As a young marshal, it's reasonable for me to have 300,000 private troops, right?

On the other side, Chu Shixin and his students finally managed to set up the heavy machine gun in the fortification.

Just as he straightened up and wiped the sweat from his brow, Guo Songling walked over with his hands behind his back, his eyes sweeping over the swaying machine gun.

"Is this the heavy machine gun you set up?" he said coldly, and before anyone could respond, he kicked them.

The machine gun was already unstable, and with that kick, it fell to the ground with a thud.

"Is this piece of junk meant to fight the enemy or help the enemy fight us?"

"Your class will stay here tonight to rebuild the fortifications! You can go to sleep when you've finished!"

After reprimanding him, Guo Songling didn't linger and turned to leave with the other instructors.

As he passed by Qi Fan, he paused, turned his back to the crowd, and quickly made a fist-and-palm gesture towards Qi Fan, his eyes filled with a sense of apology that said, "I'm sorry to have wronged you."

In his view, it was a waste of Qi Fan's talent to stay up all night with a group of ordinary students to repair the project. This gesture was a plea for Qi Fan to be more understanding and not to hold it against him.

Qi Fan almost burst out laughing at his supposedly tacit and comical actions. He quickly lowered his head to cover his smile, secretly gave Guo Songling a "received" gesture, and watched the group of instructors walk away.

He thought to himself: Guo Songling's imagination is too outrageous, but... with this "misunderstanding" covering it up, it saves a lot of trouble.

As soon as the instructor left, Chu Shixin sighed with a bitter face: "Well, I'm not going to sleep tonight."

Qi Fan patted him on the shoulder and said with a smile, "Don't worry, let's all work together, finish quickly and get some rest."

Actually, Qi Fan wasn't sure either. He had never worked on building fortifications before, so he took this opportunity to learn a thing or two.

He picked up the shovel again with the others, and when he didn't understand something, he would go up to Lao Xia and Lang Xianpo to ask for advice. He was quite serious about learning.

As night deepened, the only sounds on the playground were the crackling of torches and the muffled thuds of shovels digging in the soil.

A group of people, despite being sleepy, worked hard, their faces covered in sweat and dirt, but not one of them complained.

It wasn't until dawn that the fortification was finally completed and met the required standards. From a distance, the pit was deep and the walls were solid, and the machine gun positions were spacious and stable, making it much more presentable than the previous dilapidated pit.

The group dragged their tired bodies back to the dormitory, all looking disheveled and with dark circles under their eyes like pandas, and they just wanted to fall asleep as soon as they lay down.

But the dust all over my body was really uncomfortable, so I had to force myself to get up and carry the basin to the washroom to wash the dirty clothes I had changed out of yesterday.

As dawn broke, the washroom came alive with the sounds of people scrubbing clothes.

Chu Shixin shouted at Qi Fan while vigorously rubbing the mud stains off his clothes.

"Hanqing, do you have any dirty clothes? Bring them over and I'll wash them for you!"

Qi Fan was leaning against the door frame watching the commotion when he heard this, and waved his hand, "No need, no need, my clothes aren't dirty."

He wasn't lying. Back in the Marshal's Mansion, clothes were worn and then thrown away. New clothes would be delivered the next day, so there was no need to wash them yourself.

He secretly brought a lot of spare clothes with him to school this time; he had already thrown away the dirty clothes he wore yesterday.

He walked over to Chu Shixin and saw that he was covered in sweat, with beads of sweat running down his face. He couldn't help but ask.

"Old Chu, you used to be a company commander, now you're a cadet. Which period do you think was easier?"

Before Chu Shixin could speak, Xu Chengye spoke up first.

"It's definitely better to be a company commander! When you're a company commander, someone washes your clothes and serves your meals. You don't have to do all that hard work yourself!"

As he spoke, he rolled his eyes and glanced disdainfully at the dirty clothes in the basin.

Chu Shixin stopped what he was doing, wiped his sweat, and said with a smile.

"For me, it's all the same. Being a soldier is basically a life of luxury."

At this point, he turned to look at Qi Fan, a hint of teasing in his eyes, "Hanqing, do you know what 'divine tiger dog' means?"

Qi Fan had never heard of this before, and he immediately became interested, moving even closer.

"Oh? That's a novel way of putting it. Can you explain what it means?"

Chu Shixin put down the clothes he was holding and explained, "If soldiers had money, whether it was their pay or something else, they could gamble it out at a casino, have some fun at a brothel, and smoke a cigarette. That kind of life would be more comfortable than that of a god!"

"Soldiers have guns, and they're feared wherever they go. They dare to demand bribes from merchants and scold ordinary people. They're as imposing as tigers coming down from the mountain; nobody dares to mess with them!"

Chu Shixin's tone turned somber, and his eyes held a hint of helplessness.

"But if you really encounter a tough battle, a fierce battle, then you're living with your head on the line. Shells don't discriminate, bullets don't recognize people, and you don't even know if you'll survive until tomorrow. At that time, your life is cheaper than a stray dog ​​on the street."

After listening, Qi Fan immediately understood Chu Shixin's meaning and nodded in agreement.

"You mean to say that being a soldier means being able to enjoy good times, endure hardship, and withstand life-or-death situations, right?"

Chu Shixin grinned, patted Qi Fan on the shoulder, and his tone was less teasing.

"You're so smart, you get it right away! But speaking of which, I don't know if the old commander knows about all the troubles we're dealing with. These soldiers are really hard to manage now, they're a complete mess."

Qi Fan's heart sank, and he frowned, pressing, "What do you mean by that?"

"The company I led before, with over two hundred men, was crammed into a makeshift camp on the mountainside. The conditions were extremely rudimentary," Chu Shixin sighed and said slowly.

"My biggest worries every day are three things: First, I'm afraid that the veteran soldiers will secretly sell their weapons and ammunition to bandits for money. Second, I'm afraid that they'll sneak into the villages at night and rob the villagers of their chickens and pigs. Third, I'm afraid that they'll get sick. Right now, there's a severe shortage of medicine in the army. If someone gets sick, there's nowhere to get treatment, and they can only wait to die."

Chu Shixin's words struck Qi Fan hard.

He usually interacted with high-ranking officers of the Fengtian Army, and all he saw was the impeccable military discipline and the glorious facade. He never imagined that the lives of the lower-ranking soldiers were so chaotic and that the foundation of the army was so weak.

If the military loses its rules and bottom line, what difference is there between it and a group of robbers?

Seeing that Qi Fan remained silent and had a serious look in his eyes, Chu Shixin moved closer.

"Hanqing, you are the old marshal's eldest son, and your future is limitless. But I have to tell you something from the bottom of my heart: a soft heart cannot lead an army. Only by establishing iron discipline can the troops be combat-effective."

This conversation allowed him to completely break free from the perspective of a "young master" or "prince," giving him a completely new understanding of leading troops and controlling the army. It also planted the seed of "rectifying military discipline and building an elite force" in his heart.

In the days that followed, Qi Fan continued to train diligently with the other trainees, practicing drills, shooting, and tactical exercises without any slackening.

Guo Songling remained respectful to him, and from time to time would invite Qi Fan to his office under the pretext of "strengthening tactical training," but in reality, he would pull him aside to discuss strategic deployments on the map.

To the outside world, it was said that Qi Fan was being given "extra lessons," but in reality, he was the one "catching up" on his own.

Qi Fan wasn't idle either. He took advantage of the training, meals, and living together to secretly observe the students in his class and even the entire martial arts academy, quietly selecting promising and reliable talents.

He secretly wrote several letters to Yu Fengzhi, asking her to help find out about the situation in these people's homes, to secretly lend a helping hand and maintain relationships, and to pave the way for building his own team in the future.

Over time, Qi Fan's prestige in the military academy grew higher and higher.

He had no airs of a rich kid. He was always at the forefront of training and mingled with the trainees during breaks. He often helped them solve small problems. Many trainees liked this approachable and reliable "Young Master Zhang" from the bottom of their hearts.