MLMD – Chapter 25 Training Begins

When Yue Yang arrived at the drill ground, what he saw was precisely this kind of chaotic scene. Standing beside him, Hu Laosan noticed Yue Yang’s brows knit tightly together and immediately knew that his young master was very dissatisfied.

Afraid that Yue Yang might blame him, Hu Laosan hurried a few steps forward and shouted at the disorderly village soldiers on the drill ground, “All of you, listen up! The young master has come to see you. Everyone stand properly right now—no one is allowed to move! Hey… I’m talking about you lot! All of you, stand properly and don’t move!”

Yue Yang simply stood there with his hands clasped behind his back, watching Hu Laosan try to straighten out the ranks. But although Hu Laosan was highly skilled at fighting, it was obvious that he was far from competent at managing people. Even after a full quarter of an hour, the people on the drill ground were still scurrying around like headless flies. These farmers who had just joined the camp had no idea what “orders must be obeyed without question” even meant.

Seeing that Hu Laosan’s voice was nearly hoarse from shouting, yet hardly any of the new recruits paid him any attention—some even laughing and chatting loudly as if no one else were around—Yue Yang gradually felt a nameless anger rising in his chest. He turned and beckoned to Hu Laosan. Hu Laosan froze for a moment, then immediately came over to him.

Pointing at the chaotic scene ahead, Yue Yang said coldly, “You—take a few men right now and go to the drill ground. Teach them what it means to obey orders. In two quarters of an hour, I want to see all of them standing neatly in front of me, and I want them all to shut their mouths. Can you do it?”

Hu Laosan had already shouted himself hoarse, yet hardly anyone had listened, and his belly was full of pent-up anger. Now that Yue Yang had given the order, he naturally would not hold back any longer. A ferocious grin appeared on his beefy face. “Young master, just watch. This little one will definitely discipline these fellows properly!”

With that, Hu Laosan called over more than a dozen household guards. Each grabbed a wooden club as thick as a child’s arm and charged straight toward the new recruits on the drill ground. Very quickly, the sounds of clubs striking flesh mixed with miserable screams echoed across the field.

Pa! Pa! Pa! Pa! Pa…

“Ah—stop hitting us! If you keep hitting, someone’s going to die!”

“My lord, please stop hitting us! We didn’t do anything wrong!”

In an instant, the drill ground was filled with wails and pleas for mercy. Several hundred newly recruited soldiers were chased about by Hu Laosan and the dozen-plus guards, who were like wolves among sheep, scattering everywhere like a routed army.

But the recruits’ cries for mercy stirred not the slightest pity in Hu Laosan’s heart. The wooden club in his hands continued to come down mercilessly on their bodies, beating them until they howled like ghosts and wolves. Finally, one quick-witted recruit noticed Yue Yang standing silently at the edge of the field with his arms folded. An idea flashed through his mind. He scrambled and crawled over, then with a thud dropped to his knees in front of Yue Yang, trembling as he cried, “Young master, please, I beg you! Make those gentlemen stop. This lowly one knows he was wrong—if they keep beating us, we really won’t be able to take it anymore. Please, have mercy and tell them to stop!”

Yue Yang glanced at the ragged young man kneeling before him. His lips twitched slightly. He had originally intended to reach out and help him up, but then he hardened his heart and said coldly, “You say you know you were wrong?”

Hearing Yue Yang speak, the recruit quickly shuffled forward on his knees, crying loudly. “Yes, young master, this lowly one knows he was wrong.”

“Good,” Yue Yang said indifferently. “Then tell me—what exactly were you wrong about?”

“I was wrong in that… wrong in that…” The recruit stammered for a couple of words, then fell silent, unable to say anything more.

Seeing this, Yue Yang couldn’t help but feel a wave of sorrow. Are these really my new soldiers? They didn’t even know why they were being beaten—perhaps they didn’t even know why they had become soldiers in the first place. Could he truly lead men like this to carve out a bloody path in the chaos that was soon to come?

That thought flickered through Yue Yang’s mind only briefly. He quickly steeled himself. Since he had already chosen this path, he had to keep going. Otherwise, he might as well flee back to the modern world and live as a wealthy idler.

Taking a deep breath, Yue Yang said in a low voice to Hu Laosan, who was still leading the guards in beating the recruits, “Hu Laosan, stop hitting them. Have them all come over here and line up in order.”

“Yes, young master!”

After beating dozens of men in a row, Hu Laosan was also exhausted, beads of sweat the size of soybeans forming on his forehead. Upon hearing Yue Yang’s words, he finally stopped and shouted at the recruits around him, “Are you all deaf? Didn’t you hear the young master? Get the hell over here and stand properly! If anyone thinks his bones are too hard and needs me to loosen them up a bit, I’d be more than happy to help. Move it—all of you, hurry up!”

With Hu Laosan’s roar, the recruits immediately erupted into frantic motion. Amid the thunderous sound of footsteps, they scrambled to run over to Yue Yang and line up one by one. Even so, they were still pushing and shoving each other, a complete mess, which made Yue Yang secretly fume.

Finally, after another quarter of an hour, more than three hundred recruits, under the menace of Hu Laosan and the wooden clubs of the dozen guards, barely formed five crooked rows in front of Yue Yang. Even then, in Yue Yang’s eyes, their formation was worse than the lines of elementary school students doing morning exercises in a later age.

Fixing his sharp gaze on the several hundred recruits, Yue Yang shouted loudly, “Fellow men of Wuli Village, first of all, I want to congratulate you. From today onward, you are officially members of the glorious Wuli Village militia. From this day forward, you will bid farewell to your former identities. You are no longer tenant farmers scratching food out of the soil, no longer mere peasants—you are soldiers who receive pay!

“Some of you may look down on the status of militia village soldiers, thinking they are nothing more than private guards hired to watch over someone’s property. But let me tell you—one day, you will be proud of this identity, and you will feel honored by it. Of course, words spoken a thousand times are not as convincing as personal experience. No matter how much I say, it won’t be as powerful as facts. Give me half a year. After half a year, you will realize that joining this group was the most correct decision you have ever made in your lives. However, if you want to receive your monthly pay and that settlement allowance, it won’t be easy. You will need to put in far more effort than ordinary people!”

Under the threat of wooden clubs and Hu Laosan’s murderous glare, the recruits behaved themselves while Yue Yang was speaking. No one dared make a sound. The entire drill ground fell into a strangely eerie silence.

Seeing the quiet crowd, Yue Yang nodded in satisfaction and shouted, “Good! Today, this young master will give you your first lesson—how to become a qualified soldier. All of you, listen up! Everyone, use an arm’s length as spacing and line up into five rows. No talking in between. Anyone who disobeys orders will be severely punished!”

“Move it—hurry up! Are you bastards dead or what? Didn’t you hear the young master? Stand properly! One arm’s length between each man—stand properly, do you hear me? Hurry the hell up!”

Hu Laosan continued to lead the dozen guards in maintaining order on the field. Whenever a recruit moved too slowly, he would bring down a club without a second word. And just like that, Yue Yang officially began his life of training soldiers in this time and space…