Chapter 72 of Volume I: The Downfall of Yuebing Village

  In early April, it should have been the time for the earth to warm up and the spring breeze to blow, but on the first night after arriving at Yingbing Village, the capital's weather gave Qu Mingjun and his team a real baptism.

  "What the f**k, how can he sleep at all?" At half past one in the middle of the night, Cui Ze suddenly sat up with his quilt.

  All the brothers in the house didn't sleep, all of them were shivering. Everyone is now wearing sweaters and woolen pants, wrapped in quilts, with coats on top of the quilts, but still can't feel a bit warm. After all, the soldiers are sleeping in simple houses made of thin composite boards and other materials, which cannot withstand the cold wind outside at all.

  Qu Mingjun was also shivering, he and Wang Jin were both southerners, originally they always thought the northern weather was too dry and cold. But in the dormitory of Shimen Luyuan, although it felt very cold outside, as soon as they entered the room, it immediately became warm like spring. In fact, Qu Mingjun thought that the northern winter was better than the southern winter, especially when there was no air conditioning in the south, the houses in the south were much colder than those with heating in the north.

  Wang Jin "got got got" his upper and lower teeth chattering nonstop, but he didn't have the courage of Cui Ze to sit up, wouldn't that make him even colder? He could only try hard to move his body further away from the wall.

  "It's going to freeze people to death at this rate, let alone daytime training. What can we do?" sighed Qu Mingjun.

  "Are you guys all feeling cold?" Feng Shaojun put on his clothes, got out of bed, turned on the flashlight and asked while standing inside the dorm.

  "Uh-huh."

  "Yes."

  "Damn it, can't take it anymore. How can this dog day be so cold?" said Cui Ze.

  A voice of approval, Feng Shaojun shook his head after hearing Cui Ze's last words, "You still have the face to shout, the skills learned by the troops are all eaten into the dog's belly?"

  "Huh?" Choe Jae paused for a moment.

  "Stop nagging, hurry up, two people in a group, head and feet upside down. Let's set an example for the brothers." Feng Shaojun said impatiently.

  Chui Ze's face suddenly lit up with realization, and he immediately jumped down, but forgot to put on his coat and shivered in the middle of the room. He was so scared that he quickly grabbed all his bedding and ran to Feng Shaojun's bed.

  "Everyone, look! Two layers of quilts, two layers of blankets, and two layers of coats." Feng Shaojun looked at Cui Ze who was crawling into the quilt with all his might and smiled wryly. "When everyone sleeps, they take off their woolen sweaters and pants and put them on the quilt too. They only wear autumn clothes and autumn pants on their bodies. Then two people sleep together, one head to one foot, and when sleeping, they hug each other's feet in their arms, so it won't be cold."

  After finishing, Feng Shaojun also took off his clothes and got into a quilt with Cui Ze. Then the two people hugged each other's feet, one head on each side. At this time, Cui Ze finally sighed, "Damn it, I'm finally comfortable."

  At this time, other parade team members who were still watching, especially Qu Mingjun and Wang Mi, were still a bit hesitant.

  Feng Shaojun looked impatient and scolded, "Do you want to sleep or not? If you want to sleep, do it our way. Two people per bunk, hurry up."

  "This is comfortable!" Cui Ze chimed in, "Alright, hurry up, you guys. This is a trick for our troops to camp outdoors in cold conditions. Originally, when we were in the wilderness, it was too cold, and sleeping like this can guarantee body heat. I didn't think of it at first, since we're still in a house after all, but the temperature is almost the same. Thanks to Old Feng's reminder, hurry up! If you drag on any longer, day will break soon."

  Wang Jin hesitantly took down the quilt and made a double-layered thick quilt with Qu Mingjun. However, they still felt that wearing autumn clothes was not warm enough, so they wore woolen sweaters and woolen pants to sleep together.

  It feels a bit better, but it's still not great. The two of them are puzzled as to why Feng Shaojun and Cui Ze seem so comfortable.

  Feng Shaojun looked at everyone who had fallen asleep, after all, he was the dormitory leader of this dormitory arranged by the military parade team. He got up again and put on his coat to start checking. As soon as he stood up, it wasn't tight, and Cui Ze was frozen for a moment, making this kid cry bitterly.

  Feng Shaojun walked over to Qu Mingjun and the others, who were lying down, and checked them out. He was immediately stunned, "How come your quilts are cold?"

  "I don't know?" Qu Mingjun and Wang Jin also found it strange, two quilts should be warmer, but it's almost the same as when one person is sleeping.

  Feng Shaojun patted Qu Mingjun and Wang Jin on the body, shook his head and scolded: "Didn't I say to take off all the woolen sweaters and pants, only wearing autumn clothes? Why are you two still wearing woolen sweaters?"

  "Huh? Isn't it warmer this way?" Wang Jin was stunned.

  "Nonsense, why do I have to emphasize that you take off your sweaters and pants?" Feng Shaojun said irritably. "Hurry up, the quilt is warm because of the body heat of this person. You two are wearing sweaters and pants, the heat can't come out, and the quilt will be warm? Don't be ridiculous."

  After hearing this, Qu Mingjun and Wang Jin quickly took off their sweaters and pants, covered themselves with the quilt, and indeed, after a while, they felt warmer under the quilt and their bodies didn't feel so miserable.

  In this way, a whole house of people got through their first night after arriving in the capital.

  As everyone had just arrived, there were no activities arranged for the second morning. These days were spent in arranging and organizing, establishing order. It was just that one morning when getting out of bed, Cui Ze discovered that the little water he had left in the washbasin the night before had actually frozen into an ice block, causing everyone to be shocked and amazed.

  Soon, before the superiors came up with a better solution, the Shi Men Lu Yuan's parade team promoted Feng Shaojun's method of camping outdoors in cold conditions, effectively guaranteeing everyone's sleep problem when they first arrived in the capital.

  Fortunately, it was early April after all, and the weather was getting warmer day by day. Before long, Qu Mingjun and his comrades no longer had to live in a cramped life of two people squeezing into one quilt. They restored normal order and fought hard on the airport runway for parade training every day.

  At the same time, the command center of the infantry parade teams in Shaheying Village began to assess and inspect each team. On April 23rd, all the parade teams conducted a joint rehearsal.

  "Tomorrow's joint exercise is both an inspection and assessment by our superiors, as well as a competition among the seventeen troops of us who are not competing." On the evening of April 22nd, before the end of the drill, the eyes of Shi Men Lu Institute's parade team leader were slightly red, with a big blister at the corner of his mouth. It seems that he has been working overtime these days.

  "Here, we must bring out all our abilities and qualities to show our superiors as well as brother units the prestige of China's West Point. I have confidence in you, do you? Do you have confidence?" The last sentence was shouted by the commander of the troops.

  A team of nearly four hundred people shouted out the strongest note.

  "Alright, let's head back and get ready for dinner. The four comrades who participated in the team leader training, stay behind."

  Fan Shaoxiao, Qu Mingjun and two other instructors who also participated in the team leader training stayed behind.

  "I asked you four to stay behind because I wanted to ask for your own opinions. Which of the two comrades do you think is more suitable to be in charge tomorrow?" The parade commander asked warmly.

  Because Qu Mingjun and the other three team leaders trained separately, among the four people present, three were instructors themselves. Except for Qu Mingjun who was always supervised by Fan Shao, the training of the other three had no one to supervise and manage them, so in their daily training, they would randomly select one of the three instructors to be the coach.

  Four people looked at each other, no one spoke for a moment. Tomorrow's joint exercise is both an opportunity to show off their skills and a very heavy responsibility, so before thinking it through carefully, they temporarily didn't want to express their own opinions.

  "I recommend Qu Mingjun as one." Fan Shao thought for a moment before speaking up first.

  "Why?" The commander of the guard of honor looked at Fan Shaobo with a hint of a smile, while Qu Mingjun was tongue-tied on the side, feeling both moved and somewhat apprehensive.

  "These days of training, the four of us have a good grasp in our hearts, and there is not too much difference between each other. Especially Qu Mingjun, as a trainee participating in the team leader training, it's extremely rare to reach this level now. We initially thought that if he could keep up with our movements, it would be fine, but unexpectedly, he has made rapid progress, and now there is even a hint of surpassing us." Captain Fan smiled, and the two instructors beside him nodded silently in agreement.

  "And his image is very good." Captain Fan smiled and gestured to himself, "This young man is tall and handsome, with a model-like inverted triangle physique. His face is also handsome and charming, and he can represent the image of our Shimen Academy when he goes out. In any case, it's much better than my melon face."

  As soon as this sentence came out, several leaders of the troops and other instructors present at the scene couldn't help but burst into laughter.

  "I agree." "I also agree." The other two instructors expressed their views as well.

  Qu Mingjun was at a loss for words, stunned for a while. Except for him, the only red card in the room, all the leaders were shining with silver stars, how dare he stand up and say something casually.

  "Hmm, Qu Mingjun counts as one, what about the other?" The commander of the inspection team nodded in approval.

  "I think it's still Old Huan." Before Captain Huan could speak up, another instructor had already brought it up.

  "Why?" The commander of the guard also needs a reason.

  "Lao Fan's team movements are all counted in everyone's heart, and although he is not a drill instructor by training, his marching is much more stable and accurate than ours, especially the size of his stride, which is almost as precise as if measured with a ruler. Yesterday when we were chatting, we also said that..."

  "Let's draw the pace line on the ground, no need to measure with a ruler, Old Hua can get it out just by walking through it once." One of the instructors said in one breath, "And that little trick was also taught by Old Hua. The tacit understanding between the two of them is very good, at least much better than our two working with Little Qu. And the two team leaders need this kind of tacit understanding when commanding the team's movement. Considering all this, I think Old Hua is more suitable."

  "I agree." Another instructor nodded in agreement.

  This is the soldier of our Chinese People's Liberation Army, who can make choices in front of all interests and temptations, and the task goal will always be the driving force. It is precisely because of this selfless spirit that our army can emerge one after another heroes. There are Zhang Side who silently burned charcoal, Wang Cheng who shouted "Fire at me", Qiu Shaoyun who lived forever in the flames, and Dong Cunrui who bravely held the explosive pack.

  They will forever be the backbone of this nation.