Did he trick the young marshal into becoming sworn brothers and then go south to Huangpu Military Ac

In early spring in Guangzhou, the river wind is damp and cold, chilling you to the bone.

On Cheung Chau Island, the fog had not yet completely dissipated from the unfinished parade ground of the Whampoa Military Academy.

After the extremely rigorous preliminary cultural examination and the physical re-examination comparable to pilot selection a few days ago, the original army of thousands of applicants was ruthlessly eliminated, like sand being sifted from gold.

At this moment, only the top four or five hundred candidates remained, dressed in a variety of thin and tattered clothes, standing in a line in the cold wind.

Among the crowd, young faces were filled with tension, anticipation, and anxiety.

In the middle of the line, a stocky, quick-witted young man from Hunan was speaking in a low voice, using a heavy Xiangxiang accent, joking with his fellow villagers who were trembling beside him.

"Don't worry, don't worry, we've passed the preliminary test. This final test will probably just involve writing an essay or running a couple of laps."

It was Chen Chuanjin who spoke. He rubbed his frozen hands, grinned, and said with a carefree and fearless air, "We can't exactly force us to drink the Dragon King's urine in the river, can we?"

Standing in front of him was a young man with a heavy Shanxi accent named Xu Xiangqian.

This person had a completely different personality; he was as taciturn as a stone on the Loess Plateau. He ignored Chen Chuanjin's joke, but just tightly gripped the patched hem of his clothes, staring resolutely at the high platform in front of him.

And at the very edge of the line.

Hu Shoushan, a man from Zhejiang, was sweating profusely with anxiety, and he even unconsciously stood on his tiptoes.

For no other reason than that he was too short, less than 1.6 meters tall, which made him stand out in the generally strong and muscular crowd.

Just now, when we were lining up, the instructor who was conducting the preliminary test glanced at him several times, frowned, and muttered, "How can someone so short fight with bayonets?" He almost pulled him out of the line and eliminated him directly.

Hu Shoushan's heart was in his throat, fearing that he would miss this chance to defy fate because of his height given to him by his parents.

At this moment, on the viewing platform directly in front of the playground.

The bigwigs all took their seats, with the gentleman sitting in the center, wearing a black woolen overcoat.

Liao Kai-shek, Wang Jingwei, Hu Jintao, and other elders stood on the left and right, while Chiang Kai-shek, dressed in a crisp military uniform, sat upright.

The bigwigs were in high spirits today. They thought that this final exam, personally presided over by Lin Qi, would surely be a high-level discussion of military strategy or a profound analysis of the Three Principles of the People.

Holding a folding fan in his hand, Wang maintained the air of a scholar despite the cold, and said with a smile to Hu Min beside him, "Dr. Lin has returned from studying abroad, and this final exam must be of extremely high quality. Those who can pass this test will surely be pillars of our party."

The voice just fell.

A series of muffled military boot sounds came from the passageway on the side of the platform.

Everyone turned to look at the source of the sound and were all taken aback.

Lin Qi was not wearing a suit or an officer's uniform.

He wore an extremely rough, durable dark gray canvas training uniform, high-top suede boots, and carried a heavy, duck-egg-thick white ash wood stick.

Behind Lin Qi followed a fierce guard team from the arsenal. These men carried no guns, but instead carried thick water hoses and buckets of foul-smelling silt from the Pearl River.

Lin Qi, with a cold face, strode down from the platform and went straight to the edge of the playground.

There were no pleasantries, no lectures.

He raised the white ash wood stick in his hand and swung it sharply.

"Release the water!"

Several water hoses instantly spewed out torrents of water, rushing straight to the low-lying muddy area in the southwest corner of the playground, where the guards poured buckets of silt into it.

In the blink of an eye, a corner of the playground was transformed into a huge mud pit, more than ten meters long and wide, and thigh-deep!

The cold, muddy water foamed and stank in the cold wind.

The test takers were stunned, and even the bigwigs on the platform were taken aback.

Lin Qi, carrying a stick, walked to the front of the line like a living Yama, his gaze sharp as a knife, sweeping over the hundreds of astonished faces.

"The rules are very simple."

Lin Qi's voice was flat and emotionless, as cold as a mechanical gear: "Take off your long robes and coats! Leave only your undershirts! Everyone, in pairs, lift that log over there!"

The examinees looked down and saw that, without them noticing, the edge of the playground was piled high with heavy, freshly felled logs, still covered in damp bark and moisture.

"Lift up the log and jump into the mud! Nobody's allowed to come up unless I blow the whistle!"

Lin Qi slammed his stick into the gong used for timing, producing a deafening bang.

"Get in the water!"

A brief commotion broke out among the crowd. The temperature was extremely low in the early spring morning, and the mud pit looked icy cold. This was no test; it was clearly a punishment!

"What? You're scared before you've even stepped onto the battlefield?"

Lin Qi sneered, his eyes filled with extreme contempt: "Those who were eliminated in the preliminary round are all watching you from outside. Those who dare not step down, get out of here immediately!"

Chen Chuanjin gritted his teeth, and without saying a word, quickly tore off his tattered cotton-padded coat, baring his shirt, and pulled Xu Xiangqian beside him to lift a log.

"What are you afraid of! Get out!"

thump! thump!

With a leader in place, hundreds of enthusiastic young people took off their clothes, carried logs, gritted their teeth, and jumped into the mud.

icy!

The biting cold instantly felt like countless steel needles piercing into the bone marrow!

The silt was extremely sticky; once you stepped into it, it took a tremendous amount of effort to pull it out.

The soaking wet log on his shoulder felt like a mountain pressing down on him, making it hard to breathe.

The mud and water churned, and the playground instantly transformed into a massive, agonizing battlefield.

However, Lin Qi's torment had only just begun. This was the extreme psychological stress test he brought from a century in the future, a test of special forces-level resilience.

He waved behind him.

Several guards carried over two long tables and placed them by the mud pit.

Lift the white cloth on top.

On the table to the left, there were more than a dozen huge steamers. When the lid was lifted, the white, steaming pork and scallion buns emitted an irresistible aroma.

In those years of war and famine, the aroma of meat was so enticing it could steal your soul.

On the table to the right, the guards pried open several mahogany boxes.

With a splash, a huge amount of white silver poured out, shimmering with an extremely alluring light in the morning sun.

Cold, hungry, and tired, yet before me lay hot steamed buns and gleaming silver dollars.

Lin Qi picked up a tin megaphone and began his extreme pressure tactics that destroyed people's self-esteem.

"If you can't stand it! If you feel wronged! You can come up now!"

Lin Qi paced back and forth by the mud pit, his voice carrying a great deal of force.

"Those who come up here, take ten silver dollars, and all the meat buns you can eat! Eat and drink your fill, take your money and get out of here! Go home and cry to your parents! My Whampoa Military Academy doesn't accept rich kids or spineless cowards!"

Extreme cold and physical exhaustion, coupled with the relentless insults and the temptation of food on the shore.

The defenses are beginning to crumble.

"I'm not taking the exam! This isn't an exam for officers; they're treating us like animals!"

A spoiled rich kid, whose family donated money to send him to study abroad, was the first to break down.

He threw down the log, cried and scrambled ashore, grabbed a steamed bun and stuffed it into his mouth, his face covered in mud and tears.

Once there's a first one, there's bound to be a second.

Thump, thump.

People kept throwing down logs, giving up resistance, and heading towards the table piled high with steamed buns and silver dollars.

On the high platform.

Wang frowned deeply, slamming her folding fan heavily on the armrest of her chair, her face full of disgust.

"This is an insult to scholarship! It's utterly an insult to scholarship!"

He turned to his teacher: "Sir, Lin Tuozhi is simply outrageous! He's treating esteemed revolutionary students like dogs, humiliating them in the mud. If word gets out, how will our headquarters save face!"

Hu Hmin also shook his head and sighed, feeling that Lin Qi was too eccentric and violent in his actions, lacking any scholarly demeanor.

However, Chiang Kai-shek, sitting on the other side, watched with shining eyes, and even a layer of excited cold sweat seeped out from his back.

He had commanded troops before, so he knew exactly what Lin Qi was doing!

Why was the old army so bad?

It's because those officers consider themselves superior, and their minds are full of spoiled brat attitudes and bureaucratic style.

Lin Qi's extreme pressure tactic stripped them of all dignity, decency, and vanity.

Faced with the limits of life and death and extreme temptation, shatter the bones of these people completely!

Those who survive this ordeal will have an iron will and will develop an instinct for absolute obedience to their superiors' orders!

"This is a divine technique for training troops..."

Chiang Kai-shek muttered to himself, his apprehension towards Lin Qi deepening.

In the quagmire, the remaining people are still desperately holding on.