Preparation for War

[Xian Ye]

Xian smiled slightly to himself as he neared Xiang Ping, a place that he felt might become his new home after joining Gongsun Zan. It was magnificent to him, Not overly large like Luo Yang, but perfect. Leading the twenty men he brought with him to help carry the supplies, Xian started looking for a suitable merchant to sell them to, as well as a blacksmith who might be able to help him acquire proper weapons and armor for his troops. For the Yellow Turbans purposes, They'd been fine with whatever they had been able to find, but now they needed to represent him and his lord. Spotting a merchant who was selling grain, rice, and various other foodstuffs, Xian made his way over to him and worked out a deal over the next ten minutes, All the supplies he'd brought for four hundred gold. It wouldn't buy the best of armor or weapons, but it would do for now. Bowing his head, He thanked the man as his men began to unload the supplies in his shop before gathering his gold and making his way back into the marketplace.

Xian cursed quietly to himself at the bustling marketplace, not enjoying the feeling of being trapped in a crowd of peasants and pedestrians. "Fan out, Find a blacksmith who's selling weapons or armor that we can afford in enough numbers. I don't care if it's thick silk, or leather breastplates. Find me a blacksmith, and meet back here in an hour." He muttered to his men, before moving off to the side of the road where he was out of the bustle and could simply watch a simple life. An hour later, his men returned, two of them having found blacksmiths, one selling armor and the other weapons. Dividing his gold into halves, He motioned his most seasoned men and instructed them to gather enough weapons and armor for the men and meet him at the gate. He sent the rest of his men with them, ten to each blacksmith, to help carry the supplies to the gate where he had arranged carts to carry the supplies back to his men, and where they would meet up with him.

After nearly two hours of constant streams of weapons and armor being piled into carts, They'd finally completed their task and Xian motioned for them to head out, back to where he had camped his men nearly a mile from the city. He hadn't got the best of quality, yet all his men would be properly armed and armored now, Which would help save their lives. He wondered how Yan was fairing with the men, and training the few who had arms and armor allready.

[Xian Ye]

Yan was getting angry...He didn't have a drop of wine and he had to put up with these... these.... imbeciles! How Xian expected him to turn this ragged outfit into a proper army, He had no idea. The few that had weapons out of the group mostly had swords and spears, and they barely knew how to use them! One of them nearly took his own foot off, with a spear! How do you nearly cut a foot off with a spear? It's a pointed weapon, not edged, so Yan had beaten him aroud the head with it, and told him to use it properly! Snarling again, He screamed at them to get back into the "Arrow" formation, when they looked more like a rectangle...Dear lord how was he supposed to get threw this without any wine? He was nearly ready to start smashing skulls until they finally got it, No matter how few were left to get it! It was going to take several days of 18 hours of training, but they'd get it or they'd regret it. That's how he looked at it, atleast, whether Xian would agree or not....Well Xian wasn't here. They were getting better, but they were so used to just charging en masse screaming defiance that formations were almost taboo to them.

He sat down, resting his giant mace against his shoulder and watched them for a second, before focusing on the horsemen and the riders Lord Zan had left with them, and how much better they seemed to be fairing. It wasn't fair that they got to trained the reasonably experienced group, or that they had several people to help them with the training! They were all working together, almost flawlessly in the simple formations, having some trouble grasping the more advanced ones that required rapid change of direction, but either way, they shouldn't be understanding and implementing it so easily! He noticed that whenever their horses got tired, The riders would have them dismount and would explain the formations and the proper way to hold a spear for maximum damage, and a number of other things which would help them to be more capable. Looking back at his own troop, He sighed as he told them to take a ten minute break, and wondered when Xian would get back, and if he would have any wine left when he did.

[Xian Ye]

Sighing contently as the camp finally came into sight, Xian's brow cocked as he saw Yan waving his mace and screaming at his men, and the riders sitting off to the side laughing at them while maintaining a near perfect "Wedge" formation. It was ludicrous, It was idiotic, and it was hilarious! Chuckling to himself, Xian waved the men who'd been with him over and sent them to gather the peasants so they could begin training and finding them weapons that suited them out of what they had. Xian sat with his back against a rock as he watched his men be given arms and armor, and being pushed into a rough formation, Sighing at how they barely seemed to be able to stand in a straight line. Standing He moved over towards them and started pushing them into formation and making sure they weren't about to injure themselves with their weapons before turning and ordering them to follow him without breaking formation. Leading them on a march around the camp, Xian was surprised when only a few fell out of formation, and most of them were the younger members. Stopping, Xian turned back to them and smiled, before breaking them into groups of four or five and telling them to wrap their weapons and practice against their comrades, to develop some semblance of skill with their weapons.

After almost an hour of them senselessly beating on each other, Xian wanted to smack himself. Half of them would be out of commission for tomorrow, and the rest were all showing some hope of becoming skilled some day if they kept up this kind of training. Muttering several curses, Xian called a end to the training for the day and told them to get ready. As he was heading back to his tent, Xian stopped as he saw a man riding towardsXiang Ping, Quickly yelling for one of his riders to catch up to him so he could hear the news himself before heading into his own tent and waited for the rider to be brought to him. When he was brought in, Xian was shocked, the man looked like he'd been riding non-stop for days. "By the gods man, What could be so urgent your riding so hard this far North? Your lucky you didn't kill your horse or yourself at this rate!" He ordered his men to fetch Yan and Haesten and to bring some water and food for the rider as he settled more. The rider gulped the water as soon as it was put infront of him and only waited to tear into the food long enough to deliver his message. "I was sent by Lord He Jin...The Yellow Turbans and Zhang Jiao are moving to attack Luo Yang. I've been sent to gather as many men from the North as possible to reinforce Luo Yang." Xian glanced at Yan and Haesten who'd arrived as the man delivered his message, and he nodded to them before standing and issueing orders for the men to be readied to move tomorrow, Lord Gongsun Zan would be there and Xian would serve and protect his lord! Thanking the messenger, Xian offered him a fresh horse before sending him on to Xiang Ping as he moved to prepare his men for a fast march, Time was limited now.