Chapter 25: Enemies Are Bound to Meet on a Narrow Road

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Actually, not only did outsiders see Heifu's training method as courting death, but after standing for a whole day, even within the Gui Squad, murmurs of dissent began to stir...

Ping's family lived in the county town, a household of modest means. He had never endured much hardship. Today, after spending half the day under the blazing sun just to learn how to stand, he sat on the straw pallet, rubbing his aching feet, and began to grumble quietly.

"This Corporal Heifu really is serving for the first time. Look, every other squad is training with such vigor, while we alone have been standing dumbly for half the day. Uncle Chao, you're a veteran—say something!"

Uncle Chao remained silent for a long moment before finally saying, "Heifu's training method is indeed quite different from my past dozen or so terms of service..."

"Exactly!"

His words were echoed by Ping, and the two brothers, Ke and Buke, also nodded. They all felt this training method was useless.

These murmurs vanished the moment Heifu and Dongmen Bao pushed the door open. Over these past two days, the two men, once at each other's throats, had developed a mutual respect and grown increasingly close.

Although Dongmen Bao's personal martial skill and strength were quite good, he was slow to learn military regulations. Fortunately, he was not one to lag behind others and was fiercely competitive. So, in the afternoons, Heifu would give him an extra half-hour of private tutoring. After all, as a squad leader, he absolutely could not afford to fail. At the end of the day, before sunset, the two would also throw daggers at a tree stump for recreation.

Once the squad leader and the corporal united, all voices of opposition were only dared muttered in secret, never voiced in complaint to their faces.

What everyone did not know, however, was that all these words had long been heard by Ji Ying, who was feigning sleep under his blanket.

Before turning in for the night, when Heifu went to the latrine, Ji Ying caught up with him and revealed the complaints he had overheard while pretending to sleep.

"It's fine. In a couple more days, they'll understand the benefit of today's training." Heifu smiled, unconcerned. A standard standing posture was the foundation of a military formation. If they couldn't even stand straight, what was the point of discussing other complex maneuvers?

On the second day, the morning of the fourth day of the tenth month, the sun rose again. On the training ground, the men of Heifu's squad now roughly knew where they should stand, no longer needing to wander around like headless flies as they had the day before.

Moreover, their standing posture barely met the standard; at least they could stand without leaning or slanting. Heifu dared not hold these Qin commoner soldiers to the standards of the police academy from his past life.

Thus, the entire morning's task was to learn, under Heifu's leadership, to squat down and stand up simultaneously. This was the "sitting and rising as one" from Wu Qi's Art of War.

Before a battle, there is a long period of deploying troops into formation; after the front-line troops engage in combat, the reserves must also wait for a long time, sometimes for several hours. For such a long duration, soldiers certainly couldn't just stand foolishly holding their blades like in historical costume dramas. Instead, they had to "sit," which actually meant squatting, to conserve some energy.

To make the movements appear uniform, Heifu made improvements, breaking the entire motion down into steps. Upon hearing "sit," they were not to plop down on their haunches immediately, but first step half a pace back with the right foot together, then squat down, letting the heels support the body. The same applied for "rise."

With the foundation of yesterday's standing practice, by the time of the morning meal, the entire squad could basically squat down and stand up simultaneously. Anyone who disrupted the rhythm would be mercilessly whipped. Even the veteran Uncle Chao clicked his tongue in wonder, feeling that Heifu's training method was indeed much faster than the dozen or twenty training sessions he had experienced in the past.

However, to the other squads, Heifu's squad still seemed to have done nothing all morning, just squatting and standing, standing and squatting in place...

For a moment, the squad leaders and corporals who had previously been displeased with Heifu's boast of taking first place all showed expressions of contempt, beginning to think Heifu was merely a braggart with no real skill.

The Jia Squad, stationed next to Heifu's Gui Squad, happened to pass by and suddenly jeered: "Isn't this the Gui-something squad that wants to win first place in the grand competition? Why have you been bobbing up and down here all morning? Are you so scared you can't walk straight?"

The men of the Gui Squad were mocked, but most were furious yet dared not speak out.

"How dare they!" Only the hot-tempered Dongmen Bao flew into a rage, nearly jumping up to beat the jeering men. Heifu hurriedly held him back tightly.

The men of the opposing Jia Squad were also reprimanded by their squad leader and ceased their mocking laughter.

"My apologies for the offense just now." The well-dressed squad leader of the opposing Jia Squad even took the initiative to walk over and cupped his hands in a salute to Heifu. He was slightly plump with a ruddy complexion, a rare sight among the generally malnourished rotational conscripts.

This was the first interaction with someone from another squad. Heifu responded, "I am Heifu, squad leader of the Gui Squad. May I ask how to address you, sir..."

"I am the squad leader of the Jia Squad, with the rank of Shangzao. I have served many times and am also a veteran."

The visitor seemed polite, but his arrogance was palpable. After all, his rank was one level higher than Heifu's, he was much older, and judging by his attire, especially the leather belt at his waist with its various patterns and the bronze beast-head clasp holding a turquoise stone in its mouth...

Heifu estimated that this belt alone was worth at least seven or eight hundred coins, more expensive than his entire outfit. Hmm, this fellow looked like a rich man.

"My name is Yuan Bai." The man introduced himself.

"Yuan Bai?" Heifu pondered the name. He seemed to have heard it somewhere before. After a long while, he suddenly remembered!

The name Yuan Bai seemed to have been mentioned in a TV program in his past life. Wasn't he the guy who lent money to the Heifu brothers in the military camp and then relentlessly pressed for repayment, forcing them to write home begging for help? To think he would run into him here. That saying was truly right: enemies are bound to meet on a narrow road...

Yuan Bai did not stand on ceremony. After a few casual pleasantries, he got straight to the point.

"Squad Leader Heifu, you seem very confident that the Gui Squad will win first place in the grand competition. Do you truly intend to make Centurion Bin perform the distance-jumping and high-leaping on the training ground?"

Heifu did not feign modesty and smiled. "I wouldn't say something I wasn't sure of."

Yuan Bai chuckled dryly. He certainly didn't believe it, but still said amiably, "Since you are so confident, why not have a little contest with my Jia Squad as well? What do you say?"

"The Jia Squad wants to have a contest with the Gui Squad?"

After hearing Yuan Bai's proposal, Heifu grew wary, sizing up this seemingly wealthy, ruddy-faced fellow.

"The ten-day grand competition is already an assessment and comparison of the ten squads before the County Commandant. What else is there to contest?"

Yuan Bai shook his head and smiled. "The contest I speak of is a wager between you and me. If the Gui Squad wins first place in the ten-day grand competition, what then? And if the Gui Squad does not win first place, what then..."

Heifu began to understand. Wasn't this just about making a bet? In his past life at the police academy, there were often competitions between classes where the loser had to treat the winner to a meal, and so on...

But Yuan Bai's appetite was large. He extended a finger and said, "If the Gui Squad wins first place, I will give you a thousand coins. If the Gui Squad does not win first place, you give me a thousand coins. What do you say?"

A thousand coins—exactly the reward money Heifu had received from the official office for capturing the bandits. This fellow named Yuan Bai had calculated very shrewdly.

Heifu had confidence in his training and naturally was not afraid of Yuan Bai. But he feigned hesitation, playing hard to get, and shook his head. "This isn't proper. I've heard that according to Qin law, commoners who gamble are fined two suits of armor."

"This is not gambling!"

Yuan Bai quickly explained, "You and I are not playing liubo, weiqi, or pitch-pot with money at stake. We are using money as a reward to encourage each other's training. This is a good thing—how can it be called gambling? If you don't believe me, I can even have a civil clerk from the government office act as a witness and help us draw up a contract!"

"Is that so?" Heifu said with a chuckle. "If that's the case, I'd be willing to give it a try. It's just..."

"Just what?"

Heifu glanced at the expensive belt around Yuan Bai's waist and smiled. "It's just that a thousand coins is too little!"

(End of Chapter)