Chapter Three Hundred and Sixty-Seven: A Gathering of Heroes

Wu Mu’s suspicion of Yang Cao lessened considerably—a spy wouldn’t torture herself for years in advance just to create a bunch of scars, would she?

However, Yang Cao’s calmness and decisiveness only increased his doubts about her. He discussed his concerns with Zhao Manxiong. Zhao Manxiong asked, “Do you think this person is reliable?”

“Reliable, but I’m worried—” Wu Mu hesitated, “that I can’t control her.”

“You are fully in charge of the student team,” Zhao Manxiong said. “If you think she is unusable, just expel her.”

“But I feel it’s a pity.”

“I’m afraid I can’t make this decision for you,” Zhao Manxiong said. “You are now a person in charge and must have the ability to make independent decisions. I will agree with whatever you decide to do.”

Wu Mu returned to his office and thought for a long time. Finally, he called He Chun and Ke Yun separately and asked them again about Yang Cao’s situation in detail. He found no more suspicious circumstances. Finally, he put a checkmark on Yang Cao’s reflection paper to indicate that it was approved.

Yao Yulan’s “passing the test” was very difficult. First, she didn’t have much resonance with “The Test,” so she couldn’t be “sincere and heartfelt.” Second, her usual flamboyance brought her a lot of trouble. In the political study section, the classmates who were dissatisfied with her sense of superiority took the opportunity to attack her and rejected her reflection paper several times. Yao Yulan had to rewrite it six times. Full of complaints, she thought about dropping out, but she felt it was a bit of a loss to drop out after suffering so much. In the end, she barely passed with the help of Lu Cheng. Of course, after that, her way of dealing with people became much more low-key.

The deepening of political study greatly improved the learning enthusiasm of the entire training class. Wu Mu now understood some of the mysteries of this—that is, to keep the students in a state of excitement at all times. This excitement could not be simply filled with study courses, so he arranged many cultural and sports activities: they could not only exercise their bodies but also prevent the students from having wild thoughts. In particular, a visit was arranged every week to let the students fully experience the power of the Transmigrator Group and build up the belief that the Transmigrator Group was “invincible.”

The students’ professional studies were getting deeper and deeper. The short-term training class strived to be fast, so it could not be like the non-commissioned officer student training class, starting from the basics and teaching slowly. Zhao Manxiong invited many people to give lectures: Ran Yao taught an introduction to political security; Mu Min taught the organization and implementation of political security work and investigation methods; Zhou Dongtian taught interrogation methods; Zhou Botao taught secret investigation; Liu Zheng taught wilderness survival skills; Xue Ziliang taught traceology, and was also responsible for team building training and fighting skills lectures…

“The transmigrator members are really full of talents,” Zhao Manxiong couldn’t help but sigh. “It’s a gathering of heroes.”

Because some people were too professional—Zhao Manxiong had to remind them many times: the students were a group of natives who didn’t even have a primary school level, and the enemy’s level would not be much higher. Teaching those overly professional knowledge and skills was not like using a bull’s knife to kill a chicken, but using a Gatling gun to kill a chicken.

“Some knowledge and skills are too advanced. There is no need for the natives to master them too early,” Zhao Manxiong said to Xue Ziliang and Salina. Among all the teachers, these two had the most outstanding professional skills and generally represented the international level. The Americans were also more casual, so Zhao Manxiong had to specifically remind them.

The students quickly learned how to establish a secret work network, how to conduct secret investigations, how to monitor organizations and individuals, how to observe the undercurrents beneath the surface calm, how to conduct secret communications and contacts…

Many courses were conducted through field exercises. Once, Zhou Botao took them to Dongmen City and let them move freely for three hours. After returning, he asked them to recall the details of Dongmen City as much as possible: the direction of the streets, the number and location of shops, etc. As a result, most people were stunned on the spot. Many people had wandered around the entire Dongmen City in these three hours, but they had not thought of remembering any details.

Most people could only vaguely say the names of the larger shops, and many had not entered the smaller and more remote side streets.

“Pay attention to details anywhere!” Zhou Botao reminded them. “Details will save your lives!”

When escaping, if you have done your homework in advance and know the surrounding terrain like the back of your hand, you will not end up in a dead end. You can escape to a secluded place to hide or blend into a crowded market at any time according to the situation.

When chasing or tracking, you will know which direction the other party may escape to and where you may be able to intercept him.

In order to test whether they always maintained such observation skills, sometimes they would be announced to go to the street for a certain internship, but after returning, they would be asked to recall other content.

Once, when Lu Cheng went for a field observation, the order she received was to collect the activity patterns of the street vendors in Dongmen City. But after she reported back, Zhou Botao asked her to report how many prostitutes she saw waiting for customers in Dongmen City that day and to identify them from the photos of the registered prostitutes on the table.

Lu Cheng had never thought that such a problem would arise. She despised these women who voluntarily sold their bodies and were shameless, and she didn’t even look at them.

“Why didn’t you look at them?” Zhou Botao asked in return. “You are a political security cadre. There are no people you like or dislike in this world, only our own people and enemies. Those who oppose us are enemies, and those who are willing to work hard to earn money and pay taxes are our own people. You must always remember this!”

They learned tracking and anti-tracking, and conducted field training in the market, wilderness, forests, and mountains. Zhou Botao taught the commonly used ABC tracking method, which was carried out by three people in turn.

“When tracking, two people follow behind the target and switch every once in a while to prevent the target from discovering them,” Zhou Botao pointed to the street sand table model on the table. “The third person is on the opposite side of the street. If it’s in the wild, on the other side of the river or other similar obstacles, keeping basically parallel and slightly behind the target.”

“The role of the third person is to prevent the target from suddenly changing position,” Zhou Botao used a pointer to push the wooden chess piece representing the target to the other side of the street. “In case he suddenly crosses the street, and there are many people and cars on the street, it is very likely that before you have time to follow, the other party will have disappeared into a side street.”

Zhou Botao reminded them that the easiest place to lose a target during tracking and pursuit is not in the wilderness or a remote corner of the city—these places are sparsely populated and it is easy to expose one’s tracks.

“The easiest place to be shaken off is in a bustling market, especially those with many intersecting streets. Once you lose track of the other party in such a place, it is very difficult to find them again.”

The students played the roles of trackers and monitored targets in turn, and competed against each other. The loser would be punished by cleaning for the winner for several days.

Zhou Botao was particularly good at teaching tracking, and he also had a unique approach to investigation. This made Mu Min, who came to class, very curious. She knew that Zhou Botao was a retired soldier and was good with pistols, but it was certain that he was not from the public security system, and many of the techniques he used clearly had a “wild” feel to them.

“I’m a private detective,” Zhou Botao explained. “I specialize in investigating extramarital affairs.”

Private detectives are best at secretly taking pictures of evidence, so Zhou Botao had his own unique methods for secret evidence collection such as tracking and secretly taking pictures.

In order to improve the physical fitness of each student, Chen Sigen was responsible for the physical training of the student team. Chen Sigen was a professional fitness coach and a doctor of nutrition. His current title was “Director of the Nutrition and Fitness Department of the Ministry of Health.” He was responsible for formulating the menus for both the elders and the natives.

Because the recruits were immigrants who had been in Lingao for six months, their nutritional status and physical fitness were much better than those of the ordinary natives in this time and space. However, Chen Sigen believed that this was not enough for someone who was about to engage in political security work. Although secret police and intelligence personnel, like most people, spent most of their time doing office work, the Transmigrator Group was relatively short of manpower and would not have detailed internal and external service personnel. Every security cadre might have to go out on duty and, when necessary, take up arms to defend the regime. Their physical fitness directly affected their work efficiency.

Chen Sigen decided to raise the food standard of the political security students to the same level as that of the army and navy non-commissioned officer student class.

“Isn’t this a bit too high?” Wu Mu was a little hesitant. He was of course willing to give his students better food, but raising it to the highest level among the native students at once, he was a little worried that it would cause a backlash from other departments.

“Have you ever fired a pistol?” Chen Sigen asked.

“A few times. There was training organized after D-Day,” Wu Mu was a little embarrassed. “I shot very poorly.”

“Do you know the physical fitness required for pistol shooting?”

“What?” Wu Mu thought, what physical fitness is needed for a pistol?

“The most important thing for pistol shooting is arm strength,” Chen Sigen said. “A person holding a gun should be able to easily complete 30 push-ups and also be able to complete a 5000-meter run, so that the pistol can exert its proper effect. And we are going to give the native students pistols made by the machinery factory themselves.”

While improving the food, Chen Sigen began to gradually train them in physical fitness, strengthening their strength, body coordination, and endurance. This was also to prepare their bodies for the next step of teaching fighting skills.

No matter what kind of fighting skills or martial arts, the most basic requirement is that the user has enough strength. An attack without strength is ineffective.

Chen Sigen was good at free fighting and was responsible for part of the fighting skills coaching course. However, the main fighting and grappling course was taught by Xue Ziliang. He taught the Krav Maga fighting skills commonly used by law enforcement units in the United States.