Top-notch Little Horseman

"Everyone assemble!" Ye Chen shouted!

The twenty men stood in two rows in the middle of the courtyard. As appointed by Ye Chen, Liang Biao was the squad leader of his team, while Yan Gui was the squad leader of the horse herders' team.

Liang Biao and his men stood the straightest, after all, they came from the border army.

The horse herders were not real soldiers after all; they all stood crookedly and yawned from time to time.

"Listen up, everyone! Start with a hundred push-ups!" Ye Chen said, waving his hand.

"If you can't do it, do it as soon as possible. Do as much as you can. Let me see your limits first, and then we'll make up the difference with another hundred."

"Let me demonstrate for you first. You need to watch this posture carefully."

"Yaoyao, you count them."

He lay down first, supported himself with his hands on the ground, straightened his body, and began to do it one step at a time.

After seeing Ye Chen do five, Liang Biao also lay down and did the same, quickly doing twenty, his face turning red from the effort.

The other nine border soldiers also lay down and did the same.

When Liang Biao did thirty, his arms started to tremble, and when he reached fifty, he could no longer keep going.

Sweat beaded on his forehead. He quickly did seventy repetitions, but he didn't give up. He gritted his teeth and persevered.

In the end, he only managed to do eighty-five before he simply couldn't keep going any longer.

Liang Biao and his men, being from the border army, each did at least seventy, while Monkey and his horse herders were far behind, only doing fifty or sixty. Only Smoker managed to do seventy-seven.

Of course, this is the standard they achieved in one performance, which shows that their physical fitness is not bad.

Of course, this is also because they can get enough to eat by following Ye Chen; otherwise, they wouldn't be able to meet this standard.

Twenty people quickly filled the quota of one hundred, and after completing push-ups, they did sit-ups.

Ye Chen had the monkey hold down his feet, lay down on the yellow earth, and then, with the exertion of his abdominal muscles, rolled up repeatedly.

After he finished demonstrating, all twenty people followed suit, and the final activity was a five-kilometer cross-country run.

Ye Chen led them along the official road, running to a distant earthen ridge before turning back.

The monkey wanted to stop halfway through its run, panting as it continued forward, but Ye Chen shouted at it, forcing it to grit its teeth and keep running.

Not only the monkeys, but even the horse herders couldn't hold on. However, with Ye Chen's shouts, they finally managed to keep running.

Liang Biao and his fellow border troops had naturally covered a longer distance, but that was a march, not a sprint.

As for Ye Chen and the others, they had to keep running, and when they ran back, they were already panting heavily.

After they finished running, Ye Chen made them stand at attention in the middle of the yard.

It's that standard military posture: hands on the trouser seams, stomach in, chest out, chin slightly tucked in, knees straight, no movement allowed.

After standing for only the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, the monkey started to sway and stagger, feeling an itch in his knees that he wanted to scratch. But when he saw Ye Chen's gaze, he immediately straightened his legs.

Liang Biao and his men, true to their border military background, stood firm and held on.

While standing at attention, the mischievous monkey finally couldn't help but ask, "Why do we have to stand like this?"

Ye Chen said that this training is about discipline. No matter how good your swordsmanship or spearmanship is, if the formation is messed up, you're just a disorganized mess.

The monkey seemed to understand, but after listening to Ye Chen's words, it still tried its best to stand up straight.

After standing at attention, they began practicing knife and gun techniques.

Speaking of this sword technique, it is naturally the Qi family sword technique, which was personally taught by the Smoker.

The core spear technique of the Qin border army is the Yang family pear blossom spear. Liang Biao knew a little bit of it, so he was responsible for teaching it to him.

Ye Chen watched intently from the side, observing every movement and learning a great deal from it.

After Liang Biao finished teaching the marksmanship, Ye Chen brought a bundle of dry grass from the courtyard wall, tied it into five straw figures, and stood them by the east wall.

"From now on, after practicing swordsmanship and spearmanship every day, we'll add one more exercise."

Ye Chen picked up a sharpened wooden stick, assumed a spear-wielding stance, and continued, "Thrust the straw man with the spear a thousand times each time! Strike the same spot every time."

"A thousand times?" The monkey's eyes widened in surprise.

Ye Chen did not answer him. Instead, he held the gun and thrust the straw man out suddenly, then pulled it back, then thrust it out again, and pulled it back again.

His movements were slow, but each thrust landed on the left side of the straw man's chest.

Liang Biao watched Ye Chen stab him more than twenty times, and suddenly understood what he wanted to do!

He had seen elite guards practicing bayonet fighting in the border army. Those generals' personal guards would repeat a single movement hundreds or thousands of times until their muscles memorized it, so that their hands would be faster than their brains when facing the enemy.

He thought only the general's personal guards would train like this, but he didn't expect Ye Chen to train like this too!

Twenty people lined up and did as Ye Chen asked, quickly getting more than two hundred stabs.

When the monkey had stabbed him two hundred times, he could no longer lift his arm, but he still gritted his teeth and continued to stab.

Liang Biao quickly thrust five hundred times, yet he remained unfazed.

With each thrust he made a muffled screech, and the straw man made a rustling sound as it was poked.

And so it went, day after day, and seven days passed quickly.

For seven days, there was physical training every morning, sword and spear techniques practiced in the morning, and straw doll practiced in the afternoon.

During these seven days, some great news arrived: Luo Kai personally delivered potatoes.

With the potato seeds in hand, Ye Chen instructed them to finish their training and then go to the east to till the land and plant potatoes.

Following the high-yield planting methods from his previous life, Ye Chen cut the potatoes into small pieces, leaving two or three buds on each piece, and dipped the cut surfaces in a layer of wood ash to prevent rotting.

The plants are spaced one and a half feet apart, the rows are two feet apart, and the planting depth is just below the seed block.

Upon learning that Ye Chen was planting potatoes, A Yu and the others came to help, with dozens of villagers using hoes to dig ditches and create ridges.

Ye Chen told them to raise the ridges higher than usual, since there is little rain and a lot of evaporation in the northern region, and high ridges help retain moisture.

In those seven days, the entire acre of potatoes was planted.

That evening, Ye Chen and his group of twenty-one had just finished their assassination practice and were sitting under the courtyard wall, drinking water and wiping away sweat, when the sound of horses' hooves came from the direction of the official road.

A fast horse came from the direction of the Right Guard Post and stopped at the gate of the courtyard.

A clerk dismounted and took out an oil paper package from his pocket, handing it to Ye Chen.

"Lord Ye, this was sent by the Beiping Prefecture. Please check it."

Ye Chen opened the oil paper package and saw a document inside stamped with the official seal of Beiping Prefecture. It stated that Ye Chen was hereby appointed as the veterinarian of the Livestock Bureau of Beiping Prefecture and the gatekeeper of Huangchen Pass, in charge of all affairs of Huangchen Pass. The red seal of the Beiping government was stamped at the end.

The other document was issued in the name of the Beiping Prefecture, ordering the requisition of wasteland in the Chenjia Village, Tianjia Village, Linjia Village, Guojia Village, and Liangjia Village area.

It is clearly written above: the land between the five major villages and Huangchen Pass, covering several hundred acres, is now requisitioned by the Livestock Division of Beiping Prefecture and placed under the jurisdiction of Huangchen Pass.

Ye Chen happily raised the document in his hand and shouted, "Our plan can begin!"

Very good!

Once the documents arrive, he will have a legitimate reason to act. If that skin-peeler comes looking for trouble again, he won't hold back.