Volume 1 Sudden Battlefield Chapter 47

  The entire squad's weapons were confiscated, including Kizu's and my sniper rifle.

  At first, I thought it was a bit too much. Wasn't it just a fight with the company commander? Did they have to confiscate all the weapons of the entire company and even dispatch a platoon of soldiers to stand guard with guns? Were they treating us like prisoners of war?

  It was later that I realized this was completely necessary.

  The battlefield is different from other places, it's a place where you're either dead or alive, and soldiers have to withstand tremendous pressure. In such situations, many soldiers can't bear the pressure and do extreme things.

  For example, there was a soldier who, due to unfair treatment by his superiors, grabbed a submachine gun and fired at the command post, killing several people before escaping. After searching for several days, he was finally found dead in a mountain cave, having taken his own life.

  Maybe someone will be puzzled by this incident, how could such a thing happen in our military?

  But the PLA is also human, and humans will make mistakes, so the PLA will also make mistakes.

  Moreover, ordinary thinking and law play little role on the battlefield, where one's life can be lost at any moment. What do I care about law or reason when my life is at stake? If I have a family, I may still have some concerns; but if I don't, then dying is just closing my eyes and stretching out my legs - it makes no difference who kills me! Anyway, whoever provokes me will be the one I'll settle accounts with!

  So, now our company has such a thing happening immediately makes the superiors tense up, not only startling the regimental commander, but also the division commander hastily brought the guards to the scene.

  "What are you doing?!" We heard the regimental commander scolding a battered and bruised battalion commander in the distance: "You're a battalion commander... how did you manage to get all your soldiers to disobey you?! How did you become a battalion commander?! I was just praising you for your good performance on the battlefield, and now you're messing up right away..."

  I think the captain's words are not entirely correct. When someone is beaten, can they still control themselves? However, it's true that the company commander cannot escape responsibility in this matter...

  "What's going on here?" The team leader asked with a frown.

  Lian Chang wanted to speak, glanced at us squatting not far away, and didn't know what to say either.

  It's really hard for him, we just listened nearby, he said lies and it wasn't, he said the truth and it wasn't...

  "What's with the staring! Spit it out!" The squad leader was getting impatient.

  "Report!" The company commander stood up straight and said: "The main thing is that the casualties are too heavy, they... they have doubts about my command ability, thinking that this battle should not be fought like this..."

  "Great!" Listening to this, I really admired the company commander for a moment. Look at how neatly he answered! Every sentence he said was correct, but in saying so... it all became our unreasonable behavior as soldiers!

  "Huh? Is that so?" The captain cast his gaze towards us.

  I didn't speak up, because I knew that without me saying a word, there were already people around me who were indignant and eager to speak out... Moreover, as the person involved, some things aren't suitable for me to say!

  Sure, here is the translation:

  As expected, as soon as the captain finished speaking, several soldiers in the row stood up.

  The first one, with a bandage still tied around his neck, said with tears in his eyes and a choked voice: "Captain, there are some things... even if we're punished or shot, we have to say them! Otherwise, our comrades in the whole company will die with their eyes open!"

  "Speak!" The team leader only said one word, but everyone could see that he was truly angry.

  "Squad leader!" A soldier in this row wiped away tears and said, "I feel that our comrades in the squad died unjustly..."

  Lian Chang obviously didn't want the soldier to continue speaking, and immediately interrupted him: "I'm saying, Wang Gening, in a war, there's no way not to have casualties, what are you...".

  "Shut up!" The regimental commander glared at the company commander, who didn't dare say another word. Then the regimental commander raised his head and said, "You continue speaking!"

  "Captain!" This soldier, named Wang Gening, took a deep breath to calm himself down and continued: "We soldiers, the day we go into battle, we've already put our heads on the line. We didn't plan on coming back alive. But... even if we sacrifice ourselves, we want it to have some meaning, we hope to achieve something... but!"

  "But what?"

  Wang Genning sighed and said, "The company commander had us charge forward under the enemy's bullets... that's why we suffered such heavy casualties. At first, we didn't think much of it, after all, there will always be casualties in war, we accepted it. But after thinking about it when we got back..."

  Wang Gening looked at me and continued: "The second squad leader is not like the company commander, he knows how to attack the enemy from the flank, so the second squad sacrificed five comrades and wiped out a whole platoon of devils. You say... we feel suffocated in our hearts, just thinking that we owe it to the fallen comrades..."

  "Ah!" The company commander turned his fiery gaze to Lian Zhang's body and asked, "Didn't you say... that you were the one who commanded the troops to ambush the Vietnamese army? It turns out it was actually Second Lieutenant Er who did this?"

  "It's... it was I who ordered Second Squad Leader to copy!" The company commander's forehead had already broken out in sweat.

  "Cut!" Wang Genning said disdainfully, "I don't know who said that the second squad leader disobeyed orders? If it was your order, then where did the second squad leader's disobedience come from?"

  "Platoon leader!" Another soldier stood up and said: "I can testify that I was beside the platoon leader at the time, and the platoon leader did not give this order!"

  "Hmm!" The captain nodded: "So...the one who discovered the Japanese devil's special forces unit...isn't you?"

  Lian Zhang didn't dare say anything else from then on. It was only then that I realized Lian Zhang had taken all my credit for himself.

  I find this rather unbelievable, shouldn't such a thing on the battlefield be impossible to hide from others? The soldiers all saw it with their own eyes, and you can't wrap fire in paper... How could the company commander dare to take credit for it himself?

  Thinking back, this doesn't seem strange at all. It's just like what Lian Sheng said earlier... These were his orders. Besides, what era is this? The decade of turmoil has just ended, and the extravagant winds haven't even subsided yet!

  "You're a good one, Li Shuxiao!" The team leader was so angry that his face turned white, and he pointed repeatedly in the air, wanting to say something but unable to utter a word. He then threw up his hands and didn't care about anything else, turning around and walking away.

  The captain just left like this, what does it mean? We're all still squatting here like captives...

  It's better... to be caught and put in prison, I thought to myself at the time: it's not bad to go back and serve a sentence, at least it's better than being here and constantly worrying about losing my life!

  But... I knew it wouldn't be that easy, the front line is where people are needed, and you can't just withdraw by saying so. If we were really withdrawn back, the soldiers in the unit who are afraid of death would be overjoyed, all they need to do is learn from us, grab the company commander and beat him up, and then they can go home!

  In this case, the company commander of that unit will be in trouble. Then no one dares to be a company commander, and finally the troops are in chaos...

  What the... What was I thinking about?!

  "Comrades!" At this time, the instructor appeared in front of us, and I don't know when he came.

  The instructor is from Hunan, and I've seen him a few times on the battlefield. He often goes in and out with the regimental commander, but these past few days have been all about fighting, so we haven't had a chance to talk yet... Later, I found out it's better not to talk to him at all!

  As for what is an instructor... our unit has a characteristic, that is, each cadre will be assigned a party member responsible for ideological work, and usually half a level higher than the cadre, after all, the party leads the gun!

  Next to the company commander is the instructor, next to the regimental commander is the educational officer, and above the division commander is called political commissar...

  "After the two guards took Lian Zhang away, the instructor stood with his hands on his hips and said: 'Comrade Li Shuxiao, due to falsification, deception of superiors and subordinates, and dereliction of duty resulting in serious losses to the troops, the higher authorities have decided to remove him from office!'"

  At this point, all the warriors couldn't help but let out a sigh of relief. It seemed that dealing with Lianzhang also meant that our side had won a victory in this battle.

  However, just as we were about to put our minds at ease, the instructor continued: "But as revolutionary soldiers, a soldier's duty is to obey orders. What do the Three Main Rules of Discipline say? All actions must be carried out under command! This embodies the principle of absolute leadership of the Party over the army and the relationship of subordination between lower and higher levels within the people's army. It is the most basic disciplinary requirement for achieving high concentration and unity throughout the army, ensuring that the army carries out the Party's line, and successfully completes all tasks... But what about you? Of course, I know that the company commander has his shortcomings, but can't you find other ways to solve this problem?"

  Then it was a bunch of "blah blah blah" full of big principles, all I could do was stare blankly and secretly marvel at how the instructor managed to give such a long speech without using notes!

  No wonder, the instructor's skills are not to be underestimated, and the impromptu speech lasted for over an hour... Just when I thought it was all over, we still had to write a self-criticism, take military orders, and have individual talks... It was a whole night of chaos.

  At first, I was still worried that Chen Yiyang would not be able to handle these things, but what surprised me was that she could cope with them very skillfully... It wasn't until then that I realized: Vietnam also learned from our China and the Soviet Union, and they might even be more ruthless than us!

  Among them, several soldiers were called to review, and I was one of them. Fortunately, I didn't say anything provocative or hit anyone, so nothing could be pinned on me. The focus of my review was the verification of the two battles and why I disobeyed the company commander's orders and took unauthorized action...

  This is actually easy to explain. I just insisted that it was a military emergency and there was no time to report to the superiors, so they let it go.

  In short... this night, I who had always wanted to escape from the battlefield for the first time felt a pang of longing for the battlefield!