After joining the army, training began.
One advantage was that provisions were supplied.
The downside was that much of the grain was rotten and moldy, and most of it was old stock.
Even the Colonel could not get much fresh grain. When he collected supplies from the wealthy households in the Prefecture City, naturally most of what he received was old grain.
Some was five years old, and some had been piled up for ten years.
Some of it had even gone moldy.
Zhang Fei was so enraged that he tried several times to kill the grain officers.
Wenren Sheng stopped him every time.
The soldiers under Wenren Sheng's command took one look at that grain and decided it was only fit for feeding horses—no, only fit for feeding mules. Even horses would not eat it.
Horses ate far more delicately than people.
Some elite troops with the means would even feed their warhorses costly eggs before battle, mixing eggs with beans so the horses would have the strength to charge into enemy lines.
If you did not feed the horses, then just wait to be caught and killed.
Yet the other local volunteers ate with great satisfaction.
They had enlisted because they could not fill their bellies. Now that they had food to eat, what more could they ask for?
Training was held once every five days.
The first thing they learned was how to obey signal flags.
The gong meant retreat, the drum meant advance. The leaders of each unit had to learn to watch the flags and understand who was being ordered forward.
Next came some basic fighting techniques.
That meant swinging long spears, blocking, thrusting, and learning how to defend with and use shields...
All simple drills.
But even these drills were far beyond what the