23 First Encounter with Ancient Martial Art Practitioner, Top Master Hidden Among the Crowd (1/2)

As soon as the instructor finished his sentence, someone objected immediately, ”Everyone is punished to run? Those who successfully gathered within ten minutes are punished to run too?” One person was late and everyone was punished. It was obviously unfair.

Instructor Zhang Lizheng scanned through everyone with his piercing gaze, speaking harshly, ”Exactly. When you are in the same squad, if someone is late, everyone else will be punished too.” As soon as the instructor finished speaking, a burst of disagreement could be heard from the crowd. Everyone was whispering to each other, looking flurried.

”What? Everyone will be punished?””What if someone was dragging their feet?””How can you do that? That's so unfair!”

Zhang Lizheng frowned and yelled, ”Silence!” His cold voice frightened everyone and all the arguments immediately stopped.

”A squad operates as a whole body. All of you will rise and fall together. In the future if anyone makes a mistake, the whole squad will be punished.” The instructor's words left no room for negotiation. With this sentiment, members of the same squad would most likely look after each other and prevent their teammates from making any mistakes.

Mo Wen had witnessed this kind of technique before, in the other world's army. For example in a small team of ten people, if anyone dared to duck out when going into battle, the whole team would suffer the consequences. It was done to strengthen supervision and on top of that, it also helped to strengthen the cohesive force among the teammates resulting in a more united team.

The training on the first day was simple. There wasn't a five-kilometer-long run or any other sort of physical training like push-ups, sit-ups, or weighted squats. It was just some simple military foot drill practices like standing at attention, standing at ease, numbering off, straddling, saluting, squatting, sitting, marking time, and turning left and right.

These were simple commands, but the rules were strict: anyone who moved slightly off from the standard movement would receive harsh criticism. In some serious cases, students may be singled out to receive corporal punishment.

Besides that, there were forward marches and halts, double marches and halts, goose step march and halt, and marching in squares. For the entire following week, it was all simple military foot drill practices. It wasn't too stressful. But at the same time it was not an easy task being asked to demonstrate perfect movement and to be in absolute sync with everyone. For students who had just started military training, it was very stressful.

In the blink of an eye, a week of military training had passed. The students shifted from the initial curiosity and excitement to pained moaning and groaning. These were all students with thin skin, ones who always sat in the classroom. They couldn't have handled the intensive training required in the military. It was still bearable for a day or two more, but after a prolonged period of time, it became harder for the students to persevere. Especially since military training had just started and even more intense training awaited them.

Due to the exhaustion, some people started to play tricks and thought of ways to slack off during military training. It was easy to get into the military region but hard to get out, and it was even harder to fool the instructors. They were stuck there unless the school and their parents spoke up and asked for the military training to be stopped. No matter how much the students dreaded military training, they still had to persist.

As for Mo Wen, he wasn't bothered so much. Back in his old days he traveled across the barren mountains and great lakes. He was exposed to both sun and rain and sampled hundreds of poisonous herbs; he had lost count of his sufferings.

After a week of basic training had ended; they would start physical training like five-kilometer-long runs, push-ups, sit-ups, pull-ups and so on. Besides that, there were also other activities to do: wrestling, archery, swimming, escape training, outdoor survival, and training to handle emergency situations. It was no longer just simple training like marching and foot drills.

A month of training time was very short and there were many things to be learned. Fortunately, everyone who was admitted into Hua Xia University had strong learning ability.

In the evening, after a day of intensive training, the students had a bit of free time. There were students who would take to the field for a stroll; even couples wandered the running track whilst holding hands.

Of the four battalions, there was one designated for female students and contained about 500. Many of the males seized this opportunity and flirted with the girls. There were indeed quite a few couples that formed despite the time-consuming and intensive military training. Students nowadays were very casual about dating. Since youth was a time to make memories, there was nothing preventing them from making rash decisions. It was a time to seize the day and enjoy their youth while they still could. Most students really only cared about today and didn't think further to tomorrow.

In the corner of the training ground, Mo Wen hung on a horizontal bar while silently doing pull-ups. He had been doing pull-ups on the horizontal bar for half an hour. To any onlookers they would surely be amazed by Mo Wen's endurance.

In terms of physical training, the basics were not enough for full military incorporation. Refining the body took continuous manipulation. To fully discover each person's potential would take time. At the beginning of training, it wasn't as difficult but with harder training came harder work. It would become harder to improve. However, building a good physical foundation during the beginning training sessions would allow for better results in the future.