Chapter 85: All Out
We soon received word that the second battle of the war had been fought—and that the Republic had suffered another defeat. More than two weeks after the Battle of Manila, Heneral Luna launched a counterattack aimed at recapturing the city. It failed, with Filipino KIAs reaching up to five hundred.
Of course, I did not inform the people of Marinduque about this.
Nor was I discouraged.
The political war in the province—or at least in the three major towns—had been won. I had achieved political supremacy. I could now shift my focus from merely trying to look intimidating to becoming genuinely intimidating—and being ready to join the war as soon as possible.
It had become increasingly clear to me that I could not train the recruits to the level I wanted to. I was, after all, only one man, with no instructional resources aside from what I had in my mind—and we did not have the luxury of time.
So I decided to redraft my eight-week training regimen and trimmed it down by half.
The first two weeks would remain unchanged. Discipline was paramount, and decent marksmanship was non-negotiable. These could not be rushed. I tasked the trained platoons stationed in Mogpog and Santa Cruz to act as model units for the recruits in those areas.
I had initially set aside the third week to focus solely on small-unit cohesion, but I realized I could insert trench construction and trench tactics into the mix. Small-unit movement and fire-and-maneuver tactics would work best when grounded in a realistic battlefield environment—one that included trench warfare. Training squads to move and fight effectively while also understanding how to build, occupy, and defend trenches would tie those skills together naturally.
The fourth week would be the culmination of everything they had learned. There would be full-day combat exercises simulating ambushes, flanking maneuvers, trench defense, and trench assaults. They would also be trained to handle stress and confusion through the use of noise, smoke, shouting, and disorder. This was where cadets and NCOs would be tested—forced to lead under pressure.