Chapter 132: Two Games
Song Chuhe listened carefully to everything he said.
Only after confirming that he had no other questions did he nod and say, “As for the issue you raised, this is how I see it.”
“Our two greatest enemies on the border are the people of the Divine Elephant Nation and the monsters of the Abyss.”
“Since our targets are so clearly defined, specialized training will be far more effective than the mediocre drills we usually do.”
“As for a Training Arena and training equipment, there is no need for them at all.”
Everyone was stunned.
“What specialized training?” Luo Xing asked in return.
Song Chuhe said confidently, “The core of winning every battle is overwhelming superiority!”
“If we cannot overwhelm them in overall strength, then we create a local advantage.”
“If we cannot overwhelm them with a local advantage, then we create an individual advantage.”
“In the short term, improving one’s cultivation is relatively difficult.”
“So aside from cultivation, the fastest way to increase an individual advantage in a short period of time is speed.”
“Mobility and agility allow our soldiers to attack when they can and retreat when they must.”
“Even if they get dragged into large-scale chaotic fighting, it will still increase their chances of survival.”
“So I borrowed a rather primitive method of agility training.”
“A Chase-and-Evade Game.”
A Chase-and-Evade Game??
They all looked at one another. Quite a few of them had clearly never heard of it.
Song Chuhe pointed at the camp area on the sand table.
“This was a training method used in the early days after humanity entered the age of Martial Artists.”
“In a designated area, you build a large number of chaotic, irregular obstacles out of simple wood.”
“Then teams or individuals compete against one another in a confrontation game.”
“One side chases, the other escapes, and as long as they do not damage the obstacles, the winner accumulates points.”
“I have heard that the Divine Elephant Nation also has elephants with considerable combat power, and they join the battlefield during group engagements.”
“In that case, we can add moving obstacles such as giant pendulums to our obstacle field.”
“As for training against monsters, nothing is more effective than going out and fighting monsters directly.”
“It would also let us quickly figure out the surrounding terrain, as well as the types and strength of the monsters nearby.”
Luo Xing could not refute what he was hearing, but he still continued to ask, “What about food? We have more than two thousand people here. At the very least, we need to store enough food for half a month to a full month!”
“How are you going to solve that without a warehouse?”
Song Chuhe said, “That brings me to the second game, the Supply Run Game.”
“Once someone reaches the Fourth or Fifth Grade and above, warhorses are already far slower than Martial Artists. Their only advantage is greater endurance.”
“And out in the wilderness, there are many situations where you cannot ride a horse anyway, because a warhorse’s scent gives you away.”
“At the camp, all we need is a place to casually store about three days’ worth of food.”
“Every day, the people participating in the Supply Run Game can return to the Pearl Military District, fill their Storage Rings with food, and then carry as much extra weight on their bodies as possible.”
“Then they can teleport toward this place to the furthest possible distance and run the rest of the way back to camp under load.”
“The outermost limit of teleportation from the Pearl Military District to this area is roughly a hundred li away.”
“That hundred-li stretch is our rear area.”
“As long as we properly plan the food transport routes, all the soldiers participating in the Supply Run Game can simply run those routes.”
“That would also give us uninterrupted daily reconnaissance, preventing monsters or Divine Elephant Nation troops from circling around behind us.”
“It would provide ultra-high-intensity training, maintain vigilance, and solve the food problem at the same time.”
“It serves three purposes at once.”
After Song Chuhe finished speaking, the entire room fell silent.
Luo Xing was even more shaken inside.
Everything Song Chuhe had said really did perfectly solve the problems he had just raised, and Luo Xing was no fool.
He would not be stupid enough to ask something like, “What if our food supply gets cut off because of various problems?”
Stockpiling food was something you needed to consider only when you were determined to hold a city.
Since this camp was already a camp that could be abandoned at any time, then what was the point of stockpiling grain? If they ran out of food, they could just go straight home.
As long as they kept storing the fresh food brought in each day and maintained a rolling three-day reserve, that would be more than enough.
Much as he hated to admit it, he had no choice but to acknowledge that this plan was far better than stubbornly defending the camp to the death.
He admitted it inwardly, but making him swallow his pride and immediately apologize to Song Chuhe was still beyond him.
So Luo Xing only said awkwardly, “My apologies. My questioning was merely part of my duty.”
Instead, Song Chuhe waved his hands in embarrassment.
“As it should be, as it should be.”
At that moment, Luo Xing asked again, “I admit that the one-feint-three-real strategy really is more flexible than holding the camp to the death.”
“But I still have some questions.”
Luo Xing’s attitude had softened somewhat.
He even turned to Li Mu and added, “I hope the Tiger Marquis understands. My duty in coming here is to help this place operate better.”
Li Mu gave a slight nod to show that he did not mind.
And indeed, the Cultivation Art Research Bureau had come with good intentions. This truly was Luo Xing’s responsibility.
If someone proposed a plan and he could not find a single flaw in it or offer any rebuttal, that would only prove he was a useless fool who had not thought seriously about it at all.
Luo Xing continued, “These two games really can solve many problems, but how do we ensure that the soldiers participate enthusiastically?”
“When it comes to training, results are much worse when people are forced into it.”
The question Luo Xing raised was extremely practical.
And there was less hostility in it now. It seemed that he was genuinely considering whether this plan could work, rather than simply trying to oppose Song Chuhe.
Song Chuhe nodded.
“You have indeed thought this through very deeply. In both of these games, participants will receive points.”
“The winners, or those who transport more food, will receive more points.”
“Those who explore farther out and kill Abyss monsters will also receive points. If they bring back new information about monsters, they will receive even more points.”
“And all of those points can be used to exchange for the Spirit Treasures and spiritual medicines we have prepared, as well as even stronger Premium and Special-Grade Weapons!”
Luo Xing was startled.
“They can be exchanged just with points?”
One had to know that in the military district, those things normally required large amounts of Contribution Points and Merit Points to obtain.
And now, as long as they participated in these two games and earned points, they could exchange them for such rewards?
If they used that kind of reward to stir up enthusiasm for training, wouldn’t people go completely wild over it!?
“If that’s the case, will the resources really be enough?” Even Duan Yuwen could not help asking.
Although the Military Oversight Headquarters had allocated a batch of Spirit Treasures, weapons, and spiritual medicines, and the various military districts had also sent support, it still would not be enough to hand them out so freely.
“Don’t worry. There will be enough!”
It was Li Mu who spoke this time.
Setting everything else aside, once his pile of Low-Grade Body-Fortifying Pills and Qi-Gathering Pills was ready and handed out as rewards, as soon as the soldiers got a taste of them, they would not trade them for Spirit Treasures even if you offered.
Those were powerful medicines that directly strengthened the body or increased cultivation. They were more enticing than any external object.
“Good! Good!!”
Duan Yuwen exclaimed twice in succession.
“Those who do poorly in the Chase-and-Evade Game will go play the Supply Run Game, and those who do poorly in the Supply Run Game will go kill monsters.”
“Everyone will use the abilities they are best at to earn points.”
“And it just so happens that the process itself trains the abilities they are best at.”
“The best will be selected from among the best, creating a virtuous cycle! Splendid!”
Duan Yuwen kept shaking his head in admiration, and his eyes could not help but light up as he looked at Song Chuhe.
The Deputy Commanding Officer that Li Mu had chosen was truly astonishing.
Could a plan like this really have been devised by a high school boy all on his own?
One person, managing an entire camp—and from the sound of what Li Mu had said, this fellow had only prepared for a day and a night.
If he were given a few more days to slowly refine the various flaws in it, who knew how far he could take it?
Luo Xing nodded and asked no further questions.
He also put away that bit of resentment he had been holding toward Song Chuhe and stood to one side, deep in thought.
Li Mu, meanwhile, smiled.
He himself did not like being tied down inside the camp. If Song Chuhe could not command the others’ respect after Li Mu left, that would be troublesome.
But after this, those people probably would not dare take Song Chuhe lightly anymore.