Chapter 67: Regaining Military Strength and Revitalizing the Troops (Part 1)

  Li Mutang, although his spirit was wandering outside, but his body was like a robot, muscles as if they had been programmed, every step he took was like measuring with a ruler, he made the most standard movements, yet it caused the whole audience to gasp in amazement and admiration.

  Even Zhou Wenbo couldn't help but feel a sense of admiration, this old man would be more than qualified to be a flag guard in the new China, compared to these people, he truly stands out like a crane among chickens.

  The person next to Li Mutang is Chen Shaojun, who is half a head shorter than Li Mutang. Originally skinny, he had gained weight after eating full meals for over ten days and now looked much healthier. This was also his first time appearing in front of so many people, and despite the cold weather, fine sweat beads appeared on the tip of his nose.

  Chen Shaojun silently counted his footsteps in his heart, trying to make every move as perfect as the national public training. Thanks to his relentless training, Chen Shaojun felt like he was rusty all over, but from an outsider's perspective, he still looked excellent.

  Soon, the whole team walked past the rostrum and stopped at the end of this road.

  As Liu Meng's voice of "Attention - About turn - Right dress" sounded, the whole team turned back, and at this time, the head of the team had become Hua Qing.

  They were the last row just now, and they only needed to follow the footsteps of the front, with almost no pressure. Now they have become the first team to show all the movements next, including Hu Qing and others, ten people are still very nervous.

  "March in step!" Hua Qing shouted out the order as the leader of the squad, despite his voice trembling slightly.

  With this command, Hua Qing subconsciously stepped out with his left foot. The strict training he had undergone in recent days did not make him look awkward in front of so many people, and what satisfied him was that although two people were a little slow, all the team members correctly took their first step.

  Then it's quick step to slow march, marching to the front of the rostrum, standing still after arrival, turning around and standing at attention according to command, then at ease, finally quick stepping again, all the way to the camp gate.

  After completing all the routines, Hua Qing let out a sigh of relief. He only then discovered that his palms were already sweating profusely. Looking around at his teammates from various teams, they all had an air of having narrowly escaped disaster.

  Hua Qing couldn't help but feel fortunate that he had pushed himself to become the captain of the team, and had rigorously trained his teammates. As a result, despite being the first team to be inspected, they performed quite well.

  When the Hua Qing gang was like a drowning person who had already swum ashore, looking back at their companions still desperately swimming towards the riverbank with relish, Song Tianbiao's second team had already taken action.

  Song Tianbiao secretly wanted to scold his mother.

  This group was the earliest to be full, and many of those who came to join him were cunning and liked to cheat. Song Tianbiao also couldn't force these people to train hard because they were all from the same hometown. So when he heard that there would be an evaluation today, Song Tianbiao finally put aside his face and started training this group of old neighbors fiercely.

  But one day's training can only be considered a temporary measure, whether today can pass smoothly, it can only be seen as fate.

  Thanks to the demonstration effect of Hua Qing's team in front, Song Tianbiao's team also took their first step in unison. However, when they switched from quickstep to regular step, what Song Tianbiao had been worried about finally happened.

  When eight soldiers stepped out with their left foot at the same time as the command was given and started marching in step, two of them stepped out with their right foot. These two men became flustered when they realized their mistake and were so frightened that they stood still on the spot, not knowing what to do. The other eight people continued walking forward stiffly without receiving any orders.

  This comical scene appeared in front of thousands of people, and compared to the majestic atmosphere before, it was even more hilarious. Many new recruits who were watching couldn't help but burst out laughing.

  Zhou Wenbo furrowed his brow, he had also taken the time to look at Song Tianbiao's stats, this "Song Thunderclap" whose mighty name had spread throughout the entire military camp was disappointing him, with a highest attribute of strength being only sixty-three, truly ordinary data.

  The quality of the new recruits was far inferior to that of the first day, and the proportion of strong men was only about one in ten. Only a pair of Qian brothers had a martial arts score of 62 and 64, and there were no other talented generals.

  Fortunately, Song Tianbiao reacted quickly and immediately stopped, ordering the eight soldiers following him to turn back to the two soldiers who had fallen behind. He commanded the ten men to re-form a line, first adjusting their state of mind by marching in place, before continuing on their way.

  This time may be a case of "knowing shame and then being brave", the ten people did not make any major mistakes again, although they stumbled, they also completed the inspection smoothly.

  When Song Tianbiao crossed the finish line, he wiped his forehead with one hand, and it was a handful of sweat.

  Seeing Hua Qing already coming up to him, he could only bitterly smile and say: "Hua brother, I'm really losing face today!"

  "Song, you're adapting quite well, overall it's not bad at all, no need to worry." Hua Qing naturally knew that his biggest competitors were Song Tianbiao and Li Mutang, but when he saw Song Tianbiao making a fool of himself, he didn't feel happy about someone else's misfortune either.

  "Alas, I've really lost face this time!" Song Tianbiao could only regret that he had been too smooth in his daily dealings, but it was because of the face of his fellow countrymen that he couldn't bear to train them harshly. Now, let alone competing with the traveling generals, he didn't know if he could even keep his current position as a company commander.

  The team's inspection results made Song Tianbiao relax a lot. In fact, some teams couldn't persist in training, and with poor foundation, they also had many loopholes. Although they all completed the task due to Song Tianbiao's guidance, there were indeed many teams that were not as good as Song Tianbiao's team. When the first 21 teams finished the inspection, only Li Mutang's team was left on the entire campus.

  Li Mutang had already come to his senses during the inspection of other teams just now, and at this time, he was very confident that his team would definitely win the first place in this inspection!

  Li Mutang's team had gone through ten days of strict training, and under his strict requirements, everyone was not lazy at all. Adding that they had already walked through the front row in front of everyone earlier, this time returning naturally didn't feel as tense as before.

  In fact, Li Mutang's strict requirements have indeed brought a rich harvest. His team has done all the movements perfectly, and even Zhou Wenbo can't find any flaws.

  After Li Mutang's team crossed the finish line, today's test has actually been completed.

  All the soldiers participating in the inspection reformed into a square under the command of Duan Shichen, and everyone looked at the national public on the rostrum with expectant eyes, who would make the final judgment.

  Zhou Wenbo stood up and walked to the front of the high platform.

  "Next, I will announce the results of the first new recruit inspection!"

  Zhou Wenbo did not give a specific ranking to each team, instead dividing all teams into four grades of achievement, from lowest to highest: unqualified, qualified, good and excellent.

  Among the 22 teams, four were unqualified, eleven qualified, five good and two excellent.

  "This time, the two teams that achieved excellent results in the new recruit inspection are Team Hua Qing and Team Li Mu Tang!" As soon as Zhou Wenbo's voice fell, everyone present applauded warmly.

  Applauding as a way of celebration was taught to all the new recruits by Zhou Wenbo on the very first day of training, so these new recruits were already very familiar with this simple action.

  Chen Shaojun clapped his hands hard, the force was so great that his palms had turned red, but Chen Shaojun, who was already excited with hot tears in his eyes, did not feel any pain at all. He was proud of himself and the team's excellent achievement!

  Song Tianbiao was a bit distracted when he applauded, although his team was eventually rated as qualified, but compared to the excellent results of the other two competing teams, it was just worlds apart.

  "Next, I will award medals to qualified new recruits and celebrate their becoming a true Milk Tiger Army officer!"

  Zhou Wenbo suddenly shouted out a sentence that was beyond the expectation of all the soldiers after announcing all the results.

  Zhou Wenbo didn't bother to respond to the sudden commotion that erupted from below the stage, and instead continued with the next segment.

  "Attention!"

  As Zhou Wenbo's loud order echoed, everyone followed his gaze towards the direction of the military camp gate.

  It was then that they discovered that five fully armed old soldiers were already standing there.

  The soldier who just left was Liu Meng, he had already left the rostrum to prepare for the next link after completing the detection link and waiting for Zhou Wenbo to announce the results.

  At this moment, he was wearing a suit of dark iron armor, tightly grasping a large flag in his hand. The flagpole hung with a square banner, on which an embroidered golden character "ZHOU" stood out against the crimson background.

  Behind him, two meters away, four soldiers wearing the same style of silver armor and roughly the same height were lifting the four corners of a large flag, unfolding it completely.

  After hearing Zhou Wenbo's order, Liu Meng stepped out in a standard pace, walking towards the direction of the rostrum with large strides. The four soldiers behind him also walked in the same standard pace, keeping an unchanged distance from him.

  These two flags were naturally made by the most skilled masters among the tailors summoned by Zhou Wenbo overnight, and the four soldiers behind Liu Meng were his personal bodyguards, who had also been strictly trained in this set of contents by Zhou Wenbo and had already begun to serve as instructors for the latest batches of new recruits.

  The five men wore iron armor, and as they walked, the sound of clanging metal echoed through the air. The midday sun shone down on their armor, making it truly "shine like gold scales in the sunlight", with a golden glow that seemed to envelop their entire suits of armor.

  Most of the new recruits were still in tattered clothes, and many were wearing worn-out straw sandals with their toes exposed. Suddenly seeing a few veteran soldiers walking by with such majestic and powerful full-body armor was like boiling water, completely boiling over.

  Under the gaze of envy, jealousy and hatred from everyone, these five soldiers finally walked onto the podium.