Chapter Thirty-two Arrival at the First Battalion of Artillery

  After getting off the train, the students of Class 14 were divided into two large groups according to their original grouping and boarded two trucks that came to pick them up. Qu Mingjun and his group were on one of the trucks, curiously looking at this unfamiliar county town.

  The first impression is that this county town is really small, and it seems to be not much larger than the Shimen Academy. There are only two streets, one horizontal and one vertical. The second impression is that this county town is really poor, with the tallest building being only four stories high.

  The truck slowly drove through the county town, passing through vast farmland, before finally arriving at the division where Qu Mingjun and his comrades were headed. The division headquarters building was quite well-built, with six floors and exterior ceramic tiles; by the standards of the county town, this division headquarters should also be one of the top buildings in the area.

  It was unclear who had arranged it, but the warriors in the team had already lined up at the door to respond. After the convoy entered the courtyard, the sound of gongs and drums rang out, and the enthusiastic applause on both sides also rang out. Qu Mingjun and his companions were excitedly sizing up the warriors under the car, knowing in their hearts that these would be the comrades with whom they would spend a month together.

  Disembark, form up, report.

  After the routine procedure, Captain Yan Weidong tightly held the team leader who came to greet him. The two warmly chatted and soon Yan asked the team leader to say a few words to everyone.

  "Welcome to our battalion, I hope you can bring the good style of military school to our company, and also hope that you can gain something here." The battalion commander was quite short, but his words were concise and powerful, with a loud voice.

  Then Qu Mingjun and others were assigned to each company by the team leader according to the list. Qu Mingjun was assigned alone to the 1st Battalion's machine gun company. The several squad leaders who came to greet him almost snatched away Qu Mingjun's backpack, with a smile on their faces, and took Qu Mingjun to the machine gun company.

  "Report!" Qu Mingjun followed a squad leader into the company's office.

  "Oh, you must be the intern who's here to practice." The company commander in front of Qu Mingjun was holding a cup of water, lounging lazily on a stool, with two buttons at the top of his uniform unbuttoned. He didn't even acknowledge Qu Mingjun's salute, giving Qu Mingjun a very bad first impression.

  "Yes!" Qu Mingjun said with a serious expression.

  "Alright, you're scheduled for the third shift at 8 o'clock." Squadron leader Li Liman waved his hand carelessly.

  "Who's that? Fa Zi, come here!" Li Li looked out at the open door and called out to a passing soldier. "Go get Squad Leader Ba for me."

  That soldier named Fa Zi actually smiled and came in, then left like that without even a salute. Qu Ming Jun was stunned, what kind of squad is this?

  A corporal came running over in a moment, shouted a report, then entered the door and stood at attention.

  "You're full of problems!" Li Li didn't even return the greeting, and instead criticized the eighth squad leader, "This is a trainee who's been here since this year. Uh, what's your name?"

  Qu Mingjun glared at him even more, but as a newcomer, he could only hold back his temper and said, "Qu Mingjun!"

  "Oh, Qu Mingjun. This is Class 8's monitor Ding Qiang. I told Ding Qiang and he arranged for him to be in your class."

  "Hello!" Ding Qiang's face broke into a kind smile as he extended his right hand to Qu Mingjun. Ding Qiang was about the same height as Qu Mingjun, with a round face and small eyes that were not particularly impressive but memorable due to his large ears.

  Due to Ding Qiang's good performance and style just now, Qu Mingjun also had a good impression of him. He hastily stretched out his hand and grasped it, saying: "Hello!"

  Ding Qiang smiled and picked up the backpack on the ground, said goodbye to Lian Chang and took Qu Mingjun out.

  "Hasn't been here before, right?" Ding Qiang said as he went upstairs and chatted with Qu Mingjun.

  Qu Mingjun was stunned for a moment before reacting, realizing that Ding Qiang was calling him the leader of the team. He felt a bit embarrassed in his heart, what kind of team leader was he? He was just a trainee with a red tag.

  "Uh-huh, never been here." Qu Mingjun nodded.

  "I said line up..."

  Before Ding Qiang finished speaking, Qu Mingjun hastily opened his mouth: "Ding class leader, don't call me platoon leader, I'm just a trainee, came down for internship. Not some platoon leader."

  "Hey, you guys are always lined up for graduation, morning and night. We call it that here." Ding Qiang explained with a smile.

  Two people were talking and walked into the eighth squad. Today is the weekend, there are not many people in the class, some read books, some wrote letters, and several old soldiers smoked and chatted on one side. Seeing the squad leader bring a red card student in, several new recruits "ding" stood up, while the old soldiers took a glance and continued to do their own thing.

  Ding Qiang didn't think much of it and smiled as he said to the class, "This is Qu Mingjun, the head of the music department, who has been assigned to our class for internship this year. Everyone, let's welcome him."

  Although Ding Qiang was only a second-class soldier, it seemed that Ding Qiang had a good reputation in the class. The new recruits applauded enthusiastically, and several old soldiers who were sitting still also started to applaud lazily.

  Qu Mingjun hastily bowed to the class.

  Then the two new recruits came over under Ding Qiang's gaze and took over the luggage, laying it out on a lower bunk by the window. Qu Ming Jun thought of going up to make his own bed but was pulled back by Ding Qiang.

  "Let them be." Ding Qiang smiled and said to Qu Mingjun: "Originally, this was the third row of our long-term stalls, but he went to school. It's been half a year, and this stall has been empty all along, just in time for your arrival."

  Qū Míng Jùn looked out the window, outside were lush green trees, sunlight filtering through the leaves onto the clothes drying area in front of the building. Although it was midsummer, this place after all was Inner Mongolia, the temperature was much better than Shimen, at least it didn't feel sweltering and unbearable. This dormitory really wasn't bad, looking like it was also the best one in the class.

  Qu Mingjun swept a glance over the eighth class that was going to be held for a month, and the atmosphere in the class seemed to be very quiet because of the arrival of outsiders. The three chatting old soldiers also lowered their voices a lot, and it was unknown what they were talking about. Three new recruits with a wooden expression read books, wrote letters.

  Only seven people? Qu Mingjun was somewhat puzzled.

  "Are you going to take a shower?" Ding Qiang walked over and asked enthusiastically.

  Qu Mingjun took everything out and arranged it according to the layout of the dormitory, then picked up his toiletries and went to the washroom, with a new recruit still following him.

  "No need, really no need." Qu Mingjun saw the new recruit wanting to pour hot water for him and quickly declined.

  Anyway it was Sunday and there was nothing much to do. Qu Mingjun finished packing up his things by noon, so he followed Lian inside to eat their first meal here.

  All the warriors in the company stood solemnly in front of the table, and the deputy captain of the eighth class and another old soldier also returned. Qu Mingjun stood beside him at Ding Qiang's suggestion. The company commander was talking to a running warrior outside the cafeteria door, and the whole company was waiting like this.

  In a little while, Li Li strode in, shouting at the soldier standing at the entrance of the cafeteria: "Get out of my sight! Tell him that my soldiers are not here to do hard labor for them. If he doesn't go, I won't go either. If he has the guts, let him remove me as the company commander." The soldier's face turned red and he quickly ran away.

  "Alright, sit down and eat!" Li Li still had that careless look on his face. As soon as he entered the door, he saw the duty officer running over to report and waved his hand dismissively.

  "Sit!" The officer on duty blew his whistle.

  Li Li walked up to Lian's desk and was about to sit down when he saw Qu Mingjun. He hesitated for a moment, stretched out his hand and pointed at Qu Mingjun, calling out: "Hey, what's-his-name, Qu, Qu something or other! Come over here and eat."

  The table in the company commander's office had only him, one company commander and two lieutenant platoon leaders, as well as two soldiers who looked like clerks and communicators, and there were indeed fewer people than at the squad leader's table.

  Ding Qiang quickly had the new recruits next to him pick up Qu Mingjun's bowl, chopsticks and other things and arrange them over there. Qu Mingjun didn't have a good impression of Li Li and didn't want to go, but he couldn't afford to lose face in front of everyone. At least being called over to eat at the company commander's table was a kind of treatment for cadres.

  Qu Mingjun walked over and sat down, greeting Li Li and two platoon leaders.

  There were four dishes on the table in the connected room, but because there were fewer people, it seemed that everyone could eat a bit more.

  "What are you staring at? Eat! Put down your chopsticks." Li Li casually waved his own chopsticks up and down.

  Qu Mingjun stared at Li Lihuo in amazement as he wolfed down two big bowls of rice and almost finished half the dishes on the table by himself. This guy didn't look fat, how could he eat so much?

  After finishing his meal, Li Li wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, rubbed his hands together and said, "You guys eat, eat." Then he stood up and left.

  A young lieutenant on the side smiled and said to Qu Mingjun, "It's nothing, our company commander is always like this, you'll get used to it after a long time, eat quickly."

  After dinner, Qu Mingjun returned to the class and chatted with Ding Qiang for a while before roughly understanding some situations of this regiment and company. The regiment was known as the Red Army Regiment, which had experienced the Long March, the War of Resistance against Japan, the Liberation War, the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, and the two mountain battles in the late stage of the Sino-Vietnamese War, and could be said to have achieved great military exploits and a reputation that spread far and wide.

  A machine gun company belongs to a regiment, and the three platoons are divided into one heavy machine gun platoon, two heavy machine gun platoons, and three anti-tank recoilless cannon platoons, mainly based on their weapon equipment.

  This company was originally dispersed and assigned to various infantry companies during the war, mainly used to strengthen the heavy firepower of the infantry companies, so it has always been inconspicuous. However, since Li Li came, it seems that things have changed. Whether in individual military quality or professional military quality, the machine gun company is quietly taking the lead in the whole regiment.

  With Li Li's moral character, can he still lead troops? Qu Mingjun looked at Ding Qiang's lavish praise of Li Li with some confusion.

  At nightfall, Qu Mingjun was introduced to all the cadres and soldiers of the artillery company by Li Li in a simple manner that couldn't be simpler, thus passing Qu Mingjun's first day in the 1st Battalion Artillery Company.

  On Monday morning, Qu Mingjun was woken up by the rustling sounds in the dormitory. He sat up and saw that several new recruits were already folding their quilts. It wasn't even six o'clock yet! The old soldiers were still sleeping soundly. How strange! However, seeing the struggling expressions on the new recruits' faces, Qu Mingjun somewhat understood - they weren't doing a good job of folding their quilts, and getting up early would give them more time to tidy up their bedding.

  It's still quite cool at night in Inner Mongolia, and a towel is enough to cover yourself when sleeping in Shimen at this time. However, you need to use a quilt here. Qu Mingjun was not used to this place for the first time, slept poorly, but now he woke up and sat up without going back to sleep.

  Morning exercise and meals, everything is almost the same as in military school.

  After breakfast, a mechanized artillery company took advantage of the morning coolness to conduct routine equipment training.

  They were doing single-bar exercises, and several old soldiers went up and down easily. The new recruits had a hard time, but with Ding Qiang's help and encouragement, they managed to do it.

  The old soldiers exchanged a glance as they saw that several new recruits were about to finish.

  "Come on, one by one! Come on!" A group of old soldiers actually started cheering, with cunning glints in their eyes.

  Is this what Guo Xiangyang and Cui Ze meant by "a warning shot before dismounting"?

  "Come on then!" Qu Mingjun's competitive spirit was stirred up again.

  Pulling up, rolling up, hanging legs up, riding forward and backward circles, bar rotation... Qu Mingjun pressed down without getting off the bar, and effortlessly completed the single bar exercise from one to five in one breath. After coming down, his face was not red or panting, and his movements were as standard as a textbook, which was more standard than the previous old soldiers' movements. This immediately won the enthusiastic applause of all the soldiers in the eighth class.

  "Line up and smoke!" During class breaks, several old soldiers came over voluntarily.

  "No need to be polite, I won't." Qu Mingjun smiled and looked like what Guo Xiangyang and the others had said - he must bring out his skills to shock the old soldiers, otherwise he would just wait for them to look down on him.

  Just as they were chatting, several old soldiers suddenly shouted from over there: "Company commander, come and have one! Company commander, come and have one!"