Chapter Thirty-Six: Only Fast Not Broken

  Cao Tiānchéng and Sūn Xiǎo walked out, after a short while, suddenly came the sound of cheering from outside, Gāo Yuǎn knew that Cao Tiānchéng was distributing new uniforms to the soldiers, one summer and one winter, two sets in total. These soldiers didn't know how many years it had been since they last got new clothes, and were actually delighted like this.

  Walking to the window, pushing open the window sash, outside the soldiers were excitedly holding new clothes, bouncing and jumping, chasing each other, one by one with joyful faces, the corners of their mouths revealing a hint of a smile, these people are really easy to satisfy.

  He closed the window and sat back down at his desk, from Cao Tiancheng and Sun Xiao's words, he understood a lot of things, these seemingly useless soldiers outside, in his eyes, were not all as they appeared to be, they may have also been hot-blooded, they may have also been angry, their enlistment was perhaps not just for the sake of getting a meal, maybe, they had also thought about seeking revenge, but the cruel reality wore down their passion bit by bit, their anger as men was also corroded in the cold passage of time, helplessly, they became a group of useless people just passing the days, doing one day's work and waiting for the next, not thinking or willing to think about what tomorrow would be like.

  But now that I'm here, maybe I can stir up those deeply hidden things in their hearts once again and let them live like a man.

  The outside had quieted down, the soldiers all returned to their dormitories, presumably to try on their new clothes, Gao Yuan stood up, picked up the bowl of soup that had been drunk dry, and walked out.

  He tossed the bowl into the kitchen and listened to the faint laughter of the soldiers in the barracks. Gaoyuan walked over with his hands behind his back, the door was slightly ajar, he stood for a moment, then pushed it open and entered.

  Everyone in the room almost simultaneously turned around to look over, and indeed they were trying on new clothes, most people were standing naked on the kang, seeing Gao Yuan, they all froze, after a moment of silence, someone let out a strange cry, two hands subconsciously covered their lower body, more people hastily put on their pants.

  "Ha ha, I'm not a big girl, what's there to be embarrassed about?" She walked over with big strides and stood in front of Yan Haibo, who was pulling up his pants halfway through, looking rather awkward at the moment.

  "Adjutant!" Yan Haibo looked up at Gao Yuan with a mixture of tears and laughter on his face, which was extremely vivid. Gao Yuan stretched out his hand to pat Yan's chest, "Not bad, you've finally put on some flesh, unlike when I first arrived, your ribs were visible under your skin, you didn't look like a living person, but rather a skeleton."

  The warm and distant tone made the soldiers' fearful thoughts slowly let go, towards this army officer, the soldiers were both afraid and loved, feared was the officer's means of being fierce, martial arts intimidating, loved was since the officer came, unexpectedly issued full pay, everyone ate their fill, wore warm clothes, except for a little less freedom, every day had to undergo training, life was getting more and more comfortable.

  "Ever since the quartermaster arrived, we've been able to eat white buns every day, eat fatty meat, and drink meat soup. If we still don't gain weight, wouldn't that be a waste of the quartermaster's money?" Yan Haibo said cautiously.

  "Yes indeed! Thanks to you, Sergeant Cao, since I've been following you, my life has been more comfortable than any day before!" The dormitory echoed with voices of agreement.

  Gao Yuan smiled slightly and looked around the soldiers' dormitory. Although the trash had been cleaned up, the quilts on the beds were still in a mess. He didn't say anything and walked over to the bed, pulled out a quilt, and slowly folded it. This was the first day he came to this barracks after throwing away the tattered ones and letting Zhang Yi buy new ones, but now they looked crumpled again.

  Looking at Gaoyuan over there folding the quilt by himself, the dormitory gradually quieted down, and everyone stared at Gaoyuan with their eyes fixed, especially Yan Haibo, whose face turned into a pig's liver color, because the quilt being folded by Gaoyuan was his.

  "Bing Cao, I'll come myself!" Yan Haibo said with a grunt as he pulled up his pants.

  Gao Yuan didn't respond, slowly folding his quilt into a square tofu block, flattening it with his hands, and then stepping aside to reveal his handiwork to everyone.

  A burst of exclamations echoed through the dormitory.

  "Afterwards, everyone's quilt must be folded like this." said Gao Yuan.

  "Bing Cao, it does look good like this, but it seems to take too much time!" Sun Xiao said in a low voice as she rushed over from the other dormitory. "The schedule for this morning is very tight, and the soldiers won't have enough time."

  "Will it take a long time?" Gaoyuan smiled and glanced at him, then pulled over another quilt from the side, and in the midst of everyone's dizziness and astonishment, in the blink of an eye, a square block of tofu appeared before everyone's eyes.

  "What is called 'fast' is actually the result of countless practices!" Gaoyuan said, looking at the stunned crowd. "For the same action, if you practice it a thousand times, your speed will increase several times, because in this movement, every tiny detail, you can understand and grasp, for any possible unexpected situation, you know how to respond."

  "By the way, Gao Yuan paused for a moment, "Today's training is cancelled, everyone stays in the dormitory to practice folding quilts."

  Everyone was shocked.

  He walked away with a flick of his sleeve and said as he went: "This will be one of the subjects I use to evaluate you all. If you can't meet the standard, I'll deduct it from your pay. Old Cao, what are you still standing there for? Don't you go prepare the things I told you to buy?"

  Cao Tiānchéng took a glance at Sūn Xiǎo, but found that this guy was staring blankly at the tofu block stacked high by Gāo Yuǎn, and didn't know what he was thinking about.

  Gao Yuancai doesn't care what they think, a strong army must start from the smallest details to become a powerful force. This quilt may seem unrelated to building a strong army, but in fact, it can cultivate discipline and other concepts among soldiers.

  Returning to his residence, he took out the training plan that had been organized a few days ago and was about to refine some details when Sun Xiao suddenly burst in with a gust of wind.

  "Bing Cao, I understand now! I understand now!" Sun Xiao exclaimed excitedly, repeating himself.

  "Do you understand now?" Gaoyuan put down his pen and looked at the other party thoughtfully.

  "Countless times of practice!" Sun Xiao looked at Gao Yuan, "Bing Cao, if countless times of practice can make us stack up quickly and well, then through countless times of practice, can't we swing our swords faster, stab faster? If we are fighting against the enemy, before their sword is even raised, our sword has already landed on his neck. Doesn't that mean we are much stronger than them?"

  With a loud slap, Gao Yuan's palms merged together, and he burst into hearty laughter.

  "Adjutant, did I say something wrong?" Sun Xiao's face suddenly fell, with a look of despair.

  "No, you're absolutely right!" Gaoyuan looked at him with admiration, "You are the first person to think of this and understand the deeper meaning behind my previous words. The ultimate martial art is speed, nothing can beat it. As long as you are faster than others, you will win. With the same knife-wielding motion, if you are faster than others, they will only die; with the same thrusting motion, if you are faster than others, they will also die!"

  Gao Yuan stood up and walked a few steps in the room, looking at Sun Xiao and said: "A branch of the military doesn't need every single person to practice martial arts, nor do they need to practice those complex moves. A knife is just for blocking and slashing, a gun is just for shooting and stabbing. With thousands and thousands of practices, one can become proficient with ease. Of course, this requires you to have a strong body first, with enough strength to complete the action, because speed means that every time you swing your sword, you need to use more power than others."

  "So during this period of time, what Bing Cao has been focusing on is to first make everyone stronger and more powerful." Sun Xiao suddenly realized.

  "This is just the first step!" Gaoyuan shook his head, "Next comes endurance and reaction speed, but we can mix these things together to practice. Our soldiers' bodies are too weak, if we don't make them strong first, everything else is empty talk. Strength is the foundation, with strength, there's a next step, do you understand?"

  "I understand. Over this period of time, the military training has already made everyone's body stronger, and next is to improve their endurance, which is what you call stamina. I now understand the significance of your training plan for the next dozen or so days."

  "Not bad, Sun Xiao, you're not bad at all, very clever. However, I want to tell you that learning characters is not a trivial matter. If you only want to be a squad leader for the rest of your life, then so be it. But if you want to become a general, then you must learn to read and write."

  Xiao smiled and said, "General, let's not think about it. Our county magistrate is also a heroic figure, but he's just a county magistrate after all. Generals have always been those nobles who can take the position. Like our Taishou of Liaoxi County, even if you look at the whole of Great Yan, there's only one person like him. But since the military officer told me to learn characters, I'll go and recognize them. This is because the military officer has spoken, not because I want to be a general, this is just a daydream."

  "Ha ha, Xiao Sun," said Gao Yuan, "a man should have ambition, a soldier who doesn't want to be a general is not a good soldier, why can't you be a general? Look at the kings and nobles of old, were they born into their positions? Let's go back one hundred years, two hundred years, or even further, would the current nobles of Yan be considered noble then? Maybe they were just like us, or maybe even worse?" Gao Yuan patted Xiao Sun on the shoulder.