Chapter Eighteen: The Military Academy

Crash!

At the officer’s command, all the new recruits inside the carriages surged out onto the platform in a mass.

The soldiers on duty immediately spread out, shouting orders as they organized the ranks.

As they lined up, Tan Hai suddenly tugged at Du Huaishan’s sleeve and whispered, “Huaishan, look up ahead to the right!”

Du Huaishan turned his head.

A tall, dark-skinned young man with a scar at the corner of his mouth had appeared in his line of sight, with a skinny man in blue standing beside him.

It was Xing Zhenhao and his lackey!

They’d enlisted too!

Though several days had passed, the flush and swelling on the skinny man’s cheek hadn’t completely faded. Remembering their past conflict, Tan Hai was still a bit anxious—it had all started because of him, after all. “Those two aren’t planning anything nasty, are they?”

Du Huaishan’s eyes flickered. “If they don’t trouble me, I won’t trouble them.”

“Get on the trucks!”

Once the ranks were set, the officer gave another order. Everyone boarded the transport trucks in order, packed shoulder to shoulder.

The engine roared to life, and the men swayed as the truck lurched forward.

The wheels rolled on. The platform faded behind them, replaced by a bumpy road of yellow earth.

The truck’s sides were shrouded in military canvas; sunlight filtered in only through the rear. People seemed to be drawn instinctively to the light, and the back of the truck became the recruits’ only window into this “new world.” The high walls receded, piles of dead leaves lined the streets, the rooftops of blue-walled, thatched houses were tangled with yellowing weeds.

The sudden chill of autumn cut like liquor, burning their faces with its biting cold.

Squads of soldiers in khaki wool greatcoats—men and women both—moved up and down the streets. Seeing the transport trucks approach, they stepped aside, watching with interest, some even jeering and whistling.

For the veterans, it seemed, the arrival of new recruits was a never-ending subject of conversation—or perhaps an excuse to reminisce about their own green days.

“It’s Jun Tun City!” a recruit called out from inside the truck.

“No kidding—everyone knows the Military Academy’s in Jun Tun City!”

Chatting, Du Huaishan overheard that Jun Tun City was one of the many garrison towns encircling Fenghou City, but unlike the others, this one boasted a military railway, the Army Military Academy, and hosted a full brigade of soldiers from Yingzhou, always ready to be deployed.

So, on the surface, it was just a garrison town.

But in truth, it was a nest of soldiers!

“Huaishan, there sure are a lot of women soldiers here!” Tan Hai remarked as they went along, noticing many women in uniform, rifles slung on their backs, sabers at their waists.

“It’s probably thanks to the boost from ‘Red Marrow’ and the spirits of demons and ghosts—it lessens the natural strength gap between men and women…” Du Huaishan was replying when he noticed a female soldier, smiling as she chatted with a street vendor. As she bent to select something, her right arm’s sleeve, hanging from her greatcoat, swung limply and rhythmically.

It was empty.

He didn’t know why, but the sight brought to mind Yan Xiaoman, whom he’d seen that morning.

The other recruits noticed, too—soldiers with missing limbs, some without hands or feet, others with faces torn by savage scars; though they smiled kindly, their visages sent a chill down the spine.

Remembering the youth with blue eyes saying, “Just go at them with cold steel,” some of the recruits’ earlier enthusiasm quickly faded.

Jun Tun City wasn’t large.

Soon the transport trucks passed through a set of gates and began to slow, the horn occasionally blaring to warn absent-minded soldiers out of the way.

Du Huaishan caught fragments of shouts echoing from a distant field—soldiers in training, perhaps.

That made sense. Yingzhou’s army recruited twice a year, with a year-long training period; the summer recruits would be halfway through by now.

The truck stopped on the edge of a central square enclosed on three sides by buildings and backed by a hill.

A soldier ran from the cab, unlatched the rear gate.

At the order to “disembark,” the recruits spilled out onto the yellow earth like dumplings dropped in a pot.

Looking around—

Wow, there were a lot of people.

It wasn’t just their own convoy; the square was already crowded with unfamiliar faces.

“Looks like all the new recruits from the three provinces of Yingzhou have arrived today!” Tan Hai swept his gaze around, counting roughly fifteen or sixteen hundred.

As the only and highest military academy in the three provinces, the Army Military Academy stood on par with the Tianjing Military Academy in Zhili Prefecture, the Huangjiang Military Academy in Yuezhou, and the Yingzhou Military Academy—together known as the four great academies of the Chiyu Empire.

Under the direction of the soldiers on duty, the recruits began to form ranks.

Once the formations were complete, a number of senior officers—some sporting the insignia of major generals—emerged onto a concrete platform in front of the building at the base of the hill.

“Hey! Look! That female officer standing beside the big guy—my god, what a figure!” someone exclaimed.

“Yeah, curves in all the right places. If I could even spend a night with her, I’d die happy!”

The recruits found amusement wherever they could, quickly spotting the strikingly attractive female officer at the speakers’ platform.

Even Tan Hai, who fancied himself a ladies’ man, was left staring.

Du Huaishan had to admit, the woman, though no longer young, carried herself with undeniable charm. But soon his attention shifted to the burly man at her side—it was Chang Sui’an!

He was one of the drill instructors for this intake?

No wonder.

“Ahem! Hey, can you all hear me?”

As the time approached, a bald, middle-aged officer stepped out from among the senior staff and tested the vintage brass-ring microphone. The noon sun cast the shadow of his goatee as a sharp point across his neck, giving him a comical look.

“We hear you.”

“Loud and clear! Loud and clear!”

One by one, the recruits responded from below.

“Heh heh heh…”

Hearing them, the bald officer suddenly grinned, and, oddly, the laughter spread through the crowd, reverberating off the hillside and buildings until it filled the whole square. For a moment, it sounded less like a military academy than a festival.

“Who is that guy?”

“No idea, but he seems friendly enough…”

The words had barely left their lips when—

“Laugh—!!”

The bald officer’s eyes bulged as he roared.

His bellow burst through the microphone, shrill and piercing, making every soldier flinch.

Silence fell instantly.

“I don’t see what you have to laugh about. Look at yourselves—standing in ranks all crooked, answering questions like sloths. Do you even look like soldiers? With you lot, once you’re outside these walls, you wouldn’t even make a decent snack for the demons and ghosts—they’d spit you out for getting stuck in their teeth!”

Having finished his tirade, the bald officer drew a deep breath, glared at them with eyes like brass bells, and coldly announced, “Allow me to formally introduce myself. I am your chief drill instructor for the 173rd winter intake: Lai Yanlong!”