A Journey Through the Flames of War in the Republican Era

At West Point, senior cadets manage junior cadets.

There are also differences in rank between freshmen and seniors. First-year students are called "commoners," fourth-year students are called "first-class students," and senior students have supreme authority.

In addition to intense and arduous study and training, new students also have to face the harsh and demanding management of senior students, endure all kinds of teasing and harassment, and suffer various punishments.

West Point has a famous saying: "Reasonable demands are training; unreasonable demands are tempering."

However, whether it's reasonable or not, the new recruits have no choice but to accept it, because there's a famous saying at West Point: "He who cannot obey has no right to lead!"

The bullying, humiliation, and even abuse of new students by senior students is also a major tradition of West Point.

The tradition of West Point seniors bullying freshmen is long-standing, with a variety of methods: chewing on rope ends, eating soap, and drinking water infused with cigarette butts; using a stiff brush to paint graffiti all over the recruit's body with shoe polish; pressing the recruit's head into a toilet; taking off their socks and dripping wax on their feet; ordering them to collect ants from the mountain and to use a fly swatter to kill all the flies in the school; being pulled out of bed while sleeping and forced to put their hands and feet on the headboards, their bodies suspended in the air; eating while lying face down on a table, with their feet raised and placed on the opposite side of the table and kept still; and doing a handstand with their back against the wall and their head on the ground, while maintaining an upright posture.

There are also various other creative ways to do it: "Duck Walk"—squatting with hands behind your back and legs spread outwards; "Swimming to Newburgh"—balancing on your stomach against a pillar while mimicking swimming motions; "Airplane Ride"—standing on a stool, bending forward 90 degrees, legs together, buttocks sticking out, arms outstretched backwards and upwards; "Eagle Spreading Wings"—kneeling on the ground, or standing on tiptoe, sometimes with shards of glass underneath, arms outstretched to the sides and waving up and down, constantly "spreading wings and flying."

It was common for freshmen to be beaten at will. If an upperclassman couldn't stand a freshman, he would cover him with a blanket and beat him up—so as not to cause any injuries.

Alternatively, it could take the form of a "boxing match," but don't assume it's a fair fight. Freshmen have two choices: one-on-one or group brawl. Either you take turns fighting one-on-one, or you get ganged up on. And even if a freshman manages to beat the first opponent, there will be a second one, with even fiercer and more brutal opponents, until the freshman is defeated.

Such bullying incidents were all too common in American military academies at the time.

Song Hongfei recalled a report he had once read—a bullying incident that occurred at West Point Military Academy in 1901.

There was a freshman named Buz who was physically weak and had a timid personality. He was often bullied in the military academy. People would often insult and beat him, and force him to drink large amounts of soy sauce during meals, or even force it into his mouth until he choked, coughed, and vomited.

Boots later dropped out of school due to illness, and soon news came that he had died from a lung infection. The entire school knew that Boots' death must be related to bullying. However, in the end, West Point simply expelled several of the most egregious bullies and the students with the worst academic performance.

Booth's family sued West Point, and MacArthur, a West Point student who witnessed the bullying, was ordered by the judge to testify and be questioned. This incident left a deep impression on MacArthur, and later, when he became the superintendent of West Point, he specifically addressed the issue of bullying on campus.

There's a rumor about West Point—

In the early days, some new recruits who had been bullied and abused reported it to the school administration, but the school's senior management only said one sentence: "This is not a greenhouse for growing seedlings. When you enter the army and go to the battlefield, the setbacks and pain you will suffer will be no less than this. If you can't bear it here, you should drop out and leave as soon as possible!"

The report ultimately came to nothing—because no injuries or fatalities were reported.

The whistleblower was helpless. After the senior students found out, the whistleblower faced even harsher treatment. The senior students simply learned to be more cautious, avoiding detection by the school and preventing injuries or fatalities. They even had a seemingly valid reason: "To help the school weed out unqualified new students!"

—This story has been circulating at West Point ever since, and no one knows whether it's true or not.

This kind of humiliation and bullying is a "required course" that almost every new student experiences, becoming an unspoken rule at Westin, and is even euphemistically called an "initiation ceremony".

The senior students would say that this is a form of education, intended to "make the new students understand the rules of the military—obeying orders and following commands," because they themselves had been treated in the same way before and were not harmed. On the contrary, it greatly benefited their own transformation and growth.

When Song Hongfei and Zhang Yi first entered the school, some senior students said to them, "Bear with it, kids. We've all been through this before, but it will make you a real soldier, a real man."

Song Hongfei and Zhang Yi were taken aback, somewhat dumbfounded. Song Hongfei said, "What the hell kind of logic is this?"

Zhang Yi nonchalantly brandished his fist and said nonchalantly, "I don't care who it is, I'll beat them up first and then ask who got beaten! Let my fists do the talking!"

Unexpectedly, these words were immediately agreed upon by the other party, who nodded in approval: "Yes! At West Point, the strongest are respected! Strength makes you strong, and the strong rule!"

This is a phenomenon unique to the high-pressure, closed, strictly controlled, and highly obedient military environment. It is even regarded as a kind of obedience education in the army. Veterans believe that new recruits can only transform and grow through such "tempering," and can only gain recognition and integrate into the team, because everyone has gone through this process and grown up.

The same problem exists in armies all over the world; it's a chronic, incurable disease that persists despite repeated official bans. It's passed down through generations of veterans, who themselves experienced the same treatment as recruits, and now, as veterans, they intensify their mistreatment of the next batch of recruits.

The military is a unique environment that believes in "survival of the fittest". Everyone in it feels that the necessary high-pressure rules and severe punishments are indispensable - if you can't even bear this, how can you endure the bloody and cruel battlefield?

West Point has a philosophy: those who lack inner strength have no right to talk about life!

So in reality, it has been strictly prohibited, and the slogans have been shouted loudly, but it has not stopped. This unreasonable phenomenon has continued to exist in this unreasonable way.

However, there is something even more terrifying.

Racial discrimination—another major characteristic of West Point.

West Point admitted its first Black student in 1877, 75 years after its founding. Minority cadets were treated differently for disciplinary violations and faced harsher punishments for the same offenses.

At West Point, there's a unique phenomenon—almost all the cadets who have never been bullied are Black, precisely because of racial discrimination. In the deeply ingrained subconscious of white people, they are considered "inferior"—not even deserving of being bullied or abused.

This is somewhat similar to the caste system that was imposed on India by white people during their invasion.

In India's caste system, the Dalits are even lower than the lowest of the indigenous commoner castes, the Shudras. They are known as "untouchables" or "untouchables," and are the lowest of the low, without rights or status, engaged in the most menial occupations. Dalits are not even considered part of the people in India; they are excluded from the four major castes—they don't even qualify to be among the lowest.

At West Point, many people cannot withstand the physical and mental torment and immense pressure, and often drop out in the "Beast Camp" or just as they enter the cadet program.

In the prevailing Western and white supremacist environment of the time, these Chinese cadets also suffered various forms of unfair treatment at West Point.

When Song Hongfei and Zhang Yi first entered the school, they were given a rude awakening during the six-week training program of the famous and unique "Beast Camp" - the senior students arrogantly and domineeringly ordered Song Hongfei and Zhang Yi to "squat with bayonets"!

"Squatting with bayonets" involves standing a bayonet upright on the floor with the tip pointing upwards, ordering freshmen to remove their clothes, hold a stool with both hands, and squat on the bayonet in a horse stance for 10 minutes. There's a knack to "squatting with bayonets." You have to squat just right; if you squat too lightly, the bayonet will tilt, and if you squat too heavily, you risk being stabbed in the buttocks.

"Squatting with bayonets" is a long-standing tradition in American military academies where upperclassmen bully freshmen. Freshmen either obediently complete the task or humbly submit, admit defeat, and beg for mercy. In the end, they will naturally lose face in the military academy and no one will respect them.

Marshall revealed that he was also bayoneted when he first enrolled at the Virginia Military Institute. At the time, Marshall was suffering from typhoid fever and was still weak. He eventually collapsed due to exhaustion, and the bayonet pierced his buttocks. However, when the school investigated the cause of his injury, Marshall remained tight-lipped, which earned him the respect and approval of the senior students.

"This is outrageous!" Faced with the senior students' arrogant and unreasonable order to "squat with bayonets," the hot-tempered Zhang Yi looked puzzled and indignant.

Just as he was about to explode, Song Hongfei grabbed him and said, "This is a tradition at American military academies. All new cadets have to go through this. Just bear with it for now. I believe you can squat down in 10 minutes."

Zhang Yi then sat down in a horse stance without saying a word.

Zhang Yi had received rigorous and arduous training at the Whampoa Military Academy in China, and was in good physical condition. Although squatting was difficult, and he gritted his teeth with bulging veins on his neck, he was still able to persevere.

For Song Hongfei, squatting in a horse stance was child's play.

The military is a masculine place; it never believes in tears, only in sweat and blood. The military does not sympathize with or accommodate the weak; it only respects and admires the strong. Like gold being sifted from sand, the weak are eliminated; there is no place for the weak in the military. In a world of survival of the fittest, the military is only suitable for the strong.

This principle extends to the national level as well: backwardness invites aggression, and weakness invites bullying and humiliation from powerful nations. Their superior ships and cannons force open your doors, slaughter your people, carve up your territory, plunder your resources, and stifle your nation's and people's space and opportunities for survival and development.

If you are powerful, you can crush others like cutting melons and vegetables, and they will have no choice but to rely on you. If you are happy, you can drop two nuclear bombs on their territory, station troops on their territory, run rampant in their home, control everything, and become the supreme ruler with your feet on their damn emperor's head.

You can put a leash on it and lead it by the nose, and it will never dare to bare its teeth at you. You can even pinch its testicles, and it will still lick your boots and kneel down to call you "Dad"!

It was even afraid of upsetting you, so in the name of the nation, it selected the best beauties from its own country and offered them to your occupying commander-in-chief as his mistress!

The Earth is so big, but resources are limited. If you occupy more land, I lose one less piece of land; if you take more resources, I can only enjoy one less portion.

The laws of survival apply to human society in no way different from those of animals.