Liu Feng smiled and looked at the crowd. They had tattered clothes and most of them wore straw sandals. Many of them ate a meal and starved a meal. Now there was a roasted pig in front of them. This was a temptation from the eyes.
Couldn’t they see the five Niu brothers also secretly swallowing their saliva? Even though their family didn’t lack meat to eat, a roasted pig with seasoning was what’s really tempting.
The people of this era had a hard time to even eat full, let alone adding processed seasonings. Meat was just roasted for a bit and added some salt. There were also people who just boiled meat and then added a bit of salt.
Even nobles wouldn’t be able to eat exquisite delicacies. The biggest difference was just a somewhat better cooking method than th commoners. Otherwise May wouldn’t get addicted to the kitchen, even Nicole fell in love with making cakes and stuff.
In two days time, Mina was completely immersed in the sea of delicacies. She could be seen eating food every day. It made her sigh. Lord Liu Feng’s place was the real life of nobles, it was even better than the life of a prince.
The fragrance of the meat was became more and more intense. Under the blowing of the wind, the people swallowed continuously. It reached the peak when Nicole lead a team of maids carrying bowls of noodles.
They were large bowls of noodles. The noodles were made of wheat that were crushed into powder. May cut large pieces of pork and put it on top of the bowls and added a few wild vegetables. The other world version of roasted pork noodles was complete.
In this era, there were no such thing as grinding wheat with millstones. The people here all really on rocks to slowly ground wheat powder. Not only was it extremely crude, it was also extremely hard to digest.
When Mina took a bowl of roasted pork noodles and started to eat, the people went crazy. It was the food of nobles, food that they had never eaten in their entire lives.
"Lord City Lord, please start the trial right away!"
"Yes yes, quickly start, we can definitely pass the trial."
Liu Feng nodded to Niu Ben. The temptation was now strong enough, and it was time to start.
"Cough cough..." Niu Ben stepped forward, raised his hand to stop the shouting, and shouted, "As long as you can pass the trial and become Lord Liu Feng's soldiers, you will get to eat meat like the ones over there everyday."
No matter where, people work to eat. Without the revolution of the information age, the commoners are simple. Just like Mina, if you give them too much benefits, they wouldn't agree, as they were afraid of taking advantage of others.
When Niu Ben's words fell, the people started howling and and immediately yelled for the trial to start. Niu Ben didn't waste any time to talk and ordered Niu Da and the others to do as tehy were required.
"10 people form a line and go into the castle to go through the trial as required. Niu Da held a long sword, which was given to him by Liu Feng.
Under the threat of the long sword, everyone lined up obediently and followed Niu Wu into the castle plaza.
The inside has been transformed into a simplified version of the 300-meter special forces obstacle course. It was what Li Feng had seen on TV, and he just brought it over.
This was just the obstacle course for selection. When the people were selected and trained for some time, they would have to go through an enhanced version of a 500-meter obstacle course;.
Rolling, climbing, crawling, ditch crossing, rope climbing, hole drilling,¹ walking balance beam, wall climbing, etc...
When the ten people started to run, Liu Feng and Niu Ben stood by at the side and watched.
10 minutes later, not a single person had finished the course. They couldn't even pass a two meter tall wall, which made Liu Feng shake his head, and he raised his hand to indicate failure.
Niu Wu immediately took the people out, and then another group of people came in. This group of people didn't even complete half of the obstacle course.
"Young master, it's very difficult for anyone to complete the obstacle course in 10... minutes. Even Niu Da and the others need a few minutes. How can those untrained commoners complete it?" Niu Ben was slightly proud. After all, the sons that he trained had gave him face.
"Heng! A few minutes to complete the full course is already a failure in my opinion. For a 300-meter obstacle course, 1 minute is the qualification time." Liu Feng said, pouring cold water.²
"Impossible!" Niu Ben's eyes widened, he didn't believe anyone could do it in one minute.
"There is nothing impossible. This is the military training method in my hometown. Soldiers who can complete the full course in one minute are strong soldiers. They are one in a hundred." Liu Feng said lightly.
This was a simplified version. The rolling wasn't even in quagmire. There wasn't even stone pieces or mud added to the crawling. Fire wasn't added to the hole drilling. The hole drilling also didn't had iron spikes on the surroundings.
If Liu Feng took these things out, then probably no one would be able to complete the whole course. Even if it was the Niu brothers, it would be really hard for them.
"This..." Niu Ben swallowed his words. He yearned for the hometown that Liu Feng talked about. After all, many rare things came from Liu Feng's hometown, such as those delicacies, white papers, and weapons.
He had previously stayed in the capital of a kingdom, and had never seen these. As such, Niu Ben wouldn't doubt what Liu Feng said. He decided to give his five sons extra training. If they couldn't finish the course in one minute, they wouldn't be given food to eat.³
The Niu brothers didn't realized that they were remembered by Niu Ben. They were currently looking at the people going through the obstacle courses with their faces full of smiles.⁵
¹ Not really sure what it's called, so I just put the literal translation. If you know what it is please let me know.
² 泼凉水. Pour cold water. It's an idiom. Basically someone's "on fire" and is very complacent, and someone "pours water" to "put out the fire".
⁴ 惦记. Remember, missed, or worried. I know it sounds weird, but I couldn't find a better way to word it. The remember here is the kind where like Person A does something bad to Person B that makes Person B hate Person A, and Person B tells Person A "I will remember you." That kind of remember, just that in this case it's not hate.
⁵ Or is it laughter? I'm not sure, but smile seems a better fit.
Translator Note: Sorry, my computer is a Chromebook and I accidentally double tapped the power button when I meant to press backspace. The computer turned off and I didn't save the parts that I've translated, which means that I had to start over, which means that you guys would have to wait a few more days before I can upload an extra chapter since I missed a day a few days ago. Sorry.