Chapter 8 Reform and Military Training

  Ye Xuan took office and carried out some reforms, such as washing hands before meals, taking a bath at a fixed time every night, then having a big cleanup, sweeping away all the garbage in Tianlong Village. At the same time, soldiers took turns to clean up on duty, and those who were on duty that day could have meat added to their rations. Public toilets were also established, and anyone who went to the toilet had to use the public toilets, otherwise they would be punished with a military stick...

  Let's talk about military training. Ye Xuan liked to read books written by Qi Jiguang in his previous life, especially Qi Jiguang's "Ji Xiao Xin Shu" and "Lian Bing Shi Ji", which he studied very thoroughly.

  So Ye Xuan prepared to imitate the training methods and systems of the Qi family army, adding some of his own ideas, and re-established a new set of rules and regulations to ensure high-quality completion of training.

  The special training that Ye Xuan had mentioned earlier, everyone was looking forward to it, especially Sun Yu and Chen Fei who were eager to see how their big brother's ability to lead troops without losing to the legendary ones was actually trained.

  But when they saw Ye Xuan's training, everyone was shocked, their jaws dropped in shock. Sun Yu and Chen Fei were even more exaggerated, looking at their big brother with eyes that seemed to be watching an alien, because no one would have thought that Ye Xuan's training would be so boring.

  Firstly, Ye Xuan had everyone stand still and only ordered his subordinates to practice military posture and formation, such as standing at attention, at ease, right face, and marching in step.

  ……

  While training them, it's not just the people under him who are frustrated. As an officer, Ye Xuan is also extremely frustrated. As the former captain of Team A, his soldiers were all elites. Who knew that this group of people was so stupid? They couldn't even walk in a straight line together after several days of practice. So Ye Xuan often got angry and shouted: "You've even managed to infuriate a pig to death!"

  But Ye Xuan didn't expect that his words would later become the standard phrase used by the instructors of the Ye family army to address their new recruits.

  As for Ye Xuan, there was really no other way, so in the end he decided to use a tree branch to make a stick, serving as a military stick. Whoever did not do well would be given a whack, but whoever did well tonight would have meat to eat.

  After a week of hard practice, Ye Xuan finally managed to get into shape and officially started training.

  ……

  Ye Xuan attaches the most importance to his soldiers' hand and foot strength, so every morning at 6 o'clock, Ye Xuan orders a special bugler to blow the bugle, and everyone gathers within 10 minutes. If someone fails to arrive on time, they are punished with 200 push-ups.

  After gathering, run 10 kilometers with a heavy load every day before eating breakfast. At the same time, practice grip strength multiple times. Ye Xuan deeply understood the importance of hand and foot strength from his experience under Old A. Regarding these trainings, Ye Xuan explained: "Practicing hand strength, all the equipment used by soldiers in peacetime should be heavier than those used in actual combat. When one is familiar with heavy equipment, using lighter ones on the battlefield will naturally make their hands quicker and not be deceived by the equipment... This is what practicing hand strength means, and it's the same for footwork..." In fact, these were not Ye Xuan's words at all, but rather Qī Jìguāng's. However, when Ye Xuan said them with a straight face, the other generals admired him greatly.

  During martial arts training, Ye Xuan unified everyone's weapons, all changed to long spears. The movement they practiced was a single forward thrust, because Ye Xuan knew that the battlefield is different from a martial competition. No matter how high your martial skills are, on the battlefield you can't display them at all. But practicing only this one move can bring out the maximum combat effectiveness of their side.

  However, for generals such as Chen Fei and Sun Yu, Ye Xuan was different. He taught them various hand-to-hand combat techniques and the use of weapons, because as a general, one must have comprehensive abilities to better manage subordinates.

  At the same time, Ye Xuan also learned from Qi Jiguang and used the method of collective punishment. He divided his troops into small teams of 10 people, medium teams of 20 people, and large teams of 50 people. Currently, the Ye family army has two large teams. Ye Xuan named the first team "Xuanyuan" with Zhao Jie as the captain, and the second team was named "Xingtian" with Yang Xiao as the captain.

  At the same time, Ye Xuan stipulated that during battles, if a small team leader retreated with his entire team, he would be killed. If a medium team leader retreated with his entire team, he would be killed. If a large team leader retreated with his entire team, he would be killed.

  On the other hand, if a large team leader did not retreat but all the soldiers in the team retreated, it was considered a sign of respect for the large team leader, and the medium team leader under him would be killed. If a medium team leader did not retreat but all the soldiers in his team retreated, it was considered a sign of respect for the medium team leader, and the small team leader under him would be killed. If a small team leader did not retreat but all the soldiers in his team retreated, it was considered a sign of respect for the small team leader, and all the soldiers in the team would be killed.

  At the same time, two teams have a weekly report meeting. The winning team gets to eat meat for dinner next week, while the losing team not only doesn't get to eat meat but also receives punishment. However, Ye Xuan only punishes the head of the team, making him run around Tianlong Village naked in front of everyone.

  As for these two ideas, Sun Yu and Chen Fei were amazed. Both of them had been in the army before and knew that the biggest problems with the current officers and soldiers were desertion and lack of training efforts. These two ideas can be said to have thoroughly solved these two difficult problems. First of all, the first idea is like having a knife on everyone's head, and also wearing a rope on their feet, making everyone want to flee, so that no one dares to think about retreating when encountering an enemy.

  The second idea can greatly enhance the positivity of soldiers' training. As long as there is a comparison, people will know what's good and bad. Seeing the winning side enjoying meat, the losing side will naturally feel unwilling to accept defeat, and they will work twice as hard, creating a virtuous cycle where everyone trains more seriously.

  Maybe you'll ask why the losing side only punishes the squad leader, haha, think about it, if a squad leader loses so badly in front of everyone in the camp, do you think the squad leader will let those platoon leaders off? The squad leader will only double down on punishing the platoon leaders, and so on, the platoon leaders will also double down on punishing the squad leaders, and the squad leaders will double down on punishing their soldiers. So to avoid being punished, everyone will work hard to train, killing two birds with one stone.

  Although the training of Ye's army was tough and tiring, few people complained about it because firstly, the food in Ye's army was good, with three meals a day instead of two, and they were well-fed. Moreover, those who did well got to eat meat every day, so even if it was tough, no one complained.

  The second point is fairness, because any training project arranged by Ye Xuan was completed together with the soldiers, without any discount or even doubling the completion. Often when everyone got up in the morning to gather, they found that Ye Xuan had already been training on the training ground for a long time. Even when eating, Ye Xuan set an example by queuing up for food with everyone else. This made everyone practice wholeheartedly and willingly. If even the leader did it this way, what more could you ask for? After all, people are easily satisfied, they just need fairness.

  ……

  After training for about 2 months, Ye Jiajun had already undergone a transformation. One day, Chen Fei found Ye Xuan with a worried expression: "Big brother, recently I've been increasing the food supply for the brothers as you said, but now our grain is almost depleted and we can only last another 7 days or so. What should we do?"

  Ye Xuan sneered and said, "Third brother, now that so many rods and villages are sending us grain and treasures, if we don't accept them, wouldn't it hurt their feelings? Hehe, taking this opportunity, we should also test how well these stinky brats have practiced!"