Chapter 49 First Glimpse of Scale

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  Before he knew it, time had flown to 1923. In the first month of that year, Chen Xiaoqi received his bachelor's degree from the University of Illinois ahead of schedule. His unarguable grades and thesis far exceeded the level of many instructors, making everything else seem insignificant. Although he was absent for most of the time, he was forgiven due to his donation of $500,000 to establish one of the world's most advanced chemistry laboratories at the school. Chen Xiaoqi continued to pursue his master's degree under Professor Adams, who jokingly told him that he was more suited to be a professor than a student. Even with the professor's current achievements, Chen remained an enigma, seemingly born to understand knowledge that others found difficult to grasp, as if he were destined for chemistry in this world.

  On that day, after all the work explanations, Chen Xiaoqi unusually gathered several core personnel together and held a far-reaching small meeting. The attendees included Huang Zhen Mountain, who had already been freed from the training ground. He was promoted to the leader of one division of the newly established "Special Forces", which is good at mobile warfare, mountainous field warfare, rapid raids, and divide-and-conquer tactics, codenamed "White Tiger".

  He Bao Wen was promoted to lead a regular combat unit, codenamed "Green Dragon".

  Dai Chunfeng established an intelligence division, responsible for espionage, infiltration, counter-infiltration, assassination and other clandestine operations. Codenamed "Zhuque", under Chen Xiaoxi's massive funding and empowerment, it developed extremely rapidly, already having a large number of underlings in the US mainland.

  Later, Wang Tianyun, in addition to organizing the engineering troops of the Engineering Department, was also responsible for a special unit dedicated to defensive warfare, code-named "Xuanwu".

  Hú Qiān, Zhōu Yún Péng, Zhū Dà Chéng and Mǎ Dé Lín formed Chen Xiaoqi's personal bodyguard unit, codenamed "Qí Lín".

  Li Junfeng set up the staff department, temporarily responsible for most of the military management work, and together with several branch leaders, was in charge of the development plan for the military aspect. These people who could make Chen Xiaoqi completely at ease formed the current military backbone. Wu Sheng, as an important conference secretary and document manager, participated in every important meeting.

  After years of development, Chen Xiaoqi's team has grown from a handful of people with a dozen guns to a large group of hundreds. The soldiers, who have undergone rigorous training and cultural indoctrination, possess exceptional individual qualities. Under Chen Xiaoqi's constant emphasis on the importance of "Huaxia Revival," these individuals gradually began to identify themselves as the "Huaxia Revival Army." Over time, they tacitly accepted this designation. As a military force without a clear mission or affiliation, they would have been at a loss for direction. If not for Chen Xiaoqi's strong opposition, Dai Chunfeng and others might have even established a political party.

  The meeting location was set in the underground fortress that was developed together with the new R&D center, where not only a huge self-sufficient fortress could be defended and waited for reinforcements, but also a large number of tunnels were dug to facilitate the increasingly numerous military backbone personnel who couldn't be seen in public. Otherwise, they would not be able to evade the special agents sent by the US government departments to conduct surveillance and investigation. At that time, Chen Xiaoqi had already recruited thousands of Chinese workers, and among them, 500 people were selected for strict military training, including over a hundred who received initial special operations training. After being armed, they would be an absolutely formidable force, and they even conducted simulated combat exercises in the entire city of Chicago, creating many bizarre incidents. With such a large number of Chinese people gathered together, it was difficult for the government not to pay attention!

  Chen Xiaoqi didn't have many places to hide people, so he had no choice but to replace all the personnel in the later expanded security department with those who had received military training. These people had an obvious military bearing, and their body language was absolutely unmistakable to anyone who paid attention. Their excellent quality also couldn't help but raise questions, because these were not soldiers trained by the Americans. It was suspicious that Chen Xiaoqi's civilian security training institution could produce such good new recruits.

  So Chen Xiaoqi had no choice but to think of a way to solve the problem after careful consideration, and now it was time to take action.

  A group of people sat in the conference room of this underground fortress, before the meeting started, everyone was chatting and smoking, among them, Dai Chunfeng was the most out of place. This person is invisible all day, even if he sees someone, it's just a faint smile, usually making people feel too quiet, quiet to the point of being chilling, even during meetings, he is basically expressionless, speaking concisely and to the point, that kind of warm water-like emphasis not only doesn't have any annoying drag, but instead has a kind of suffocating pressure, as if an ever-tightening living noose is around his neck, very uncomfortable.

  So while others were making a racket, he sat there seriously flipping through the materials in his hand. Except for Zhou Yunpeng occasionally greeting him, no one spoke to him, but it seemed like he was used to it.

  When Chen Xiaoqi came in, everyone stood up voluntarily, tidied up their appearance and stood solemnly. After Chen Xiaoqi stood still at the main position, his eyes swept over them in a circle, and everyone said in unison: "Good boss!"

  Chen Xiaoqi nodded solemnly, indicating for everyone to sit down. Only then did the crowd take their seats, revealing the good order that had been cultivated through years of military training. Almost in unison and with the same posture, they sat down, giving Chen Xiaoqi a ridiculous illusion - as if he were at a meeting of national army leaders, and he himself had become a respected "principal".

  Chen Xiaoqi himself didn't know that over the past few years, although he was busy every day, going in and out of the R&D department, the training grounds and various factories were just a cursory inspection, and the main situation was controlled based on the various reports from below and Dai Chunfeng's confidential department. However, his daily regular cultivation had not fallen behind at all. If only military training is considered, he was absolutely no weaker than any master in the system, whether it was a conventional army or a newly formed special forces unit.

  He didn't know that the change in his temperament after his cultivation had progressed would make him seem even more profound and lofty in the eyes of these people, as if he was a towering mountain peak that was impossible to climb. Although he didn't have an attitude that rejected others from afar, he would still make those who came into contact with him feel a sense of self-abasement, and they would unknowingly become respectful towards him. Fortunately, recently he had gradually learned to restrain himself, so people who saw him in everyday life could be more natural, but when he removed all pretenses, the originally accumulated aura made people even less dare to have any other thoughts.

  Seeing everyone being so formal, Chen Xiaoqi couldn't help but chuckle and say: "Alright, alright, we're all family brothers, no need to put on a straight face one by one, as if I owed you wages that haven't been paid."

  His smile suddenly relaxed the stiff atmosphere, and everyone breathed a sigh of relief. Zhou Yunpeng chuckled and said: "Boss, you're getting more and more like a boss! If I didn't know it was you, just looking at your serious face would make me think of our family's old master, and I wouldn't even dare to breathe loudly!"

  Huang Zhen Shan laughed and said, "Isn't this nonsense? If the boss isn't the boss, then who is? It's good that it's like this. The boss has the appearance of a boss, we underlings have the appearance of underlings. This is what makes for a team that can accomplish great things. Otherwise, wouldn't it be chaotic?"

  "Alright, alright, let's cut the nonsense. We're short on time and it's not easy to get everyone together. Let's hurry up and finalize things first. Tieryan (Li Junfeng), you start."

  They usually had meetings presided over by Li Junfeng. Li Junfeng stood up straight, took a piece of paper in his hand, and coughed lightly: "Everyone, this meeting has three important agendas to discuss. The first is the next development goal of our 'MeiHua Group', the second is the relevant matters of opening a domestic base, and the third is the second step strategic plan of the 'MeiHua Laboratory' system. First, let's summarize the achievements of our army building in the past period."

  Without any further ado, Huang Zhen Shan, who had taken on the responsibility from the very beginning, stood up and composed himself. He said solemnly: "Fellow colleagues, after two years of preparation and development, our 'Mei Hua Group' has established a core team. We have 531 personnel who have undergone comprehensive military training and have some actual combat experience. Except for real battlefield exercises, everyone has the theoretical foundation to lead a squad or platoon in battle. Among them, 101 people have received basic special operations training and have passed the relevant theoretical foundation and quality assessment. They can form six special action groups, of course, this is under the premise of strong logistical support. However, they still lack actual combat experience. What we can confirm now is that our team's overall quality is superior to that of the US Army, and not inferior to that of the Baoding Military Academy graduates at this time. In some aspects of modern military theory and advanced warfare, we are even better than them. Each of us has over 500 rounds of rifle shooting experience on fixed and moving targets. Everyone has undergone systematic training in bayonet and anti-bayonet combat techniques and has passed with flying colors. Every person's cultural quality meets the requirements, everyone can recognize 2,000 Chinese characters, use military maps, calculate positions and trajectories. In terms of using various infantry weapons, armed swimming, crossing, climbing, and hand-to-hand combat, we are all better than American soldiers after the war. It can be said that as long as there is an opportunity, this core team of 500 people can quickly expand to two regiments in scale, and after five actual battles, it is not impossible to expand into a division again. However, at present, we do not have the experience of actual combat and large-scale operations. This is just an estimate and must be verified through practice."

  Chen Xiaoqi said, "In our current environment and conditions, it's already quite good to achieve such results. I think everyone's hard work over this period of time is very valuable. How about the situation with the newly formed 'Special Forces'?"

  "Our 'special forces' are entirely based on the boss's theories and concepts, all training subjects and individual qualities have been repeatedly tempered and verified in practice. Every single person has real combat experience, some people have seen bloodshed, each small team has conducted actual combat drills. It can be said that up to now, there is no place in Chicago that we cannot go, nor anyone we cannot assassinate or kidnap. With all the auxiliary facilities imagined by the boss in place and after three to five times of actual combat drills, I believe that there is no place in this world that can stop us brothers. For the series of military concepts put forward by the boss, we can only express our heartfelt admiration and conviction."

  Chen Xiaoqi smiled and said: "Alright, I know you're all very capable, so there's no need to flatter me. Tie Ya, let's discuss the first agenda item."

  "Yes, boss. Colleagues, after two years of rapid development, we have basically established the foundation for our great undertaking and the current environment has reached its limit. If we continue to stay here, not only will we not be able to develop further, but it may also alert the US government, which could lead to a catastrophic outcome that would drag the entire 'MeiHua' system down. Moreover, our team, which has been established for so long, will also produce various psychological problems due to the lack of verification and time, making it imperative for us to change."

  According to the long-term development plan outlined by our boss, the next step we need to take is to continue the achievements we have already made, open up another larger battlefield, gain further development space, and conduct practical verification of the construction and training results of the past two years, eliminate the dross and retain the essential, and build our core into a steel axis.

  "So, based on our staff's comprehensive consideration of various conditions, the next step is to find a new base for our 'Huaxia Revival Army'. This place, we have chosen domestically, in Shandong province, Laiwu region."

  "What? Laiwu?" Huang Zhen and the others stared, shouting, "Boss, you're too ruthless! How could you send us to such a faraway place with just one stick? There's not a single person from Laiwu among us, we're all unfamiliar with this place, what are we supposed to do?"