Chapter 319: Military Spirit
Lu Erlang’s whole body hurt, but the most painful part was his completely unscathed face.
Pei Feng was quite graceful now, reaching out to pull Lu Erlang up. The other soldiers who had been knocked down were also helped up one by one. A few with serious superficial wounds needed to be supported to apply medicine. Even if the superficial wounds weren’t too serious, they had no mood to stay.
What are you looking at for fun?
They were the biggest spectacle!
Matches always have winners and losers. The standard for judging victory is how many from the losing side are still standing. Li Chi, who lost the most miserably before, still had about ten people left at the end! Their camp was truly completely wiped out!
Fortunately, this wasn’t a real battlefield. Otherwise, their corpses would be cold by now.
“Victory and defeat are common in military affairs.” Pei Qinghe came over to comfort Lu Erlang: “You’ve just arrived and aren’t yet familiar with adapting to the Pei Family Army’s training. Your soldiers aren’t adapted either. After training for a few months, it will get better.”
Lu Erlang squeezed out a smile uglier than crying: “The general is right.”
Pei Qinghe’s gaze swept over the Fanyang soldiers who were dejected and too ashamed to lift their heads, and she said warmly: “You all go apply medicine, heal your wounds, and rest first.”
All soldiers responded feebly, supporting each other as they left the training ground.
Pei Yan, with her big voice, muttered something, and the words drifted over with the wind: “This counts as the elite of the Fanyang Army? They’re too useless!”
“Don’t talk nonsense!” Pei Qinghe sternly scolded with a straight face.
Pei Yan said “oh.”
Lu Erlang’s face burned hot, almost on fire. Ignoring the pain in his left leg, he quickened his pace a lot. The soldiers silently strode forward without a word until they returned to their own military tent.
Speaking of which, they had only fought for a little over half an hour, all superficial wounds. After applying some medicine and resting, they would be fine soon. What was truly injured today was their face and self-esteem.
Several leaders gathered around Lu Erlang.
“Before, we were indeed all elite in the Fanyang Army.” One leader said aggrievedly: “During our Fanyang Army’s training matches, I even took top ten.”
Another leader sighed listlessly: “What’s the use of saying that? Today we lost all face inside and out. Pei Feng is only so old, and none of the young lads in his camp are over eighteen. We were crushed to pieces—it’s really too embarrassing!”
“How are they so powerful?”
“You’ve seen the Pei Family Army’s meals—eating full and well every day. Also, they get up early each day to run ten li, then train all day. We do three days fishing and two days drying nets, dispersing after training one or two hours. How can we compare?”
“Their coordination is also extremely tacit, formation changes fast, military formation coordination good—much stronger than us.”
The leaders chattered on, and as they spoke, the grievance in their hearts dissipated quite a bit. Instead, they grew more and more admiring of these young soldiers of the Pei Family Army.
Lu Erlang finally spoke: “It’s not just that. There’s a hard-to-describe quality about them.”
“Proud, confident, resilient, fearless. This is the military spirit unique to the Pei Family Army.”
“We didn’t lose unjustly at all.”
Lu Erlang let out a long breath of grievance: “Everyone, don’t lose morale. General Pei said we’re just arriving with many unadapted places. From now on, we’ll work hard to change our lazy bad habits and train desperately. At next month’s assessment, we’ll earn back the lost face.”
The leaders were somewhat inspired in morale and responded unevenly.
No matter how ashamed, they couldn’t hide forever. Dinner still had to be eaten.
On this martial practice day, the meals were better than usual. Fist-sized meat buns were unlimited—one bite and oil sizzled out. Pickled mustard greens were shredded, stir-fried in oil, with some zanthoxylum, salty and spicy to stimulate appetite. The millet porridge was golden yellow.
After three meat buns, two bowls of millet porridge, and half a bowl of pickled mustard greens, the dejected mood was swept away by more than half.
After eating their fill, of course they couldn’t rest idly—they had to read and write.
Teaching Lu Erlang and the others today wasn’t Pei Xuan, but Pei Qinghe.
The soldiers were extremely excited, each sitting upright with straight backs, perking up their ears, eyes bright, not wanting to miss a single word.
Pei Xuan secretly tsked in her heart. This group of soldier ruffians and old hands were used to complaining and slacking, with learning progress always not great. Tonight with the general here, they finally looked somewhat proper.
Pei Qinghe didn’t lecture on anything profound, pulling out the most important several military regulations to explain once: “The Pei Family Army’s first military regulation is that military orders are like mountains— all actions obey military orders. Everyone has rolled around in the barracks, no need for me to explain in detail.”
“The second military regulation is no deserters allowed. On the battlefield, the most taboo is fleeing without fighting. Once someone flees in disorder, it causes the whole army’s morale to collapse. Whoever deserts has only one end: death.”
“The third military regulation is no bullying or looting of common people. We soldier to protect home and country. The grain that common people laboriously farm, they hand over thirty percent to the Pei Family Army. The rice and grain you eat daily are all produced by common people toiling from dawn to dusk. Since we’ve eaten the common people’s grain, we must protect the common people. Treat them as our own kin and family. We cannot seize their grain and wealth, much less bully their wives and daughters…”
The soldiers mainly focus on literacy; the Pei Family Army’s military regulations have over thirty articles, over six hundred characters total. Once entering the Pei Family Army, they start from military regulations: read and memorize first, then recognize characters. Normally after one or two months, soldiers can memorize the military regulations. After another three or four months, they’ll recognize all the characters in the military regulations.
Pei Qinghe lectured for half an hour, then had all soldiers take turns coming forward to recite the military regulations.
Lu Erlang had put in effort and recited fluently and smoothly. Several leaders barely managed. The other soldiers weren’t so good—some stammered, some missed words or forgot sentences, and some even worse got stuck after a few lines.
Pei Qinghe neither spoke nor smiled, her gaze cold.
That soldier lowered his head under the general’s icy sharp gaze: “I can’t recite it. Please punish me, general!”
Lu Erlang, with his face swept to the ground, also confessed his fault together: “It’s my failure to supervise properly. Please punish me as well, general.”
“We’ll let it pass today.” Pei Qinghe scolded Lu Erlang coldly: “I’ll give you ten more days. I’ll check after ten days. Whoever can’t recite the military regulations will get twenty military cudgels.”
Lu Erlang wished he could bury his head in the ground: “Yes.”
After Pei Qinghe left, Lu Erlang angrily kicked those who stammered, missed words, or couldn’t recite: “A bunch of useless things. No good at fighting, can’t even recite military regulations. Is your brain full of shit?”
In his anger, coarse words burst out too.
Everyone wants face. Even old hands can’t stand it! The soldiers gritted their teeth and swore venomously, guaranteeing everyone would memorize the military regulations within ten days.
Lu Erlang with a sour face: “All go sleep. Get up early tomorrow for training—buck up your spirit for me too. Train desperately!”
