Chapter 24: What Use Is Drilling Formations?

(Bonus chapter for the Alliance Leader "Dugong"... no, that's wrong, it's "Wuzuo Puti Xia" — also, casually asking for recommendation votes.)

Hearing Dongmen Bao say this, Heifu was momentarily stunned.

"War isn't fought by charging in parade-step. Drilling formations all day — what damn use is it!"

Back in his previous life during high school military training, Heifu had grumbled the same way. Only as he grew older, entered the police academy, and truly experienced barracks life did that mindset slowly fade. Hearing Dongmen Bao bring it up now, it felt instantly familiar.

"Brother Bao, have you ever been on a battlefield?" He was silent for a long moment, then slowly asked.

Dongmen Bao shook his head. "No. I've served three rotations of garrison duty, but I've never been conscripted to the front." It was plain to see he desperately yearned to win merit in battle.

At this, Heifu relaxed. Though he too had never been on a battlefield, in his previous life he'd been steeped in it by osmosis, had watched plenty of war documentaries, and had enough stored in his belly to do some boasting.

Heifu smiled and beckoned Dongmen Bao to sit on a log, then said to him: "Marching to war is vastly different from a one-on-one martial contest. On the battlefield, it's a grand spectacle of thousands, tens of thousands of men, surging like a tide. No matter how high your personal martial skill, amid that human tide you have no room to use it. On all sides are dagger-axes, spears, swords, and halberds; arrows fall chaotically like rain. The parry-and-counter of everyday sparring is utterly useless there."

Seeing that Dongmen Bao still didn't believe him, Heifu told him to imagine a scene:

They were a band of highly skilled wandering swordsmen, and just like that, in a chaotic rabble, they took to the battlefield, ready to fight the war relying on their own ferocity and valor.

At that moment, the central army issued the order to advance slowly, conveyed by gongs, drums, and signal flags. But the wandering swordsmen, not understanding drum and flag signals, had some charging forward while others stood rooted in place, utterly baffled. As a result, those who broke from the main force and charged ahead were shot through the heart by the enemy's arrow storm; those lagging behind had their heads chopped off by the army provosts; and the rest, in their panic to move forward, found their path blocked by their own men. And so, they ended up throwing their own formation into chaos...

Even if they finally clashed with the enemy, because each fought for himself, they would be cut apart by the well-drilled enemy troops. One man would have to fight several, even dozens at once, and in the end be hacked into mincemeat. Even if they survived, as a sheet of loose sand, what they would likely face next was the rumbling charge of four-horse war chariots and the sweeping impact of galloping cavalry.

Hmm. These men were precisely what you'd call the Qi Skirmishers. Back then, King Min of Qi hired these "martial arts masters" from the alleys of Linzi to fight his wars. The result was defeat in every battle, and the mighty and prosperous state of Qi was nearly driven to annihilation.

That is why, many years ago, when old Master Xun appraised the strength of the various states' armies, he ranked the Qi Skirmishers — whose personal martial skill was the highest — as the worst army of all, a force that brings ruin to a nation.

After mentally filling in this scene, Dongmen Bao couldn't help but break out in a cold sweat. In his imagination, stepping onto a battlefield meant he could rely on his valor to reap a dozen or so heads as easily as chopping melons and vegetables. So it wasn't that simple after all?

Heifu smiled again. "Therefore, by what means does an army achieve victory? By good order! Sound discipline is what separates a disorderly mob from an elite force. And these very drills of rank and formation were painstakingly developed by two great masters of military science, Sun Wu and Wu Qi. Do you know who those two were?"

Dongmen Bao shook his head. Although those two had once been hugely famous in the Chu region, times had changed and the era was too far removed; how could an ordinary country villager know of them? Heifu had no choice but to give him a brief education on the deeds of Sun and Wu...

"People often say: who is it that led seventy thousand troops and none under Heaven could withstand him? That was Wu Qi. Who is it that led thirty thousand troops and none under Heaven could withstand him? That was Master Sun! Now do you understand how formidable those two were!"

"Sun and Wu were true heroes! I only regret I could not serve under their command!" Dongmen Bao's eyes went wide; he was clearly still immersed in the tales of Sunzi beheading the favored concubines of the King of Wu and campaigning a thousand li with tens of thousands of troops to crush Chu, and of Wu Qi killing his wife to seek a generalship, defending the West River, and finally entering Chu to enact reforms and dying under a volley of arrows.

Heifu said: "Back then, it was precisely with the rigorously trained Wei Martial Troops that Wu Qi dealt great defeats to Qin. It was only later that Qin itself adopted Wu Qi's methods of drilling troops for its own army. These drills may seem tedious, but when the training is complete, if several hundred men, several thousand men, can all achieve what Wu Qi described — sitting and rising with discipline, marching in order, advancing and retreating in coordination, the left and right flank divisions obeying the central army like limbs, and each unit able to fight independently when formed separately — then you will have sharp soldiers who, wherever they are cast, none under Heaven can withstand!"

"Heifu truly knows so much!" Dongmen Bao was full of admiration. If on the first day, after the arm-wrestling, he had submitted only in body but not in spirit, then after that speech just now, he truly admired Heifu so thoroughly he'd throw himself prostrate at his feet.

But then a look of doubt crossed his face. "Heifu, this is only your first term of service, and you've never been on a battlefield. How do you know all this?"

"That... actually, it was all told to me by my late father. He went to battle many times." Heifu once again dragged out his nominal father as a shield.

"This is truly outrageous!"

Dongmen Bao smacked his own thigh indignantly. "Heifu had a good father who passed on everything he saw and heard on the battlefield to you. My own father was conscripted to fight plenty of times too, yet every time he came home from a battle, he'd just wear a gloomy face, go looking for drink without a word, and after drinking, beat me half to death! In the end, he got drunk, slipped, fell into the river, and drowned — one clean end to it all — but he stubbornly drove a perfectly decent middling household into utter poverty and ruin!"

It seemed this brash and impulsive Dongmen Bao had his own story too, but Heifu merely patted him on the shoulder and did not probe further.

"Squad Leader... Platoon Leader..."

A stammering voice sounded. Turning around, they saw it was little Tao, who had also risen. Heifu greeted him and received a simple, honest smile in return. This kid was a typical farm-family youth — sincere and loyal, just a bit timid.

By now the sun had fully risen. Dongmen Bao, his earlier disdain for training completely gone, took the initiative to rouse the remaining men. With this fiend urging them on, everyone got up much faster than yesterday.

Heifu nodded slightly. It seemed that besides Ji Ying, he had gained another good helper. So he led them to the drill ground and announced his training plan.

"Today's training begins with comparing heights and lining up in formation!"

Heifu had noticed that the Qin state's meticulous, obsessive-compulsive approach to law did not seem to have infected the army. The army's line-up was not based on height, but on rank and age. Those with rank stood in front; those without rank stood in back. Among the common soldiers, the older stood in front, the younger in back.

This resulted in a squad of men standing at uneven heights, which greatly marred the visual impression.

Heifu had already cautiously asked Centurion Chen the day before: adjusting the formation's sorting method — that wouldn't violate military regulations, would it? Centurion Chen had said that arranging by rank was stipulated by law, but arranging by age was merely convention and not written into military rules or ordinances. In any case, their squad only had two men of Gongshi rank, one at the very front and one at the very rear; the rest Heifu could arrange as he pleased.

So Heifu boldly began to adjust the formation.

"Zhi, you stand behind me... Why? Naturally because you're the shortest. Don't be upset; maybe if you eat more meat, you can still grow taller."

"Mu, I know you want to stand next to your cousin, but you're eight chi tall — you have to stand at the back, in front of Dongmen Bao."

"Little Tao..." Looking around, Heifu found that little Tao had already taken his place behind Zhi. That kid — don't let his stammer and dullness fool you; he was actually quite clever.

"Ji Ying — yes, I mean you — stop looking around and stand properly behind little Tao."

"Uncle Chao, normally you stand second by age. Now I can only ask you to bear the grievance and stand in the middle."

"Ping, Ke, Bukě — you three stand behind Uncle Chao."

In this way, their squad was now ordered from shortest to tallest — much more pleasing to the eye.

Having adjusted the formation, Heifu, who also had a mild case of obsessive-compulsiveness, nodded in satisfaction, then moved on to the second part of today's session.

Standing!

"Learning to stand?"

The moment the training content was announced, Ji Ying nearly burst out laughing. "Brother Heifu, isn't it just standing? I've known how to do that since I was three. This still needs to be learned?... Hey, why are you hitting me?"

Heifu raised the bamboo rod in his hand and swatted the grinning Ji Ying. "No interrupting before I've finished speaking. Furthermore, laughing, joking, horsing around, and looking left and right in formation are forbidden."

After winning Dongmen Bao over on the first day, Heifu had established his authority, and he had made it clear beforehand that he would be strict about this. Anyone who disobeyed orders would, according to military rules, be struck three times for the first offense, ten times for the second, and on the third offense, the squad leader could "thoroughly flog" them — meaning beat them to within an inch of their life!

Seeing that Heifu had turned serious, Ji Ying wisely shut his mouth. The others glanced at Dongmen Bao and, finding him uncharacteristically obedient to Heifu, naturally dared not act out.

They heard Heifu say: "I once heard a saying: a true man stands in this world upright in posture and upright in conduct!"

As he spoke, he faced the group and assumed a standard standing-at-attention posture, saying: "Stand like a pine! Like me — I am a straight pine atop the mountain peak!"

Everyone stared at Heifu and saw that he indeed stood perfectly straight, spirited and alert like a green pine.

Heifu then pointed at the crooked, slanted stances of Ji Ying and the others. "And you lot — you're like crooked pines jutting out halfway down the mountainside! Swaying and tottering at the first gust of wind — what kind of appearance is that!"

They all looked at each other. Though they didn't feel there was anything wrong with how they stood, no one raised any further objections. Under Heifu's demonstration and correction, they began to re-learn how to stand straight...

"Heels together and aligned, toes pointing outward — yes, just like that."

"Legs straight and together, belly slightly drawn in, chest out, shoulders level — don't let one be higher than the other."

"Arms hanging straight down, fingers together and naturally slightly bent, pressed against the trouser seams... uh, no — against the sides of your lower garment."

"Mm, head straight, neck erect, mouth closed. Ji Ying, stop grinning at me all the time!"

"Eyes looking straight ahead. Bukě, you don't know what 'looking straight ahead' means? Come, look into my eyes..."

And so, for the entire morning before the morning meal, the other squads all began their muddled, chaotic training under their squad leaders and platoon leaders. The whole drill ground was filled with ceaseless shouting — a lively racket. Only Heifu's Gui Squad stood motionless in place, beginning to practice their military posture.

Colonel Bin was also on the earthen platform observing the conscripts' training. Seeing this, a squad leader under his command said, "Colonel, that squad Heifu belongs to has been standing frozen in place for a long while — perhaps they are slacking off. Should this subordinate go over and reprimand them?"

"No need."

Colonel Bin shook his head and sneered:

"He probably realizes now just how difficult it is to train soldiers — being a squad leader is no easy task! Let him flounder about! Tomorrow I have to lead the county troops to Cloud Dream Marsh to hunt down bandits; I have no time for such trivial matters. Just wait until the day of the ten-day grand competition, when he makes a fool of himself in front of everyone! After that, the entire Anlu County will know that the so-called bandit-catching hero Heifu is nothing but a loud-mouthed commoner! When that time comes, I'll ride my horse at the very front and watch him hop an entire lap around Anlu County town!"

(End of chapter)