Chapter 61: Cultivation

  Hu Hai stood in the center of the large tent, with two square formations on either side of him. Each formation had eight rows, with over 30 or 40 people in each row. The formations on both sides followed Hu Hai's "one-two-one" chant, alternately kicking their legs and swinging their arms, their postures strange but already exuding a murderous aura.

  "Pull in your belly!" "Stick out your chest!"..."You, you, you, what are you looking at? Just look at yourself, lift up your head!"

  Huhai shouted slogans while continuously pointing at the motionless and unstandardized Imperial Guard generals, scolding them with a smile of enjoyment on his face.

  This is what I saw when I first entered the big account.

  It goes without saying that Hu Hai used the formation training method commonly used by later generations to train new recruits in the military to train these high-ranking generals of the Great Qin. I believe everyone is familiar with this positive step formation training.

  Although this training is simple and dull, there's no doubt that it's a good way to cultivate soldiers' discipline and strict military orders. Maybe there are better methods, but Hu Hai doesn't know them.

  When he arrived, Hu Hai had already trained more than 600 generals for over an hour, that is, more than two hours.

  The emperor himself demonstrated and shouted orders, teaching the Qin Shi Huang's method of training troops as taught by his majesty in a dream. Although this method was strange in posture, who dared to slack off? So this short training session of over an hour had already far surpassed the results of later instructors shouting with whips for a whole day.

  Hu Hai had 656 high-ranking generals, including Wang Jian and others, divided into sixteen columns of forty-one men each. The sixteen columns were then divided into two teams, standing on either side of the large tent. After demonstrating a complete set of movements himself, he had these generals imitate him.

  At first, it was a bit scattered and uneven, but now it's quite standardized. Although Hu Hai himself is a half-baked guy, he still remembers the basic movements that were drilled into him in high school and college.

  When Jianying came in, Hu Hai called Wang Gan over and asked him to replace himself to shout the password, then beckoned Jianying to come over.

  After winning a game of Liubo, Hu Hai asked in a low voice while looking at the two teams still practicing their formations and turning left and right: "Your Majesty, what is this?"

  Hu Hai didn't say a word, looked around and saw that there were already some imperial guards with similar looks, led by Ying to walk slowly to the entrance of the big tent.

  "What does your lordship think of this method? Is it better or worse than our Great Qin's original method of forming an army?"

  He looked at the hundreds of Imperial Guards who were kicking their legs and waving their arms in place, shook his head and said: "Your Majesty please forgive me, I feel that the two methods are different, but I don't know which one is better."

  "Heh heh, after some time has passed you will naturally understand the benefits of this method. Alright, let's not talk about that for now, I summoned you today because there is something I need you to do." Hu Hai didn't directly say his own method was good, but rather looked at the effect afterwards and didn't need to say it out loud.

  "Ah!"

  "Immediately dispatch the best of the Dragon Guards to find for me the leaders of the Confucian, Taoist, Mohist, Agrarian, and Medical schools in Xianyang. Once found, do not alarm them, but report back to me at once."

  "Your subordinate obeys the order!" Ying Yi's heart skipped a beat as he hastily replied with a bow.

  "How is the survey of land going? What are the reactions of the noble families, rich households and common people in Xianyang?" Hu Hai asked calmly.

  "Your Majesty, the wealthy and noble families have no complaints and are all cooperating with Chancellor Feng's land survey. The common people are also delighted with the re-measurement of their lands and the reduction of taxes."

  "Do they have any complaints? Or are there any unusual movements?" Hu Hai asked with a glimmer of light in his eyes.

  "Indeed it is so, Your Majesty." Won said with certainty.

  "Haha, very good. Go and carefully investigate the original amount of land and slaves in the households of all officials and nobles. I want to know everything clearly. Not a single thing can be left out."

  "Ah!"

  "Alright, you may go! Just report back to me as soon as possible with what I just said." Hu Hai waved his hand.

  "I beg to take my leave!"

  ……

  Huhai stood alone at the entrance of the big tent, watching the training of the generals inside for a while. Suddenly, he turned his head and saw that the door curtain of the tent had been opened a small gap, with four heads sticking in, giggling and looking inside, like they were watching a monkey show.

  Who is not Long Baosi?

  "Cough!"

  Huhai let out a cough, and the four women were startled to find that the emperor was staring at them. In an instant, they vanished like frightened rabbits.

  "Long Ba, you four come in!" Hu Hai said with a deliberately serious tone.

  "Your Majesty, please forgive me. It was all my fault, a slave's mistake, and has nothing to do with Long Jiu and the others! Please punish me!" Long Ba knelt down as soon as he entered, taking all the blame upon himself, his tone calm, and his expression resigned to death.

  "Your Majesty, please forgive us. If you must punish, then punish only me and Lao Ba. The two of them are still young, I beg Your Majesty to spare their lives!" Long Jiu said closely behind.

  Seeing the twin loli sisters also with tears in their eyes, looking like they wanted to follow and apologize, Hu Hai hurriedly said: "Did I say I would blame you? Get up, now you think it's funny, later you'll know."

  "Thank you, Your Majesty!" Hearing that Hu Hai did not blame himself and the others, Long Ba faintly thanked him and then stood up quietly beside him, as if Hu Hai was air.

  Hu Hai also discovered this girl's uniqueness, but at this time he was too lazy to care, and asked: "Ying Yi said that you are all proficient in qin, chess, calligraphy, and painting?"

  "We are but roughly familiar with it, Your Majesty!" Long Ba said calmly as usual.

  "All right, I don't care whether you're proficient or not, go and paint a picture of a fierce tiger for me, I have use for it." Hu Hai waved his hand.

  "Yes, milord!"

  Four men withdrew and went their separate ways to draw tigers.

  Hu Hai looked at the hundreds of generals in the tent, who were already practicing their arm swings and leg kicks, and muttered to himself: "It's about time, they should be walking in lockstep now, this is a must-have for military parades." He then walked up front, pushed Wang Gan aside, and began teaching them how to walk in lockstep.

  After a while, the four girls finished drawing the tiger picture. Before they entered the big tent, they heard the sound of "thud thud" footsteps echoing inside, as if there were thousands of horses and soldiers marching in the big tent, but there were less than a thousand people in the big tent.

  Outside the main tent, the eight male guards newly recruited by Hu Hai were still standing motionless, but their facial expressions showed that they were also very curious.

  The four women quietly opened the door curtain, and a thick layer of dust immediately rushed in, "cough cough", which choked them all at once.

  In the midst of swirling dust, two neat black troops marched in sonorous steps towards the grand tent entrance.

  Straight body, neat arm swing, neat leg kick, neat step, neat forward, neat thunderous footsteps, rough and majestic, only a few hundred people but like an unstoppable black torrent crushing over, momentum overwhelming the sky.

  The four girls stared blankly at these two robust and majestic teams. Is this the team that was trained with those weird monkey-like movements?

  "Halt!"

  As soon as Hu Hai let out a loud roar, the black tide suddenly stopped, and the thunderous footsteps came to an abrupt halt.

  "Turn back! Cough cough, haha, good. What do you all think!" Hu Hai asked with a grey face and a loud laugh while coughing.