Chapter 74 In Hell (10)

  "The army doesn't believe in tears, nor sympathize with the weak. No excuses, no reasons. Your existence is to defend. Only the strongest of the strong can stay here, and the weak will be eliminated."

  "The environment we face has no worst, only worse, and what we need to learn is to adapt to it, love it. Listen to my command, take off all your clothes, take off your pants." - Jungle Wolf Way.

  After hearing the order, the new recruits immediately took off their shirts and pants. After nearly three months of elimination, there were only 43 people left here. The mountainous area was very cold at night, and the temperature could drop to around 2 degrees Celsius at night. When the new recruits were left with only one pair of underwear, they were blown by the wind, and their whole body suddenly got goosebumps. In such weather, even wearing a thick cotton-padded jacket couldn't guarantee warmth, let alone some soldiers from the north who were already familiar with the coldness of winter, but no one wanted to challenge the extreme cold in this way.

  "It's just a little rain, isn't it? Is it really that cold?" said the Jungle Wolf.

  Seeing the thickly dressed forest wolf, the newcomers couldn't help but look down on it: "Then you should also take off your clothes and try?"

  Of course, if that's the case, then there's no need to say it out loud. If they were to say it out loud and the wolves in the forest also came to attack them, then what they would experience next would be even more miserable.

  "Is it cold?" the jungle wolf cried out.

  "Don't be cold!" The new recruits shouted.

  "Hehe, tonight's lesson is anti-cold training. I don't need to explain the significance of this training, you all understand it in your hearts, it's for survival after all. Suffering a bit of cold is nothing. Originally, I thought you guys would be very cold, but surprisingly, you're not cold at all. In that case, I think I'll add some more to the lesson."

  After the Jungle Wolf finished speaking, he waved his hand and a water cart appeared. Suddenly, the newbies felt a chill in their hearts, why did they have to be so mouthy? They were already freezing, but still said it wasn't cold. Now they're really enjoying themselves.

  The waterwheel suddenly came up and shot a strong jet of water at the new recruits, who felt that they were originally not wearing clothes on the winter shore, originally frozen to the point of collapse, now it's all good, and suddenly fell into the river.

  "Ah!"

  It was unclear who shouted first, but soon everyone else followed suit.

  Xiao Lie remembered that when he was young, his family was not wealthy. In elementary school, in the middle of winter, he wore a single pair of pants to go to school and a pair of broken rubber shoes that had been mended again and again. The quality of the soles of those rubber shoes was really poor, they would break easily after wearing them for a short time. So in the winter, he wore a pair of tattered rubber shoes without socks. At that time, his feet were frozen to the point where they developed frostbite. He thought that at that time it was the coldest he had ever been, but compared to now, the equipment he had back then was much warmer.

  After a cold shower, the Jungle Wolf finally showed mercy and said: "You can warm each other up now, two people per group, rub against each other."

  For a moment, an unseemly scene appeared on the surface, with many pairs of two big men hugging each other naked, rubbing each other's hands, and the more ambiguous the scene was, the more it seemed like they were filming "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" again.

  The newbies were slapping and rubbing themselves on the ground, and soon they were all red, but it seemed like this movement wasn't so cold after all.

  "As a soldier, you have no choice over the weather and temperature. Come what may, fight to win, this is not an empty phrase, if you can't even stand this bit of cold, what victory are you talking about?"

  But things didn't end there, when the activity was almost over, the Jungle Wolf ordered the new recruits to stick their entire body to the ground. The new recruits' mouths involuntarily made a hissing sound, this was too "stimulating".

  If a wolf pack sees one of its members not in close enough contact with the ground, it will go over and give them a good kick.

  "Listen to my command, turn left, turn right..."

  The newbies on the ground kept flipping, like a dish in a pot. Now the chef wants to stir-fry everything inside and out. No one dares to say it's cold, but deep down they scolded the wolf pack.

  Xiao Ran's mind recalled a story he had heard since childhood, one of the stories in "The Twenty-four Filial Exemplars". A filial son heard that his mother was seriously ill and wanted to eat fish, but the lake surface had already frozen in winter. In order to catch fish, he took off his clothes and used his own body temperature to melt the ice surface, finally catching fish in the icy hole. He didn't know whether this story was true or not, but he clearly remembered a heart-wrenching incident that happened when he was young.

  One time he was ill and hadn't eaten for several days, but he wanted to eat fish. It was still cold winter at that time, and the material conditions were not possible to buy fish in a small town. His mother, Xiao Lanfang, wanted him to eat fish, so she went to the neighbor's house and found two dynamite sticks. Under someone else's guidance, she made two fish explosives. When the fish explosives were thrown into the icy river water, an explosion occurred quickly, but no fish came up after the explosion. Xiao Lanfang knew that she had thrown them too close, and it was impossible for fish to appear near the shore. So she thought for a moment and threw the last fish explosive into the middle of the river. When she threw it out, she involuntarily prayed for a while, hoping for some fish to come up. Sure enough, this time she had thrown it in the right place, and several fish finally floated up on the surface of the river, although not many, but already enough. However, the next problem arose: the fish were floating in the middle of the river, and her pole was too short to reach them, and the water in the river was flowing. If she didn't scoop up the fish in time, they might drift away.

  As she thought of her son Xiao Lie, who had not eaten for several days and was now emaciated, Xiao Lanfang gritted her teeth and jumped into the river. The winter water was freezing cold. Although it hadn't frozen over, if you put your hand in, it would lose feeling within half a minute. Under the incredulous gazes of others, Xiao Lanfang waded towards the fish, as she couldn't swim, the water gradually rising to her neck. There was no one on the shore; if Xiao Lanfang cramped up in the water, she might never be able to set foot on land again. But she was a mother to her son, and in that instant, her mind cleared completely - she had lost her husband, and she would never trust men again or need anyone's help. She told herself she could do it; all she needed were her two obedient sons, Xiao Yang and Xiao Lie, who were her life. How could she watch Xiao Lie suffer if he didn't eat? His body would collapse, and he was still just a child.

  She has no way out and can't retreat. Xiao Yang and Xiao Lie are her life, her hope. She can use her own life to exchange for the lives of these two people.

  Will I still be afraid? She asked herself. No, I am no longer afraid.

  No one knew how Xiao Lanfang caught the fish, because she never mentioned it. When she came ashore, her whole body had lost consciousness, shaking all over, unable to control her own body, with those three 10-centimeter-long fish firmly grasped in her hand, as if they were her lifeline.

  When Xiao Lie on the sickbed drank that delicious fish soup, Xiao Lanfang fell ill.

  Xiao Lie lay on the ground, his body gradually losing sensation as the cold seeped into his bones like needles. He thought of what had happened that winter and realized that no matter how cold he was now, could it be colder than his mother in the middle of the river? What a strong woman, what a strong mother she was! He didn't know, nor did he know how to describe with words, how a woman like her could endure such hardship. Could he not do the same? If he really couldn't, how heartbroken would she be?

  He thought she wouldn't want to see her own son like this either.

  Xiao Lie slowly no longer felt the chill, after the rain, a few stars appeared in the sky, those clear stars seemed like his mother's eyes, quietly and gently watching over him.

  Will it still be cold? Xiao Lie asked himself. No, I am no longer cold.

  If such anti-cold training just lets newcomers turn over a few times and end, then it would be unworthy of the title of Jungle Wolves.

  "Humans, a long time ago were also animals, they evolved from animals. A long time ago, primitive humans grew thick body hair to resist the cold of winter. Later, when humans learned to make clothes to resist the cold, their body hair began to degenerate slowly, until it became smooth skin. But in winter, they need to wear thick clothing to resist the cold. I don't know if this is evolution or devolution. If humans are exposed to extreme cold, they will freeze to death, and their bodily functions will be damaged, even leading to death. And what are we? Special forces! If we can also be driven back by the cold, then who will defend the country's interests?"

  "Don't tell me you still feel cold, it's because you still consider yourselves human. What I want to teach you is not to imagine yourselves as humans, because when you do, you've already surrendered psychologically in the harsh natural environment. You should know about your Red Army predecessors, who crossed snow-capped mountains with inadequate supplies, some even wearing straw shoes. Tell me, weren't they human? Weren't they afraid of the cold? I can be frank with you, they were also human and just as afraid of the cold as we are. But does being afraid of the cold mean you won't win? Does being afraid of pain and cold mean you won't survive? If you're still making excuses for yourselves, then you'll never win. You might as well pack up now and go home, rather than dying on the battlefield and dragging your comrades down with you, and disgracing your country."

  The new recruits ran a lap naked and then got rained on before they were allowed to put their clothes back on.

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