Chapter 1: The New Recruit of Longshan Mountain

  A fleet of more than a dozen military vehicles, majestic and imposing, drove northward.

  This was eighteen-year-old Yu Songyuan, who had left his hometown for the first time. The grand and colorful world, with its infinite changes, unfolded before him like a traditional Chinese painting scroll rendered in pointillism.

  Fields, villages, rivers, thatched cottages, busy crowds, frolicking children... Along the way, Yu Song opens his eyes wide, wanting to take in everything, engrave it on his mind, and remember it in his heart.

  Many years later, Yu Songyuan recalled the scene of his first departure from his hometown, the vast northern Jiangsu plain, what was left to his memory were only the green fields, gray villages, rows of dilapidated thatched cottages, and the winding rivers that stretched far away in all directions.

  Standing on the platform of Xinpu Railway Station, Yu Songyuan strained his eyes to gaze into the distant sky, hoping to see mountains. For 18 years, he had only seen big mountains in books. He knew that Xinpu had YunTai Mountain and HuaGuo Mountain, which was the hometown of the Great Sage Equaling Heaven. However, the weather was misty, and nothing could be seen in the distant sky except for thick clouds.

  It was after five o'clock in the afternoon that the new recruits boarded the passenger train car specially for transporting new recruits. This was also Yu Songyuan's first time seeing a train, as his hometown did not have railways. Before this, he had only seen trains in books and movies, and learned about their working principles from physics textbooks.

  The train was a slow-moving one, stopping frequently as it chugged along the Longhai Railway. Dinner had begun, with Comrade Chen and Du pushing two large boxes of pastries in a cart, inviting everyone to eat as much as they wanted. The female train attendants followed behind, pushing small carts carrying several large metal kettles, filling each new recruit's canteen with boiling water.

  Comrade Chen began to speak eloquently, "New comrades-in-arms, today is the first Army Day since you enlisted. 53 years ago today, our great army was born on the city head of Nanchang. This day has a very significant meaning, and in the troops we all have dinner together. But now our conditions are limited, so let's use eating cake to commemorate this great festival!"

  Yu Songyuan not only took the train for the first time, but also had his first cake in eighteen years. He ate only four and felt full. In fact, he still wanted to eat more, but feeling full, he didn't dare take any more. Many new recruits were like him, most of them eating two and then controlling themselves from eating anymore.

  Zhang Yingzong came to Yu Songyuan and sat down opposite him, eating cake while casually asking him, "Little Yu, how many bowls of rice do you usually eat at home for one meal?"

  "Rice is uncountable, but wheat harvests three or four big sea bowls of dry rice."

  "With your appetite, you must eat at least ten pieces of cake!"

  Seeing his puzzled look, the battalion commander said, "We will be taking a train ride of about one and a half days. The train is moving, and sitting still on the train is also very tiring. Cakes are too fluffy and not filling at all. You can't just eat two, or you'll be hungry again at night and won't be able to sleep."

  Yu Songyuan understood and picked up two more to eat. He stood up and said to the new recruits, "Everyone pay attention, we still have a long train ride ahead of us. Eating one or two won't last through the night, each person must eat at least five or six, there's no limit if you want more. The battalion commander says this is our mission."

  It's said that this is a task, and the new recruits started eating with abandon once again.

  Sergeant laughed and asked, "New recruit, when did I tell you this was a mission? If someone gets food poisoning, I'll come after you."

  Yu Songyuan said, "Didn't you say I couldn't eat two?"

  The company commander said, "You're kidding me, you did it right. My surname is Zhao, and from now on I'll be the new company commander of your recruit company."

  "Captain, I have a request, please don't tell others about my family background."

  "Alright. You want to grow through your own efforts, I promise you that. Actually, both your elder and younger brothers have also made the same request. Don't worry, the army is a big melting pot, as long as you work hard, you will definitely become steel!"

  The freshness of just getting on the train was over, and the rest of the journey became extremely dull. The train arrived at the Beijing-Shanghai line at night and continued north along the Beijing-Shanghai line, then east along the Jiaoji line to Quancheng, not arriving at the final destination of Binhai City Railway Station until after 2 pm the next day. After getting off the train, the new recruits took a bus and plunged into the vast mountains.

  Yu Songyuan also saw the majestic mountains and dense forests for the first time. Along the winding mountain highway, the big truck bumped all the way, passing through the continuous peaks and ridges.

  "Look, an airport! Military planes..." It was unclear who shouted first.

  It turned out that the sky in front suddenly became vast, it was a large basin. In the middle of the basin, there was a very large military airport, with a very long runway that couldn't be seen at a glance. Many silver-white small planes were parked on the apron, and the radar antenna on the distant tower kept rotating non-stop.

  The new recruits were excited beyond measure, for it was their first time seeing an airport and a military plane.

  Yu Songyuan knew the basic situation of the troops before departure, and he was told that he would undergo several months of new recruit training. When they arrived at the airport, he thought the new recruits would be trained there, but as soon as this idea occurred to him, the convoy turned around and left the airport, once again plunging into the depths of the mountains. After driving for dozens of minutes, they finally stopped in front of a large village under a small hill.

  This is a mountain village, built in a mountain valley. In front of the village, there is a small hill, and far away, you can see a wall surrounding it, with houses inside. Behind the village, there is a towering mountain that reaches into the clouds. Later on, he found out that this mountain was called Dragon King Mountain, which is a branch of Kunyu Mountain, and inside are aircraft hangars, with wide cement highways in front of the hangar doors.

  During wartime, all fighter jets in the airport could be transferred to and hidden inside the mountain caves. The spacious concrete highway in front of the cave depot then became a runway for planes taking off and landing.

  A dozen or so large trucks stopped in a line, and the new recruits got off and lined up, starting to form squads according to their name lists. The two hundred and fifty-odd new recruits who had come here together were formed into two new recruit companies. At this point, a jeep pulling a small trailer came over, and it turned out that they had come to deliver dinner. Each person was first given two small green ceramic bowls and one spoon, one for rice and one for dishes. The main course for dinner was big white steamed buns, the dish was fried fish in oil and spinach soup.

  This is also the first time for new recruits from the vast plains to eat fresh seafood with an open belly.

  Everyone gathered together in a group, eating around each other. Before the meal was even finished, all the men and women, young and old from the village had already rushed to the square at the foot of the small hill, laughing and cheering. Hurriedly finishing their meal, washing the bowls and chopsticks in front of the water cart, putting them into their backpacks, they started lining up with their packs on their backs.

  Comrade Chen has become the instructor of the new recruit company, standing in front of the formation, teaching the "Three Main Disciplines and Eight Points for Attention", telling the glorious tradition of our army, telling the mass discipline of our army, and then announcing the matters that need to be paid attention to when living in the homes of fellow villagers for three days.

  This is also a revolutionary old district, the simple and honest mountain people have a deep affection for the People's Army that is thicker than water. After the instructor finished speaking, the villagers rushed up, including old men and women, young men and women, and children, each class was led away by an old villager with great enthusiasm, in no time, all 21 classes were led into homes by the villagers with joy and happiness.

  Yu Songyuan's class had eleven people, the class leader and deputy class leader were Chen Weitong and Wang Hai. He was puzzled, from his call to eat cake on the military train, he began to have prestige among new recruits, more and more people came to him, but why didn't they let him be the class leader?

  They were led by a ruddy-faced, fifty-something mountain man into a stone-walled courtyard located in the center of the village. The locals' homes were different from Yu Song's old home; each had a large stone wall surrounding the yard, and the houses were also made of stone, with a main house, wing rooms, and stables. Inside the yards, there were shadow walls, and inside the stables, there were one to three tall horses, some families even had donkeys, which would occasionally bray loudly. Inside each house, there was a large kang (heated bed platform), on top of which were piled over ten colorful quilts, and in the center of the kang, there was a small table.

  The old lady and her two sons and a daughter-in-law were waiting for them at the gate.

  Entering the courtyard, a large "囍" character is posted on the high wall, and a 200-watt bulb illuminates the entire yard, making it bright as day. The windows of the main house and the wing rooms are pasted with rows of red paper cutouts, filled with festive atmosphere.

  The courtyard is decorated with auspicious scenes, including magpies perched on plum blossoms, swallows flying through peach and willow trees, peacocks playing among peonies, lions rolling embroidered balls, three sheep bringing good fortune, two dragons playing with pearls, deer and cranes amidst paulownia and Chinese parasol trees, five bats holding longevity symbols, rhinoceroses gazing at the moon, lotus flowers and fish symbolizing abundance, mandarin ducks playing in water, willows swaying with golden cicadas, and harmonious scenes of two immortals.

  It seems that the eldest son of Hong Lian Dage has just gotten married, and that beautiful daughter-in-law wearing a bright red padded jacket must still be a new bride. Moreover, either the mother or the daughter-in-law must be an expert in traditional paper-cutting.

  They were arranged to live in the wing room with Ma Jun, a 15 or 16-year-old younger son. Everyone was excited to see the northern kang for the first time. As soon as they put down their bags, the hostess and the new daughter-in-law came in with two large blue vats, one containing cigarettes and various homemade pastries, and the other containing wedding candies, peanuts, and red dates, warmly entertaining them.

  It's hard to refuse the kindness, Chen Weitong and Wang Hai both looked at Yu Songyuan. Yu Songyuan said to them: "Thank you, auntie and sister-in-law, I also wish the bride a happy marriage and an early birth of a noble son!" The auntie held his hand and kept saying thank you. The bride was busy giving out candies to everyone, seeing Yu Songyuan graciously receive it in his hands, the new soldiers finally took the candies with red faces.

  The mother-in-law and daughter-in-law had just left when a communications officer from the battalion headquarters came to call Yu Songyuan, saying that the battalion commander was calling him.

  Yu Songyuan followed the signalman to a small hill, where the battalion headquarters was set up in an open area amidst tall weeds and old barracks. The signalman entered the middle tent to report, and then the battalion commander came out with his armed belt and cigarette, saying "Little Yu, let's take a walk!"

  Two people walked to the front of a row of old barracks, with the communication officer following behind. The barracks were old stone houses, about three or four meters high. Suddenly, the battalion commander jumped up from where he was standing and landed on the roof, and Yu Songyuan also jumped up. The communication officer didn't have this ability and could only stare blankly. Guessing that the battalion commander had a secret to tell Yu Songyuan, he voluntarily stood far away from the barracks.

  The roof is flat, much cleaner than the ground. The battalion commander handed him a cigarette, Yu Songyuan shook his head, and the battalion commander said, "I'll give you a task, only you know about it. Your landlord, Ma Dajye, is an expert in brewing fruit wine. I want you to thoroughly figure him out within the next three days and win his complete trust."

  "No problem, I guarantee completion of the task." Yu Songyuan looked at the battalion commander, but the battalion commander didn't explain.