Chapter 3: The evil army trainer, Part 4 of 5
Satisfied, Gu Yun finally nodded. Yesterday’s demonstration of her authority indeed had a strong impact on them.
“There are some exquisite martial arts moves when one executes them gracefully and naturally. But they’re only for those who want to play it cool, when confronting a real enemy those have no merit to speak of! The nearer the distance to your enemy, if you are unarmed, the higher is your risk. So, when you confront your enemy, attack him in his most vulnerable spot with your maximum strength. Hit him fast, your action must be precise. Start out ruthless, take down your opponent as quickly as possible.”
While she was talking, Gu Yun bent and picked up a twig from the ground, pointing to a young soldier, she coldly said: “Come here.”
The boy hurriedly went over and stood up in attention, but his heart was pounding like crazy, she would not be using the twig to whip him, right? Obviously he does not know Gu Yun, if she has the intention to thrash him she definitely will be using an iron bar rather than a twig.
“Ears, temples, eyes, nose, the back of the head, the throat area, back of the neck, collarbone, armpits, the crotch area, ribcage, spine, the wrist joint and other parts, these are all the human body’s relatively more vulnerable parts, and these important sites must be the focus of your attack.” As she was explaining, the twig touched the various parts of the boy’s body opposite her. Gu Yun was using him as a model of the human body, she was explaining slowly, but he is far too nervous that his complexion paled, he is really scared witless if she gets into a bad mood, he would be in deep trouble!
This group of energetic young people, while listening to Gu Yun explaining, on their faces emerged a growing interest and curiosity. Gu Yun was delighted to see this expression on their faces, she appreciated these eagerness and hunger to learn, in the corner of her mouth finally emerged a trace of a smile, her bright voice resounded: “Now group yourselves into pairs, I will teach you jiequandao [intercepting fist technique], a technique in close combat with the strongest attack power.”
After hearing it is the most aggressive fighting technique, the young soldiers became even more enthusiastic, after having witnessed just now the so-called roudao [soft technique], they are even more looking forward to this fighting technique, they replied in unison: “Yes!”
Smiling she faced the boy in front of her who has a twisted and pained expression on his face, Gu Yun softly chuckled and said: “You will act as my opponent for the demonstration, alright?”
“Yes.” The boy really wanted to cry but he has no tears to shed, he wished he could pull out and give himself a slap, so he just faced her and gave off a somewhat crazy laugh!
Inside the forest, Gu Yun was in front explaining the basic points of the moves of the combat technique, behind her the soldiers were following suit, earnestly practicing. On one side the activity was getting frenzied like a tiger growing in power, on the other side was Han Shu whose face was getting dark and his brow wrinkling tighter by the minute. This woman’s instruction on combat technique, indeed, true to her words, is not in the least fancy. Every punch is fast, precise and ruthless, outright fierce and cruel! She is training soldiers, or more like breeding a.s.sa.s.sins!
Two hours later.
The scorching sun is up in the sky, it is already high noon, several kitchen servants came to the forest lugging the food for lunch.
“Stop!” Gu Yun announced, “an hour lunch break. Dismissed!”
After a protracted sigh of relief, many of the young soldiers immediately tumbled to the ground, even though they’re tired and hungry, yet no one wants to move for a while!
Watching the motionless soldiers lying on the ground, Gu Yun said in a neither light nor heavy low voice: “Quickly, line up for lunch, if you don’t eat now, later you want to eat you’re not allowed to eat!”
The dead beat soldiers on the ground hurriedly sprung and stood up, dragging their heavy limbs, they obediently queued up to receive food. Not to be able to eat lunch is nothing, but if this evil woman gets riled up, who knows how she will train them afterwards!
Looking at their resentful backs, Gu Yun shook her head and laughed in spite of herself.
Han Shu’s fierce eyes slightly narrowed, in his mind he laughed. Not bad, in a span of two days only, she has made this herd of young bulls fearful of her, not an easy feat at all! Gu Yun was just about to walk over and line up together with them when a servant carrying a bamboo basket walked up to her and said: “Here’s your lunch.”
Gu Yun opened it, it consisted of her usual fare of beef, rice, eggs and cuc.u.mbers, no less. Gu Yun glanced at her side and saw the large baskets filled with big steamed buns and pieces of half-of-a-fist-sized braised pork. Each soldier was rationed two big steamed buns and a piece of meat. Gu Yun’s brow squinted a bit, handed back the bamboo basket to the hands of the servant, and said: “In the future you don’t need to specially prepare a different set of lunch for me, I will eat the same food they eat.”
If they were not eating together it would have been fine, but since they were eating together, getting this special lunch is inappropriate. This is Gu Yun’s perspective as a modern person, but for those who are long accustomed to hierarchy and the ranking division of officers and ordinary soldiers in their eyes, such an approach of Gu Yun is very strange.
Under surprised looks, Gu Yun picked up two steamed buns and a piece of meat for herself, prepared to find a place to rest for a moment, when she raised her eyes she saw Han Shu who she did not notice was already sitting on the gra.s.s opposite her.
Gu Yun thought for a moment, took two steamed buns and a piece of meat, and handed over the food to him. With the steamed buns and meat on his hands she sat with ease on the gra.s.s by his side. Without qualms, Gu Yun gobbled and took big bites of her buns and meat, completely devoid of the demure and grace of a young lady.
Originally, he had a strong dislike towards this woman. But after a morning of observation, he discovered that she has some considerable ability. No wonder she has the chutzpah to compete with Su Yu in training. But, speaking of training, Han Shu mused for a moment, with good intentions he cautioned: “With your method of training, perhaps you’ll turn them into experts, but the battlefield is not an arena where martial arts compet.i.tions are held. This kind of soldiers actually on the battlefield, they can also lose in a battle. They’re able to defeat another person, but can they defeat a large, mighty army [Chinese idiom: magnificent army with thousands of men and horses]?”
Gu Yun swallowed the last bite of her steamed bun, replied deprecatingly: “these soldiers who are able to defeat the enemies on the battlefield, can the Su family army still accomplish even with lesser number of them? I want to train an elite force, its mobility and adaptability quick, its fighting strength the best within the ranks.” The purpose and function are different, naturally the methods of training are also different!
“Elite force?” Han Shu knitted his brows, what kind of army is that?
The soldiers have also eaten their fill, this morning’s training has utterly exhausted them, the meadow is full of people lying in disarray. Gu Yun secretly observed them. Only a few people can still sit, even fewer people are those who looked as if their physical strength remained as vigorous as ever. Ge Jing Yun and Leng Xiao are two among the very few. Gu Yun chuckled, these two men are showing a lot of potential, she ought to treat and hone perfectly their talent!
As Gu Yun kept on ignoring him for a while, Han Shu impatiently asked once more: “Tell me now, what is an elite force?”
Gu Yun stretched her waist, leaning her back against a big tree behind her, her words with a touch of pride she replied: “It’s a team which executes special missions. Sometimes a war requires a mult.i.tude of strategies. Sometimes it only needs elite soldiers when you want to sabotage attacks, do reconnaissance behind enemy lines, gather intelligence, and even do a.s.sa.s.sination and abduction, you know you can accomplish all these, such a team whose value is nowhere to be seen. Among these people, who meet my requirements, ultimately to be chosen to join my elite force, I think they’re not more than fifty, but if I’m able to yield these fifty men, each one is worth a thousand fierce individuals!”
Gu Yun’s way of explaining things, Han Shu perhaps understood the concept of her so-called elite force, but after hearing her bl.u.s.ter, Han Shu promptly voiced out his disbelief: “impossible!” With one against a hundred he still can accept, but one is worth a thousand how could that be possible? A person no matter how formidable he is cannot replace a thousand people!
Estimating the time, the rest period was more or less enough, Gu Yun didn’t bother to explain further to him, smiled indifferently, “That you can’t, doesn’t mean I can’t, you just wait and see!”
A very crazy woman! Han Shu’s pair of eyes glared, Gu Yun did not wait for his outburst, already she stood up nimbly, strode towards the open s.p.a.ce packed with lying people, shouted loud, “line up in formation!”