The next morning Sergeant Xian was waiting for the recruits with Lieutenant Dan. Sergeant Xian was wearing a walking cast on his leg that looked more like body armor. Lieutenant Dan was standing with his hands behind his back smiling like he was going to be a spectator at a sporting event. Sergeant Xian waited for the recruits to all be present and accounted for in neat rows. "Team Leader Long step forward." He shouted.
"Reporting for Duty Drill Sergeant!" He snapped to attention after running to a spot in front of the recruits giving a crisp salute.
"Today, we are going to be having the first team battles in the squad. We will separate into two teams, I will take six men and Team Leader Long will take the other seven. Each team will have the objective of defending a flag while attempting to capture the other team's flag. Victory requires both flags. Team Leader Long, select your first team member." Sergeant Xian smiled clearly looking down on him by giving him a larger team and also allowing him to pick the best recruits.
Long Shen raised an eyebrow thinking about the assignment he immediately had an idea of how to proceed, "I choose Ding Lai."
Over the next few minutes, a pattern developed where Sergeant Xian picked the most athletic members of the squad and Long Shen picked the opposite. Lieutenant Dan was curious so he started looking closely at the recruits selected by Long Shen and noticed a commonality they shared. He couldn't help letting a laugh escape that caught the attention of Sergeant Xian. He spoke up, "I'll be acting as the observer and the referee for the team battles, my decisions are final. Injuries may occur during the battles as well as death. Each of you needs to take these battles seriously. The losing team will have an extra ten laps and one thousand pushups. The flags are located at each end of the battle simulation field Team Leader Shen, you will be the blue team. Sergeant Xian, you have the red team. Get to your flags and then the battle will begin."
Long Shen looked at his team and smiled, "I picked you guys because you are all experienced CTF gamers. Those guys are all new to it. We are going to dominate today. No one is doing a single pushup or lap on my watch." The members of the team all felt their hearts begin to race, they had just assumed that Long Shen was putting a team of the worst together in order to throw the match. He looked at each one of them in the eye and said, "We're going with a risky plan, we'll bring our flag to their side and take their base and flag. If I am not wrong, this first battle Sergeant Xiang will bring one or two men here and leave the rest at the base thinking he'll use his superior experience to crush us assuming we'd divide into two even groups of four."
Lieutenant Dan sounded a horn which signaled the beginning. "Fatty, grab the flag, you will be our center, the rest of you, lets march straight in and use the flag as a distraction to pull the defenders off their own flag. We snatch it and game over."
Sergeant Xian and two soldiers snuck their way around the edges until they found themselves in an empty blue base. The flag was missing. Sergeant Xian let out a sigh, "Fuck." A few moments later Lieutenant Dan sounded the horn. The first battle had ended. Each team jogged back to their base for the restart. Sergeant Xian returned to his base and none of the defenders would look him in the eye. He asked, "How did they do it?"
Recruit Chen spoke up, "Drill Sergeant, Fatty Lai was standing out in the middle of the field holding the blue flag with only two defenders on him so we all went as a group to get it. We were halfway there when the horn sounded."
Sergeant Xian frowned, "Alright, two can play that game. We're going to bring our flag with us and lay an ambush in the center. When they bring that flag in, we'll wait for it to be in the center and grab it."
The horn sounded once again and the next battle was underway. Sergeant Xian brought his entire team to the center and had them ready the ambush. As they waited, he started to get a bad feeling, even that group should have been able to walk over by now. He motioned for one of his men to scout the enemy base. As Sergeant Xian watched him skitter across the field to the enemy base the horn sounded signaling the end of the battle. His eyes opened wide only to find the blue team behind them holding both flags.
Once again they each returned to their base. Sergeant Xian growled, "Alright this time we guard the flag, if they want to capture it, they need to bring their entire force into the base. No one leaves the base. Stay here and defend. I don't care if you see that Fatfuck standing two feet outside of the base waving the flag at you. Stay back. We are forcing them into a fight."
One of the taller and stronger recruits asked, "What if they don't come, Drill Sergeant?"
"Recruit Hoa, if they don't come then you get to delay your laps and pushups until they do. As of now, you already earned two thousand pushups and an extra twenty laps, so think of it as a reprieve. They have been winning by using distraction, they won't suddenly change their ways." Sergeant Xian made a fist and then started to put his men in position around the flag.
The horn sounded and nothing seemed to be happening as if both teams were using the same defensive strategy. Lieutenant Dan chuckled as he watched what the two teams were doing. The red team looked at Sergeant Xian who just said, "Easy boys, don't lose patience. We are here to defend this flag. They won't bring everyone without that flag. That group can't win against us in an eight verses seven, fight."
"There they are! They don't have their flag Drill Sergeant!" One of the recruits shouted. Long Shen's entire team had snuck around the right flank as a group and was in the red team base already.
Sergeant Xian looked at his group and then decided to take a chance, "Recruit Chen, run past them and grab their flag, the rest of you, form a box on the flag, don't let them through."
Long Shen and his team walked up close to Sergeant Xian's team and then stopped. Then two recruits were tossed in the air one of which managed to grab the flag at which point the horn sounded. Sergeant Xian's face turned bright red and then he shouted, "How the fuck did you win when you don't have both flags?"
Long Shen smiled and then walked over and lifted Fatty Lai's shirt showing that he had it wrapped around his body. Lieutenant Dan walked over laughing and clapping his hands. "Congratulations Team Leader Long, you have just become the first recruit leader to win a team battle against a Sergeant in camp history. Sergeant Xian, I'm afraid you were tricked by Long Shen's recruit selection. He chose his team based on their collective capture the flag gaming history. This team of recruits is made up entirely of experienced capture the flag veterans. Alright, I want one more battle. Red team and Blue team switch leaders if the blue team loses they get to do two thousand pushups and twenty laps if the red team loses they get to double their three thousand pushups and thirty laps." Both teams groaned in displeasure.
Long Shen had his team jog over to their base and reset the flag. The men looked at him expectantly as he smiled at them, "Alright you guys, our strategy is going to be an all-out war. Those guys are full of tricks, but they aren't up to our standards as fighters. They'll be looking to win without fighting, so we'll march over and just kick their asses."
"What about Sergeant Xian?" Recruit Hoa asked as several others nodded their heads in support of his question.
"Leave Sergeant Xian to me, you guys just eliminate the blue squad one at a time. Don't worry about the flag. We'll take control of the flag once we take them all down." He chuckled.
Recruit Chen asked, "What about our flag?"
"We bring it with us, let it fly in all its glory." He smiled, "Trust me, those guys are not looking for a fight, they plan to win by getting us to chase something. Only Sergeant Xian is a risk, and I'll lock him down."
Once the horn sounded Red Team did a slow jog straight down the middle of the battlefield carrying their flag. As expected, the blue flag was not in the base, but the Red Team started to quickly eliminate the members of the blue team one at a time. Sergeant Xian realized that the red team was using brute force after two of his blue team members were already down, he growled out, "Blue team, continue executing the plan!" He charged into the red team looking to quickly take out as many as he could only to come face to face with Long Shen who locked him into a one on one fight.
As each member of the blue team went down the red team would call out the number of blue team members remaining. Finally as Sergeant Xian and Long Shen battled fiercely the horn sounded. Sergeant Xian could only stand there breathing heavily as the red team claimed the victory. He had been thoroughly defeated. Long Shen seemed to see through his every strategy and plan. In his heart, he knew what kind of genius talent Long Shen was, but he still felt his pride take a shot. All of his battlefield experience told him that he made no mistakes and yet this man who had never seen an actual battle one-sidedly crushed him in a head to head battle.
Lieutenant Dan shook his head in disbelief as he walked up. He knew what kind of a man Sergeant Xian was and how much battlefield experience he had. He couldn't help asking, "Recruit Long, where did you learn strategy and planning?"
Long Shen snapped to attention and then replied, "Sir, I was a professional VRMMO gamer. I have played thousands of simulated battles like this with other gamers. Most of my gaming was done in the fleet simulation game where strategy is the game, Sir."
Lieutenant Dan nodded, he knew that the VRMMO games were originally a training tool used by the Angelic to find potential commanders before they switched the emphasis to cultivation after the war with the Demonic started to turn bad. The Lieutenant walked over and placed a hand on Sergeant Xian's shoulder and said, "Take your squad to the armory. It's time to get them fitted with armor and weapons. Drill them on formations. I'm going to have you battle squad 47 next week. Let's get the platoon ready for the division battle."
Sergeant Xian shouted out, "Team Leader Long, gather the squad, we're moving out." He then started to jog ahead.
Long Shen motioned for everyone to line up in two columns with him at the head, he then started to jog at Sergeant Xian's pace. He started to call out the chant, "My blood, my body, my soul, long live the squad!" The rest of the squad repeated the chant a moment later and then they continued that way through the camp. Sergeant Xian was still in a bad mood from the losses but the stares full of fear from the other squads in the division as they passed by made him feel a deep sense of pride. The events of the dining hall incident and the death of recruit Leung had already been passed around the camp giving his squad an aura of invincibility. The chant lead by Long Shen made the other squads shiver like they were staring into the eyes of a monster.
Lieutenant Dan saluted crisply and stood at attention, "Reporting for duty, Sir."
"At ease Li, tell me about this super recruit you have. I read the reports, you are already suggesting officer training for him and he's still in the foundation stage?" A handsome middleaged blond-haired man sat behind a large desk looking at a tablet.
"Yes Captain, he is already at the sixth level of the foundation stage, but he has also displayed incredible skill at strategy and leadership." He replied.
The Captain frowned a bit and then said, "If I am reading this correctly, that guy has only been cultivating at most two years. You're right, he has the talent to be an officer, but I want to keep him under you for right now. Let him reach the ninth level before we send him to the CO school. Once they graduate from basic, he'll get some battlefield time, that'll make him a better officer in the long run. I'll recommend him for a promotion to corporal once he graduates for now." He sighed and shook his head, "Li, what's going on with your other squad? Are they all wastes?"
Lieutenant Dan stiffened and then replied, "Captain, I am afraid there might not be a real soldier in that group. I am hoping that once they face off against squad 48, they'll start to understand the difference between them and real soldiers."
The Captain looked over the reports and then asked, "Has Sergeant Tang selected a team leader yet?"
"No, Captain, his squad has no leader in the bunch. I was hoping we could get one of them to step up by now, but the entire squad is filled with cowards that wait for someone else to take the lead." Lieutenant Dan admitted.
"I see, very well, pick the worst one of them and promote him to team leader, then set up a squad battle between 47 and 48. Sergeants will observe with you. Let's have Long put them in the dirt until they are so humiliated one of those cowards will want to take charge." He pinched the bridge of his nose, "Li, you know that Kwan Joon has two excellent squads this year. You need to get squad 47 in shape or you're going to lose again this year. Squad 48 is good, but don't rely on the strength of just the one man, you need to develop your entire platoon."
"Yes, Captain. I'll make adjustments." He gave a crisp salute.
The Captain said offhandedly, "You're dismissed."
Lieutenant Dan frowned as he headed out to find Sergeant Tang. He was determined to run squad 47 into the ground until they gave up, died or became soldiers. He was disgusted with himself for allowing them to get this bad. He stopped and sent an order to Sergeant Tang through his tablet, "The Captain ordered us to select a leader for your squad. He wants the worst one, I am thinking recruit Jiang, the little guy that hides in the back. Send me your suggestion."
A few moments later he received a message, "Sir, didn't you mean the best one? I think of the bunch recruit Xiang might be the better leader although he doesn't like to stand out around superiors."
Lieutenant walked into Sergeant Tang's office and closed the door. He darkened the windows and put the office into secure mode. "Tang, this is the order put the worst member of your squad in as the team leader. We're going to have your squad face off against Xiang's while you two will observe with me."
"So you want Long to kick their asses." Tang frowned.
Lieutenant Dan nodded and said, "Captain Pepperwood was very disappointed with squad 47. It looks bad on both of us. At this point, I am ready to start executing that squad and starting over, but there might be a chance one of those cowards grows some balls after seeing the gap between them and 48."
Sergeant Tang ran his hand through his hair and let out his breath, "Sir, I don't think they are a total loss, some of them can be molded to good soldiers, they just need a leader. I see the potential here. Any chance we could get a recruit transferred in? A swap from 48?"
Lieutenant Dan laughed, "Negative, I am not giving you Long, you need to build one of these jackasses into a leader. I know it's a difficult task, but let them taste some defeat and then reassess them for talent. If they can't pull together into a team, we don't need them." He unlocked the room and then started to walk out, "One week Tang, then we replace your squad." His footsteps echoed down the hall as he left.
Sergeant Tang frowned and then punched the wall, "Fuck! Is it me? Did I fail these men?" He started to pace around the room thinking about all of his decisions with punishment and reward. He could find no fault with his methods, why did his squad all seem to be men who schemed and worked in the shadows? He looked over the data again, maybe there was at least one he missed. He knew that he was ordered to pick the worst of his men as a leader. He looked over the performance reviews. One name stood out for him, Cheng Han. Always second to last in every area. Most recruits were skilled in at least two areas, but this Cheng Han managed to be second to last in all areas almost as if he was tanking. A smile formed over his face. A hidden talent that looks like a turd?