Chapter 3: The evil army trainer, Part 5 of 5
Those who heard her hurriedly stood up, several men who must have been too tired didn’t hear her command continued to lie down, sleeping soundly on the grass, Gu Yun immediately lifted her leg, ruthlessly kicked their bellies, for a moment anguished wailing resounded through everywhere.
With great difficulty, finally the formation was completed, Gu Yun angrily said: “From now on, if lining up in formation exceeds ten seconds, everybody gives me a hundred tree trunk kicks!”
Just how long is ten seconds? Everyone looked at each other in blank horror, but nobody at this time dared to mess with a tigress, in short, the farther one is from her, the better!
Pointing to the front to a mountain peak not far from them, Gu Yun clearly said: “There is a cliff wall ahead in three miles, Ge Jing Yun, you take fifty people with you and transport the ropes, the rest run ahead.”
“Yes.” This time, no one dared hesitate to question what she wanted.
Watching the troops running farther and farther, Han Shu hesitated for a moment, got up and followed them. He also wanted to know, why she demanded so many ropes, what are these for?
Very soon, they came to the cliff wall which Gu Yun indicated. It is part of the rear of the mountain, along the side of its peak, the mountain peak is not at all high, about sixty or seventy feet, but the rock is extremely steep, appearing to be generally upright, but the mountain rock is uneven and irregular, even trees could not grow on the rock wall.
All the men who ran stopped and stood still under the cliff wall, their minds anxious that Gu Yun once again came up with another strange method of training them, their hearts both somewhat fearful, but also inexplicably somewhat excited.
Gu Yun did not let them guess for too long, pointing to the smooth, steep rock wall, she asked: “who can climb up with bare hands, step out of the line.”
With bare hands? The group sucked in a lump of cold air, looking again at the bare rock wall not even seeing any blades of grass, they cannot help but be stunned, this – is impossible! Unless one is an exceptional person with nearly outstanding qinggong[1] skills, they are but ordinary folks who do not have this ability.
A baffled Han Shu also glanced towards Gu Yun, does she intend to kill them? Although not too high, but to fall down from this height can also be fatal! There was deathly stillness amid the soldiers, after this calmness, indeed people stepped out of the formation and walked over.
Needless to say Ge Jing Yun and Leng Xiao were naturally among them, they were also followed behind by several young lads, observing them as they came forward, everyone has a well-built physique, no wonder they dared to come out to try.
Twenty people. Gu Yun covertly counted, her face did not show any slightest amount of delight, looking furious, Gu Yun faced them and said: “Everyone pick a rope to use.”
Twenty people, each holding a rope. Gu Yun pointed to two exceptionally lush trees on the hilltop, thick and sturdy branches of the old trees have already extended beyond the rock wall, and said: “By yourselves you think of a way, holding the other end of the rope pass it through the branch of the tree on top, I will leave it up to you.”
Through the bough? In their hands is a hemp rope, thick as a thumb, tough and durable but very soft, how can it pass through the tree branch sixty or seventy feet high above?
Gu Yun did not go and watched them, she just silently stood aside.
Ge Jing Yun raised his head and examined carefully the altitude, suddenly he moved towards the bottom of the cliff, clutching tightly the end of the rope, he began a circular motion to fling up the rope.
Gu Yun inwardly sighed, he would like to fling up the rope with the force of inertia, the rope is so light, his arm strength must be very strong for this job. Sure enough, after trying a dozen times, Ge Jing Yun released the rope, like a silver snake it indeed flew and wound around the branch, and slowly it fell down.
He succeeded, but it does not mean that other people can use this method to throw the rope up. After contemplating for a while Leng Xiao went to a pile of rubble under the rock wall, found a fist-sized stone, tying one end of the rope to the stone, with force he flung up, the stone with the rope easily passing through a branch, fell down.
The corner of Gu Yun’s lips gently raised, not bad, she likes people who are resourceful.
Seeing Leng Xiao’s method is much easier, the others followed suit, and soon, the rest of them have passed through their ropes to the branch on top, the matter finally turned over in Gu Yun’s hands.
She made them strap one end of the ropes to their waists, under the cliff they were busily getting ready to climb. Gu Yun handed over the other end of the ropes to the waiting soldiers below, she explained: “You do not need to exert effort to pull them, as long as you grip tight the ropes, and if they aren’t careful and accidentally fall down, you then pull tight the rope to protect them.”
“Yes.”
After attending well to all security preparations, Gu Yun faced the cliff wall, then to the twenty people below she loudly ordered: “Upwards.”
Obviously a lot of them overestimated their own strength, not even climbed up a third of the rock, there have been already four or five people who fell down, and those who were able to continue up with great difficulty were also slow as ants.
Gu Yun watched Ge Jing Yun, she thought he has such very strong arms, he ought to be the fastest one, she was mistaken after all, it was Leng Xiao who was the fastest. His step is light, not only he’s extremely nimble but also his coordination is particularly good, almost approaching the top of the hill, he surprisingly stepped on a protruding rock, leaped on it to go up, is this the legendary qinggong?
Again she looked at Ge Jing Yun, his arms are strong, his pace is steady, although a tad slow, but he is truly climbing up.
After an hour, everyone was finally back on the ground, only nine people were able to complete the process of climbing! With only nine men! Gu Yun’s face was black, her eyes glinted cold, they anticipated at once there’s going to be big trouble. Sure enough, Gu Yun stood before the crowd, pointing to a group of men tall as a mountain she bellowed out: “five hundred people! Five hundred people, but only nine people ascended successfully, if the enemy camp is in the escarpment above, how do you then kill the enemy?”
Each and every one bowed his head low in response to her.
Turning around to fix her gaze to those who although have climbed the summit, but were so slow almost like tortoise, Gu Yun scolded them, saying: “You, you, and you. The distance is even less than a hundred feet high, climbing took an hour, if you were launching a surprise attack to the enemy, at this speed you were long discovered by them, if the enemy hurls down boulders, pours hot oil, do you think you’ll survive?”
Several pairs of rueful eyes answered Gu Yun.
Gu Yun walked over to the side of Ge Jing Yun and Leng Xiao pelting them with lambasting words: “You two have let me down the most! As captains, you’ve not displayed team spirit, you’ve long reached the summit, yet you haven’t thought of at least helping your fellow soldiers, a team that does not know how to work together is a big mess!”
Two pairs of silent eyes was all the reaction she evoked.
Done yelling at them, Gu Yun turned her back, too disheartened to handle them, she wanted to vent out her anger! She truly brought trouble to herself. With this poor quality to begin with, to train them is an exercise of futility!
After a very long time, suddenly there was a strange muffled sound behind her. Gu Yun turned around. What she saw of the crowd warmed the blood of her weary body. At this moment everybody was kneeling on one knee on the ground, cupping one fist with the other hand. Resolute, persistent and sincere eyes gazed intently at her.
“We beg Boss to teach us the skill to scale a mountain!” In uniform and simultaneous cadence, the chant was ear-splitting. Gu Yun’s heart was stunned.
[1] Qinggong – is a technique in Chinese martial arts where martial artists have the ability to move swiftly and lightly at superhuman speed, perform gravity-defying moves such as gliding on water surfaces, scaling high walls, and mounting trees. (Source: Wikipedia.org)