Chapter Fifty-Three: Encountering Trouble Again

  Soon, a soldier not far from Li Guoting discovered that the newly dug trench in front of him suddenly collapsed. That section of the trench was exactly what Li Guoting had dug. So, the soldier immediately shouted: "Someone come! Someone come! Collapse! Collapse!"

  Soldiers nearby digging trenches rushed over to rescue upon hearing the news.

  Someone reported this sudden situation to the on-site supervisor Zhang Fengtian.

  Zhang Fengtian did not report the situation to the squad leader. He deliberately delayed, calculating how long Li Guoting would be buried in the soil and unable to be saved. Moreover, in order to prevent the emergency rescue of the soldiers on the scene, he also deliberately borrowed an excuse to report to his superiors, leading away the three soldiers closest to Li Guoting, leaving only one soldier to rescue him.

  Zhang Fengtian stood at the edge of the collapsed trench, looking at Li Guoting's body buried in the trench, with only a section of his thigh exposed after being covered by earth. He secretly rejoiced. Ha ha, you little devil has fallen into my hands this time. Go meet King Yan.

  He didn't go down to help the soldier dig away the soil covering Li Guoting's body, but instead kept directing him, telling him to dig this way and that, intentionally delaying time.

  In his heart, he calculated that the three soldiers who went to report to the company commander would be back soon, so Zhang Fengtian took an iron shovel and jumped into the trench, pretending to rescue people.

  Soon, Zhang Zhu and a dozen soldiers, along with a medical officer, rushed over. Li Guoting's body was dug out of the earth. His head and face were covered in dirt, lying quietly on the ground, as if he had died.

  Zhang Fengtian saw this and was secretly delighted. He immediately said to Zhu Paishan, "Commander Lian, the man is dead. Let's just bury him on the riverbank ahead."

  Zhu Pai Shan glanced at Li Guo Ting and also thought he was dead. He said: "Forget it, let's bury him first."

  Just then, the medical officer walked up behind Li Guoting and put his ear to his chest. After a moment, he said: "Quickly, quickly send him to the battalion headquarters. He's still breathing."

  Zhang Fengtian heard the doctor say that Li Guoting still had breath, so he asked doubtfully: "Doctor, isn't this a mistake? He's obviously dead. Let's just bury him." He turned around and said to Zhu Paishan: "Comrade-in-charge, if this gets back to the battalion headquarters, won't the battalion commander blame us?"

  Zhu Paishan thought Zhang Fengtian was right, so he beckoned to several soldiers behind him: "Come on, take Li Guoting's body out and bury it."

  "Yes." Several soldiers followed the company commander's order and were about to move forward to lift him. They were stopped by the medical officer.

  "Company Commander, I've checked. This soldier isn't dead yet, he still has a pulse and can't be buried as a corpse. What's most urgent now is to quickly send him to the battalion headquarters for emergency treatment."

  "It's impossible. I think he's dead, Doctor, didn't you make a mistake?" Zhang Fengtian hastily said.

  "I didn't make a mistake, he's still alive. I guarantee it with my conscience as a doctor," the doctor said.

  Zhang Fengtian wanted to say something else, but after glancing at the doctor and Captain Zhu Paishan, he shut his mouth.

  Zhu Pai Shan looked at the medical officer and Li Guo Ting, who was lying on the ground unconscious, and said: "Someone, send Li Guo Ting to the headquarters for emergency treatment."

  "Yes, carry on." Several soldiers followed Zhu Pai Shan's orders and carried Li Guo Ting towards the battalion headquarters.

  Li Guoting was sent to the regimental headquarters, where he was rescued and woke up. He stayed in the regiment's infirmary for a week before fully recovering and returning to his company.

  Of course, Li Guoting was completely unaware of the inside story of what had happened last time. Nor did he suspect that someone was secretly plotting against him.

  Zhang Fengtian saw Li Guoting miraculously come back to life from the arms of death, and couldn't help but feel a bit disappointed. However, he wouldn't let him off easily. In his heart, he thought: You little scoundrel, you're lucky to have escaped with your life. You may have dodged the death penalty, but I still hold your living fate in my hands.

  After supporting the friendly army's trench warfare, Li Guoting returned to the new recruit training camp at Moshuihu Bianqiao.

  It's the first day of Sanfu, and the sun is scorching the dry dust on the training ground at Mohe Lake New Soldier Training Base. There isn't a hint of wind in any direction. As noon approaches, the entire training ground feels like it's under an overturned, sizzling hot ceramic vat, making the soldiers training on the field sweat profusely and pant for breath.

  Soldiers on the drill ground were organized by squad and carried out their final training before deployment in their respective areas.

  Today, the fourth class's training subject is passing through continuous obstacles with a load. One of them is to pass through a section of stinky and smelly sewage pits. This project was thought up by Zhang Fengtian. He said it was to test the soldiers' endurance.

  The fourth battalion of soldiers had already experienced the previous round of continuous obstacle training, but no one expected that this time, a sewage pit was added, filled with foul-smelling water. People couldn't even stand the nauseating smell before reaching the pit. Not vomiting was already an achievement. They still had to jump into the pit and crawl continuously for 100 meters in the filthy water. Just thinking about it is unbearable.

  Zhang Feng Tian Mei's name is: Soldiers' hearts endure intensified training. It is said that his designed training project was praised by Ye Tuan Zhang and issued to let the new recruits train according to this subject.

  New recruit Zhang Fengtian was let go by Captain Zhu Pai Shan to train from the first row. The fourth class took the lead and was the first to receive this training.

  Zhang Fengtian directed on one side, the soldiers of the fourth class followed Zhang Fengtian's instructions, passing through a section of barbed wire, climbing over a wall, walking across a single-plank bridge, and finally jumping into a one-meter-deep cesspit. After wading through this hundred-meter-long cesspit, they reached the shore, crawled forward along the beach for two hundred meters, and finally jumped into a trench in front of them, marking the end of their training.

  The first soldier, as required, jumped into the muddy pit after passing through those obstacles in front of him. The stench from the polluted water almost made him faint, but fortunately, he had a good physique and strong resistance, so he managed to get through it.

  Next, the second and third soldiers also passed by. The fourth soldier could not bear it when passing through that muddy pit, plus the hot weather, fainted in the muddy pit. Zhang Fengtian ordered someone to carry away the fainted soldier.

  It was the seventh person, and this person was Li Guoting.

  Li Guoting was bald-headed and wore a military uniform. He was panting heavily from the previous training session, his forehead covered in sweat. Zhang Fengtian didn't let them rest, instead starting the next training session immediately. After Li Guoting finished running through the previous training course, he arrived at the edge of a polluted water pit.

  The foul smell of the sewage made Li Guoting feel a wave of nausea rising from his stomach, surging up to his throat. He gritted his teeth and jumped into the sewage pit. Just as he did, Zhang Fongtian, who was standing on the side directing, suddenly brought over a large, dirty wooden bucket to the edge of the pit. With a loud "splash", he poured the contents of the bucket into the pit, causing a mass of yellowish human excrement to float up to the surface. A foul odor quickly rose from the water's surface. It turned out that it was a bucket of feces.

  "Crawl, crawl. Crawl a bit faster." With the whip in hand, Zhang Fengtian looked at Li Guoting who had jumped into the cesspit and smiled with satisfaction.

  Li Guoting had no choice, at this time, he couldn't argue with the instructor, or else he would be considered disobedient. Lightly, he would be beaten with a board and locked up. Severely, he would be shot dead. No one would risk their own life at this moment. He could only grit his teeth and endure the piercing stench, wading through the polluted water surface with large amounts of feces.

  A mere hundred-meter-long cesspit, to Li Guoting, was like a river in his hometown. He suppressed the vomit that surged up to his mouth and forced himself to cross this stretch of cesspit. As soon as he reached the shore, Li Guoting, covered in feces, began vomiting on the ground, spewing out all the food he had eaten that morning from his stomach.

  "Keep moving forward. Can't stop. Keep moving, damn it, move!" Behind Li Guoting came the bellowing voice of Instructor Zhang Fengtian.

  Li Guoting stood up and turned around. He took a look at Zhang Fengtian, who was already walking over with a whip in his hand.

  "Damn it, why stop? Why not continue training?" As he spoke, Zhang Fengtian raised the whip in his hand and lashed Li Guoting. When he raised the whip again to strike Li Guoting, his arm was caught by Li Guoting's outstretched hand.

  "Director Zhang, why did you hit him?" Li Guoting said.

  "Damn it, I'll beat you, beating is too light, if you don't obey orders. I can shoot you dead." Zhang Fengtian pulled out a handgun from his waist and threatened Li Guoting.

  Li Guoting looked at him and didn't say a word, then continued with the training below.

  At night, they returned to their barracks. Li Guoting and his comrades were all lying on their beds, too tired to get up.

  Everyone was scolding Instructor Zhang. The soldier lying next to Li Guoting said, "Guoting, did you offend Instructor Zhang? I think he's intentionally picking on you during training today."

  Li Guoting thought for a moment and said: "No, I didn't offend him in any way."

  "I think you've offended him. Otherwise, he wouldn't be picking on you specially."

  Another soldier also came over and said to Li Guoting: "Guoting, you're too straightforward. I think, why don't you spend some money, buy two bottles of good wine for Instructor Zhang, and invite him out for a big meal? Guaranteed that afterwards, he won't bother you again."

  "What? Want me to send him wine? Not sending. I, Li Guoting, don't have this habit. Would rather invite the brothers in the class to eat. I, Li Guoting, will absolutely not invite him. I won't fawn on people." Li Guoting said.

  At night when he went to sleep, Li Guoting couldn't fall asleep. He recalled the experiences of coming to the new army for more than a year and felt that he had indeed offended Zhang Fongtian somewhere, making him look at himself with disapproval. Thinking about the recent series of events, it was clear that Zhang Fongtian was picking on him and wanted to harm him.

  "Alright, Instructor Zhang. I, Li Guoting, have no past grievances with you, nor do I have any current resentment towards you. Yet, time and again, you want to harm me. But I, Li Guoting, am not a clay doll that can be easily manipulated. You think you can bully me as you please? Think again! If you want to harm me, just wait and see, I, Li Guoting, will not swallow this bitter pill in silence."