"Haha, are you guys here gloating? Don't worry, it will be your turn soon."
Zhu Ping'an glanced at the audience, smiled slightly and joked.
After Zhu Ping'an pointed out his inner thoughts, all the junior officers of the Zhejiang Army, especially the soldiers, couldn't help laughing. They were indeed gloating. When the adults just mentioned the collective responsibility law, they were very nervous. As a result, when they heard it, well, the officials started to be collectively punished, especially the higher the official, the more severe the collective punishment. The junior officers, especially the sergeants and the soldiers were not implicated at all, so they couldn't help but gloat.
"The second item of the collective responsibility law is that subordinates guarantee for their superiors, including subordinate officers guaranteeing for their superiors and soldiers guaranteeing for their officers." Zhu Ping'an said with a serious face.
The junior officers and soldiers couldn't help but smile bitterly when they heard this. It was indeed our turn.
"Subordinate officers guarantee for their superiors, and they must also issue a letter of guarantee for their superiors, from sergeants to battalion commanders. The content of the letter of guarantee is roughly like this: 'So-and-so hereby guarantees that I will lead General So-and-so of our battalion to the battlefield and guarantee that I will not make any mistakes or escape. If I make any mistakes or escape, I will die.' What does this mean? It means that subordinate officers are responsible for the lives of their superiors. If a subordinate officer abandons his superior and retreats or escapes, he will be executed. If his superior is killed in battle, all officers under him will be executed!"
Zhu Pingan said with a grim expression.
The junior officers immediately broke out in a cold sweat, and looked at their superiors as if they were precious protected animals. In the future, they must not only obey orders, but also protect their superiors on the battlefield, otherwise they and other junior officers might all be executed.
In this regard, the senior officers immediately felt balanced, looked at their subordinates proudly, and threatened them: "From now on in the battlefield, I will charge forward, and you all must charge forward. If I die, you will all be buried with me! Don't even think about running away!"
The subordinate officers naturally nodded repeatedly. How could they dare not charge? If they did, they could make meritorious service. If they didn't, they would just wait for death!
Zhu Pingan took in the reactions of the crowd and continued in a serious tone, "The soldiers also guarantee for the officers. Every soldier must write a letter of guarantee for the sergeant of his squad. The content of the letter of guarantee is roughly as follows: So-and-so, I am here to guarantee that I will lead the sergeant of my squad, so-and-so, to the battlefield and guarantee that I will not make any mistakes or escape. If I make any mistakes or escape, I will die. The meaning is the same as above. The soldiers are responsible for the life of the sergeant of their squad. If they fail to fight well or escape, resulting in the death of the sergeant, then all the soldiers in the squad will be executed!"
Now the pressure fell on the ordinary soldiers. Cold sweat immediately appeared on their backs. They looked at the sergeant as if he were a precious animal. In the future on the battlefield, they must fight bravely and protect the sergeant.
The life of the corporal is not only his own, but also ours. It is everyone's responsibility to protect the corporal... ...
The sergeant felt more balanced, and repeated the harsh words that his superior had just said to the soldiers in his squad, "From now on, on the battlefield, I will charge forward, and you all must charge forward. If I die, you will all be buried with me! Don't even think about running away!"
"Charge, charge, charge... We are ahead of you, just take it easy..." the soldiers expressed their opinions one after another.
"Fuck you, how dare I be lazy? I have to rush ahead of the sergeant!" The sergeant glared at them.
Hehehehe... ... the soldiers laughed immediately.
Zhu Pingan stood on the high platform and continued to announce: "The third content of the collective responsibility law is that soldiers must guarantee each other. Everyone must write a letter of guarantee for the other soldiers in the squad. The content of the letter of guarantee is roughly: I guarantee that I, I and others in this squad are not deserters. If they escape in the future, I am willing to be punished. After the letter of guarantee is signed, if there is a deserter in this squad when it is not a battle, the other soldiers will be punished, half of them will be imprisoned, and the other half will have their food and wages withheld until the deserter is caught; if there is a deserter in a battle, the deserter will be executed, and the others will be caned 100 times! It doesn't matter if they live or die!"
After hearing this, the Zhejiang Army soldiers below the stage looked at each other and reacted violently.
"Shh... Then I have to keep an eye on you all, don't let you get me into trouble. Zhang Laosan, I think you're the most dangerous. You complained about the training before, and you're too afraid of death. I'll keep an eye on you day and night!"
"Go away, I won't be a deserter."
The Zhejiang Army soldiers immediately began to supervise each other, remind each other, and tell others that they would keep an eye on them day and night, and don't even think about deserting. Stand up during the battle and don't implicate me, otherwise don't blame me for being ungrateful.
"In addition to the above three items, the law of collective responsibility also has the following contents: First, if one person in each squad leads the enemy and nine others fail to rescue him, resulting in his death in battle, all nine will be beheaded. If one person is killed in battle, the nine will be exempted from punishment if they capture the real enemy; if one person is killed, two will be rewarded, and all nine will be rewarded. The same applies to squads, sentries, and battalions; Second, if a squad is surrounded and the other squads in the squad do not rescue it; if a squad is surrounded and the other squads in the sentry do not rescue it; if a sentry is surrounded and other sentries do not rescue it, resulting in the loss of the enemy, the squad leader, squad leader, and sentry leader will all be beheaded according to military law; Third, if one person is killed in battle and there is no enemy head in the squad, one month's salary will be withheld and the family of the deceased will be given preferential treatment. If the squad leader is killed, one squad will be withheld; if the sentry leader is killed, one sentry will be withheld; if the battalion commander is killed, one battalion will be withheld. However, if the subordinates of the killed officers have captured the enemy, they will be exempted from investigation, and the pensions for the killed soldiers and officers will be borne by the Zhejiang Army Treasury."
Zhu Ping'an announced the remaining contents of the collective responsibility law to everyone in one breath.
"Shh... This is really a complete chain of punishment. All superiors, subordinates and peers are implicated. If one person deserts the battlefield, his comrades, superiors and subordinates who sleep in the same tent may all be implicated."
"This collective responsibility law is so cruel and inhumane. Not only do I have to fight bravely, but I also have to supervise others and not let him escape... If he escapes, we will also suffer an unprovoked disaster..."
"Didn't the Lord say that the Japanese pirates are too arrogant now? We can't wait any longer and can only use severe punishments in troubled times. Besides, the Lord is not afraid of death, so why should we be afraid?"
The impact of the collective responsibility system on the Zhejiang military is deeper and more personal than disciplinary performance appraisals, and all Zhejiang military personnel feel under tremendous pressure.
Although it was somewhat inhumane, it was precisely because of this that it was highly deterrent and had an immediate effect. Almost immediately after Zhu Ping'an announced the collective responsibility law, the discipline and morale of the Zhejiang Army were fundamentally improved.
After the collective responsibility law was promulgated, the officers and soldiers of the Zhejiang Army all reached a consensus: If you are not afraid of death, then you should fight bravely; if you are afraid of death, then you should fight even more bravely! Otherwise, under the collective responsibility law, you will die faster!