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"Keep this student ID safe. From now on, whether you're attending classes, eating, or picking up supplies, it's all based on the ID, not the person. If you lose it, you're responsible!"
Yang Dingtian picked up his student ID and was about to step through the gate when he was stopped by the foreign instructor, who was speaking German with spitting everywhere, but Yang Dingtian couldn't understand a single word.
Finally, after being sprayed with spittle all over his face, the foreign instructor pointed to a row of new trainees standing straight inside the door and gestured, the meaning of which was very simple: they should obediently follow him and stand in a row!
Yang Dingtian didn't dare to complain or show any dissatisfaction. He obediently followed and stood at the end of the line, standing as straight as the others.
Before we arrived, the Ministry of National Defense and the division headquarters had all given us instructions at every level. Once we entered the gates of the National Defense University in Nanjing, we all had to keep our tails between our legs and work like slaves. We couldn't even think about being human!
If anyone is dissatisfied or unwilling to continue their studies, they can submit a retirement application directly. The Ministry of National Defense will approve it instantly, and then you can collect your retirement pay and leave!
President Zhao Yan personally issued an instruction that no active-duty officer should cause trouble during the training at the National Defense University. They should either return to their units after completing the training or take off their uniforms and go home to farm if they fail to complete the training!
"%*……*（（）￥￥%" The German instructor ran over again, speaking fluent German, with a fierce and menacing expression on his face.
Although the trainees couldn't understand what the other person was saying, they could tell from their expressions and tone that the other person was swearing.
After scolding for a long time, the German instructor had no choice but to personally correct the trainees' military posture. He happened to pull Yang Dingtian, who was closest to him, to be the demonstration soldier.
After being corrected one by one by the German instructors, Yang Dingtian's military posture became much more standard, and the others also corrected themselves amidst the instructors' roars.
Anyone who was slow would immediately be kicked in the body by the German instructor's high riding boots. Since the German students couldn't understand, they had no choice but to resort to physical force.
In the military, it's common for superiors to beat and scold their subordinates, and the trainees don't care at all.
Of course, they didn't dare to care, much less dare to stand out and become troublemakers.
Of the thirteen active-duty divisions of the National Defense Force, only 450 active-duty battalion and company commanders were selected this year to participate in the National Defense University training program. The selection criteria were simple: active-duty battalion and company commanders in the military who were no more than 35 years old could apply to participate in this training program.
The specific selection is determined by the Ministry of National Defense. It's not fair to say it's one in a hundred, but it's at least one in ten. Many candidates are eliminated, and those who are selected are either exceptionally capable or have extremely strong backgrounds.
Yang Dingtian's abilities are not particularly outstanding, but his background is too strong. The head of state personally bestowed his name upon him, and the Ministry of National Defense selected him immediately. If he were to be rejected, it would be a slap in the face to Zhao Yan.
Everyone knows that this National Defense University active duty training course guarantees a bright future for anyone who gets in.
The National Defense University completed its first phase of student recruitment at the fastest possible speed, with the aim of quickly strengthening the front-line officer force, especially improving the military skills of officers at the battalion and company levels.
Under Zhao Yan's repeated urging, a large group of German instructors traveled by ship across the ocean to the National Defense University in Nanjing. Before they even had a full complement of translators, they were immediately put into formal work.
There was no other way; Zhao Yan was simply too anxious. War was imminent, and it was really too much to ask of him to organize a million-strong force to fight against the British and Japanese with only his group of officers whose quality varied.
Zhao Yan's previous battles were all about micro-management; he frequently commanded beyond his superiors, kept a close eye on each unit, and employed a strategy of building strongholds and fighting a protracted war. Only then was he able to barely manage to drag the army to Beijing.
But no matter how much micromanagement he did, Zhao Yan could only keep an eye on division-level commanders at best; he couldn't keep an eye on battalion and company-level officers below them.
Zhao Yan streamlined the command hierarchy, eliminating brigade-level units and even corps-level units, all in order to improve command efficiency and make it easier for him to keep an eye on certain entities.
Even the weakest command system at the battalion and company levels must now be strengthened.
The National Defense University in Nanjing announced its enrollment in June. The first batch of students totaled 1,500, of which 450 were active-duty training students and the other 1,050 were freshmen.
If possible, the Ministry of National Defense would like to replace all 1,500 academy places with active-duty officers, but it is not possible. If 1,500 battalion and company-level officers were transferred away, the active-duty forces would be directly paralyzed.
The current study schedule for the first batch of trainees is very tight. The first batch of active duty training students only have six months of study time, and the new students only have one year of study time.
How much a student learns depends on their own abilities. After all, they will immediately go to work and fight after graduation. If they learn well, they will live a long life; if they learn poorly, they will die quickly, and they can't blame anyone else.
Before long, Yang Dingtian's group of trainees had gathered fifty-five people, and the translator finally arrived. The German instructor led the translator to begin the training session.
"You bunch of trash, you useless people! You can't even stand at attention properly. I don't understand, does your Ministry of National Defense not even provide you with the most basic military training?"
Officers like you wouldn't even qualify as privates in Germany! I can't imagine what it would be like for you to lead soldiers in battle!
"But now, you're all in my hands. I'm going to squeeze your flesh and blood out like squeezing sausages and reshape you all!"
"I am Lieutenant William, and also the head instructor of Class 8, First Infantry Course, Nanjing National Defense University."
"Before this, no matter what your position or rank was, from now on you will only have one identity: cadet!"
Lieutenant William roared as he walked, spitting on the faces of every trainee. The strong smell of bad breath and body odor was so strong that it made it hard to open one's eyes.
But none of the students in Class 8 stood up to cause trouble; they all obediently accepted the reprimands.
Do you understand?
"understand!"
William shouted, "I can't hear you! Is this the effeminate morale of the Chinese army?"
All the trainees shouted at the top of their lungs: "Understood!"
William nodded slightly: "Very good, but it's still too late. Now, put on your luggage and run two laps around the school wall!"
"Line up, march forward!"
The former site of the Viceroy of Liangjiang's government office, now the National Defense University campus, has an estimated perimeter of four kilometers. Running around it twice wouldn't be a problem, but carrying a full load of luggage and backpacks without any support, running two laps like that would be a real ordeal.
Running a mere eight kilometers is nothing out of the ordinary for Chinese people these days, but the students in Class 8 were still in a sorry state after finishing the run.
The students in the other classes also received a similar shock. They had just arrived at the school and were forced to run laps as soon as they entered. Several officers immediately protested, but Zhang Xinghua, the party representative stationed at the school, did not tolerate them. He immediately announced their retirement orders, ordering the seven officers who had objections to be dismissed and retired on the spot.
Then inform the original unit about this matter and let them continue to select replacements. If you don't want to suffer this hardship and this injustice, there are plenty of people willing to take your place.
At 5 p.m., after all the active-duty officers in the training class had arrived, Zhang Xinghua, as a representative of Zhao Yan and the Ministry of National Defense, addressed all the trainees. He singled out the seven unlucky guys, stripped them of their uniforms and ranks on the spot, and set an example for everyone.
The remaining people were all trembling with fear, and were all glad that they had endured it and had not become arrogant because of their small contributions.
Chapter 74 The First Day of Torture
After the speech established his authority, all trainees made their own arrangements in their respective classes.
Led by Lieutenant William, the Eighth Platoon settled into their dormitory, which was actually the former quarters where the servants of the Governor's Office lived. It was a large communal room with messy beds, and when they went in, it was all in disarray, with junk and garbage everywhere.
"Dinner will be served at 6:30. You will have one hour to tidy up your dorm rooms. Please assemble at 6:15. I expect to see a clean and tidy dorm room when I arrive!"
Lieutenant William uttered a harsh remark and then walked away without looking back.
The group of bewildered trainees were left behind. There were only two rooms for the fifty-five trainees. Not to mention the beds, even the floor would be full of people. They also had to arrange their luggage and bedding, and clean the rooms. The time was really too tight.
But Lieutenant William didn't care about any of that. These trainees were all active-duty officers. If they couldn't even carry out such a simple order, then there was no point in the training. William would suggest that the administration replace them with a different group.
The trainees discussed among themselves and elected two of the most senior officers to serve as dormitory leaders to direct everyone's work. Yang Dingtian was fortunate enough to become one of the dormitory leaders.
But before he could even feel happy, he had to get to work immediately.
With many hands making light work, after a thorough cleaning, despite the lack of cleaning tools and even brooms, everyone managed to empty the room, clean it with their own towels, and finally make their own beds in time.
Lieutenant William arrived right on time to inspect, but neither dormitory passed the inspection. The floors were too dirty, there were too many unsanitary corners, the beds were messy and inconsistent, and personal belongings were placed haphazardly.
William commented that this was a pigsty, and all the trainees were only fit to eat pig swill!
Dinner was served, and everyone went into their respective classrooms' canteens. In front of everyone, Lieutenant William dumped all the rice and side dishes that had been separated into a swill bucket, and then ordered the students to get their food, saying that eating pig swill meant they had to eat it.
After everyone finished getting their food, someone moved their head during the pre-meal talk, and everyone was ordered to run a lap before coming back to eat.
Then, when we sat down for the second meal, someone moved a chair, and everyone was dragged out to run laps again!
The students finally got to eat their slop after the third time, but they only had five minutes to eat. After that, they had to immediately gather in the classroom. All their dinner break time was consumed by running laps.
The school classrooms were the only places in the entire National Defense University with electricity, and the only electrical appliance was two light bulbs placed one in front of the other, powered by a steam generator.
Even after dark, the students have to study under the light bulbs, from 7 pm to 11 pm, for four hours, with only ten minutes to go to the toilet throughout the entire process.
The rest of the time was spent learning to read and memorize under the guidance of Chinese instructors, using textbooks such as the military academy cadet code of conduct and Chinese translations of the German infantry manual.
A significant number of students are illiterate or know very few characters, but they don't care about you. The instructor just leads you in reading, and even if you don't know the characters, you have to follow along. You then have to find time to catch up on the material after class.
Even if you can't read, you have to memorize it by rote.
At 11 o'clock sharp, the classroom lights went out, and all the trainees left in an orderly manner. A roll call was held at the dormitory entrance to clear everyone out, and then Lieutenant William gave everyone another dressing down.
It wasn't until 11:40 that everyone finally lay down on their beds and started to sleep, but even when they were asleep, they couldn't sleep peacefully.
The military academy organized emergency assemblies at night, blowing a whistle to assemble once at 1 a.m. and another whistle to assemble once at 4 a.m., which was extremely unethical. Even the German instructors felt it was somewhat inhumane, but this was a training program that Zhao Yan had specifically instructed the military academy to carry out.
I got up at 7:30 in the morning, right on time.
The trainees got up with red eyes, all of them still terrified from the ordeal of the first night. So when they woke up normally, they dressed and put on their shoes as if they were in a battle, and rushed out to assemble.
The first thing to do after getting up is to run laps, starting with five kilometers to warm up. Then it's time to practice on those upright machines. Germans don't use weights or anything like that for physical training; it's all machines, combined with exercises like push-ups and squats.
After the forty-minute morning exercise, we immediately washed up and ate breakfast. After breakfast, we tidied up our rooms. The stone floor had to be polished, and there couldn't be a speck of dust on the windowsills and door frames. All bedding and sheets had to be folded according to a uniform standard, and all personal belongings had to be organized and stored away.
But this time, Class 8 still failed to meet the standard. They still ate pig feed for breakfast, but instead of pouring it into the swill bucket, they put a large wooden basin on the table and stirred it into a big hodgepodge.
After lunch, the morning's regular lessons began soon afterward, which consisted of marching drills, including standard German-style marching, goose-stepping, and running, as well as other movements such as turning and squatting.
The military academy life that the cadets had imagined, involving handling guns and artillery, was completely different from what they had imagined. They didn't even see a gun, because the first month was only filled with military drill training.
In the eyes of the Germans, officers who couldn't even march in the most basic military formations had no need for further training.
On another campus, freshman training is also in full swing. Unlike the active-duty training classes, the freshman training is much more chaotic.
The veterans had received training in Changsha, Wuhan, and during the Northern Expedition and reorganization in Beijing. Although Zhao Yan's training of the revolutionary army wasn't particularly professional, he at least taught them the military training content he had learned in his later life.
Those officers among the veterans who came from the new military and had received training from foreign instructors were especially in their element.
The first day of training for the new students consisted entirely of standing in the sun on the playground of the compound, standing at attention. This was in Nanjing in June, and people were collapsing every moment.
Sunbathing is nothing to worry about overheating Chinese people, but when combined with strict military posture, it's a completely different story. It's common for people to get dizzy from standing at attention incorrectly.
The instructors were used to it. After someone fell down, they could tell whether they fell forward or backward. If they fell face down, they were really dizzy and would rest for a few dozen seconds before standing up again.
But if you fall backward and land on your butt first, the instructor will think you are deliberately slacking off. You won't get a second's rest, and he'll kick you down twice. When you get up again, there will be an extra brick on your head to weigh you down.
Of the 1,050 new students, more than 40 announced their withdrawal and wanted to drop out of school just an hour and a half into the morning training. The school's academic affairs office treated them like trash and cleared them out of the school gates without hesitation.
Military academies currently offer tuition-free admissions. Applicants only need to pass relatively simple Chinese and mathematics exams to be accepted.
Students who apply for the exam must be no older than 25, have no physical disabilities or infectious diseases, and not have any vices such as smoking opium. They can all pass the subsequent physical examination and qualification review.
The applicants came from all walks of life, but mainly from poor families. Many of them even traveled from thousands of miles away to take the exam.
Only this many people are admitted in the first year. Those who pass the exam this year can be admitted through an interview in the second year. Now that so many people have withdrawn, the school will immediately notify the students in the queue who are exempt from the exam to fill the vacancies.
Zhao Yan, who was far away in Beijing, was also keeping a close eye on the situation of the military academy students. He directly gave the military academy a reasonable death quota of 0.3%, and had only one requirement for the military academy: train them to death as long as they don't die.
Cruelty and high pressure are the norm in military academies these days. Zhao Yan will no longer skimp on the students' food, drink, and other necessities, but he will impose the strictest requirements on them in other aspects.
If you can't even handle this level of pressure at military academy, you'll definitely wet your pants and have diarrhea when you're on the battlefield where the casualty rate is often in the teens.
If an ordinary soldier chickens out and can't hold on, he only dies as a deserter. But if an officer can't hold on and chickens out, he kills a whole group of people.
After the National Defense University began recruiting students, Zhao Yan sent telegrams to the school every few days to give instructions. Zhao Yan couldn't even remotely assume the position of president because he couldn't possibly have the time and energy to participate in the specific work of the military academy.
President Chiang Kai-shek had the leisure to be the principal of the Whampoa Military Academy, but Zhao Yan, as the current military and political leader, simply didn't have the time. For Zhao Yan, the military academy was only a small part of his grand plan.
At most, Zhao Yan could only offer some general directional instructions, such as that military academy students must establish an ironclad concept of obedience and absolute obedience during their training!
Zhao Yan didn't expect to train a group of Huo Qubing or Wei Qing through a crash course lasting a few months or a year. He only hoped to train a group of officers who were absolutely obedient and had iron discipline.
As for professional military skills, learn as much as you can; who knows, maybe a few geniuses will emerge from among them?
Chapter 75 War Diplomacy
Inside the Ministry of Foreign Affairs office in Wuhan.
Wu Zonglian, the plenipotentiary representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republican government, was sitting wearily in a grand chair, drinking tea and resting. Every wrinkle on his old face was filled with exhaustion.
Putting down his teacup, Wu Zonglian glanced at the sparrows hopping and frolicking on the branches outside the hall, and couldn't help but get up and walk to the steps to take a second look.
But before he could even calm down, a subordinate stepped forward to report: "Vice Minister, a call from Beijing. The central government demands that we maintain a firm stance and absolutely not accept unilateral compromises."
Wu Zonglian sighed: "Tough? With my old face and my old mouth full of rotten teeth?"
"Sigh, what's going on here? They want me to maintain a tough stance, but they also want me to keep pestering the foreigners. Even a fool can see that this is just stalling for time."
The subordinates dared not interrupt such high-level decisions, and all wore expressions as if they hadn't heard a word.
Wu Zonglian waved his hand: "Forget it, it's just a lot of talking anyway. It's all informal contact. Just don't make me look like a traitor."
"The leader is really good at this. He can come up with so many tricks in negotiations. As long as I don't get blamed, anything is negotiable."
The Republican government's current diplomatic activities with the great powers in Wuhan are defined by the top leadership as "informal contacts and meetings." Zhao Yan and the central government's attitude toward this is to adhere to the three no's principle: no recognition, no disclosure, and no compromise.
Such informal meetings are at most a channel for dialogue between the two sides. Zhao Yan does not have high hopes for them. He hopes to use this channel to give the great powers some sweet talk and distract them from his war preparations.
Zhao Yan even hinted that Wu Zonglian could be a little weaker, so that the great powers would overlook his determination to fight and make them mistakenly believe that he had no intention of fighting.
But Zhao Yan's hints were never reflected in the official documents. The official documents were full of demands to be tough, but you were implying in private that I could be a little weak. Isn't that just making me take the blame?
If something really happens and it becomes a huge scandal, wouldn't I be seen as a treacherous official?
Wu Zonglian absolutely refused to take the blame. He simply followed the official documents and telegrams, knowing that in the end, if anything went wrong, his superiors would be the ones to take the fall, and he was just following orders.
At present, the main issues that Wu Zonglian is negotiating with the great powers as their representative are the blockade of the concession areas, the arms embargo, and trade markets.
As for other matters involving sovereignty, the great powers tacitly refrained from discussing them, and Wu Zonglian also tacitly refrained from mentioning them, because both sides knew that these matters could not be resolved through negotiation. Wu Zonglian was not qualified to discuss these matters, and the great powers were not authorized to discuss them on their own soil.