Many of the new recruits had seen what happened yesterday, and some had even had nightmares about it. Now, seeing Black Whirlwind charging at them with bared teeth, their pupils contracted and their hearts nearly stopped, terrified of being bitten. The new recruits took off like their feet were greased, screaming as they ran. Just moments ago they'd been saying they couldn't go on and couldn't run another step, but now they were moving so fast they left afterimages, their shoes nearly flying off.
The training ground erupted into chaos. Even the neighboring unit came over to see what was going on.
Guaizai watched as some of the new recruits cried while running, while Black Whirlwind and the others barked behind them, thoroughly enjoying their scaring game. Black Whirlwind loved playing like this with Guaizai. Hearing the new recruits wailing, Guaizai covered his mouth and giggled.
After two more laps, Fang Zichen finally ordered Black Whirlwind to stop.
The new recruits could barely catch their breath. Their chests ached, burning as if splitting apart. They were utterly exhausted and collapsed limply onto the ground.
Fang Zichen's face was stern, his voice cold and deep: "Starting tomorrow, we'll run five laps. If any of you dares to say you can't make it, either I'll have Black Whirlwind 'supervise' you, or you can pack your things and go home. This place doesn't keep deadweight."
The new recruits murmured weakly, not daring to speak.
Five laps. That was really tough, but...
The food here was just too good. Back home, they got two meals a day and often not even enough to fill their bellies. At the end of the year when grain was tight, they'd go down to just one meal a day.
Here, they ate their fill and ate well—mornings were steamed buns, an egg, and a bowl of bone broth, and lunch was even better: oily stir-fried vegetables with a bit of meat in them.
The lodging was good too. Even though over a dozen men shared one room, and at first they'd slept on bamboo mats laid right on the dirt floor, later the prefect had ordered every carpenter shop in Hezhou to work through the night and build bunk beds. The beds had two levels and weren't very wide, but they were comfortable to sleep on. After that, even more people could fit in each room. Sometimes it made things a little awkward, but the food alone was worth it—and on top of that, they got paid. They didn't want to go back.
Five laps was tiring, sure, but it was doable if they gritted their teeth.
They couldn't go home. This place was too good. Every day they didn't have to think about anything—just follow orders and train. That was enough.
Shi Linjie and the Qin family soldiers all wore expressions of disapproval, but before any of them could speak, Fang Zichen continued.
"Was this how you trained back in the day?"
"Huh?"
"You got to rest whenever you said you were tired?"
No way.
Back in those days, training was harsh beyond measure. If they got a move wrong or just couldn't pick it up, the veteran in charge would kick them on the spot. They'd been beaten and yelled at more times than they could count.
But some people were just slow learners! Not everyone could pick things up after seeing them once. And a journey couldn't be finished in a single step—it took time, step by step.
They'd been beaten and cursed at, treated like animals, and it made them angry. Now Fang Zichen had put them in charge of training others, and they had no experience at it. But while they'd never trained anyone, they'd been trained themselves—they could at least imitate what they'd seen. Shi Linjie, however, wouldn't agree. He didn't want to be as harsh as the old veterans who'd trained them, treating the recruits like they weren't human.
Shi Linjie was the oldest. He'd looked after the other Qin family soldiers back in the day, and they were close. When they were assigned together, they listened to whatever Shi Linjie said.
They thought they were being humane, but Fang Zichen didn't see it that way.
What he wanted was a disciplined army that fought fiercely and won every battle—not a bunch of smooth-talkers who slacked off.
He was feeding them well, pouring a huge sum of silver into this, and he wasn't doing it to raise a bunch of good-for-nothings.
"You're being 'humane' today? Will the enemy be 'humane' with them on the battlefield? Can they really not manage five laps? They just ran them, didn't they? People have unlimited potential—they just need a little pressure to bring it out. They break through their limits again and again, reaching heights they never thought possible, and that's what makes them stronger than ordinary men. That's the whole point of training. My son has been training for two months and can already run six li. Can't they even measure up to a child?"
Most of these new recruits were conscripted from villages—hadn't they all done hard labor? If they were pampered young masters, then yes, their starting point would be lower. But these were farm men who'd done hard labor every single day of their lives; they already had a huge physical advantage over the average person. A normal man could run two laps. So after a whole month of training, this was all they could manage with three laps—had they really been putting in the effort?
The new recruits hung their heads in shame, unable to meet his gaze.
People are prone to laziness.
Every time they got tired, they'd instinctively want to rest—and Shi Linjie was an easy pushover.
Now that the truth had been laid bare, they didn't dare say a word.
Fang Zichen swept his gaze across the faces of the Qin family soldiers one by one. "I didn't bring you here to be humane. Train them exactly the way you were trained. If you can't do that, then you can go back too."
The words sounded ruthless, but not one of the Qin soldiers spoke up.
Because when they thought about it, there was truth in them.
Were they really doing the new recruits any favors by going soft today?
On the battlefield, swords and arrows had no eyes. Only solid skills could keep them alive.
The forty men sent here were private soldiers of the Qin family—but they weren't the elite or the strongest.
Hezhou only had a local uprising; there was no need to deploy the best troops. Shi Linjie wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed, but he was obedient, loyal, and a good fighter. These forty men could take on a hundred if it came down to it.
Besides, the political situation in the court was unclear, and the Qin family didn't dare send out their finest soldiers.
Fang Zichen had staged this whole scene to show Shi Linjie where the new recruits' limits really were.
With a bit of grit and perseverance, five laps weren't actually a problem—they could finish them. But Shi Linjie, the moment they complained of being tired, let them rest. And the other Qin soldiers all followed his lead...
The recruits in the neighboring training zone could now run five laps without breaking a sweat or even breathing hard. Their stamina was up, and they'd already moved on to practicing with cold weapons and combat techniques.
Shi Linjie simply wasn't cut out to be a leader. Both groups were new recruits, yet those others had advanced so quickly while his men were still stuck in the mud. Had he ever reflected on that?
Of course he had.
The reason the neighboring recruits improved so fast was that Zhu Xiaozhi and the others were cracking whips behind them every day.
There was no need to be that harsh. A meal had to be eaten one bite at a time. He'd been trained that way himself, and he knew the pain it brought.
That was what he'd thought before. But now, facing Fang Zichen, it suddenly clicked. He finally understood what the old veterans had always meant when they said, "Only through suffering can you rise above others."
In the end, Fang Zichen transferred Zhu Xiaozhi—the one Shi Linjie had called heartless—over to partner with Shi Linjie.
Zhu Xiaozhi had no "humanity," which was perfect—they'd complement each other.
He also made some adjustments to the training zones. Before he knew it, the busy days had slipped by and it was already the eighth of the month. The New Year had come and gone.
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