"Assemble, all teams!"
Fang Er said, looking at the five teams.
The crowd dispersed and lined up according to their respective teams.
The most battered, Team Two, was left with only three men.
Team Seventeen, which had the most members, was also left with seventeen men, matching their team number exactly.
"What was the mission I gave you?"
Fang Er's tone was icy.
"Report! Assassinate five divisional commanders!"
A soldier from Team Two stepped forward to answer.
Fang Er walked up and kicked the soldier who had replied to the ground.
"Since you knew it was an assassination, why did you risk your lives to bring back Wu Yong alive?
Are your comrades' lives less valuable than the honor of capturing a divisional commander?
Have all the training from these past two months been for nothing?
Or are your brains filled with nothing but crap?"
After scolding them, Fang Er took out a gun and fired it into the sky.
The bullet was specially made to produce a whistling sound when it hit the air, signaling a general assembly.
Soon, the sound of hurried footsteps could be heard from outside the mansion, and all reserve team members converged towards the residence.
The mansion was spacious enough that the six hundred reserve members standing in the second courtyard did not feel crowded at all.
"Bring out the three divisional commanders inside. Su Feng, you go to the Fifth Division and bring Zhang Tian over as well!"
Fang Er emphasized the word "bring," clearly not meaning it literally.
Once everyone had assembled, Fang Er looked at the five divisional commanders with their heads hanging low.
"You are all doing well, very well!
You were given a three-day limit, and not a single one of you managed to last until the end!
One thousand push-ups, now, immediately, at once!"
He roared the last sentence.
The five men flinched, immediately got down on the ground, and began doing push-ups as Fang Er had ordered.
The others were fine, but Wu Yong was the most embarrassed.
His clothes were torn into shreds, and his bare buttocks were exposed, though no one knew who had done it.
Fang Er paid no mind to his embarrassment. After scolding the commanders, he turned to the reserve team.
"Those whose missions failed, go to the back of the line."
The crowd began to move.
The soldiers who had failed each went to stand at the very back of the group.
Their reactions were identical – eyes red, faces filled with unwillingness.
Two months of hellish training, ruined at the last moment.
Less than four hundred people remained in the crowd.
Fang Er looked at the five small teams that had captured Wu Yong. "Although you completed your mission, you are not considered entirely qualified.
One thousand push-ups each, with a fifteen-minute time limit, immediately!"
Upon hearing the first part, the faces of these hundred men instantly turned pale, but upon hearing the punishment, they breathed a sigh of relief.
Having a punishment was better than being directly eliminated like more than two hundred others.
Thus, another hundred people were now on the ground doing push-ups.
"And you, any of you whose team members were sacrificed, also a thousand push-ups!"
Three more teams dropped to the ground.
A total of one hundred and sixty-five people were on the ground, rising and falling.
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After seeing those two teams off.
Only after the individuals being punished with push-ups had sweated profusely and managed to stand up with great effort did Fang Er address the seven teams still standing. "I'll give you another day. Continue the assassination!"
"The five of you, if you are caught again, you'll have to deal with the consequences yourselves."
Liu Meng stammered, "Duke, you... you want us to... to try again? I can read!"
"Since you are the commander of a division, vigilance must always be maintained. What? Do you really think that sitting in the position of a divisional commander means you are safe?"
Fang Er glared at him, considering him the most useless.
Tie Lao Ba was at least carried away after his guards were drugged.
But this guy, they had dug a tunnel directly into his room without him noticing.
Liu Meng covered his facial injury and stood there with his head down, not daring to speak.
One day later, four of the seven teams were eliminated.
Wu Yong was killed, and Liu Meng was shot in the chest.
Tie Lao Ba had it worse. Someone stole a mortar from his camp, and the wooden shell covered a hundred-meter radius around him. Although it wouldn't explode, he deemed himself dead.
This time, no one dared to try and capture their targets alive. The mission was assassination. After assassinating, they were to leave quickly and cleanly.
The three men stood before Fang Er with glum faces and were reprimanded.
"The first time, I can attribute it to carelessness, but the second time you were caught again!
Do you think it doesn't matter to you if I am killed?"
"Each of you is confined for three days!"
Fang Er looked at the three men, wishing he could beat them until they were incapable of caring for themselves.
The three men were dumbfounded. "Duke, three days, it will be fatal!"
"Yes, Duke, why don't you punish me? I'll do two thousand push-ups, that's fine!"
"Duke, how about a fifty-kilometer cross-country march with a heavy load? I'm afraid of the dark."
Hearing their words, Fang Er became furious and roared at the three of them.
"Being locked away in a room is better than being assassinated!"
"Get out!"
The first exercise concluded.
Fang Er had the contents of the second exercise announced.
Three days later, twenty miles south of Shenyang City, at Tiger Head Mountain.
This time, the reserve team would be the prey. Each of the five divisions would send a thousand men, totaling five thousand, to conduct a three-day encirclement and suppression operation against them.
Zhu Zi and Zhang Tian, upon hearing the news, immediately convened their entire divisions to select participants for the exercise, vowing to take revenge.
Meanwhile, Tie Lao Ba, Wu Yong, and Liu Meng, in their confinement cells, gnashed their teeth, thinking, "The tables will turn. After three days, when we get out, we'll have to have a good time with these reserve team members."
Supported by this thought, the confinement room did not seem so terrible anymore.
While the three of them were locked up, the deputy commanders of the three divisions outside were also not idle, with the First and Fifth Divisions similarly selecting personnel.
The more than five hundred people who had been eliminated earlier, as well as those eliminated in this exercise, were instantly promoted.
Although they had failed, they had undergone Fang Er's special training alongside these thirteen teams. Especially the seventeen teams eliminated during this exercise had caused considerable losses to the five divisions during the exercise.
Their capabilities had improved significantly compared to when Fang Er took them away two months ago.
Without Fang Er needing to worry, the five divisional commanders were all filled with resentment, and they would not hold back in this exercise.