Luoyang, the Central Army's main camp.
"Get training, all of you!"
"Charge!!"
Clad in heavy armor, Ma Long shouted harshly, then led the charge.
The armored guards charged in their armor, while those on the other side raised their shields. The two sides crashed together, sending men tumbling in every direction.
"Retreat! Retreat, all of you!!"
Ma Long sprinted back the way he had come. The armored guards scrambled to their feet and followed him in retreat.
The training was simple: basic marching maneuvers such as charging and retreating, along with very simple formations, raising shields, raising spears, making way, obeying commands, and so forth.
In the Outer Army, these were all considered fundamentals.
Yet in the Central Army, these things had actually gone unpracticed for a long time, which astonished Ma Long.
He led the training himself, wearing heavy armor and carrying even more weight than the armored guards. Moreover, he trained the groups separately, leaving himself practically no chance to rest.
Those officers who could not take part in training and rarely came to camp were beaten severely by Ma Long. Several were beaten to death.
Those who performed well in training, meanwhile, were entrusted with important duties and received considerable rewards.
His fair distribution of rewards and punishments alone won him the support of the Central Army's officers and soldiers.
It had been a long time since they had encountered a commandant like him.
The imperial guards had always been the easiest to corrupt, simply because they did not have to fight away from home year-round, and because many scions of prominent families treated the place as somewhere to gild their credentials. Once there were too many such people, the entire army could easily lose its fighting strength.
This was also why Sima Shi remained so wary