Chapter 6: Republic of China: Starting from the First Class of Whampoa Chapter 6 Merchant Corps Soldiers

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Protagonist:

Lv Muzhi

"Me?"

Lv Muzhi felt it was rather sudden; as for ideals and such, he really hadn't thought them through.

If he really had to claim some lofty ideal, he could lie to the Principal, but facing these sincere young people before him, he truly couldn't bring himself to say it.

Looking at seventeen-year-old Song Xilian with his lofty aspirations, Lv Muzhi had once fantasized as a child about growing up to be an astronaut, yet in the end wasn't he just mixing cement at a construction site?

His own seventeen years... simply incomparable.

Lv Muzhi had no noble ideals, only one engraved in his genes, and he spoke frankly:

"The great trend of the world: after long division comes unification; this is inevitable in China. Our Whampoa Army will surely succeed in the Northern Expedition. What I most want is to one day measure swords with the Japanese devils. Huo Qubing sealed the Wolf Ju Xu; I will water my horses at the foot of Mount Fuji!"

Everyone cheered for Lv Muzhi, after all the Japanese devils had oppressed China plenty in recent years. Only if the Northern Expedition succeeded sooner could they have the capital to confront imperialism directly!

"Good!", Jiang Xiangyun led the applause: "Everyone's ideals combined are my ideal, Jiang Xiangyun's. One day, all of this will come true!"

Everyone started chatting freely. Jiang Xiangyun sent a few students to scatter around for sentry duty, while the rest sat together chatting about everything from dragon-slaying arts to domestic and international situations. If other warlords heard, these were topics that could get one's head cut off. Fortunately, it was now a chaotic era, not something as simple as just chatting.

"Not to mention anything else, our Whampoa Military Academy is actually quite dangerous, you know?"

Yunnan Clique warlord general Fan Shisheng, last time he was chatting with the Principal, said he wanted to use a battalion's strength to confiscate all our Whampoa students' military equipment!

It scared the Principal so much that when he returned to school that night, he strictly arranged defenses, didn't sleep all night, and inspected the artillery batteries on Changzhou Island several times!

"You ask how I know? I saw it while on guard duty!" Chen Geng said, recounting secrets he had heard from elsewhere.

"Brother Chen's intelligence is truly well-informed. Is it really true?"

"Tsk! You'd better not doubt it." Chen Geng had no suspicion: "Those warlords in Guangzhou, on the surface they support the Grand Marshal, but not one of them doesn't oppose KMT-CCP Cooperation. There are even rumors that we want to practice communism and share wives!"

"And there's the big merchant in the city, Chen Lianbo. A merchant, with four thousand soldiers under him. What does he want to do?!"

"Exactly, exactly. I think if we really talk revolution, the Yunnan Clique warlord Yang Ximin and the Guangxi Clique warlord Liu Zhenhuan in Guangzhou City, and the big merchant Chen Lianbo, will very likely be the first to oppose us!"

"Right right right! If we want the Northern Expedition to succeed, we can't rush. After we graduate, first stabilize the Guangdong Province base, don't let anyone steal our home, then take Hainan Island. Only with a piece of territory truly our own can we do it; we can't rely only on those warlord troops' soldiers."

"Our Whampoa army building is to establish an army truly belonging to the Qingtian Party and the Workers and Peasants Party, truly grasp the right to speak in the Guangdong region, then march north..."

"By then I'll first attack Yingxiong City, then Changsha and Wuchang, station in Shanghai, take half the country before talking more..."

A group of young people in their teens and twenties chatted with animated faces. Thinking that everyone wasn't just chatting but truly preparing to do this in the future, an impulse also rose in Lv Muzhi's heart.

Early the next morning, the campfire had already been extinguished, and Lv Muzhi's Second Group also had to continue the map survey exercise.

"Hurry hurry! Fan Hanjie and He Zhonghan's group got up early and are now five hundred meters behind us!" Chen Geng reported the latest intelligence he had discovered.

The classmates in the group, under Lv Muzhi's instruction, had already mastered the surveying methods, so they unanimously decided that the subsequent progress would be personally overseen by Lv Muzhi to increase speed and strive to be the first to complete the task.

Lv Muzhi took the initiative without hesitation, directing classmates to go ahead and hold the leveling rod.

Soon, the Second Group reached the foot of Shougou Ridge, surveyed around the foot of Shougou Ridge again and again, and then surveyed all the way to the mountaintop.

Chen Geng was sweating profusely from exhaustion. If one asked who was most tired in surveying work, it must be the one running around holding the leveling rod.

There was no way around it; whose fault was it that Chen Geng's footwork was excellent? The person holding the leveling rod needed good leg strength, steady hands, and a careful heart. Chen Geng was the most suitable candidate!

Lv Muzhi only needed to be responsible for operating the instrument, reading precisely, and calculating.

"Muzi, how is it, have you surveyed it?" Jiang Xiangyun asked expectantly.

Lv Muzhi drew the final stroke on the scratch paper: "Surveyed it. The elevation of Shougou Ridge is 40.1 meters, and I've also drawn the terrain map of the Shougou Ridge area!"

Lv Muzhi took out the drawn terrain map for everyone to see.

Jiang Xiangyun took it and passed it around to other classmates: "Look, it's drawn very carefully, the contour lines are very smooth, it looks very comfortable."

"Indeed concise and clear. The mountain body trend from northwest to southeast of Shougou Ridge, the position of the ridgeline, are all clearly displayed."

By the time He Zhonghan and Fan Hanjie carried the surveying equipment up the mountain, Lv Muzhi and Jiang Xianyun and the others had already packed up and gone down the mountain.

Going down the mountain, the two sides brushed past each other. He Zhonghan looked at Lv Muzhi with a meaningful gaze, and this look made Lv Muzhi very uncomfortable.

Lv Muzhi looked back and saw He Zhonghan's back as he went up the mountain. It seemed somewhat familiar, and he couldn't help but widen his eyes—He Zhonghan was the person who had slipped him a threatening note last night!

"Let's go!"

Chen Geng tugged at Lv Muzhi, who was standing still: "What are you spacing out for? Hurry and take the terrain map to Chief Instructor He!"

Lv Muzhi came back to his senses and went down the mountain with his classmates, already keeping He Zhonghan in mind.

At the foot of Shougou Ridge, Chief Instructor He had just arrived, and Jiang Xiangyun handed over the terrain map.

Chief Instructor He carefully checked it, took out a map drawn long ago from his document bag to compare: "Hmm, very good, just as good as the one measured by the professional surveying institute in my hand. The data is correct, the contour lines are smooth, and the speed is also very fast!"

Jiang Xiangyun hurriedly pulled Lv Muzhi out: "This was led by student Lv Muzhi. He also taught our whole group how to operate the instruments."

Chief Instructor He was obviously very happy. This was the true purpose of holding this exercise. Although he had some small thoughts on grouping, combat effectiveness came first. Achieving results was the top priority!

"Not bad... not bad... When you graduate, I think you can stay at the school to teach. We lack topography instructors very much. After we establish the Engineer Corps, you can teach several more courses!"

Be an instructor? Wouldn't that mean he could stay at the school to teach and educate people, without going to the battlefield? He might even be able to find a job matching his major and study architecture with Mr. Liang Sicheng! Lv Muzhi was already lost in fantasy.

"Chief Instructor! There's a situation!" Before Lv Muzhi could respond, Chen Geng shouted while holding up binoculars.

"Several hundred people carrying guns came out of Guangzhou City and went east all the way. Also, more than ten people are heading our way!"

Hearing this, Chief Instructor He immediately held up binoculars to observe.

Lv Muzhi, who had no binoculars, set up the leveling instrument. The telescope on the leveling instrument could also be used to look far away.

"Not good. These are people from the Guangzhou Merchant Corps. So many people carrying guns out of the city—are they seeking revenge or what?" He Yingqin muttered to himself.

The Guangzhou Merchant Corps was a merchant self-defense organization to protect commerce and suppress bandits. It started with only a few hundred people, but now had developed to over three thousand.

Using so many soldiers to protect commerce—who would believe that if said out loud?

"They're going east all the way, and our Whampoa Military Academy is also in the east. They wouldn't be coming for us, would they?" Jiang Xiangyun said anxiously.

He Yingqin made a decisive decision: "Immediately cancel the Map Survey Exercise, assemble all students, and return to Whampoa Military Academy!"