Chapter 20: Even This Can't Kill Him

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  The three-month spring training has ended, and the company began to send each soldier to various intensive training teams for further training based on their specialties. Of course, this is a targeted effort, and only top performers can get such an opportunity. Zhang Peng will definitely not have such an opportunity because he is just a "new recruit".

  But this didn't deter Zhang Peng. After inquiring from all sides, when he learned that the reconnaissance shooting training was being held at their camp and the head of the training team was Wang Yinglong, he pestered 'Mushroom' for several days to let him participate in the training. Wang Yinglong was annoyed and had no choice but to secretly ask for instructions from the old captain, and only after getting permission did he allow Zhang Peng, a recruit who had never fired a shot, to become an "observer" in the training team.

  The training team's residence was in an old warehouse on the shooting range, and the reconnaissance camp students were 'local snakes'. It was their duty to do a good job of receiving them before other students arrived, sweeping the dormitory clean, propping up the bed boards with bricks, pulling tight the mosquito net ropes... and so on. A few days later, the training students from each division, regiment, and army reconnaissance company reported to the reconnaissance camp one after another, totaling fifty people, divided into three platoons by unit: First Division, Second Division, and Army Direct, with instructors from the Army Shooting Team serving as platoon leaders.

  The day after everyone arrived, a simple opening ceremony was held and the training began. The first stage was instructor Sun of the training team explaining shooting theory, "Shooting Science" and "Ballistics".

  The first two days, a group of soldiers who were used to moving around were locked in a room learning theory, and they could still bear it. On the third day, the soldiers' buttocks began to 'grow ulcers' and they couldn't sit still, plus their cultural level was not high, so they had a hard time learning and strange things started happening.

  "We came here to learn how to shoot, but every day we can't even see a gun. We're stuck with two books all day long. If I knew it was going to be like this, I wouldn't have come!" A recruit from the third row complained.

  "Yes, yes, just add some water and hair will grow on your body!" said another dissatisfied one.

  "Let's get active!" The classroom was in disarray.

  Maybe it's because Zhang Peng has been attending classes all day, he doesn't think it's boring, but instead thinks that Teacher Sun's lectures are not bad, and the profound things he says in his mouth come out straightforward and easy to understand, making people very receptive.

  "Want to be active? Good! Qin Yongli, go find the captain and get a handgun with live ammunition!" Instructor Sun didn't get angry, instead he let Qin Yongli, who was shouting the loudest, go find the gun.

  "Everyone gather outside!" Instructor Sun commanded again.

  The team quickly assembled, Qin Yongli took a 'May 4th' pistol and a magazine to give to Sun instructor.

  With a "click" sound, Instructor Sun loaded the magazine, chambered a round, and pointed the gun at Qin Yongli's back as he turned to leave.

  "Qin Yongli, now you turn around and I'll shoot. Can you dodge it?" asked Sun instructor seriously.

  "I...I won't be able to escape!" Qin Yongli was frightened out of his wits, stuttering as he spoke. The other trainees nearby were also stunned by Instructor Sun's actions, and they couldn't help but grumble: "Just a few complaints and you're going to be executed?"

  "You can't escape, so you might as well shoot me!" Instructor Sun said, handing his pistol over to Qin Yongli.

  Qin Yongli shrank his hand and didn't dare take the gun, standing there with a pale face, unsure of what to do.

  "Where's the bravery from just now? Hold your gun well!" Instructor Sun stuffed the gun into Qin Yongli's hand, took a step back, and stood facing the shooting range. "Come on, I won't make you pay with your life if you miss me!"

  Qin Yongli took a few deep breaths, wiped the cold sweat from his forehead, steeled himself, and stepped forward to press the muzzle of the gun against Sun's back. Everyone's heart was in their throat, as if they could hear each other's pounding heartbeat.

  "As soon as I move, you can fire, got it?" Instructor Sun said to Qin Yongli who was ready.

  "Understood!" Qin Yongli replied loudly, tightening his grip on the gun in his hand.

  Bang! A gunshot rang out, Zhang Peng was startled and closed his eyes for a moment. When he opened them again, there was no bloody scene, but the gun had returned to Sun's hand, and Qin Yonglie was lying on the ground.

  "Do you understand what's going on?" asked Teacher Sun.

  "We don't understand!" Everyone woke up from their shock and replied in unison to Sun's question.

  "I don't understand. From now on, listen carefully in class. Fifty push-ups for each of you, and then we'll start the lesson!" Instructor Sun turned around and entered the classroom.

  "How did he dodge?" Everyone surrounded Qin Yongli who had climbed up.

  "I don't know how he dodged it!" Qin Yongli said with a dejected tone. Yeah, Zhang Peng also couldn't figure out how Sun Jiao managed to dodge the gun pressed against his back under everyone's noses.

  After the class was over, Teacher Sun finally revealed the answer to everyone. It turns out that the mystery lies in the fact that before your brain sends a command to your fingers to pull the trigger, he has already turned around. If you are right-handed, he will turn to the left side, and when he turns around, he will suddenly grab your throat with his right hand!

  Everyone finished doing push-ups and returned to the classroom like a well-behaved rabbit, and in the following days of theoretical classes, no one dared to 'break wind' again.

  Next was another week of gun training, which consisted of: one look (to see if the shooter's body and gun were in a straight line); two touches (to check if the gun butt was firmly pressed into the shoulder pit, and if the chest and abdomen and both elbows formed a stable triangle); three lifts (suddenly lifting the rifle barrel up to test the shooter's stability when withstanding the upward recoil force); four pushes (using the right hand to push the rifle's sight seat back and forth to test the shooter's stability when withstanding the backward recoil force); five asks (asking the shooter about their feelings). Zhang Peng had practiced all of these before, but he still hadn't let go of his gun, let alone gained any insight.

  The dull and tasteless gun training has ended, and live ammunition shooting will be conducted tomorrow. After several days of rain, mosquitoes have multiplied, and the soldiers have retreated into their mosquito nets to avoid 'air raids' and hold night talks.

  Zhang Peng lay in bed listening to the old soldiers bragging, although they were all from the same army, once here they became "our division", "your division", and split up. The soldiers who came out didn't want to lose face for their old unit, so they competed with each other, talking and arguing until they brought up the "fireworks flavor". It seemed that last time during the collective training assessment, the Second Division won against the First Division, but the First Division wasn't convinced, and they quarreled endlessly until the lights-out signal was sounded.

  The next day, the captain gave a briefing on the precautions, and each trainee received five clips (each with 10 rounds), taking turns to shoot at the target. Zhang Peng was left alone in one corner, but fortunately, Captain Wang had not forgotten him, and finally led him to the farthest target, giving him a clip and telling him that he would only get 10 rounds for the day, also reminding him of safety precautions before organizing the training.

  At this time, the sound of gunfire came, and the students next to him had already started shooting. Zhang Peng quickly lay down, loaded bullets, cocked the gun, adjusted his shooting posture, opened the safety catch, and aimed at the target in front of him with three points in a line. The white bullseye of the chest ring target 100 meters away was clearly visible. Zhang Peng took a deep breath, calming his excited mood. "5, 4, 3, 2, 1!" He silently recited in his mind, just like during training. His right index finger slowly pressed over the trigger, and at the moment when the sight aligned with the bullseye, Zhang Peng decisively pulled the trigger. With a loud bang, his shoulder shook, smoke rose, and he fired his first bullet in life.

  After Zhang Peng fired five shots, he took advantage of the interval between the students' shifts to run to the front of the target to check the results (no one was scoring for him). Fortunately, all five shots hit the target, with three 8-rings and two 6-rings. "Damn it, not even as accurate as a slingshot!" Zhang Peng cursed silently.

  Zhang Peng only had 5 bullets left and didn't dare to shoot quickly anymore, every shot had to be certain before he fired, the remaining bullets lasted for a whole day.

  Zhang Peng took back his own target paper, cut off the outer edge without bullet holes, and drew a thick red dot in the middle of the bullseye as the aiming point for the next day's practice. For several days, the target paper was getting smaller and smaller after cutting. Zhang Peng became a marginal person in the training team, people regarded him as a child who just wanted to satisfy his curiosity about guns, giving him a few bullets every day to "play" with, except for a few students from the reconnaissance camp who asked him a few questions in a light tone, no one cared about his shooting score.

  Today is the last day of prone position fixed target shooting training, it was a good day at first, but then a strong gust of wind blew by, dark clouds gathered, blocking out the sun, the sky turned black like a pot, and it looked like a heavy rain was coming. The trainees on the firing line quickly finished the bullets in their guns and took shelter under the canopy beside the firing line to avoid the rain.

  Zhang Peng still had 6 bullets left, he lay motionless, maintaining the standard shooting posture. A flash of lightning and thunder, the rain started pouring down, Zhang Peng's sight was a white blur, the red dot on the target appeared and disappeared, suddenly, a strong gust of wind blew by, the target fell forward, just at this moment, Zhang Peng's gun fired, the falling target seemed to be supported, stood still, the target jumped continuously with the rhythmic gunfire, after the six shots faded away, the target finally fell to the ground.

  The sudden gunshot in the wind and rain was ear-piercing, attracting the attention of several instructors and everyone else. Zhang Peng ran to the sun shelter, drenched from head to toe, before people came back to their senses.

  "Zhang Peng, go get the target back!" An instructor told Zhang Peng, he had no choice but to wipe the rain off his face and rush back into the heavy rain to retrieve the target.

  Zhang Peng handed the target to the instructor, and took off his wet shirt to wring it out on one side. An instructor took over the target, several people gathered around, and were shocked to see that all the bullet holes were evenly distributed around the red dot in the center of the target.

  "Zhang Peng, could you see clearly just now when it was raining?" the captain asked.

  Zhang Peng hastily put on his still dripping clothes and stood at attention to answer: "Report, at first I could still see, but later the target was about to fall, no time to aim, had to rely on feeling to shoot!"

  "How many shots did you fire?" an instructor asked.

  "Ten shots, I only have ten bullets." Zhang Peng said, the captain counted and found exactly ten bullet holes. Several instructors looked at each other in shock.