Chapter 58: Chopping Jin of the tiger stance (1/2)

Chapter 58: Chopping Jin of the tiger stance

“Commander Zhou.”

“Commander.”

The twelve doughty looking youths didn’t even spare Wang Chao or Cao Yi a glance and instead stood to attention to the General Zhou behind the two.

Each one of them was in a straight salute.

Returning the salute, Zhou waved his hand, “At ease.”

Relaxing now, the dozen men finally begun to look at Wang Chao and Cao Yi. Measuring up the two, the soldiers began to chat amongst each other.

“So this Zhou person is a commander and major general, he must be a high ranking official.” When Wang Chao heard how the soldiers had called him, he knew that this Zhou person was someone special. But the rankings of the military wasn’t something he was familiar with–the only knowledge he had of it was from the TV.

He never would had thought that a high school student that just recently graduated would have made contact with the military and government.

“The organization has brought you here under my supervision for a special mission, so listen up.” General Zhou smiled. “Come, let me introduce you, this is the provincial public safety chief, Cao Yi. In the future, he will be your immediate superior. The specific details will be up to Chief Cao to speak, do you understand?”

“Understood!” The 12 men spoke out at the same time enthusiastically.

“That’s good. Cao Yi, the people the organization has sent is now yours to pull. Let us hear of your mission.” General Zhou spoke while giving Cao Yi the go ahead.

Giving a knowing nod, Cao Yi stepped forward and gave a greeting, “Hello everyone!”

“Hello, Chief Cao…”

“Hello, chief…”

The cries were sparse and not as enthusiastic as it was just a minute ago.

Narrowing his eyes, Cao Yi cut to the chase, “Everyone here came from the organization, so they must know of the special mission assigned to us. So tell me, what does everyone think about this mission and why we are here?”

“Are we not going to be undercover agents in the underworld? Or fight evil and pretend to be officers? One of the twelve spoke before everyone else roared with laughter.

“What quality! You all haven’t been disciplined at all!” Cao Yi fumed.

“Everyone be quiet!” Seeing Cao Yi grow angry, one of the leading soldiers immediately gave a hand signal, resulting in the entire barrack to grow silent.

The same soldier walked forward, “Chief Cao, it isn’t because we haven’t been disciplined by the organization.We will listen to your command for this mission and accomplish it to the best of our abilities! It’s just that we heard that aren’t even going to be the main force for this, are we not? Are we really going to be handing over the reins to someone that isn’t even a part of the military? We don’t know who chief Cao may have picked, but please open our eyes to what type of person this inferior civilian expert may be.”

Laughing, Cao Yi spoke, “I know that you army men would be reluctant to accept a civilian fighter, but I’ll let you see for yourself. Wang Chao, please come up.”

Wang Chao had naturally abided by Cao Yi’s words and walked forward.

“Haha, it’s this kid?”

“Has he even grown hair down there yet?”

“Hahahaha, are we running out of men in the army or something?”

The entire barracks began to howl with laughter.

Wang Chao knew that he didn’t look outstanding, robust, or even had any noticeable muscles. The only thing about him was that his skin was a golden brown and showed off the toned curvatures of his body.

This difference in physical image to the soldiers was as clear to see as from a cow to a horse. The army soldiers were all excellently built and had muscles that far outstripped what could be seen on Wang Chao’s body. From the outside, Wang Chao was a delicate stick that would snap just from being in the wind.

“I too came from the military, so let me be straightforward with you. I know you egg-headed soldiers won’t accept this, so let’s not waste words and put your skill where your mouth is! Who wants to go up first? If you can win against him, then I will report to the organization and redo the plan!”

Cao Yi’s words had been spoken with excitement, but the next few words spoken were quite sloppy. “Harsh words aside, this mission will be completely serious. This is a mission where there will be the chance of becoming disabled or even killed! This mission was given and started by me, so compete for a position within. If you are injured or killed in action, you will be given a Meritorious Service Medal, second class, or become a martyr to the cause.”

“Hammer, you go up. Careful, you don’t want to accidentally cripple this “Wushu” civilian.” The speaker had spoken the word wushu in a mocking way, as if to emphasize his disdain for Wang Chao.

TL Note: 武术 (Wushu): martial arts as a sport. The soldiers says 舞术 (Wushu): A pun with the word for dance instead of Martial. The soldier is mocking Wang Chao, saying that instead of the already lowly martial arts made for sport, he was learning the Martial Arts made for theatrical performances.

But even Wang Chao could understand the mocking jeer of the soldier. The men from the military generally learned martial arts in a way meant for combat, its true purpose instead of for sport. The majority of martial arts that civilians learned were generally for exercise purposes. Bits and pieces of the fighting method and practice method were combined into one with theatrical exaggerations thrown in haphazardly. With such a muddled mess, there could be no way it could be truly called martial arts.

Thus, those in the military had always looked down on civilian practitioners.