Insufficient balance

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  "Look, it's the desert!" someone yelled excitedly, pointing out the window. As I gazed out at the scenery, the green gradually giving way to a sea of golden yellow, I couldn't help but smile wryly. If circumstances hadn't forced me, how could I have ended up in this godforsaken place where 80% is desert? Maybe only those naive newcomers who don't know the hardships of life would get excited about a pile of sand, Xinjiang isn't all good things like raisins, kumis and roasted lamb.

  Now, the Xinjiang Military District in our country, although nominally only a deputy corps-level affiliation with the Lanzhou Military Region, is different from ordinary provincial military regions and has relatively independent status. It has two provincial-level military regions under its jurisdiction, the Northern Xinjiang Military Region and the Southern Xinjiang Military Region, as well as several field armies, totaling 100,000 troops.

  Currently stationed in Xinjiang, the field army troops, except for the 4th and 11th infantry divisions from the First Field Army, are all later established or transferred from other war zones. Since the 1969 Tielieketi incident, large numbers of troops such as the 13th Artillery Division and the 73rd Anti-Aircraft Artillery Division have entered Xinjiang from Hebei and other places. In the subsequent Sino-Soviet border confrontation, the military strength in Xinjiang was among the highest, reaching a historical high of over 300,000 people in the early 1980s. After the large-scale demobilization, the military strength decreased somewhat. However, with the increasingly rampant activities of ethnic separatist forces and the constant expansion of India's aggressive ambitions, the troops stationed in Xinjiang have always maintained a high state of combat readiness, which can be said to be on high alert every day of the year, whether in training or equipment, reaching international standards.

  The Xinjiang military corps, forged with the best equipment and strongest training, is an iron army. Being a soldier here means being prepared to go to war and sacrifice for one's country at any moment! Gazing up at the blue sky above, which was so bright it seemed to have no impurities, I felt a sudden surge of energy emanating from him. Myself and Chang Sun Ting turned our heads simultaneously, just in time to catch a glimpse of the fleeting glint in his eyes.

  The military vehicle screeched to a halt. Someone outside was banging on the carriage and shouting at the top of their lungs, "We've arrived! Get off immediately!"

  We are about to join the X Division of the Field Army, and my first impression when I got off the bus was that the military camp was magnificent. On the high plateau at an altitude of several thousand meters, you can see the majestic snow-capped mountains towering above, half-hidden in the clouds, with a sacred color. If we follow this new Sichuan-Tibet highway under our feet all the way, we may reach Gongla and Xigaze Mountain Pass, which is the border between China and Nepal and India. It's said that there is a "Sacred Mountain" there! The 6,656-meter-high Mount Nyenchen Tanglha, in Buddhism, it is the "Mount Meru" of the universe, every year the sacred mountain attracts a large number of pilgrims from India, Tibet, and Nepal to come and worship.

  As I looked around, a sense of awe and reverence suddenly surged up in my heart. This military camp must have mobilized countless people and undergone years of continuous renovation to carve out this vast space of tens of thousands of square meters amidst the mountains. In the blue and white sky, a green world was forcibly chiseled out, with some cold-resistant deciduous pines standing tall in the military camp, swaying in the wind. Military vehicles wrapped in camouflage nets came and went, constantly injecting lifeblood into this place, giving the entire military camp a rugged and robust vitality like rock.

  On the left side of the gate, a company is undergoing impact training, with wild roars and the sound of fists and feet colliding faintly audible. Several other companies are practicing goose-stepping, with loud slogans echoing through the entire camp. A burst of popcorn-like sounds comes over, from an unknown shooting range, at least a hundred assault rifles firing in double-tap mode.

  I find myself having grown fond of this place.

  Those new recruits who were almost driven mad by the long journey, suddenly poured out of dozens of military vehicles, crowded together in a noisy and chaotic manner. Some people even dared to take out a camera from their backpacks and took pictures non-stop against the military camp and the majestic sentry. There were also some guys who were eating with one hand holding a mineral water bottle and the other hand pinching a sausage, devouring it voraciously.

  A major led a dozen old soldiers walking over with a gloomy face, he snatched the camera and slammed it to the ground, before the new recruit could react, a slap landed on his face, hitting him straight to the ground, covering his face and staring foolishly at the major, he still understood that there were hundreds of new recruits here, why only he was beaten.

  "Lift up your heads!" The major suddenly let out a loud roar, although he didn't use a megaphone, but his voice clearly roared into everyone's ears: "What did you see?"

  "National emblem!" This time all the new recruits answered in unison.

  "Right, it's the national emblem! So what have you bunch of bastards in military uniforms done under the most solemn national emblem?" The major lifted his right leg and stomped down hard, completely crushing the high-end camera worth thousands of yuan into a piece of trash. He pulled up the new recruit and roared: "You should be celebrating that you're already wearing a military uniform, otherwise I would send you directly to prison for espionage! Remember this, we are in Xinjiang! Only a hundred miles away from our border, there are terrorists, spies from enemy countries, and large-scale military conflicts can happen at any time. You may have to face special forces trained by American instructors. What makes trash like you survive?"

  "And you!" The major threw down the trash that had been scared into a ball and walked up to the new recruits who still had food in their mouths but didn't dare swallow, bellowing: "Those of you who were eating in front of the barracks, step forward!"

  Dozens of new recruits looked at me and I looked at you, carefully walking in front of the lieutenant colonel. The lieutenant colonel casually pointed to one of them and asked: "What's your name?"

  The new recruit whose name was called hastily swallowed the food in his mouth, but it got stuck in his throat due to his haste, causing him to roll his eyes wildly, looking both pitiful and comical.

  "Reporting... Reporting to the superior officer... My name is Yang Qing."

  The major frowned and gazed coldly at him, shouting: "Soldier Yang Qing, attention!"

  "Yes!" Yang Qing imitated the two sentry soldiers in front of the military camp, desperately raising his head and sticking out his chest, but his efforts were met with a burst of laughter.

  "How much do you weigh?"

  "Reporting officer, I have... 195 catties."

  "Oh, with a height of only about 170 cm and a weight of up to 195 pounds, you must have spent quite a bit of money on medical exams." The major suddenly put on a gentle smile and asked: "Since you came in through connections, why did you come to Xinjiang, this godforsaken place? Who knows when there might be some small-scale action, and with your physique, the chances of being hit are much higher than ours."

  "Reporting to the superior officer, because I want to take the military academy exam... I heard that applying for a military academy from here can be more than 20 points lower than other military districts."

  "Hmm, not bad, very frank!" The lieutenant colonel patted Yang Qing's shoulder and asked in a loud voice: "So can you tell me, what makes you think that we should recommend a fat, undisciplined fool from our Xinjiang Military Region to take the exam? Wouldn't that be like slapping ourselves in the face and telling others that our Xinjiang Military Region has become a kindergarten and a weight loss training camp?"

  Ignoring Yang Qing's already red face, the lieutenant colonel waved his hand and said: "Form up according to your new recruit numbers! Any team that fails to form up within one minute will be punished as a whole!"

  The camp in front of us immediately became chaotic, with the old soldiers brought by the lieutenant colonel directing us, our group of new recruits finally quickly regrouped, divided into eleven small teams according to the numbers on our chests.

  The lieutenant colonel looked at the new recruits with a sympathetic gaze: "Look, everyone is tired from the long journey. How can this mental state become a qualified soldier? Alright, I'll ask you all to take a hot bath before entering the barracks."

  "Great!"

  "Long live!"

  Many people cheered together, whether by train or car, after nearly a hundred hours of travel, everyone was dirty and tired with a sour sweat smell all over their bodies. Taking a hot bath and having a sumptuous lunch was indeed a pleasure.

  "It seems everyone likes my arrangement, so listen up, everybody! Attention, all personnel! Immediately surround the barracks and run ten laps!"

  Everyone stared at the military camp in front of them, which was tens of thousands of square meters in size. Running around it ten times would be equivalent to a 5-6 kilometer long run. They hadn't even fully recovered from the high-altitude reaction yet, and were already exhausted and hungry, feeling like their legs were going soft just standing there. And now they had to go for a 5-6 kilometer run?!

  "Hurry up! The last fifty people to finish will have to do an additional two hundred push-ups as punishment!"

  As soon as the lieutenant let out a loud roar, hundreds of new recruits dropped their backpacks and started sprinting wildly. I exchanged a glance with Zhang Sun-ting, tightened our own backpacks, and then followed closely behind those soldiers in a long run.

  Running on the plateau due to insufficient oxygen, physical consumption is much higher than in the mainland. I ran fast and slow, trying to find a balance point between physical consumption and recovery. When I finally fixed my pace at a certain rhythm, Changsun Ting was still following me with a steady pace, and we both stretched out a big thumb to each other at the same time.

  The major watched our backs slowly disappear into the distance, nodded slightly to the squad leader responsible for picking us up and said: "Remember their names." His gaze shifted, and he pointed at the scattered backpacks on the ground: "Pick all that stuff up. They even dared to abandon their weapons and equipment. If it were on the battlefield, I would have shot them without hesitation. It seems I need to increase the intensity of training to make this bunch of trash somewhat human as soon as possible."

  There weren't even the last fifty people, except for me and Zhang Sun Ting and a dozen or so others who ran the entire course, four or five hundred people all fell on the highway outside the military camp, each person's sweat thoroughly soaking their uniforms, indeed as Captain said, taking a refreshing hot shower.

  Those who ran the entire course had not yet come to their senses, and were knocked to the ground by a few old soldiers in no time. The lieutenant colonel looked at the dozen or so new recruits lying on the ground with a painful expression, "You are warriors, even if you have strong bodies, what can you do? You've lost your weapons and equipment, what will you use to kill the enemy? Will you use your fists that can't even knock down your own grandmother? Or will you pick up a few bricks from the ground like a little hooligan fighting?"

  At the welcoming banquet afterwards, eighty percent of new recruits didn't even have the strength to hold their chopsticks, and after receiving basic equipment from the quartermaster, they fell fast asleep as soon as they touched their pillows.