronger.

He only had a rough idea of what kind of formation he was going to use and how to train them.

In addition, besides getting rid of the useless ones, he also had to test the character of the guards. He had to ensure that these guards were able to keep this a secret and would not reveal it.

Because of this thought, Ling Zhang tried his best to recall all of the knowledge he had regarding formations in his memories. When he was free, he would lock himself in his study and draw all of these formations. Fortunately, he did not know that the memories regarding formations in his mind could be so clear, as if he had memorized them yesterday.

Unfortunately, all he knew was what he had in memories. All of the books his mother had left behind had been completely destroyed in the fire that his father lit.

"Eldest Young Master, Second Master is back!"

The servant's report brought Ling Zhang back from his deep thoughts.

Ling Zhang stood up, and left his own courtyard to find Ling Zhaowen.

"Second Uncle, have you bribed for a favour to all the officials escorting Jia Yuanling?" After entering the study, the uncle and nephew dismissed the servants and closed the door for discussion.

Ling Zhaowen nodded his head: "We have everything prepared, the officials escorting Jia Yuanling are all trusted subordinates of the Lord Tao, it took some effort to incite them to do it."

"There shouldn't be any problems, right?" When Ling Zhang heard that they were Tao Feng's trusted aides, he was a little worried.

Ling Zhaowen chuckled, "Don't worry, there won't be any problems. Have you forgotten? Tao Feng is currently on the same side as us, even if Tao Feng finds out, he would just turn a blind eye and never reveal that.”

"When Jia family and Zhang Chong are at loggerheads, not only will it benefit us, it will also benefit Tao Feng."

It wasn't because Ling Zhang couldn't figure out the way, but because of his past life's bitter experience, that he had become more wary of anyone other than his own true friends.

Tao Feng was currently on the same side as them, but who knew if Tao Feng would change his mind in the future?

After hearing his worries, Ling Zhaowen seemed to be gratified, and said: "Your cautious thoughts are correct, we really cannot completely trust Tao Feng, so when I came into contact with these officials, I also used some roundabout way, we understood each other clearly, but no one was able to gain anything if something happens."

Ling Zhang knew that Ling Zhaowen had already planned for this, he heaved a sigh of relief.

Ling Zhaowen patted his shoulder, "I will never let Jia family off after they doing such a shameless thing. You just wait. Right, I heard that you have been following the Head of the Courtyard Wang these past few days to exercise? "

"I think that my current body is too weak and wants to learn some chinese boxing to strengthen my body." Ling Zhang replied.

"Well done, let Mao Mao train with you guys as well." Ling Zhaowen naturally believed that everything his nephew did was right, and his own son had to follow his nephew to learn well. He immediately expressed his desire for Ling Maomao to be on good terms with him, and go train in martial arts together with him.

Ling Zhang:...

"Second Uncle, Mao Mao is still young, he still has enough time to train in a few years."

Ling Maomao now had to get up early to go to school. If he had to get up two hours earlier to practice boxing, the little guy would probably be all tears.

Ling Zhaowen also suddenly remembered that his son was a little young, coughed lightly, and said leniently: "Then just wait a few more years."

Ling Maomao, who was completely unaware, did not know that he almost had to get up before the sun rises and to practice his fist arts every day.

...

"Father, Jia Zhong has gone to the cell." Inside the Prefecture Yamen, Tao Yi rushed into Tao Feng's study.

Tao Feng put down the book in his hand, "Has the arrangement of the cells been completed?"

"Yes." Tao Yi nodded.

In Prefecture Yamen's prison cell.

Jia Zhong's face was filled with dissatisfaction as he passed through multiple levels of checkpoints before entering the cell where his nephew was imprisoned. Seeing Jia Yuanling in a white prison uniform, staying in a dirty and chaotic cell with an ill face as if he was on the verge of death, Jia Zhong immediately scolded head of prison in anger, "How dare you! How dare you lock my nephew in this kind of cell!"

"Lord Jia, all the cells here are the same." head of prison said with a smile.

"In that case, you should also clean up …"

"Second Uncle!" Hearing Jia Zhong's voice, Jia Yuanling's cloudy eyes finally lit up, he struggled to climb up, and rushed over, grabbing onto the iron fence, he shouted out of joy: "Second Uncle, are you here to save me!?"

Jia Zhong signaled Jia Yuanling with his eyes to be patient before he said to the head of prison, "Open the prison door."

Head of prison was a little hesitant, "This, this is not in accordance with the rules."

"I told you to open it! Do you still want to live!? " Jia Zhong kicked directly at the head of prison, causing him to stagger.

Head of prison frowned in pain, anger flashing past his eyes, he lowered his head and suppressed his anger as he opened the cell's door. When Jia Zhong entered, he glared at the uncle and nephew pair inside the cell coldly and resentfully.

"Second Uncle, can I go out now?!" Jia Yuanling grabbed Jia Zhong's arm tightly and asked in anticipation.

Jia Zhong looked at his nephew's current appearance and felt his heart ache, but Jia Yuanling kept grabbing onto his arm which hurt him, causing his face turning cold: "Jia Yuanling, calm down."

Jia Yuanling retracted his hand after getting reprimanded, but still asked: "Second Uncle? Second Uncle, can I go out now? "

It could be seen that the torture Jia Yuanling had gone through during these few days of imprisonment was not light, and he no longer looked as arrogant as he did in the court.

"Calm down, I'm here to save you." Jia Zhong had no choice but to console him.

Hearing that, Jia Yuanling was about to rush out of the prison, thinking that he had been saved right now.

Jia Zhong was so frightened that he quickly stopped him and shouted in a low voice: "What are you doing?"

"Didn't you say you were going to save me?" Jia Yuanling was furious that he was stopped.

"Not now! And if you don't calm down now, you won't be able to think of leaving this place." Jia Zhong scolded.

Hearing Jia Zhong's threat, Jia Yuanling calmed down and looked at him.

Seeing that he had finally calmed down, Jia Zhong went closer to him and said in a low voice: "After a period of time, there will be an official escorting you to the border. I have already bribed the officer escorting you, they will take good care of you on the way, they won't let you suffer any grievances. Once you reach the border, the Commander Zhang will send people to secretly bring you back to the Tan Yang. "

Jia Yuanling had originally wanted to oppose when hearing that he would still be exiled, but only calmed down after hearing that he would be secretly brought back to the Tan Yang.

"Will he even save me? That day in the court, he did not even care about my life and death, and even ruthlessly kicked me! " Speaking of Zhang Chong, Jia Yuanling clenched his teeth with a sinister look on his face.

"That's because you, you are stupid, Commander Zhang was in a hurry to save you in the first place, who would have known that you would admit your crimes. At that time, Commander Zhang was also in a difficult situation, if he were not careful, it would arouse the anger of the people, and the situation would become unmanageable." Jia Zhong said coldly.

Jia Yuanling clenched his teeth, with his expression becoming even more sinister than before, "It's all Ling Zhang's fault, I won't let him off!"

"We won't let Ling Family go, right now you better take care of my wounds. There's a long way to go to escort you, you better not fall on the road, understand?" Jia Zhong said.

"I can't stay in this place for even a moment longer, how can I nurse my wound?" Jia Yuanling said.

"In a while, I will bribe some guards and let them give you a better prison cell, and then I will have a doctor come to see you." Jia Zhong said.

Jia Yuanling's expression became slightly calmer.

"Right, you are here. Have you seen the two people who were imprisoned here with their legs broken?" Jia Zhong asked.

"Over there." Jia Yuanling pointed in a direction, and was slightly far away from his cell, "Who are they? Why are you looking for them? "

"Don't worry about that. Just wait for the doctor to take care of your injuries." Jia Zhong said.

Jia Yuanling tightly clenched his hands, and did not speak any further.

...

"Master, Young Master, Jia Zhong has left."

Once Jia Zhong left, someone from the cell reported to Tao Feng and Tao Yi.

"How is it, what did he say to Jia Yuanling?" Tao Yi asked.

"He said that Zhang Chong will rescue Jia Yuanling when he arrives at the destination of the exile and bring him back to the Tan Yang." The person replied.

"As expected." Tao Yi said.

Tao Feng looked at the person who reported them, and said: "Where are the two servants with broken legs, has Jia Zhong come into contact with them?"

“Yes, he did. But the other two were tortured in advance and fainted. Jia Zhong did not manage to find anything.” The person replied.

"Emm, well done. There's nothing else, you can go now." Tao Feng said.

"I will leave now." The person left Tao Feng's study.

Tao Yi immediately said to Tao Feng: "Father, it seems like Ling Zhaowen did not guess wrong, Zhang Chong will really save Jia Yuanling."

"It’s Jia family's mine, Zhang Chong does not want to give up." Tao Feng said.

"What do we do then, let Zhang Chong and the Jia family get together again?" Tao Yi was unhappy.

Tao Feng sneered, "Impossible."

"Father?" Tao Yi looked at him in puzzlement.

"Ling Zhaowen has already take action, and is waiting for Jia Yuanling to set out." Tao Feng said.

Tao Yi was shocked, "Ling Family already made a move? No, a family like the Ling Family actually went all out to kill Jia Yuanling? "

Tao Feng let out a long sigh: "Perhaps not previous Ling Family, but now Ling Family has reached the point where they have to take action, otherwise, the ones dying would be them."