It's night——

Shinsengumi settlement, bathhouse——

Run-up, charge up, take off... Shimada Kui used neat movements and postures to throw himself into the spacious bathing pool with steam billowing out.

Instantly, warm hot water rushed to him from all directions, wrapping him up.

Under the moistening of the hot water, Shimada Kui felt that all the muscles and bones in his body were stretched, and most of the fatigue in his body was relieved. He was so comfortable that he almost screamed out.

"Huh...the heat is just right...!"

As he spoke, he stretched hard, leaned back, and leaned against the pool wall behind him.

He was very lucky and got a seat with a backrest.

The bathhouse is very spacious and can accommodate 6 or 70 people bathing at the same time without feeling crowded. This is another generous effort of the original owner of this mansion, who built a bathhouse that can be used as a swimming pool.

Looking up, the bathhouse was crowded with white bodies.

For the Shinsengumi soldiers, the bathing time after dinner is one of the few leisure moments in the day.

Everyone took advantage of this rare opportunity to gather together in twos and threes and chat freely.

The chattering sound of conversation is endless.

"Ah...I'm so tired..."

"You won't have to stand all day again tomorrow, right?"

"Who knows."

"Damn, my feet hurt so much!"

"Knead this acupuncture point on the sole of your foot vigorously, and you will feel much better."

"Hmph, let me teach you! This is a wonderful skill I learned in the afternoon! When standing in the military posture, don't stand stupidly! Sometimes put your body weight on your left foot, sometimes put your body

Put the weight on your right foot and let both feet take turns to rest, so that you can stand for a long time and stand easily!"

…

In order to pass the time, Shimada Kui pointed his ears and listened to the conversations around him, while scanning his eyes and carefully observing the demeanor and expressions of the people around him.

I saw many people looking lifeless.

There are people with sad faces.

There are people who are discouraged.

There are also those who are worried.

What's more, his expression was numb and his face was as pale as a clay sculpture. Not even the heat of the pool water could bring back the color on his face.

Shimada Kui understands this very well: Today’s training was really hard!

Under Qingdeng's deliberate design, the soldiers' daily arrangements were roughly as follows -

I opened the schedule and looked it up. There was no time in the schedule. On each crooked page were written the words "love soldiers as sons". I couldn't sleep anyway. After reading carefully for half the night, I saw two words between the words.

The first word was: training. When I took a closer look, I saw a few more words: If you can’t practice to death, practice to death.

The morning training started at 6 o'clock. Except for a breakfast break in the middle, training continued until 12 o'clock.

After lunch it was a short lunch break.

The afternoon training starts at 14 o'clock. There is no tea time - the culture of drinking afternoon tea has not yet spread in Japan today - the afternoon training will continue until 19 o'clock.

Training, training, training...Roughly speaking, the total training hours of the soldiers today was as high as 10 hours!

The training intensity is not very intense.

In the afternoon, after completing the punishment of "running around the training ground three times" ordered by Aoto, Shimada Kui returned to the first team's queue and continued military posture training.

This time, he didn't dare to slack off anymore. His arms clung tightly to the sides of his legs, as if he wanted to use glue to stick his arms and thighs together.

Qingdeng's personal demonstration played a very good leading role.

The captains headed by Souji imitated Qingto's approach and launched "sneak attacks" from behind from time to time to check whether the soldiers' arms were close to the sides of their legs.

Many people followed Shimada Kui's footsteps and had their arms pulled away from their legs, and then ran around in circles "humming hummingly".

To be honest, after seeing this scene, Shimada Kui couldn't help but feel secretly happy: If he was the only one to be punished all day long, it would be so shameless!

No one dared to complain about the "sneak attacks" of the captains. Everyone who was successfully "sneak attacked" accepted the punishment silently - any one of the 10 captains could easily beat them all over the ground.

Ya, who dares to complain?

In this way, the soldiers trembled and persisted until the sun went down.

Shimada Kui originally thought that their training would be over today.

But who would have thought that just when he was relieved, Qingdeng suddenly appeared at the training ground again like a ghost, and brought an order: "Before dinner, everyone should go around like they did in the morning.

Run 5 laps on the training ground!”

To be honest, when he heard this order, Shimada Kui, who was very confident in his physical ability, couldn't help but feel his eyes darken.

If he had received this order while in good health, he would have gladly accepted it.

However... after standing in military posture for almost a whole day and running a full 1,500 meters due to punishment, his back, legs and feet were already sore.

I have to run another 2,500 meters with this kind of physical condition... Just thinking about it, Shimada Kui couldn't help but feel his limbs become weak, cold sweat dripping from his back, and the cold wind blew, making him feel cold.

Although he was worried, it didn't help.

The military order has been issued. What else can we do besides complying with the order in accordance with quality and quantity? Are we waiting to be beheaded?

As a result, the soldiers gritted their teeth and used all their strength.

Although the power of the spirit is powerful, its limitations are also cruel.

Before they even finished one lap, the entire queue stretched out and became loose and scattered.

In the end, the soldiers almost relied on perseverance to drag their bodies to the finish line - at this time, almost everyone looked like they were dying and would fall to the ground at the slightest breeze.

Today's dinner was also very sumptuous.

There is an unlimited supply of rice; there is no shortage of meat and egg soup dishes.

However, Shimada Kui almost couldn't eat during dinner because he was too tired!

He is far from the only person in this situation.

To be more precise, every one of the soldiers showed an extremely weak appetite due to exhaustion.

Compared with the lively atmosphere at breakfast and lunch, the atmosphere at dinner was as cold as a world away.

The air inside and outside the cafeteria was filled with dull air, and there was no other sound except the clinking of bowls and chopsticks.

Everyone was silent, just like puppets, completing the task of eating mechanically.

While eating dinner, Shimada Kui finally understood the true meaning of what Aomori said before - only by eating a full meal can you have enough strength to survive the following training!

If you don’t eat well, if you don’t eat such a sumptuous meal, you won’t be able to survive at all!

——Is this just the beginning...

Half a month from today will be their adaptation period. After the adaptation period, the training intensity will gradually increase. Anyone who cannot persevere will be ruthlessly kicked out of the team - This is Qing

The announcement was published this morning.

Such arduous training turned out to be just an appetizer... Thinking of this, Shimada Kui couldn't help but feel discouraged.

——I underestimated the Shinsengumi too much...

Shimada Kui sighed again.

After experiencing such a cruel day, the self-confidence he had built up previously was gone.

——Can I really persist in the Shinsengumi...?

Just when Shimada Kui fell into deep self-doubt, a male voice suddenly came from beside him - a male voice that was extremely familiar to him:

"Hey, Akui, why are you crying so hard? What? Is it because the training is too hard and makes you want to give up?"

Shimada Kui was startled for a moment, and then subconsciously followed the sound - not far away from him, a strong man with a strong body and scars on his body was looking at him with a smile.

Shimada Kui blinked, was stunned for two seconds, and then shouted happily:

"Shinpachi!"

Nagakura Shinpachi chuckled:

"Akui, you finally found me! I've been sitting next to you for a long time!"

Saying that, Nagakura Shinpachi moved his butt a few times and sat next to Shimada Kui.

"Sorry, I was thinking about something."

Shimada Kui responded with an apologetic wry smile.

Nagakura Shinpachi is an old acquaintance of Shimada Kui.

Furthermore, the two are very close friends.
To be continued...