Chapter 41 Walking

  By the time training ended at noon, everyone's face was extremely exhausted. These Beijing garrison officers had good physical quality and martial arts skills, but in the continuous standing at attention, moving forward, left, right, and back, it seemed that their endless energy suddenly became insufficient.

  In just a short morning session, many people were already sweating profusely with steam rising from their foreheads.

  This is the day after a big snowfall, when the weather is extremely cold!

  If it were a real fight with swords and guns, or practicing martial arts, or even practicing formation tactics, that would be fine. But all they do is stand and march around non-stop, and after several days of this, it's enough to drive someone crazy!

  The crown prince was also standing on the stone steps of Shou Huang Hall, his figure stood as straight as a spear, to know that this master is the legitimate crown prince, the eldest son of the current emperor, born with a golden spoon in his mouth!

  Even the crown prince is standing like this, still directing non-stop and even demonstrating in person. To say that he's more tired than everyone else... What can be done about it if everyone suffers a bit more?

  At this moment, they were so tired that they couldn't even lift their fingers, and as long as the prince was still standing on the steps of the palace, no one dared to utter a single word of complaint.

  This is the result of Zhu Ciyan's early water mill work. If he had been so strict from the beginning, even if he was the crown prince, his subordinates would have been perfunctory and not worked hard... He couldn't have controlled three hundred people with just one person's power!

  Wei Yue watched from the side, also knowing that the Crown Prince's camp was organized according to the traditional military system. Each squad had twelve men, each three squads shared a flag, and each flag had thirty-seven men. Three flags formed a unit, with a total of one hundred and twelve officers and soldiers... With the current number of people, it would be just right to assign two squads to serve as attendants by the Crown Prince's side, while the remaining people were divided into three units. However, there was no battalion commander or company commander appointed yet, after all, everyone's identity was at least that of a small flag officer. Wei Yue and others were originally hundred-household commanders, so it would be unfair to appoint officials based on their original positions. It would be better to evaluate them based on their training performance. Those who performed well in training would naturally become the new battalion commanders.

  By noon, training was suspended. Zhu Ciyan still stood upright, while the rest of the people were so tired that they could hardly lift their fingers.

  It's just such a simple action, turning around, standing upright, turning around again, standing upright... going back and forth, making everyone more tired than cutting off the commander's flag by several points.

  Fortunately, the food supply is sufficient. The prices during the Chongzhen period cannot be compared to those of the Wanli period. Now that the grain transportation has been cut off, the price of rice in the capital has risen to 4 or 5 silver coins per stone of coarse rice, pork is 3 cents a catty, salt and sugar are as expensive as pork, and oil is even more expensive. As for cloth and cotton, how can ordinary families afford them?

  Even if they were ordinary soldiers or imperial guards, without good fortune, they had never gone to war, fought battles, or drunk the blood of soldiers. Their lives were also very difficult.

  It's been nearly half a year since the salary was paid, and only occasionally some coarse grains were distributed, or when serving as a substitute, one day's worth of copper coins, about 100 or so, could buy some rough rice to feed the whole family, just enough to avoid starvation.

  The crown prince is here, originally also supplied with abundance, but in recent years the emperor has been short of money, and the inner court's offerings are just one word: frugal.

  Eunuchs and palace maids didn't eat well either, it wasn't uncommon for people to starve to death in the laundry department. Fortunately, the emperor paid attention here, so they could at least fill their bellies.

  Zhu Ciwen, however, knew what his subordinates wanted: three meals a day of large chunks of meat and steamed buns were enough, the silver they risked their lives to get was for the sake of unity among them, how could he extort from this?

  ……

  ……

  When Wei Yue changed into a new red military uniform, wearing comfortable leather boots, and sat at the head of the banner troops, he was greeted with large buckets of meat and big bowls of rice. Even the most serious military officers couldn't help but smile when they saw him sit down. Wang Yuan, while eating voraciously, smiled at him and said: "Wei brother, I really admire your martial arts skills. Now that you're here, why don't we talk about it? This formation is useless anyway, let's just stop practicing it! As long as we follow me into battle, there won't be any problems. We'll just charge forward and fight to the death!"

  This guy is indeed very rude and straightforward, daring to say whatever he wants, but the people around him seem to agree with him, their mouths are full of food, but they keep nodding.

  As expected, this formation training is indeed a test of willpower... Wei Yue smiled slightly and said: "A practice that can make Wang Yuan call out in suffering, do you dare say it's useless?"

  Wang Yuan was taken aback at first, but then he shook his head and smiled: "What you said is quite right. I'm not afraid of anything, just a shout from me, a cold glance, and they can't move their hands or feet. If they take another step, they'll definitely mess up the drumbeat and get beaten by the military stick. To think about it, I've been practicing martial arts for so many years, but I've never been hit by a military stick before. These past few days, however, have really scared me!"

  His whole body was as strong as iron, short and sturdy, extremely robust and ferocious. Such a person was actually intimidated by the military stick, and everyone burst out laughing when they heard it.

  Wei Yue also smiled and turned his head just in time to see Li Gong smiling, both of whom were people with a tacit understanding. At this moment, they nodded slightly to each other, mutually understanding.

  The military system of the Ming Dynasty was indeed too harsh, and slight carelessness would result in beheading. Whether to kill or not depended entirely on the mood of the superior officer. Even for a hundred-household captain, a civil official above him could order his execution without hesitation. Apart from beheading, the most severe punishment was physical mutilation, with cutting off noses and ears being common occurrences. Soldiers who had been maimed in battle were ubiquitous, and it was nothing out of the ordinary.

  But this kind of cruel military law is actually mainly based on intimidation, with no fairness or effectiveness to speak of, so the soldiers who are missing noses and ears in the camp have the same useless discipline.

  Inside the training grounds, most of them are Beijing garrison soldiers, and their military discipline is even more unspeakable. Someone like Wang Yuan, a hereditary military officer with real skills, has never experienced such hardships. However, if there's a mistake, the large wooden clubs will be used to punish, regardless of whether you're a hundred-household commander or a general. If it were another commander, the camp would have already been disbanded in anger. But fortunately, the one who is meting out punishment is the Crown Prince himself, who has already established his authority and prestige. Others may not be able to withstand this kind of training, but Zhu Ciyan only knows how to use force. With this method, the over 300 people have already developed some discipline. From Wei Yue's perspective as a military officer, it can be said that they have already formed the embryo of a strong army!

  The originally selected inner guard officers and soldiers were strong, but they didn't have the determination, nor did they have the fierce and stern air in their bones. Moreover, they lacked the kind of strict military discipline that commands absolute obedience.

  Wei Yue also nodded secretly, thinking to himself: "The young master has never led troops before, yet he's come up with such a unique way of training soldiers."

  At this point, Wang Yuan himself also somewhat understood, but still couldn't help muttering: "It's just this stance and posture, the way of throwing, how can it defeat the enemy? It would be better to think of another method..."

  He had a big mouth and a loud voice, Zhu Ciwen was originally not far from him, at this time he heard the movement, and walked over with his hands behind his back, smiling.

  The original crown prince, in the hearts of many people, although he dared to act and led by example, was still too kind and gentle. Later, after killing someone on the city wall, now that they have been training for three days, more than a dozen military clubs have been broken, only now does everyone know what this young master is like... It turns out that this young master is a strict punisher, strong and firm, with a hard and unyielding personality, and will not spare anyone in his hands!

  As the prince approached, Li Gong hastily kicked Wang Yuan and shouted: "Can't you even keep your mouth shut with a mouthful of food? Hurry up and eat, you'll have to practice again after a short rest."

  "Alright, alright..."

  Mentioning continuing training, Wang Yuan also became more dejected, opening his big mouth and viciously biting into a steamed bun.

  Zhu Ciwen stood behind him and smiled: "What's wrong, don't you think practicing standing still is useful?"

  "Is that so...... Can you hit people just by standing? What's the use of just looking good..."

  Wang Yuan really had a slip of the tongue and said it out loud.

  When he looked around at the faces of the people, this rough and straightforward man was also scared pale, and quickly jumped up from the ground.

  He simply pressed his hand on the ground and the person was already standing upright, with a spear-like posture. This set of moves, reaction, speed, were all excellent.

  Zhu Ciwen inwardly commended him, but his face remained expressionless, and he calmly said: "What reason do you have to come here and shake the morale of our army, you rascal?"

  "This... I deserve death, let me take the punishment of being beaten with the five-regiment rod?"

  "Huh?"

  "Or else... ten lashes?"

  Zhu Ci Yun smiled slightly and said to Wang Yuan Ling: "I won't hit you with a military stick, but come with me."

  The prince was about to make a move against Wang Yuan, and in an instant more than 300 people stood up together. Everyone's face was smiling, but no one knew how the prince would deal with this stubborn fellow.

  Only to see Zhu Ciwen bring Wang Yuan, all the way to the other side of the Shou Huangdian courtyard, but don't know what he said to Wang Yuan. Everyone just saw this sturdy man scratching his head non-stop, and after a while, they saw Wang Yuan start to walk back this way with dust and ash.

  The way he walks is very strange, with a deliberate and intentional flavor to every move, his hands are raised to a certain height, and his feet also have a certain rule, when lifting up and putting down, Zhu Ciyan is still constantly correcting Wang Yuan's pace on the side.

  When Wang Yuan walked over, everyone had already looked at him with a strange expression. Seeing Wang Yuan's face turn bright red with shame and anger, even Li Gong, a normally serious person, couldn't help but burst out laughing.

  "Little master, this punishment is unbearable..." Walking closer, Wang Yuan finally couldn't resist, his face flushing red, and said: "It's better to hit me with a military club instead."

  "This punishment is not just for you, but probably everyone will have to suffer."

  At this time, Zhu Ciyan was already out of his mind and didn't care about what Wang Yuan said. Under his command, a small team drew two straight lines on the path where Wang Yuan would pass by, and then drew a vertical line between the two straight lines.

  Then, Wang Yuan was asked to walk back and forth between the lines, and then use white powder to mark down each of Wang Yuan's footprints and the distance between them, which were also roughly the same.

  If there is a big difference in landing points, Zhu Ciwen will ask Wang Yuan to adjust and walk through again.

  It took a while before it was all over, and when Zhu Ciyan waved his hand for Wang Yuan to go down, the iron man was already exhausted and almost fell to the ground.