Chapter 3: The Wind Rises in Guangdong Section 17: New Soldier Regiment (Part 2)

  The whole scene ended with a sparse applause led by the party representative and three platoon leaders for Zhuang Jihua, which sounded more like a reward than encouragement to Zhuang.

  Then dinner was served, a table was set up with several dishes on it. Later, the cook brought out two full buckets of rice and two bowls of piled-up food, and the soldiers lined up to get their meals.

  Hu Zongnan brought Zhuang Jihua to the table and saw that Zhuang had a questioning expression, so he said: "Commander is in a hurry today, let's keep it simple."

  Zhuang Jihua still didn't speak, but looked thoughtfully at the soldiers in line. Du Yuming saw this and added: "During the Cultural Revolution, the company was newly formed, and tables were not yet fully equipped. Except for the company headquarters, there were only two tables in the whole company, one for eating and one for distributing food."

  Cao Yuan didn't say a word, his lips were tightly pursed, it seemed they had discussed this matter before. Zhuang Jihua nodded and said: "Let's eat first, we'll talk about other things tomorrow."

  Cao Yuan finally couldn't help but say with some dissatisfaction: "During the Cultural Revolution, I demand that from tomorrow on, officers and soldiers eat together. You're the company commander, you say something."

  Zhuang Jihua turned his head and asked Hu Zongnan and the other two: "What do you think?"

  Hu Zongnan said: "I was against it before and I am still against it now. Officers and soldiers are two different classes, officers must have the dignity of officers."

  "What about you?" Zhuang Ji Hua asked Du Yi Ming and Song Xi Lian.

  "I think Shoushan brother is right, officers and soldiers must have a distance to be majestic." Song Xili answered quickly.

  "If there are enough tables, I don't mind queuing," said Du Yuming.

  "I've heard your opinions, I'd like to ask you a question. When we first entered the school, where did the principal and the political commissar eat? What social class were they in at that time, and what social class were we in? What did they eat, and what did we eat?"

  Everyone on the table fell silent at the same time. The incident of clear soup and rice with Wangzi mantou in the school canteen was still remembered by everyone, and at that time, neither Principal Chiang Kai-shek nor Political Commissar Liao Zhongkai had eaten with their classmates in the cafeteria without any special treatment. At this moment, Zhuang Jihua's mention of it was absolutely critical, and Hu Zongnan and Du Yuming did not know how to respond for a while.

  "But the principal also said that there should be a distinction between superior and inferior in the army, a distinction of ranks." Song Xilian argued.

  "The distinction between ranks lies in clarifying responsibilities and facilitating command, rather than enjoying special privileges in life."

  "But if officers are the same as soldiers, how can their authority be established?" Hu Zongnan was somewhat dissatisfied.

  "Recently, I saw Zeng Hu's military records saying that the key to governing the army lies in clear rewards and punishments. Therefore, the establishment of a strict military officer is based on clear rewards and punishments, not on deliberately emphasizing the specialness of military officers." For these fierce generals, Zhuang Jihua raised Chiang Kai-shek's great banner to suppress them.

  He watched the team's training today and, to be honest, he was not very satisfied, and he also thought that the training plan was not appropriate.

  "I heard that the three of you are living separately in one place?" Zhuang Jihua asked, seeing the three nodding: "I demand you, no, not demand, I command you to move into the barracks and live with your own troops. In this way, if something happens at night, it can be handled immediately."

  "After that, Zhuang Jihua said: 'I am the company commander, but I alone cannot lead the troops well. I need to unite with my officers and men, take the officers as the core, and integrate the whole company into a cohesive entity.'"

  "This afternoon I looked at the training plan and thought it was inappropriate." Zhuang Jihua didn't intend to discuss the training plan, but couldn't help bringing it up again.

  "Oh, what's wrong with it?" The plan was made by Hu Zongnan, so he felt a bit resentful.

  "Shoushan brother, if it were under normal circumstances, this plan wouldn't be bad, but now we might have to do it under abnormal circumstances, and train these new recruits in the shortest time possible."

  "Oh, did the principal reveal some inside information to you?" Song Xiliang asked.

  "What's wrong? Is something going to happen? Are we going to fight Chen Jiongming?" Hu Zongnan asked, he was a well-known prophet in school, who had predicted that China and Japan would go to war within ten years, and had argued with his classmates about it for a long time. At that time, Zhuang Jihua fully supported his point of view.

  Cao Yuan and Du Yuming looked at him eagerly, they all believed in Zhuang Jihua's judgment. Zhuang Jihua glanced around and said in a low voice: "The principal didn't say anything, but I analyzed that within a month, or at most one and a half months, we may have to go on an expedition to the east. Otherwise, Chen Jiongming will come to attack us. So we must speed up our training progress and increase the intensity of our training. Otherwise... I don't want to lead untrained soldiers onto the battlefield."

  Cao Yuan furrowed his brow, he didn't like Zhuang Jihua's way of speaking: "Cultural Revolution, you're back again, now you're even taller."

  Zhuang Jihua was taken aback, but immediately understood that if he wanted to make a joke, the three people might just laugh it off. After all, moving from a triple room to a twenty-person dormitory was quite uncomfortable.

  "Tomorrow, I will formulate a new training plan. We need to complete three months of new recruit training in just one month. Alright, let's eat now, but starting tomorrow, you all have to go down to the squad to eat. Only I, the party representative, the clerk, the messenger and the bugler can sit at the company commander's table. The meal is only for us five."

  It's said that there will be a battle, and these people are all very excited, eating hastily. Except for Zhuang Jihua, he doesn't want to go to the battlefield. He now finds that his development is increasingly deviating from his original purpose. Now it's still possible to go to the battlefield, but going to the battlefield means risking one's life.

  Zhuang Jihua was momentarily stunned, and more than half of the dishes on the table disappeared. When he came to his senses, Zhuang Jihua immediately made up for it, shoveling food into his mouth at the fastest speed possible.

  At night, Zhuang Jihua called the quartermaster to the company department and handed him twenty silver dollars, which was his last liquid fund. He asked him to buy nine tables, each with four long benches, and then buy several more basins for holding food. Finally, Zhuang Jihua told him: "Every week, you must clearly account for the accounts, including how much money was received this month, how much was spent, how much is left, how the money was used, how much vegetables, meat, and rice were bought each day, and how much they cost per catty. You must write everything clearly. If there are any errors, don't blame me for not being polite."

  The chief of staff was sweating profusely, repeatedly telling the company commander to rest assured that he would never dare to embezzle his comrades' money and grain. Zhuang Jihua calmly told him that it wasn't about making him feel at ease, but rather letting the entire company feel at ease. The expenses you report, I want to make public throughout the company, posting them on the wall outside the company headquarters, so all the soldiers know how their money is being used. Also, from now on, officers' meals should not be prepared separately, but together with those of the soldiers.

  The company commander was transferred from the Guangdong Army, he had never seen such an officer before. He thought to himself that this company commander looked cheerful and seemed quite shrewd. No, it didn't seem like it either, as he surprisingly took out 20 silver dollars from his own pocket to buy things for the company, a rare occurrence. Maybe he had encountered a good official.

  In this era, the military salaries are not enough. Taking Guangzhou's military as an example, the richest is the Yunnan Army, which occupies the most prosperous commercial district in Guangzhou, with tens of millions of taxes collected every month. The second is the Guangdong Army, which also has a foothold in Guangzhou and controls other relatively wealthy areas like Foshan, making their lives relatively better off. The remaining armies, such as Zhu Peide's Yunnan Army, Tan Yanqiao's Jiangxi Army, and the Navy, are relatively poor. However, even the richest Yunnan Army will not pay the full salary, only living expenses, because if they paid the full salary, soldiers might take the money and run away. By owing salaries, soldiers will keep waiting for their pay and stay in the army. This is similar to the logic of borrowing money from a bank - the more you owe, the more the bank wants to lend you, fearing that you will go bankrupt. Therefore, armies usually only pay salaries before going into battle, but not fully, just a small part, so soldiers know they are about to go into battle when they receive their salary and hurry to use the money or send it back home. Then they wait for the next battle.

  After the director left, Zhuang Jihua began to formulate a training plan. In fact, he wasn't formulating one but recalling those from previous TV dramas and movies, like "Band of Brothers" which he had watched several times, and "Forrest Gump". These films all had some kind of training in them, but it seemed there was no shortcut. He thought slowly until Cao Yuan came back from outside carrying a lantern, when he finally had an initial idea.

  Cao Yuan chatted with him for a few words and went to sleep. Zhuang Jihua wrote his plan book under the dim horse lamp.