unclear

Chapter 1420 My name is Miguel!

"My God... are they demons from hell?! Quickly, call the priest! Quickly, prepare holy water!"

But after he picked up the binoculars and looked around a few times, his cursing stopped abruptly and turned into panicked shouts. He looked like he was possessed, his face was deathly pale, and he kept making the sign of the cross on his chest.

“Evil witchcraft… evil Easterners… groom, groom… bring my horse here right now!”

The Pole was startled by Buturlin's behavior and picked up his binoculars to look up at the sky. A few seconds later, he also started muttering to himself. After a few more seconds, he suddenly had a fit too, running briskly towards the stables, forgetting even to put on his hat.

"Ming army, Ming army... the Ming army has left the city!"

At the same time, two warhorses galloped in from outside the camp, one after the other. The Cossack riders on horseback waved their whips and shouted loudly, trying to attract the attention of the guards and have the barricades moved in advance.

"Yes, yes, another airflow... like this, like this... hold steady, hold steady... signal with flags, 3 kilometers to go, maintain altitude, watch out for crosswinds!"

MiG gripped the control stick tightly with both hands, his eyes fixed on the vast expanse of gray tents on the horizon directly ahead. He held his breath, focusing intently on the wind's effect on his aircraft, trying to find turbulence that would allow his mount to gain altitude.

Suddenly the aircraft began to sway from side to side; an updraft had been found! This delighted MiG, who had finally lived up to the expectations of his leader. With this updraft, his squadron would gain more time to drop bombs and return to a safe altitude.

Miguel, formerly a centurion of the Fourth Guard Battalion of the Imperial Horse Administration, is now the squadron leader of the First Glider Squadron of the Eagles Brigade. His original name was Gao Sanwa, and his ancestral home was Wanping Prefecture. His family of seven lived a relatively comfortable life by working in a coal mine with his father and eldest brother.

When I was five years old, a sudden flood hit Xishan, washing away not only our house, yard, and several acres of hillside land, but also the coal mine where my father and brother worked, plunging the whole family into dire straits.

The elderly grandparents, having lost their son, fell seriously ill and spent all the compensation money given to them by the coal mine. The old couple still couldn't survive the harsh winter and passed away a few days before the Spring Festival.

Now, the widowed mother, with two children under ten years old, had no income and could only survive by going to the county town every day to collect relief porridge. In order to pay for the funerals of her grandparents, father, and brothers, she had no choice but to sell her third child to a slave trader.

This human trafficker was someone who specialized in sending people to the palace; that is, he would buy young boys, castrate them, and then sell them to the palace to become eunuchs.

The high school senior was tragically left without his family and about to become a eunuch. But the misfortune did not continue. The palace suddenly stopped buying young boys to become eunuchs, but still bought a few children from human traffickers and sent them all to the Haihusi in the south of the city.

There, the high school seniors spent a relatively happy childhood. Although they lost the warmth of family, they had hundreds of friends who trained, studied, and played together every day. They could also see the emperor come here to give lessons in person from time to time. From then on, they had a new identity: students of the Haihu Division and disciples of the emperor!

At 13, the high school senior graduated from the Imperial Household Department. Due to his excellent scores in sports and combat, he was assigned to the Fourth Guard Battalion of the Imperial Horse Administration, becoming a reserve Imperial Guard and continuing to receive more professional military training. Until he was 19, the senior never felt that he would ever amount to anything. The Fourth Guard Battalion was full of all sorts of talented people, and no matter how hard he tried, he could only manage to stay among them and not be left far behind. At best, he would serve until his thirties, then either transfer to the army to continue his service or simply retire and go to work in a factory.

However, it's impossible for mortals to predict which cloud in the sky will bring rain. One day, the emperor suddenly arrived at the Changping base and summoned more than 800 soldiers without any special skills to conduct a very mysterious and strange test.

Each soldier had to walk across a wooden pole, only foot-width wide and over twenty meters long, suspended above the ground. Then they were secured to a large windmill, which would spin and turn them upside down. After getting off, they would rest for a few minutes before walking across the long wooden pole again.

Don't be fooled by these two seemingly simple tasks; nine out of ten soldiers couldn't complete them. Some would wobble and fall while walking, while others would get so spinning they couldn't tell up from down and would vomit uncontrollably.

In the end, only about 70 people managed to finish, with the high school senior being one of the best. Walking on the wooden stick was a piece of cake for him; he could climb trees when he was just over three years old, and by the age of five, he could catch cicadas, raid bird nests, and collect elm seeds on the old elm tree at the village entrance, and even thinner branches were like flat ground to him.

Spinning the windmill did make me a little dizzy, but my mind was still clear. After getting off, I was able to walk across the long wooden poles without needing to rest. The high school senior didn't know why, but I just wasn't too afraid of things going upside down or spinning around.

But that wasn't the end of it. The group of more than 70 people were taken to a mountaintop more than ten miles away, where there was a natural cliff. Thick ropes were attached from the top of the cliff to the opposite cliff face, and each person had to climb over the ropes.

The distance to the opposite cliff face wasn't long, only about a hundred meters. Given the training intensity of the Fourth Guard Battalion soldiers, they should be able to complete the task.

Climbing a rope net on flat ground and hanging in mid-air between cliffs are completely different experiences. Looking down, you see a deep valley, and the mountain wind howls. Even if you are wearing a safety harness and know that you won't fall to your death if you let go, you will lose twice as much strength.

After two days, more than 30 people were eliminated. Then the Emperor appeared, sporting his signature smile, clearly announcing to everyone, "Your luck has turned!"

From now on, the salary will triple, and there will be five meals a day with eggs, milk, fish, and meat. Unmarried men over 20 years old will be provided with a wife and a house in the outer city, all paid for by the imperial treasury without having to pay a single copper coin.

Something unusual is bound to happen. Even if the emperor is the savior of the Imperial Household Department students, he wouldn't be spending money like water for no reason. Besides, the soldiers of the Imperial Horse Administration were already paid more than the army, and now their pay has suddenly increased several times over. There must be an explanation.

Good heavens! The emperor didn't hide anything and readily revealed his purpose, which terrified everyone so much that their legs went weak. This wasn't a matter of improved treatment; it was practically a life-saving offer.

The Four Guards Battalion was originally responsible for protecting the royal experimental base. They had witnessed many departments using prisoners and foreign slaves for experiments, and the mortality rate was very high. Moreover, even after they died, they were not spared; they were dismembered into eight pieces under the guise of dissection, supposedly for the purpose of treating and saving lives!
Now retribution has come. The emperor wasn't satisfied with experimenting on foreign slaves; this time he's going to use the soldiers of the Four Guards Camp as his targets. But knowing this is futile, especially for the students of the Sea Household Division. Without the emperor's support, most of them would have already died, not even reaching adulthood. Consider it repayment; at least they enjoyed a few good years—not a loss!
However, what happened next was even more unbelievable. It was indeed the sky that went up, but it wasn't the 30-odd soldiers who went up, but the eunuchs of the Cuju team.

(End of this chapter)