The car drove all the way to the remote foot of the mountain in the northwest of Ya'an City, turning a lush hill, and the ordinary and simple gate of the Ya'an Base, the first training base of the Sichuan Army, appeared in front of him, which was not much wider than the courtyard gate of an ordinary rich gentry's house, and there were four heavily armed sentries wearing steel helmets standing outside the gate.

When he stopped for inspection, Chiang Kai-shek saw the sentry's dark face and sturdy body, and faintly felt a faint murderous aura.

The car entered the gate, bypassed an ordinary courtyard wall tens of meters long and more than three meters high, followed a six-meter-wide cement road, passed through a chaotic woods, and was stopped by a sentry again in the middle of a two-story barracks.

It was only at this time that Chiang Kai-shek realized that the ordinary military camp between the two sentry posts in front of him was just a disguise, and the wide valley surrounded by mountains and beautiful scenery in front of him was the mysterious base in the speculation of the whole [***] world.

The car stopped for the third time at the heavily guarded gate of the base, and Xie Mingyang, the commander of the base, who was wearing the ordinary training uniform of the Sichuan army and a silver five-pointed star inlaid on his collar badge, had already led more than a dozen officers to salute in a line.

Xie Mingyang and the others were enthusiastic when they saw Liu Bingxian, who had not been seen for a long time, and greeted them one after another, but they were very surprised by the strange Chiang Kai-shek, you must know that this training base with a very high level of secrecy is very little known to the outside world, and outsiders are not allowed to enter at will, and even snooping from afar may be arrested.

Xiao Yimin didn't introduce them to who the comer was, and after greeting them, he asked, "How is the selection going?" ”

Xie Mingyang replied with a smile: "It's a coincidence that the commander came, it is estimated that he will be able to see it in another hour, why don't you go and see it now?" ”

"Of course we have to go and see, let's go right away and hurry up and come a day in advance, isn't that for this?"

Xiao Yimin turned around and walked to his car, Chiang Kai-shek looked at Liu Bingxian with an inquiring gaze, Liu Bingxian shrugged his shoulders and said that he didn't know either, and the two hurriedly followed Xiao Yimin and got into the car.

Seeing this, the generals didn't say a word, and jumped up to the two open-top trucks parked on the side of the road, leading the way for the three cars brought by Xiao Yimin.

The convoy bypassed the wide training ground, through the leafy and patchwork of camps, turned onto the newly built iron bridge with no railings on the deck, and soon reached the westernmost entrance to the valley.

The officers and men scattered all over the valley just glanced up at the convoy parked at the mouth of the valley, and then continued to do their own business, not a single officer and soldier ran over to salute and report and say hello, even the platoon of soldiers guarding the valley mouth with loaded guns and live ammunition was indifferent, indifferent to the commander-in-chief Xiao Yimin and the commander of the base Xie Mingyang and others who were close at hand, just squinted at the glance and immediately turned their heads, and continued to stare at the intersection in the southwest direction where the four flying leopard battle flags were planted.

Xiao Yimin and his entourage did not make any noise, walked to a row of tents covered with camouflage nets and stopped, looking at the facilities in the valley and the officers and soldiers talking in a low voice.

Chiang Kai-shek, who was standing behind Xiao Yimin, clearly felt the strangeness revealed in the tense atmosphere, and he looked at the strangely dressed and sturdy officers and soldiers scattered all over the valley, and looked closely at the sophisticated equipment on their bodies, and was surprised to find that several of the tall officers were actually foreign devils.

A few minutes later, Chiang Kai-shek's eyes stopped on the dozen or so military doctors in front of him who were preparing first-aid facilities, quietly leaned towards Liu Bingxian, and whispered in his ear: "Which unit is this?" Why are their armbands so weird? ”

Liu Bingxian had already vaguely guessed what would be next at this time, and sighed slightly: "This is the Sichuan Army Special Forces that was officially established last year, this special force is completely different from the special forces we saw when we studied in this book, the usual special forces are some artillery, military police, signal troops, baggage transportation and other technical arms, while our Sichuan Army's special forces are the sum of commandos, scouts, and special forces, in Yiming's words, 'the king of soldiers'." The younger brother has seen a bit of an introduction from the highest-level army building plan report in the army, and today is the first time I have seen it. ”

Chiang Kai-shek was surprised: "There is such a force, even you don't know it?" ”

Liu Bingxian blushed and explained in embarrassment: "Three years ago, that is, not long after the end of the first Sichuan-Yunnan War, our army began to set up this force, which was not called a special force at that time, but a special service group directly under the border army headquarters, and only more than 100 officers and soldiers in the whole army were selected, all of whom were masters of killing the enemy who emerged on the battlefield. Some generals simply used it as their own guards. ”

Chiang Kai-shek nodded frequently, this situation also existed in the Zhejiang army, and his brother-in-law Chen Qimei also formed his own special team two years ago, but the scale was not as large and as common as the Sichuan army.

Liu Bingxian knew at a glance that Chiang Kai-shek had misunderstood, and hurriedly explained in a low voice: "The special forces formed by Yiming are different, and the standards are set very high, and they have been preparing for this for more than three years, and it was not until the middle of last month that he issued an order to all military subdivisions and divisions of our army, requiring all units of the whole army to select and send military backbones to Ya'an to participate in the military skills selection competition of the whole army.

"The second division of the younger brother and the Yucheng Garrison Command also received orders, but several deputy commanders and deputy division commanders were reluctant to send their top commanders, presumably the other divisions were the same. However, if you think about the 20,000 multilateral troops stationed in Xikang, as well as more than 30,000 people from Yiming's third and fourth divisions, the number of people sent will not be small, and the vast majority of the army's martial arts masters, sharpshooters, and outstanding reconnaissance officers and soldiers are staying in Yiming's descendant troops, and the border army and the third and fourth divisions have won the intra-military skill competition for three consecutive years, so even if the other three divisions do not let them go, it will have no impact, but they owe favors, and even lose a good opportunity to develop armaments. ”

Chiang Kai-shek looked thoughtfully at Xiao Yimin, who was watching carefully, wondering why Xiao Yimin, who was originally going to take him to visit the Ya'an Gun Factory, brought him to participate in this mysterious military training base and observe such an important military selection?

After thinking about it, Chiang Kai-shek still couldn't determine Xiao Yimin's intentions, he knew that the young commander-in-chief of the Sichuan Army was definitely not showing off his strength to himself, because this was not necessary for himself who was still a nobody! Chiang Kai-shek secretly speculated that Xiao Yimin might want to show himself a kind of sincerity in this way, or he wanted to introduce himself to his new military thinking in this way, or both.

The starting gun sounded, and the sound was still echoing in the valley, and a loud voice came from the towering watchtower erected in the southwest corner: "The first runner appeared first in the seventeenth position, about one hundred and fifty meters ahead of the second place, please prepare for treatment by the referee and the medical officer at the finish line——"

"Treatment?" Chiang Kai-shek asked puzzled.

Xiao Yimin finally turned around at this time and whispered to Chiang Kai-shek with a smile: "It is necessary for treatment, and 1,320 competitive officers and soldiers need to run 120 kilometers around the mountains to the west in 36 hours, crossing 17 large and small mountain beams, crossing dozens of streams, and passing through the dark primeval forest.

"What's even more difficult is that they only have a rice cracker, a small bottle of Yunnan Baiyao, a first-aid kit, a compass and a rudimentary map, and they are so hungry that they can find food by themselves, and if they can't hold on, they pull off the smoke bombs, and someone will immediately save them, but they will also be immediately disqualified from the competition."

"What? This...... That's too strict, isn't it? Such a harsh selection is unheard of! ”

Chiang Kai-shek exclaimed, and Liu Bingxian, who had been mentally prepared, couldn't help but be stunned, and asked Xiao Yimin if he was crazy? The performance of the two attracted the contempt of the surrounding generals, and even the guards standing not far away scowled their mouths in disdain.

Xiao Yimin said solemnly: "Don't be surprised, our army is not so weak, otherwise how could it be possible to win battles one after another? ”

"It's so difficult, how many people can run down the whole way?" Liu Bingxian asked unconvinced.

Xiao Yimin was very modest: "Yes! As of four hours ago, more than 700 officers and men had withdrawn from the competition because they could not hold on or were injured, two of whom unfortunately died, and four of them were preliminarily judged to be disabled for life. It is now 12:40 p.m., and we estimate that there will be only 200 people at most who can run to the finish line before 1:30 p.m., and even if the other officers and soldiers run to the finish line, they will have already run out of time, so they can only go home, and if they want to join the 'Black Panther Army' that only recruits soldiers, they can only come back at this time next year. ”

Liu Bingxian couldn't hold his breath: "With such a toss, can you really set up your ideal special forces?" ”

Xiao Yiming nodded without hesitation:

"Sure, after three years of practice and summarization, the base of more than 70 instructors to work out a variety of standards and training plans are very scientific, don't think that this standard is high, this is just the beginning, the selected officers and soldiers have to go through a year of hard tempering, reconnaissance, lurking, running, assassination, sniping is just the basic skills, but also to learn car driving, the use of various weapons, including artillery, mortars skilled use, etc., this is another round of difficult elimination process, only the last remaining, in order to obtain the symbol of the king of soldiers' Black Panther badge', in order to become a member of the glorious 'Black Panther Force', from then on they will become the envy of the whole army, they can stand at the highest place of the army, proudly and proudly overlooking all living beings, their families also because of their excellent performance, become the family of officers who enjoy all kinds of generous benefits, in a word, they change their fate through unremitting efforts, together with their families also benefit. ”

Liu Bingxian and Chiang Kai-shek looked at each other, Xiao Yimin had already run to the referee office with the generals, and Liu Bingxian and Chiang Kai-shek were still standing in front of the tent in a daze.

(To be continued)