Chapter 23: Military Training Begins

"Exempted from next year's corvée service — there's actually such a good deal!?"

The men, who had hardly ever served before, found it somewhat hard to believe; it was Uncle Chao who nodded and confirmed the matter.

"That is only natural. Every year the village rates the plow oxen; if one is judged the best, the皂者 who raised it is also exempted from one corvée shift, and the田啬夫 in charge of the matter receives a jug of wine and ten strips of dried meat as a reward."

"Exactly!" Ji Ying added: "The reward for the replacement conscripts' ten-day grand competition champion is also one jug of wine and ten strips of dried meat for the squad leader! Half that for the team leader!"

Heifu seized the moment: "If we win first place, I can share my wine and dried meat with you all!"

"Wine..." The two brothers Zhi and Mu's eyes instantly turned green.

"Dried meat." Ke, Buke, and Xiao Tao also swallowed their saliva at the same time. Sure enough, at the mention of these two things, the poor men were all drooling.

Seeing that everyone now had the motivation to take part, that fellow Ping, however, sneered: "Easier said than done. This is competing for first place among ten squads."

"Heifu never does anything he isn't sure of. I am confident I can lead you all to win the top prize!"

Seeing the moment was ripe, Heifu made his promise: "Even if this fails, you all lose nothing. If it succeeds, everyone gains. Why not gladly do it? All I ask is that for the next few days, you all follow my orders!"

Heifu bowed to Dongmen Bao: "I hope the team leader will assist with all his might."

He also saluted Uncle Chao: "I also hope Uncle Chao will speak freely and hold nothing back!"

"I will do my utmost to help Heifu!" Dongmen Bao was a brave and spirited man; even if Heifu hadn't asked, he would have taken the initiative to compete with others.

"The same goes for me." Ji Ying was the second to join in.

"Fine, fine. We have to train these next few days anyway, so we'll listen to the squad leader." Uncle Chao quite appreciated Heifu's respectful attitude toward his elders and simply joined in as well.

After that, Xiao Tao, Zhi, and Mu also expressed their agreement one after another. The brothers Ke and Buke went along with the majority, and even the most passive Ping submitted to the majority and was forced to agree. In this way, the entire Gui Squad unanimously agreed to strive with all their might for first place in the ten-day grand competition.

"For the next few days, we must work together with one heart..."

Heifu wanted to say a few more words to boost his side's morale, but unexpectedly, the county soldier "Zhao," who had led them to their quarters yesterday, came jogging over, saying that Commander Chen had summoned him by name.

Commander Chen had already parted ways with Commander Bin and was waiting for Heifu behind a large mulberry tree at the edge of the training ground. He paced back and forth incessantly, clearly somewhat anxious. When Heifu walked up to him, Commander Chen raised his head, and his first words were in a tone of extreme displeasure.

"Heifu, what is the meaning of this!?"

Heifu cupped his hands and said: "I was reckless today, but Commander Chen, this is a golden opportunity to make Commander Bin lose all face!"

"Hold on. You say this matter can make Commander Bin lose face?" Commander Chen looked doubtful.

Heifu revealed a smile: "From the moment Commander Bin took issue with me over this, he had already lost!"

Commander Chen was taken aback: "What do you mean?"

"First, Commander Bin is, after all, a commander of the Bugeng rank, yet he quibbles with a mere common soldier like me. Win or lose, word of this spreading is already greatly to his disadvantage."

"Second, if I am judged the best, Commander Bin will have to leap three hundred paces and hop three hundred paces around the training ground. He will surely be ridiculed by the entire county, his authority swept away, and he will find it hard to hold his ground on the training field. Isn't that wonderful?"

Commander Chen looked at Heifu with some surprise: "You have thought this through so deeply."

Thinking it over carefully, it was true. If Heifu won first place, his rival Commander Bin would certainly lose face, which was all benefit and no harm to himself. If Heifu didn't win first place, it actually had nothing to do with him either. He should just watch this farce unfold as an uninvolved spectator!

With this thought, Commander Chen felt much more at ease. He added: "Are you that confident you can win first place?"

"I did indeed receive training from my late father. Managing a squad should be no problem. The only issue is..."

Heifu raised his head: "I just don't know which county lieutenant will come to judge the competition after ten days."

Commander Chen stroked the small beard under his chin and said: "The Right Lieutenant and the Left Lieutenant will come together to judge. The final decision rests with the Right Lieutenant."

He knew what Heifu meant and added: "However, there will also be clerks present to record the proceedings, so the two county lieutenants cannot show favoritism and will judge based on each squad's performance. That being the case, the County Left Lieutenant naturally cannot use the opportunity for personal retaliation, but you must also not expect the County Right Lieutenant to deliberately favor you..."

"I wouldn't dare." Heifu said: "As long as the judgment is fair and not swayed by the Left Lieutenant and Commander Bin."

At the end, he bowed deeply again and said with emotion: "I only hope that you, Commander, will put in a few good words for me before the Right Lieutenant. Because of the Huyang Village Chief case, I have made an enemy of Commander Bin, and the County Left Lieutenant likely views me with hostility because of it. From now on, I can only rely on Commander Chen and the Right Lieutenant for protection."

This was an active offer of allegiance. Commander Chen was astonished by Heifu's shrewdness and clarity. Was this really a 17-year-old farm youth visiting the county seat for the first time?

But Commander Chen did not probe further. At this moment, he simply regarded Heifu as a sword aimed at Commander Bin.

"It's good that you understand."

Little did he know, Heifu actually had his own plans.

On the way back to the ranks, Heifu thought to himself: "From the moment I was pinned down and humiliated by the county soldiers yesterday, I understood. Even if I swallowed my anger for a whole month, Commander Bin would still make things difficult for me in every way, and I'd be punished at the slightest misstep. Since I've already offended whoever I was going to offend, rather than be a timid coward and shrink back, I might as well charge forward against the current!"

He must fully exploit the conflict between the two commanders, and even between the two county lieutenants. If handled well, there might even be a chance to stand out!

Moreover, regarding this matter, while others thought he was boasting, Heifu had a clear idea in his mind.

He looked into the distance at the other conscript squads scattered in clusters here and there. Their ages were a mix of old and young, their heights uneven, their builds varying from strong to frail, their bearing loose and sloppy. Some had their hands tucked in their sleeves, shivering; some stared blankly with raised heads and shrugged shoulders; some were bent over, hunched, and coughing incessantly; others looked left and right, or scratched their ears and cheeks. Even when forced to stand in a line, the formation was crooked and twisted.

Such a formation left him, accustomed to the neat order of later-era armies, utterly speechless.

Facing opponents like these, Heifu felt it would be hard to lose even if he tried.

He was, after all, a student from a police academy, with drill formations practiced to perfection. What's more, before graduation, he had served as a military training instructor for university freshmen and knew very well how to train a motley crew into a model unit that marched in crisp, square formations...

Although the cultural quality of the soldiers in this era was far inferior to that of modern university students, they were much easier to make obedient, and their physical fitness was somewhat better. Though most were skinny and malnourished, at least they wouldn't suddenly faint dead away under the sun, scaring the instructor half to death...

And, reportedly, you could even beat them if they disobeyed orders!

"You all just wait and watch the show."

Heifu glanced at Commander Chen behind him, who thought he had gained an advantage, at Commander Bin in the distance who dismissed him with contempt, and even at the various squad and team leaders who were waiting to laugh at his expense, and revealed a smile.

"The real military training begins now!"

On the third day of the tenth month of the twenty-second year of King Zheng of Qin, the third day of corvée service, Heifu rose just after "Pingdan."

The Qin state also had twelve double-hours, but unlike later times, they had their own names, which were:

Jiming (1 am to 3 am), Pingdan (3 am to 5 am), Richu (5 am to 7 am), Shishi (7 am to 9 am), Moshi (9 am to 11 am), Rizhong (11 am to 1 pm), Rishi (1 pm to 3 pm), Xiashi (3 pm to 5 pm), Chongri (5 pm to 7 pm), Niuyangru (7 pm to 9 pm), Huanghun (9 pm to 11 pm), Rending (11 pm to 1 am).

After Heifu got up, the sky outside was just beginning to brighten. He washed up with the accumulated water from the vat outside, closed his eyes and inhaled, stretched his legs and back, loosened up his muscles and bones, and then began to review the "rank and file drill" he had learned the previous afternoon.

The troop-training method of this era emphasized "one man learns to fight, he teaches ten men. Ten men learn to fight, they teach a hundred men." So after dividing into squads and teams yesterday, Commander Chen had the squad and team leaders follow a few veteran county soldiers to learn various drill techniques. These techniques, originating from the two great military strategists Sun and Wu, were roughly divided into the following types:

Sitting and rising, which is the squatting and standing of later-era military training.

Marching and halting, which is advancing and standing at attention.

Left and right means turning left and turning right.

Forward and back means advancing and retreating.

Divide and combine, as the name implies, means the formation gathering together and dispersing.

Assemble and dismiss means mustering and disbanding.

After understanding this, Heifu couldn't help but feel deeply moved. He had always thought that the basic formation drills in later-era military units were copied wholesale from the West. Who would have expected that they could be traced all the way back to the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods!

However, Heifu and the others were only rotational conscripts, still far from actually going into battle. The main reason they were practicing these things now was for the grand decennial inspection seven days later. On the tenth day of the tenth month, the two County Commandants would be coming to inspect their training results — time was extremely tight.

Fortunately, in his previous life at school, Heifu had undergone countless inspections by all sorts of senior officers and leaders, so he had experience.

After Heifu had practiced for a quarter-hour, the sun had already revealed itself above the horizon — the moment of "sunrise" had arrived. He wiped away his sweat, feeling even more confident.

It seemed that the Squad Leader's role was roughly equivalent to that of a squad leader in later-era military units. They had two squads of five, ten men in total, standing in a single row. The Squad Leader had to stand at the head of the row, holding a thick bamboo pole — in wartime, he would be holding a small flag instead. The Squad Leader of Five had to stand at the rear of the row, supervising to make sure no one fell behind.

"For me, it's too simple, but for the others, learning it and becoming proficient in just a few days will still be a bit difficult."

"Squad Leader, you're up so early."

Turning his head, Heifu discovered that the Squad Leader of Five, Dongmen Bao, had already been leaning against the doorway with his arms crossed, watching for quite a while.

Heifu cupped his hands in greeting to him. Dongmen Bao came over, stretched lazily, and after watching Heifu practice a while longer, couldn't help but vent: "Squad Leader, you're certainly practicing with gusto, but I just can't figure it out. Why doesn't training start with hand-to-hand combat and archery, instead of practicing these utterly meaningless formations? When it comes time to actually go into battle, what damn use will it be!"

PS: There will be an extra chapter update at midnight.

Men often perish where they lack ability, and are defeated where they are unaccustomed. In the art of employing troops, instruction and discipline come first. One man learns to fight, and he can teach ten men. Ten men learn to fight, and they can teach a hundred men. A hundred men learn to fight, and they can teach a thousand men. A thousand men learn to fight, and they can teach ten thousand men. Ten thousand men learn to fight, and they can teach the entire army. Use the near to await the distant, use the rested to await the weary, use the well-fed to await the hungry. Form circles and make them square, make them sit and make them rise, make them march and make them halt, make them turn left and make them turn right, make them advance and make them retreat, make them divide and make them combine, make them assemble and make them dismiss. When every variation has been practiced, then hand them their weapons — this is the business of the general. — The Wuzi

(End of chapter)