Lu Bu: My wife comes from two thousand years later

Although Dong Zhuo valued Lu Bu, he didn't know Lu Bu's character well enough to trust him enough to hand over 2,000 cavalrymen to him.

The two military commanders assigned to Lu Bu were both people Dong Zhuo trusted. One was Wu Shan, a member of Wu's maternal family, and the other was Han Lai, Dong Zhuo's nephew-in-law.

Lu Bu looked at the two men and asked, "Which one is Wu Dan?"

A young man with a fair complexion, about twenty years old, stepped forward and said, "I am your subordinate!"

"Ok!"

Lu Bu nodded, then looked at another tall, bearded, middle-aged man, "This must be Han Lai!"

"It's my subordinate!"

Lu Bu glanced at the two men's resumes. "You two have served the lord for a long time, and you previously participated in the Yellow Turban Rebellion in Jizhou. You must be very familiar with military affairs. Since the lord has assigned you two to my service, we will be one from now on. I'm new here, so if I make any mistakes, I hope you can correct me."

Wu Dan and the other two were also looking at Lu Bu. These days, the army has been talking about Lu Bu's inhuman deeds of killing people everywhere in Wangyuan. They have long wanted to see this man, and when they saw him today, they were not disappointed. This Sima Lu was tall and majestic, with the majestic aura of a general, but he spoke humbly and politely.

Wu Shan quickly said, "I dare not! The lord asked the two of us to help Sima manage the army. We dare not make corrections. If there is really a problem, we can only make a suggestion. Sima still has the final say on what to do."

Han Lai said casually, "Since Sima said so, I will speak my mind in the future. I am a rough man and will not mince words. If my words are not pleasant to the ears, please do not blame me."

Lu Bu laughed heartily and said, "Don't blame me, I just like straightforward people."

Lu Bu also introduced another military officer under his command, Li Su, to the two of them. The three of them knew each other. Lu Bu raised his hand to signal them to take a seat and get down to business.

"I'm sure you've heard about the competition in two months. As the saying goes, knowing yourself and your enemy ensures victory in a hundred battles."

As he spoke, he looked at Wu Shan and Han Lai, "I'm new to the army and don't know anything about the Sima and the military officers. Could you two tell me about them?"

He paused and added, "Just tell me what's known to everyone, like his martial arts skills, his personality, his strengths and weaknesses. As for private matters, I'm not interested in knowing."

Before these two came, they had received orders from Dong Zhuo to help Lu Bu wholeheartedly. Since Lu Bu said so, there was nothing to hide.

Wu Shan spoke first, "Then let me tell you about Niu Sima and his other three men. Niu Sima's martial arts skills are average, and he's a fairly honest man, but he's a bit timid. He's a big believer in divination, and he's not particularly good at military affairs. However, his three generals are quite capable, especially Li Que, who is reserved and has a methodical command of his troops. Guo Si, a horse thief, is a skilled warrior, though a bit impulsive, and also good at commanding troops. Zhang Ji is also a brave and skilled warrior."

Lü Bu nodded and looked at Han Lai. Han Lai said, "Then let me talk about Hu Sima. However, the following is just my personal opinion and may not be completely correct. Please consider it."

He cleared his throat and said, "I think Hu Sima doesn't have much real ability, but he is quite good at unconventional methods. I heard that he proposed this bet. Sima Lu, you must be careful that he may plot against you in secret."

Lu Bu nodded slightly. Hu Zhen was so brazen in making the bet that he must have a backup plan.

Han Lai continued, "Also, he easily gets carried away by success. Every time he wins a battle, he gets so proud that he forgets his last name."

Lu Bu knew Hu Zhen quite well, so although Han Lai's words were exaggerated, he was right.

"As for his three generals, Hua Xiong has the same temperament as his subordinates, always speaking his mind. That's why he and Sima Hu have some issues, but no matter how they disagree, he's still Sima Hu's subordinate. He'll definitely give it his all this time. He's a skilled warrior, capable of taking on one or two hundred men. Sima Lu, you have to find a way to subdue him in the competition, otherwise we'll most likely lose."

Lu Bu was well aware of Hua Xiong's martial arts. If Li Su competed with Hua Xiong, he would only be able to last about thirty or forty rounds. He just didn't know how skilled Han Lai and Wu Shan were. It seemed that he would have to give them a try later.

"There are also Li Meng and Wang Fang. Their martial arts skills and abilities are average. Li Meng and Hu Zhen are pretty much the same type, and Wang Fang doesn't have much of an opinion; she just follows the crowd. That's all I know!"

"Ok!"

Lu Bu nodded. "You said it very well. I appreciate your advice!"

The reason why he asked this question was not to understand Hu Zhen and Niu Fu, but mainly to see what kind of people Wu Dan and Han Lai were. Now it seems that Wu Dan is more tactful and what he said is not harmful. Han Lai looks rough, but in fact he is meticulous.

They chatted for a while about other military matters. Seeing that it was getting late, Lu Bu asked them to go back first and gather at the training ground tomorrow.

There were two training grounds in Dong Zhuo's military camp outside the city. One was an infantry training ground on the east side of the main camp. The ground was relatively small, only about the size of two or three modern football fields. The other was a cavalry training ground on the west side of the camp. It was five times larger than the infantry ground.

Most of the soldiers under Dong Yue and Duan Wei had gone home on leave, and more than half of the soldiers under Niu Fu and Hu Zhen were also absent. At this time, only more than 3,000 newly recruited Qiang soldiers gathered on the parade ground.

Dong Zhuo allocated two thousand men to Lu Bu and asked him to take them to the infantry field for training. The remaining thousand or so were divided equally between Niu Fu and Hu Zhen. The cavalry field was temporarily divided into two for the two of them to use. After arranging these things, Dong Zhuo returned to the city to concentrate on raising children, and only waited two months to see the training results of these three people.

This competition set by Dong Zhuo seemed extremely boring to Lu Bu. The marching speed was just a comparison, and as for charging and breaking the formation, everyone knew it was just an exercise. The extremely important factor of morale was lacking during the battle. Even if they were defeated, there would be no rout or surrender. At most, the promised month's food and wages would increase the soldiers' desire to win.

However, no matter how boring it was, Lu Bu's inherent competitive spirit would not allow him to lose to those two idiots, Hu Zhen and Niu Fu, even if it was just a game.

Lu Bu divided the two thousand men into four teams. He led one team himself, but gave the five hundred men to Gao Shun for command. The other three teams were led by Li Su, Wu Shan and Han Lai.

Gao Shun was rather flattered by Lü Bu's move. "I'm only a garrison commander. How can I command five hundred men?"

Lu Bu laughed and said, "You were able to command two or three thousand men on the battlefield that day, so why are you afraid of these five hundred?"

Gao Shun said, "If Sima hadn't helped me that day, I wouldn't have been able to command those people. Now that I'm not in the right position, they won't obey my orders."

"Don't worry about that. I'll be watching over you during this time! I plan to train these people mainly in foot combat and breaking formations, so you're the most suitable person to hand them over to. Zi Yan, are you afraid of the hard work and unwilling to help me?"

Hearing Lü Bu say this, Gao Shun clasped his fists and saluted, "Shun will not refuse even if he dies!"

Lu Bu patted him on the shoulder and returned to the topic. "You must be familiar with these Qiang people. They are brave but lack discipline. If the tide is favorable, they are like tigers descending from the mountains, unstoppable. But if they encounter even the slightest setback, they will immediately flee like frightened rabbits."

This shortcoming of the Qiang soldiers would not have any impact on the exercise, but Lu Bu trained them not only for that competition, but also for future battlefields.

Logically speaking, this group of people is now led by Lu Bu. As long as they don't encounter an enemy that is too powerful or several times larger than themselves, the possibility of them fleeing is extremely low, but the necessary discipline and teamwork are still necessary.

The biggest difference between soldiers and bandits is obedience. Lu Bu doesn't want his soldiers to be a group of bandits with strong lethality but little obedience to orders, so training them to obey orders unconditionally is the most important thing at the moment.

Gao Shun nodded in agreement, "I understand what to do."

"Yes! I believe in Zi Yan's ability."

After assigning the soldiers to each military officer, the commander gave a speech and then began formal training.

This group of Qiang soldiers were frightened by Lu Bu's unparalleled power on the battlefield last time. Now they were assigned to Lu Bu's subordinates. They were both afraid and a little excited. This Sima Lu was able to break the army of thousands of people with a hundred people, and in the end he chased down thousands of them with only dozens of people. Wouldn't he be able to break the army of tens of thousands with a thousand of them in the future?

As long as they thought about following Lu Bu, they would also be able to chase tens of thousands of people, and the eyes of these Qiang soldiers looking at Lu Bu were full of fanaticism.

With fear and admiration, after several days of observation, Lu Bu found that this group of people were more obedient than he had imagined.

The soldiers were obedient, so Lü Bu, the Sima, had less trouble. In addition, with Gao Shun, an expert in training soldiers, Lü Bu was basically not worried about the competition in two months.

In Lu Bu's view, all conspiracies and tricks are vulnerable in the face of absolute strength.