When the Saint comes, she does not collect food

#230 - Training situation

The straw sandals sank into the mud, squeezing out the brownish-black soil along with muddy water.

Bruner stood stiffly in the rain, and not only him, but also the fifty new recruits in the same team stood together in the fine rain.

Because Kruger's recruit team finished last in yesterday's one-kilometer group run, the entire team was punished.

But in fact, there were three people in Kruger's team who finished in the top 100, and most of the others reached the finish line before the second to last.

However, Horne implemented a collective system, based on the last person to arrive, which resulted in Kruger's team finishing last.

"It's not like I was the one who finished last..." someone muttered quietly.

Kruger suddenly turned his head: "Who, who is talking?"

He was met with a silence, after these few days of training, they knew that speaking without permission would result in being beaten with a stick.

"I have repeatedly emphasized that you are not individuals, but a team." Kruger said coldly, circling around the twenty new recruits, "When you go to the battlefield, your battle功 is the collective battle功, and your punishment is also the collective punishment. I just heard someone speaking, so all of you will stand for another quarter of an hour! Is that clear?"

"Yes!"

"Louder."

"Yes——"

The cold, icy rain slapped randomly on their faces, flowing down their collars, soaking their chests, and taking away the last bit of warmth.

But they still didn't dare to move, only casting their peripheral vision towards the fence not far from them.

More than a dozen disobedient recruits, their hands tied to dark wooden stakes, their thin pants stripped off, revealing their pockmarked buttocks.

The officers and child soldiers held black, long, and straight 'devotion rods', whipping the buttocks of these errant recruits one by one. Some of the child soldiers were young and weak, and even needed a running start to achieve the best effect.

"Ooooh ooooh ooooh——"

"Eh eh oh——"

Pig-slaughtering-like screams swirled in the rain, swirled in the ears of the new recruits marching in formation, swirled in Bruner's heart.

In the coldness of the rain, he felt a burning pain in his buttocks, the heat even diminishing the cold somewhat. This was an old injury he had sustained the day before.

That was because he had turned left and right incorrectly three times in a row, and Kruger had pulled him out of the formation for individual practice.

Bruner didn't even dare to recall how painful it was. Whichever side he turned wrong, he was whipped on that side. After whipping his buttocks, he was whipped on the palms of his hands. The two of them stayed up like owls until 11 o'clock at night.

Later, he could actually distinguish between left and right, but he was always half a beat slow, unable to keep up with the rhythm, and then he was beaten again.

Although he was often bullied, he had never been tortured and beaten like this.

After being beaten to the point of collapse, Bruner tried to give up, was whipped once, and was caught again after running away and whipped again, and was also locked in a small dark room.

For a whole day, no one spoke, no one responded, no water, no food, pitch black.

However, in this small dark room, Bruner finally completed the necessary step for ruthless people in despair—enlightenment.

If my brain can't react, then I just won't use my brain.

"Right turn!"

After standing for two quarters of an hour, Kruger, wearing a rain-avoiding cloak, suddenly roared.

Stomping on the soft mud, Bruner's body mechanically performed the action, turning to the right along with the people beside him.

This time he was not half a beat slow nor did he turn wrong, because he gave up thinking and just mechanically listened to Kruger's orders.

"Right turn, left turn, step forward, align the formation!"

"Step backward, step left, turn, step backward, turn, about face! Align the formation!"

In the continuous commands, the twenty exhausted new recruits basically lost most of their ability to think, and just mechanically followed Kruger's orders.

"Very good, no one made any mistakes today, it seems the small dark room had a good effect, Bruner."

"Yes!"

"Not praising you, and you're already getting proud." Kruger slammed the 'devotion rod' hard on the ground, splashing a puddle of mud, "Everyone, towards the cafeteria, move out."

Standing by the road, Horne looked at this group of tired and numb soldiers, revealing a slight smile.

In fact, according to Horne's experience during this period, although Bruner's reaction is slow, he is considered in the upper reaches of the second echelon among these new recruits.

Horne's Savior's Legion primarily recruits refugees and laborers, who have spent a long time living in the wild, surviving in a self-sufficient state.

In this environment, they need to fetch water and chop firewood themselves, collect wild fruits and vegetables themselves, and do short-term day labor, unable to do the same thing for a long time.

While this has created the advantages of being self-reliant, knowledgeable, and determined, it has also led to the disadvantages of low efficiency, inability to concentrate, and laziness.

The best-performing first echelon among these new recruits are often urban laborers and trackers.

They do the same job every day and require a certain degree of collective cooperation, adapting best to military camp life.

The second echelon is mostly made up of exiled armed farmers and tenant farmers.

They occasionally need to perform corvée labor together and engage in long-term collective farming and harvesting, possessing a certain degree of obedience and experience.

The worst third echelon consists of refugees, beggars, bandits, and the like.

In addition to laziness, they also have various bad habits such as complaining, arrogance, and disobedience.

What frustrates Horne is that the number of people in the third echelon is basically the sum of the first two echelons.

Overcoming their bad habits through training will probably be an extremely difficult problem. So far, Horne has beaten more than twenty difficult-to-train soldiers to death.

In the end, he even had to send some new recruits who could not adapt back and supplement them from the reserves.

The current attrition rate is about 3%.

After ten days of training, under the coercion and inducement of money, hatred, and sticks, these soldiers finally persevered.

These teams of new recruits, even if they cannot form neat lines when marching now, can actually be clearly distinguished from other new recruit teams.

For the new recruits who initially marched in formation like clumps of feces floating on water, this is considered a remarkable achievement.

"Next is the physical strengthening phase." Horne flipped through the lacquered notebook in his hand.

Although it is called the strengthening phase, Horne has interspersed physical training in the previous queue training, laying a good foundation for them.

After ten days of training and nutritional supplements, the soldiers' weight has increased significantly, and there are fewer cases of pale faces.

"These seven days can add some breathing exercises for them." Janna added from the side.

Horne nodded: "Okay, but you have to watch, only some people can practice, many people's bodies have not recovered yet, I'm afraid something will happen."

"Got it."

"Tomorrow is the physical strengthening phase, tonight we can have some entertainment activities, such as singing or extra meals, to let them relax." Horne turned his head and instructed Thomas and Jeshka beside him.

Thomas patted his chest and said: "Don't worry, Your Majesty, everything is arranged."

"Alright." Horne asked Fritzi to lead the horse over, "Silov sent a message saying that the new textile machine has been made, I'll go take a look. I'll leave the evening affairs to you."

"Okay, then I'll give them an extra meal tonight, let's eat giant spider meat."