Chapter 15: Graduation

Guo Jing felt that completing this task would require the collective effort of all.

Guo Jing: "Everyone, I have discovered that relying solely on martial arts and military force is insufficient to arm-wrestle Temujin."

Nie Huaishang: "We also need to rely on politics, right?"

Guo Jing: "Exactly. Just now, I gathered data and consulted the instructor, and I now understand why the Mongol iron cavalry stood united while the Song soldiers collapsed at the slightest touch."

Nie Huaishang: "This is normal. The Song Dynasty gained its throne unjustly, so it valued literature while suppressing martial arts. Moreover, the Song scholar-officials were clearly not good people; figures like Fan Zhongyan and Bao Zheng were ultimately few and far between."

"A good man should not become a soldier, and good iron should not be used for nails; this has become the norm, and soldiers have absolutely no social status."

Guo Jing: "Exactly. The privilege of not executing scholar-officials allowed this group to do whatever they pleased."

He calculated their holidays: their annual paid leave was about 120 days, and they even wrote articles praising the act of paying protection money to the Liao Kingdom.

After reading the daily lives of these so-called morally high-minded scholar-officials, Guo Jing felt he was about to vomit blood from anger.

"I have guarded Xiangyang for decades without a single day off, risking my life, while you live such a leisurely life."

From time to time, countless beautiful love stories were sung in the brothels.

So may I ask, brothels never receive merchants; they only receive scholar-officials.

But expenses in such places are not low. Upon entering a brothel, one must give the madam one tael of silver, tip the errand boy, and to set up a table of wine and dishes inside costs at least ten-plus taels of silver.

Hiring a Miss for companionship, depending on her quality, also costs several dozen taels of silver. Calculated this way, the minimum cost for a single visit is roughly 50 taels of silver.

So it is this group of people who cry poverty in court during wartime, yet can spend lavishly in brothels.

Guo Jing felt deeply unbalanced at this moment; even an honest man like him revealed a murderous intent.

Guo Jing: "Establishing a new political system inevitably requires cutting into the old class. I think the scholar-official class is a good target."

Zhang Chu'an: "Whoa, Guo Jing, I advise you to calm down. If you offend them, they will think of every way to smear you."

Guo Jing: "I have acted all my life seeking only to have no regrets in my heart. As long as I can give the people of my era the life they have today, even if I am cursed for ten thousand years, it will be worth it."

Zhang Chu'an: "As for me, I have never cared about others' opinions of me either. I will accompany you in being cursed for ten thousand years."

Nie Huaishang: "Being cursed for ten thousand years is hardly necessary; history will have its own judgment. For instance, why is the influence of Song Renzong, praised by scholars, not comparable to Qin Shi Huang and Han Han Wu Di?"

"Because facts do not change no matter how much you brag or smear them."

Zhang Xiaofan: "Scholar-officials are merely a group that does not contribute to the eternal flow of rivers and seas; do not mind them. During the Yuan Dynasty, they were only one rank higher than beggars, yet we did not see them overthrow the Yuan."

Guo Jing: "Zhu Yuanzhang was a beggar, Chen Youliang was a fisherman, and Zhang Shicheng was a salt seller. Where were the principled scholar-officials when they should have stood up?"

"This group only dares to smear others after they are dead."

Nie Huaishang: "So let us boldly cut into the scholar-official class."

Zhang Chu'an: "I think the land reform system is quite good. We can confiscate the scholar-official landlords, deposit their assets into the national treasury, and distribute the land to landless farmers."

Guo Jing: "Good idea. Let us thoroughly investigate the data here to facilitate completing the mission in The Legend of the Condor Heroes."

Therefore, in the days that followed, besides training hard at the military academy to better complete their missions, the four spent their remaining time researching data.

After researching, they discovered that every step was not simple. Establishing a base, building a political core, and ideological education were all things they needed to learn.

Each of these was a vast field of study for them.

But Guo Jing, though a dull person, had a stubborn temper; once he decided on something, he would absolutely not give up.

While learning to command troops, he was also learning how to unite the troops and perform ideological work for people.

Of course, he also occasionally flipped through Daoist classics, since he did not want to fall behind in Wu Gong, and he believed the Daoist classics would bring him unexpected surprises.

First, Zhang Chu'an's Golden Light Incantation and thunder arts both originated from the Longhu Mountain Daoists; even if he could not research other cultivation techniques, it would accelerate his Qi refinement.

Not only Guo Jing, but the other three did the same.

The reason the three focused so intently on learning was that they knew the missions in other worlds were far more difficult than the current one.

Of course, they had also discussed how to complete the remaining missions.

Zhang Chu'an: "Black Cat has already been eliminated by us; now only the drug lord Ma Yunfei and the mercenary Scorpion remain, right?"

Nie Huaishang: "The two of them are not easy to deal with either; one is a mercenary, the other a drug lord. The reason we dealt with Black Cat so easily is that we knew what his fatal weakness was."

Zhang Xiaofan: "But we do not know their fatal weaknesses, so we cannot deliver a fatal blow."

Nie Huaishang: "Scorpion will come to the domestic country in a few years to raid the execution ground. Let us not rush for now; the current headache is the drug lord Ma Yunfei."

Zhang Xiaofan: "No need for a headache. I remember the mission was quite successful; it was only because Ma Yunfei mutilated himself and took Han Xiaoying hostage that this melodramatic event occurred."

"Rest assured, at that time I will directly cripple his four limbs, and he will be unable to hold anyone hostage."

Nie Huaishang: "I approve of this idea."

Guo Jing: "Do not show mercy when dealing with him; I support it as well."

Zhang Chu'an: "Ask if the fifth limb should be crippled too."

Zhang Xiaofan: "Get lost."

Four years passed in the blink of an eye; Xiao Zhuang, He Chenguang, and Li Erniu had already enlisted.

Military academy undergraduate graduates are usually lieutenants, so Guo Jing and Zhang Chu'an became platoon leaders at the Night Tiger Reconnaissance Company.

Nie Huaishang and Zhang Xiaofan became platoon leaders at the Sharpshooter Fourth Company.

As soon as Guo Jing and Zhang Chu'an arrived at the Night Tiger Reconnaissance Company, they received a warm welcome from Company Commander Miao.

"By the way, with your resumes, you could have gone to the Wolf Tooth Brigade. Why did you come here?"

Company Commander Miao asked in confusion.

He had read both of their resumes: top students from the National University of Defense Technology, and before enrollment, they had captured the K2 organization leader Black Cat alive. With such merit, they could have easily become a squad leader in a special forces unit.

"Company Commander Miao, you are too polite. Perhaps our hand-to-hand combat and marksmanship are not inferior to special forces soldiers, but we lack greatly in leading troops, so we still need to train and learn at the grassroots level."

Guo Jing said with neither humility nor arrogance.

"Alright, good lad. If you can think this way, you are all very good."

Company Commander Miao looked at Guo Jing with appreciation. Being able to maintain such an attitude after capturing Black Cat meant they were very good.

"In that case, our company has just received a batch of new recruits who need collective training; you two will be responsible for leading the new recruits."

Hearing Miao Lian quickly made arrangements for Zhang Chu'an and Guo Jing.

Guo Jing and Zhang Chu'an raised no objections and went to the new recruit training site to pick up the recruits.

Upon arriving there, they saw a veteran soldier holding a pen, pointing at a new recruit and shouting repeatedly:

"That soldier, I'm talking to you, that soldier."

The new recruit turned around impatiently and retorted, "I'm not called 'that soldier'; my name is Zhuang Yan."