Chapter 14, Overawing People with Presence

  "Don't be surprised. This issue actually involves the quality of a commander," Wu Shaotong walked slowly to the front of the crowd, saying with some momentum, "If the officer leading you is excellent, he will absolutely not give unreasonable orders. As for the incorrect orders you mentioned, they are unavoidable, but an excellent officer can reduce the number of mistakes. Therefore, knowing people and using them wisely has always been a very important principle."

  "So it was..."

  "This matter ends here, and it's useless to say more. If you happen to follow a stupid leader, then that's just your bad luck." Wu Shaotong interrupted the crowd's doubts and said.

  Although the soldiers could understand Wu Shaozhong's words, they still had a question in their minds: Is this Mr. Wu really an excellent commander? However, at that time, no one dared to ask this question rashly. In their view, since Mr. Wu could study abroad, he should be a capable person.

  Wu Shaotong walked up to Li Wenqi, took the rifle from his hand, and then retreated back to the front of the formation, saying: "Now all of you watch closely, this is how you should do a quick charge!"

  He finished speaking and demonstrated it once for the soldiers with the correct posture holding up his rifle.

  After the demonstration was over, he had the eleven armed soldiers who were present earlier to fall in and personally performed the stripping action.

  "Lower your upper body height so you can dodge 40% of the bullets."

  "Run fast, because you are exposed in the enemy's line of fire."

  "Keep your rifles at the ready in front of you, they can help protect your chest and be prepared to counterattack at any time!"

  "Remember, never point the muzzle at yourself and friendly forces at any time!"

  "Never interfere with a friend's charge, it will only get you and your friend killed."

  After several hours of batch training, the soldiers at the rear post finally barely grasped the essentials of rapid sprinting.

  From that day on, Wu Shaotang made the soldiers review the training content of the previous day every day, and then taught new combat movements. He required the soldiers to be accurate from action to password, otherwise they would be punished. One mistake was punished by running a lap around the big school field, the second time was punished by five laps, and the third time was deducted one tael of silver from the monthly salary.

  For this, the soldiers trained in movements during the day and at night returned to their barracks still had to memorize complicated formulas. Several times someone got up in the middle of the night to urinate and heard people in the same room murmuring formulas in their sleep.

  Starting from the third week, Wu Shaotang once again increased the intensity of physical training. During daily exercises, he ordered soldiers to carry sandbags on their backs, with weights ranging from 5 to 20 kilograms in increments. At the same time, he also taught soldiers various exercise movements such as sit-ups, push-ups, pull-ups, and deep squats, and most punishments were replaced with these exercise movements.

  Although the soldiers felt increasingly tired, their lives were enriched a lot.

  One day at the end of April, the sky had already entered the night. The rear sentinel camp had long since lost the habit of sleeping late, and after training every day, the soldiers were so tired that they would eat dinner, relax for a while, and fall asleep as soon as they touched their beds. In the past, there were still soldiers from other camps who came to visit, but now the people in other sentinels saw that the rear sentinel had been tortured by a military officer who was good at wielding a big knife, and they all took an attitude of watching from afar with reverence, and the phenomenon of visiting also disappeared unknowingly.

  It can be said that in the past month, Hou Ge has already had a taste of standing out from the crowd.

  However, the soldiers at other outposts did not feel ashamed of this, but instead thought that the new battalion commander was just being arrogant.

  In the officer's dormitory, Wu Shaotong read a book he brought back from Germany for a while, which was considered as practicing German. When it was almost eleven o'clock, he got up to wash his face, put on casual clothes and hurried out.

  Three days ago, he had an idea. The sentinel training has also been going on for a month, and it's time to give them some intensive training. In the 21st century, he didn't have much experience with this kind of training from his superiors. The soldiers in the sentinel are much happier, after all, there is no "internal affairs" in this era. If they were to conduct a surprise inspection of internal affairs at midnight, I estimate that everyone would be exhausted to death.

  Upon arriving at the small open space in Houyuan Camp, Wu Shaotong took a deep breath and shouted loudly: "Assemble! Everyone assemble! Within ten minutes, put on your uniforms and line up. Anyone who is late will have their entire month's salary deducted."

  He repeatedly shouted while walking to the nearest house, and with a loud noise, he kicked the courtyard door with his fists and feet, "rattling" and suddenly making a big commotion.

  In just an instant, the entire barracks district was revived from its silence, with every barrack room transmitting anxious voices.

  "Are you out of your mind? Are we going to fight or something?"

  "Where are my boots? Where are my boots? Foolish candle, why don't you light up?"

  "Who? You stepped on my belly, ouch..."

  "It's Lord Wu, it's Lord Wu's voice."

  "What's going on? It's already late at night..."

  Although some people complained and worried, under the threat of deducting all the silver, everyone still hastily put on their uniforms and ran out of the barracks. The four team officers were busy adjusting their military uniforms while hastily directing the soldiers to line up and assemble. Some soldiers had their buttons buttoned incorrectly, some hadn't even tied their belts, and others had even worn someone else's boots by mistake.

  Wu Shaotong stood at the front of the team, staring at his watch for nearly ten minutes before his subordinates gathered. Because it was the first time, he gave a ten-minute grace period, which is already very generous for a regular army in the 21st century, let alone that the barracks of the rear guard were only tens of meters away from the small open space, and there was no requirement for soldiers to carry weapons and equipment.

  He was somewhat disappointed, it seemed he had overestimated these subordinates after all.

  After a moment of silence, he took a deep breath and said: "Give you five minutes to get your clothes in order. Look at the state you're in now, are you preparing for a disaster?"

  The soldiers all felt a bit wronged, but not one of them complained out loud, and they began to tidy up their equipment on their own initiative. As they tidied up, they looked around in all directions to see if anything unusual had happened, which was why they were ordered to assemble. As a result, the entire parade ground was quiet, with no movement or noise from any of the other barracks, it could be inferred that this time it was a private order from Lord Wu.

  Li Wenqi hesitated for half a day before finally asking, "Lord Wu, what's the task that requires us to gather at this ungodly hour?"

  Wu Shaotong said calmly, "You should feel lucky because there are no tasks now. In other words, if the enemy launched a night attack now, you would all have been annihilated with your previous performance."

  Li Wenqi swallowed a mouthful of saliva and said with some difficulty: "Lord Wu, you...you're also worrying too much, our Shanzi Camp has been here for several years, we've never encountered any night raids. In this peaceful and prosperous era, where would enemies come from?"

  Wu Shaotong sneered and coldly retorted: "Do you think this is a peaceful and prosperous era?"

  Li Wenqi was stunned, he was just a local soldier, of course, he didn't have Wu Shaotong's broad vision.

  Wu Shaotong shook his head and said, "As a soldier, one should be vigilant in times of peace. Moreover, the current situation is already very clear, our great country is turbulent and unstable, it's no longer a peaceful and prosperous era. As for the enemy, we can't let our guard down just because they haven't appeared yet. Think back to the humiliations of the Sino-Japanese War and the Boxer Rebellion, wasn't each time due to inadequate preparations before the war, allowing the enemy to launch a surprise attack and resulting in complete defeat?"

  The soldiers all fell silent, although they were useless old troops, but as the seven-foot men of China, they also had a heart-wrenching sorrow for national humiliation.

  Wu Shaotong saw the emotions of the soldiers, sighed and said: "Today is the first night training, fortunately you all gathered within ten minutes, although after gathering, a sloppy appearance made people very dissatisfied. As I said on my first day in office, don't lose confidence just because you are old soldiers. I hope your performance will get better and better from now on."

  Li Wenqi lifted his head again and said solemnly: "Lord Wu, we guarantee that we will not disappoint you."

  The soldiers chorused: "We guarantee that we will not let Lord Wu down."

  Wu Shaotong nodded slightly and smiled, saying: "Very good, you now have the demeanor of soldiers. Everyone listen up, turn left, quick march."

  The soldiers turned around and started running in unison.

  Wu Shaotang led his men to start running laps around the drill ground, considering that these soldiers had just gotten out of bed and their bodies were still gradually recovering. The speed at which he led the run was not fast. After completing one lap, he accelerated his pace and loudly shouted orders to exercise the soldiers' lung capacity.

  The soldiers, after several weeks of physical training, have made great improvements in their physical strength. Moreover, the pep talk before running ignited the passion in their blood, so whether they were running or shouting, they did it with great enthusiasm.

  "You must know that you are now training more than others, and on the battlefield, you can live longer than others. As long as you can persist until the end of the gathering, you will become the strongest army in Guangzhou!"

  Wu Shaotong shouted a few rounds of slogans and then deliberately slowed down his pace to the side of the team, shouting at the team.

  During training, soldiers are instilled with an idea that becomes a conditioned reflex on the battlefield. Of course, apart from this, his ultimate goal is to boost the confidence of these soldiers, making them aware of the difference between trained and untrained soldiers, and cultivating a sense of superiority over other mediocre soldiers.

  The soldiers had all started panting, but after hearing this speech, they seemed to have been infused with new vitality and were invigorated once again.