98: Chapter 97: Crash Course in Combat Training 98: Chapter 97: Crash Course in Combat Training On the lawn in the courtyard, Gao Yang looked at Li Jinfang in front of him and hesitated, “Is this really okay?”
Li Jinfang showed impatience and said, “If I tell you to hit, just hit.
Why are you dilly-dallying?
Are you going to train or not?”
After pounding his left hand a few times with his fist, Gao Yang finally replied meekly, “Let’s just forget it, okay?
I think it’s good enough that you teach me some techniques.
Why start with sparring right away?
You don’t teach me any moves or how to exert force, yet you ask me to hit your face straight off.
It makes me uneasy.”
“It doesn’t matter; hit as you please, hit to kill.
If you manage to hit me, then I’ve wasted all these years of training.”
“Exactly, I know I can’t hit you, but you insist on striking back hard while I try to hit you.
I’m not stupid.
How could I fall for your trick?”
“Really, it’s fine.
I promise not to kill you.
Don’t worry, I know how to pull my punches.
At most you’ll feel pain, but you definitely won’t get hurt.”
“Cut the crap.
I’m not doing it.
Teach me some techniques then.
You say the Xingyi and Tan Leg you practice have no routines, and I believe that, but military close combat must have some routines, right?
Let me learn those.”
“Brother Yang, listen to me.
This kind of combat, really, can’t be learned in a day or two.
Learning only the moves and routines is utterly useless.
If you want to quickly improve your fighting capability, you need a crash course method.
I’m telling you.
To learn how to hit others, you must first get hit.
No matter where, that’s the same principle.
When I was a kid, I was trained by getting beaten too.
If you practice routines for a year, you’ll just be agile, but if you learn from actual combat, a day can be worth a year of drilling routines.
Truly, I’m not lying to you.”
“I understand that, but seeing you look so bloodthirsty, I find it hard to trust that you’re not settling personal scores, taking the opportunity to get back at me.”
“Brother Yang, don’t you get it?
Even if you don’t hit me, I can still take initiative to hit you!”
“Damn it, what are you trying to do?
Do it!
Ah!”
After the negotiations with Li Jinfang collapsed, Gao Yang quickly clutched his stomach and lay on the grass, curling up like a shrimp ball.
Li Jinfang stood in front of Gao Yang, fiercely kicked his butt, and said, “Stop playing dead, get up.
I barely put any strength in that kick.
Get up and keep fighting.
Watch closely how I make my moves.
If you want to learn how to hit from getting hit, then you need to keep your eyes wide open and look hard.”
Gao Yang struggled to say, “You scumbag, you just came at me silently with a kick.
How could I see, how could I see!”
Li Jinfang looked startled, then smiled awkwardly and said, “Don’t worry, this time I definitely won’t use my legs, only my hands, and I’ll slow down the speed.
Come on, get up.
Just one month, and I promise you’ll be able to take on three to five strong men with no problem.”
Determined to improve his close combat skills, Gao Yang decided to trust Li Jinfang’s words.
He slowly got up from the ground, managed to stand up straight, only to see Li Jinfang leisurely throwing a punch towards his throat.
Gao Yang had plenty of time to dodge, but just as he started to move away, Li Jinfang extended a foot, knocking Gao Yang back to the ground.
“Bastard, you said no legs!”
Li Jinfang squatted down in front of Gao Yang, sighed, and said, “Brother Yang, why are you so naive?
Why do you believe everything I say?
If it were an enemy, wouldn’t you be dead by now?”
Gao Yang was about to explode with anger and yelled, “You scumbag, it’s my first day, my first day, you haven’t taught me anything yet, and you just start fighting.
How would I know how to dodge!”
Li Jinfang thought for a moment and said, “Alright, I might as well disclose my teaching plan to you.
We’ll set a one-month deadline.
For the first ten days, you’ll just have to take a beating, use your brain to remember how I hit you, and in the process, increase your resistance to being hit.
In the second ten days, I will teach you how to exert force, dodge, counterstrike, and a few fatal moves.
They’re simple but deadly.
With the first ten days of getting beaten as a foundation, you’ll make rapid progress.
In the last ten days, then we’ll start sparring.
By that time, I surely won’t just be hitting you.
I’m telling you, I’ve always used this method in the army, and it works great.
Plus, I will teach you all the secret techniques passed down in my family.
There, now that you know the plan, get up and keep fighting.”
Gao Yang stayed on the ground, carefully considered Li Jinfang’s plan, and though he knew nothing about practicing martial arts, Li Jinfang’s words sounded like a crash course.
To improve his close combat skills, Gao Yang decided to give it his all and take the beating.
Finally, Gao Yang wobbly stood up again, and at that moment, Li Jinfang shouted, “Take more hits before battle, just hit during battle, come on.”
Gao Yang was startled by Li Jinfang’s made-up slogan, then awkwardly dodged a rather slow punch from Li Jinfang.
Just as he narrowly avoided a punch aimed at his face, without thinking too much, Gao Yang jumped back, barely evading Li Jinfang’s silent kick.
Li Jinfang applauded and said, “See, learning from getting hit really is the fastest way.
Just the third kick, and you already know to dodge.
Alright, next time I’ll speed it up a bit.
Don’t worry; I won’t do any serious damage.”
Gao Yang was on the verge of tears and then immediately countered by Li Jinfang with the same old trick: the same punch, the same kick.
Gao Yang dodged the fist but was knocked to the ground for the third time.
Resigned to his fate, Gao Yang figured as long as he wanted to practice combat with Li Jinfang, he couldn’t avoid getting hit.
Moreover, Li Jinfang’s kicks were properly controlled; it hurt a lot, but it was only a temporary pain that didn’t affect his ability to move.
Just as Gao Yang was about to get up, he heard a sharp and angry scream.
Lying on the ground, Gao Yang looked in astonishment to see Yelena charging out from behind the kitchen, barefooted with a sharp Western kitchen knife in her hand, and screamed as she stabbed towards Li Jinfang.
Gao Yang was scared witless and yelled, “Don’t!
Toad watch out, don’t hurt her!”
How could Li Jinfang possibly be hurt by Yelena?
It was true that he was shocked, easily grabbing Yelena’s wrist with a twist, and after the kitchen knife fell, Li Jinfang kicked it far away before turning tail and running.
“Brother Yang, give me an explanation!”
Li Jinfang obviously wouldn’t hurt Yelena, and he couldn’t keep her restrained, so he chose to run away, while Yelena looked at Gao Yang with concern and said anxiously, “Are you alright?
I got the knife, you go get the gun.”
After Yelena finished speaking, she immediately went to pick up the kitchen knife that had been kicked far away, and at that moment Gao Yang finally shouted, “Yelena, you misunderstood, we are practicing, uh, I am learning how to fight, don’t be agitated, please don’t be agitated.”
Yelena stood there dumbfounded, her hands and feet at a loss, and said, “I saw him hitting you through the window.”
Gao Yang hurriedly replied, “If he really wanted to hit me, would I still be able to stand up?
We are really practicing, truly, truly.”
Yelena’s fair complexion blushed instantly, she covered her face with her hands and ran away without a word.
Watching Yelena run off, Gao Yang and Li Jinfang finally breathed a sigh of relief, watching her enter the kitchen from the back door.
Li Jinfang sat down next to Gao Yang, shaking his head and said, “Brother Yang, that girl really cares about you, but with such a fierce girl, how are you going to survive in the future?
I’m worried for you, man.
Do you dare let Catherine come to South Africa now?”
Gao Yang felt like crying but had no tears, and said, “I can’t live this life anymore, who the hell did I provoke, tell me?”
Li Jinfang sighed deeply and said, “You know, I saved her once, too.
Why would she take a knife to stab me for you?
Ah, envy will be the death of me.”
Feeling cross, Gao Yang retorted, “Nonsense, who asked you to hit me so hard?
If she had stabbed you to death, it would’ve served you right.”
Li Jinfang gave a cold laugh and said, “Humph, I just heard someone tell me to be careful.
I was touched for a moment, thinking someone wasn’t the kind who’d ditch friends for women, but to my surprise, that someone was actually warning me not to hurt his little beauty.
Hmph, hmph.”
Starting to worry about his own fate, Gao Yang hurriedly said, “Don’t go overboard, kid.
Who doesn’t know about your skills?
It’s strange if Yelena could hurt you.
I was confident in you, that’s all.”
“Alright, I accept your explanation.
Now that the little interlude is over, let’s continue training, come on, I promise not to beat you to death.”
Looking at Li Jinfang, who claimed to accept his explanation but was rubbing his fists and looking eager, Gao Yang quickly said, “Can we rest for a while before continuing the training?
What are you dragging me for?
What are you trying to do, you damn Toad?
Ouch!
Damn Toad, you jerk, ah, not the face, damn it, are you enraged, ah!
Brother, spare me, please.”
Li Jinfang had indeed slowed down, but Gao Yang still couldn’t dodge and could only watch as Li Jinfang’s punches and kicks landed on his body.
In the beginning, Gao Yang felt proud to have found a master instructor, but reality proved that he was happy too soon.
Li Jinfang might have been a master, but he was definitely not a good teacher, at least Gao Yang believed that instructors who hit their students were not good instructors.
While trying hard to dodge Li Jinfang’s punches and kicks, Gao Yang said breathlessly, “Toad, no, Jinfang, let’s talk about this, ow, Rabbit and the Old Russian went to find a shooting range, right?
Shouldn’t we check on their progress?
Damn it, be gentle.
Let’s go to the range and see how Rabbit is doing, damn it, ** be gentle.”
While beating up Gao Yang, Li Jinfang said nonchalantly, “Sure, but it’s not even nine o’clock yet.
Let’s go find them this afternoon.
We’ll continue training until twelve and see how it goes.”
When it was almost dark, Glolov and Cui Bo returned from the shooting range.
As soon as they walked through the door, Cui Bo said with high spirits, “Brother Yang, it was awesome, I fired two thousand rounds today, just shooting without aiming much.
My shoulder is swollen, man, so freaking awesome.
The range is a bit small but still okay.
Brother Yang, how was your training?
Does Jinfang teach well?
Hey, Brother Yang, why is your face all bruised?
What happened?”