Though called a miniature city, this military camp city was not small at all. A single drill ground covered over a thousand square kilometers, enough for a military exercise involving a hundred thousand people.
Nearly 49,000 new recruits were divided into teams of fifty, each led by a veteran who had returned from the battlefield and voluntarily stayed. Every ten teams were overseen by a lieutenant-grade officer, and so on, managing the legion on a decimal system. Although the management level had few people, the legion was ultimately operating in an orderly manner.
In the month before the new recruits arrived, the veterans were not idle. To ensure the smooth rollout of new recruit training, Tohsaka Rin directly pulled out the veterans, who served as grassroots leadership, and drilled them for a month! The training content and curriculum were thoroughly "taught by example" and passed down.
"Remember this feeling now, remember this sensation now. Your task is to implement this taste, with interest, onto the new recruits! What to do if they don't comply, you all know."
When nearly fifty thousand new recruits had completed their grouping and spread out across the massive drill ground, they prepared to begin training.
"Freshly arrived recruits! Take off your shirts and do five thousand push-ups to warm up first!"
Five thousand push-ups, in Tohsaka Rin's previous world, might have seemed like a fantasy for human physique, but in this world, it was not impossible for some powerful rangers and swordsmen.
But would these five thousand push-ups be that easy? At this moment, the auxiliary troops Tohsaka Rin borrowed from Wuxi City appeared, carrying the new recruits' initial equipment.
Auxiliary troops are logistics soldiers who support the regular army, responsible for camp maintenance, food, construction, and maintaining weapons and equipment. They are provided by cities that support independent legions, and their number is determined by coordination between the legion and the city. The number of auxiliary troops Tohsaka Rin coordinated was: one hundred thousand!
Well, on average, each soldier had two servants following them... Thud!
A heavy box landed in front of each team of new recruits.
"Come on! Before we start, put on your equipment. Take good care of it; on the battlefield, this is your life."
Subsequently, each soldier received a piece of "light armor." It was called light armor due to its appearance, but the armor plates were actually made of bluestone! Plus, a stone single-handed sword.
The new recruits who received their equipment were all dumbfounded!
"Begin!"
For a time, the drill ground was filled with wails. The stone light armor and weapons weighed twice as much as their actual counterparts. The sheer agony of wearing these things...
"498, 499, 500..."
Just five hundred, and most of the soldiers had already reached their limit. Their arms began to go numb, and their muscles started to tremble slightly. It was the dead of winter, yet the entire drill ground was drenched in sweat.
Most people wanted to give up, but the Wind God Winged Dragon, which remained on the drill ground even after Tohsaka Rin left, was still there. Under its cold dragon gaze, they felt like prey being watched, unable to conceive of defiance.
It was almost a psychological hypnosis that activated people's latent abilities. Under the gaze of the Wind God Winged Dragon, all soldiers, as if unconscious machines, pushed up and lowered their arms. No one slacked off, and no one paused, as if once they stopped, the mountain-like giant dragon would pounce and devour them.
Tohsaka Rin calmly drank tea in the command office. With the Wind God Winged Dragon suppressing the entire field, no one would dare to harbor thoughts of rebellion. After all, life is precious, and even its mere presence, this innate fear of powerful life that weak beings possess, was the best guarantee.
Just as people can unleash their potential in moments of life-threatening crisis, under the might of the Wind God Winged Dragon, people's potential would also unconsciously erupt. Tohsaka Rin had already fully verified this trick on the veterans and officers.
"Ah~ My soldiers are training so hard, as a general, I can't be lazy either. It's time to prepare a special dinner for my soldiers."
Rin picked up yatsufusa, leaped out of the command post window, and in a flash, left the military camp, disappearing in the direction of the Forest of Dangerous Species… At this moment, if one were to remove their stone armor, they would see every muscle of every soldier bulging under the extreme pressure of their master, with several large tendons visible under their skin, like taut bowstrings, ready to snap at any moment.
All the soldiers felt every bone in their bodies creaking, every major tendon on their bodies felt like steel wires constricting them, every inch of skin felt like a balloon expanding. The unimaginable pain squeezed out even the strength to groan. The stone armor and stone sword on their bodies felt like a mountain pressing down, and even the strength to breathe was transferred to their arms.
But even so, not a single person dared to stop.
If they stopped, they would be devoured by dragons… Although no one had told them this, such a thought echoed in the minds of all the soldiers in training. Even if it was slow, their arms still moved up and down.
From the morning assembly, which dispersed less than five minutes after Rin arrived, they did five thousand push-ups straight until noon, when the sun was high in the sky.
4998, 4999, 5000… "Bang! Bang bang bang…"
The moment five thousand was reached, nearly fifty thousand new soldiers, without exception, immediately collapsed onto the ground, which had become muddy from sweat.
They had never exerted themselves like this since they were born… Just then, a rich aroma of meat wafted across the training ground. Their over-exhausted bodies caused their stomachs to produce a large amount of gastric acid, letting out a desperate cry of hunger. They had been moving mechanically, losing consciousness while doing push-ups, and hadn't noticed when a large barrel full of stewed, fragrant beef had been moved next to the veteran captains.
"Hey, hey, hey! Greenhorns, it's not over yet. We said it was just a warm-up, but you spent a whole morning on it. You haven't even completed the other training subjects, do you still have the face to eat lunch?"
The veteran captains who spoke these words all, without exception, used their scabbards to spear a piece of cooked beef, eating with greasy mouths as they spoke.
"Quickly use your last bit of strength to get up. What should we train next…?"
One captain pondered while eating beef. Just then, he keenly caught a glimpse of a new recruit, who had barely managed to crawl up from the ground, looking at him with ill intent in his eyes.
A fierce and swift kick directly hit the chest of the new recruit who wanted to resist! The new recruit, wearing stone armor, was kicked flying backward, crashing into another new recruit. Both of them struggled to get up for a long time.
"The Seventh Legion's new military law stipulates that subordinates are not allowed to question or resist the orders and decisions of their superiors under any circumstances, not even in attitude or thought! Violators, except for not being immediately executed or disabled, the superior has the right to dispose of them in any manner. Don't let me see that look a second time!"
"The gate to leave and get out is always open to you. The Seventh Legion does not need weaklings who can't endure. If you lack willpower or ability, get out early, otherwise, you will die!"
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