It's better to conquer them than to command the steel torrent

Chapter 20｜I don’t drink green tea!

As a special unit of the National Defense Forces that is strictly confidential, the 77th Field Surveying and Mapping Battalion is naturally not allowed to go out for daily vacations. It is conceivable how boring life is to be confined to the base for a long time. The fourth batch of 397 trainees are like birds in a cage, eager to get out of here.

However, the arrival of Mr. Shang temporarily broke the original boring days.

As the night deepened, the temperature continued to drop, and thick white frost formed on the glass windows of the barracks and dormitories.

"Did everyone see today? There seems to be a very young officer here. I haven't seen him before."

"Really? I didn't notice."

"I saw him. He seemed to be with Director Lin."

"Xiao Bing from Class 2 has found out. The officer is from the capital, a major in the military police."

In the dormitory of Class 3, Platoon 1, Company 3, the female students were chatting excitedly under the dim light.

Upon learning the truth, a girl on the lower bunk spread out her blanket and complained, "The military police are so annoying! Is he here to control us? I hope he won't be too strict."

While everyone was chattering, the girl on the upper bunk by the window didn't say a word, but just listened carefully. Her name was Lan Ruqing.

When the footsteps of the patrolling instructor were heard, the female students in the dormitory immediately fell silent and hurriedly turned off the lights.

The patrolling instructor probably didn't want to get serious, so he just paused at the door for a few seconds and then walked away.

The next day.

Shang Ke insisted on not being accompanied by Lin Rujun, and went to various training grounds alone to chat with the instructors while observing the training.

His arrival added a touch of novelty to the dull routine training, causing the female trainees to whisper about him whenever they had the chance.

The first subject lasted from dawn to nine in the morning. During the break, Shang Ke whispered a few words to the disciplinary instructor to send him away.

Seeing that the usual object of fear had left, the scene suddenly became lively as Shang Ke took the initiative to speak with a smile.

He noticed that there was a tall girl who was the most active and trying particularly hard to show herself, so he took a few more glances at her.

The sun sets in the west, the winter evening sky quickly darkens, and today's training is over.

When Shang Ke was walking on the cement road between the barracks, a sound of footsteps came from behind him.

He looked back and saw the tall girl running towards him panting.

"Is there anything I can help you with, Student Lan?" he asked with a smile.

"Ah? Commander Shang, you actually remember me? I really didn't expect it." Lan Ruqing said in surprise.

"I remember every one of you."

"Great! I thought I made a special impression on you, Commander Shang."

Shang Ke, looking calm, continued to pretend to be unreasonable and asked bluntly, "So, Student Lan, what do you want me to do?"

"You've been supervising all day today. Thank you for your hard work. These were given to me on New Year's Day a few days ago, and I couldn't bear to eat them." Lan Ruqing took out a few candies from his pocket and handed them over.

"Thank you, I'm actually fine. You guys must be working hard to train in such cold weather." Shang Ke took the candies.

"It's not hard, Commander Shang. I will practice hard and will never let you worry too much."

"Oh, okay, go back now."

After she left, Shang Ke tossed the candy in his hand, looked in that direction, smiled helplessly, and then stuffed the candy back into his pocket. Sometimes you don't need bait when fishing, the fish will bite the hook on their own.

In the next two days, Shang continued to observe the training every day and became familiar with the female students in this company.

On the evening of the third day, Lan Ruqing found him just like he had done in the past three days.

Unlike the previous days, this time she played it casually as she chatted, "Actually, a lot of people are worried that Commander Shang will tighten controls when he comes here. Xu Lin from our class even said that the military police are annoying and always make things uneasy."

Shang Ke continued to play dumb and frowned, "You hate the military police? Those girls are so ignorant."

"Yes, they don't know that the instructors are doing this for their own good. And you, Commander Shang, don't know that some people don't understand the rules and even cheat in private."

"Cheating?"

"Yes, in last month's housekeeping regulations test, several people copied small notes in order to get full marks." Lan Ruqing said, and continued to list the "behaviors" of the other girls.

That's perfect! You're going to complain about even the smallest things, right?
Shang Ke was too lazy to pay attention and left after saying a few perfunctory words.

He regards Lan Ruqing as a standard individual sample with certain reference value.

At the regular meeting the next day, at Lin Ruojun's request, he made a special report on this.

The New Year's Day holiday has ended for a few days. More than 20 officers from mainland troops arrived today, and the small conference room was much more crowded than usual.

The lowest rank among them is major, and the highest is even a major general.

"Examples are powerful, and this applies to both positive and negative situations. A few individuals can ruin the morale of an entire group."

"As the chief of the military police of the 1st Mobile Division, I have a deep understanding of this, having seen countless cases. I'm sure everyone here will agree."

"So, the core of this issue lies in two types of people. I arrived a few days earlier than you all and had the time to conduct on-site investigations and verification."

Mr. Shang recounted the events of the past few days truthfully and eloquently.

He gave his report very seriously, and dozens of middle and senior military officers present also listened carefully.

The first type of individuals are like Lan Ruqing, who appear to be good at appearing gentle and pure, but are more scheming and tend to please those in power. They will secretly do bad things to belittle those around them and fan the flames.

Shang Ke glanced at everyone present and immediately concluded, "This type of person is extremely harmful to the troops and must be avoided by frontline combat units. On the battlefield, absolute trust is essential between officers and soldiers. Such hypocritical and self-serving people cannot be tolerated. They will only destroy comradeship."

Some nodded in affirmation, some frowned in thought, and some were melancholy and distracted - perhaps they felt the same way.

A naval captain agreed, "That makes sense. A girl with malicious intentions like this will only sow discord among the troops. Ancient military laws explicitly forbade women from entering the camp, probably for this very reason."

The major general specially dispatched by the General Staff was a stern-faced old man. He asked directly: "How do we screen accurately?"

Green tea? It’s not difficult to control for those who are used to drinking green tea, but most people don’t drink it often.

Green tea can make people feel relaxed and happy, but I don’t drink green tea, Shank thought.

"The training unit should specifically appoint a dummy position, to be filled by a handsome and romantic person, to superficially pretend to have greater power." Shang Ke added solemnly, "To prevent detection and reduce the possibility of missed screenings, it's best to observe them throughout the training period."

Except for the major general, all the officers present laughed.

A thirty-something female civilian lieutenant colonel from the General Headquarters' Military and Political Affairs Department feigned surprise and said, "So... Commander Shang actually understands this so clearly and has seen through the root of the matter. I'm afraid he's also a seasoned romantic expert."

Now even the old major general couldn't help but smile.

(End of this chapter)