Chapter 894 - Broadcast Calisthenics
Class columns led by their monitors marched toward the playground squad by squad in quick time, every student stepping to the rhythm of the march. Steps synchronized, formations orderly—the students radiated high morale.
At the head of one class, a student held high a red triangular pennant—the championship flag from the weekly formation drill competition. The winning class earned improved meals once that week.
Each class followed a predetermined route. Columns merged into wide formations up to sixteen rows across before entering the playground, then transformed through complex maneuvers back into narrow two-person columns before reaching their positions. Multiple columns moved simultaneously across the grounds, marching in different directions, with various formations crossing paths on the playground and roads. It looked bewilderingly intricate, yet each formation advanced without interfering with the others; the timing of intersections was calibrated with extreme precision. As the last person of one column passed a crossing point, another column would traverse that same route. With dozens of class columns marching simultaneously, any team slightly off in speed or rhythm would cause a collision.
This was no longer ordinary formation performance but precision drill elevated to an art form. For modern armies, precision drill served only to cultivate military bearing and provide ceremonial displays. But for armies of the line-infantry era, precision drill held critical significance for combat formation changes.
"Marching's not bad," observed the Fubo Army officer who had been watching with hands clasped behind his back. "Just at this level, they're on par with the recruit camp I led." He continued his assessment: "Several orders of magnitude better than the Black Uncles who came for observation training. Whether they compare to the Old Guard or Lobsterbacks that Lin Shenhe and Wendy are always going on about, I couldn't say."
Hu Qingbai was too modest to boast, and merely smiled without comment.
Wu De shook his head with a laugh. "Old Fu, don't blow your own trumpet. I spent time in the recruit camp too—can raw recruits at three months really achieve this level? I'd say they're at least half as good as the Dalian Surface Vessel Academy."
The Elder called Old Fu shook his head emphatically. "There you go with your Navy Superiority Theory again..." He suddenly trailed off, his expression shifting as he muttered, "Damn, why are the students marching Navy steps? This isn't scientific."
The Fubo Army's Army and Navy steps were completely different. The Army used the traditional PLA version, belonging to the German school of drill; the Navy had used British drill from the beginning. The students' posture on the playground—small steps, high arm swings—was unmistakably British Naval drill.
"How is it unscientific? Looks perfectly scientific to me." Wu De waved dismissively. "Look, the students' spirit and energy are quite good."
"There's some military bearing there," the officer conceded, unable to find words for rebuttal, his face full of unconvinced frustration—like someone who'd been sandbagged. "Still... it's not scientific..."
The National School implemented paramilitary management, with a portion of each month devoted to military training. The main content was drill practice. Normally, senior corporals or sergeants sent by the Army took turns serving as training instructors. But since the Summer Awakening Campaign began the previous year, the prolonged Northern and Southern Qiongzhou security wars had exhausted Army manpower. Almost all units had been pulled away, leaving only one garrison battalion and the 5th Infantry Battalion (Strategic Reserve) in Lingao. The Army could no longer spare NCOs to conduct training, so Fangcaodi's military instruction had been entirely taken over by the Navy.
While they conversed, the queues on the playground had all reached positions. Following commands from the loudspeaker, students in formation quickly trotted to expand spacing, creating room for broadcast calisthenics.
"Flag-raising ceremony begins now! Present the flag!"
At the loudspeaker's command, flag bearers and guards selected from the student body emerged from the office building's main entrance in goose step, marching toward the flag podium. The bearer carried the recently designated National Flag of the Senate.
National flag and national anthem had once been sensitive matters, and the Elders had initially maintained deliberate vagueness on the subject. With the victory in the Counter-Encirclement Campaign and control of the entire island, continuing to hide their capabilities and blur their political identity was no longer appropriate. Maintaining such ambiguity internally would only leave subject indigenous people and naturalized citizens confused about their own positioning. If this continued, public sentiment could never stabilize.
Though the Senate still retained Ming local officials and yamens across Qiongzhou Island—purely out of reluctance to make a complete break with the Great Ming for now—in actual operation, these bureaucratic organs had been completely hollowed out. New regime institutions appeared with increasing frequency in social life, while the Ming government's presence faded ever weaker.
In the past, the Senate had never formally established a national flag. The Star and Fist Red Flag served as both Fubo Army banner and proxy national flag. But the pattern was somewhat too complex—less than ideal from a flag-design perspective.
After Senate deliberation, the national flag was finally designated as the "Morning Star Flag," creatively plagiarizing the NATO emblem. The design featured Polaris shining in a deep blue night sky—concise, clear, and easy to identify. In meaning, the ancients had revered Polaris highly, believing it fixed and immovable with the stars revolving around it, a constant star visible in the night sky, unchanging in brightness and position. Since Polaris lay closest to true North, humanity had navigated by its light for thousands of years. It carried meanings of guidance, leadership, and eternal guardianship—symbolizing the Elders' status and role. As a national flag, it perfectly captured the Senate's vision of establishing a New Empire.
As for the national anthem, "Singing the Motherland" had originally served as proxy. But certain Elders felt the song's "imperialist" quality was insufficient, strongly advocating for old time-space superpower anthems like "Unbreakable Union" or "The Star-Spangled Banner." After discussion, the final choice was the old imperialist power's "Rule, Britannia," re-lyricized as "Rule, Senate."
"Singing the Motherland" became the second national anthem for general occasions. Additionally, "The Star-Spangled Banner" and "Unbreakable Union" were also re-lyricized, becoming "The Morning Star Flag Forever Waves" and "Empire as Solid as a Rock" respectively. As patriotic songs subject to the Senate's questionable taste, more and more pieces fell victim to plagiarism. "La Marseillaise" had long since become "Bopu Song"; "The Sacred War," "Soviet March" (from Red Alert 3), "Deutschland ĂĽber alles," and "Imperial March" (from Star Wars) all followed, receiving new lyrics. Except for "The Sacred War" retaining its original title, they became "Senate March," "Empire Above All," and "Empire March" respectively.
"Our collection of patriotic songs will probably become the longest in history," Ding Ding had commented after the meeting. "Of course, the military song collection will definitely become quite thick and heavy too."
Fang Fei had been even more worried, because all these songs had to be taught and learned—no light undertaking. Moreover, most were originally foreign-language pieces; changing lyrics was easy, but making them singable was another matter. And some lyrics that might be fitting in ten or twenty years sounded rather laughable when applied now—like "From the Pacific to the Ural Mountains"—when the Senate currently controlled only one Hainan Island.
"Raise the national flag! Sing the national anthem! Salute!"
Majestic music rang from the broadcast speakers. National School students began singing in unison the newly finalized anthem, "Rule, Senate."
When the Senate, at Heaven's command Arose from the azure main Arose, arose, arose from the azure main This was the charter of the land And guardian angels sang this strain:
Rule, Empire! Empire rule the waves, lands and skies Imperial people shall be masters of the World.
The Senate more holy than nations, kings and princes of the earth Must surrender Surrender, surrender, surrender Kings and princes of the earth While thou shalt flourish great and free While thou shalt flourish great and free The dread and envy of them all.
Rule, Senate! Empire rule the waves and earth Imperial people shall be masters of the World.
Thousands of students stood solemnly singing in unison; their voices surged skyward. The Morning Star Flag rose slowly up the flagpole with the anthem. The Elders on the third floor also stood at attention, motionless, saluting the flag.
The flag rose. The loudspeaker began playing the MP3 of "Third Set of Broadcast Calisthenics." Hu Qingbai then introduced the Fubo Army officer to Yuan Ziguang:
"This is Major Fu Sansi, currently Head of the General Staff Training Department, soon to be Inspector General of Training—hahaha..."
"Don't announce it before the formal appointment."
Fu Sansi said this while saluting, then shaking hands with Yuan Ziguang. He was a robust middle-aged man. Like He Ming, he came from a PLA infantry company commander background, but was junior to He Ming in seniority and had never seen combat. He had joined the transmigration cause much later than the others, serving as an ordinary Elder officer until being promoted to infantry battalion commander a few months before the Chengmai Campaign.
After the Northern Qiongzhou security war had essentially concluded, Fu Sansi had proposed to the Army Ministry that he no longer serve as infantry battalion commander. He had sustained injuries during combat-readiness training while serving in the PLA, and the physical demands of an infantry officer proved too great. He applied to serve exclusively as a military training instructor.
The Executive Committee's military system design had originally envisioned establishing the post of Inspector General of Military Training, but lacking suitable candidates at the time, the position had remained vacant. Now that Fu Sansi had volunteered to become a dedicated military instructor, he proved ideal in both qualifications and practical skills. He Ming had therefore first transferred him to serve as Head of the General Staff Training Department.