Liu Feng smiled and looked at the crowd. They had tattered clothes and most of them wore straw sandals. Many of them had trouble keeping themselves well. Having a roasted pig in front of them was truly a temptation for the eyes.
Even the Niu brothers were secretly swallowing their saliva. Sure, their family didn’t lack meat to eat, but a roasted pig with seasoning was still very tempting for them.
The people in this world had a hard time even eating full, let alone adding processed seasonings. Meat was just roasted for a bit and with some salt added. Some people 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 the commoners. Otherwise, May wouldn’t get addicted to the kitchen, and even Nicole fell in love with making cakes and stuff.
In two days, Mina was completely immersed in the sea of delicacies. She could be seen eating food every day. It made her think, 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 became more and more intense. Under the blowing of the wind, the people continuously swallowed their saliva. They were once again stimulated when Nicole led 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. With that, the other world version of roasted pork noodles was complete.
In this world, there was no such thing as grinding wheat with millstones. The people here all relied 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. To them, it was the food of nobles, food that they had never eaten before 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. They had tempted the people, 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 every day.”
No matter where it was, people worked to eat. Without the reformation of the information age, the commoners were simple and honest. If you gave them too many benefits, as Liu Feng had done to Mina, then they wouldn’t agree as they were afraid that they were taking advantage of others.
When Niu Ben’s words fell, the people started howling and immediately yelled for the trial to start. Niu Ben didn’t waste any time talking and ordered Niu Da and the others to do as they were required.
“10 people form a line and go into the castle to go through the trial as required.” Niu Da was holding a long sword that Liu Feng had given him.
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. It included rolling, climbing, crawling, ditch crossing, rope climbing, hole digging,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 given him face.
“Hmph! 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 onto Niu Ben.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 a quagmire. There weren’t even stone pieces or mud added to the crawling. Fire wasn’t added to the hole-digging. The hole digging also didn’t have iron spikes in 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 those. 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.
The Niu brothers didn’t realize that Niu Ben had set his eyes on them. They were currently smiling as they looked at the people going through the obstacle course.
Translator’s Notes:
¹ Not really sure what it is, 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 (complacent) fire”.