Chapter Thirty-Nine: New Means

  Sun Xiao sat opposite, constantly rubbing her sore legs, the leg wraps had been removed, which made Sun Xiao feel slightly relieved.

  "If you didn't wear leg wraps, you'd be in even more pain now!" Gaoyuan said with a smile as he looked at Sun Xiao, but in fact, he wasn't feeling relaxed either. After all, this was the body that had been battered and bruised from his past life, and although it had recovered, he had never stopped training since then. However, this kind of long-distance practice was also a first for him.

  "Adjutant, you're too formidable!" Sun Xiao shook his head, "At first, I could still see your back figure, but in the end, even your shadow couldn't be seen. The gap is really too big."

  "Haha, far away! Sun Xiao, you're not as bad as you think, and I'm not as strong as you think. You just haven't figured out the underlying principle yet!"

  "This isn't enough?" Sun Xiao's mouth opened wide, "Bing Cao, don't be embarrassed for me, I now know that I'm very weak, I will work hard. Even if I can never surpass Bing Cao, at least I want to strive to see the back of Bing Cao."

  "Xiao Sun, do you know why you fell behind so far?"

  "My physical strength is too weak."

  Gao Yuan shook his head, "Your physical strength is still okay, but this time you lost so badly and fell behind by such a large margin because your strategy was wrong."

  "Strategy?" Sun Xiao looked at Gao Yuan, "Isn't it just running? What strategy is needed for that?"

  "You don't understand me at all, you don't know what I'm capable of? At first, you desperately tried to keep up with my rhythm, right? You wanted to catch up with me, didn't you?"

  Sun Xiao nodded, "At first I didn't know that Bing Cao was so formidable, and indeed I wanted to catch up with Bing Cao."

  "It's all over now. From the very beginning, you fell into my rhythm and followed my pace. You lost your own rhythm and the physical gap between us two determined that you would end up in a crushing defeat. Actually, if you hadn't followed my pace from the start, you would have reached the top of the mountain much earlier."

  Xiao Ruo Sun is lost in thought.

  "In between, you almost collapsed, didn't you?" Gaoyuan asked with a smile.

  "It is." Sun Xiao said frankly, "If Yan Haibo hadn't caught up, I almost gave up."

  "Xiao Sun, you must remember that at any time, you should grasp your own rhythm, whether it's running or fighting, or even future battles, you should follow your own rhythm, never follow someone else's rhythm. If you can make your opponent follow your rhythm, then victory is within sight." Gao Yuan said, knocking on the table.

  "I don't quite understand, Lieutenant!" Sun Xiao rubbed his nose and said.

  "Don't understand? Then go think slowly, let brothers have a good rest, continue tomorrow morning!"

  "I get it!" Sun Xiao rubbed his head, thinking about Gao Yuan's words as he walked out.

  After a moment, the various barracks erupted in a chorus of wails and howls, clearly because Sun Xiao had just announced that tomorrow's training would be a repeat of today's.

  Gao Yuan smiled slightly and stretched out his hands, gently rubbing his own sore legs.

  The barracks were unusually quiet today, with no soldiers coming out to play on the parallel bars. Everyone's body ached all over, especially their legs, which felt like they didn't belong to them anymore. Tomorrow would be another day of training, so it was best to just rest well today.

  The next day, the training continued as usual, and Gao Yuan deliberately slowed down his speed. Compared to yesterday, all the soldiers including Sun Xiaoyan and Hai Bo were much slower. Gao Yuan was not in a hurry, he knew that this was not the soldiers being negative about the training subjects, but a normal reaction after the large exercise volume of the previous day. This stage would probably last for several days, once everyone recovered from this fatigue, their endurance quality would be greatly improved.

  On the fifth day, the expected positive reaction finally arrived on schedule. Compared to the previous few days, the soldiers' speed began to accelerate significantly. After returning to their barracks, they also started chatting and laughing with each other. On the training ground outside the barracks, the soldiers had already begun competing in races. Gao Yuan knew that the most difficult period was over.

  The situation is getting better and better every day. Gao Yuan discovered that the great soldiers of this era have an endurance and perseverance that truly exceeded his expectations.

  Cao Tiancheng did not participate in the brutal cross-country training for over a dozen days, but he was not idle either. Firstly, the breakfast for the entire team fell on his shoulders alone. Secondly, during these ten days, following Gao Yuan's orders, some new gadgets appeared on the grounds outside the barracks.

  A large wooden stake stood upright, with a thick and thin wooden rod lying horizontally on top of it, every meter apart, there was such a horizontal rod standing, with sandbags hanging from it.

  After more than ten days, the soldiers had fully adapted to such long-distance running and were able to reach the top of the mountain within a high time limit. After they completed this indicator, Gaoyuan immediately announced that cross-country running would be changed to twice a day, but it was no longer empty-handed running, but rather carrying their own quilt rolls, bringing their own weapons, and completing this training in full combat gear. During these ten days of rest, Gaoyuan also taught them how to use cloth strips to tie their quilt rolls into a convenient backpack.

  Cao Tiānchéng finally completed the last sandbag's suspension, looking at his own work, Cao Tiānchéng was very satisfied. "Bīng Cáo, don't you think it's okay?"

  Gao Yuan walked forward and punched one of the sandbags with his fist. The sandbag swung high up in the air, no matter whether it was to the left or right, front or back, it wouldn't hit any other sandbags. He nodded his head in satisfaction, "Not bad, Tian Cheng, you've put your heart into it and done a very careful job."

  "Everyone runs around like a dog every day, what's the point of doing this?" Cao Tiancheng said with a smile.

  "Bing Cao, what's going on here? Are we supposed to punch sandbags to build up our strength? But the distance is a bit too close, isn't it? It would be better to line up and place them around the barracks. Sun Xiao came over and tried out the weight of the sandbag, 'It's a bit light, one punch and the sandbag will fly away.'"

  "It's not played like that!" Gaoyuan burst out laughing and walked straight to the middle of the sandbags. "Xiao Sun, watch closely." With a swing of his arm, he punched one of the sandbags high into the air. Before it could fall back down, Gaoyuan struck another sandbag with a single punch, kicked to the side, and yet another sandbag flew up. He dodged and weaved between the flying sandbags, only punching or kicking when there was no way to avoid them, sending the sandbags flying again.

  Sun Xiao was already stunned.

  More soldiers rushed out of their barracks and were stunned, while inside the barracks it was quiet.

  A figure flashed before his eyes, and Gao Yuan smiled brightly as he looked at the more than 100 soldiers under his command. "Who dares to try?"

  The surroundings were quiet, and even Sun Xiao didn't have the courage to go forward and try it out.

  "I'm coming!" A voice broke the silence, it was Yan Haibo.

  "Alright, you go try!" Gaoyuan laughed and waved his hand.

  Yan Haibo walked slowly into the stopped sandbag array, took a deep breath, and suddenly swung his fist to strike a sandbag in front of him. His body recoiled, and he kicked another sandbag with his back leg. He quickly turned around, and his elbow joint struck fiercely, sending the left sandbag flying high. As he was about to strike the right sandbag, the first sandbag flew back with a whooshing sound. Yan Haibo was startled, and his arms closed together to block the impact with a loud "thud". Before he could react, the second sandbag struck him heavily on the back, causing him to grunt and stumble forward. His footsteps became disordered, and just then, the left sandbag flew back and hit Yan Haibo's left face, sending him spinning half a circle. Before he could respond, the first sandbag flew back again, and this time, Yan Haibo was knocked to the ground.

  "I'll give it a try!" The second crab-eater stepped into the sandbag array, this was a company commander. Unfortunately, he only managed to knock down five sandbags before being knocked to the ground in disarray.

  One by one, the soldiers walked into the sandbag array, and after half a day, everyone stood in front of Gao Yuan with a swollen face.

  "This is reaction speed!" Gao Yuan said, looking at the bewildered crowd. "In a chaotic battle, countless knives are chopping at you, countless guns are stabbing at you. If your reaction is fast enough, you can survive longer. But this is just a sandbag, which you hit voluntarily. You can predict in advance where the sandbag will fly from, but if there were two people, three people or even more standing in this sandbag array, hitting simultaneously, you know when the sandbag you hit will fly back, but you can't predict when the sandbags hit by others will hit you, because you don't know the opponent's strength, don't know which one they'll hit first. If that's the case, how long can you hold on?"

  Listening to the distant words, people thought of that scene where sandbags flew randomly without any rules, and cold sweat broke out on their bodies.

  "Similarly, if you are on the battlefield, you can't imagine when and from which direction the opponent will come at you with a knife or gun, and how much force they will use. You can only react before the blade or bullet reaches your body. If you react quickly, you can respond in time; otherwise, you will die."

  After finishing his speech, Gao Yuan swung his arm and walked away with a flourish.

  Sun Xiao touched his nose, he was the last one to go in, and also supported for the longest time, but suffered the most serious injury, his nose was hit with blood flowing horizontally.

  He yanked out the clump of grass that had plugged his nose and flung it to the ground, a fresh metallic tang still in his mouth as he charged back into the sandbagged emplacement.