Eighteen Sharpshooters

  The chief of staff and the adjutant also came over.

  "Long journey! Chief of Staff!"

  Leopard showed the target paper in his hand to the brigade commander and chief of staff.

  "Soldier, can you give me an explanation?" The platoon leader looked at the target paper of Gao Shengjie and said to him.

  "Report to the commander, we are the Marine Corps. The Navy is just our branch of service, but combat is our responsibility. In this sense, we are still infantrymen. Infantrymen must charge forward, so we need quick and effective shooting to eliminate any enemy that suddenly appears in front of us at the first time, without giving them a chance to resist. And the T-zone of the heart and head is a location that can be fatal immediately. As everyone knows, in modern warfare, the firing distance of infantry has been compressed to within 30-50 meters, or even within 10 meters. At such close range, aiming at these two parts is not difficult, but the tactical significance is extremely high."

  "So, what do you have to say? Soldier." The battalion commander turned to Ye Ren again.

  "Report to the leader, I lost!" Ye Ren said resolutely.

  The other new recruits also lost their voices.

  "Pass down the order, from today on, the whole brigade's light weapon shooting training will add close-range rapid-fire training for the head and chest areas." The brigade commander said to the chief of staff.

  "Yes!"

  "But I also hope you remember, sometimes you'll find that you need a shooter like him." The captain said, pointing to Ye Ren and saying to Gao Shengjie, "Give him a sniper rifle."

  ……

  "Yè Rén!"

  The sound of Leopardo came from outside the door, and then Leopardo came in.

  Ye Ren, who had just finished dinner and was resting in bed, suddenly jumped out of bed, pulled his clothes straight, and stood at attention.

  What left all the new recruits flabbergasted was that yesterday's lunch was their last good meal, and today at noon it became a simple dish of meat and vegetables with plain rice. And what they couldn't forgive themselves for was that they had actually thrown up yesterday's lunch into the sea. Once upon a time, a sumptuous and exquisite lunch was laid out before them, but they didn't cherish it until every day was coarse tea and bland food, and then they regretted it too late. If heaven gave them another chance to start over, they would certainly treasure it doubly. If given such an opportunity with a time limit, they would definitely choose one million years.

  The others in the room immediately stood up straight.

  "Yeran!" Lei Bao shouted again.

  "Arrived!"

  "Bring your gear and weapons, let's go!" Lei Bao said without a doubt.

  Ye Ren walked to the gun cabinet, took out the only one, also the 88-style sniper rifle specially approved by the brigade commander for him, and followed Lei Bao out of the dormitory.

  "You guys say, it's so late, what does Leibao want with him?"

  Leopard took Ye Ren and walked away, and the people in the house began to discuss it.

  "It's definitely not good news."

  "Don't ask what shouldn't be asked, this is discipline."

  Kuo sat under the lamp, polishing his leather boots, and said to those who were discussing heatedly.

  Everyone suddenly lost interest: "Yes, captain."

  They dispersed, and Shi Nanfeng muttered a sentence: "Human-like dog."

  "What did you say?" Ge Xianjie put down the rifle in his hand.

  "What's wrong? I'm talking about you, what's wrong?" Shi Nanfeng also turned around and looked at Ge Shengjie.

  "You're just looking for trouble."

  "Do you want to fight or what?"

  "Come on and hit me then, are you afraid I won't be able to take it, grandfather?"

  The two people were getting more and more agitated, their anger rising like a ghostly fire, and once they had taken a stance, they were ready to come to blows.

  The people beside them quickly separated the two.

  "Stop it! Stop it! You two have something to settle, take it to the training grounds, don't harm everyone else." Li Jiaye said to Shi Nanfeng.

  "Captain, captain, stop fighting, stop fighting."

  Others also persuaded Gao Jianliang.

  "Hmm!"

  The two people glared at each other and then ignored each other, Ge Shengjie sat back on the mat to continue wiping his gun, while Shi Nanfeng picked up the basin to take a bath.

  "It's all right, it's all right." Li Jiaye looked at Shi Nanfeng who was leaving the door and then looked at Ge Shengjie before saying to Huang Junqi, "Let's go take a bath."

  ……

  Leopard led Ye Ren into the training hall.

  Bang!

  Ye Ren did not expect that at eight o'clock in the evening, there would still be people here practicing shooting.

  Moreover, the gunshot sound just now is distinctly different from the 95-style assault rifle's gunshot.

  "Feng Lei!"

  Leopard led Ye Ren into the shooting line and shouted at an officer who was lying in the shooting position. Ye Ren noticed that this officer was wearing a tactical vest with the same special sniper gear he had just received before dinner, holding an 88-style 5.8mm caliber sniper rifle in his hand.

  "Arrived!"

  Feng Lei got up from the ground, turned off the safety of his sniper rifle, and ran to Ye Ren and Lei Bao.

  "Bring him to me personally." Lei Bao said to Feng Lei.

  "Oh?" Feng Lei took off his own hat and looked at Ye Ren.

  "Good job, Monitor." Ye Ren stood at attention and saluted Feng Lei.

  "Is the person you've been talking about all along me?"

  "It's him," said Leopardo.

  "Come with me."

  Feng Lei tilted his head, indicating for Ye Ren to follow him.

  "Go for it."

  Leopard smiled and patted Ye Ren's shoulder.

  It was the first time Ye Ren had seen Lei Bao laugh.

  "Yes!"

  Ye Renli stood up straight and replied.

  "Starting tomorrow, you don't have to attend morning exercise, just report directly to him."

  Leopard finished speaking and turned down Ye Ren, walking straight out of the shooting gallery.

  "Come on, hurry up, we don't have much time."

  Feng Leiteng yielded his own position and gave up the shooting location to Ye Ren.

  "Yes."

  Ye Ren opened the bipod of the sniper rifle, placed the gun on a pad, and lay prone on the ground with the gun raised.

  Feng Lei took out a bullet and carefully placed it on the muzzle of Ye Ren's sniper rifle.

  "I think we should talk first. If you don't even understand your own tactical position, it will harm you sooner or later." Feng Lei said, squatting beside Ye Ren.

  "Yes."

  "Don't be so serious, speak softly, and don't let the bullets fall on me."

  "Yes. Class Monitor, why did you say there's not much time left?"

  "Because war may break out in a minute's time, the enemy will not give us time to make full preparations."

  "I understand."

  "We are equipped with the 88-style 5.8mm caliber sniper rifle, which uses 5.8mm caliber heavy bullets, semi-automatic firing mode, and a bullpup design. The gun is relatively short and light in weight, and can also use common squad ammunition, making it very effective in squad tactics." Feng Lei said, "The shortcomings of the 88-style sniper rifle are also very obvious. Based on my actual experience, when shooting targets over 800 meters away, the accuracy drops significantly. However, the 88 sniper has good penetration capabilities and can penetrate a 3mm thick A3 steel plate at a distance of over 1,000 meters. Nevertheless, this gun is already capable of performing our tasks very well."

  "In foreign armies, there is a term 'sniper' referring to a soldier assigned to a squad with high-precision combat rifles. Although our army does not have this designation and uniformly refers to them as snipers, the scope of their tasks still differs. Our mission is to provide accurate shooting for infantry squads at 400 to 600 meters, extending to 800 meters if necessary, covering the squad's actions. In positional warfare, we also need to perform clearing missions. Our targets include high-ranking enemy officers appearing on the front line, grassroots enemy officers and non-commissioned officers directly commanding battles, heavy weapon operators, air force or artillery guides, etc., with relatively high tactical value. That is to say, we are snipers."

  "I understand."

  "The best part is that we don't have to infiltrate hundreds or thousands of kilometers behind enemy lines like those special forces guys do for strategic decapitation missions. We at most lurk tens of kilometers away to carry out hunting tasks, or you could say tactical decapitation missions."

  "Strategy and tactics?"

  "Put simply, the level of targets for sniping is different, and the range that can be affected is also different."

  "I understand."

  "Starting tomorrow, I will teach you how to protect yourself and annihilate your enemies. Now, open fire!"

  Feng Lei's sudden order to "open fire" was too abrupt, and Ye Ren didn't react in time.

  "You're dead! They'll give you a body bag, soldier." Feng Lei said to Ye Ren.

  After finishing speaking, Feng Lei left with his own equipment without looking back.

  Ye Ren stared blankly at the ground, gazing at the 50-meter half-body target in his scope.

  "You're already dead!"

  Feng Lei's words were hammered into Ye Ren's heart one by one.

  ……

  A ten-kilometer cross-country run in full gear became an appetizer for new recruits before breakfast.

  "We are the Marine Corps, the Navy is a branch of service, but being a ground combat force is our mission, so first and foremost we are infantry. The reason why infantry is called infantry is because we can't run away to death."

  Feng Lei's words to Ye Ren are similar to what Ge Shengjie said yesterday.

  While others were running on the beach, Feng Lei took Ye Ren and charged up the mountain.

  "Infantry is fierce! Infantry will only fall on the charging road! Charge!"

  Feng Lei shouted loudly about a kilometer away from the top of the mountain and rushed up with his gun.

  Ye Ren also followed up with a speed of 100 meters sprint and caught up.

  "Kill! Kill! Kill!"

  Feng Lei's voice echoed through the mountains, unfolding a majestic momentum of a charging phalanx.

  In Ye Ren's eyes, it seemed that Feng Lei was no longer holding a sniper rifle, but a giant ghostly cleaver.

  Chinese infantry has always been fierce, Ye Ren once read a book written by Japanese scholars about the Korean War. There was a battle that every time he recalled it would make Ye Ren extremely moved.

  That year, the Korean battlefield, Chosin Reservoir, minus tens of degrees. The U.S. 1st Marine Division and the Chinese People's Volunteer Army encountered each other in the icy snow. This battle, the poorly clothed and hungry volunteer army and the arrogant and biased American military fought extremely hard, even with entire companies of soldiers forming combat formations on the snowy terrain, freezing to death without anyone abandoning their positions. In the end, the volunteer army made a huge sacrifice, severely damaging the invincible 1st Marine Division.

  This Japanese scholar wrote in his work: The Chinese army, facing the intense firepower of the US military, fell down in the first wave, crossed over the bodies and advanced in the second wave, and continued to advance in the third and fourth waves. They were not afraid of death and persisted in fighting until the last man.

  "Life does not stop, charge does not stop."

  This is what the US military calls "the enigmatic Oriental spirit", this is the Chinese army's invincible martial spirit.

  This spirit is embodied in the Chinese soldiers who fell on the battlefields of Xifengkou, Niangziguan, Xinjiangkou, Shanghai, Nanjing, Taierzhuang, Huaihai, Zhongyuan, Xubeng, Jinmen, Yalu River, Shangganling, Chosin Reservoir, Zhenbao Island and Lao Mountain.

  Infantry is ferocious, Chinese infantry is the most ferocious.

  "Kill! Kill! Kill!"

  Ye Ren also went all out and rushed up.

  Ye Ren and Feng Lei's battle cries could even be heard by the new recruits running on the beach.

  "Charge towards the target! Kill! Kill! Kill!" Rayford shouted loudly.

  "Kill! Kill! Kill!"

  The new recruits rushed out all at once.