Chapter 2: The military training ground of the mighty army, Part 4 of 5
Staring now at them, like before, without showing the slightest emotion, her face extremely indifferent, Gu Yun in a clear and resonant voice dismissively said: “After the warm-up exercise, you should have been able already to determine your capabilities and position, over the next fortnight, I’m your army trainer, my name’s Qing Mo, you may call me later boss or army trainer.”
As soon as her strong voice faded, she immediately noticed the soldiers frowning, they looked awkward, Gu Yun wondered, “What is the problem now?” Asking them to call her boss has she wronged them?
A young soldier standing beside Gu Yun whispered back: “Madam, this is unreasonable.” The army has a strict hierarchy, no one dares oversteps even a fraction, even though she is the general’s concubine.
Madam? Listening to his words Gu Yun immediately got goose bumps! Glaring at them with cold eyes, she snapped: “During the training, my words are commands!”
The crowd hesitated for a moment, finally all replied in unison: “Yes.” It’s only for two weeks anyway.
“Ge Jing Yun, Leng Xiao, step forward!”
Great waves inwardly played across the two pairs of eyes, what is this woman up to? Their minds bewildered, but not betraying anything on their faces, they strode forward, and went in front of the formation. While they were walking towards her, Gu Yun announced: “From now on, the group is divided into two teams, both of you have performed very well in the test, I appoint you as the captains of these two teams…”
Gu Yun has not yet finished talking, a low and deep male voice coldly cut in: “I’m not suitable to be a captain.”
Gu Yun gently raised her eyebrows, ignoring Leng Xiao she continued talking in a clear voice: “As a captain, you must be the best elite in the team, you not only need to face challenges from the team members, but you also have to lead the team to surmount the other team, therefore only then the most outstanding person, can become a captain.”
Gu Yun’s cold eyes swept once again towards Leng Xiao, the tone of her voice disdainful she asked: “Leng Xiao, you don’t want to be or you don’t dare to be?”
Leng Xiao remained silent, the expression on his face unchanged he stared back at her, the look on Gu Yun’s face is entirely chilly, yet her heart is quite glad, at last she finds a calm mind, a person who does not easily gets provoked. But such people are very prickly, they’re not easy to manage. Before her is a male, no more than twenty years old, his normally impassive eyes make him seem almost always surrounded by an aura a stranger cannot come close to. However, in this pair of cold eyes, Gu Yun finds fierce passion concealed underneath the inflexible coldness.
The corner of her lips gently raised, Gu Yun turned her back no longer looking at him, her face indifferent she said: “A soldier who does not want to be a soldiers’ leader is not a good soldier, if you do not want to be one, then hurry home, get married and have children, live a peaceful, settled life, you do not need to come here to suffer hardships. If you do not dare, leave quickly, I do not want to keep cowards here! Suitable, or unsuitable, do as you please.” Leng Xiao remained silent, Gu Yun did not compel him, the five hundred people in the forest were actually quiet, but after a long time the soldiers could not bear it anymore an uproar stirred up, that low, deep, indifferent male voice suddenly resounded “I am suitable.”
Gu Yun’s heart secretly rejoiced, no longer turning her head to look back at him, she proceeded to issue an order saying: “From this column, to the left of it is team one, the captain is Ge Jing Yun; to the right is team two, the captain is Leng Xiao, the two teams, listen up: Everybody squat down, hands clasped together behind the back.” The group was perplexed, but still did as commanded, the spectacle of several hundreds of squatting burly chaps packed within the green and lush forest, indeed was rather a bit funny and ridiculous to behold.
“Maintaining the squatting position, jump to move forward, the destination is the starting point in the forest where we embarked from before.”
After hearing this, the soldiers stared blankly for a moment, then immediately hot anger welled up in their hearts, what does she mean? Squatting on the ground both hands at the back jumping forward? What posture is this? The group squatting on the ground, did not budge the slightest bit, Gu Yun furrowed her brows, fiercely barked: “Execute the command!”
At this time, a young fellow who was not far from Gu Yun suddenly stood up, his tall body exuded deep anger, cried out: “Even though we lost to you a while ago, but then again how to say this, we are valiant warriors who fight and kill the enemy, you cannot humiliate us this way!”
Humiliate? Facing this uncomprehending obstinate group, fire gathered in Gu Yun’s chest, “this is the training! Obedience to commands is a fundamental duty of a soldier, if you cannot do this, you do not deserve to become soldiers! What valiant warriors are you spouting about? He who’s not a soldier get out of my sight immediately!”
“Leapfrog forward!” As soldiers, they have no choice! Gritting their teeth, both hands clasped behind, their hearts cursing Gu Yun, rashly and spitefully they proceeded to hop forward. In a moment, within the forest the five hundred Su family soldiers have turned into “frogs”, on the ground in an embarrassing position, peng, peng, jumping straight ahead! And in their wake, was a leisurely-looking woman with both her hands linked in her bosom.
Cursing me in your minds, right? Later I will not let you curse me!
From the foot of the mountain to the assembly point is a distance of at least three kilometers, for these young and healthy lads running to get there is naturally a cinch, but to leapfrog to reach the place demands their young lives! This type of exercise is equivalent to absolutely no less than twenty kilometers cross-country military campaign.
After jumping in less than one kilometer, the men who were in spitting anger a while ago were already tired and breathing heavily and chaotically. Ge Jing Yun has always been proud of his physical strength, but now he felt from top to bottom unusually hot and dry, his parched throat felt like burning up, inside his head is a growing roaring noise, his numb legs felt like they’re not his own. If he is already like this, it is needless to speak how the rest of them fared, the originally orderly team formation has been in disarray at this time, and many people lagged behind.
Sweat from his forehead dripped down to his eyes, Leng Xiao tried to wipe his eyes with his sleeves, his aching, swollen feet almost uncontrolled, he fell half kneeling on the ground.
“In this exercise have collapsed, who still deserve to be soldiers?”
“Get up, continue!” Behind them is that arrogant woman’s low voice, this voice has been provoking the hearts of all the men, even though right now everyone is tired and wishes to die, but nobody is willing to compromise a bit! Dying of exhaustion they have persisted!
It lasted for four hours[1], when all the soldiers leapfrogged and arrived to the patch of forest where they left from this morning, without exception, everyone collapsed to the ground, lying in disorder filling the ground, their complexion pale, and sweat streaming profusely from their bodies. Everyone is desperately trying to breathe, many are still giving vent to their anger, a few suffocating in their anger, in the pit of their stomachs there seemed to be a ball of blazing fire.
Leaning against a tree trunk, Leng Xiao also was struggling for breath, his eyes were staring straight not far away from the main culprit. She has not spoken. She was just quietly watching the worn-out soldiers on the ground. He could not make out what she was actually thinking, but she this time is totally different from her arrogant self a while ago.
After about a quarter of an hour, everyone finally has somewhat caught up his breath, but their hands because of repeated bracing on the ground several times were full of bloodstains, and their feet, have long been worn out terribly, they need not look, they know they’re full of blisters, let alone their severely sore legs, making it a little bit difficult for them to move about!
“Line up in formation!” This time the voice of Gu Yun to the ears of the soldiers practically seemed the sound of the devil winding around their ears.
Everyone was tired like a dead dog, their bodies were numb to pain! More than a few soldiers were lying on the ground and sleeping soundly. At this time they also stood up to line up, but only a hundred or more people. Gu Yun squinted her eyes to look, the present troops compared with to those this early morning, there’s practically a huge difference, utterly beaten, disorganized and lifeless appearance, but their eyes glaring at her, contrary to what one might expect were bright and full of expression.
The originally indifferent face of Gu Yun suddenly broke into laughter, “I know you certainly must hate me!”
As an answer she got even more vicious stares, their eyes full of raw hate.
How can there be such a crazy training method in this whole world! In the eyes of these soldiers, she was just humiliating them in order to torture them!
Gu Yun thought little of their hateful stares, “I do not mind your hate, the more you sweat during the training, the less you bleed in the future on the battlefield!
The “leapfrog” exercise that you think is just laughable and shameful, not only it can train your endurance, more importantly, it can greatly enhance the power of your legs, also improve balance and coordination of the entire body. Perhaps you will think that my brand of training is very strange, even unreasonable, but I just want you to obey an order first rather than questioning the order, even if there really are things unclear, you should first execute the command, then ask the reason in detail later.”
Everyone looked at one another, some had doubts in their minds, some were puzzled, there were a few who clearly understood, others did not quite believe her, but Gu Yun’s explanation somehow made their mood slightly better. If it was as she said, that she was not deliberately torturing them, then they can endure pain and hardship.
Seeing that they appeared more dead than alive, the training could not continue. Gu Yun took pity on them and gave them a break saying, “it’s just the first day of training, the physical activity must not be too excessive, we have enough for today, tomorrow at mao shi[2], we’ll assemble here.”
Physical activity was not too excessive? In a split second all the soldiers were struck dumb, they were almost completely crippled by her today, yet she’s still considering the exercise they had as not too excessive, in the coming two weeks, life looks bleak!
“Ge Jing Yun, Leng Xiao, head back to the camp.”
“Yes.” After some tugging and hauling, the two teams of soldiers eventually lined up in formation to return back to the camp. Watching their incessantly moaning and groaning backs, the corner of Gu Yun’s mouth perked up in delight, her mood cheerful she walked towards the General Manor, for tomorrow’s training program she needs to find Su Ren to help her prepare some stuff.
Drawing near the training ground, Gu Yun saw Su Yu standing in the middle of the soldiers, he was teaching them how to pierce using a spear, normally there’s nothing wrong at all with this exercise, if two armies face each other as enemies this skill can be quite useful, but he seemed to have forgotten that they will be competing in a night raid! Looking around the vicinity, Su Ren was nowhere to be found. Gu Yun did not stay long, from the perimeter of the training ground she went to the General Manor, and soon she found herself going to the place where she woke up the first time, in Lingyun Pavilion!
Who knew Su Ling’s courtyard is this close to the training ground, she was just about to pass by, when Gu Yun noticed the gate of the courtyard was just lightly closed, did Su Ling come back?
[1] two times; I debated whether to paraphrase this as two hours or four hours, but since in ancient China a time (shichen) covers a 2-hour period I think in this case the leapfrog march was so difficult that it took 4 hours for the majority to finish the 3 km-distance.
[2] Mao shi – between 5-7 am in the system of two-hour subdivisions used in ancient times in China