{{Stimulating Training}} chapter 1

{{Want to Hear Somebody Else’s Privacy

David Smith just graduated this year and joined the army. Due to a lack of exercise since childhood and his tendency to slack off during training, he couldn’t meet several training indicators.

One day, the company commander saw that David was not training seriously again. He immediately blew the assembly whistle and publicly criticized him with a stern face, saying that he couldn’t bear any hardship and didn’t act like a real man. At that time, the company commander was holding a stack of letters that the postman had just delivered in his right hand. After criticizing David, he added, “Don’t think I’m only criticizing him. You guys in this generation are spoilt. His problems exist in all of you!” Then he waved his right hand. “These letters were just delivered. Everyone in the company has one. Now, you’ll do push – ups to get your letters. One hundred push – ups for each letter!”

This was really tough for David. He received three letters this time, which meant three hundred push – ups. There was no way he could finish them all at once. The company commander seemed to have anticipated this. For the recruits with poor physical fitness, he had a plan. He divided the number of push – ups over a week according to the number of letters received. After the division, apart from the rest days, David had to do fifty push – ups every day.

The military camp was in the mountains, and the roads were very bad. The postman only came once a week. However, when it was time to distribute letters the next week, the company commander changed his mind and proposed, “Doing push – ups like last week was so boring. How about something more exciting?”

The military camp was far from the city, and there were few people around. The training was tiring and dull. When the recruits heard about something exciting, they quickly urged the company commander to tell them. The company commander pointed to the letters in his hand and said, “Some people have more letters, and some have fewer. It’s not fair to do one hundred push – ups for each letter. So, we’ll count the number of times the words ‘think’ and ‘love’ appear in your letters. For each ‘think’, you’ll add thirty push – ups, and for each ‘love’, fifty. You’ll finish them within a week.”

After the company commander finished speaking, he saw that all the recruits were hanging their heads. He couldn’t help but smile and said, “I know what you’re thinking. Your little privacy in this mountain valley will be out in a few days. You’ll tell others even if they don’t ask.” His words made sense. Maybe they all thought there was nothing special in their own letters and wanted to hear some privacy of others, so the recruits agreed to the company commander’s suggestion.