Chapter 635 - 455 I Want to Read Books_2

Huang Zhongjiu’s expression was poor as he spoke, clearly there was a story there.

Fang Huai was no voyeur, nor did he have any delusions of being a purveyor of justice. Naturally, he lost interest in the playground that night and only gave the training facilities a cursory glance before moving on.

He’d always assumed that in such a tightly controlled walled compound, even if someone were to steal moments for love, it would invariably be Platonic, with soldiers focused on washing laundry, generation following generation, with the current.

Unexpectedly, it seemed that not everything was absolute; descendants did indeed find other destinations.

Luckier than I, indeed.

With a deep inner sigh, Fang Huai quickly continued to the dormitory area where everyone headed after dinner. The place was easy to find; there was a sign at the entrance of the second Big Team’s dormitory. Once inside the building, he instantly felt the crush of people. On the first floor, he glanced at some of the open doors to rooms, each solidly housing ten people. Just on this floor alone, there must be at least fourteen or fifteen rooms.

Five stories.

Even with some offices, that’s several hundred people.

Five Big Teams.

The Marine Police Academy really did employ a considerable number, and judging from this, there must be at least three thousand students.

Three grades, with about a thousand newcomers passing the exams each year.

General Teams.

This also revealed the weakness of the Guizhou Brigade. In his previous life, Fang Huai remembered studying for several years, where the top 20 ordinary students from the whole corps got into the Military Academy, with the top 7 going to Langfang (for undergraduate studies), the 8th being transferred to the Marine Police Academy, and the remaining 12 to Kunzhi.

Squad leaders and key members, as well as recommended students, accounted for roughly 10 spots at Kunzhi in total.

With only 22 people coming to Kunzhi from the Guizhou Brigade, they were far from meeting the average.

Fang Huai also came to understand why in a Big Team the political chief turned out to be the Political Commissar; the headcount of a single Big Team far exceeded a Fire Brigade, and moreover, it was full of cadres.

He stopped a student to ask for directions and then went straight to the top floor, where he found the Political Commissar’s office.

The Political Commissar was not there.

The office of the Big Team Captain next door, however, had its door slightly ajar with the light on. Fang Huai immediately knocked.

"Reporting!"

"Come in."

When he pushed the door open, it didn’t resemble an office as much as a bedroom, complete with a bed, and a colonel was busy writing at a desk that wasn’t too large.

"Captain, good evening, I’m here to report for duty."

"Report for duty?"

The colonel looked up, glanced at him and asked, "Are you the promoted student?"

Fang Huai stood at attention and replied, "Yes, sir!"

The colonel didn’t ask further questions. He reached for the Two-Way Radio on the desk, but then seemed to reconsider and walked to the door, calling out confidently:

"Wu Niandong!"

Immediately, a student relayed the call down the corridor to the other end: "Wu Squadron! General Jiang is calling for you!"

From a room down there, a captain hustled over.

"General Jiang!"

The Lieutenant Colonel said to the captain, "Your Squadron’s man has arrived. Take him to collect his things first, then report to the academy."

With several hundred people in a single Big Team, Fang Huai was quite a unique case, but it seemed the Big Team Captain didn’t have the bandwidth to show much concern.

Wu Niandong, the Captain, looked at Fang Huai and picked up a bag for him.

"Let’s go, our Squadron is on the fifth floor."

"Yes, sir!"

Arriving at his new unit, Fang Huai adopted a cautious attitude, determined not to make idle conversation.

However, upon reaching the "Squadron Department office," he found a Lieutenant Colonel sitting inside.

"Instructor Liu, the one from Squad Nine who asked for leave has arrived."

With just one sentence from Captain Wu, Fang Huai found himself thoroughly confused.

The Squadron Instructor was a Lieutenant Colonel, displaying the insignia of a deputy regiment as per the dress uniform, while the Squadron Captain was but a captain of a Regular Company.

Yet after some thought, he found a clue.

The school was a major-general level unit, corresponding to the corps level. If a Detachment was set below that, managing the cadres would require a much larger number and centralized management wouldn’t be convenient.

Thus, there were only Big Teams, no Detachments.

This meant that a Big Team equivalent to a regimental establishment, the political chief officer would thus correspond to a full regimental level, and the Squadron political chief officer would match the level of a battalion (or deputy regiment).

However, it was heard that the Squadron Captain needed to lead the drills, requiring younger cadres, so the rank wasn’t elevated, with the Squadron Captain remaining at the company level, same as in local forces.

In summary, apart from the Squadron Captain, all ranks were elevated by an entire level.

"What is your name?" asked Lieutenant Colonel Instructor Liu.

"Reporting! Fang Huai!"

"Why did you take such a long leave?"

"Reporting! Our Squadron was just approved as a pilot project, and I am in charge. There was a lot to handle, so the leadership allowed me to settle the Squadron’s affairs before coming here!... Instructor, I might need to ask for leave to return in early November."

"Oh..." The Instructor had just learned the specifics of his situation and seemed to understand suddenly.

The leadership had arranged it, and the calls had been made to the level of the school’s principal and political commissar. They knew only that the leave was approved by the leadership.

However, upon hearing the circumstances, the Instructor still frowned and reprimanded him:

"With your situation, always needing leave, you might as well not bother coming. It sets a bad precedent; just participate in the final exams."

Fang Huai: ...

He really wanted to say: So should I leave?

"Reporting to the Instructor, I wish to study, but my tasks are just too heavy. These are tasks personally entrusted by Director Chen, and I dare not neglect them."

He didn’t like playing coy; instead, he chose to flaunt his connections openly.

And when it came to leveraging connections, he had plenty of confidence.

If he was going to leverage, he’d go for the biggest name and stack the buffs all at once, to avoid future hassles.

With that statement, the Squadron Captain and Instructor both stared at him in silence, not daring to utter a word.

Mentioning Director Chen right off the bat was something they weren’t prepared to respond to.

Who exactly was this young man?

One should realize that the photo of the previous director’s inspection visit was still hanging in the display case next to the Teaching Building, and the current one had not visited so far. While there were many personnel with connections throughout the academy, none were linked to someone of such high level.

As for acquiring the interest of the director through capability alone, that was out of the question; only those who were part of the system understood the immense divide between an ordinary Soldier and cadre, and someone at the director’s rank. The director might not even give the management cadres a second glance, let alone the common soldiers.