Chapter 46: The Oath

It was a bright, sunny day. In the slightly chilly north wind of a Hainan winter, the military flag at Ma Niao Fort fluttered in the wind.

Tian Liang woke up before dawn, repeating his daily tasks over and over again, meticulously following the issued documents and regulations, fearing he would miss a single item.

It had been a week since the order to “pack luggage and await departure” was received. The preparations for each company and battalion were complete. Officers from the brigade, battalion, company, General Staff, and Logistics Department tirelessly inspected each soldier and each company’s equipment over and over again, afraid of missing a single detail.

The transported supplies were piled up like mountains. Not only were there supplementary expeditionary equipment, but the weapons were also inspected. The rifles in the soldiers’ hands were updated based on the ordnance inspection. Other personal equipment, large and small luggage, were all checked again and again, for fear of omission. But while ensuring everything was in order, they also had to be careful not to be overweight. The “three divisions and four determinations” work of each unit was strictly inspected according to regulations. This regulation specified what items each soldier should carry during wartime, peacetime, and training, and what they should not.

This regulation had been implemented in the past, but never as meticulously as this time. The General Staff officers who came to inspect brought scales and weighed each soldier’s load. Not a single extra pound was allowed.

Tian Liang was swamped. His company was newly established. Although old soldiers were added in proportion when the new units were formed, the proportion of new soldiers in the company was still too high. Moreover, the new recruits were the first batch of mobilized soldiers recruited under the compulsory military service system, and their ideological situation was quite complex.

In recent years, life in Hainan had been getting better day by day, and the people’s enthusiasm for joining the army had greatly decreased. No matter how good the soldiers’ treatment and how high their status, there was a risk of death once a war started. Therefore, after the new recruits entered the camp, their emotions fluctuated greatly. As an officer, he not only had to do ideological work but also ensure there were no deserters. For this reason, each squad designated “help targets,” and old soldiers were responsible for “man-to-man” supervision. Although the Senate’s civil administration system could ensure that a deserter could be caught as long as he didn’t flee to the mainland or deep into the mountains, a desertion would be a great blow to morale.

“Catching a deserter takes time. Before he is caught, your company will be shaken by a single desertion. Those who were originally hesitant will see an example and make up their minds to flee as well,” said Yuanlao Wei Aiwen from the General Staff’s Political Department at the officer training class. He was specifically teaching the newly promoted grassroots officers about company political and ideological work.

Preventing desertion and boosting morale became the main work of grassroots company officers like Tian Liang. This was a difficult task for the clumsy and inarticulate Tian Liang. Fortunately, this military expansion had supplemented a batch of “student officers,” the first graduates of the army’s complete three-year officer training program. They had all completed two years of primary school at Fangcaodi before transferring to the army training class for three years. Their cultural level and military quality were incomparable to the existing officers. What they lacked was actual experience in leading troops in combat. Tian Liang’s company had also been supplemented with a young officer, and Tian Liang entrusted these matters to him.

Since there was no more training, most of the time was spent in meetings. Mobilization meetings and “bitterness recollection” meetings were held in turns at all levels. The new student officers were eloquent, full of new terms, and very good at motivating. The various motivational propaganda materials issued by the propaganda department were filled with descriptions of famine, plague, the government’s exorbitant taxes, disaster victims selling their children and eating human flesh, the invasion of the Eastern Barbarians, the rampage of bandits, and the tyranny of the gentry… These did not require much effort to depict. As long as they were refugees who had fled from the mainland, they had more or less experienced it firsthand or heard about it.

In addition to propaganda materials, organizing soldiers to “recollect bitterness” themselves and sending special “lecture groups” were also important means. Real people telling their stories were more vivid and moving than dry written materials.

He remembered the numbers summarized by the company clerk at the bitterness recollection meeting yesterday: 95 people had experienced fleeing famine and begging; 100 people had gone hungry; 70 people had lost one or both parents; 91 people had lost siblings; 14 people had been sold into slavery; 31 people had sold their wives, children, or younger siblings; 9 people had been sodomized… and finally, a chilling and terrifying number: 10 people had eaten human flesh.

His company had a total of only 100 men.

The peaceful times in Hainan had buried their terrifying memories of the past. And now, the political mobilization meetings had awakened these terrible memories from the depths of their minds, turning them into immense anger and inspiring high morale.

Tian Liang walked past the company’s wall newspaper board. Now, besides the unchanging Lingao Times, it was filled with the determination letters of everyone in the company. Writings of various handwriting and fonts covered the wall, many of them in red ink, strikingly eye-catching. Just as Tian Liang was about to take a look, he suddenly heard a burst of crying from the soldiers’ activity room. A moment later, two soldiers came out supporting a person, who had probably fainted. Tian Liang was no longer surprised by such things. Most of the soldiers here had escaped from the brink of death. Who didn’t have a bellyful of tragic stories! It was fine when they were kept hidden, but now that they were stirred up, the huge emotional waves were often too much for their nerves to bear.

Thinking of his own past, Tian Liang’s eyes also grew hot, and tears almost fell. Fearing being seen, he quickly turned around, rubbed his eyes, and controlled his emotions before walking towards the kitchen in front.

The company’s kitchen was busy. The cooking squad and the soldiers helping in the kitchen were busy preparing lunch. Because they had entered a state of combat readiness, each company had already handed over its pigs and sheep to the Heaven and Earth Society in exchange for fresh meat. The daily food supplement from the logistics department had also been upgraded. Now, not only was there chicken, duck, fish, and meat every day, but every meal had them.

Tian Liang looked at the steaming dishes on the large plates and remembered a soldier saying that these were their last meals. A wave of indescribable emotion washed over him.

Suddenly, a rapid drumbeat sounded across the entire camp. Tian Liang was stunned. It was the drumbeat for an “emergency assembly.” He immediately picked up the whistle hanging around his neck and blew it, shouting at the messenger who was running over, “Quick! Full company assembly!”

Almost immediately, the sound of emergency assembly drums echoed throughout the entire camp. The officers and soldiers who had been preparing for the expedition in the barracks for months were startled. Almost simultaneously, a thought flashed through their minds: “It’s here!”

The four infantry battalions and the direct subordinate units of the army and brigade levels that were being trained and organized at Ma Niao Fort quickly assembled on the large training ground.

“At ease!” the officer of the day gave the command, then shouted, “The Commander of the South China Army will now speak!”

“Comrades!” Xi Yazhou stood on the wooden reviewing stand and shouted into the newly set up loudspeaker, “I will now read the order to you all.” He unfolded a document in his hand, paused briefly, and then read, “By order of the Chairman of the Senate!…” When these seven words came out of his mouth, with a “swish,” all the officers and soldiers stood at attention, all eyes focused on his closed lips, waiting for the content that would follow.

“All units of the South China Army, the 1st Infantry Battalion, the 8th Infantry Battalion…” Xi Yazhou read a long string of unit designations in one breath. “Our Song-Australian government, the armed forces under the leadership of the Senate, have achieved a great victory in the revolutionary war against the reactionary government of the pseudo-Ming. The enemy’s aggression against us has met with a shameful demise, and the lair of the reactionaries who started the war has also been severely punished. The entire Hainan has been liberated. This is the result of the united efforts and heroic struggle of all our officers and soldiers. I extend my warmest congratulations and thanks to you all.

But our combat mission is not yet over. The pseudo-Ming still oppresses the vast majority of the people on the land of China. The corrupt and incompetent pseudo-Ming regime is not only powerless to protect the people but has intensified its persecution of the common people. The land of China is in deep water and scorching fire.

I order! All officers and soldiers of the Fubo Army, resolutely carry out all orders of the Senate, cross the sea to the north, wipe out the reactionary army of the pseudo-Ming, liberate the motherland, and at the same time, eliminate bandits, the Eastern Barbarians, and roving rebels, and suppress all resistance and sabotage by the reactionaries.

Chairman of the Senate, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, Wang Luobin.”

“Long live!” As soon as Xi Yazhou’s voice fell, the thousands of soldiers gathered on the training ground shouted in unison.

The troops, formed in squares, shouted “Long live” three times. Everyone knew that the Chiefs were going to contend for the Central Plains and seize the world!

After reading the order for the northern expedition, Xi Yazhou swept his gaze over the blue-gray squares below and shouted, “Present the colors!” The political commissar then said in a loud voice, and a standard-bearer carrying an eagle flag walked up from the back of the ranks. The flag was already very old, the bright red flag face had turned grayish-red, but the iron fist, wheat ear, and gear pattern on the flag and the “s.s.a.e” Latin letters in floral script below were still clearly visible.

Tian Liang knew that this flag was the military flag that had been erected on the earthen embankment during the second anti-encirclement campaign. He had participated in that battle. Remembering the scene of the battle on the earthen embankment, he couldn’t help but feel his blood boil.

“Please raise your left hands, place them on your left chests, and face our military flag to take the oath.” The moment Xi Yazhou’s voice fell, Tian Liang’s muscles tensed with excitement, his ears buzzed, and he could hardly control himself. He followed the oath leader word by word, “For the Senate and the people, I am willing to sacrifice myself, to advance bravely, to fight heroically…”

The military music began to play, broadcast from the large speakers in the camp. The sound of the Fubo Army’s march echoed over the camp area. The shouts of “Long live, long live” spread throughout the entire Ma Niao Peninsula. Tian Liang tightly gripped the hilt of his command sword, his whole body and mind filled with strength. If he could die on the battlefield for the Senate at this moment, what a happy thing that would be.