Later, his annual leave was changed to sick leave.
He drank until he couldn't take it anymore and was taken to the hospital by ambulance. The regiment commander's stomach already had an ulcer, and after being severely burned by alcohol, it quickly perforated.
After emergency treatment at the hospital, the doctor asked the regiment commander, "How do you feel?"
The regiment commander mumbled, "It feels like the alcohol has leaked from my stomach into my intestines, and my intestines feel cool and burning outside."
The doctor then asked, "Can you still drink?"
A hint of spirit returned to the regiment commander's eyes, "Yes! I'm just getting started!"
The doctor laughed in exasperation, "This person is truly fearless of death."
The regiment commander lay in the hospital for a few days and met some more comrades one after another. Upon detailed inquiry, they had all tried to challenge Hua Qing's drinking capacity and were sent to the hospital when they couldn't hold on. They gathered together, lamenting their fate as if they had aged ten years in an instant, and shouted that the female god of wine was invincible.
This incident soon alerted Jiang Ye. After all, in just one week, 126 officers and soldiers in the entire army had taken leave to go home and drink, and then more than eighty fearless individuals ended up in the hospital. The situation was extremely serious and the impact was very negative, requiring decisive measures to curb this unhealthy trend.
However, the problem was that these soldiers who ended up in the hospital did not drink within the barracks, so they did not violate the alcohol ban. Since there was no way to address it through discipline and regulations, they could only resort to psychological tactics to defeat these people. The most direct method was to make them clearly realize how poor their drinking capacity was.
So, on Saturday morning, Jiang Ye called Hua Qing to his office.
Hua Qing, wearing green military trousers and a green vest, with her hair tied in a high ponytail, entered holding a bottle of sake, her face rosy, and sat down opposite the desk.
"Have you heard about people in the army privately challenging you?" Jiang Ye asked.
"Privately challenging me?" Hua Qing was stunned.
Jiang Ye took a stack of medical records from his drawer and handed them to Hua Qing.
The medical records were all filled with "Excessive alcohol consumption inducing xxx disease, requiring hospitalization."
Hua Qing was a little confused, blinking and unsure of what to do.
"You were seen drinking in the mess hall, and many people took leave to go home and drink, trying to replicate your glory," Jiang Ye explained.
"This... this... do I have to quit drinking here?" Hua Qing was bewildered, her expression dejected. She didn't realize her unintentional actions had caused a shortage of hospital beds.
"You don't need to quit drinking," Jiang Ye said. "Here's what I'm thinking: I'll provide the alcohol, and you'll have a public drinking session to show your true drinking capacity, letting everyone see and giving up on challenging you."
"But doing so might harm your body, so I need to get your consent..."
"No, no, no!" Hua Qing quickly waved her hands, beaming, "It won't harm my body, I'm fine no matter how much I drink! I'm willing to have a public drinking session, but I don't want to drink too much inferior alcohol. Please give me better quality alcohol if possible."
"Good," Jiang Ye smiled with a complex expression.
He held back one sentence.
With Hua Qing's drinking capacity, if she were alive in ancient times, she would definitely have been dissected for research, a challenge to medicine and biology. It was like Darwin challenging God's creation of man with his theory of evolution.
"For the sake of your health, and to prove your drinking capacity," Jiang Ye said, "during the public drinking performance, a straight line will be drawn on the ground. After you finish each bottle, you must walk back and forth along the line. If you step off the line, you must stop immediately. Is that okay?"
"No problem!" Hua Qing's expression was already excited.
"When can you..."
"Anytime, even today!" Hua Qing interjected.
"Let's do it the day after tomorrow," Jiang Ye said. "I'll arrange for someone. Prepare yourself. The day after tomorrow, at eight o'clock in the morning, on the training ground of this base."
"Okay!" Hua Qing nodded. "Prepare more alcohol!"
That evening, a very informal notice was distributed to all companies.
"Recently, many soldiers have taken leave to go home and drink, attempting to challenge the drinking capacity of weapons expert Hua Qing. In these foolish 'I can drink too' attempts, nearly a hundred soldiers have been hospitalized due to excessive drinking, severely harming their health and causing great losses."
"To make everyone completely give up and to curb the unhealthy trend of taking leave to compete in drinking, on Monday morning at eight o'clock (Jiang Ye Star standard time), Hua Qing will hold a public drinking performance to demonstrate her drinking capacity."
"Thousands of soldiers will be present to watch, and the event will be live-streamed and recorded for viewing by all units. Units without important tasks can organize a day of leave to watch the live broadcast."
"After Hua Qing's drinking live stream concludes, any soldier who subsequently takes leave to go home to compete in drinking and ends up in the hospital will be subject to military disciplinary action, including confinement, a devil's week, writing and publicly reciting a self-criticism, and forfeiture of bonuses."
The sensation caused by the notice was undoubtedly immense. Troops on Jiang Ye Star, Bi Rong Star, and the Exile Star were all astonished.
Many people who had not heard of Hua Qing before began inquiring after receiving the notice.
When they heard someone say that Hua Qing could drink three bottles of baijiu in a row, everyone's reaction was the same: disbelief. They all felt that the number was exaggerated and had surely been inflated through multiple retellings. Many old drunks looked down on this girl, Hua Qing, who seemed to have appeared out of nowhere.
Finally, Monday morning arrived.
The training ground was already filled with soldiers who had come to watch Hua Qing drink. More than four thousand human soldiers attended, along with over two thousand mechanical soldiers who came to join the fun. These mechanical soldiers were purely there for the leave; they had no interest in drinking capacity, as they could even take a few sips of gasoline.
Jiang Ye had also arrived early, curious about what Hua Qing would achieve today.
Tang Hanliu personally brought the television crew, with various long and short guns and cameras set up.
The drinking area was on the viewing platform of the training ground, with several large tables and sofa chairs. An eight-meter-long white line was taped on the floor beside the tables.
At 7:50, Hua Qing arrived.
She was wearing a very ordinary camouflage uniform, but only slippers, no socks.
All the officers and soldiers welcomed her with warm applause, especially the female soldiers who applauded particularly enthusiastically. The mechanical soldiers also joined in the cheering, taking out their plastic hand-paddles and shaking them noisily.
Hua Qing ascended the viewing platform and sat down on a sofa chair.
"I haven't eaten since I woke up this morning, so I need to eat first!" Hua Qing said excitedly. "Then, while I'm eating, the alcohol can be served."
Soon, catering staff brought a bento box, a few small dishes, and steamed rice – ordinary food.
Under the gaze of thousands of people and the recording of cameras, Hua Qing calmly and quickly ate her meal.
Guards carried in boxes of alcohol. Two boxes of beer in glass bottles were taken out of the boxes and lined up on the table.
Tang Hanliu took a tennis ball and threw it forcefully onto the field, hitting a soldier.
"Please, the soldier hit by the tennis ball, come up to the stage," Jiang Ye said, holding a microphone. "Select a bottle from these beers to ensure it contains genuine alcohol."