Chapter 108: The Strange Indian Military Parade (Part I)

The "military parade" is a symbol of intimidation, and it is counterintuitive to use it as a pretext for "peace". The purpose of the parade is to boost the morale of the soldiers, enhance the determination and courage of the people to support the country's war behavior, and deter the enemy and opponent to achieve the goal of "surrendering the army without a fight." This is the purpose of the parade.

However, this solemn ceremony has changed its flavor in India, so before setting off for this year's military parade, Shakru has to give a precautionary shot to several of his beautiful bodyguards: "On January 26, 1950, India signed the constitution and declared the Republic of India, and since then, India has held a grand military parade ceremony on this day every year to celebrate this national day. Today I want to take you to visit this year's National Day military parade, but before you go, please be mentally prepared, because this kind of military parade is not the same as the military parade in other countries, and the taste of entertainment is relatively strong, so please don't make too much fuss when the time comes. Although Shakru is very serious on the surface, in fact, he has no bottom in his heart, because he has never participated in this kind of military parade in person, and even the words he just said are still from the memory in this body.

In fact, India's military parade is indeed different from other countries, the first audience to watch is required to buy tickets to enter, in early December every year, the Indian Ministry of Defense will set up a ticket booth at the door to sell tickets publicly, the best seat is only 500 rupees (equivalent to 50 yuan), the lowest is only 30 rupees.

Shakrugai was naturally the best seat, and soon after sitting down, the ceremony officially began, and the beginning was naturally the leader's speech, but it was not long, and soon the parade began. (Actually, every year in India's National Day parade, a foreign heavyweight is invited to come, such as in 2016, ******, but I really can't find out who came in 1992.) ）

The first to appear is as many as dozens of phalanxes of various colors, although these soldiers all have serious expressions, neat steps, but the strange thing is that their military uniforms are all different, colorful and colorful, and even more strange is their hats, some like peacocks, some like cockscombs, some like sunflowers, which can be called a battle for beauty.

"Boss, why are they wearing different military uniforms? Especially hats, can you fight a war with this kind of hat? Mustafina asked curiously.

Shakru cleared his throat and explained: "Because this is to reflect national characteristics, the military uniforms at the parade are not divided according to the military branch, but according to the nationality, so they wear extremely classical national military uniforms, in order to reflect their respective cultural traditions and religious customs." ”

"So, is this still called a military parade?"

"That's why I said that India's military parade is different from that of other countries, so let you have a mental preparation in advance."

Sharapova suddenly interrupted the conversation between the two and said, "Hey, look, there is a phalanx of female soldiers!" ”

Although the proportion of female soldiers in the Indian army is less than two percent of the paramilitary personnel, they have always been a highlight of the parade, not only because the female soldiers themselves are more attractive than the male soldiers, but also because the military uniforms of the female soldiers are very formal and never wear any national military uniforms, the only regret is that Indian female soldiers generally have dark faces and are very rare in appearance. In addition, most female soldiers apply to join the army for the purpose of fighting for the freedom to marry, because once they join the army, their families cannot forcibly interfere with her marriage choice.

After these relatively normal teams, some teams with very Indian characteristics began to appear, such as the camel teams that are now appearing. The camel cavalry phalanx is an indispensable part of the Republic Day parade in India. 1992 was the 43rd time that the camel cavalry phalanx participated in the parade. The phalanx consisted of two parts: one part was a cavalry unit of 56 camels, in addition to the command staff, 50 soldiers rode on camels, 5 men in each row, 10 in front and behind, holding the reins in their left hand and light rifles in their right; Next up is the Camel Band, which includes 34 camels, and its members play military music as they march. According to the on-site commentary, each camel was decorated with 75 exquisite ornaments, plus the uniform clothing of the phalanx personnel, constituting a beautiful scenery at the parade ceremony.

In India, camel cavalry has a long history, dating back to the early 15th century. In 1465, Rao? The Bika used an armed force of 100 camels to establish a kingdom in the Bikaner region of present-day Rajasthan. In 1880, Maharaja? Ganga? Singh created the Bikaner Camel Force. After India's independence, the Rajasthan regional camel cavalry unit became part of the Indian Army and participated in the First and Second Indo-Pakistani Wars. In 1965, India established a centrally controlled border security force, which soon received and trained a large number of camels. The unit is India's largest paramilitary border guard force and the only armed force in India with camel cavalry, and is known as the "first line of defense" for India's border security. In 1971, the camel cavalry of the border security forces also participated in the Third Indo-Pakistani War. In 1976, for the first time, the camel cavalry phalanx of the border security forces officially participated in the Republic Day parade. In addition to participating in festivities, these camels carry important military tasks. As the border area between India and Pakistan is the vast Thar Desert, camels, known as the "ship of the desert", play an irreplaceable role in the process of border patrol.

Suddenly pointing to a group of men in blue uniforms and holding cleaning tools behind the camel phalanx, he asked: "Boss, what are these people doing?" ”

Shakru replied with some embarrassment: "Well, they are responsible for cleaning up the camel manure, you know, no matter how good the camel rider is, there is no way to control the behavior of the camels." "Although there is no way to do this, it does very much damage to the glorious image of the camel cavalry when it appeared before.

"Boss, I heard that there were elephant cavalry in the past when India was paraded, can you still see it this year?" Levopolova asked.

Shakru glanced at the list of performances in his hand, and then said: "The elephant cavalry is not there this year, but this year a new project has been added - motorcycle stunt show, which is selected by the army signal force, and it is said to be very exciting, so it is placed at the end for the finale performance, and everyone can see the military dog phalanx for a while, which is also quite a unique performance." ”