A Journey Through the Flames of War in the Republican Era

The three-week exchange visit to Sandhurst Military Academy is drawing to a close amidst a friendly and united atmosphere of mutual learning and training, where students from both sides are subtly competing.

Next up is another major event.

After careful planning by the staff and instructors of both sides, a friendly military skills competition between the two schools will be held at the end of the exchange and learning trip, as a concentrated display of the results of this exchange and learning trip and a conclusion to the visit.

After discussions between the two parties, the competition was named the West Point Sandhurst Competition. The competition mainly consisted of the regular training subjects of West Point and Sandhurst Military Academy, and focused on more than 10 events, including boat handling, shooting, weapons handling, obstacle course, climbing, rappelling, rope bridge, battlefield wounded rescue and care, orienteering, swimming, and decision-making and command capabilities. The competition also tested physical fitness, skills, and intelligence, as well as teamwork and tactical decision-making abilities.

Song Hongfei was taken aback. Eighty years later, when he was studying at the G Military Academy, he had participated in the Sandhurst Competition twice and won the highest honors of the competition, "Outstanding Squad Commander" and "Best Military Skills Performance Award," for which he was awarded a second-class merit and became a prominent figure at the G Military Academy.

He never imagined that there would be a "Sandhurst Competition" in the era he had traveled to. He remembered clearly that this competition was not held until 1967. He was even a little dazed. What was wrong with history?

In late April, a West Point "Sandhurst Competition" between cadets from the United States Military Academy at West Point and the British Military Academy at Sandhurst took place at the West Point "Beast Camp" training base on the banks of the Hudson River in New York State.

The 20-plus cadets from Sandhurst Military Academy who came for this exchange program were all elite students selected from across the academy. Most of them were graduating students, while the rest were elite representatives from the second and third years.

Correspondingly, West Point also sent elite representatives from each grade. Song Hongfei, Zhang Yi, and Wang Zhi were among them.

As the host institution, West Point was conducting training exercises on its home turf, stipulating that each cadet could participate in no more than two events. This left Song Hongfei and Zhang Yi, both possessing excellent military skills and a love for fun, itching to participate but unable to, much to their frustration.

In a friendly and enthusiastic atmosphere, after two days of fierce competition, Song Hongfei, Zhang Yi, and Wang Zhi made a name for themselves in the shooting, climbing, cross-country swimming, obstacle course, orienteering, and decision-making and command ability challenge events, in which they were the main force. They won a total of 5 first places and 1 second place, and their teams won the Outstanding Team Award.

West Point Superintendent Major General Smith and Brigadier General Edward, the leader of the Sandhurst Military Academy, personally presented them with awards. Amidst enthusiastic applause and cheers, Brigadier General Edward presented the three with Sandhurst Military Academy sashes and gold honorary armbands, and gave a thumbs-up, sincerely praising, "Chinese cadets, excellent!"

West Point places great emphasis on military training. Freshmen and sophomores have no summer vacation; it is all dedicated to military training. New cadets participate in basic cadet training, while sophomores and juniors participate in field training and leadership development training to cultivate squad-level tactical and technical capabilities, basic leadership skills, and tactical decision-making abilities.

Senior students in their final year also need to undergo a month of training to be closer to real combat so that they can successfully serve as platoon leaders in the army.

The visit of elite cadets from Sandhurst Military Academy to West Point coincided with the graduation training period for senior cadets. The exchange and learning between the two sides has been very fruitful, and even the senior cadets' enthusiasm for military training is higher than in the past.

After consulting with their instructors and staff, the final highlight of the competition plan was to combine the training exercise with that of the graduating class of West Point, with both sides' students conducting a joint military exercise.

The visiting Sandhurst Military Academy elite cadets were all incorporated into the West Point senior class, and used West Point juniors as their hypothetical adversaries to conduct one offensive and one defensive exercise at the infantry battalion level.

Upon seeing the exercise plan, Song Hongfei's first thought was, "An exercise? A performance? So the US and British militaries can put on a show too."

For a period of time in later generations, many exercises were treated like child's play, and the military jokingly referred to them as "playing a game."

Zhang Yi was baffled and asked, puzzled, "What acting?"

Knowing he had misspoke, Song Hongfei smiled awkwardly and remained silent. After thinking for a moment, he said, "Look at this play script, uh, no, the exercise plan. We're just there to accompany the prince. When the signal sounds, we'll run errands, fire some guns, have a good commotion, and then just run away with our tails between our legs."

Upon hearing this, Zhang Yi nodded: "That makes sense."

Then his eyes darted around, as if he had suddenly realized something crucial, and he chuckled and said, "These past two days you've been watching the exercise plan with ulterior motives, you definitely don't have good intentions, you have other ideas?"

Song Hongfei chuckled and explained his ideas in detail. Zhang Yi's eyes widened as he listened, becoming increasingly excited. These two were both audacious and reckless. The two discussed it further and, as usual, created a map and sand table to conduct several simulations.

Song Hongfei and Zhang Yi then went to see Instructor Winters, also known as "Old Cat," and told him their plan. As soon as Old Cat heard it, he became interested as well.

He carefully reviewed Song Hongfei and Zhang Yi's plan, thought it over, and pointed out a few problems to Song Hongfei: "In your plan, you use mobile forces to quickly outflank and launch an assault. Where do you get the mobile assault vehicles and equipment?"

Song Hongfei replied, "Borrow trucks and tractors from Uncle John and Uncle Tom's farm in West Point. With a little preparation, they can be equipped with heavy machine guns, mortars, and infantry guns, which is enough to deal with this attack."

Old Cat pondered for a moment, then nodded. He then asked, "This exceeds the operational area of ​​a battalion-level unit. How will communication and command be maintained during mobile operations?"

At that time, a complete radio set was very large and heavy. In field operations, even the great powers' armies only equipped them up to the regimental level, and in rare cases, up to the battalion level. Walkie-talkies and small radios for individual soldiers and small units had not yet been invented. This was indeed a big problem, and Song Hongfei had racked his brains over it for a long time.

Song Hongfei explained his solution, and Lao Mao thought about it carefully and decided it was feasible.

Finally, Lao Mao, Song Hongfei, and Zhang Yi meticulously simulated and deduced the plan several times on the map and sand table. These three dared to cause havoc in the Heavenly Palace and finalized their audacious plan.

"Old Cat" was also someone who loved to stir up trouble. He was already quite frustrated and annoyed that the cadets he was assigned to be instructors were being used as "live-fire puppets" in the exercises. After being encouraged by these two, he thought about it and actually agreed.

"Old Cat" then recruited his partners, military instructors Major Nixon, Major Wilson, and Captain Compton. These officers served as instructors for the third-year cadets during the exercise. These guys weren't exactly law-abiding either, so after a brief discussion, they decided to pull off a little stunt!