A courtyard house; Li Yunlong, a subordinate of the deputy director of Harbin Military Engineering I

Those high-ranking Vietnamese officials were completely won over by him. After a round of drinks, they even changed their address from "Comrade Chen" to "Old Chen".

Watching from behind, Zhang Renfeng clicked his tongue inwardly, thinking that it was a waste of the old man's talents not to go into diplomacy.

Zhang Renfeng's task was to assist in training their officers at the battalion and regimental levels and above, and these hundreds of people would become the core backbone of the army in the future.

Of course, he couldn't teach the essence of it. What good would it do to teach an ingrate? Zhang Renfeng knew this perfectly well.

On the training ground, Zhang Renfeng stood at the front of the formation wearing a Vietnamese military uniform, holding a leather belt in his hand.

Standing opposite were dozens of Vietnamese army battalion and regimental officers, all tanned dark, but their spirits and morale were not very high.

The line stood crookedly, some with their arms crossed, some chewing betel nuts, and others huddled together whispering, completely disregarding their instructor.

Without wasting words, Zhang Renfeng picked up his leather belt, walked to the middle of the line, and smacked the two Vietnamese officers who had been speaking on the back of the head.

Pop! Pop! The sound was as crisp as setting off firecrackers.

The two officers were knocked back and staggered forward two steps. They turned around and glared at him, muttering something under their breath.

Zhang Renfeng couldn't understand Vietnamese, but he could tell from the other person's expression that they were swearing.

He wasn't angry. He hooked his finger at the two officers, holding the leather belt, and said, word by word in Mandarin:

"Listen up, I'm your instructor. On my training field, I'm the boss. Anyone who disobeys will face the consequences."

The translator relayed the message, and the two officers were embarrassed. One of them, young and hot-blooded, clenched his fist and took a step forward.

Zhang Renfeng kicked him in the shinbone, and the officer cried out and fell to one knee. When he looked up again, Zhang Renfeng's leather belt was already pressed against his neck.

"Who else?"

The entire training ground was completely silent.

The remaining Vietnamese officers looked at each other, none of them daring to make a move.

From that day on, the order on Zhang Renfeng's training ground improved considerably.

Although he couldn't speak a word of Vietnamese, his commands were crisp and clear, and his demonstrations were precise and accurate. If any trainee made a mistake, he would hit them with his belt, then teach them twice more, and then hit them again to reinforce their memory.

Vietnamese officers privately gave him a nickname, which roughly translates to "Iron Whip Instructor".

Zhang Renfeng chuckled inwardly. "You think I'm ruthless now? But if you dare to cause trouble twenty years from now, I'll stand on the border and let you remember this period."

Privately, Zhang Renfeng was known as "the strictest godfather in the Vietnamese army" because of his frequent beatings and verbal abuse. Commander Chen even joked about it.

"Kid, I'm fucking afraid that you'll end up planting a bomb in their military academy while you're talking."

Zhang Renfeng wore a bitter smile, which the old brigade commander couldn't see.

Twenty years from now, these people will turn around and do the opposite to us. Give them a good beating now, because who knows, maybe when I, Zhang Renfeng, become the commander-in-chief of the counterattack, just walking around the front line will scare these Vietnamese army veterans to death.

Therefore, if you're going to fight, you have to fight in a way that makes them convinced of your point.

In September, the deployment of the border campaign was carried out in full swing.

Zhang Renfeng assisted Regiment Commander Wei and the Vietnamese General Staff in developing a detailed operational plan.

The Vietnamese officers were thoroughly exhausted from his training. When they returned to their barracks at night, their backs ached, and their minds were filled with memories of being whipped with belts on the training field during the day.

By September 15, the border campaign deployment was complete.

The Vietnamese troops moved into their attack positions as planned, with Brigade Commander Chen and Regiment Commander Wei overseeing operations from the rear, while Zhang Renfeng provided assistance and supervision at the front.

The battle lasted for nearly a month, ending on October 12.

Nine French battalions, totaling 8,000 men, were annihilated. The Vietnamese army successfully controlled a large area along the Sino-Vietnamese border and opened up transportation lines for supplies from China to northern Vietnam.

It has to be said that this battle was truly a clash of titans. Have you ever heard of a battle where you can't march when it rains? It can only be said that both sides were evenly matched.

For the next few days, Zhang Renfeng, known as the "strictest godfather of the Vietnamese army," also gave a speech after Brigade Commander Chen gave his report.

Zhang Renfeng held a high position among the Vietnamese junior officers.

Although the time was short, his decisive style on the training ground and his solid combat experience convinced these Vietnamese officers who had been fighting guerrilla warfare for years and lacked formal training.

It can only be said that the Vietnamese and French forces were evenly matched.

Despite both sides talking nonsense, the Vietnamese side still managed to win.

Zhang Renfeng was puzzled, wondering what kind of situation this was.

The French army was supposed to be the army of a long-established colonial empire, so why did they fight like they were made of paper?

He finally understood why their Maginot Line had crumbled so easily during World War II...

On November 1, Brigade Commander Tran led his team back to China and left the Vietnamese headquarters.

Zhang Renfeng walked with him, and the two of them, along with their entourage, left the North Vietnam base in a jeep.

They arrived at the Longzhou Military Sub-district Command on the 2nd.

That evening, Brigade Commander Chen and Zhang Renfeng took a walk in the military region.

After walking for a while, Brigade Commander Chen suddenly sighed:

"Damn it, I'm just too versatile; I missed almost every uprising."

Zhang Renfeng couldn't help but laugh out loud when he heard this.

He knew what the old brigade commander was talking about.

He missed the Baise Uprising of the Seventh Red Army, the Nanchang Uprising, the Autumn Harvest Uprising, and the Pingjiang Uprising.

Although he fought many battles later, he didn't get involved in any of the landmark uprisings.

Zhang Renfeng joked, "Yes, yes, if you participate in even one uprising, I'll recommend you for marshal!"

When Brigade Commander Chen heard his usually serious partner talking about this, he started bragging non-stop.

He cleared his throat, straightened his back, and struck a pose that said, "If I were here back then..."

"Let me tell you, I'm not bragging, but if I were involved in the Nanchang Uprising, I would definitely follow Commander Zhu to Jinggang Mountain. Once I got there, I would be a veteran, given my seniority, my abilities, my..."

Zhang Renfeng suppressed a laugh as he listened to him continue his rambling.

He recounted all the uprisings he had missed, from the Nanchang Uprising to the Baise Uprising, and then from the Baise Uprising to the Guangzhou Uprising, embellishing each one with exaggerated claims that "if I were here, the situation would be completely different."

This guy has a problem: he often suffers from insomnia. No one keeps him company at night. Now that he's finally found a good listener, how could he let him go?

He talked non-stop all night, from revolutionary history to his own love story, from leading troops into battle to how to educate his children, his topics were all over the place, he was a real chatterbox.

Zhang Renfeng initially tried to stay awake, but later became so sleepy that he slowly slid down the stone bench by the roadside, his eyelids growing heavier and heavier.

As Brigade Commander Chen was recounting how he carried the central army, he turned his head and found Zhang Renfeng already asleep, arms crossed, leaning against the stone bench, snoring loudly.

Brigade Commander Chen paused for a moment, then shook his head and smiled.

He turned around, took a thin blanket from inside the house, and gently covered Zhang Renfeng with it, muttering curses under his breath:

"You little brat, alright, when we get back to the capital, I'll get you a wife. But on your wedding night... I want you to come with me to North Korea."

After he finished cursing, he went back into the house, sat down at the table, opened his diary, and began to write.

[It's a sunny day. I had a heart-to-heart talk with Zhang Xiaogui. We reminisced about the past, and I boasted a lot. Xiaogui looked at me with admiration; it's rare to find someone to listen. The main reason I brought Zhang Xiaogui to Vietnam was because he's young. After all, he'll outlive me, right? Xiaogui has a fiery temper. President Hu said he's a fierce general, and he's trained Vietnam's future backbone so badly that they've developed psychological trauma. If things change in the future, perhaps we can send Zhang to the border to terrify the enemy. How are you? I'll be arriving in the capital soon.]

After writing the last word, Commander Chen closed his diary, leaned back in his chair, and let out a long sigh.

The night outside the window was deep, and a few barks of dogs could be heard in the distance before slowly fading into silence.

He looked at Zhang Renfeng, who was sleeping wrapped in a blanket on the stone bench opposite him, and muttered to himself:

"Of all the soldiers I've trained in my life, this little Red Guard is both the most worry-free and the most troublesome."

He then added a few more lines to his diary.

[From now on, you must never call him Zhang Xiaogui again. He's thirty-one years old, a deputy commander of a corps, and will probably be promoted to general someday. The typo has been corrected...]