Warring States Survival Guide

Chapter 127 Even the most stringent regulations have their own reasons!

Wanjin, military camp.

Hyosaburo was sweating profusely, and Penshiro scrubbed the floor with a rag, leaving no corners untouched. Nabetaro, along with Wanjiro and Tonggoro, carefully scrubbed bamboo mats, wooden basins, ceramic basins and other daily utensils at the door.

Guo Tailang was the deputy flag officer, and was considered the "superior" of the other four. He was scrubbing the doorway frantically while nervously muttering, "Hurry up, hurry up, it's almost time for inspection."

Penshiro muttered something, as if he was complaining, but his voice was very vague and could not be heard clearly. At the same time, even though he was complaining, his hands involuntarily speeded up.

Piao Sanlang said nothing and continued to scrub the floor diligently. Even though the floor was cleaner than the face of the master he served before, he still did not dare to miss any corners and scrubbed them all again, otherwise he would be punished and no one could escape.

Fortunately, this was just a wooden house for ten people, with not much furniture and it was already very clean. The five of them worked together and finished cleaning the house in no time.

Only then did Hyosaburo breathe a sigh of relief, quickly washed his face, and sat on the floor to catch his breath.

Guo Tailang was still checking everywhere, reciting the housekeeping regulations silently to see if there was anything he had missed. After going through it twice more, he finally felt relieved. He turned around and reminded his four companions not to move around and wait until the inspection was completed before doing anything else.

Pen Silang couldn't help but mutter again, and this time Piao Sanlang heard it more clearly. The general meaning was "It's better not to rest for half a day" or some other nonsense. However, he didn't respond. If "Bai Gunzi" heard it, he would definitely get beaten twice.

Tong Goro was relatively young, only about sixteen or seventeen years old. He wanted to chat whenever he had some free time, so he said to Guo Taro, "Brother Taro, I heard that we're going to get paid today. What do you want to do with the money?"

"I'm going to save it and buy a piece of land in the future." Guo Taro answered casually, but his mood improved when he talked about this topic and he was not so nervous anymore.

Tong Goro was not interested in buying the land, so he turned to Wan Jiro and asked, "Jiro, what about you?"

Wan Jiro said casually: "Save it up to marry a wife!"

Tongwulang was also not interested in getting a wife, so he asked Hyosabulang, "What about you, brother Saburo?"

Piao Sanlang hesitated for a moment, and did not hide it from his good brother who spent every day with him: "I am saving it too, and I want to do some... small business in the future."

This time Tong Wulang became interested and asked, "What kind of business? Brother Sanlang, are you going to be a merchant in the future?"

Hyosaburo answered truthfully, "I can boil lacquer and grow wax. When I finish my military service and become a free citizen, I want to sell candles."

"It's good to sell candles! Candles are valuable!"

Tongwulang slapped his thigh. He didn't expect that Hyosabulang had a skill and was a skilled worker. He showed envy on his face. Just as he was about to say that he would take this little brother with him in the future, Penshilang poured cold water on him, "Just get through these two years first, or you can only eat candles when you die!"

"It's not like we will definitely die. Haven't we stopped being beaten these past few days?" Tong Goro has endured more than a month and has become somewhat accustomed to the life in the military camp. Anyway, as long as he memorizes the regulations and makes sure that the "White Stick" can't find any fault with him, the "White Stick" can only stare blankly.

Guo Tailang was also very dissatisfied with the guy who always complained and held everyone back, and he cursed: "What Lao Wu said is right, you are the one who hurts the most people. If you keep your mouth shut and be honest, everyone will be fine!"

"Yeah yeah!"

This time even Piao Sanlang couldn't help but start to agree. He had been implicated by Pen Silang several times. At the beginning, he complained with Pen Silang and was accidentally heard by the "white sticks". As a result, a group of "white sticks" suddenly rushed up, kicked them down and started beating them. They rolled on the ground and wailed like dogs. They were in pain for five or six days. They were really tortured by their boss.

But just as he finished agreeing, he noticed a man with a white short stick on his waist suddenly appeared at the door. He was startled when he saw the short stick, and instinctively remembered the fear dominated by the white short stick. He immediately jumped up, stood straight, and reminded his companions by shouting: "Flag Sergeant!"

The pots, pans, basins, and buckets all immediately stood up, standing straight, looking straight ahead, not daring to look around. The "flag officer" named Qi Saburo didn't say anything, but walked into the room silently. He first sniffed and found no bad smell, then walked around the room and found that the floor and walls were clean, without any dust or mold.

He went to the shelf again and saw that the wooden basins for washing faces and bathing were neatly arranged in the designated positions. The wooden bowls and bamboo chopsticks used for eating were also clean and spotless. He thought about it and bent down to drag the pottery basin out from under the shelf. This pottery basin was used to scatter dried duckweed to repel mosquitoes. It was summer now and the vegetation outside Wanjin was lush. There were so many mosquitoes after dark that it was impossible to sleep without fumigating. However, he stretched out his fingers and rubbed the bottom of the basin hard, but there was no dust. The pottery basin was also clean.

He still didn't give up. He put the ceramic basin back under the shelf, shook out a mat, looked carefully and smelled it, but didn't find any insects, salt grains or sweat odor. He could only roll up the mat again and put it back in its place, then went out without saying a word.

After Guo Tailang waited for him to disappear, he sat down on the ground and wiped the sweat from his head. The bowls, pans, and buckets all breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed that he had passed the inspection again and would not be beaten today... There was no training in the afternoon, so he would not be beaten. He also passed the housekeeping test. As long as he didn't slack off on indoor physical training at night, paid attention to fire prevention, didn't make noise after going to bed, and didn't fall asleep during patrol, he would not be beaten again.

After the inspection, everything was fine. Wan Jiro and Pen Shiro fell to the ground, wanting to lie down and rest. But just as they lay down, another "white stick" appeared at the door and ordered directly: "The ninth flag will go to the camp to collect the monthly salary."

"Report, the ninth flag personnel... um, um, have not arrived yet. The flag and four others will take turns helping in the kitchen today." Guo Tailang immediately jumped up and answered loudly, but he paused and immediately started sweating again.

The "white stick" didn't care and just left a sentence "OK, you go first" and walked to the next door. Guo Taro didn't dare to hesitate and hurriedly urged his four companions to get dressed, line up and set off.

…………

Yuanye was "paying" the soldiers one by one in the barracks. Not counting the dozen days of chaotic preparation in the early stages, these people had already been in formal training in the barracks for a month, and it was time to pay their salaries. He couldn't go back on his word, so he paid the salaries today, and allowed them to take a half-day break and have a good meal in the evening, which would allow them to relax and have some fun.

He personally handed the money to each soldier, and chatted with each of them with a smile. If he met a good seedling discovered over the past month, a candidate for reserve officer who could attend evening classes at the camp school, he would chat with him for a few more words and add some extra spice to their cakes.

He didn't know if this would work, but he remembered that this was what Yuan Datou did. He distributed salaries to more than 7,000 people one by one, which was harder than his work. So in terms of talent, Yuan Datou was definitely better than him. It would definitely be right to learn from the strong, so he just followed suit.

But then again, just wasting time talking cannot be considered hard work. Countless troubles have occurred in the past month and a half, much more troublesome than this. Just like the old saying goes, knowing is easier said than done!
The first problem he encountered when he put these 140-odd people together was very strange: the rate of duplicate names among these 140-odd people was too high. In the past, these people were assigned to different workshops and teams, so he didn't feel anything. But when they were squeezed together and needed to be named, he found that there were 11 people named "Taro" and six people named "Sanlang" with the same name as him. Other rural male common names such as "Cilang" and "Cilang Sanlang" were basically the same, with several people sharing the same name.

These people have been called "Taro", "Jiro", and "Saburo" by their parents at home since they were young. They have never been given proper names. Then when they grow up, they take these names as their own. When calling the roll, more than ten people will respond if "Taro" is called out.

Therefore, the first thing he did when establishing the army was to give names to the soldiers. Among the more than 140 people, nearly 60 of them needed to be distinguished from each other. He was forced to rack his brains and used all kinds of grass, trees, stones, soil, pots, pans, houses, wells, rivers and lakes, so that he could successfully organize the team and name them.

It was also very troublesome to rectify military discipline. He had hesitated before, wondering whether the military discipline copied from Yuan Shikai was too harsh or too inhumane. But in actual application, he found that some clauses were really necessary. After all, there are all kinds of birds in the forest, and some people do things unscrupulously. Without chopping off a few heads, some unhealthy tendencies cannot be stopped at all.

For example, the military discipline is clearly written, and the "military police" have repeatedly preached it and had them recite it. They know clearly that gambling is not allowed, but there are still people who defy the rules and gamble secretly. There was one guy who lost all the clothes and shoes issued to him, and even went to training naked the next day.

Yuanye had no other choice but to enforce military discipline and behead all six idiots who dared to commit crimes and gamble in private.

There is really no other way. It will not work unless we kill one person to warn the rest.

For example, some people refused to go on duty. It was unclear what illness they had. They just refused to obey orders to go on duty to clean the toilet.

For example, there were two guys taking turns to be sentry at night. According to regulations, one should be in the light and the other in the dark, which was a kind of simulation training. However, the two of them got together and openly lit a fire in the middle of the night to roast field mice, which violated several military disciplines.

There were even some who climbed over the wall to go out without permission, some who refused to recite military discipline and regulations, some who beat others and robbed their property, some who stole others' clothes and shoes, some who pretended to be injured and lazy and didn't want to train, some who used violence to force others to take their shifts, and some who tried to bribe the "military police"...

Before so many troubles happened, we can only say that even the most stringent regulations have internal reasons. Yuan Datou was probably overwhelmed by managing more than 7,000 people and encountered all kinds of weird things, so he had to chop off heads desperately, otherwise he would not be able to train soldiers and would be doomed.

Yuanye, like him, could only kill a group of people ruthlessly, killing about 10% of his own troops. On a daily basis, he commanded Aman to lead the senior Langdang to strictly require them to check the military discipline and regulations every day, reciting them one paragraph at a time. If they stuttered, they would be kicked down and beaten. They were beaten until they cried for their parents and the pain went deep into their bones. They had to recite the military discipline regulations before doing anything. It took more than a month to discipline the remaining people and make them behave like human beings.

Anyway, in the past five or six days, no one dared to be lazy or slack, no one dared to steal or fight, no one dared to refuse to obey orders, and no one would roast field mice while on guard.

Yuanye himself was not sure what kind of thing he could train like this. He didn't know if it could be considered a modern army. After all, he really had no experience and was not the reincarnation of a military god. But he thought that it should at least be stronger than the "langdang + foot soldiers" model...

(End of this chapter)