1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 3944

Standing on Victory Square on the north bank of West Lake, you can see a tall brick tower with eight stories and seven sides, called Baochu Tower, standing on Gem Mountain to the west.

Baochu Pagoda is said to have been built during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period by Qian Chu, the King of Wuyue. However, the Baochu Pagoda we see today has been repaired and rebuilt many times during the reigns of the Song, Yuan, and Ming dynasties, so it can hardly be considered an ancient relic.

Even after Haihan took over Hangzhou, it carried out repairs on Baochu Pagoda. However, the funds were not specifically used for the repairs, but rather came from the funds allocated for the construction of the National Defense University at the foot of Baoshi Mountain.

This is because when planning this institution of higher learning, the Ministry of National Defense included most of Gem Mountain within the campus, including the long-neglected Baochu Pagoda. Since a large amount of civil engineering work was to be completed on Gem Mountain anyway, they figured they might as well take the opportunity to repair the Baochu Pagoda, which had not been properly maintained for almost a century.

Today, Baochu Pagoda is part of the National Defense University, and some even nickname it the "National Defense Tower." Visitors to West Lake can see the pagoda from afar and know that the National Defense University, which trained high-ranking officers for the empire, is located beneath it.

Haihan's earliest military academies were not the National Defense University, but the Army Academy and Naval Academy, located on the east and west sides of Shengli Port in Sanya, respectively. Today, most of Haihan's senior officers are graduates of these two institutions.

However, as the Haihan Army has grown and expanded over the past thirty years, the majors offered by these two schools have gradually become unable to meet the needs of training professional military personnel.

The later-established specialties such as artillery, communications, amphibious operations, weapons maintenance, and logistics management, as well as the newly established air force specialties in recent years, can no longer be simply classified as army or navy academies. There is an urgent need for a comprehensive military academy to undertake the teaching tasks of these specialties, and the National Defense University was born in this environment.

Although the school has not been established for long, this military academy has taken advantage of the relocation of the capital from the planning stage. The site was located on the north bank of West Lake in Hangzhou, where the major government offices were concentrated. The teaching staff was also selected and transferred from military academies in Sanya.

In addition to establishing many new majors, the National Defense University also undertakes the teaching tasks of holding advanced training courses for senior officers from time to time.

Students in these advanced training programs are often not selected through the usual enrollment process. Instead, local military units recommend candidates from their subordinate officers, and the candidates bear the relevant expenses during their studies in Beijing.

The curriculum and schedule of the advanced training courses are also very flexible. There are advanced training courses designed for officers in overseas regions, which last for a year, as well as short training courses like the one Chen Pingliao attended in Beijing, which last only half a month.

Chen Pingliao arrived at the National Defense University in his own carriage, then instructed his steward, Ma Hong, to return first. He then picked up his luggage and headed towards the gate. Barring any unforeseen circumstances, he would stay and eat here for the next two weeks, only leaving the university to return to his home on the other side of West Lake after the courses concluded.

Although it was only a short training course lasting half a month, the school clearly attached great importance to it because the participants were all senior officers starting from major. A special check-in and reception area was set up at the school gate, with dedicated staff to greet them and arrange their meals and accommodation.

As for the students in this class, Chen Pingliao already knew most of them. The day before yesterday, Dai Chengrong indeed invited Chen Pingliao and all the personnel from the East China Sea Garrison under the pretext of making friends with heroes. Even Shi Chengxin was present.

There were quite a few second-generation officers in the East China Sea Military Region, so these people didn't have much of a barrier when dealing with Chen Pingliao and Shi Chengxin, and they quickly became friends over drinks. Of course, as the only "outsider" at this event, Chen Pingliao couldn't avoid the "warm hospitality" from the others. Even though he had developed a good tolerance for alcohol in the north, he had to lie in bed for a whole day to recover after the gathering.

However, this gathering also greatly shortened the distance between Chen Pingliao and the East China Sea naval officers. As soon as he arrived at the reception area, several people greeted him loudly as "Brother Chen" and quickly came over to take his luggage. They were all "classmates" he had met at the gathering the day before.

When Chen Pingliao last came to Hangzhou, the National Defense University was still under construction, so he had never seen the actual environment here. As soon as he entered the school gate, he saw a magnificent sword sculpture standing not far ahead. The exposed half of the sword blade and hilt was several meters high, and the top of it was much taller than the school gate.

Only upon closer inspection can one see that the sword is surprisingly large, with the blade alone being over ten feet wide. It is inscribed with four powerful characters: "The Nation's Sharp Sword," signed by Defense Minister Yan Chujie.

The other buildings and facilities on campus are not much different from those of the two military academies in Sanya, mainly consisting of simple, block-shaped buildings.

An officer familiar with the campus told Chen Pingliao that there was even a shooting range set up at the foot of the mountain on the other side of Baoshi Mountain, used to teach students how to use various guns and cannons.

In addition, the National Defense University is responsible for external communication for various major government departments, including the Executive Committee—several radio antennas are mounted on the newly renovated Baochu Pagoda.

Since the short training course lasts only half a month, the content is arranged in a relatively intensive manner. Registration is completed in the morning, and classes begin in the afternoon.

These short training courses are offered almost cyclically at the National Defense University, with about twenty classes held each year. As a result, the formalities such as the opening ceremony are eliminated, and the teaching begins directly after roll call in the classroom on the afternoon of the course.

The first lesson was a case study analysis that Chen Pingliao had been eagerly anticipating, based on the recently concluded battle in Jiangxi. The lecturer was a senior staff officer from the East China Sea Regional Garrison Command, who had personally participated in the Jiangxi operation and had only recently returned to Hangzhou.

The battle example he explained was the final battle of a series of engagements in Jiangxi—the Battle of Nanchang.

Several newspapers in the rear had published reports about the battle, and Chen Pingliao had even seen internal military reports. However, these written accounts were certainly not as vivid as firsthand accounts.

Those present were all high-ranking officers, and they knew that many details of the battle process would not appear in the battle reports, so they listened very attentively.

The troops of the East China Sea Region launched offensives from both the northwest and southwest directions in the attack on Nanchang, and both operations were carried out in the form of amphibious operations. The final result was quite satisfactory, as they were the first to break through the city's defenses in the siege.

The Haihan Army used many new equipment and tactics in this battle, especially the hot air balloons, which were deployed in actual combat for the first time. These were also novel and unfamiliar equipment to the officers present. How to integrate this new equipment into Haihan's existing combat system, and under what circumstances and environmental conditions it could be used, must be explored and summarized through actual combat.