Military Morale! Carrot and Stick

In the blink of an eye, a month passed. Wei Zhe's devilish training showed no signs of weakening; on the contrary, it intensified.

Every morning began with a ten-mile cross-country march carrying weight. The load increased from thirty jin to forty jin, and finally even to fifty jin. The last hundred soldiers to finish not only went without breakfast but were also tasked with cleaning all the latrines in the camp.

The body-refining techniques, which had previously made them feel like dying, had their training time extended from one shichen to one and a half shichen. After each session, the entire training ground was littered with people, their groans rising and falling, making it sound as if a fierce battle had just concluded.

The afternoon formation drills made these seasoned veterans miserable. The "Three Talents Iron Bucket Formation" designed by Wei Zhe was ingenious, but it demanded extremely high levels of coordination. In groups of three, one soldier would focus on defense, while the other two would attack. During the transitions between offense and defense, their footwork and the extension and retraction of their weapons had to be precise to the millimeter.

Initially, these soldiers, accustomed to their lax ways, couldn't adapt at all. When the formation moved, it was a chaotic mess of bumping into each other and tripping one another.

Wei Zhe's method of correction was simple and brutal: drag them out and fight.

He had Qian Hu and Hu Lei each lead a hundred-man squad composed of veteran soldiers from the original Tiger and Wolf Army to act as "sparring partners." These veterans had practiced the formations until they were second nature and coordinated flawlessly.

Any new recruit squad that made a mistake during drills was immediately pulled out to engage these "sparring partners" in a real fight. Of course, they used wooden weapons that were not sharpened.

But even wood, when beaten by dozens of people, was an absolutely unpleasant experience.

Every afternoon, the training ground was filled with the sounds of "bang bang pat pat" and the screams of the new recruits.

"Damn it! Li San, your shield was too slow!"

"Wang Wu, I told you to stab his left rib, where the hell are you aiming?"

"Our group made a mistake again! We're finished, we're going to get beaten again!"

In just one week, these new recruits were beaten black and blue, with not a single spot on their bodies left unscathed.

However, strangely, instead of complaints and resistance, the camp was filled with an increasingly high fighting spirit.

Because everyone clearly felt themselves growing stronger at an incredible rate.

Those who used to gasp for air after running just three to five li could now run ten li with a fifty jin load. Though tired, they could grit their teeth and persevere. Those who could barely draw a one-stone bow now found drawing a one-and-a-half-stone bow relatively easy.

The most obvious change was their appetite. They used to be full after two bowls of rice, but now they could eat five bowls and still feel hungry.

The strength within their bodies seemed inexhaustible.

More importantly, Wei Zhe's "carrots" were incredibly generous.

Every day after training, the large pots were always filled with fatty, oily beef and lamb, and there was plenty! As long as you could eat it, no one would stop you even if you ate until you threw up.

If they got injured during training, whether it was a scrape or a broken bone, they immediately received the best Golden Sore Medicine and Bone-Rejoining Paste, also in abundance! These excellent military medicines, which were hard to obtain even with a thousand pieces of gold outside, were practically given away for free in the Tiger and Wolf Army camp.

Wei Zhe also organized an internal competition. He personally evaluated the training each day. The best-performing hundred-man squad would receive an extra jar of good wine that night, and each soldier would receive ten big coins as a "bonus."

Though the money wasn't much, it was about honor!

To compete for the title of "first place," for that jar of wine and ten big coins, every hundred-man squad went all out in training, fiercely competing against each other. The squad led by Sun He, having the best foundation and being the most ruthless fighters among the old rogues, won first place for three consecutive days, making Sun He himself grin from ear to ear and view Wei Zhe more and more favorably.

The "carrots" were plentiful, and the "sticks" were equally merciless. But Wei Zhe's "sticks" earned the respect and obedience of everyone.

One day, a soldier named Zhao Si accidentally sprained his ankle during training, wincing in pain. Normally, he could have rested for a few days. But that night, he limped to Wei Zhe's tent.

"Chieftain..." Zhao Si was a simple, honest man. As soon as he entered the tent, he knelt down with a "plop," his eyes red.

"Get up. Speak your mind, why are you kneeling?" Wei Zhe said without looking up, as he was cleaning his glaive.

"Chieftain, I... I want to ask for three months' worth of my military pay in advance..." Zhao Si's voice was choked with tears. "I... I received a letter from home today. My mother... is critically ill and urgently needs money to buy medicine, otherwise... otherwise..."

He couldn't finish. A seven-foot-tall man was crying like a child.

Advancing military pay in the army was a serious offense. Moreover, these new recruits had only recently arrived and had accomplished nothing yet.

Wei Zhe stopped what he was doing and looked up at him. "How much do you need?"

"The letter said... it requires... fifty gold..." Zhao Si's voice was as faint as a mosquito's hum.

Fifty gold!

For an ordinary soldier, this was an astronomical sum, almost impossible to earn in a lifetime. His annual military pay only amounted to a few gold coins.

Wei Zhe remained silent. He stood up and pulled out a heavy wooden chest from under his sleeping mat. The chest was opened, revealing neatly stacked gold ingots, a portion of the Ten Thousand Yi of Gold previously bestowed by the King of Qin.

He casually took out five gold ingots, each weighing ten gold, and threw them in front of Zhao Si.

"Is that enough?"

Zhao Si stared at the golden ingots on the ground, completely stunned. He reached out with trembling hands but dared not touch them.

"Chieftain... this... this is too much... I... I'll never be able to repay it in this lifetime..."

"Who told you to repay it?" Wei Zhe's tone was still calm. "You are a soldier of my Tiger and Wolf Army. Your family is my family, Wei Zhe's family. If there's trouble at home, and a soldier is fighting and dying on the front lines, yet cannot protect his family's safety, what's the point of being a soldier?"

He paused, then took out another five gold ingots from the chest.

"Take these fifty gold to buy medicine for your mother and hire the best doctor. Take these other fifty gold and send them home to your father and wife. Buy all the land you can, build a big house, and stop living a hard life from now on."

"Train here with peace of mind. When you've earned merit and become a Centurion, then you can think about repaying me. It's not too late."

Zhao Si stared blankly at the hundred gold ingots on the ground, then looked up at Wei Zhe. Tears could no longer be held back, pouring out like a breached dam. He said nothing more, but heavily kowtowed to Wei Zhe three times, his forehead bleeding.

Wei Zhe did not deliberately publicize this matter. But the next day, all three thousand soldiers in the entire Tiger and Wolf Army camp knew about it.

The entire camp was abuzz.

"Did you hear? Zhao Si's mother is sick, and the Chieftain directly gave him a hundred gold!"

"Holy crap! A hundred gold! Is that true?"

"Absolutely! I saw Zhao Si crying all night with the gold! The Chieftain even said we're all his family!"

"My heavens... following a commander like this, it would be worth dying for!"

For a moment, all the soldiers' hearts were enveloped by a powerful wave of warmth. The way they looked at Wei Zhe was no longer simple awe, but a fervent adoration, a loyalty that would make them lay down their lives.

Even Sun He, after hearing about this, silently drank half a jar of liquor by himself. He remembered when he first joined the army, his family was so poor they couldn't even afford to eat, and his sister got sick with no money for medicine, eventually dying from it. If only, back then, he had met a commander like Wei Zhe...

He shook his head, drained the wine in his cup, and his eyes became incredibly resolute.

However, Wei Zhe's way of leading his troops was never solely about tenderness.