Chapter 182: The Military Parade

As they were discussing various matters, they saw students from the National School pushing about a dozen wheeled chairs. Everyone was puzzled. Were they going to perform a play about the Three Kingdoms? But they didn’t need so many Zhuge Liangs, did they? They saw that the people in the chairs were all disabled, some missing an arm, some a leg, and some with their faces wrapped in white cloth. They were all wearing the gray uniforms of the short-hairs’ soldiers, with metal plates called “medals” hanging on their chests, and a red cloth strip sewn on their cuffs—this was the newly promulgated wound badge among the honorary insignia.

Next, the Chief of the General Staff, Ma Qianzhu, read out the commendation order and preferential treatment decision for the ten disabled personnel from the Bopu battle, including disability subsidies, employment and housing preferences, and other preferential policies. Finally, these wheelchairs were pushed to the viewing stand on one side of the rostrum. For the representatives, this was just a spectacle, but for the army and navy soldiers lined up on the side of the stadium, the meaning of this moment was extraordinary. Especially Huang Xiong, who knew well that if a soldier was disabled on the battlefield, even if he could crawl back, it was a dead end. The short-hairs not only took care of the disabled soldiers but also let them show their faces on such a grand occasion… This Australian army truly treated its soldiers as human beings.

With the end of the commendation, Ma Qianzhu announced that the Security Regiment’s drill would now begin. As his high-decibel words, amplified by the microphone and speakers, had just fallen, a large drum was struck with a heavy hammer. A commotion went through the villagers, who turned their heads in confusion and looked around.

Their confusion was swept away by the approaching phalanx of the first company of the first instructional battalion, which began to move slowly to the monotonous rhythm of the drumbeat “dong… dong… dong, dong, dong.” The county magistrate naturally recognized this as the drum that was originally in front of the main hall of the county yamen for announcing the start of a court session—he didn’t know how they had managed to bring it here, but he also didn’t expect that this drum could produce such a murderous sound.

One phalanx was the benchmark company trained by Wei Aiwen, with the best military appearance and posture in the entire battalion. For this military parade to display their strength, the army and navy had conducted a competitive training. The Hardt faction, led by Wei Aiwen and Zhang Bailin, resolutely demanded the goose step as the standard parade step, but it was rejected by the majority of veterans who had served in the PLA—they didn’t know what the goose step was. The navy, on the other hand, started from scratch and adopted the British-style drill to fully demonstrate the difference between the navy and the army.

Originally, according to the navy’s idea, they also wanted to change the sailors’ uniforms to highlight the difference between the navy and the army—after all, the only difference in clothing between the navy and the army now was the color. However, it was ultimately rejected by the frugal Executive Committee. They were about to enter a phase of large-scale population explosion, and the newly recruited soldiers would all need clothes. It was better to save the cloth for them.

The drums beat, and the fifes played melodiously. The banners were like blood, and the bayonets were like a forest.

Accompanied by the tune of “The Grenadiers March” played by the fife players personally trained by Xiong Buyou, the 81 soldiers, 1 flag bearer, 1 officer, and 1 fife player of the benchmark company marched forward with great strides. Each drumbeat coincided with the footsteps of the 84 officers and soldiers. The neat sound of their footsteps, the drumbeat, and the fife music seemed to have a hypnotic effect, making everyone’s eyes completely focused on the soldiers passing in front of the grandstand. Every soldier was in high spirits. They already had soft shoulder boards sewn on their shoulders, and a simple military rank system was about to be implemented. The belts and the buckles on them were all polished to a shine. They looked majestic.

The rifles carried on the soldiers’ shoulders had 45-centimeter-long triangular bayonets fixed on their slender barrels. The sharp blades and the specially polished and oiled bodies of the bayonets showed their only purpose—to open a transparent hole an inch long and half an inch wide in someone’s chest, or to open a hole in their back as well.

Eighty-four pairs of feet were lifted and fell at the same time, and their footsteps raised clouds of dust. Although they were only wearing cloth shoes, the neat and heavy sound of their footsteps still gave the people present a strong sense of oppression.

When passing the grandstand, the leading officer drew his saber and gave the command “Present arms!” The soldiers quickly took the rifles from their shoulders, switched hands, and held their bayonets straight up to the sky in a present arms salute. It looked as if the phalanx had instantly grown half a meter taller. The bayonets were like a forest, and the metal light reflected in the sun sent a chill down everyone’s spine.

The high-ranking officials of the Executive Committee on the grandstand stood up straight, each with an extremely solemn and dignified expression. Wen Desi waved his hand slightly, imitating the second-generation leader. The cameras of Dingding’s subordinates were clicking away. The whole scene really looked the part.

One phalanx after another passed by. The infantry phalanxes of the five infantry companies of the instructional battalion marched at a pace of 75 steps per minute and a distance of 25 meters, leaving the people who were seeing an infantry pass-in-review for the first time dumbfounded. The Western-style pass-in-review was too shocking for the villagers of Lingao, who had never seen an army of more than 100 people gathered together. No one noticed that the military leaders on the grandstand, such as Xi Yazhou, He Ming, and Ma Qianzhu, were slightly shaking their heads. It was still not up to standard!

The last to appear was the navy’s marine corps. It was also a phalanx of 84 men, and the tune was changed to “The People’s Navy Marches Forward.” This phalanx all marched in the British naval drill style. The belts were specially dyed white. Although there were no white gloves, it was still acceptable. The navy’s precise and beautiful drill won a round of applause from the transmigrators who were watching the show. This made Wei Aiwen very angry—it was unfair. The marine company had fewer people, and when a company practiced drills, there were seven or eight officers around. In comparison, it was much more difficult for the army to train five companies.

After the drill inspection was over, the commander-in-chief of the parade, Xi Yazhou, once again loudly announced the start of the firepower demonstration. He signaled Xiong Buyou to broadcast a notice to everyone: if anyone was timid, they should cover their ears first!

A minute later, a rousing bugle call was heard, followed by the sound of dense horse hooves. In the distance, a large cloud of dust rose. Everyone looked on with anticipation. They saw three artillery carriages rushing in from outside at high speed. Each artillery carriage was pulled by six horses, towing 3 wheeled cannons. The artillery carriages were all carrying soldiers.

The driver did not sit on the carriage, but rode on the lead horse. He pulled back the reins, and the three artillery carriages made a beautiful turn in the middle of the field, quickly changing direction and aiming the muzzles of the cannons at the targets opposite the grandstand.

Before the carriages had come to a complete stop, the gunners and riders on the artillery carriages jumped off: unhitching the horses, pushing the cannons, opening the boxes to get the ammunition. Eight men served one cannon. Their movements were so fast that it was dazzling, but they were all in sync and identical. In a moment, the gunners had finished loading and aiming, and were waiting for the order with their flags raised. On the grandstand, Zhang Bailin waved a red flag, and the 3 cannons simultaneously spewed fire and thick smoke. The densely packed human-shaped targets half a li away were blown to pieces, with less than one in ten remaining.

A moment later, there was another volley of cannon fire. The remaining targets fell in batches like sheaves of grain being harvested by a sickle. In a short while, the cannons had fired three times in a row, completely clearing the open space by the river. Some of the representatives who were timid but unwilling to cover their ears were so scared that they fell to the ground. After the firing was over, the gunners hitched the horses again and galloped away as quickly as they had come. Their movements were so fast that it was dazzling for the representatives, leaving only the broken wooden pieces scattered in the distance and the ruts on the ground.

On the grandstand, there was another bugle call. Another 12 two-wheeled cannons were pushed into the sandbag positions. They were loaded, aimed, and waited for the order again. The red flag on the city wall was waved again. This time, the prepared villagers were not scared, but the flames and thick smoke that suddenly erupted two li away and the wooden boards that were blown into the sky once again shocked all the villagers and the people from the county yamen.

Zhang Bailin nodded with satisfaction. The first volley of 6-pounder canister shot was real, and the effect was very obvious. For the volley of 12-pounder mountain howitzer shells, to enhance the sound and light effects, electrically controlled explosive charges were buried in the target area in advance. Whether the shells hit or not, the extraordinary power of dozens of jin of gunpowder exploding would completely convince the gentry of Lingao not to have too high expectations for the Qiongzhou military commander.

As expected, from Wu Ya to Huang Bingkun, everyone’s face was ashen. Even Wang Zhaomin, who had come to see the situation and report back to the county magistrate, felt a complete sense of powerlessness—in the past, he still had the idea of feigning compliance and helping his master get through this period before getting away. He was certain of the final defeat of this group of short-hairs—it was just a matter of when the imperial court could deal with the Kun bandits with all its strength, and they would naturally be finished. The best result would be to get on their iron ships and go back to where they came from.

But now it seemed that the reason why this group of Kun bandits was still cooped up in a corner of Lingao was only because their wings were not yet fully fledged. In just a few months, they had trained a group of poorly clothed poor boys into a fierce army. So many people were equipped with invincible and long-range short-hair muskets, and they had built cannons that were better than those of the red-haired people. The Kun bandits’ private army already had such a momentum with only a few hundred men. If they had thousands of men in the future, wouldn’t they be able to roam freely in the Qiongzhou prefecture? Even the entire province of Guangdong, what could it do to them? It seemed that their ambitions were far from just seeking a piece of land for residence and trade like the Portuguese.

Thinking of this, Strategist Wang sighed secretly: the southeast corner of the imperial court would have no peace in the future. I’m afraid it will be another Jianzhou Jurchen.

The high-level officials of the Executive Committee on the grandstand all showed excitement on their faces. Wen Desi nodded repeatedly and turned to Xi Yazhou and said, “The artillery is very well trained!”

“This is all done by Zhang Bailin and Ying Yu. Lin Shenhe also contributed a lot—what the 19th-century artillery was like, we basically relied on Lin Yanei’s firsthand information.”

“The artillery looks very combat-effective. It really is the god of war.”

“It’s just that we are seriously short of horses now,” Ying Yu saw that the leader was concerned and knew that he had to report the problem while the leader was happy. “Otherwise, we could have dispatched more horse artillery for this demonstration.”

“Horses are indeed a problem,” Ma Qianzhu also interjected. “Not just for the artillery, we originally wanted to form a cavalry team. Future long-range reconnaissance and interdiction will all require cavalry.”

“We’ll brainstorm a solution at the next weekly meeting. We can’t solve it by relying on the Guangdong side.”