Chapter 24: Broadening One's Horizons

  Chapter Twenty-Four: A Broadened Perspective

  On March 31, 1929, at 8:00 am, the south gate of Beidaying Camp was wide open. The military band at the entrance played a lively military song. Two thousand young soldiers with beards still wet from shaving walked into Beidaying Camp, starting their painful military career.

  One of the soldiers, Wang Xiaojun, wrote in his memoir: "We entered Beida Camp with full hope, pure and simple. But at that time, Beida Camp was like a madhouse, waiting for fresh blood... (Excerpt from Wang Xiaojun's Memoir)"

  Welcome was grand, making the new recruits feel extremely warm. They tidied up their quarters and returned to the drill ground, preparing for the founding ceremony of the Northeast Army Special Operations Brigade. This unit was at the regimental level, but except for one brigade commander Wang Changhu, there were no other officers; today there would also be a selection of instructors;, this made the new recruits feel very curious, feeling excited and thinking they could learn something from the old soldiers.

  Wang Changhu didn't think it was a bad thing that some 17 or 18-year-old kids had arrived; because young people are more malleable, so the quality of these soldiers is still passable. Wang Changhu originally planned to announce the personnel of the column command today, but he still needs to wait for two days, because his logistics minister has to bring back pigs before taking office, so he decided to wait another two days, and if it's really not possible, just let the instructor take over first, as long as the training can proceed normally, the appointment of cadres is not urgent.

  The reviewing stand was filled with officers and men of the Northern Army, and Liu, the special envoy of Generalissimo, announced the establishment of the column, and Wang Yizhe, lieutenant general, represented the Generalissimo in presenting the military flag.

  The military flag is distinctive, not the Blue Sky with a White Sun flag, it has a red background with a green-faced, fang-toothed ghost king painted on it. In the upper left corner near the pole, a small piece of blue sky and white sun is embroidered. The connection between the flag and the pole is a one-inch wide white hem, inscribed "Northeast Army Special Operations Brigade".

  Commander Liu read aloud the speech of General Shao, hoping that two thousand soldiers would march towards glory under the leadership of Wang Changtiger.

  Then General Wang Yizhe presented the flag, and Wang Changtiger solemnly took it over and handed it to Li Xiao.

  Wang Changhu also said a few words:

  Article 1: We appreciate General Shao's concern and care. If General Shao provides us with food and pay, our troops will definitely become more glorious. This is a typical shameless theory, and the new recruits below are one hundred percent embarrassed.

  Article 2: We come from the ordinary people and must love and protect them. The people are our parents who give us food and clothing, and any waste is shameful.

  Therefore, these soldiers who waste resources should be severely punished.

  Article 3: Now that new recruits have arrived at the column, they must abide by the army's rules and regulations, get along with other comrades, and help each other.

  The old soldiers below, upon hearing the third "good" shout, some of them even knelt down and kowtowed to Wang Changhu with tears in their eyes. Wang Changhu smiled and said: "Except for the 20 instructors, the rules for the old soldiers remain unchanged."

  The old soldier now understands that the 20 instructors have a great privilege: "That is Captain Wang's money collector!"

  The old soldiers were excitedly clenching their fists and rubbing their palms, just waiting for Wang Changhu's order to get started. The new recruits, however, were confused: "Is it necessary to be so excited?"

  At this time, General Wang Yizhe said to Wang Changhu: "Tiger boy, these new soldiers are still some baby soldiers, you must pay attention, don't make a big fuss!

  Wang Changhu smiled and said: "Thank you, big brother, for your concern. I will be discreet."

  Wang Changhu said to the people below, "Everyone knows that our team has expanded, so we need some cadres. The personnel I have named will not participate in the instructor's competition. Those who were called out below come to my side, and all the old soldiers are praying in their hearts: Don't let it be me, don't let it be me...

  Hu Jingzhong, Huang Yifei, Huang Yihu, Liu Fang, Zhao Yu, Hua Fuer and Xu Yingfa are not needed to compare.

  Several people walked out with their heads hung low, and the people below saw that they were actually several powerful big shots in the army. The pressure in their hearts was relieved, and they were suddenly extremely excited. Some people started shouting:

  The captain is wise.

  "Long live the captain;"

  "Captain, I won't call you an idiot anymore."

  "Captain, I won't call you Wang Wúchǐ anymore;"

  "Captain, I wish you many wives and many children;"

  ………

  Wang Changhu was initially pleased to listen, but as he listened on, he felt more and more unwell. He secretly glanced at his wives and saw that their faces were already filled with murderous intent.

  "Shut up, everyone! Let's focus on the competition. The people who came out are the judges for the contest. Huang brothers are in charge of striking; Liu Fang is in charge of close combat and formation; Hua Fu'er is in charge of shooting; Hu Jingzhong is in charge of healing; Zhao Yu is in charge of statistics; Xue Yingfa is in charge of announcing the results."

  Everyone is baffled by Hu Jingzhong's appointment.

  The competition requirements for the team are: to see your training results within half an hour; currently there are 2,000 new recruits, with about 500 participating in the competition, each divided into four new recruits, using the 21st century People's Liberation Army column movement essentials; look at the results after half an hour.

  Before the match, Liu Fang found a few old soldiers to demonstrate the procession of the team competition.

  The new recruits were soon sorted out and they still didn't realize that real hardships had arrived!

  These old soldiers don't care what your identity is, each action in the queue is only explained once, if four people do it right, they all pass and move on to the next one; if it's still not right after three times, the unlucky one will be beaten with a belt; there was a fellow who knew iron sand palm, in a fit of rage "whack" hit someone, Hu Jingzhong went over to take a look, broken sternum; the other onlookers all stood up with a "whoosh".

  "It's okay, it's okay, everyone don't be nervous."

  He told the military officer: "The competition asked him to continue participating. The soldier was sent to the hospital first, and he signed after being paid a lot of money."

  The quartermaster replied: "Yes." He quickly contacted a vehicle and sent the wounded soldier to the hospital.

  Everyone who heard this habitually twitched the corners of their mouths, without saying a word; while several soldiers from the nearby troops had already turned pale, they hadn't heard that practicing formation could be life-threatening.

  After half an hour, all the teams were divided into five groups of one team each, and then further divided into a hundred small teams. Each small team was assessed once, with a time limit of two minutes, using a ten-point scoring system, and the results were announced on the spot.

  Group after group of soldiers performed drills, some groups took about a minute and a half, while others finished in less than a minute; Liu Fang was also straightforward: those who were not good enough scored below 6 points; those who were slightly better scored between 6 to 8 points, and those who were excellent scored above 8 points.

  In a small team with mixed results, the coach who scored high was elated; the veteran who scored low turned around and gave the four new recruits a good scolding.

  After nearly three and a half hours of fierce competition, two results emerged: one was the ranking of the team's performance; the other was that most of the new recruits were bruised and battered.

  After lunch, continue in the afternoon.

  The first event in the afternoon was shooting: 50m pistol standing shooting, five bullets per person; using a decimal system: below 40 rings is 2 points, 40 to 43 rings is 3 points, and above 43 rings is 1 point for each additional ring.

  Wang Changhu asked the military officer to prepare 500 target papers, and before the competition, he distributed the target papers to each person. During the competition, he went to the front of the target first, clipped the target paper well, and after the competition ended, he took down the target paper and loudly reported the score to Hua Fu'er, which was very fair.

  Twenty-five targets were set up against the wall opposite the reviewing stand, and a long white line was drawn on the ground fifty meters away from the targets; the shooting competition began.

  The competition was fierce, with very few bullets missing the target. The audience on and off stage were amazed, as in their impression, pistol shooting required the highest difficulty. And the sound of hitting the target below was rarely under 40 rings. Everyone gradually looked at Wang Changhu with a gaze that seemed to be looking at a monster; Wang Changhu felt the gaze of the crowd and said: "Nothing is impressive, fixed target shooting has become like this in general." The crowd's gaze gradually turned into a sharp blade.

  An hour later, the shooting match ended.

  The next item is a fighting match: the rules require that within a circle with a diameter of five meters, two people engage in a fight, and the one who is knocked out of the circle or knocked down loses, while the other wins. The rules also prohibit the use of rigid weapons such as sticks, firearms, and darts, and violations are considered losses.

  Five hundred people draw lots at the same time, fifty people compete in a match, previously it was an elimination match; when there were twenty-five people left, it was a round-robin match where those who won ten matches stayed, and the rest stayed according to the number of wins.

  "The game is starting."

  This time everyone's eyes were opened wide.

  Only to see the twenty-five teams of players participating in the competition, each with their own unique moves: some threw Sichuan pepper powder, others threw chili pepper noodles, and some even resorted to hugging their opponents, punching and kicking like rascals. What's even more infuriating is that two players, one practicing Eagle Claw Kung Fu and the other Wu Dang Small Grappling, had their clothes torn apart, leaving only their pants intact, yet still ended up in a draw. Wang Changhu was so angry he couldn't speak, taking a deep breath before saying: "Each round of the competition must be controlled within five minutes."

  The first group has passed like this.

  The second group walked onto the field, and suddenly everyone smelled a strong stench of smelly feet. Everyone looked at each other: "Who is so immoral, with such smelly feet, dare to show off, wanting to suffocate people to death?"

  Everyone didn't see the outcome, and their gaze turned back to the center of the field: Only to see a man in the middle of the field wrapping his opponent with an old lady's foot cloth, flying up and down. The opponent covered his nose and endured bitterly, suddenly "pa" sound, one end of the foot cloth was on the opponent's face, the opponent fainted without a word; Huang Yihu covered his nose and announced: "Ouyang Qing wins!"

  The match seemed to be unable to proceed, the contestants around this group were smoked and became dizzy, after a few punches, several people had already stumbled out of the ring and were declared to withdraw from the competition.

  Everyone seemed to be afraid of Ouyang Qing, and as soon as he returned to the team that had already finished competing, others scrambled to avoid him. Finally, someone couldn't bear the stench of his foot wraps anymore and shouted loudly: "With Ouyang Qing here, we can't compete anymore! This isn't a competition, it's murder!"

  Some people also shouted: "No comparison, no comparison..."

  Huang Yihu also shouted: "No more cutting, I'm suffocating!"

  Huang Yifei's face turned pale as he stared at him, then glanced at Wang Changhu, implying "you deal with it".

  Wang Changhu scratched the back of his head and loudly announced: "Ouyang Qing withdraws from the competition, serves as the military law officer under my command, and has 100 taels of debt waived. Does anyone have any objections?"

  The people who lost the game all shook their heads to indicate no objection; the game continued. Ou Yang Qing came up beside Wang Chang Hu, strangely enough, there was no smell of foot wraps on him, everyone felt very curious about him.

  No interference from the foot wraps, the game went very smoothly, only some rotten vegetable leaves, tomatoes, potatoes, stinky eggs, and carrots appeared on the playground again.

  Wang Yizhe's face turned increasingly ugly, and he said, "Captain Wang, clean up the playground tonight."

  The other team leaders looked at Wang Changhu with a mixture of surprise and delight, chuckling to themselves.

  Wang Changhu ignored them and said to Ouyang Qing: "Ouyang, take out your foot wrapping cloth, let's have a look."

  The people on the stage suddenly stood up, and several people jumped off the stage in an exaggerated manner. Several team leaders hurriedly shouted: "Wang Lao Di, we'll take care of cleaning up the playground, we've got it covered, don't joke around!"

  Wang Yi Zhe was so angry that he couldn't help but laugh and cry at the same time, pointing at Wang Chang Hu and saying: "Only General Shao can deal with you!"

  As they spoke, the competition was coming to an end. Wang Changhu looked at his watch and said to the quartermaster: "Set up a few tables tonight, I'll have a drink with the old brothers. Don't count the new recruits, the rest of the brothers will get three dishes and one soup for dinner, two jars of wine per table."

  The quartermaster replied: "Yes."

  The boxing match is finally over, and next up is the fencing competition.

  The competition rules are: two people hold a spear-like object to compete, the tip of the spear is coated with white powder, and the first person whose opponent's body shows the white powder on their body wins.

  The match was thrilling and exciting, and all the spectators were amazed by the new-style killing action and the tenacious fighting spirit, leaving a deep impression on many people. Even the new recruits with bruised noses and swollen faces watched in awe, eager to try it out themselves.

  All the matches have ended, and the results will be announced after dinner. Everyone was still reluctant to part with the excitement when General Wang Yizhe said: "Not bad, such a short time to form an army, achieving such results, really broadened our horizons."

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