- Training Begins 1
The moment Soun was assigned to the Baekryong unit, training began at once.
The enemy had withdrawn, but the mood changed the moment they had faced an advance party.
The calm time was over.
If a portion of the enemy had come, it meant the main force would come soon.
They would come before the river thawed.
All through the camp, each arm trained and trained again.
Because it was training on the eve of battle, the atmosphere was harsh.
For the Baekryong unit Soun belonged to, scouting and reconnaissance came first.
At first, he began training with the inner (內) Baekryong troops while doing the basic work of guarding the various posts of the farm garrisons and the camp.
Most of the unit was either out scouting or had returned and was resting, so the remaining force was not even a hundred men.
The basics were spear work and archery, and after that came tracking and ambush.
By Lee Hui’s consideration, Sosam always stayed close behind Soun.
Sosam had a good nature, and because he was always muttering and talking to himself, even without asking, just being beside him let you grasp what was happening around you.
It was as if he spoke aloud the sounds that rose and vanished inside one’s own mind.
If you listened quietly at his side, you learned everything about how the world was turning.
Soun already knew how to use a spear, a bow, and how to ride.
He was not outstanding, but for a boy his age he was among the very capable.
However, the weapons he had used were small ones made with his young age in mind.
Lord Yu had specially made a bow for his son.
He had gifted him a sword—longer than a small knife, but a mid-length sword with a thin blade.
And in the training yard supported by the Yu household, there was always a spear—thin, but a little longer than Soun’s height—standing ready.
Soun stood with Sosam on the shooting platform (射臺).
“Can you shoot a bow?”
“A little.”
“You’ve done it before?”
“Yes.”
“You know how to string it?”
“I’ve done it with a small bow.
With one this big, I don’t know how to string it.
I… don’t have the strength.”
Sosam smiled as if he had expected that, took the bow from Soun, and set it on his knee.
“This time I’ll string it for you.
But I can’t always do that.
You have to build strength.
Wait.”
He bent one knee, flipped the bow upside down, put force into it to set the shape, then lightly slipped the string on and handed it back.
“Try.”
Soun took it and stepped up onto the shooting platform.
Those who had climbed up earlier were shooting lightly.
Soun looked toward his target.
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It was far.
And the wind was blowing.
It was a distance of dozens of jang.
He doubted his arrow would even reach.
At his age, lacking strength was unavoidable.
While Soun hesitated, he strung his bow and came back beside Sosam.
A strong north wind swept the platform.
The cold felt sharp enough that you could imagine hearing something crack, and the wind froze it harder.
When the wind is strong, archery becomes difficult.
“Kid. Yours is that one. Third from the left.
Mine is the second.
Start.
Twenty shots.
If you can’t hit at least fifteen, you’re on labor duty all day.”
“Labor duty? What kind of labor duty?”
“A punishment, basically.
What it’ll be, I don’t know.
This time you’ll probably have to crawl on all fours.
We call it hobo—tiger-step.
Hobo (虎步).”
At the word punishment, Soun’s face turned pale.
“Scared?”
“…I have tried it, but it’s too far.
…And I think I’ll run out of strength.”
“Of course.
If you can’t even string the bow, you can’t shoot it.
You need the strength to string it in order to shoot it.
Still, try drawing it once.”
Soun tried drawing the string without nocking an arrow.
It was an adult’s bow, and the strength demanded was too much.
He puffed his chest and strained, but the draw did not go far enough.
He managed only about halfway, and no more.
“Again.
Grip hard.
Breathe in, hold it, then draw.
Then shoot.”
Soun did as he was told.
The string came about halfway, then with a ping it sent the arrow flying.
Because the draw was insufficient, the arrow did not reach the target and fell to the ground.
He was still young.
Sosam shook his head.
He was short on strength.
Sosam knew it and wanted to go easy on him, but in the army—especially when facing the enemy—would the enemy go easy?
Something had to be done.
It felt as if creating strength that did not exist was impossible.
“This won’t do.
Give up and go down over there and practice drawing.”
“Yes.”
As Soun went down to the side, Sosam climbed onto the platform and shot.
To avoid labor duty, Soun practiced with all his strength.
It was training to draw the string without an arrow.
Few things feel as empty as drawing an un-nocked string.
Still, he did not stop.
He kept going.
It did not feel like repetition would make it work.
He was clumsy and lacking, yet he continued without rest.
Spear training was the same.
He had to swing a spear while riding at a gallop, but the spear was too long and too heavy.
He could not swing it properly; if he made a mistake, he might strike the neck of the horse he rode.
If he dismounted, he could roughly imitate the double-spear style that was popular in the camp at the time.
Thankfully, he rode well.
He could mount freely, run, stop.
He handled the horse well and could move with it as if one body.
It was because he had ridden since childhood.
But with a lance, swinging it was difficult, and even when he used his strength, it moved very slowly.
It was too long and heavy for Soun to swing from horseback.
Striking a stationary enemy while charging was relatively easier, but toppling a mounted enemy in motion was nearly impossible.
Shooting a bow while galloping was beyond imagination.
He even wondered whether it would have been better to be assigned to the armored infantry.
Training did not go smoothly.
The training was not designed to accommodate a boy.
Keeping up was a burden, and for Soun each day was a day of pain.
He trained every day, and when training ended, labor duty continued.
It was easier to go out as a vanguard scout or stand watch at the gate.
There was no exemption from training, and for those who performed poorly, harsh labor duty and additional training were assigned.
The punishment for failing to draw the bow was to crawl on all fours and circle the double palisade that ringed the camp once.
It was a method to build chest muscles and strength, and the name for it was hobo (虎步).
It was walking on all fours.
Because he wore thick padded clothes and armor piled on top, sweat poured down, and the heavy mass of padding sagged lower, adding weight.
He crawled one full lap with the others who had failed to hit fifteen.
He could not even be faster than them.
Even while being punished, he lagged behind and drew glares.
After walking on all fours, the muscles of his whole body screamed.
In severe cases, they made him crawl up into the low mountains and then crawl down the mountain on all fours.
His head pointed downward, and if his arms gave out, he would often smash his head into the ground.
The heavy armor pressed down from above, and hands meant to hold objects had to bear the weight of the body.
Crawling down a mountain backward on all fours was dangerous, and a mistake could send him tumbling.
It was a bizarre posture beyond what a human body could easily endure, and his two arms and shoulders had to bear all of his weight.
If he failed to chop a wooden post while galloping, he had to suffer the punishment of spinning a huge staff hundreds of times.
When he spun the staff again and again, it felt like his arms would tear out of their sockets.
In that posture, he had to go from one end of the training ground to the other and back.
They divided the unit in two: one side hid, the other tracked.
It was tracking and concealment training.
Those who failed had to crawl a full lap.
Soun had to endure additional punishment almost every day.
He was young and small, so it was unavoidable, but Lee Hui made no exceptions.
It was an important part of what the Baekryong unit did, and even if Soun could not do it, there was no helping it.
How long had it been since he received the all-fours punishment?
One day he drew the string, and the drawn string passed his jaw—it drew fully.
Soun searched his memory of how he had once done it, nocked the arrow, drew, and as strength went into it, the arrow struck the target cleanly.
Because at home he had used a small bow made for him, once strength followed, hitting the mark was nothing.
Thus, through training and punishment, he began to handle the standard equipment.
It was not that he had no ingenuity.
The lance was long, but he could not bear its weight.
He found the thinnest, lightest spear among the spears, and even that he shaved down further, thinning the shaft.