Free Web NovelChapter 218: Chapter 164: How About We Have a Big Bet?
"No need, leadership, if we’re going to spar, I’m up for it. The squad leader is getting old after all,"
Fang Huai still felt quite uneasy at the thought of Squad Leader Hao actually fighting.
He didn’t believe that a grassroots squadron of the People’s Armed Police could really fight much better than the firefighters.
Most who are skilled in top-notch hand-to-hand combat are in various specialized fighting teams.
The Special Warfare units of the People’s Armed Police, the field combat squads, the August 1st Free Combat Team of the PLA, and so on.
The majority of soldiers in the troops train for war, not to improve their personal hand-to-hand combat skills.
To say that Special Forces soldiers have such high combat value that one can take on seven or eight others, it still depends on the situation.
Are the Special Forces front-line special forces?
Is the opponent just too weak?
And whether those seven or eight attackers dare to fight to the death or not.
If you encounter several tough desperados, fists won’t help; it’s the legs that are effective. If you can run fast enough that they can’t catch you, then you’re done.
Since the founding of the Republic, knife fights and close combat have been practiced less and less; most training is now oriented towards firearms.
In the past, the training was pretty fierce.
The soldiers from the early days of the founding of the country who had gone through various battles trained the most viciously in close combat—it was a skill born from actual killing.
They were taught where to strike to kill, learning killing techniques.
Even up till the 1980s, the moves were very fierce; whatever was brutal was used.
I’ve seen the Eighteen Methods of the Black Dragon that the People’s Armed Police practiced in the 1980s.
Half of the moves were strikes to the head, uppercuts, palm strikes to the chest, groin attacks, eye gouges, sneak attacks from behind, and so on.
They were at least techniques for injuring people, the kind that caused disability.
Anyhow, if this were a formal fighting competition, the referee could pull out several red cards after just one set of these moves.
They didn’t play by the rules at all, and once it became muscle memory, it was hard to hold back; fighting with that style could be very costly for your comrades.
So later they banned such training.
Nowadays, the training is more about basic grappling skills and techniques.
The main goal is still to subdue the opponent.
Flying kicks, straight kicks, sweeps, ground techniques and such—some movements indeed aren’t something ordinary people can do, but the ordinary troop training doesn’t spend much time on them and lacks guidance from experts. Compared to fighters, they may be rigid, but there are too many openings in their moves.
...
But still.
They have over a hundred people after all.
You can’t rule out the possibility that some of them had professional training before enlisting.
In my previous life, there was one guy from the Shaolin School in a county squadron—
Not Shaolin Temple, but the authentic Songshan Shaolin Martial School, trained in martial arts from a young age.
He had an integrated waist and horse stance, and with one punch, he could send someone wearing protective gear stumbling and rolling on the ground.
In this life, in the Second Squadron, Chen Zhenghai, who practiced boxing, was the heaviest NCO, pounding so powerfully in the upstairs gym that the thuds were low and forceful, sending great vibrations that sounded ferocious.
Of course, his snoring was also quite ferocious; Wu Di grinding his teeth and him snoring were each unique.
Anyway, there’s nothing scarier than the fists of the young and strong.
If they arranged a tough guy for Squad Leader Hao and he went back bruised and swollen... That wouldn’t be good either.
Thinking of these things, Fang Huai’s face inevitably bore a look of annoyance.
When going out in the future, he would try not to mention Squad Leader Hao’s name.
After all, you can’t always hide in the toilet.
"Brother, don’t be scared, even if your master comes, we’re just having a civilized bout, stopping at the lightest touch."
From far away, he hadn’t seen clearly how Fang Huai made his move. The captain targeted Fang Huai’s expression, convinced he probably wasn’t that good at fighting and maybe had some luck involved.
Fang Huai indeed didn’t have any special techniques or combat experience.
But all martial arts in the world come down to speed and strength. Fang Huai had both, as well as foresight.
When he struck with one punch, that was the strength of 56 pull-ups.
"Heh, leadership, I’m enough by myself. Whatever you guys want to bring on, I’m fine with it."
The captain heard this and stood akimbo, raising his voice,
"What do we want to bring on? It’s Instructor Cao who wants to come! He was still a deputy squadron leader when he issued the challenge to us!
We were drinking outside together, and he said it: he wanted to train a group of soldiers by hand to take on our squadron!
The spring before last... he said this, right?
It’s been two years with no word—I almost forgot about it, and here he still remembers!"
Damn.
When Fang Huai heard this, his enthusiasm immediately dropped by half.
Turns out we aren’t coming here on a righteous mission, but imposing a challenge on someone else’s doorstep!
Fang Huai couldn’t help but ask, "Leadership... how many new recruits are in your squadron?"
The captain answered, "Sixteen."
Fang Huai was immediately speechless.
Damn, Old Cao really has no sense at all. If it weren’t for me, when would he even be able to realize his grand ambition?
They have three times fewer people than the others, and he’s playing the odds with them.
The Armed Police Internal Guard Recruit Corps is supposed to focus on physical training after all.
"Leadership, we don’t have many mutual exercises, just pull-ups, rope climbing, running... we don’t have the space here, do we?" Fang Huai looked around and asked.
The captain pointed to a large crane with a long hemp rope hanging from it,
"Aren’t you guys strong with rope climbing? Show us how it’s done, let us learn a little?
Here, it’s not your 12-meter rope, it’s 18 meters, and it’s all suspended in midair, and there’s no building on the side that you can step on..."
"That’s called a training tower, leadership." Fang Huai corrected:
"Moreover, just because yours is longer doesn’t mean it’s stronger. Ours is 12 meters, but we’re fast!
And we don’t allow stepping on the building either, that’s considered cheating.
If we’re just doing these two exercises, let your new recruits start climbing. I’ll flush the ground first, so after they finish, I can take over without delaying their mealtime."
"Yo, quite the big talk, youngster. You want to do both challenges at once?"
Fang Huai said somewhat speechlessly, "Leadership, just give me a ten-minute break in between. Instructor Cao doesn’t want us resting on weekends. If I don’t vent out all my energy, it’s not good to go back either!"
The captain laughed heartily, "Sensible! Much more so than the new recruits in our squadron, who have to be forced to train! Okay, kid, if you were my soldier, I’d make you a squad leader!"
Fang Huai, however, pursed his lips and said to Sun Jingwu, "Squad Leader Sun, start the water. Let’s flush the ground."
...
Helping other units with ground flushing is also a common task for the firefighting unit.
Friendly forces and functional departments.
Soldiers are responsible for exerting effort, and leadership is responsible for uniting all possible forces.
This follows the same principle as the two characters in "firefighting."
Those who work on "fire suppression" and "prevention" are not the same group of people, but without the efforts of "fire suppression," there would be no authority in "prevention."
Don’t ask why the young lads in the grassroots squadrons who go on police dispatch have so much paperwork to do—they’re only responsible for dispatching.
They don’t understand it either.
Perhaps from the moment they enlisted till they were discharged, they never once saw those application forms and inspection procedures.
The fire inspections they know of only include how many pumps are needed to get water up to a high floor and checking if there’s an access platform in the residential community. They drive the fire truck over, follow the Fire Prevention Counselor, and cooperate with the testing they need to conduct.
The actual inspection tasks implemented at the grassroots squadron level are just occasionally checking if there are fire extinguishers set up in streetside shops or if the electrical wiring is messy.
...
It took a full hour and a half to sweep the entire courtyard clean.
Fang Huai also took the opportunity to water the greenery.
Hoping that the weeds would grow taller, so that next time during exercises, those in blue uniforms could hide better, and not just jump out and snatch some passerby.
It’s not like they’re Garen, always practicing those bush Q’s.
However, when Fang Huai and the others were flushing the ground, the soldiers of the People’s Armed Police looked on with longing.
The firefighting unit is freaking awesome.
Especially in this aspect of cleaning.
Their hundred-strong unit would need to clean a vast courtyard all afternoon, whereas just 4 people, one holding a water gun, another a hose, with the other two taking turns resting, managed to finish the job in just over an hour.
During this time, some wanted to come over and try holding the water gun. Fang Huai, with a grin, allowed them to take turns experiencing it.
But once they came over, Han Yong and Xiao Haishan, who were holding the hose, slacked off a bit.
Up on the truck, Sun Jingwu silently added another half a pump’s pressure.
The non-commissioned officers of the People’s Armed Police experienced what it was like to wield a small flying stick up close, getting drenched from head to toe.
Some bystanders couldn’t help but laugh: "What strength do you have? Can’t even hold a water gun! Let me do it, I can hold it by myself!"
However, when that person stepped up, Han Yong backed off.
"Bring two more! Bring two more, aaaah!"
That person started shouting frantically, crawling on the ground, being dragged around by the hose, and without waterproof combat uniforms, when Sun Jingwu lowered the pressure and he got up again, even his underwear was dripping wet.
Fang Huai was laughing wickedly on the side.
You’ve experienced our equipment; isn’t it time for us to experience yours?
...
After putting the hoses away, they reached their training field.
All four new recruits had arrived.
Fang Huai took the lead, and the three peers were not to be outdone.
The new recruits of the People’s Armed Police had started their second round of training on a structure that resembled a diving platform, which must be the place where they practiced rope climbing and rappelling.
As urban soldiers, they have to face high-rise buildings, whether for rescue missions or other tasks.
Right now, there was a new recruit at about 10 meters high, already unable to climb further, not surprising after an afternoon of using only their hands, and it was already good enough that they could climb a second time.
"Brother, come on!" The captain saw Fang Huai coming and waved him over with his training book.
Fang Huai and the other three recruits walked in a single line to the side of the platform, standing in a row facing the platform. Only after standing at attention did they step out of line.
Once he stepped out, Fang Huai looked back and saw the three new recruits, compared to the two rows of 8+7 new recruits, looking rather solitary.
Fang Huai even thought about calling Sun Jingwu down from the truck to make up the numbers.
"Captain, how about we just take one round? Who could manage a second round, eh?" Fang Huai asked, frowning as he looked at the hanging recruit who couldn’t go up or come down.
The captain was pleased again: "Oh? Are you scared? Our squadron’s new recruits can go up twice!"
Zhou Quangen, step out and tell him your training results from this afternoon!"
A lean and dark-skinned new recruit immediately stepped out, looked straight ahead, and spoke loudly:
"Reporting to the squadron leader! This afternoon, the first training task, climbing the rope, 29 seconds!
The second training task, the horizontal bar, 22 reps!
The third training task, rope climbing again, 62 seconds! Reporting complete!"
The new recruit’s report was spirited and resonated several times across the training field.
Wow... fгeewebnovёl.com
Fang Huai was somewhat amazed.
Look at them...
That reporting command, it’s more formal than ours.
But those results, don’t be like a little proud cockerel, alright?
If 16 people take turns practicing, how long must the rest time be?
If you managed these results in succession, then that would be somewhat impressive.
"This... there’s nothing much to compare," said Fang Huai.
Thinking he had chickened out, the captain laughed and said, "Yeah, I told Instructor Cao too, there’s nothing much to compare, you firefighting recruits don’t train as hard as we do!
But I see you are quite agile; maybe you shouldn’t compare physical strength. How about I call someone up to have a bout with you on the ring? A soldier who doesn’t practice martial arts isn’t fulfilling his duties, right?
However, if you don’t want to, that’s fine too. Just climb the rope and go back, since that’s your forte."
Every stroke of the captain’s words was provoking him.
The person who had been sent by Cao Yi surely wouldn’t be weak, and Fang Huai was aware of that.
Kidding, that’s the Special Service Squadron of the firefighting unit, with few members, but all of them are specially selected. They were just an ordinary squadron; would he underestimate them?
But if this kid dares to accept the ring challenge, today he’s going to make sure the new recruit has a rough time.
Little did he know, these words were exactly what Fang Huai wanted.
Fang Huai glanced at his watch, and it was only four o’clock.
The confrontation in the ring would only take a few minutes to see who emerges victorious.
After pondering for a while, Fang Huai then said with a smile, "Captain, you might have misunderstood. What I meant was, in terms of physical strength, they can’t compare with me."
At these words, the smile on the captain’s face froze.
However, the discipline of the People’s Armed Police was indeed strict; not a single person made a noise, all looking straight ahead. freewebnσvel.cѳm
Seeing that he didn’t respond, Fang Huai continued with a smile:
"How about we make a bigger bet?"
