After an almost two weeks of gruelling work, the wooden palisade was finally finished. They surrounded a roughly 800 by 800 meter piece of the vast flatlands with towering tree trunks,12 feet tall. The orcs stared proudly at their work and smiling widely as they can finally have a good rest since Xiao Chen woke them up before dawn then only dismissed them almost at dusk daily, making some of them lack sleep because of their personal extra activities at night.

The next day, Xiao Chen then told Sakh’arran to move the tents within the palisade and by the next day, they spread all the tents within the walls with a huge part of it still unoccupied.

In the very center of the newly established settlement was the chieftain’s tent and surrounded by many more tents circularly, leaving enormous spaces near the wooden walls.

Making his rounds, Xiao Chen was satisfied. He can now begin with his next plan, the part that his subordinates will definitely not like.

*****

The next morning, he gathered all the abled warriors of the newly established Xin Village, all 419 combatants, under his command. He then divided them into four groups. The first three groups had a total number of 105, while the last was short of one only at 104. He named the four groups Black Tortoise, White Tiger, Azure Dragon, Vermilion Bird.

Each of the group was then further divided into two platoons, the first and second then further divided each platoon into eight squads, the first to eight. The total number of combatants wasn’t enough to divide them evenly, but what he was after was cohesion and nothing else.

Some platoons and squads have more than the others, but it will do. Consulting with his leading subordinates and ask them if they want to take part in which Gur’kan, Sakh’arran, Draegh’ana, Galum’nor and Trot’thar excitedly agreed to. Rakh’ash’tha was more interested in sharing knowledge with the Arkhan shaman about medicines and Aro’shanna was lost in her own thoughts, unresponsive and silent as always.

Xiao Chen then assigned Gur’kan to the White Tiger group, Trot’thar to the Azure Dragon group, Galum’nor along with Sakh’arran to the Black Tortoise group since Xiao Chen can’t really depend on Galum’nor for leadership and the Vermillion Bird to be led by Draegh’ana.

He then guided the Black Tortoise group in arranging their formations into two platoons to be followed by the rest, eight columns standing shoulder to shoulder per platoon with the rest filling in behind the first and in front would be two leading figures, the platoon leader and his assistant.

Xiao Chen then commanded them to run at their own pace towards the mark that he had placed at the border of the Burning Sands, then back to at the entrance of the village five times, which was roughly around more or less 20 kilometers.

The first to move was the Black Tortoise and at a quick pace followed by the Azure Dragon, then the White Tiger, which was at a much slower pace than the Black Tortoise and lastly the Vermillion Bird which kept the same pace as the White Tiger.

Two rounds later, the Black Tortoise was already moving slowly, followed by the Azure Dragon. Xiao Chen look at the distance and saw the White Tiger and Vermillion Bird still on the move, albeit slightly slower than when they started.

After finishing five rounds back and forth, the orcs belonging to the Black Tortoise and Azure Dragon collapsed on the ground because of exhaustion while the White Tiger and Vermillion Bird still kept their formation, despite panting heavily.

About an hour later, Xiao Chen introduced them to the modern military training, comprising push-ups, sit-ups etc… He pushed them all to the brink of loosing consciousness and he could hear grunts of dissatisfaction among his men.

For two weeks the routine continued and the orcs undergoing his hell like training are at the verge of rebelling, waking up before dawn undergoing Xiao Chen’s training, then going to sleep two hours after dusk only to wake up again before dawn the next day. Xiao Chen had a hard time trying to find a solution to motivate them to continue since even his loyal subordinate Gur’kan came to complain to him about his odd commands, scanning through the system store, there he saw one of his favorite and stress relieving food. Prime beef, best roasted or grilled over fire, he looked at it and it cost 10 points per 10kgs of already ready to be cooked prime beef.

With no second thoughts, he bought one, then carried it towards the fire in the middle of the camp, just a hundred meters away from the walled village, since his training quarter was in the center of the training camp.

A few minutes of roasting the huge strips of prime beef, a very mouth-watering aroma permeated the air, the only ones awake as were the leading figures of the four groups who were on patrol duty as always for the first hour, Sakh’arran, Gur’kan, Trot’thar and Draegh’ana who quickly tracked the origin of the aroma and found their chieftain roasting a reddish piece of meat over the fire.

“Chief, what meat is that?”

Trot’thar asked, pointing a finger at the strip of prime beef that Xiao Chen was roasting over the fire.

“Prime beef, roast your own”

Xiao Chen said, still loss in his own thoughts and tossed to him the rest of the prime beef which they quickly divided among themselves. Almost half an hour later, the group was busy munching on the foreign meat that didn’t exist in this place.

“Chief…it’s delicious…where did you get it?”

Gur’kan said between large bites as he enjoyed the foreign taste of the prime beef along with its added spices. Xiao Chen then ask the others if they thought the same, and they just nodded towards him while busily munching on their roasted pieces of prime beef.

Xiao Chen was at a loss for words. Judging by the look on their faces, they seem to enjoy the foreign and new taste of prime beef and just smiled helplessly, then started eating his own piece. A few minutes later, Xiao Chen suddenly realized something.

“Prime beef… that’s it!”

Xiao Chen exclaimed, then grinned evilly at the still busy and unsuspecting subordinates of his of his wicked plan.

*****

The next day Xiao Chen then made an announcement, he will be reducing the amount of time spent on physical exercises and will focus more on executing given commands like moving on march, sudden halts, turning and other basic commands which the orcs sighed relief as they have been push hard the past weeks but then Xiao Chen revealed his wicked plan.

“The worst performing group will not receive any prime beef and go on a two rounds run,” he announced, then smirked.

“Prime beef!”

The four who knew and had a taste of it muttered together at the same time while the rest were left confused, of what a prime beef is. The four then rallied their groups.

“If any of you slack off and deny me from my prime beef, I’ll skin you alive”

Draegh’ana said to those belonging to the Vermillion Bird group with a very serious look and her eyes like burning fire, she was keen to have a taste of the prime beef more.

“Cause me to not taste prime beef and I’ll let this guy have some fun with you”

Sakh’arran said as he patted Galum’nor at the back.

Gur’kan and Trot’thar also did their rallying or, more likely, threatening talks and tried to lead their groups to be as flawless as possible.

*****

At dawn the worst performing group was the Black Tortoise to which Draegh’ana, Trot’thar and Gur’kan celebrated happily, jumping around muttering prime beef repeatedly and the orcs of their groups still left confused.

The Black Tortoise did their punishment, to which Sakh’arran added two more laps to it because of disappointment and kept yelling how clumsy they were from start to finish during the punishment.

For the next eight days, the prime beef was the price and the worst performing group was denied of it. The four groups took turns in being the worst, but the most consistent in performing was the White Tiger group only experiencing punishment once.

Xiao Chen smirked at the orcs enjoying the taste of the prime beef, which he will limit to be only given to the best performing group next to push them further as he introduced to them how to fight in formations. After going through many known military formations in the last few weeks, the only one that he can replicate closely would be the phalanx formation.

After tasking the non-combatant units to make 6 meter long spears, they could produce 500 simple iron-tipped spears in a month.

“Enjoy it very well while you can,”

Xiao Chen softly muttered as he chuckled evilly as he entered his living quarters in the training camp. His body was also always strained, like his men, since he joined them during physical exercises and guided them during formation and movement drills.. He was far more tired than them, but what else can he do ‘No pain, No gain’.