Chapter 71 of Volume I: Entering Shahe and Reviewing Troops at Yingbin Village

  On March 25th, at the appointed time, more than thirty people from Shimen Luyuan's vanguard team set out for the capital Shuhe Village to review the troops.

  One day in early April, all the parade team members were gathered together. This time, they prepared to enter the parade village, along with the leadership instructors of the parade team and the logistics support personnel of the square formation. The parade team that entered the village had more than 400 people from the Stone Gate Institute. Such a large team would be too troublesome if they took the train, except for buying tickets, and after arriving in the capital, they would also need to arrange for pick-up by higher authorities.

  Anyway, Shimen is not too far from the capital. After inquiring, Shi Menlu arranged for a fleet of cars to send the troops into the village, which was convenient and saved trouble. The fleet of cars sending the troops had its front car sounding its horn, under the guidance of the security department's off-road vehicle flashing warning lights, speeding at 100 kilometers per hour on the highway from Shimen to the capital.

  Many team members in the car had never been to the capital since they were young, and on the way, they were quite excited in the carriage, discussing the scenery of the capital seen from books and TV, and wondering if they would have time to visit famous scenic spots such as the Forbidden City, Badaling Great Wall and Yiheyuan.

  "Qu Ge, you must have been there before, right?" Wang Jin heard the commotion and couldn't help but feel a surge of excitement in his heart. As a southerner, although his family was well-off, his parents were both police officers who were busy with various tasks all year round and had no time to take him on trips. This trip to the capital was also Wang Jin's first time.

  "Right." Qu Mingjun smiled as he looked at them. The current Qu Mingjun had completely integrated himself into this collective, and at this moment, his mind wouldn't think about boring questions like what differences there were between him and them. He had truly started to regard these people as his own brothers, brothers with whom he could entrust his life.

  "Isn't it fun? Tell us about it. Especially the emperor's old palace." Wang Jin blinked his eyes with great curiosity.

  "It's okay. The Forbidden City was also known as the Purple Forbidden City, and everyone knows it was the imperial palace of the Ming and Qing dynasties. It was built on the foundation of the Yuan Dynasty's palace by Zhu Di, the third emperor of the Ming Dynasty, and has a history of over 500 years, spanning 24 emperors of two dynasties...". Qu Mingjun had a great memory and spoke fluently about the history, characteristics, style, and culture of several famous scenic spots in the capital. Soon, all the soldiers in the carriage were gathered around him, listening to stories they had never heard before.

  "Wow." Qu Mingjun's mouth was dry, so he picked up the water bottle and took a sip. At this time, Wang Jin felt emotional and said, "Brother Qu, you're speaking too well, I think you've reached the standard of a professional tour guide!"

  "Hmm, pretty good, pretty good." Cui Ze chuckled, "It would be even better if she were a beauty, right, Wang Jin?"

  "That's... " Wang Jin looked at Qu Mingjun, who glared at him, and his tongue couldn't be withdrawn, "Uh, uh, Cui Ze, you're teasing me, right?"

  "Haha." Everyone in the car burst out laughing, including Qu Mingjun who couldn't help but chuckle.

  "I really want to go take a look, Qu Ge, if you have time, would you accompany me?" Wang Jin asked Qu Mingjun with a smile after teasing Cui Ze for a while.

  "Let's go, I just don't know if we have any rest time." Qu Mingjun didn't think much of it.

  "Isn't it impossible?" Everyone chimed in, "At least seven months, surely they'll give some rest time, right?"

  "I think everyone should not have too much hope." Feng Shaojun chimed in, "Even if we are given rest time, I don't think they will let us run far. Don't forget, Shaher Review Village is still far from the city center. I asked the instructor, it's about over 40 kilometers away. I think Review Village won't let us slack off, what if we lose people in the capital, that would be a big problem."

  "Is something wrong?" Wang Jin was very disappointed, "It's rare to come back to the capital."

  "Haha." Qu Mingjun laughed, "Wang Jin, if you really want to come to the capital to play, I'll bring you here during the holidays."

  "Really?!" Wang Jin was overjoyed, knowing the kind of family background Qu Ge had. He immediately began to drool at the thought of his future life in a five-star hotel, luxury cars, and lavish feasts.

  This stinky kid, Qu Mingjun can tell at a glance what beautiful dream he's having, and casually strikes back, "You're paying for your own expenses."

  "What?!?" Wang Jin's eyes widened as the five-star hotel, luxury car, and full Han banquet all flew away from his sight. "Not possible, Qu Ge."

  "Damn it, you little brat still wants to come out and play and let Mingjun pay the bill? You're so selfish. If there's a good thing that comes my way, it won't be yours." Cui Ze wasn't quite clear about Qu Mingjun's background, thinking that he was just from a slightly richer family, and laughed as he scolded Wang Min.

  Wang Jinchong curled his lips and thought to himself, "You know nothing, Quge's family background is not something you can compare with."

  "Right, Xia Qu." Feng Shaojun's interest was also piqued, and he asked, "You said earlier that the Forbidden City starts clearing up at 4 pm to prepare for closing, why so early?"

  "Is that so, who closes the door so early?" Wang Jin is now a curious baby, but it's also hard to blame him for his strong curiosity, otherwise how could he become the "mountain man" of the middle team? It was just heard from the rumors.

  "Haha." Qu Mingjun looked at Wang Jin and smiled.

  "Hey, you're also starting to sell Guanzi now." Wang Jin was laughed at by Qu Mingjun, and the chicken skin on his body stood up. Cui Ze, who was waiting to hear the story next to him, couldn't take it anymore.

  "It's said that," Qu Mingjun began to speak in a mysterious tone, "after 5 o'clock, the yang energy weakens and the yin energy becomes stronger in the Forbidden City. People inside often hear the voices of eunuchs and palace maids talking, and if...

  On that day, thunder was rumbling, and one could still see the silhouettes of palace maids and eunuchs moving about on the red walls of the Forbidden City...

  Qu Mingjun bluntly told the ghost story he had heard, scaring Wang Jin so much that his tongue lolled out. "It's that evil? If we're going to go, we have to choose noon at 12 o'clock."

  "Why is it twelve o'clock?" Cui Ze was puzzled.

  "It's noon when the yang energy is at its strongest." Wang Jin said matter-of-factly.

  "Nonsense." Feng Shaojun sneered, "You actually believe this?"

  "Right, Wang Jin." Cui Ze sneered, "The old books all say that soldiers have strong yang energy and killing energy, ghosts don't dare to provoke them. Have you lost your yang energy? Oh, aren't you impotent?"

  "Pfft——" Qu Mingjun couldn't help but spit out the water he was drinking all over Wang Jin's face.

  A burst of laughter erupted in the carriage, causing Captain Fan, who was sitting in the driver's cabin, to turn his head and take a look.

  At 11:00 am, the motorcade of Shi Men Lu Yuan slowly entered the Shahu Review Village in the capital. The Shahu Review Village is located at the Shahu Airport in the northern suburbs of the capital, 43 kilometers away from Tiananmen Square. This will be the training site for the 17 infantry teams participating in the National Day parade over the next seven months. It is also the largest review village among all the teams participating in the National Day parade, with a total area of 1,000 mu (approximately 667 square kilometers) for offices and living quarters. The temporary wooden dormitories have 109 rows, as well as 10 basketball courts, and 38 toilets were built.

  As the fleet entered Shaye Airport, all team members exclaimed "wow" and saw more than a hundred simple houses with red roofs and white walls lined up in a row, stretching over 1,000 meters on the grassland beside the runway. The clean environment and straight runway create an atmosphere full of masculine charm.

  "I heard it was built in half a year." Wang exclaimed with admiration.

  "Half a year?" Cui Ze was puzzled, "Such a simple combination house, how can it take so long?"

  "Pig head." Wang Jinkou finally had the opportunity to tease Cui Ze, "You think it's just this small house? What about all the underground pipes? Electricity and water usage? All sorts of facilities? Haven't you seen that there's even a basketball court over there?"

  "Oh." Cui Ze didn't mind, a pig head is just a pig head, he's just a kid, no need to argue with him.

  At this time, the advance team members who had already arrived at their posts and started work all stood in front of the Shimmen Rikugun Parade Grounds barracks to welcome them. It wasn't until later that Qu Mingjun and the others found out that when the advance team members arrived, the red bricks on the ground were stained with white paint from brushing houses, looking very ugly. The more than 30 advance team members started using an old tradition at Shimmen Rikugun, using the red bricks to grind and polish them, working for a long time before finally cleaning up the environment.

  All the team members followed the instructions of the advance team members and moved into the simple plank houses in batches. After putting down their backpacks, Wang Jin curiously knocked on the wall and muttered: "Simple enough."

  "It was originally simple." Qu Mingjun smiled, "This is just a temporary residence, after our big military parade is over, this place will be restored to its original state as a backup airport. It's simpler and more convenient for future dismantling."

  After settling down, the first thing the team members did was to start maintaining the sanitation of the camp. As it had just entered spring, the weather was still cold, and the camp was newly built, so the environment was very monotonous. The team members from Shi Men Lu Yuan thought of a good idea - they picked up various large and small stones from outside the airport, dyed them with color, and then arranged stone flower beds in front of and behind the houses. Inside, they used stones to spell out various slogans and patterns.

  Qu Mingjun and Feng Shaojun, Cui Ze, Wang Jin and several other students from the 14th team, arranged a large pattern with stones on the side of the road, which included the Great Wall, military emblem and the slogan "shedding skin and flesh but not shedding teams, bleeding and sweating but not crying". For a time, it became the most beautiful scenery in the village.

  The actions of the Shi Men Lu Yuan directly led to the leaders of other teams coming over to observe, and even the heads of the foot drill team's headquarters came to watch, giving high praise. This triggered all the teams to start learning from Shi Men Lu Yuan, beautifying their living environment. After seeing this, who can say that soldiers don't know how to appreciate beauty or create it?