"One-two-one! One-two-one! Put your backs into it, brothers!"
"All right!"
Their work chant shook the heavens.
The martial hall students wore burlap, their trouser legs speckled yellow, and heaved together to clear the silt from the irrigation channel. With a boom, muddy water came first, followed by a surge of clear, clean water that flooded the fields. The villagers leaned on their hoes, standing atop the ridges and pointing as they talked.
"Young men, you're really strong! Stronger than calves!"
"Lads, have some water! We know you like boiled water that's been cooled down. The bucket's full of it, clean as can be!"
Several strapping young men could not understand the dialect, but they understood the gesture. They picked up gourds and drank their fill, then waved and hurried off to the next location.
"Repair the fields in the fourth month, transplant rice seedlings in the fifth. Hurry up—we have to outperform the two dormitories from the neighboring county! Their progress is ahead of ours."
"You mean Pingyang, right? They transplant rice earlier in Mirror River and grow two crops a year."
"Forget that, get to work! There are still three water stockades we haven't inspected!"
The vigorous martial hall students moved through the fields, brimming with enthusiasm.
Every day, Ran Zhongshi compiled reports on the performance of students throughout Sanshan Prefecture, organized by dormitory. The more he read, the more extraordinary he found them.
"His Majesty's support for martial halls and martial academies truly showed far-reaching vision."
Civil officials had the imperial examination. County magistrates and prefects needed scholarly credentials.
Martial officials, meanwhile, were mostly scattered soldiers and wandering braves. They came from all corners of the world, regardless of background, and lacked any organized system.
Recruiting the same number of martial artists from the populace at the same