Chapter 3: The Wind Rises in Guangdong Section 18: New Soldier Regiment (4)

  As soon as he came out of the Ministry, Zhuang Jihua went to the drill ground to see how they were training. In fact, it's not a drill ground, but rather a relatively flat sandy area, where soldiers are scattered in units, conducting formation drills and marching drills.

  The organization of the teaching team is based on the Soviet army's organization, implementing a three-three system, with seven companies, each company having three platoons, each platoon having three classes, and 12 people in each class. Each class has one class leader, each platoon has one platoon leader and one deputy platoon leader, with a total of 37 people in the platoon. Three platoons have 111 people, five people in the cooking class, the company department has one company commander, one deputy company commander, one party representative, one clerk, one messenger, and one horn soldier, with a total strength of 126 people. However, the current deputy company commander is concurrently held by Hu Zongnan, and the deputy platoon leaders of each faction have not yet taken office, so it's hard to say who will be established later. Although the seventh company is the third battalion seventh company, in terms of sequence, it is still ranked at the very front of the third battalion's company sequence, but the seventh company is actually the latest established company among the three battalions of the second teaching regiment. Of course, it is not the latest established unit in the entire party army, and later established units include artillery regiments and independent regiments. The reason why the seventh company was established late is because the main officer Zhuang Jihua arrived late.

  The soldiers of the teaching team were recruited from Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui provinces and sent to Guangzhou through Shanghai. Chen Guofu, who was in charge of recruiting soldiers, had a hard time sending these soldiers to Guangzhou, trying every means such as bribery and persuasion, but it was difficult to get them to come over. Moreover, they could not let the soldiers go on their own, but someone had to escort them, otherwise they would definitely run away. Each time there were more than 100 people or less than a dozen people, and even after arriving in Guangzhou, they were not safe, as various armies were watching them. The Yunnan Army's Yang Ximin had once intercepted nearly 100 people, and when Chiang Kai-shek went to ask for them back, only twenty-odd people returned. Therefore, every time a batch arrived, the company commander would come to take over a batch, but the 7th Company had no commander, and Hu Zongnan's words were not effective because he was one level lower in rank. It wasn't until all the other companies were full that it was the turn of the 7th Company.

  Zhuang Jihua was pacing around the playground, observing the training of each class. Cao Yuan placed the wooden board that he had painted yesterday outside the company department to continue drying in the wind, and then went to the edge of the playground with Zhuang Jihua to pace and chat together.

  "Yuquan, how did you do ideological work?" The Communist Party in her past life was very good at doing ideological work, so Zhuang Jihua suddenly wanted to know how they did it.

  "What else can I do? It's almost the same as in school." Cao Yuan felt a bit depressed.

  "That should be good, I think the political work in school is done very well, especially after Director Zhou came."

  "What's the point, these people don't understand what I'm saying at all. Last night in the second row, I was telling them about opposing imperialism, and a soldier actually asked me who Imperialism is? What a weird name." Cao Yuan sighed as he recalled last night's scene.

  "Pffft," Zhuang Jihua heard this and couldn't help but burst out laughing: "Brother, then you go explain it to him."

  "I explained it already, I said imperialism is those who invade us, the British, French and Japanese."

  "Do they understand?"

  "I see, they said it's just a foreigner, why make such a big deal out of it." Cao Yuan had a somewhat bitter tone. Zhuang Jihua was about to burst out laughing. "Damn you, what kind of brain do you have?" A loud scolding came from the playground: "You stupid pig head, idiot, even if I teach you three times, you'll still get it wrong, how can you not learn?"

  The two of them turned their heads to look, and saw a squad leader furiously scolding a new recruit. As he scolded, he lifted his leg and kicked the recruit with one foot. The new recruit was caught off guard, and was knocked to the ground with a single kick. He didn't dare get up, instead curling up into a ball on the ground. The squad leader looked at him, enraged, and stepped forward to deliver another kick: "Get up, damn it! Get up!"

  Cao Yuan saw this and was about to go up, but Zhuang Jihua pulled him back: "You said you wouldn't interfere with the training ground, and even if you wanted to, now is not the time. Let's go somewhere else to talk."

  Cao Yuan only then remembered that he had just agreed to no longer interfere with the violence on the training grounds, and could only follow Zhuang Jihua as he turned around and walked in another direction.

  Zhuang Jihua, however, felt that he had overlooked something - the squad leader. The platoon leaders understood and supported their own training plans, but it was the squad leaders who were responsible for implementing them, and they were an important part of the company's combat effectiveness, which was closely related to the abilities of these squad leaders.

  "These class leaders seem to be all veterans, where did they come from?" Zhuang Jihua asked.

  "Some were from the Second Division of the Guangdong Army, and some were from Zhu Peide's Yunnan Army. The other troops were also transferred from the Grand Marshal's Guard Regiment." Cao Yuan explained, then said disdainfully: "They are all old soldiers."

  Veteran oil son is the kind of person who is good at military skills, takes advantage of benefits and avoids difficulties, is familiar with various rules in the army, and you can't even punish him if you want to.

  "Oh," Zhuang Jihua thought for a moment and said: "Then I should talk to them more, the class leader is an important position."

  "By the way, about the Cultural Revolution, why did you just say that even if you wanted to control it now, you couldn't?" Cao Yuan asked, recalling the situation earlier.

  "If you intervene, then forget about teaching that class today, unless someone else takes over, and the training of other classes will also be greatly discounted." Zhuang Jihua said: "Yuquan, I know you don't like beating soldiers, and I'm against it too. But what Hu Zongnan and others said just now is right, on the training ground, there's a time when you have to beat them up a bit, that's not harming them, but loving them."

  "Do you love them?" Cao Yuan looked at Zhuang Jihua in confusion.

  "A strict teacher produces top students. In other industries, if the master teaches poorly, the apprentice will at most just suffer a bit of hunger. But in the army, a strict teacher is different - he can help you keep your life. Think about it, soldiers with good military skills have fewer casualties or more? So even if they have to endure some beating and shed some tears, it's still better than losing their lives, right? This is what they mean by 'shedding sweat in peacetime, shedding less blood in wartime.'" said Zhuang Jihua.

  "Hmm, what you said isn't wrong, but as a party representative, I should take care of these behaviors when I see them." Cao Yuan felt that Zhuang Jihua was right, but his own responsibilities couldn't allow him to ignore such behavior, and he felt conflicted.

  "Heh heh, this is easy to handle. Just don't go to the training grounds. If someone does something like that at the training grounds, just catch a few typical cases and deal with them properly. This way, the prestige of your party representative will be established, and the atmosphere will slowly change."

  Cao Yuan slowly nodded his head, seeming to approve of this approach.

  "There's actually another way," Zhuang Jihua said, turning his head to tell Cao Yun, seeing the latter's surprised expression, he added: "However, this method takes effect very slowly, it's not suitable for now, we can try it later when there's time." He was now somewhat wavering in his extremely optimistic views on the Party's political thought work, feeling that it wasn't quite like what he had heard from previous lives.

  Cao Yuan heard this and asked with some curiosity: "First tell me, what method?"

  Chuang Chi-hua smiled and said, "Cultural education teaches soldiers to read and write. Once they have culture, they can understand the principles of revolution. When they understand the principles of revolution, their enthusiasm will be mobilized. Look at our Whampoa students and these soldiers - I think the only difference is that we are a bit more cultured than them."

  Cao Yuan nodded: "Hmm, it seems that's the case. So you had this intention when teaching the soldier-priests to read."

  Indeed, although Zhuang Jihua was unclear about history, he only knew that soldiers without knowledge could not become excellent soldiers. However, history gave a precise answer: during the War of Resistance against Japan, under the call of "100,000 youths and 100,000 soldiers", the youth army composed of knowledgeable young people who joined the army was one of the most tenacious fighting forces on both the anti-Japanese front line and the internal war front line. A typical example is that after the Liao-Shen Campaign, after the defeat in Jinzhou, Liao Yaoxiang's troops were annihilated, the garrison in Changchun surrendered, and the Nationalist army in Northeast China surrendered. In this trend of surrender, only the 207th Division of the Youth Army defending the suburbs of Shenyang resolutely refused to surrender and fought to the end.

  Zhuang Jihua nodded and said, "However, there is one thing that can be done immediately." He looked at Cao Yuan, seeing that he was listening very carefully: "A squad leader can only have one squad leader, but it's also possible to have a deputy squad leader. This deputy squad leader we can let the soldiers elect, we won't interfere, and let the soldiers choose someone they trust themselves."

  Cao Yuan was so excited that he immediately gave Zhuang Jihua a punch: "Great, great idea, I didn't think of it. These deputy class leaders will become candidates for class leader after a period of time, and can replace those old slippery guys. Alright, let's do it today."

  Zhuang Jihua was punched, made a grimace, and shouted at Cao Yuan: "Damn it, the party representative also beats people, seriously violating the political work regulations, I'm going to report you."

  Cao Yuan's eyes widened: "Hehe, okay, who can testify, is anyone hurt?"

  After running ten kilometers in the evening, the soldiers all lay down on the playground, exhausted. Zhuang Jihua quickly called over the officers and a few people who looked like they still had some strength left, to help lift up those lying on the ground. Then, two by two, they supported them as they walked around. The cooks brought over hot water that had been boiled, and the soldiers crowded together to drink it.

  This ten-kilometer cross-country run was nothing for Zhuang Jihua and Cao Yuan, who were military school students. However, as a company commander, Zhuang Jihua had to run eleven kilometers, constantly running back and forth, cheering on the soldiers non-stop, which was much more exhausting than just running alone.

  After a short rest, the whole regiment gathered together and Zhu Jihua began to speak to the officers and soldiers. In fact, there was nothing much, just announcing some of his reforms, such as military training exercises, rewards and punishments, and also the election of deputy platoon leaders. This matter had already been told to Hu Zongnan and the other three platoon leaders in the afternoon, although they were somewhat puzzled by the soldiers' election, but Zhu Jihua's eloquence easily won them over.

  Then Zhuang Jihua kept the class monitors behind, intending to have a chat with them.