After getting news of her hubby's death, Mingzhu was heartbroken, but thanks to the support of Tang Feng and other family friends, she was able to recover. Instead of wallowing in grief, she decided that she must live for her son Lin Feng, if not for herself.

It turns out that the attack of the Hulnora that time was not a simple affair. An army of 10,000 Hu was planning to raze a few towns of Han, but they were stucked in Taijan for 15 days. The defense of Taijan allowed the nearby Han settlements to gather an army of 20,000 Han and they were able to push back the raiders of Hu into the grassland. The victory of the empire that day would be enough to deter the Hu for at least a decade or two, according to some Imperial Scholars.

As for the Feng surnamed Lin, he was, according to the people of Taijan, the perfect neighbor's kid.

"Why you so stupid? Look at little Lin Feng next door, he's X years old, to find food every day he walks 20 miles uphill both ways, on one foot. His other foot was starting a business."

"You wanna be an oiran? I tell you what I tell all aspiring oiran? Venti, Latte with caramel please! Look at Lin Feng, he's already a doctor, and he's not even X years old."

"Why you cant be a tenths as good as Lin Feng? You cant even line up to buy soy sauce or hold the torch well, but you eat more rice than the entire town combined!"

"Failure! I've been teaching you for 5 years now, but you can't even fight as well as Lin Feng. Look at the lions and tigers he fought. They work for him now!"

"What the hell! I will send you to Lin Feng!"

Speaking of which, Lin Feng when he was one year old is already able to run, jump, and do calisthenics. He can also speak Han, Hulnora and the Taijan's regional dialect fluently.

When he was 2, he can already ride horses. He has also mastered how to calculate accounts during this age.

When he was 3, he took up carpentry and blacksmithing like a fish in water.

When he was 4, he can already hold his own in martial arts against a grown man.

When he was 5, he was already going out of the town, either looking for medicinal herbs, hunting prey, scouting the countryside, or doing whatever job that needs to be done outside the town.

When he was 6, he's already a trusted sponger of the Tang family. His coat now buttons up on many duties, including but not limited to militia leader, manor steward, intelligence officer, military adviser, doctor, blacksmith, engineer and chief trainer. By this time, he also has a few businesses, a caravan and he even has a gang in the nearby city.

When he was 7, he was already stronger than his godfather, who was supposed to be the strongest man in the town, a newly advanced real general. But due to his age and size, he is still inferior and wont be able to do much in a real fight against a person who knows martial arts and is only slightly weaker than him.

The godfather, Tang Feng is a general. General's are experts able to command a group of soldiers. Besides generals, there are other titles in the Han dynasty, but they are usually separated into 2 broad groups, the martial artists practitioners and the ordinary men.

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For ordinary men who don't or can't train any martial arts cheat, they are separated into 18 different ranks. The first 4 ranks are waste, trash, child, flowery fists embroidery legs. There usually are no people whose cultivation are lower than child, but even if there is, they should become outcasts real fast, if they dont improve their strength.

After growing up, the child becomes an adult or man rank, and this rank is considered as civilians or militia, and are further separated into five different ranks depending on their power level. Small man, good man, big man, strong man and great man. They are all 3rd class fighters.

When a man decides to not live for himself, but to die for some great cause, he becomes a soldier, either fighting for nation, family or whatever he decides is worth dying for. Which is also further separated into small soldier, big soldier, strong soldier and great soldier ranks. They are all 2nd class fighters.

Beyond the soldier rank is another bottleneck, and those who have surpassed this bottleneck is called the guard. These men have distinguished themselves from the ranks of ordinary soldiers with their own ability and they usually give their allegiance to a general or scholar. The ranks of the guard are filled with, young guards, middle guards, old guards. They are all 1st class fighters. (Not to be confused with guard which is synonymous to watchmen. Everytime we refer to the third class fighter, we add the for emphasis, like "the guard". And everytime we refer to watchmen or other stuff that includes guarding, just guard will suffice)

There is also another rank after the guard, and is considered as the epitome of ordinary men. This rank is called by the many as soldier king, but the nobility scoff at that name, for how can there be a king among soldiers. So these nobles would collect these deadmen and form an elite squad called the deathguard. They are Experts and should be treated as such.

Equivalent to the soldier is the civil official, but the ranking for officials is not as set in stone, for if there is a first in martial arts, then literary has no second.

Now, for the martial arts practitioner, they are under a different ranking system. The weakest of them are as strong if not stronger than a small man. They usually have 9-10 ranks to cultivate before being called a general or scholar or hero or other equivalent, but its on a case to case basis depending on their cheats or manuals.

Those who have cultivated the first 4 ranks are 3rd class martial fighters, those who have cultivated 5 to 7 ranks are 2nd class martial fighters, those who cultivated 8-10 ranks are 1st class martial fighters. After that is the general or hero level and these Martial Experts are the ones that make the news in jianghu or determine the grand scheme of things. Not all heroes or generals are equal tho, some have cultivated more than others so its only right if these people are stronger.

Now, back to Lin Feng. After the imperial city has learned of Tang Feng advancing into general, they sent him an imperial decree. They are mobilizing an army of 100,000 to the Western border and they want Tang Feng to accompany the army and in the process undergo training under a more qualified general. Wanting to be of use to the court, Tang Feng agreed to the dispatch.

Not one to shirk away from a challenge, Lin Feng begged his mother and godfather to also join the expedition.

"Mom, godfather, please, I want to go to!"

"But you're only 8 years old!"

"When I was 8, I was 25!!"

"???"

"...."

"Please, this place is too boring, I've already learned what I can from everybody here."

"Yelu Mingzhu, Im not one to meddle with your affairs, but let me say a few things. Lin Feng is already mature. He needs to make his own decisions already. Besides, I swore in the name of the Tang family that no harm shall befall Lin Feng."

"Okay! But you need to drink your milk and eat your vegetables okay? Don't stay up all night, and don't talk to strangers, ..."

"Mom, I'm an adult already!"

"You'll always be a child to me xiao Feng Feng."

"Uuugh!"

Both man and child turned red after hearing Yelu Mingzhu's endearment. Before his mother can say anything else, Lin Feng already ran away and is already deciding the arrangements for his responsibilities. Not one to dally, Tang Feng also excused himself.