Liu Mang took a big gulp after receiving the boiled water from Cheng Yu. The standing training was too exhausting in such hot weather. Besides, he needed to readjust their poses individually. Even then, they still could not do it in the right way. Liu Mang had to resist his temper, remain patient to teach them over and over again.
Cheng Yu could tell that Liu Mang was exhausted by now, since he was correcting the poses from everyone individually. If it were the general that Cheng Yu served before, he would have already whipped at the faulty soldier. When one whip was not enough, then one more whip would be applied. He would have the soldier beheaded if he still did it wrong for the third time.
After drinking up the water, Liu Mang sensed another problem. What could be the next move? These soldiers were looking at him, which made him feel so uneasy.
“Ehm, Ehm! Can you sing?!” Liu Mang suddenly got a nice idea. During military trainings, when the instructors were having a break, they either told the recruits to do something useless or to sing.
“Sing?!” Cheng Yu was dumbfounded. Was this price making a joke? This was a military training, why start singing? Only scholars would sing when they had a discussion to test each other.
“Exactly, singing!” Watching them, Liu Mang knew that most people could not sing. Who were these soldiers? Before becoming soldiers they were mostly villagers, to be more precise, children of peasants. They did not even know how to write or read, so how could they possibly know how to sing.
“Cheng Yu, what about you?!” From the whole bunch, Cheng Yu was the only one who had some education.
“I can!” Cheng Yu nodded.
“Really?!” Liu Mang was somewhat pleasantly surprised that Cheng Yu could actually sing.
“I only know a song that my mother taught me!” Cheng Yu eyes suddenly became a bit depressed. Liu Mang knew that he just reminded Cheng Yu about a sad event. Oh old Cao, nobody cared if you attack Xuzhou! If you wanted to take revenge on Old man Tao Qian, then do so. Why did you have to massacre the whole city?
Liu Mang patted Cheng Yu’s shoulder to both encourage and comfort him. “Sing, Sing before all your brothers!”
“General, I…!” Cheng Yu wanted to reject, but was immediately stopped by Liu Mang.
“If your mother was still alive, she would want you to have a happy life! Sing in front of all your brothers. Did we not swear to live or die together, share riches and honor together? Your mother is our mothers! Sing!” finishing his sentence, Liu Mang faced towards the soldiers and said “Soldier, let’s make your Lieutenant sing us a song, alright?!”
“Alright!”