Twenty-Fourth Section: Self-Inflicted Retribution
Yun Yan felt that he had a heavy burden, with at least forty or fifty people relying on him to survive. Looking at his bean sprout-like body, he knew that strengthening himself was unavoidable. In ancient times, one had to follow the rules of this era, where the strong and powerful were superior. Cheng Chu Mo could easily draw a three-stone bow and hit his target within a hundred steps without fail, even while riding a galloping horse, he could still manage eight or nine out of ten shots. Yun Yan couldn't even draw a hard bow, and in the entire Manchu army camp, they couldn't find a soft bow with less than one stone's strength, this became Yun Yan's weakness, and he was ridiculed everywhere. In these four months, his body had grown much taller, barely reaching the threshold of 1.7 meters, Old Cheng said that only now did he have some semblance of a Guanzhong Han man.
Yun Yan was running back and forth in the large martial arts arena, rolling, climbing high, crawling forward, jumping over ditches, climbing rope ladders through tunnels, walking on balance beams to cross obstacles. After just three rounds, Yun Yan was like a drowned rat, lying on the ground gasping for air. Old Cheng and Niu Jin Da started watching Yun Yan with amusement. But as they watched, the smile on their faces disappeared without a trace. They exchanged a glance, followed Yun Yan's running sequence in silence, and walked past where Yun Yan had collapsed, picking him up and carrying him back to the tent. Old Cheng poured a cup of boiling water into Yun Yan's stomach, waiting for him to catch his breath. Then he asked:
"Kid, is this a technique you've planned for yourself? What's its use? I see that it has some meaning to it, tell me about it."
"This is the mentor seeing Xiaozi's physical weakness, specially made a training plan for Xiaozi. The mentor said: A person's strength is not just strong in one aspect, but the overall strength of various bodily functions. To run fast, jump high, react quickly, coordinate limbs properly, balance well, and flexibility is also essential. Only then can it be called truly strong." Yun Ye had no choice but to take his teacher's vague words as truth.
"You little brat still looks like a chick, are you saying this thing is specially designed to turn strong men into chicks?" Yun Ye was very tempted to give Lao Niu this poisonous-tongued man a heavy punch. Considering that he couldn't beat him, Yun Ye decided to magnanimously forgive this traumatized old fellow.
"Uncle doesn't know, after Master taught me this set of things, he closed the door and guarded himself, saying that he wanted to see what was at the end of the sky, and didn't care about me anymore. I lived alone in the wilderness, practiced once and threw it out of my mind, too tired. As soon as the words fell, two big hands landed on both sides of his buttocks at the same time. Yun Ye let out a miserable cry, covering his buttocks and running wildly around the tent. It was so painful that the two buttocks felt like they were being burned by fire. He rubbed for half a day before he had some feeling. Old Cheng, old Niu was so angry that his hands trembled and his whole body shook."
"Abomination! Abomination! Wasting heaven's gift, wasting heaven's gift! Since ancient times, the art of cultivating the body has been a secret not passed down in our family. Liu Bei learned it and thus had the White Ears Army, marching through mountains and forests as if on flat ground. Gao Shun learned it and thus had the Trap Array Camp, attacking cities and taking territories with no one able to withstand him. Cao Cao learned it and thus had the Tiger Leopard Riders roaming the world, Chen Qing's Backwards Army was invincible wherever they went, all relying on the art of cultivating the body. Such a divine technique, you actually abandoned it like a worn-out shoe! You're killing me with anger today, I must thrash you to death! Ahhh!" Old Cheng flew into a rage, and afterwards, Cloudy's mournful cries and Old Cheng's furious roars echoed from within the tent. It made Cheng Chumo, who was eavesdropping outside the tent, turn pale with fright.
Yun Yan wasn't beaten to death, but his butt was severely swollen. He sighed and worked on making tools in the blacksmith's shop. Old Cheng listened to Yun Yan's words and brought back some charcoal, high-grade alloy that Yun Yan couldn't make, as a technician, there was no reason he couldn't even make low-grade steel. Seeing the old blacksmith hammering away at the iron, Yun Yan got a headache, how long would it take to finish making the three-edged dagger, lock, pulley, flying claw, and engineer's shovel? He chased all the blacksmiths away and asked Old Cheng to bring over some soldiers to help. Old Niu knew about this and, citing the importance of military equipment, sent in a few spies from the Hundred Riders' Division. Yun Yan didn't care; this was something that Li Er had to know about. It wasn't complicated: pouring molten iron into a mold, sprinkling mineral powder on top, and stirring constantly until the flame turned blue, then stopping - one pot of steel water was successful. Pouring it into a finished mold, the initial prototype was done. The three-edged dagger only needed to be polished and tempered to be complete; the lock, pulley, and flying claw required toughness, so they just needed to be polished smooth. The engineer's shovel was more troublesome, requiring the blacksmith to hammer it out one strike at a time. When Cheng Yaojin saw the first military dagger, he took in a breath of cold air - the sharp three-edged blade shone with a blue light, and the three thick blood grooves led straight to the handle. Old Cheng stabbed it into a one-inch-thick wooden table, easily piercing through it; the streamlined blade reduced resistance to a minimum. Using pigs and sheep as test subjects, no matter where they were stabbed, the result was always fatal bleeding. Old Cheng and Old Niu looked at each other, sighed, and sent several fast horses galloping towards Chang'an with the military dagger and steel-making method.
Cheng Chumu was dead tired, really, his two legs were swollen like elephant legs, his knees and elbows were covered in blood, every day he needed to be fed by his personal soldier, fortunately, he still took a hot bath every day, otherwise even sleeping would be a problem. It's just that someone had to carry him to bed because this guy would fall asleep as soon as he started bathing. Yun Heng thought that with Cheng Chumu's physique, it shouldn't be like this, and only after asking his personal soldier did he find out that Niu Jinda had secretly increased the intensity of training by three times, and each person still had to carry all their equipment on their back. Good heavens, just the helmet alone weighed 30-40 jin, not to mention the horizontal sword, arrows, and one guy's chain hammer alone weighed 30 jin, and then add the helmet... Yun Heng silently mourned for these hundred brave warriors from the bottom of his heart. Silently mourning was one thing, but Yun Heng's mood was still good, holding a bowl of shaved ice under the shade of a tree laughing at Cheng Chumu and others' jokes when suddenly, Niu Jinda, wearing full armor, appeared in front of him, his thick finger pointing towards the training grounds.
Yun Yan wore his leather armor, carrying a horizontal sword and standing on the training grounds. He was met with the strange smiles of 100 burly men. Looking at the dirty water pit and the high brick wall, Yun Yan finally understood what it meant to be trapped in one's own cocoon. He pounded his head fiercely, regretting why he had added so many training subjects. This was completely a special forces training method! With a kick on his butt, Yun Yan began his tragic special forces career.
In the past, being a personal soldier only required carrying small loads, but now they also have to carry Lord Yun, and constantly sprinkle water on his face, or else he would faint again. Poor Lord Yun had an epileptic seizure and was cured by Vice General Niu with a golden needle, which was inserted into his buttocks. His epilepsy was instantly cured, and he ran faster than the young master. Once he fainted, two military doctors immediately gave him a full-body massage, wiped his body with wet towels, and after waking up, he drank some water and continued running. The personal soldiers originally admired these proud sons of heaven, but after witnessing such a miserable scene, they felt that being a small soldier was not so bad after all. Among the 100 military officers under Old Cow's rod, there were those who cried in pain, begged for mercy, and pretended to be ill, but none dared to resist, for who would dare to resist under the Cow Demon King?
Cheng Chumu and Yun Yan were lying naked in two large wooden barrels, next to which were ninety-nine identical barrels, also containing ninety-nine naked officers. The military doctor continuously added a black medicinal liquid to the barrels, said to have an amazing effect on eliminating fatigue. After soaking for half an hour, they were fished out by their respective personal soldiers and lay white and exhausted on the bed, where newly trained medical soldiers gave them full-body massages.
"Xiao Yan, when will our days of hardship come to an end?"
"Endure for now, this is just the beginning. Once we're physically strong and meet the commander's requirements, we'll start wilderness survival training, that's when it will be life or death. Not being fed isn't a big deal, there's also heavy artillery fire, we need to dodge pursuit, complete our mission, and not have too many casualties ourselves. That way, this army is only half-trained. You still need to know hand-to-hand combat, the kind that kills with one hit, know how to hide, ambush, disguise yourself, and be able to complete missions in impossible situations. Only then are you considered fully trained. For now, just don't consider yourself human yet."
A mournful wail filled the tent.
