Chapter 260: Special Training Ends
Qu Hang hugged a box of canned food and walked over.
The soldiers in the front row saw the green canned food shells inside, and their numb stomachs felt a slight sensation.
Everyone might not be familiar with canned food, but they were absolutely familiar with He Jie.
Without any excitement, they silently waited for the next torment.
He Jie jumped down from the stone and rummaged through the canned food in the box, “What the hell are these things, rice, eight treasures rice, beef… what kind of stuff is this, no thanks, just leave me the braised pork canned food, that’s the real deal.”
Qu Hang helplessly blinked at Pangtu in the team.
The latter showed no expression, just stuffed a piece of grass leaf into his mouth when He Jie wasn’t paying attention.
This thing was similar to mint, able to refresh the mind, and these days he had persisted with this trick; without these mutated plants, relying purely on his body to tough it out, he wouldn’t be much different from these tottering soldiers.
“Don’t eat these off-brand canned foods, they’re easy to upset your stomach, I’ll help you deal with them.”
He Jie used his military saber to open the canned foods one by one, some main food, some fruit, beef, venison, and damn, even a hot pot canned food.
While gorging himself, he gave everyone a nonstop theoretical lecture.
Halfway through, seeing someone had already passed out asleep, He Jie let out a satisfied belch.
He casually pointed at a soldier sleeping soundly in the second row, “Drag him out.”
Goat and Qu Hang stepped forward and hauled the man out; even when lifted up, this soldier was still sleeping.
“Help him wake up.”
He Jie sneered.
Lu Xiao brought over a large metal-assembled water tank, already filled with water, then threw the sleeping soldier in along with his sixty-to-seventy-kilogram pack.
With a splash, the soldier woke up startled and struggled for a while before climbing out.
Gasping for air in big mouthfuls.
Looking at He Jie grinning like a black bear in front of him, his lips trembled, “I-Instructor.”
He Jie grinned ferociously, “Don’t be scared, let me ask you, what’s in this pack of yours?”
The soldier tried hard to focus his mind, stammering, “Shoes, raincoat, water bag, spare military uniform, moisture-proof mat, three days’ rations, three days’ drinking water, firearm maintenance bag…”
But because his body hadn’t taken in food for too many days, it was unable to supply nutrients to his brain.
Things that were clearly very familiar, yet he just couldn’t recall them.
His brain was like it had frozen up.
“Anything else?”
“Anything else…”
“Bang!”
He Jie smashed an empty canned food box directly onto the soldier’s head, cursing loudly, “Do you have a pig brain or what?!”
“Can’t even remember this little bit of stuff?!”
“Don’t even know what’s in your own backpack?”
“When battle starts, are you gonna ask the enemy?!”
“Spend the rest of your time today sobering up in the water!”
“Which group is this?”
A captain stepped forward from the team.
Five hundred people in temporary training, divided into ten battalions, each with fifty people, each battalion with ten squads, each squad with five people.
He Jie didn’t even look at him, “Your team gets no food today.”
“Yes!”
Next, he continued the lesson, checking each of the ten battalions in turn; in total, four teams got no food due to mistakes.
Then the best-performing team got five canned foods, the second-place team got three canned foods.
The remaining teams got one canned food each.
Fifty people sharing a five-hundred-gram pork canned food.
Even including the soup, only ten grams per person.
Mongoose sniffed the small piece of “meat jelly” distributed to her.
“Yue…”
That rich and unique fishy stench almost knocked her out.
“Sister Mongoose, you okay?”
Her squad members looked at her worriedly.
Mongoose gritted her teeth, “I’d rather eat it raw than this stuff, why does the processed version smell so bad?!”
“Maybe heating it up will help… no choice, force down a bite, it’ll be over after special training ends.”
Before they finished speaking, He Jie’s irritable roar rang out from the front again.
“Are you all idiots?! Gorging yourselves while your comrades starve beside you?”
Mongoose and the others looked aside, where four teams totaling two hundred people stood in place with no food.
They proactively stepped forward and shared their food with comrades from other battalions.
The first and second-place teams also evenly distributed all their extra canned foods.
Fifteen canned foods for five hundred people; even if individuals like Mongoose took no bites, everyone else only got a tiny mouthful.
For eating, this amount of food had no effect.
But it was enough to awaken everyone’s hungry stomachs; the rumbling stomachs thought a big meal was coming soon, waking one by one from dormancy and frantically secreting stomach acid.
In less than three minutes, the entire venue was filled with thunderous stomach growls.
The many soldiers felt the surging hunger, their faces twisting one by one.
This time, they couldn’t even sleep.
They listened to He Jie’s lesson with green-tinged eyes.
Lu Xiao, standing aside, looked at the tottering crowd in the field with lingering fear, then at Qu Hang resting with eyes closed nearby.
These seven days were called soldier training, but in reality, us officers were also tormented plenty, hadn’t touched a bed, grabbing sleep whenever possible.
“Was your training like this back then?”
Qu Hang opened his eyes and said firmly, “Of course not, this is spiked, even for normal soldiers, before the apocalypse even top-tier soldiers didn’t have this training intensity.”
Lu Xiao let out a long breath, “That’s good, otherwise I’d think I was trash…”
Qu Hang said flatly, “By Marine Corps training standards, not trash, but definitely spoiled.”
Lu Xiao smiled bitterly, “Good thing I made it up, no falling into Instructor He’s hands.”
Qu Hang glanced at him, “You’re pretty good, ordinary two-year conscripts don’t have your strength.”
“I at least passed assault team selection, just, eh… never mind.”
Qu Hang checked the sky.
“Special training’s about to end, they’ll rest, but we’ve got work to do.”
That night, when He Jie announced the special training ended, five hundred soldiers collapsed to the ground, only a scant few could still stand.
Old San brought the combat group over, plus a bunch of officers, and it took half a day to carry all five hundred back.
Evolvers’ body density is higher than ordinary people.
Even a slender and shapely girl like Mongoose weighs one hundred eighty or ninety pounds, men generally over two hundred pounds, averaging around two hundred sixty.
Seeing the last soldier sent back to his room, He Jie finally relaxed a bit inside.
Seven days of special training, he was under a lot of pressure too, nerves always taut.
On one hand forcing out the soldiers’ potential, on the other considering their limits, avoiding non-combat casualties, and watching for emergencies, his head was spinning.
Good thing it wasn’t wasted effort, finally trained those survivors into somewhat soldier-like shape.
Back to Carriage Vice 2, he pushed open the door to home.
A faint fragrant rice scent wafted out.
“Daddy’s back!”
A joyful shriek rang out.
A tiny figure thumped out from the room.
He Jie’s tense face softened, he scooped up his son in one go, laughing heartily, “Did you study today?”
Little one pouted, “Why do we still have to study in the apocalypse…”
He Jie frowned, “Apocalypse has nothing to do with you, if the sky falls, your old man here’s got it!”
“I want to become a big hero like Daddy.”
He Jie was just about to say more when he saw his daughter standing prettily in front of him.
A pair of big eyes inherited from her mom blinking away.
Before she even opened her mouth, He Jie knew what she wanted to ask.
He snorted coldly, “Not training him yet, what’s the rush…”
He Zhenzhen said shyly and annoyed, “Mom and I specially asked Aunt Yu for flour and filling, just so you could have a hot bite, but the moment you get back you’re scolding this one and that one…”
Seeing his daughter angry, He Jie immediately smiled appeasingly.
After dinner, daughter took son upstairs to study, leaving the couple time for intimate words.
Han Qin chattered on about what she’d done this time, what daughter did, son’s funny incidents; though all trivial small matters, in front of He Jie, Han Qin seemed like the girl from over a dozen years ago, chirping excitedly nonstop.
He Jie sat on the sofa, eyes narrowed listening, occasionally giving perfunctory agreements.
Though many topics he wasn’t interested in, he liked listening to Han Qin talk.
Didn’t matter what about.
Just having her voice was good.
The irritable, impulsive emotions in his heart were slowly soothed by Han Qin’s fragmented nagging.
“Is the peace knot I gave you still there?”
“Mm.”
“Dirty?”
“Mm.”
“Want me to wash it for you.”
“Mm, wash it, together.”
“Did you not bring it?”
“Mm.”
“Mm?”
Han Qin’s eyebrows shot up, she pounced over and burrowed into He Jie’s clothes.
“Covered in sweat, stinks to high heaven!”
“Want me to wash up…”
“No big deal, I don’t mind you, not used to not smelling it, aaah, man scent… fragrant!”
He Jie scooped up his plump wife by the waist, “Wash together!”
“I already washed, no way.”
“Wasting water!”
“You men have plenty of points, not short that bit of water.”
“Daughter and son are still upstairs…”
“No problem, soundproofing’s good!”
“Dumb bear, lighter, you trying to tear me apart…”
…
Half an hour later, He Jie sat grinning on the sofa, kneading his wife’s calf.
The latter patted his broad arm while complaining.
“Right, the military uniforms are done today, style’s set, time to start mass production, won’t have this much free time then.”
“Just a few hundred sets, how busy can it be.”
Han Qin seemed to remember something, suddenly flipped to sit on He Jie’s lap, mysteriously saying, “You don’t know, back then Train Conductor specifically had Secretary Shu stay to try on clothes, we all left…”
Hearing his wife’s gossip, He Jie frowned, “Anything about the Train Conductor, pretend you didn’t see it, forget whatever it is, don’t say it outside.”
Seeing He Jie suddenly serious, Han Qin was a bit surprised, “I think the Train Conductor’s very kind, always smiles and greets me when he sees me, just a promising young man, not as shady as you say.”
“And it’s just telling you two sentences, not spreading gossip outside.”
He Jie twitched his mouth, “That’s because he’s usually dozing off, Train Conductor’s quirky and petty, saying it to his face might be fine, but badmouthing behind his back, he’ll mess with you every day…”
“Then your current behavior… doesn’t that count as badmouthing me behind my back?”
A frivolous voice came through the door.
Han Qin shockedly covered her mouth.
He Jie’s brow twitched, he quickly got up to open the door.
The smiling Train Conductor stood at the doorway with his secretary and bodyguard.
But to He Jie, that smile looked sinister, like he was holding back a bellyful of bad ideas.
He Jie used his broad frame to block the room door, “What is it?”
Su Huan ignored him, tilted his head and greeted the soft beauty inside, “Sister-in-law just bathed? Looks even prettier than daytime.”
Han Qin smiled somewhat awkwardly.
Su Huan looked at He Jie flush against the doorframe, speechless, “Not even inviting me in to sit?”
He Jie said grumpily, “Place is small, no room to sit.”
“Tsk, then let’s go, come sit at mine, spacious…”
“Damn, treating me like a horse!”
He Jie was a bit irritable, but still explained a couple things to Han Qin before following out.
When they arrived at the second-floor small meeting room in the dining car, no one was there.
Because Su Huan liked talking business at meals, this meeting room wasn’t used much, more for a few pursers to privately discuss issues.
Su Huan and He Jie sat down, the remaining officers didn’t need the Train Conductor to fetch personally.
Shu Wei sent messages to each of them through the front of the train command platform.
Before long, the officers of the Armed Corps had arrived one after another.
Su Huan lightly tapped the table, “Rest well tonight, tomorrow I’ll give you one day to clear the entire Guanchao Island, to facilitate establishing the outpost station, no problem, right?”
He Jie said in surprise, “We’re establishing a station?”
“Yes, the outpost station of Guan Chong Station.”
“No problem, we’ve basically cleared it these past two days anyway.”
He Jie agreed.
“The next matter is quite important, it’s about the Armed Corps’ team composition issue, you weren’t there at the last meeting, so I’ll tell you separately.”
Su Huan restated the core professions mentioned at the meeting, as well as the issue of department refinement.
Although Shu Wei or Hu Shuo could restate such matters.
But it’s not the same thing.
As the Armed Corps on par with the crew, others don’t have that qualification.
“That’s the gist of it, the crew side has already started step by step.”
Su Huan said.
He Jie said gravely, “The Steel Council’s approach really doesn’t work anymore, I felt it didn’t work when I fought you back then, past tactical experience instead restricted the Evolvers’ performance.”
“That’s right, this team composition needs to consider ability factors more.”
“The Armed Corps’ biggest problem right now is not enough officers, Mongoose and the others need more time to grow up.”
Su Huan lightly tapped the table with his index finger, eyes showing contemplation, “Mm, at critical moments we still need backbone to hold the bottom line, we can transfer a few veterans from the combat groups over, then this time I’ve opened up quite a few recruitment slots for Hu Shuo, pick some from the survivors, supplement with recruits, form a generational gap.”
“Finally, regarding the Armed Corps’ future core professions, Director Xu and I discussed it, tentatively settled on a few, find time to align with him again, adjust freely, wait until evolution resources are sufficient, I’ll prioritize tilting toward officers, you know what kind of person I am, I only look at results.”
“Yes!”
The officers answered in unison.
