He Rui was writing furiously at his desk in the room. Outside the window, the shouting of commands from the troops in closed training and the soldiers' unified responses drifted into the room. Even though the team of 500 youths was divided into two battalions, the sound was loud enough to penetrate the walls of the old military camp in the city, making passersby look askance.

It was even clearer in the room next to the training ground. Yet He Rui turned a deaf ear to it. Even when Xu Chengfeng and the others entered after the morning drill ended, He Rui didn't look up.

Seeing the desk full of manuscripts, the young men wanted to help tidy up. He Rui finally looked up. "Don't move them. I put them like this for easy access and modification."

Xu Chengfeng and the others sat down. Vice Commander Cheng Ruofan asked, "The Governor's new troop training plan is very different from that of the Baoding Military Academy, and also quite different from the training plans of Japan and Germany. I wonder why the Governor arranged it this way?"

Seeing everyone had prepared questions, He Rui put down his pen and stood up to stretch his limbs. Under the gaze of the young officers, he answered, "What the 500 recruits are receiving is Officer Corps training, not troop training. We are not facing a military threat yet, so we have time to do this. We will start the war by early 1918 at the latest."

He Rui hadn't explained this to the young officers before; the young men had sensed something was wrong from the training content. Getting a result consistent with their predictions, everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

Unexpectedly, He Rui posed a question to the young officers: "Our 'unity of officers and soldiers' refers to internal fairness; injustice is absolutely not allowed. However, the army itself is a distinct hierarchy. What do you think is the difference between officers and soldiers?"

The young officers frowned; even Xu Chengfeng and Cheng Ruofan hesitated to speak. Hu Xiushan, who didn't talk much usually, answered first, "Military service is just a phase in a soldier's life experience; taking the military as one's profession is the officer's choice."

The young officers were all surprised by Hu Xiushan's answer and looked over. Hu Xiushan answered calmly, "There is this paragraph in the recruit training plan."

Everyone tried to recall but didn't particularly remember seeing this sentence.

He Rui had indeed written this sentence, but it was inside several supplementary explanatory notes. If one didn't read all the materials carefully, it was impossible to read it. Hu Xiushan had read it and remembered it. This updated He Rui's perception of Hu Xiushan.

Pinning a written training schedule onto the wooden board used for hanging maps, He Rui continued to introduce, "The purpose of training enlisted personnel is not simply to complete the training content. Whether it is discipline training like formation drills, or standardized management of clothing, food, housing, and transportation, or officers leading by example, it is all an effort to let the enlisted personnel feel what a soldier is and what military life is through immersion and practice. Military life is completely different from the ordinary life of the populace. It's not just dragging a conscript in and shoving a gun into his hands to make him a soldier. A soldier must be built starting from every detail."

Hearing this, Cheng Ruofan had already adjusted his somewhat relaxed sitting posture back to a proper military posture.

He Rui smiled slightly and continued, "Recruit training lasts about a month. Those who can obey discipline and master the basic content of military life are qualified recruits. The recruits will be assigned to various units to begin physical training."

"Physical training requires good food and sufficient nutrition. Train a healthy body capable of completing the subsequent military technical training content. Starting from the previous stage, literacy education begins. You need to combine closely with the cultural instructors to improve the recruits' cultural level through practical application. An army without culture has no combat effectiveness. Learning cultural knowledge is part of military life."

The young officers knew this matter was troublesome; they just nodded but didn't raise questions.

"Physical training lasts about a month. The next stage is daily training, including infantry daily weapon training and infantry support weapon training. That is rifle and machine gun operation. Also grenade throwing training. We don't have the ability to mass-produce grenades yet, so we'll use models in training for now. The final stage of this phase is live-fire training."

"During this stage, a Training Unit [^1] will be established as the army's tactical application center. The Training Unit possesses all weapon equipment, including artillery and heavy machine guns, responsible for two tasks: technical/tactical training and R&D. Light machine gunners and heavy machine gunners in ordinary units do not train in their own units but go to the Training Unit for training. Ordinary units conduct combined training including rifles, grenade throwing, and machine guns within their own units. Completing this part of training, it can be called an army that can shoot."

He Rui's words made the young officers laugh out loud. He Rui didn't laugh. "This isn't funny. Understanding discipline, having a sense of honor, knowing how to organize shooting, arranging machine gun positions—although this kind of army can't be considered advanced in the current world, at least it's not the worst. Do not forget that this army has already been trained in discipline and a sense of honor."

The smiles of the young officers faded. What amused everyone was just the phrase "can shoot"; in the military academy, this term was used to mock those local armed forces that were not much different from bandits. As for whether local armed forces counted as armies, it only depended on the needs of the higher-ups at the time.

Possessing discipline and a sense of honor were traits only a real army would have. Whether the Beiyang Army had such a sense of honor was hard to say, but the cadets of the Baoding Military Academy did.

"After completing daily training, the troops must start field marching. Verify if the troops can maintain daily combat levels at any time during long marches. After confirming they are qualified, they will enter tactical training."

Xu Chengfeng was very surprised. "The Governor thinks the previous training wasn't tactical training?"

Cheng Ruofan sighed. "The Governor said those were just daily training. Just daily training to this level, even if fighting against the Six Garrisons of Beiyang, I'm afraid we wouldn't fall to a disadvantage."

The other youths looked at Cheng Ruofan. Cheng Ruofan asked in confusion, "What's wrong?"

Everyone said nothing. The split within Beiyang wasn't a secret to Baoding Military Academy students, and the young officers following He Rui believed even more that a Beiyang civil war was only a matter of time and would definitely happen. They just didn't expect Cheng Ruofan to say it so frankly.

He Rui had no interest in the Beiyang civil war and continued his teaching work. "Tactical training includes earthwork operations on various terrains, squad tactics, platoon tactics, and company/battalion level tactical training. By this stage, the basic tactical differences between armies of various countries can be seen. The basic tactic I designed involves three soldiers forming a combat group [fire team], and a squad consisting of three combat groups and a squad leader. No matter how large the troop scale or how many support arms like artillery there are, the basic tactical system centered on the combat team will not change. Outsiders see us as thousands of troops and horses; we see our own troops as a large number of combat groups and various technical weapons adopting different combinations under different battlefield situations."

The young officers were all stunned. The parts before mentioning basic tactics were novel but within their comprehension. Many parts were things they had learned.

Proposing the concept of basic tactics was another matter. The youths seemed to understand something, yet felt they understood nothing.

He Rui knew today was just an introduction and didn't expect the young officers to master it immediately. He continued to push forward. "Tactical training might take 3 months. The goal is to build an army with its own basic tactics. But armies are used for fighting, so next, we must conduct exercises. The purpose of exercises is to train for combat against a hypothetical enemy. The Japanese Army is our hypothetical enemy. Before starting the exercise, the troops will be divided into two parts. One part is our army; the other part is our army playing the enemy force. The troops playing the enemy must adopt enemy equipment and adopt enemy tactics. I will command the troops playing the Japanese Army."

"Confrontational exercises are further divided into two stages. The first stage is military technical confrontation. For example, hearing a gunshot from the opposite side, one must be able to judge whether the opponent is using a rifle or a machine gun. What model is it? One must also judge the opponent's firepower configuration and understand what kind of fire strikes will be encountered next. Strike direction and strike range. How our army should respond to the hypothetical enemy's military technology—this includes firearm confrontation as well as cold weapon confrontation."

"After becoming familiar with confronting the opponent's military technology, the second stage is tactical confrontation with Japan in various combat scenarios including plains, mountains, and rivers, based on our army's basic tactics. The scale also ranges from squad/platoon level confrontation to company/battalion level confrontation. Completing the training of this stage, the troops can basically be pulled out to fight."

Looking at the varying expressions of the young officers, He Rui asked, "After hearing so much, how do you feel?"

Cheng Ruofan stood up immediately, his voice full of joy. "Ever since the Governor mentioned fighting the Japanese Army in the future, we have been discussing how to fight this battle. Discussing for many days, we couldn't find a sure-fire way to defeat the Japanese Army. Hearing the Governor's method of building and training the army, I feel the clouds have parted before my eyes. As long as the troops can truly complete these trainings effectively, not only do I understand how to fight the Japanese Army, but I also feel we can win!"

Xu Chengfeng followed by standing up and answering respectfully, "Governor. Know the enemy and know yourself, and you can fight a hundred battles with no danger of defeat. Thank you, Governor, for pointing out the direction. In the future, I will definitely use what I've learned to kill the enemy and serve the country."

Other young officers stood up one after another. "Thank you, Governor."

He Rui waved his hand. "We are comrades with the same goal. What I said just now was only a very simple description. There is a massive amount of concrete work to be done later. Our job is to apply what we learn and grow during this training. Become the seeds of China's modern army."

"Yes!" The youths answered in unison.

Looking at these young faces brimming with vitality, He Rui felt the time was ripening and decided to advance a key concept. "There is one more part I haven't said."

The youths immediately answered in unison, "Please instruct us, Governor."

"A true modern army has a necessary condition, which is being highly political. **The Branch must be built on the Company**."

The youths didn't show resistant expressions. Instead, Cheng Ruofan asked curiously, "Does the Governor want to establish a Revolutionary Party?"

Because the southern forces vying for power with Beiyang called themselves the Revolutionary Party, in the eyes of the Beiyang upper echelon, "Revolutionary Party" wasn't a good term. That Cheng Ruofan could ask this question naturally, and the other young officers showed no strange reaction, gave He Rui confidence in successfully establishing a party organization.

After thinking, He Rui wrote down three characters and handed them over. The young soldiers gathered to look. Written on the paper were three characters: '**Civilization Party**'.

He Rui didn't want these youths to discuss it now, so he ordered, "Dismissed."

The young officers didn't say much more. After saluting and taking their leave, they left the office with light steps.

Checking the schedule, He Rui found the section on machine gun position arrangement. He began to find the notes on machine gun position layout from the two large boxes brought back from Japan and placed them in the corresponding position.

Military system training was a massive process. For the past few years, He Rui had been preparing all along.

***

[^1]: Training Unit (教导队) - A specialized unit for training NCOs and specialists.