The Second Gift of Birthday

  It's been three years since I came to this world, and last month I successfully released the third-level magic spell "Teng Man", officially becoming a primary magician. (As long as you can release a first-level magic, you are a magic apprentice, able to release a third-level magic is a primary magician, able to release a fifth-level magic is an intermediate magician, able to release a seventh-level magic is an advanced magician)

  The price was being beaten by my father and locked up for a month. Today is my third birthday, also the day of release from lockdown. I got up early, practiced a set of Tai Chi in the yard, washed up, then went to my grandfather's yard where we had breakfast together as a family. The house is too big, it took me half a day to run from my yard to my grandfather's with my three-year-old legs, I secretly made up my mind that I must find something with wheels later on.

  "Good morning everyone!" I exclaimed as I rushed into the dining room where Grandfather, Mother, Father and four elder brothers were.

  "Sit down, our little 'hero'," Grandpa said with a smile.

  His words made everyone in the room burst out laughing, "At such a young age, you're already saving the beauty, what will happen when you grow up?" My mother added fuel to the fire, completely ignoring my red face, and everyone laughed even harder.

  When everyone had finished laughing, Father said seriously: "Kid, I don't object to heroic rescues, but you've gone a bit too far this time. You beat up the Fifth Prince and six of the Ishihara family's kids so badly they're all severely injured. Your abilities are too outstanding among your peers, and you use them without knowing when to hold back. I hope this month's confinement will be a profound lesson for you!"

  "Was it necessary to use such a big 'bear palm' to slap my butt? You're the Sword Saint, after all!" I still can't help but feel resentful about that painful experience. As a master of my generation, I've always been the one doing the hitting, never the one being hit. When have I ever suffered such a huge loss, and on top of that, I couldn't even find an excuse for it? It's really frustrating!

  "You stinky brat! How dare you say that? Seven five- or six-year-olds called you out and used vines to poke dozens of small holes in your body, and you were poisoned and bled all over the place! If it weren't for your mother treating you quickly, you wouldn't have died but would have been left with permanent scars. You're too cruel! The king was so angry his face turned green. If you weren't my son, your head would have been chopped off ten times by now!" Father thundered.

  "You also know they're seven? And all five or six years old? I'm only three! You just see the blood on them, how about the sticks all over the ground? If not for my magic training breaking through in a moment of desperation, before the king could behead me, those kids would have beaten me to a pulp! Besides, didn't I save two princesses? Both are the king's children, why such a huge difference in treatment?"

  "Those two princesses are the king's illegitimate daughters, without any royal titles, and nobody takes them seriously. But the fifth prince is the only son of the queen from the Ishihara family, so he is naturally deeply loved!" Mother said: "Okay, don't mention it anymore, tell mom how you did it?"

  "What's going on?" I asked innocently.

  "Third-level magic instant release! This is something that only advanced magicians can do, but you're just a beginner!" Mother said.

  Can't tell her about the Taoist stuff, can only continue to pretend to be silly and say: "How do I know? I just saw a few bad boys waving wooden sticks rushing towards me, my heart was anxious and I released that magic, I only knew it was called Vine Art afterwards! Maybe because I'm a genius!"

  "How is it that your vines still have poisonous thorns? And although the number of vines is relatively small and thin, they are extremely tough. I had to use a lot of strength to get those few children you wrapped up like dumplings out! The mother asked: "You should know that the lethal power of this magic I used is no less than yours! I am a magic guide after all!"

  "Genius, I can only say I'm a genius! Mom!" I shamelessly said.

  "Never mind, don't force him! Do you expect a three-year-old child to answer magical questions for a magician?" Grandfather said, helping me out.

  "Alright, I'm a bit anxious too. Today's your birthday, eat up and go take a look at your birthday present!" Mom said.

  "Thanks, Mom!" I said happily. Finally passed a level.

  "There's one more thing, you'll be a magician in the future, but as a member of the Dragon family, you'll always have the opportunity to go to battle. You should learn about military strategy and combat with your brothers, understood?" Father said.

  "I'm a weak and feeble magician, you want me to take up arms and go to the battlefield?" I said in discontent. Attending classes is absolutely a waste of time for me, especially military strategy - having spent so much time with Athena, the goddess of war, discussing troop deployments and battles, how could I possibly be bad at fighting? Besides, I was born in a chaotic era (the end of Yuan and beginning of Ming) and had painstakingly studied the Three Strategies and Six Tactics, Sun Tzu's Art of War... do you think I need your teachings? With that effort, wouldn't it be better for me to practice my divine skills instead?

  "Who says mages can't go to the battlefield? The commander of the Snake Kiss Army, one of the four great generals, Feng* Xius is a dark magic user." Father said: "The children of our Dragon family will definitely go to the battlefield. Since the establishment of the Qinglong Army 600 years ago, there has never been an exception. If you don't study hard now, what will you do when you go to the battlefield in the future? How can you command a battle?"

  "Are you saying I just need to command and we'll be fine?" I asked.

  "Not bad, as a magician you will be directing from now on, there won't be many chances for direct combat!" Father said.

  "That's good, I think I can command battles now, no need to learn anymore." I said loudly. In the past few years, apart from practicing my skills, I've been reading books, mainly on humanities and history, of course, also some military strategies. As a military family, we don't lack military books. To be honest, I think these military books are just average. The tactics in this world's wars aren't many, similar to the medieval wars in the West, where both sides line up their troops and charge at each other, whoever has more people and is not afraid to die wins. Of course, sometimes they use some small tactics like luring the enemy or surrounding them. I don't think much of them.

  "What are you bragging about? You think you know how to fight? My war horse can climb city walls!" Father said disdainfully.

  "This isn't necessarily true, he borrowed many military books from me to read, maybe he really can do it?" Grandfather said: "Alright, after you finish eating, come to my place for a game of chess, whoever loses goes to class. How about that? Isn't grandfather being fair?"

  "Fair? Grandpa is absolutely fair!" I said happily. For a roughneck like my father who only knows how to charge forward, I can easily deal with him using some tricks.

  "Should I still go to class even if I lost?" Father hesitated.

  "Up! You still have the face to ask! If you can't even beat a three-year-old, shouldn't you be studying hard?" Grandfather said angrily.

  My brothers also joined in the excitement, they usually practiced and attended classes, making Father very busy. Under their urging, we quickly finished breakfast and came to Grandfather's war room together. The military exercise required my father and me to be in two small rooms of the war room, using the same map, our commands were given to Grandfather, while Grandfather told us about the information on the battlefield.

  "Now I declare the situation on the battlefield. The battlefield is in the Kastel Ridge area of the Qinglong Army Corps, the time is September 1st, both sides have 50,000 light cavalry, 100,000 infantry and 5,000 heavy cavalry, choose your own type of infantry, whoever annihilates the opponent or captures the opponent's camp wins, let's start now." Grandfather said.

  I carefully observed the map, and our two camps are more than 50 miles apart, with three roads in between. The entire battlefield is densely forested, a temperate deciduous forest, not very dense, but can be traversed on horseback. It's no problem to hide thousands of troops and horses.

  I ordered 50,000 archers, 30,000 long spear soldiers, and 20,000 sword shield soldiers. I commanded 30,000 light cavalry to bring ten days' worth of supplies, take the nearest road, advance fifteen kilometers, and then hide in the mountains. Then, I ordered 100,000 infantry to go up the mountain, cut down trees, and make rolling logs. I also had people dig traps in front of our camp.

  Our camp is located on higher ground, with a small river on one side, so we don't have to worry about running out of water, and it's easy to defend but hard to attack. It's much better than my father's camp downstream. I suspect that Grandfather intentionally gave me an advantageous position.

  After waiting for three days, my father finally arrived, probably because he was afraid of being ambushed. He brought 100,000 troops this time, leaving 50,000 infantry behind in the old house, and the rest were all here. After arriving, he carefully set up camp and conducted a probing attack on the second day. I deliberately displayed all the flags of our troops (the 30,000 people who left had also left their flags), creating the illusion that all my troops were present.

  Sure enough, he fell for it, thinking that all my troops were surrounded here. After two days of probing attacks, he brought in an additional 45,000 reinforcements. Then, he launched a large-scale attack. His attack was conventional and lacked creativity, with fake attacks on two sides and a main attack on one side. I used infantry, rolling logs, and traps to block him for three days.

  Before the fourth day arrived, my 30,000 ambushing troops had already captured his old nest.

  "This can't be! Didn't you tell me his troops were all within my encirclement?" Father roared at Grandfather.

  "I only told you that his tent capacity is for 150,000 people, and also the number of troops and flags are not less. In fact, your scouts can only tell you so much, and his camp is by the water, you only surrounded three sides, although it's impossible to sneak past you with a large army, but a few communication soldiers can still pass through unnoticed." Grandfather explained: "He had hidden 30,000 light cavalry in the mountains from the beginning. You didn't give orders to carefully search both sides of the mountain ridge. You were too careless!"

  "I didn't think he was so cunning! Damn it, who did he learn from?" Father complained.

  "It's probably from those books, if so, he is undoubtedly a military genius! Grandfather smiled and said: "I think I will take special care of this little grandson in the future."

  I don't feel anything about this hollow victory, but my four brothers are all excited and loudly shouted to go with father to the upper room. The angry father kicked each of them out one by one. He also felt embarrassed to stay here, so he quickly found an excuse to run away. Only I, mom and grandpa were left.

  "Xiao Wu, you're really Mom's pride! This little eagle is the birthday gift your father and I gave you. Soon, your aunt will send someone to take you to the palace, she also wants to give you a birthday gift! You play with Grandpa for a while first, Mom still has things to deal with at the merchant association. Father, I'll take my leave!" Mother said.

  "Go ahead!" Grandpa said: "I want to have a good talk with that guy."

  I teased the little eagle handed over by my mother and said: "Goodbye, mom."

  After mother left, I looked at this black hawk that had just grown feathers and was still not very good at flying, a bold idea flashed through my mind!