Chapter 41: Devil Training Camp One

  At 5 o'clock in the morning, the Seventh Reconnaissance Company of the Red Third Regiment was still immersed in a quiet and peaceful atmosphere. Two sentries stood at attention at the entrance of the company, their heads held high and chests out, as motionless as sculptures.

  Qiyun Fei of Class 7-2 suddenly opened his eyes and woke up at exactly five o'clock. He quietly moved his hands and feet, got out of bed stealthily, took out the sand leg warmers and sand waistcoat from the storage cabinet and put them on, then tiptoed out of the dormitory.

  Zi Yunfei has been in the army for two years and is a well-known figure in the Seventh Reconnaissance Company.

  During shooting training, he hung two water-filled bottles on the barrel and held the gun still for several hours; during hand-to-hand combat training, demonstration actions were always completed by him in front of the whole company. His marksmanship was even more astonishing, almost every shot hit the bullseye, and even the battalion commander looked at him with admiration.

  It's also because of this that he has a lazy and arrogant attitude towards his comrades. He looks handsome and uninhibited, with a lazy demeanor that exudes a dangerous charm, and the corners of his mouth are often sarcastically curved upwards. As can be expected, his interpersonal relationships aren't very good.

  He went downstairs with two bullet boxes full of stones on his back, starting the first 5km weighted cross-country run of the day. However, there was already a tall and sturdy soldier on the playground in the dark night, carrying a 40kg heavy bullet box on his back, sweating profusely, he knew it was Zhang Peng from Class 5 - a sniper, with all the common characteristics of snipers: taciturn.

  It's been almost half a year now, and he and Zhan Peng have been like rivals, from the first 5-kilometer cross-country run in the morning to the daytime training: pull-ups, barbell curls, basic combat skills, all the way to the last 5 kilometers after dinner, push-ups, sit-ups, sweat dripping onto the concrete floor without leaving a human imprint. When punching the sandbag, both of them used their full strength, their fists bloody and bruised, yet still refusing to stop.

  However, until now, the two people have not exchanged a single word and are still strangers.

  Today, Qi Yunfei decided to go and make contact with this "enemy" on the training ground. He sped up and caught up with Zhan Peng, running shoulder to shoulder: "Hey! Have you heard? The Cheetah Squad is recruiting members throughout the military district."

  "I heard that." Zhan Peng slanted a glance at him, his breathing was long and steady, not panting at all. On that handsome and extraordinary face, there was no expression, the slightly raised eyebrows had a hint of arrogance, the slightly sunken eye sockets made him look like he had some mixed blood, and on his skin, which was tanned to a wheat color by the sun, big drops of sweat were rolling down.

  "Are you going?"

  "Go! Why not go? I want to try out with those who claim to be the king of soldiers, I believe in my strength." Zhan Peng slowly breathed and asked: "What about you?"

  Zi Yunfei's breathing was equally long and slow, not as if he were carrying a heavy load, but rather as if he were strolling leisurely. He looked ahead with utmost confidence: "Of course we have to go! I've been waiting for this news, my heart has almost grown cobwebs."

  The Cheetah Troop selection training competition kicked off as scheduled, but unexpectedly, the subjects of the selection were dull and unremarkable, just like a routine daily training session.

  There were 1,200 soldiers from various troops who signed up for the competition, which was an elimination match. The Flying Leopard team only sent two people to observe the competition: Xu Mingliang, who had just been promoted as deputy commander of the First Squadron, and Ma Xiangdong, commander of the Second Squadron.

  They assembled these 1200 soldiers together, and after five kilometers of cross-country running, tactical foundation, and four hundred meters of obstacle course, half of the people were eliminated. Then they went to the shooting range to test their marksmanship and grenade throwing, and another three hundred people were eliminated.

  Zi Yunfei and Zhan Peng were both ranked within the top thirty in all assessments, for them it was already a sure win.

  "This is too easy, I didn't even use my full strength. Is this the quality of special forces? Are they playing with us?" Qi Yunfei pulled out a blade of grass and chewed on it, using his peripheral vision to glance at Xu Mingliang and Ma Xiangdong, who were standing upright with their hands behind their backs at the edge of the shooting range.

  "Who knows what's going on? Maybe the difficulty is yet to come, so it's better to be careful." Zhan Peng gazed seriously at the tall and powerful backs of the cheetahs, he didn't believe that a mighty cheetah squad would only use such childish tactics to entertain them.

  Xu Mingliang stood upright at the edge of the shooting range, watching the contestants who were throwing with all their might with a gaze similar to that of watching a monkey show.

  Ma turned eastward with an expressionless face and muttered a sentence: "Bad, too bad! How are the soldiers now getting worse and worse?"

  Xu Mingliang slightly curled his lips and chuckled: "You've forgotten how you looked when you first arrived at Lie Bao?"

  Ma Dong said with a smile, "Hey, how could I forget? At that time, you instructors almost drove me to death!" He paused slightly and asked, "I looked at the new training plan yesterday. What's going on with Jin Da Hu Lu? Why has the difficulty increased so much?"

  "The enemy's combat effectiveness is constantly improving, we can't fall behind!" Xu Mingliang patted his shoulder and said: "I just flipped through the registration forms left behind, more than half of them are town soldiers, you must have a sufficient mental preparation, this batch of soldiers must be clever enough to make trouble!"

  Ma Dong's face lit up with a mischievous grin: "Troublemaking? One of the essential elements for special forces, isn't it? Didn't Jin Da specifically remind us of the five basic principles before we set out? Those who are not outstanding in military technology are not allowed, those who are not outstanding in physical fitness are not allowed, those who are not outstanding in psychological quality are not allowed, those with low cultural level are not allowed, and those who are not mischievous and troublesome are not allowed."

  "Yes, this last point is especially important. A soldier without unconventional thinking cannot handle special operations." Xu Mingliang gazed at the target range, his brow furrowed and his face somewhat gloomy: "There are too many mischievous soldiers, it's not good to gather them together."

  "Save the trouble for when we're up against our enemies. On the training grounds, he should be a man of few words, a true fighter. Anyone who dares to mess with me will be beaten to death by him!"

  "Alright, haven't you seen how sturdy they are, like young bulls? You can exhaust him to death, he'll sleep for a night and still be able to climb up the roof and remove tiles for you the next day. It's useless! These kids have boundless energy!"

  On the shooting range, the bombing assessment has ended. The several staff members in charge of the assessment handed over the list of qualified personnel to Xu Mingliang. "There are still 270 soldiers left. Should we have them assemble and get familiar with each other?" asked the leading operations staff officer of the headquarters with a smile.

  Xu Mingliang briefly flipped through it and said to the staff officer, "There's no need for that. It's hard to say how many of these people can make it into the Flying Leopard unit. Notify the qualified personnel's units to send them to the training camp at 4 pm tomorrow."

  He and Ma Xiangdong saluted several staff members and drove away in a car.

  An aide looked at the dust raised by the car and spat: "How arrogant!"

  "Is that it? Are we special forces now?" asked Zhi Yunfei disbelievingly.

  "Impossible!" Zhang Peng snorted, "Haven't you seen those special forces recruits? The really tough ones are in the back." He glanced at the several soldiers who had been drawn over by his words: "Everyone shouldn't get too excited too early, it's not that easy to join an elite special forces unit like this one."

  The next morning, the 270 selected cadets set out from their respective units and gathered at the military district headquarters. After lunch, they climbed onto six trucks and were pulled into a mountain-encircled military camp.

  The commander of the dispatching troops handed over the flower register to Ma Xiangdong, jumped onto the jeep and left with the dispatching truck team.

  The trainees stood in formation, each one excited and flushed, unable to help dashing about and shouting to their friends. It seemed as though they had already become the elite soldiers that everyone admired. The title of "elite soldier" made them forget the discipline that a soldier should follow, and they loudly shouted and made a ruckus, making the entire drill ground chaotic like a vegetable market.

  Xu Mingliang's face, smeared with camouflage cream, was stern and expressionless as he stood at the front of the formation, unmoving. Behind him, Ma Xiangdong and twenty or so other instructors stood in a row, their faces as hard as iron, devoid of any expression.

  Zi Yunfei first looked around, took in his surroundings, and then walked over to Zhan Peng, who was watching with a cold eye, and asked: "What's wrong? You don't seem excited at all."

  Zhan Peng nodded towards Xu Mingliang: "What's there to be excited about? Look at him, can you guess what he's thinking from his eyes?"

  Zi Yunfei turned his head to look, and indeed, Xu Mingliang's eyes were stern, the kind of person whose thoughts you couldn't guess no matter how hard you tried. He shook his head in disdain: "Just a show of false strength, trying to intimidate us." He stretched lazily, "I'll never be able to learn that kind of attitude in my lifetime."

  Zhan Peng glanced at him and stopped talking.

  The instructors didn't scold the trainees, but the invisible pressure emanating from them was like a huge net that gradually enveloped the entire drill ground, and finally, the chaotic vegetable market slowly became quiet.

  Xu Mingliang shouted in a timely manner: "Attention!" The playground immediately became quiet.

  He frowned and looked at the trainees with disdain, walked two laps in front of the team with his hands behind his back, and said lightly: "A bunch of trash!"

  The trainees were basically the elites of their original troops. People like them always have a sense of pride, and no one in their original troops dared to look down on them. Now being called trash, they felt extremely humiliated, and several people couldn't help but let out cold snorts.

  "What? Feeling insulted?" Xuming Liang sneered, looking towards the corner where the voice came from: "Take a look at yourselves, is this how you normally stand in formation? What about military discipline? Don't you want it anymore?" The students knew they were in the wrong and lowered their heads, no longer daring to look at him.

  Xu Mingliang's tone slightly softened: "Since you are first-time offenders, I will not pursue the matter. Let me introduce myself, my name is Xu Mingliang, and I am the chief instructor of this training camp. Here, what I say is law, your lives are mine! No matter how powerful you were in your original unit, here, there are only two answers to my questions: 'Yes, Instructor!' and 'Understood, Instructor!' Do you understand?"

  "Understood, instructor!" The response was not particularly loud. It's clear that they can't pretend to be unclear. Qiyunfei and Zhangpeng both had a premonition that the days ahead wouldn't be easy.

  Xu Mingliang gazed at his students with the eyes of an eagle, they wore a confident expression as if they didn't understand that they were already in hell.

  "I represent all the instructors to welcome you to the Devil Training Camp. In the next period of time, you will feel like falling into hell and experience the feeling of being worse than death! I guarantee that if I let you feel comfortable for one second, I will automatically resign! I will do what I say!"