History of Women in the Wei Dynasty

Chapter 141 Writing Punishment and Horse Stance Punishment

It turns out that the hyena's habit of groping anus is a result of being deliberately trained to do so by bad people!
Following another military order from Huli Canjun, "change the tunics for the five students," the soldiers were overjoyed and rushed to take out the specially made tunics from the baskets.

The upper part of the front panel covering the chest and the back panel covering the back are all made of normal fabric, but the lower part of the back panel covering the waist and hips is a thick piece of pigskin, which smells fishy and freshly slaughtered!

The most disgusting thing is that the shoulder hooks connecting the front and rear panels are two pale white pig trotters.

Humans dislike the smell of raw pigskin, but it's a delicacy that hyenas crave. Five hyenas stretched their necks and bared their teeth, lunging forward time and time again, making the iron chains clang loudly.

The students in the examination area turned pale at the sight, let alone Hai Yeren and Yuan Langxi who were nearby. But fear was useless, and resistance was even more useless; it would only anger Governor Yuan further, leading to even more terrible and torturous punishments.

Therefore, Changsun Fuming only wanted to confirm one thing: "They wouldn't deliberately let go, would they?"

Huli, the military advisor, replied, "The soldiers of the Beast Training Bureau are all strong enough."

Three beast-training soldiers were holding a hyena. To put the five underachievers at ease, the soldiers stretched out their arms and let the hyena stretch the chain to its tautest point, a step away from the five underachievers' "pigskin buttocks".

Next, Huli Canjun recounted the specific punishments.

Let's start with the "writing" punishment.

Yuan Langxi, Hai Yeren, and the other three underachievers do not need to do today's joint exam questions, but their writing time and rest intervals are the same as the joint exam format, divided into three rounds, with a halftime break.

The first round of punishment involves reciting the titles of poems and one's own name from memory. A total of fifty poems must be recited correctly. They are allowed to write down whichever poem title comes to mind, without having to follow the order in the Book of Songs.

Each poem title is paired with a name, forming a group.

Switch columns after writing each set.

Only ten columns can be written on a single sheet of paper. Writing more or less is considered waste paper.

The fifty poem titles are not allowed to be repeated. If a poem title is repeated, the paper containing it will be considered a waste paper.

Erzhu Rong was special because the child knew few characters. He only needed to write one character he already knew correctly, along with "Erzhu Rong" once, to count as a group, which was also written in ten columns on one piece of paper.

After explaining all this, Military Advisor Huli asked, "Is this the first round of writing punishment? Did you all understand?"

Qiu Ruizhi raised his hand to slightly lift his body and relieve his leg fatigue. He suggested, "Can we not use pig's trotters for the shoulder straps? They're not clean and they smell terrible."

Erzhu Rong and the other three nodded in agreement.

"Bear with it!" Huli, the military advisor, continued, "Now we'll talk about the 'horse stance' punishment."

"When the officer reprimanded you yesterday, you all said that you loved martial arts the most. So, as you all wished! Today, in front of all the students, show your basic horse stance skills and enough courage. If you complete the punishment, the officer will allow you to leave the school today and enter the army!"

Hai Yeren and the others exchanged glances. "Hmph, that'll only fool Erzhu Rong," they thought. Erzhu Rong's handsome face grew increasingly contorted. "Hmph, that'll only fool a six-year-old; he's seven already." This military officer was definitely up to no good!

The iron plate was used, carried by two soldiers, and suspended an inch above the legs of each soldier as they were in a horse stance.

The top side of the iron plate is smooth and is used as a writing desk.

The height of the iron plate, and the numerous spikes on its downward-facing side, are used to control the height of the horse stance. The inner side is positioned to restrain their upper abdomen, preventing them from bending their backs and moving forward.

Needless to say, the purpose of the five hyenas behind them is also obvious!
Just as Erzhu Rong was thinking of this, he heard Huli, the military advisor, say: "During the punishment process, whether you are really exhausted or just pretending to be lazy, as long as you step back or sit down, the horizontal line of your horse stance must be moved back by the distance of one foot."

Haiye Ren immediately pointed at Erzhu Rong and said indignantly, "His feet are so small, it's not fair!"

Erzhu Rong, hands on his hips, said smugly, "Your ankle is the smallest, so why don't you cut it off?" Oops, he got a little carried away in his smugness and bumped his leg against the jagged iron plate. Damn it, that hurt!

"Shut up!" Yuan Langxi was furious. She was the only girl among the five academic underachievers, but her feet were bigger than Hai Yeren's. She estimated that if she took two steps back, the hyena could bite her pigskin on the back of her butt. Ugh... misfortune never comes singly. She turned around to assess the distance a little too suddenly and was instantly slapped across the face by the pig's hoof that was stuck on her shoulder.

Qiu Ruizhi happened to see this and suddenly realized that using pig trotters as hooks wasn't to fumigate them, but to slap them in the face when they kept turning around in fright from the hyenas. "Military Advisor Huli," he asked with a smile, "this way of punishing us is really clever and thorough. Who came up with this idea?"

"I can tell you this. It's the same person who had you teach the laborers to read last time. She came up with two methods, one reward and one punishment, and she used them both very well."

Sure enough, it was that jerk again! Qiu Ruizhi turned his head, and by sheer coincidence, the tip of a pig's hoof poked into his nostril. Enraged, he forcefully pulled it away and said angrily to Hai Yeren, "Investigate! Find a way to find this person!"

"There's no need to investigate at all; it's definitely Cui Zhi!"

The examination was held outside the south wall of the Poetry Society. Zhang Jiniang brought thirty-nine servant boys with her. Starting this month, the servant boys would officially participate in the monthly joint examination, and all of them would be ranked based on their scores.

Some of the pageboys were beaming with pride, like Xing Hang, while others were filled with frustration and indignation, like Xu Jiaoqing and Xin Chun. This was because, during the assembly, Teacher Zhang had announced that, starting this month, each teacher could recommend one pageboy each month to become a formal student at either the Songs of Poetry School or the Literary and Music School.

There is no need to worry about the number of students in these two dormitories becoming too large in the future. When that time comes, Cui Academy will expand to a sixth dormitory.

Xin Chun is currently very unpopular and can only complain to Xu Jiaoqing: "I always thought Hu Wuwu was cunning, but it turns out that Xing Hang is the most cunning one. She is always trying to curry favor with the female teacher under the guise of reviewing her lessons. Humph, this month's official student spot will definitely go to Xing Hang."

Xu Jiaoqing fell silent, suddenly feeling utterly disgusted by the act of spreading rumors. Originally, the most common gossip they spread was about Hu Wuwu, but after Hu Wuwu went to Luoyang, they started spreading rumors about Xing Hang—it never ended. Did she come to Cui Academy just to spread rumors and fabricate gossip all day long?
No, that's not it. Young people can withstand setbacks. Xu Jiaoqing's eyes gradually cleared. She had figured it out. She distanced herself from Xin Chun and decided to stay away from her in the future. She wanted to emulate Xing Hang, who focused on his studies.

Half past the hour of Mao (5-7 AM).

The monthly joint examination has begun.

This time, the five schools are combined into one, and there is only one chief examiner, Master Kong Wenzhong.

The loudest voice, Master Liu, announced the rules for the first round of the test: "This round of the test will test your ability to recognize the title of a poem by listening to its verses. The students from the university will first give you the hint that they are giving you the question. Then they will read out a verse from the poem or a verse from the poem's sequence. You will then write down the title of the ancient poem containing that verse."

Yuan Langxi and Changsun Fuming were the best students among the five academic underachievers. The two had a bad feeling. Why were their first test and their first punishment both about writing poems?
(End of this chapter)