But he had never expected that the person who would train them would be His Royal Highness the Prince himself!
For their training, they were brought to a grass field west of Border Town. In the background the city wall was being built, and in front of them was an unceasingly and continuously extending forest.
The prince ordered everyone to line up, and then he went to the site to rest. Just a few days ago they had heavy rain, so the ground was still damp and muddy. The water infiltrated his shoes along the seam at the soles, which made his whole body feel uncomfortable. The stance they were ordered to take was not a normal one. Their hands needed to be aligned vertically, attached to the sides of their thighs, while their backs were required to be perfectly straight.
Only a quarter of an hour later they already felt terribly fatigued. This was even harder than breaking stone with a hammer. But he gritted his teeth and tried to hold on. After all, His Royal Highness had said before that those who moved would get no egg for lunch. God, it had been so long since he had eaten an egg. Apparently, all the people around him felt the same way. Although they staggered, most of them still endured.
When the prince declared it was time to rest, he found out that his back was already drenched in sweat and the whole standing time wasn’t even long, at most it was two-quarters of an hour. Those who couldn’t persevere till the final moment were annoyed. It seemed as if they could see the eggs rolling away from them.
He just didn’t understand. Why did they have to practice this strange stance? Only standing was enough to get several bags of food?
If it wasn’t for his Royal Highness training them, he would have already stood up and begun to argue noisily.
Unexpectedly, after a short break, the second command His Highness gave was even more eccentric. He asked all the people to continue standing in a line. This time, as long as all of them persevered till the end, they would all get another egg added for lunch. As long as there was a person who gave up, everyone would lose the opportunity to get an additional egg.
He heard many people beside him swallowing their saliva.
Hell, was this a popular game in the ranks of the nobility? Leading them all around with a carrot on a stick? Damn it, he was not a stupid donkey!
… But in the case that everyone was able to do it, wouldn’t there be two eggs to eat?
This was simply the devil’s temptation! Wiping his overflowing saliva away, he decided to fight for the two eggs!
Chapter 26 The Lessons learned from History
“Your Highness, what is the meaning of this?” Before Carter only thought that the prince merely acted arbitrarily and alone, but now he thought he had become whimsical.
In the theory of how to train a soldier, the chief knight didn’t think that there was a way more professional than their own. His family had a complete set of traditional training methods, from the age of ten to fifteen years, there would be only five years to develop the body and master all kinds of weapon used by a soldier. If they were trained for more than five years, then they would become a top soldier, known as a Knight — of course, the trainees cannot have a civilian background.
Looking at the group of morons in front of him, who only had thoughts of eating eggs on their mind, Carter became angry! After all… eggs are expensive!
Roland spoke directly into his ear, “Take a good look and remember everything. This is the kind of training which should be performed in the next few days. Of course, some details will change. I will list them for you on a paper.”
In the age of cold weapons, were two or three months of training enough to train a group of good soldiers? Roland did not think about this question and neither did he need one of those Spartan warriors dressed in underpants who could rip apart wild animals with their bare hands. The individual combat strength of Roland’s people may not be strong but they must be well disciplined and execute every order without fail.
Most of the time the group’s strength is more important than the individual strength. So, he needed them to quickly form a unit. To accomplish this task quickly and move over to military training for improving the current situation was the best choice. Out of his personal experience, he knew that one month would be enough to form a group of people from all over the country into a strong cohesive unit. Regardless of the process, the goal was clear.
And when this group of people learned to follow orders, Roland could start to implement the next step of his plan.
Van’er ultimately failed to get a second egg to eat.
This time, they had to stay double the amount of time of the previous round until someone’s legs went weak and he could no longer persevere.
Just at this time, the 4th prince allowed everyone to get some rest and then he ordered his attendants to serve lunch. This successfully transferred the anger from the weakling to the anticipation of eating. At this point, Van’er started to suspect that His Highness probably had never intended to let them get a second egg.
The lunch was packed in four huge barrels, which were carried by carriages out of town. In addition to the food, the carriages also contained many bowls and spoons.
Van’er licked his lips, ready to jump on the carriages. But he along with everyone else was stopped by the chief knight, who stood in front of them.
His Royal Highness the Prince ordered everyone to line up in four rows and to come forward one by one to pick up their cutlery. Whoever disturbed the order would be forced to step back to the end of the line and get their food last.
The rows were very noisy as everyone squeezed in to get a good position. Van’er had very good luck, he stood in the forefront of the outermost row. Of course, some people expressed their intense resentment. So within the ranks, the sounds of people fighting with words and movements could be heard. Soon the knights and several guards rushed into the crowd picking out the rioters to be sent to the back of the line.
Fool, thought Van’er when he saw the man at the forefront of the rioters. He recognized him. He was the best street fighter in the town, also known as ‘Insane Fist’. He usually relied on brute force to stir up trouble everywhere.
Now, only barehanded against knights and guards armed with swords, he gave of a pitiful picture. Look at his poor appearance now!
He felt that he had already grasped His Highness’s preference.
That was to become a unit.
Standing straight, side by side, the team had to form lines. Everyone had to line up to get something to eat, always keeping order, never stepping out… Van’er had previously heard from a knowledgeable businessman that some of the nobility had a strange hobby. And that was that everything had to be arranged in order, everything which stood out would be forced back into place.
In Van’er’s opinion, this kind of person was simply bored and had nothing better to do. So they would even deliberately find some trouble to occupy themselves.
He had not expected that His Royal Highness would be such a person.
When the lids of the barrels were opened, Van’er could smell the strong aroma of the food.
When the aroma scattered, he almost lost himself to temptation. The crowd also became restless, but simultaneously a roar to be quiet came from the chief knight. Van’er thought that they probably had to line up again.
Sure enough, the 4th prince had everyone get their cutlery first and then line up again to receive the food.
Despite that, all of them had to swallow their saliva and hold back their stomachs which were growling. Given Insane Fist’s example, they all stood quietly, waiting patiently for the food.