He Rui hadn't had much contact with Chinese people of this era. Seeing the young officers' eager anticipation to begin the review, He Rui felt a bit hesitant.

In the 21st century, these review standards would be considered "highly political." The young officers seemed to have no reaction to this; he didn't know if they didn't care or if they simply had no concept of politicization.

After thinking about it, He Rui decided to discuss it later. As for how much later, he didn't know.

These days, whenever He Rui had free time, he would give a lecture, teaching everyone basic theories of 21st-century evolution, sociology, and political science.

Members from ordinary families reacted strongly to evolution and sociology but lacked interest in political science.

Xu Chengfeng, who came from a large landlord family, showed the opposite attitude.

However, regardless of the type, the core members had no resistance to these review conditions, which could be said to be highly political in this era. This made He Rui feel much more at ease.

At this moment, Xu Jia had finished reading the review conditions and asked, "Is there anything unclear to anyone?"

The young military men all indicated that everything was clear, so Xu Jia sat down.

"Then, the first review meeting begins," He Rui announced.

This was the preliminary review. More than sixty people who had come to sign up had taken the exam, and candidates for the first round would be selected from among them.

"Zhu Guangyou. Male, nineteen years old, unmarried. Worker family background. Currently working as a laborer in a factory. Parents are both alive; has two older brothers and one younger sister... Scores..."

Finding the scores in the record book, Zhong Yifu continued reading, "Chinese: 72 points. Math: 67. He studied a foreign language—English—but doesn't remember more than a few sentences now."

The review meeting process wasn't complicated. It adopted a collegial system. First, the basic situation was read out, followed by the personnel responsible for the interview introducing that aspect of the content.

After Zhong Yifu finished reading, Xu Chengfeng looked at his notebook and began to introduce the situation to the review committee. "Zhu Guangyou has seen patriotic demonstrations and feels that foreigners bully people. His requests are: can the settling-in allowance be given in full, and he hopes the monthly salary will be paid on time without arrears. He's fine with being beaten or scolded, just not bullied. He doesn't care about going to the Northeast, nor does he care about going anywhere else."

Xu Jia took out his notebook. Waiting until Xu Chengfeng finished his introduction and seeing no objections from the reviewers, he turned to the page for Zhu Guangyou's home visit and began to present the findings. "Zhu Guangyou lives in the Tianjin worker district. The family has three rooms. Zhu Guangyou shares a room with his second brother. Zhu Guangyou didn't mention that his eldest brother had already moved out..."

Hearing that the applicant hadn't told the whole truth, the officers, who had initially thought quite highly of Zhu Guangyou, looked a bit displeased.

"Zhu Guangyou's parents know he applied, but their attitude isn't very supportive. When I went, his parents thought he had caused trouble and kept asking questions. His father is a worker, and his mother manages the household... oh, according to the prescribed terminology, she is a 'housewife'. A very honest family."

After Xu Jia finished introducing the home visit situation, Zhong Yifu asked, "Then why didn't Zhu Guangyou mention his eldest brother?"

Xu Jia shook his head. "I don't know. If everyone thinks he can enter the next round, shall we ask him before he joins the team?"

After a collegial discussion, Zhu Guangyou's overall situation was deemed acceptable, and he entered the next round.

"Chen Deli. Male, eighteen years old, unmarried..." The review of the next person began.

He Rui observed these young soldiers, checking his open pocket watch from time to time. Under normal circumstances, they should rest after at most 45 minutes. However, He Rui wanted to test everyone's limits.

He saw the young officers go from excitement to focus, then to fatigue, and finally to ill-concealed impatience. Surprisingly, the first to become impatient was Zhong Yifu, which surprised He Rui slightly. When an exhausted Xu Jia said "Next," Cheng Ruofan said, "Forget it, let's rest a bit." This guy finally couldn't hold on either.

The entire process had lasted about an hour and a half.

"Stop here for now. Rest for half an hour," He Rui ordered.

Everyone stood up exhaustedly and went for a walk. Xu Jia didn't move. When the others were mostly gone, he asked, "Commander, do the military academy teachers also evaluate us collegially like this?"

"I'm not from the Baoding Military Academy, so I don't know exactly how they do it. If I had to guess, it shouldn't be much different."

Xu Jia rubbed his slightly sore eyes and said somewhat happily, "Commander He. I used to feel that it was hard to find fairness in the world. Now that I've participated in the review, especially the collegial discussion, I feel that there can be fairness in this world."

He Rui had been paying attention to Xu Jia these past few days. Xu Jia's grades at the Baoding Military Academy were only a C-grade average; naturally, he was much stronger than ordinary people, but he couldn't be considered outstanding among his schoolmates. But what He Rui cared about was the comprehension and enthusiasm Xu Jia showed for the review work.

Since Xu Jia asked, He Rui replied, "Whether there is fairness depends on whether the purpose of the evaluation is to be fair or to achieve a determined result—what is called 'going through the motions'."

Seeing Xu Jia nodding thoughtfully, He Rui asked, "Do you like fairness?"

"Of course I like it."

"Then experience it well—how to use inquiries, exams, home visits, and interviews to create a file. Even with a file, decisions must be made through methods like collegial discussion."

Hearing this, Xu Jia hurriedly asked, "Commander, I will do my best. But I'm also a little afraid. If there isn't a collegial method and judgment is made by a single person, how can fairness be guaranteed?"

He Rui answered, "If that's the case, judgment must be made based on the directivity of the exam content, which is logic."

"What exactly is logic?" Xu Jia became even more interested, his fatigue squeezed to the nine heavens in the face of his thirst for knowledge.

***

Half an hour later, the rested young soldiers returned to work.

Before the review meeting started again, He Rui ordered, "From now on, each review session will last 45 minutes with a 15-minute break in between."

Although the rest was reasonable, the review still went on until late at night. The young soldiers expended immense physical and mental energy, but they finally selected the first batch of people. Zhu Guangyou was among them.

With the experience of recruitment at the Baoding Military Academy, Xu Jia proactively suggested, "Should we go to those people's homes again and talk to them one more time to confirm if they are truly willing and if they have any concerns?"

Xu Chengfeng couldn't help but smile slightly, recalling when he heard He Rui discuss this step with Zhou Yinshan at the military academy. He casually picked up the plan document to look but didn't see this item in the arrangement.

According to He Rui's plan, these people would bring their luggage to gather and live at the National Beiyang University. Under the "Work Content" section, the words "Ice-breaking Meeting" were written.

Even though Zhao Tianlin had agreed to provide dormitories, he had to be informed of such matters. Initially, Zhao Tianlin just said "Understood." Unexpectedly, two days later, he actually found He Rui and asked, "Brother He, why aren't you drilling? This doesn't look like troop training."

"It's not time yet. I am currently holding ice-breaking meetings for the recruited personnel."