Chapter 091 – The Young Master Is Unwell, Remember to Take Medicine (1)
“These few can be the first batch of sergeants; if they can’t cut it, we’ll just drop them in the next selection test.”
Xu Ke glanced over the list he received, committing it to memory. “Once they’re trained up, is the Young Master really going to lead them to hunt bandits?”
Jiang Pengji raised an eyebrow, a glint of sharpness in her gaze. “Of course! Does Xiaoyu think I’m joking?”
Xu Ke shook his head. Having witnessed Jiang Pengji’s methods, he certainly wouldn’t think she was the kind to make casual jokes.
“That’s not what I meant. It’s just that most bandits in Hejian County hide deep in the mountains, and their tracks are hard to trace. If we get entangled with them, we might end up suffering,” Xu Ke said, not exactly optimistic. “Leaving aside the bandits, they are all desperate criminals with nothing to lose. They’ll be ruthless and bloodthirsty, whereas those house servants have no death wish…”
It’s said that those who work without a care in the world are terrifying; a group of house servants without any experience in killing faced with bloodthirsty bandits had slim chances of victory.
“Everyone has to start somewhere; what’s so scary about killing?”
Jiang Pengji glanced at Xu Ke. Though this kid looked young and frail, he’d also taken down people with a machete before.
Since she said it so firmly, Xu Ke figured it was best not to hammer the point any further.
The training process and specific activities were written down in detail in that manual, mostly basic physical training tasks, not hard to follow.
Xu Ke gathered the people, first pointing out a few sergeants, then dividing the remaining house servants into teams. The entire process was quiet; a group of people behaved as obediently as chicks waiting for their mother hen to assign tasks, and no one dared to make a peep or stir trouble.
Why would they dare? The fierce demon who had knocked down all those big shots just yesterday was watching closely—who would want to shorten their lifespan? The scene from yesterday still left a faint ache in places Jiang Pengji had hit.
Because the training environment was extremely rudimentary, the training tasks lacked variety, so the basic physical training exercises were quite common.
【Green waters ripple under the wind】: Feels like ancient military training?
【Patrick Star】: This is way tougher than military training; back in school, we just did marching and running, which was pretty easy. But these guys? After some training, they’ll face off against bandits—one slip-up and they might lose their lives.
【Fat Sea】: Just finished military training over a month ago, and this really is a lot lighter.
【Full of Dog Food】: But is this training even useful? Why does it feel so unreliable?
【Stowaway Non-Money】: There’s no way that’s all there is! The streamer isn’t the kind of irresponsible person!
The live stream viewers knew one thing: Jiang Pengji wouldn’t overlook anything like that.
Simple physical training might only make these house servants stronger, but that alone wouldn’t suffice to fight bandits in life-and-death battles. After all, they were the embryonic form of an organized military unit and not a bunch of uncoordinated individuals.
They didn’t need immense individual combat skills, but they had to learn how to collaborate in small groups.
“Daily long-distance runs, and it’s not just about sprinting and finishing. That approach is the most foolish and ineffective. If you exhaust yourselves one by one, by the time you reach the finish line, you’ll be too tired to get up. Suppose you were a rapid-response army tasked with aiding a battlefield; using your method, even if you arrived on time, you’d be an exhausted force with zero combat capability.”
Jiang Pengji watched these people running around for over a stick of incense’s worth of time. Despite being breathless and their legs feeling like lead, not a single one completed the task. She frowned under the sun, and Xu Ke was afraid she might get angry.
Though he understood Jiang Pengji made valid points, Xu Ke felt her standards were too high and tactfully advised, “Young Master, please don’t be angry. It’s their first time training, so they’ll naturally have difficulties. If we give them some time, I think…”
“Xiaoyu, it has very little to do with adaptability. I know what you want to say: they were all purchased from the tooth shop, and their physical conditions aren’t comparable to those sturdy farm laborers who’ve worked their whole lives. Since they eat less, it’s only natural they have less strength; it’s understandable they can’t cover the required distance… But I want to say that this thought process is incorrect because they simply don’t even know how to run!”
They all started off by sprinting wildly, tangled up in chaos, expecting to sustain a long-distance run; it was ridiculous.
Jiang Pengji tried to explain in terms they could understand. “Long-distance running tests not only physical endurance but other things as well.”
“Blindly running fast only wastes your body’s stamina. The best scenario is to maintain a steady pace and use energy wisely. Not only that, you must learn to keep a correct and reasonable breathing rhythm while running. Fast breaths will only make you tire faster. And the arm motions? That one guy practically flailed his arms to the sky—completely wrong!”
What mattered even more… that running posture was simply eye-watering.
This was still the most basic physical training! Later, there would be various weighted load activities—at that point, it would be even more exhausting.
Looking at these guys, Jiang Pengji could only think of two words—chicken feed!
Back when she was just a neophyte, even the training intensity at a lower military academy was several times tougher than this. She managed to hold up just fine, but these big shots here were all like limp shrimp; even the five- or six-year-old version of her would outperform them.
Pathetic!
“If you don’t train properly now, just wait and see the bones scattered all over the place later.”
Jiang Pengji sneered at her conclusion, while Xu Ke, beside her, was as silent as a chicken, avoiding any further persuasion.
He understood clearly that Jiang Pengji was not measuring these people by average house servant standards, but by the standards of fierce bear-like soldiers.
As the saying goes, speed is of the essence in military operations; for an army, traveling several hundred miles a day is necessary, whether for reinforcement or surprise attacks. In their current state, no matter how hard they fought to reach their destination, they’d arrive exhausted and ambushed by waiting enemies. What a joke!
This also reaffirmed how grand the Young Master’s ambitions were.
She was truly wanting to stir up trouble!
“Get up one by one, lying there panting like dogs—how embarrassing is that?”
Jiang Pengji looked down on them and shooed them off the ground like ducklings, not a trace of gentleness in her actions.
Watching these people rise in groups, their faces grim, but not yet at their limits, she felt slightly satisfied. “Once they’re a bit trained up, I’ll buy some younger ones… Let the old lead the new; that way, your task will be a bit easier…”
Xu Ke cupped his hands. “The Young Master’s considerations are meticulous.”
