Chapter Five: Digging Out the Bottom

  Today the enemy no longer launched a fierce attack, the class leader went to the company to attend a meeting, everyone was taking advantage of this rare leisure time to rest. Wang Yong hugged his gun and lay in the bunker but couldn't sleep, there were some things he didn't know whether he should say or not. After lunch, Wang Yong came to the position to stand guard, he crouched in the shelter to observe the enemy's position on the opposite side.

  "King Yong, on guard?" Hearing the question, King Yong quickly turned his head and saw that it was Instructor Tian Jinxi.

  "Sentry, I'm on duty!" Wang Yong replied, thinking it was the instructor checking the sentry.

  "Wang Yong, you've been very brave since joining the army!" The instructor didn't seem to be leaving and squatted down beside Wang Yong. "Where is your hometown?"

  "Report to instructor, I am from Jinan, Shandong!" Wang Yong said.

  "Don't be nervous, we're just having a casual chat, relax!" The instructor said with a smile, seeing his serious look. "You don't sound like you're from Shandong province?"

  "Instructor I am from Shandong, but have been away for many years, and my accent has changed a lot!" Wang Yong replied while observing.

  "Oh, we are still fellow Shandong natives, I'm from Heze!" said the instructor.

  "That's great!" Wang Yong exclaimed with delight.

  "Is there anyone else at home?" Tian Jinxi continued to ask.

  "There are parents and a younger brother at home. My older brother joined the army after the war broke out, and there has been no news from him until now..." Wang Yong replied, his expression somewhat downcast, but only for a fleeting moment.

  "Have you had any difficulties at home since joining the army? If there's anything, just tell your unit and they'll help resolve it!" Tian Jinxi asked with concern.

  "It's nothing, my younger brother is in school and will graduate next year. Our family runs a small grocery store, so we can still make ends meet. I've joined the army, and the government has even reduced our taxes! Thanks for your concern, Comrade Instructor." Wang Yong said, not knowing what the instructor was getting at.

  "That's good, Wang Yong, have you been a soldier in the past?" Tian Jinxi suddenly changed the subject and asked. Today at the meeting, someone mentioned that Wang Yong was accurate with his gun, his tactical movements were neat and efficient, and he remained calm when facing a swarm of enemies, which didn't seem like a student-turned-new-soldier at all. There were suspicions that he had hidden his past history from the organization, so the instructor took advantage of the break in battle to come over and understand the situation.

  "Instructors, you've all been soldiers for many years and have fought in battles. I know that some things can't be changed!" Wang Yong looked at the smiling instructors and sighed with a bitter smile.

  "Then why didn't you mention that when you enlisted?" Tian Jinxi asked.

  "Instructor, I used to be a soldier of the Nationalist Party. When I enlisted, no one asked me about it. After arriving at the troop, I was afraid of being discriminated against, so I never dared to say it. But after the Anti-Japanese War ended, I left the troop and went home, without participating in the civil war. You can investigate this, I absolutely did not fight with **." Wang Yong said hastily.

  "How did you become a soldier?" The instructor asked further.

  Wang Yong thought for a moment, and a good laugh rose up in his heart. His first time as a soldier was also quite dramatic. Before the Japanese arrived in Shandong, his parents had sent him to a relative's house in Sichuan, which was then a big rear base, to study. At school, he liked playing basketball, and the school was where a battalion of the National Revolutionary Army's New 22nd Division was stationed. As he often played matches with the soldiers, he gradually became familiar with an old fellow townsman who was a lieutenant colonel, and they became friends. The 22nd Division later joined the New Fifth Army to expedition to Burma. In 1942, after being defeated at the Wild Man Mountain, the remaining troops retreated into India, leaving only over three thousand people behind. They needed to supplement a large number of soldiers. The soldiers at the battalion encouraged the school's graduates to join the army. At that time, Wang Yong was still young and no one had thought of recruiting him. However, something unexpected happened on the day they departed. Wang Yong went to see off his classmates who were joining the army, and the lieutenant colonel he knew was also on the train. When he saw Wang Yong come to see them off, they chatted for a while, and before he knew it, the train had started moving, and he couldn't get off. The lieutenant colonel simply filled in his name on the roster, found him an army uniform to wear, and he became a soldier in a daze. He was taken to Yunnan, then boarded a plane to India. Later, when the war of resistance against Japan was about to end, the New 22nd Division joined the New Sixth Army to return home urgently, witnessed Japan's surrender, and entered Nanjing and Shanghai to take over. Wang Yong left before the civil war broke out because something had happened.

  "Haha, so you were also conscripted by the KMT!" Tian Jinxi said with a smile, "Which regiment did you serve in?"

  "I was in the 66th Regiment when I first went there, and later I went to the Division's Instruction Team!" Wang Yong replied, not understanding why the instructor cared about this.

  "66th Regiment!" the instructor exclaimed, "Do you know that our 40th Army Volunteer Corps suffered a great loss when we entered Korea together? Eight regiments surrounded 1,500 people and fought for two days and three nights with over 2,000 casualties, but failed to break through their defenses. Our army's first division, formerly the Northeast Democratic Allied Forces' Second Column Fourth Division, also clashed with them and didn't gain an advantage either. They're really a tough nut to crack!"

  "Hey, but in the end we were defeated by the PLA anyway. General Liao Yaoxiang was captured alive by you guys!" Wang Yong said with a scowl.

  "You may not know, at that time all the Northeastern columns were eager to capture them, shouting slogans like 'Eat vegetables and eat white vegetable hearts, fight battles and fight the new Sixth Army'! I heard that Lin Zong later prepared two armies to annihilate the 22nd Division." Tian Jinxi said, "Wang Yong, why do you think the 22nd Division was so fierce?"

  "Alas, this is also what the Japanese devils forced us to do. In the early days of fighting against the Japanese army, their strict training and fierce combat left a deep impression on the new 22nd division. The difference between us and the Japanese army was not just in terms of equipment, but more so in the military quality of our soldiers. At first, their soldiers' shooting was almost always accurate, the 'crooked handle' machine gun specialized in straight-shooting targets, and the small steel cannon specialized in curved trajectory targets, it was very formidable!" Wang Yong sighed, saying that his comrades from back then had died at sea.

  "Yes, we who have fought in the War of Resistance know that the Japanese devils are fierce in battle!" The instructor said with deep feeling.

  "Master Liao Yaoxiang was seeking revenge for his brother's death, so he trained us extremely hard. The training was very strict and some subjects were even terrifying. In the Lamga base in India, we trained in mountainous jungle warfare. We ate everything edible in the mountains and jungles. These tactics were taught by special instructors from the US. During training, the instructors held whips in their hands and would lash anyone who slacked off, leaving them with open wounds!" Wang Yong said, shuddering at the memory of how much he had suffered back then. "But our PLA is good, they don't beat or scold new recruits, instead they patiently teach us." Wang Yong added with a smile.

  "No wonder, you were American-made back then?" The instructor said with a hint of surprise.

  "Yes, to practice shooting well, the instructor ordered that bullets were not limited and could be fired at will. Many old soldiers said that even after serving for three years in the country, they didn't fire as many shots as they did on this day!" Wang Yong said with some pride.

  "Hmm, you've been to junior high school and are a cultured person, what do you think about the current situation with troops in Korea?" Tian Jinxi quickly changed the subject.

  Wang Yong did not participate in the civil war, but he also saw the people's hatred for the corrupt National Government. The victory of the War of Resistance against Japan had only passed for a short three years when it collapsed and fled to an isolated island. After liberation, he saw even more clearly the people's support for the new government and felt a new atmosphere. After joining the army himself, he also saw that this military was different - there were no officers who oppressed soldiers or superiors who embezzled money, but rather a kind of indescribable spirit of progress and a shared sense of pride. He still had a good impression of this unit! However, fighting Japan was because they invaded our country to burn, kill, and loot, which was national hatred. But America was helping South Korea fight North Korea, and he couldn't quite understand why we were sending troops.

  "The instructor said, 'Really, we Chinese have been bullied by foreigners for almost a hundred years. In the past, their Eight-Nation Alliance of over 20,000 people dared to attack Beijing, and our great nation was occupied by little Japan for eight years - what shame! Now that we've just established New China, the Americans are gathering a sixteen-nation alliance at our doorstep to show off and provoke us. We should teach them a lesson, demonstrate our military might and national prestige, and let the Western powers see that we're no longer the old China that can be butchered at will!' Before going abroad, Wang Yong had received education, but at this point, he couldn't figure out what the instructor was getting at, so he just said..."

  "Comrade Wang Yong, you're absolutely right! As soldiers, we must defend our country and avenge its humiliation. If the Americans dare to bring war to our doorstep, we'll let them taste the ferocity of Chinese soldiers!" The instructor 'added fuel to the fire' by saying.

  "Comrade instructor, I used to be a KMT soldier, you won't 'put me in a difficult position' will you?" Wang Yong asked worriedly, this was what he was really concerned about.

  "Heh heh, don't be burdened by this matter. In our unit, there are many 'liberated' soldiers who have put down their guns and rejoined the Liberation Army, some of whom have even become cadres. No matter what they did in the past, as long as they sincerely join the Liberation Army, we treat them equally, no one will look down on you because of this. However, at first, you didn't clarify your history, and what you did was not good, so you deserve criticism!" The instructor replied.

  Hearing the instructor's words, Wang Yong's stone in his heart finally fell to the ground, and he said clearly that he wouldn't have to worry about this all day long anymore!

  ······