Chapter 27: The Final Day

On the ninth day of the tenth month of the twenty-first year of King Zheng of Qin, only one day remained before the ten-day grand competition. At the south gate training ground of Anlu County, Yuan Bai, squad leader of Jia Squad, was restless and agitated.

That day, he had only gone over with the attitude of giving it a try, wanting to provoke Hei Fu. If Hei Fu had been afraid and refused, it would have been a perfect chance to mock him.

Who would have thought that this country bumpkin fool would agree on the spot! And even set such a huge wager! Now, the face-conscious Yuan Bai had no way to back out and had no choice but to take up the challenge.

But thinking it over afterward, he still felt certain he would win. In his view, Hei Fu, a seventeen-year-old rotational conscript serving for the first time, could lead his entire squad to seize first place in the assessment? Yuan Bai did not believe such a thing could happen at all.

He had already planned it out: as long as this Hei Fu failed to get first place, he would lose all face and would have to come to his family to work for two years as a servant and tenant farmer for nothing. He would make sure to squeeze him thoroughly.

At that time, Gui Squad had indeed stagnated in training and suffered from low morale. But what Yuan Bai never anticipated was that in just four or five short days, Gui Squad would undergo an earth-shattering transformation!

First was the training progress. Unlike the first few days of standing dumbly in place, squatting, and turning left and right, by the sixth day of the tenth month, the members of Gui Squad finally began moving around the training ground, practicing "marching and halting." Their training method was still as unusual as ever: those people all marched without a shoe on their left foot, walking unevenly, one high and one low—it was utterly ridiculous.

This comical scene made the members of Jia Squad roar with laughter, but by the seventh day of the tenth month, they could no longer laugh...

As it turned out, relying on the solid foundation laid in the previous days, after one day of practice, the members of Gui Squad could already step correctly with left and right feet without taking off their left shoe. The moment anyone stepped wrong, Squad Leader Dongmen Bao following behind would step forward and fiercely lash them with the bamboo stick in his hand!

Squad Leader Hei Fu, holding a thick bamboo pole, walked at the very front. As he walked, he shouted "Left, right, left! Left, right, left!" The people behind followed his steps, shouting the same words.

By the eighth day, Gui Squad's marching formation had become even more orderly. They could already shout "left, right, left" while jogging, maintaining the same rhythm as they stepped. Each person moved like the left and right legs of a centipede, looking very uniform.

When Hei Fu shouted the order to halt, everyone would stop in unison, lift their right feet together, and stomp them heavily onto the ground. The synchronized stomping sound made Yuan Bai's heart tremble with fear.

Of course, he had no idea that the reason Gui Squad could maintain such high morale was largely thanks to his four thousand coins, which Hei Fu had dangled before everyone like a painted cake. After receiving Hei Fu's promise to "share the gold," even Ping, Ke, and Buke, the most passive in training, began striving to keep up with the squad's rhythm.

Driven by profit, bound by righteousness, moved by kindness, awed by law... Hei Fu skillfully employed these several methods. With the assistance of Ji Ying and Dongmen Bao, he forged the entire squad, originally as loose as a plate of sand, into a cohesive unit.

"If this goes on, Gui Squad might really get first place..." Yuan Bai began to panic. Although his family was wealthy, four thousand coins was no small sum.

"Squad Leader, I have an idea."

The squad leader of Jia Squad leaned in and whispered into Yuan Bai's ear: "That Xiao Tao from Gui Squad and I are from the same village and hamlet. This lad is a stutterer, his family is poor, and he's timid and easy to bully. With just a little threat and the promise of some money, if we make him deliberately fall behind during the ten-day grand competition, Gui Squad won't be able to get first place!"

"Excellent!" Yuan Bai's eyes lit up, and he told the Jia Squad leader to quickly find a way to bring Xiao Tao over.

And so, during mealtime that day, Xiao Tao, who had gone off alone to use the latrine, was cornered outside the cesspit by Yuan Bai, the Jia Squad leader, and two or three others...

Just as the Jia Squad leader had said, Xiao Tao was a thin, short youth. Pushed against the wall by the group, he trembled with fear. Yuan Bai approached with a beaming smile and began to threaten and entice him...

"I... I..."

After Yuan Bai made his intentions clear, Xiao Tao's face flushed red, and he could barely speak, whether from anger or fear.

"Just take it!"

Yuan Bai forced a cloth pouch containing a hundred coins into Xiao Tao's hand, put his arm around his shoulder, and promised: "If you do as I say and deliberately trip and fall behind during tomorrow's grand competition, I'll give you another hundred coins once it's done!"

The Jia Squad leader also clenched his fist and threatened: "Otherwise, when we get back to the village, you'll have a hard time!"

Xiao Tao's eyes were full of terror as he looked blankly at the handful of coins in his hand.

His family was poor. His mother had contracted lai disease (leprosy) and was seized by the neighbors and brought before the village authorities, who sentenced her to death and drowned her by the river. His father was a cowardly, useless man who dared not utter half a word of protest. His siblings had long since married off or split from the household; no one cared for him.

All year round, Xiao Tao had to toil with his stooped, hunched father on the family's less than a hundred mu of poor fields, just hoping for a bit of harvest to survive. Thinking back, from childhood to now, Xiao Tao had truly never held so much money in his hands!

His hands trembling, he opened the coin pouch and looked at the round, square-holed banliang coins inside. They gleamed with an alluring metallic luster, stacked and pressed together, producing a pleasing sound...

Yuan Bai watched Xiao Tao, a smug smile showing beneath his beard. He felt that this lad had already fallen headfirst into the money pit and that this matter was as good as done. Even if Hei Fu had, against all expectations, brought Gui Squad into strict order, an orange, no matter how beautiful on the outside, would still rot from within.

However, what happened next was completely beyond Yuan Bai's expectations.

"But... the squad leader... treats me... well."

Xiao Tao opened his mouth, murmured these words, and then suddenly raised the coin pouch high and threw every last one of those coins onto the ground!

"Clatter!"

Copper coins rained down all over the ground, like a shower of golden rain.

"You..." Yuan Bai stepped back half a pace in shock.

Xiao Tao lifted his face. Only then did Yuan Bai and the others realize that his flushed face was not from excitement, but from humiliation; his trembling hands were not from fear, but from anger!

The shy young man from Yunmeng Township, humiliated and furious, stammered out word by word: "You... do not... look down on... look down on me!"

Under the shocked gazes of Yuan Bai and the others, Xiao Tao raised his head and puffed out his chest. Just as Hei Fu had taught them, with his frail frame, he stood as straight as a green pine!

"I... I... I will never... betray... the squad leader!"

"You little brat! You don't know what's good for you!" Yuan Bai and the others flew into a rage and raised their fists to strike!

Although Xiao Tao's words were very firm, he was still a bit afraid. He shut his eyes tightly and shielded his head.

But after waiting a long while, Yuan Bai's fist never came down.

When Xiao Tao opened his eyes, he found that Yuan Bai's wrist was being gripped tightly by a thick, large hand. It was Mu, the tallest and strongest man in Gui Squad, who was now glaring at Yuan Bai with knitted brows and cold eyes.

The other three from Jia Squad were also blocked by Ji Ying and Zhi, who had rushed over.

Hei Fu appeared behind them. Toying with the short sword in his hand, he sneered and said, "Squad Leader Yuan Bai, what is the meaning of this? If open methods don't work, you resort to underhanded ones? You should know, this is a private brawl, which is unjust. If the officials' temple finds out, you will be convicted!"

"A misunderstanding, a misunderstanding..." Yuan Bai's hand was about to be crushed. His face twisted in pain as he begged for mercy.

Not wanting to blow the matter up, Hei Fu waved his hand and had Mu release Yuan Bai.

"Take care, Squad Leader Yuan Bai. After tomorrow's grand competition, don't you forget our agreement!" Hei Fu watched the few of them flee in a sorry state and waved at their retreating figures.

Only then did he turn around and look at Xiao Tao, who stood with his head hung low in silence. He did not speak for a long time.

"Squad Leader... I..."

It was not until Xiao Tao lifted his head and tried to explain that Hei Fu revealed a gratified smile and heavily clapped him on the shoulder, saying, "Well done!"

"Such a big incident, why didn't you call for me? If I had been there, I would have definitely torn off one of that Yuan Bai's arms!"

When everyone returned to the training ground, Dongmen Bao finally learned what had happened. He immediately cried out in regret, rolled up his sleeves, and was about to go to Jia Squad to settle scores with Yuan Bai.

"If you beat him up badly, and we get first place tomorrow, where would we go to find the four thousand coins?"

Hei Fu hurriedly held him back. Earlier, it was the quick-witted Ji Ying who had noticed the Jia Squad members cornering Xiao Tao and immediately came to inform him. Hei Fu had deliberately not brought Dongmen Bao along; that brute didn't know his own strength, and who knew what trouble he might cause.

What was commendable was that Xiao Tao had ultimately withstood the threats and bribes, which made Hei Fu see him in a new light. On the way back, Hei Fu kept praising this stuttering young man from the countryside, saying he did not fear violence and was a fine man who could not be subdued by force, making the shy Xiao Tao blush to his ears.

However, this incident also sounded an alarm for Hei Fu. He decided that for the remaining day, he would intensify training and absolutely not let anyone leave the group alone, giving others no opportunity to exploit.

After these days of training, Gui Shi's squad formation had improved tremendously, though turning left and right on the spot was still a bit awkward, with the occasional mistake cropping up. But standing posture, marching in formation, squatting and rising, and stepping apart and turning around had all reached the standard Heifu demanded. Placed in a later-era university military training, they would certainly be dead last, but among the chaotic footwork of the various gengzu squads, they already stood out like a crane among chickens.

Heifu was even more confident now about seizing first place tomorrow!

But that was not enough. On this day, before sunset, after the other squads had all finished training and gone off to eat, Heifu gathered the members of Gui Shi together once more. Looking at their faces, a mix of old and young, everyone stood ramrod straight, their eyes fixed on their squad leader.

At this moment, Heifu was filled with deep emotion, as if he had truly returned to the final day of military training in his past life, the scene just before the inspection.

After a long silence, he spoke slowly:

"Today is the last day before the grand competition, the final training session. Whether it is sitting and rising, marching and halting, turning left and right, or advancing and retreating, you have all mastered these by heart; further review is of little use. But here, I must still teach you one last thing!"

PS: I'd like to recommend a book I stumbled upon, "The Ambitious One of the Warring States." The title isn't great, but the writing and story are very interesting. It's about the disciples of the Mohist school during the transition from the Spring and Autumn period to the Warring States period. I shouldn't be recommending books this early, but I accidentally clicked on it yesterday and couldn't stop reading. Only by starting from the perspective of the lower classes can one gain a deeper understanding of this era, which aligns perfectly with my own thoughts. It seems to be a new author; a good book shouldn't be buried. Consider this a small contribution to the ancient pre-Qin genre.

(End of chapter)