That morning, Feng Shi attended a lesson first, then began drills.
The content was not various forms of physical training, but simple, pure obedience training and coordination training, aimed at honing their ability to carry out orders and work in concert with other soldiers.
Mountain folk were born unruly, especially youths in their teens. Compared to commoners outside the mountains, they were harder to train and more prone to all manner of trouble.
Beyond the mountains, many powerful clans had tried recruiting mountain folk into their armies, but few had succeeded.
Not only did mountain folk cost more to train and prove difficult to discipline, they were also highly prone to desertion.
Especially when enough mountain folk gathered together—even if they came from different mountain strongholds—they could easily form little cliques. Throughout the ages, entire armies made up of mountain folk had mutinied more than once.
However, Feng Shi's batch had benefited from the long period of indoctrination through stories beforehand. That morning's lesson in the wooden cabin had left their blood boiling. The drills that followed were dull, the veteran soldiers leading them were harsh, and the training itself felt deeply unnatural to people accustomed to freedom. Yet their spirits merely sank; none of them thought of backing down.
In the Heaven-Answering Army, new recruits were permitted to change their minds during the first ten days. However, anyone who regretted enlisting could not simply go home—they had to spend the following year farming land for the Heaven-Answering Army.
If they regretted it after ten days had passed, they would be dealt with under military law.
Such rules were undoubtedly immense mercy in this age. After all, beyond the mountains, from ancient times to the present, there had only ever been one way to deal with deserters: kill!
Zhao Cheng,