Chapter 3: The Wind Rises in Guangdong Section 28: Comforting

  After Chiang Kai-shek and his entourage left, Zhuang Jihua stood still on the playground for two hours. He would rather resign than give in to the battalion commander's demand to re-punish Han Wensheng and Zhao Hanjie. After this incident came out, his prestige among all the soldiers in the regiment soared immediately, especially among those who were not afraid of death. It is well known that during wartime, the most important thing for a soldier is to follow the right officer. The best officer is one who can fight well and take care of his subordinates; of course, being able to fight takes first place. Following an officer who can fight means fewer casualties and more merits, which is a kind of happiness that you don't know how to die for. If you are not good at fighting, then taking care of your soldiers is also okay, at least you won't let them suffer in peacetime.

  Zhuang Jihua's performance in the exercise has been detected by the soldiers, and now he is also taking responsibility for two soldiers who seriously violated military discipline. The soldiers immediately realized that they were following a good officer. After the soldiers explained, the new recruits looked at Zhuang Jihua with adoring eyes, which made Zhuang Jihua feel strange and uncomfortable for a while.

  The alert was lifted, and Zhuang Jihua no longer had any psychological burden. He began to fully adjust the troops according to his own ideas. But he also knew that he already had a strong enemy - Regimental Commander Wang Boling.

  In the following days, whether it was Wang Junzheng Dunguo from the regiment or Wang Boling Zhang Jingyu from the brigade, they often came to the 7th company. The company was bustling with people coming and going, which was a huge contrast to the previous period when no one paid attention. This made Zhuang Jihua and Cao Yuan feel honored and surprised. Later, they learned from Zheng Dunguo that after leaving the 7th company that day, Chiang Kai-shek went to the 3rd battalion headquarters in Xifang and inspected the training of the 8th company. It was here that Wang Boling was severely reprimanded by Chiang Kai-shek and almost lost his job.

  Chiang Kai-shek came out of the Seventh Regiment and went to the Third Battalion headquarters, taking a detour to visit the Eighth Regiment as well. At the Eighth Regiment, Wang Boling once again revealed his lack of understanding of the troops' situation. Chiang Kai-shek began to scold Wang Boling, asking him how many regiments he had visited, how much he knew about the troops, and whether he was familiar with each regiment's training plans and progress. Although Zhuang Jihua made mistakes, his troops were well-trained and disciplined. What have you done besides reciting Buddhist scriptures? I ordered you to lead soldiers, not monks. Chiang Kai-shek was so angry that he almost dismissed Wang Boling on the spot, but fortunately, Zhou Director intervened and persuaded him otherwise. In reality, Zhou Director also realized that Chiang Kai-shek did not really intend to dismiss Wang Boling; if he had, he would have done so before returning to the battalion headquarters.

  Cao Yuan was increasingly baffled by Zhuang Jihua. During the afternoon break, soldiers from the first and second rows got into a group fight. When reporting to the company, Cao Yuan was anxious, but Zhuang Jihua held him back, not letting him handle it immediately, instead waiting until they had fought for a while before intervening. The way he handled it left Cao Yuan stunned.

  Who was right and who was wrong, Zhuang Jihua didn't ask. He divided the soldiers into three groups: those who won the fight were punished with a 3000-meter run, those who lost were punished with a 5000-meter run, and those from the two companies who did not participate in the fight had to follow him on a 10-kilometer run.

  Zhuang Jihua also explained that fighting was against military discipline, so all participants would be punished. However, as soldiers, they should win when fighting; losing is a crime. Therefore, those who won were punished with a 3000-meter run, and those who lost were punished with a 5000-meter run.

  At the same time, Zhuang Jihua announced that anyone who fought with friendly forces would be put in solitary confinement: one day for winning, three days for losing. The soldiers who did not participate in the fight complained, asking why they also had to be punished when they didn't fight. Zhuang Jihua glared at them and scolded, "You see your comrades being beaten and don't help; you have no sense of justice! As your company commander, I haven't taught you well, so I will receive punishment with you."

  Afterwards, Cao Yun scolded him for having no sense of right or wrong and inciting soldiers to fight; Zhuang Jihua explained that the military camp must have a fierce atmosphere, soldiers with a fiery temper dare to fight, which means they have a fierce atmosphere on their bodies, soldiers without a fierce atmosphere are not soldiers but sheep; besides, he did not incite soldiers to fight, you didn't see that those who fought were punished.

  From then on, the soldiers of the 7th Company remembered a lesson: when fighting, they must win; if they fought, they would fight together. From that time on, no one from other companies dared to provoke the soldiers of the 7th Company. Also from that time on, all officers who came out of the 7th Company maintained this tradition wherever they went. In Hu Zongnan's words, everyone who came out of the 7th Company was a wolf; even if you were a sheep when you entered the 7th Company, Zhuang Jihua could turn you into a wolf.

  At the end of the year, the military pay arrived, and Zhuang Jihua didn't stand on ceremony. Not only did he take his own money, but he also took the money of Cao Yuan, Hu Zongnan, Song Xilian, Du Yuming, as well as the three newly assigned deputy platoon leaders and deputy party representatives. He called it "adding bricks and tiles to the military camp". Those four new second-in-commands were pitiful, if only they had reported two days later. In just a couple of days, a group of carpenters and masons entered the military camp, and three days later, a brand-new training ground appeared in the 7th Company's barracks.

  This new training ground includes climbing, obstacles, barbed wire, trenches, and single-plank bridges; basically everything that Zhuang Jihua had seen in his past life was there. However, the new training ground brought new problems, with some projects leaving everyone unsure of how to proceed. So Zhuang Jihua took a few officers and squad leaders to start practicing, summarizing as they went along. Amazingly, they were able to summarize a set of training methods. As for whether it was scientifically reasonable or not, Zhuang Jihua didn't care; after all, it was their original creation, and if anyone wanted to correct it later, that was up to them.

  After the Chinese New Year, Wen Shu Li An Guo brought back another newspaper from the camp, in addition to the original "Soldier's Friend", there was also a mimeographed small newspaper called "Revolutionary Youth" edited by He Zhenhan. Looking at this small newspaper, Zhuang Jihua knew that He Zhenhan had finally broken off with Yang Qigang, he could only sigh and then became even more unwilling to return to school, nor did he allow his subordinates to go out, all staying in the regiment to intensify training.

  Zhuang Jihua also increasingly liked being with these soldiers, here he didn't have to pretend anything, living a life where he could sing when he wanted and scold when he wanted.

  As the training volume increased, some of the weaker soldiers would often faint on the training ground. This time, Zhuang Jihua was at a loss and had no choice but to force Niu Banshang to find something delicious and improve their meals. Niu Banshang also had no other option, as they only had so much money, and if they wanted to eat well, it wouldn't be enough.

  Zhuang Jihua didn't know what to do either, so he followed him out for a walk and bought back a large batch of mouse fish from the market. This type of fish has a small head and little meat, can't be sold, and locals mainly use it to feed cats. However, Zhuang Jihua knew that in his previous life, this fish would sell for tens of dollars in restaurants.

  Thus, the 7th Company's specialty dish, Red Braised Mouse Fish, was born. Later, after Wang Jun Zheng Dongguo ate it, he sent the camp's chef to learn from them, and then it became a specialty dish of the 3rd Battalion and the 2nd Regiment.

  After the New Year, Chiang Kai-shek held a drill in the Second Regiment. It was clear that the 7th Company was different from others after they were summoned to the drill ground. While standing at attention, the soldiers of the 7th Company stood still without moving a muscle, whereas other companies started well but soon had people secretly moving their necks and feet as time went on; during the march-past, the 7th Company moved like one person from head to toe; in the scattered attack drill, the tactical movements of the 7th Company were fast but slightly irregular, yet still ranked first in the entire regiment. In short, the 7th Company won all the first prizes in the drill competition. Chiang Kai-shek ordered a reward of $500 and promotion for ten soldiers: second-class privates were promoted to first-class privates, first-class privates were promoted to corporals, and corporals were promoted to sergeants. The list was to be reported by the 7th Company itself.

  However, Zhuang Jihua suggested to Chiang Kai-shek that soldiers with meritorious service could be sent to study at the Whampoa Military Academy, using Wang Xiaoshan and Wu Ziniu as examples. These two men had rich combat experience, but slightly weaker cultural backgrounds. While culture was important for military personnel, combat experience was more important. After entering school, they could first make up for their cultural deficiencies, and only become formal students after passing the exams. Zhuang Jihua's suggestion received support from advisor Galen, who said that this system had long been implemented in the Red Army. Chiang Kai-shek adopted it with pleasure after hearing Galen's approval, and asked the Political Department and the Recruitment Department to jointly formulate implementation measures.