Chapter Thirteen

  To be honest, this is the first time in my life that I felt cruel and unbearable, it was when there were still over 400 people left in our training camp.

  Regular training has ended, and some of the brothers with minor flaws have been eliminated. Among the remaining 400 or so people, there is no longer a single weak soldier; they are all top-notch soldiers trained from the original thousand, at least with some solid skills.

  At least, we think so ourselves.

  Before we even had a chance to feel complacent, the instructors started gathering us together with gloomy faces. Then, the instructor stood in front of the team and told us what kind of day tomorrow would be with just two sentences.

  "The training that follows will be beyond your wildest imagination, you bunch of useless soldiers! From today on, if you're crippled during training, it's considered a residual injury; if you die, you'll be hailed as a martyr. Let's begin!"

  Heaven and earth have good conscience...

  Since birth, the impression of the army is that officers and soldiers are brave and strong, and in the end, even the last sweet potato has to be given to the wounded!

  When did you hear that the army can still bully people like this?

  At that time, the complacent mood immediately turned into a nervous and uneasy state, looking around in all directions, fearing tigers in front and wolves behind.

  Then, Huang Ming immediately confirmed all our worries and concerns in our hearts.

  Practice makes perfect, we really have to practice before performing!

  What the heck!

  This word can evoke many meanings.

  What I want to say is the spiritual aspect of it.

  Do you know what mental torture is?

  That's what it means to live in an environment of hostility and indifference, making you occasionally feel a sense of crisis and inexplicable despair.

  I still don't know how those veteran brothers balanced the relationship between taking care of us and them.

  I am not a professional soldier at most I am just an amateur so I don't understand and have no way to write.

  At that time, I really felt like every step was a crisis and everything seemed dangerous.

  Isn't it?

  At night, just when I was so tired that I couldn't let go of Lord Bao's hand, there was an emergency assembly. After a stupid run, we camped on the spot and then grabbed the engineer's shovel to dig a bunker on the frozen hard ground to build an infantry defense line.

  During the day, while eating, suddenly a smoke bomb was thrown into the rice bowl, and then the whole head and face were covered with yellow smoke residue. Holding a gun, ready to react quickly, looking for an attack direction, then defending or counterattacking.

  That's all I can say.

  My nerves were always tense, but those old soldier brothers had this skill, every day they would increase the intensity, making you feel like you're about to go crazy, but just couldn't!

  Let's talk about this exercise!

  Get up early in the morning, hang four large sandbags on your body, put an iron quilt on your back, and walk five kilometers to refresh yourself.

  Everyone knows about sandbags, but few people have heard of iron quilts?

  It's actually simple, just a few steel plates tied together with backpack straps, looking like a decent backpack. But the weight is equivalent to several dozen quilts.

  To put it simply, we old soldiers knew the harshness of iron vests, while new recruits later on had training tools like lead sand backpacks, at least they had something like a machine gun ammunition box as weight.

  That iron quilt was really infuriating at the time!

  The backpack strap was weighed down by the iron quilt, and it could even strangle the strap to the bone.

  It's already choking my chest at dawn, and with four sandbags filled with sand hanging from my thighs and calves, running five kilometers is enough to exhaust even a dead man.

  This is what I need after waking up!

  Don't rush to rest after finishing running, there are still programs behind.

  There is also a refreshing drink.

  As soon as they put down the heavy loads on their bodies, Huang Ming and others immediately shouted to pull people and horses to the hand-to-hand combat training ground. Simple protective gear was worn on the body, half an hour, everyone started practicing!

  They have all gone through regular training and later learned some tricks to defeat each other, and the brothers are really good at it, one is more curious than the other.

  Everyone is thinking about whether the throat lock, groin dig, eye poke, ear root slap, and rib smash learned yesterday are really useful!

  Across from him was a living target, who would say that if they were in his shoes, wouldn't they be itching to think of themselves as Wu Song facing off against the old tiger?

  Half an hour has passed and the head of this fighting target with the highest click-through rate must have been hit by a few blows of Mount Lu's Rising Dragon, Heavenly Horse, and Flowing Star Hammer.

  This is called sobering up.

  Invigorating spleen and opening stomach, activating blood circulation and removing stasis, nourishing yin and tonifying yang, nourishing qi and calming the mind.

  Even a camel's head would be bleached white after such training, wouldn't it?

  The most frightening thing is yet to come.

  The most frightening thing is that there's no end in sight, and I don't know when this torture will finally come to an end!

  Moreover, this is still not something that can be solved by just persevering through it.

  So many training projects, one that can't pass the assessment will be eliminated, and the sense of crisis that is always attached to the body is even more likely to make people anxious and nervous.

  I've already said unclearly how many brothers at midnight suddenly jumped up from bed, foolishly sitting and saying don't eliminate me, don't eliminate me, call me again to make a move, I'll definitely be able to do it...

  They are all vigorous old men, who have been training with their lives on the line for so long. The word "elimination" has the same meaning as "failure", and no one wants to be a failure, slinking away from the training camp in that truck!

  It's like this, still have to let go of half of the brothers!

  This is the army, and it's the most elite part of the army. Not even a slight illness can be tolerated.

  No favoritism or nepotism in training and assessment. Several brothers from military families, with their elderly parents, uncles, aunts all wearing uniforms... but if one project isn't passed, they still have to leave...

  Howling like a wolf and crying out loud, or sitting stupidly like a stone statue on that truck, leave!

  I don't want to write these things.

  Although there are many projects in the later training that can attract attention, make people marvel, and showcase the style of the Chinese Army Special Forces!

  But I still don't want to write.

  Those brothers who left, they have all fought desperately.

  Vomiting blood and practicing lying down, there are projects that really can't be passed, even if it's self-inflicted head-bashing against the wall...

  To prove their strength, to be able to proudly stand in the ranks of China's land-based special forces, **they salute the bright red national flag and military flag.

  In order to be able to take out our skills honed through life-and-death training at the time when our country, our army and our people need them most, and go into battle to kill the enemy!

  They are not losers!

  Never was! Never will be!

  To me, they are real men! They are true heroes!

  It's like a common saying in China goes: as long as you've made an effort, even if you haven't reached the top of the mountain to see the magnificent view, you're still a good fellow.

  My brothers who left the training camp, you didn't climb to the top of the mountain.

  But we, those brothers who stayed in the training camp, will take your eyes to see that scenery!

  Because we are brothers!

  The cavalry uniform I kept was the one issued on the last day of boot camp, that desert camouflage cavalry uniform.

  The military rank and collar badges at that time are still kept.

  Sometimes when family members are rummaging through things, they can dig out the desert camouflage vest and rank insignia from the bottom of my assault pack, and then tell me that these are all old things that should be thrown away. Especially this vest is rotten, keeping it will attract insects.

  I just smiled and said I couldn't throw it away because on that thing there was my blood, my sweat, my soul, and the life of my brother.

  Throw me away, you can't throw away this jacket!

  I still remember when I first put on this armor, many brothers had tears in their eyes but their eyes were still shining with spirit and vigor, majestic and powerful.

  Ten months!

  Ten months ago, we were all a group of foolish kids. We didn't understand anything and just thought about making money, chasing girls, fighting, drinking, without ideals or great ambitions. I guess that's how it would have gone on until we realized what life is all about before the age of thirty, that was just a dream.

  Now, with these two hundred and twenty or so sturdy fellows wearing this armor, who dares to say that we are not men of iron?

  Our instructor became our platoon leader, and the instructor was still the head of the instructor team, or the head of the team. However, our team is really a small team with only about 200 combat personnel, plus more logistical personnel than us.

  That was my first encounter with a pompadour.

  He slowly walked up to the stage with a full breath and shouted at us, his voice was so loud that it made our ears buzz even without using a microphone!

  "Look at the military uniforms on your bodies, look at the military badges on your heads! Once you put on this armor, you have a duty! Think of your fathers and mothers, think of our fellow villagers! Pat your heart and think of their hardships, you will have responsibility! What responsibility? What duty? That is, whoever dares to harm our country, whoever dares to harm our fathers and mothers, harm our fellow villagers, you have the responsibility and duty to go and slaughter those sons of bitches! One day, when our country, our fathers and mothers, our fellow villagers need us to take to the battlefield, what will you do when facing those turtle-egg bastards?"

  The audience below fell silent for a moment, and then there was a thunderous roar!

  "Kill!"

  This is the most concise and impressive speech I have ever heard in my life.

  Those words still echo in my ears and remain in my heart.

  Just like I won't throw away that jacket, it will never be thrown away!

  As more and more large trucks drove into the camp, Brother Kuangming told us that we were about to start moving out. This place was just a temporary training base and we had to go to a new location to continue our drills!

  Many brothers heard that after the training camp had a fixed place, it would no longer be used, and everyone felt a little reluctant to leave.

  This place is still a mess, but the brothers have been here for ten months and these ten months can be said to have changed many lives. Many of the younger brothers who came from all over the country and would not have met in this lifetime if they had not joined the army became sworn brothers who shared life and death in this base. This base is the starting point for our group of young men who have just put on their uniforms and taken their first step out of the military camp!

  But this base is about to be permanently abandoned, so brothers started searching for their own souvenirs.

  Some took away a spiral steel thorn from an iron wire mesh, some unscrewed the screws on their own installed alarm triggers, and others simply cut off a small section of steel pipe from their high-low bed where they had slept for ten months with a multi-tool board.

  Everyone took something away with them.

  The things we took away have our sweat, our blood, our clenched teeth persistence, our momentary hesitation and retreat in secret, the oath we faced with the military flag, and the entrustment and expectation of those brothers who did not finally pass the elimination.

  They also left something behind.

  Some left their photos, some left a small ornament brought from home, some left half of their broken fingernails, and some left notes with only a few words written on them.

  On the things left behind, I dare say there is everything.

  Timid, inferior, arrogant, hypocritical...

  Almost all the negative emotions of people from all over the world are deeply buried in this abandoned base in Xinjiang.

  And our ten years of youth.

  It seems like everyone set off after everything was ready.

  Traveling on Xinjiang's roads, it is often the case that you won't see a single person for hundreds of kilometers. For two days, we even counted the number of times our car convoy passed other vehicles.

  The two words "desolate" and "vast" have been perfectly interpreted on the land of Xinjiang.

  So when everyone on the road saw a dog, all the people in the car opened their mouths and shouted loudly.

  How strange!

  Thousands of kilometers without a soul in sight, how could there be a dog appearing on this desolate road?

  The old soldier driving the car probably saw it too, and slowly stopped the car, sticking his head out to shout at the brothers in the car: "You bunch of young whippersnappers, get down one by one and bring that dog up here!"

  We rushed down to the car and that big guy with a wide face asked politely, "Class leader, are you going to eat dog meat?" I knew there was a brother from Sichuan's Huajiang who roasted dog meat, which is a specialty.

  That old soldier glanced at Jiang Kuan and said, "You damn fool, you only know how to eat, what else do you know? In this vast area of thousands of miles, people are scarce, if we don't take care of this dog, it won't survive. In Xinjiang, no matter what lives here, it's not easy to survive, even a dog is a life, so let's save it if we can!"

  It's strange to say, but the dog didn't need us to catch it, it just ran over by itself and stood at the back of the carriage, wagging its tail and sticking out its tongue, as if waiting for us to pick it up and get on the train.

  Took this dog along.

  Maybe you think it's strange that I've written so much about a dog?

  All I can say is that this dog deserves me writing about it and doing a good job of it because it saved the lives of a patrol.

  But that's a story for later.