Chapter 26: Thin Willows (Part 1)

The fiery sunset cast its glow on the river’s surface, creating shimmering ripples. Mangrove forests lined both banks, offering a breathtaking view.
With a gentle evening breeze, the fleet crossed the river safely and headed toward Shanxi. Thus, the soldiers trapped in the cabin could finally step outside to breathe some fresh air.
Each soldier carried his own breechloader. Although there was one per person with some left over, they all treated them as treasures.
This made Colonel Jacken stand out—inside the cabin, he showed off his skills. He had a Remington rifle, and without using any tools, he disassembled it by hand, laying its parts on the deck.
Then came the more impressive part: he reassembled the parts by hand. From disassembly to reassembly, his fingers moved swiftly, taking less than three minutes.
“Amazing!” The soldiers couldn’t help but admire his skill. Only those extremely familiar with rifles could perform such disassembly and reassembly. This man, with his strong alcohol smell, clearly had real talent.
Colonel Jacken, though not forgetting to pour himself a drink, cooperated as well. “Let me do something even better.”
He had been hired by the Liu Army because of his rifle disassembly skills, but soon realized that the Liu Army used Spencer rifles, which used edge-fired bullets and couldn’t be disassembled since their primers were located at the bottom edge. In contrast, the powerful Remington rifles could be disassembled, but the Liu Army only had a little over twenty of them.
Fortunately, adhering to the principle of always having useful skills, Liu Yu had Jing Shi Yi learn rifle disassembly from him. The two hit it off right away and quickly mastered Jacken’s skill, leaving Colonel Jacken facing another job loss.
To avoid going without alcohol, Colonel Jacken now demonstrated all his military skills to the soldiers.
Liu Yu realized he was still useful—after all, soldiers in this era were hard to come by, and his performances left the Liu Army soldiers in awe.
“Watch me do it again—disassemble and reassemble,” said Colonel Jacken, already covering his eyes with a black cloth. “It’s simple.”
It wasn’t simple at all! Everyone stopped what they were doing and watched his hands intently.
Was he really going to disassemble and reassemble the rifle with his eyes covered? Could that work?
Jacken’s hands remained as skilled as ever, not slower than usual. The Remington rifle was broken down into various parts under his hands, but everyone grew more anxious.
Disassembly was already difficult; what about reassembly? Assembling a rifle with eyes covered was even harder.
Sure enough, Jacken’s movements slowed down immediately. He had to fumble around for a while to identify the parts before starting to assemble them. As his movements slowed, everyone’s hearts raced.
Could this foreigner really do it?
Jacken’s brows furrowed as he paused, slowly feeling around.
Had he failed?
Just as everyone thought so, his movements quickened again, and each part was fitted together seamlessly, without any issues.
Success!

Not one part more, not one part less.
Beautiful!
Jing Shi Yi was the first to rush over and hug it: “I want to learn this.”
Everyone cheered for Jie Ken, even Jiang Ningxue was stunned, but Liu Yu smiled.
He raised his head and led Jiang Ningxue back to his private cabin. Leaning back, he smiled at her and casually pulled out his revolver: “Let me show you a trick.”
Jiang Ningxue watched him curiously.
He turned his face toward the ceiling, but his movements were swift.
The revolver was disassembled in an instant and then reassembled.
Without even glancing at it, and in just over two minutes, those gun parts seemed as if they were part of his body.
Stars seemed to sparkle in Jiang Ningxue’s eyes: “You can do this too?”
With the same precision and respect for firearms, Liu Yu’s movements were lightning-fast.
Colonel Jie Ken usually took about three minutes to disassemble a Remington under normal conditions, but when he did it with his eyes closed, it took nearly twenty minutes.
But how long did Liu Yu take?
His movements were flawless, smooth as flowing water, completing the whole process in just over two minutes.
So cool.
Liu Yu smiled: “A little trick.”
It wasn’t just a trick, nor was it simple. One needed to know every part of the weapon inside out to disassemble and reassemble it with eyes closed.
This was a skill essential for night combat, and only by mastering it could one truly understand a firearm. In later times, many military units included this in new recruit training; she even saw a female soldier disassemble and reassemble a rifle with her eyes closed in half a minute.
After all, she had come from an emergency mobile unit, and although it was just disassembling a pistol—less difficult—she was still unskilled.
She needed more practice.
But in Jiang Ningxue’s eyes, nothing was better than this—her husband was amazing!
Seizing the moment when Liu Yu was proud, she rushed over. This time, instead of kissing his forehead, she kissed his cheek.
It smelled so good.
Liu Yu was even prouder.
“I’ll show you something else I prepared.”
“What is it?”
Liu Yu took out a flag from the box: “The new battle flag for our Liu Regiment. The old one only had the character ‘Liu’—too plain. From now on, everyone will remember this flag.”
“It’s great!” Although Liu Yu had no artistic skills, thanks to his connections through Liu Da, he found a designer from the coastal defense. Jiang Ningxue liked it at first sight: “Will we use this from now on?”
“Always! This flag will shock the world. It’s a pity it’s a battle flag; otherwise, I could write your name on it.”
“When will we use it?”
Liu Yu smiled: “When it’s time to hang it up, the world will remember this battle flag.”
“Great!” Jiang Ningxue was happy: “I’ll go hang it and replace their tricolor flag.”
Twilight. Glimmering waves.
France’s tricolor flag was lowered.
The young man leaned lazily on the ship’s pole, letting the evening breeze blow, while the girl happily raised the new battle flag.
Everyone watched the new flag with interest.