stonecrandall Chapter 49 Vito: Let them eat their fill before training!
Chapter 49 Vito: Let them eat their fill before training!
Tiberius walked to a high place and looked down at the two distinct circles of people. On the left were the qualified slaves, and including those who were later admitted with lowered requirements, there were only about fifty people in total. On the other side were the other people who had been rejected, about two hundred people.
"Listen up!" Tiberius shouted at the top of his lungs from the high platform. "All of you on the right, go over there and get a small bag of rice, a bottle of olive oil, and a piece of cured meat!"
When the news came out, those who had been eliminated immediately showed expressions of surprise and joy.
Meat, rice, and oil—all for free, without having to do any work! This little master is just too good!
[Hmm, it really is oil, and it really is rice! Once you remove the husks, it's just refined rice!] A slave was pondering what would happen to this food, but just as he was about to leave, he was stopped by a fierce-looking mercenary.
"The master hasn't told you to leave yet!" the mercenary said viciously.
"Oh, I see... okay, okay, I'll go back now!" the slave stammered, then clutched the food tightly and returned to the original area.
Just then, Tiberius saw that the people in the circle on the left were so hungry that their faces were practically overflowing with desire for food, and there were also many who were resentful.
That's understandable. We're all slaves, so why should you get food while I get nothing?
【Excellent, plan works!】Tiberius was quite pleased with himself, then announced, "As for those in the left circle..."
He deliberately drew out his voice, and some slaves began to tremble, fearing they would be subjected to inhumane execution.
"A bag of polished rice, a bucket of oil, three skewers of cured meat, and a bottle of wine," Tiberius said, clearing his throat.
"Oh, right, divide it according to the number of people in their family! Each person should get at least one serving of food!" Tiberius clapped his hands and said.
Then, the chosen one was so excited that he almost jumped up!
This turn of events was something they had never expected!
"Alright, those of you on the left, tell those mercenaries the number of people in your families, and then you can have your family members come and collect the food!" Tiberius solemnly announced.
"However..." Tiberius's sudden change of direction made the slaves on the left jump their hearts into their throats once again.
What's going on here? Right! How could they suddenly give them so much good food? When has the slave owner ever been kind?
"Starting tomorrow, you won't have to go to work. Instead, you'll receive group training in one area every day," Tibli said with a smile. "During this time, you don't need to worry about your families. You'll receive food every week, also distributed according to the number of people!"
And so, it remains the same: envious people eyeing someone else's food. Only this time, the roles are reversed!
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"By the way, kid, I need to tell you something first," Vito said to Tiberius as he gestured for the mercenaries to bring over the grain wagons.
"What is it?" Tiberius asked.
"Don't rush to train them," Vito said very seriously. "At most, talk to them about discipline, how to line up, how to stand guard, and select a few of the more clever ones, or those who obediently listen to you, to be their leaders. This will make them easier to manage. Gradually get them to accept you as their new leader and obey your orders."
"Then, you should paint a grand picture of the future for them! Things like a better future, the glory of mercenaries… well, if such a thing really exists! Things like that. Aren't you best at this? Drawing big promises, making them so enticed they're practically stuffing their hands with envy!"
"Vito, every day is precious to us now. Why should we let them rest for a few days? I don't even have a day off! And you're going to let them eat for free for days?" Tiberius said, frowning. "Giving them piles of rice to eat for free? I can't bear it!"
"Stupid! Believe me, if you started making them run ten miles a day and train them in spear thrusting the very next day, a whole bunch of them would collapse!" Vito said with a tone of utter exasperation. "And they wouldn't be able to get up! Then you'd have to pay for medicine again!"
"Explain it to me," Tiberius said, showing a willingness to learn.
After all, Vito's experience was also very important to him; it was precisely because of Vito's "rough" experience that Tiberius's advanced ideas had a practical basis.
"Let them eat! Eat a lot! Eat their fill! Eggs, milk, oil, meat, fish... give them all the food! But one thing, don't give them good bread and rice!" Vito warned. "It's best to make the bread and rice extremely unpalatable, mix in sand, sawdust, chaff, small stones, and stuff like that... so they won't want to eat it!"
Tiberius was shocked: "Vito, what do you mean by this? Not letting people eat their fill?"
Vito rolled his eyes at Tiberius: "What do you mean, 'don't let them eat their fill'? I'm making sure they eat more to nourish themselves!"
"Think about it, what kind of life did these guys live before? In the countryside, they probably survived on some bread and coarse rice porridge; those who did heavy work in the mines might have had it a little better, but they rarely saw meat, at most some rotten salted fish."
"To put it bluntly, their stomachs have been starved for a long time, they haven't had a single bit of oil or fat! If you suddenly give them a lot of refined white bread and white rice, they'll definitely eat it all up! How can they have the appetite to eat real good food, like meat, eggs, and dairy products?"
"Let me tell you, these guys are so weak from all the hard work and poor food! The only way to replenish their energy is to let them have a few good meals. Making the staple foods unappetizing is to prevent them from focusing solely on bread and refined rice. It would be terrible if they just filled their stomachs with that stuff!"
Vito then added, "But there's something you need to be careful about. For the first three days, you should still give them some bread and rice. It's best to give them plenty."
Tiberius was even more puzzled: "Why? Didn't you just say those things were useless?"
Vito sighed and gave a vivid example: "Let me tell you a true story. Old Tom was heavily in debt from gambling and was about to have his fingers chopped off. Unfortunately, our legion was also in trouble at the time, and we hadn't had any work for several months. Your uncle Jules was so desperate that he almost pawned his sword to pay his wages! In the end, Calvin and Leon secretly went to the pawnshop to redeem it."
"At this point, even if Old Tom had the thickest skin and the most shamelessness, he wouldn't be able to speak up."
"During that time, Old Tom survived for two months on thin porridge and wild vegetables! And what happened? He finally got a job from a wealthy employer, and the employer treated us to a good meal the first night, with meat and wine, he was so happy! Old Tom ate a lot... hey, guess what? The next day his stomach couldn't take it, he spent the whole day squatting in the outhouse, his legs were so weak from defecating!"
Vito pointed to the slaves and said in a deep voice, "These slaves have been eating no better food than Old Tom's thin porridge for the past two months. Their stomachs are already used to bland food. If you suddenly switch them all to meat and fat, their stomachs definitely won't be able to handle it. They'll get diarrhea to the point of being deformed! Then the military camp will become a public toilet, and you'll be in trouble! So we have to take it slowly. First, fill them up with some staple food, and then gradually increase the proportion of meat."
"I think the guys you picked are still pretty healthy. I reckon in ten days to two weeks, when their faces have some color in them, their eyes aren't so cloudy, and their limbs aren't so weak anymore, then that's when you can start whipping them into training! Otherwise, with their current physical condition, I'm afraid they won't be able to withstand that animal-training intensity!"