Chapter 4

  Zheng Hui brought me to the scene, and from a distance, I could already hear Liangzi's loud voice. All I saw was Liangzi being held down tightly by several people, while on the other side, one of the men had a bruise on his face and was also being restrained by the surrounding people. I walked up to Liangzi and frowned, saying: "What's going on?"

  Liangzi saw me coming and his eyes lit up. He straightened his uniform and said, "Chief, this bastard cursed at us and said we..."

  I raised my hand to signal him to stop talking, and I said expressionlessly: "Zheng Hui told me this on the road, I already know." I walked over to the other side and said to those people: "Just now, who was scolding? Who was scolding the 53rd team? Come out!" My tone became more and more severe, and everyone knew that I was very angry. The guy with the colorful clothes on the opposite side also adjusted his uniform, looked at me sideways and said: "Who are you? Do you think you're someone? You little soldier, is this how you talk to your superiors?" I took a deep breath and said to him: "Me? I'm your grandfather!" Before I finished speaking, I rushed up to him and punched his stomach. The guy bent over, covering his stomach, and before he could make a sound, I kicked him again with my backpack, knocking him to the ground. I immediately stepped on his face with my foot and said: "I don't care what you say, but you can't talk about the 53rd team. If you have the guts, try guarding for 15 days, trash!" After I finished speaking, I turned around and said to Liangzi and the others: "Let's go back. It's embarrassing, we can't even handle a piece of garbage like this." Liangzi and the others didn't say anything, but their eyes showed a hint of admiration. I walked a few steps before the guy coughed loudly several times and said intermittently: "You... you... who are you?" Without turning my head, I replied: "Tang Ning, soldier of the 53rd team's guard company, 112th division, 27th army."

  The next day, I received a military order that the eight of us had to rush to the Military Region Command immediately. By the time we arrived at the Military Region Command in a small personnel carrier sent by the Military Region, it was already 8 o'clock on the second morning. The eight of us got off the car, adjusted our uniforms, put on our military caps again, looked at each other, and walked into the administrative hall of the Military Region together. In the hall, a lieutenant colonel saw us, came over, we exchanged military greetings, and he asked: "Comrades, are you from the 53rd Regiment of the 112th Division of the 27th Army?"

  "Yes, Comrade Lieutenant Colonel." I replied.

  "Are you Comrade Tong Ning?"

  "That's me."

  "Alright, follow me, the Chief of Staff has been waiting for you for a long time. Be careful! Don't talk on the way."

  "Yes."

  When we took the elevator to the underground, how many meters was it? I don't know, anyway it's very deep. We walked through a corridor and saw many soldiers coming and going in a busy manner, but they didn't look flustered at all. We stopped in front of an office door, and that major comrade turned around and said to me: "Comrade Tang Ning, you go in first. The chief of staff is inside, be careful when talking to the leader." I nodded and walked to the door, knocked on it with my hand, and shouted loudly: "Reporting!" "Come in." A hoarse but authoritative voice came from inside the room. I listened and slowly opened the door, went in, and gently closed the door behind me. Then, I turned around again, walked two steps forward, saluted, and said seriously: "Leader, Tang Ning, a soldier of the 53rd Guard Company of the 112th Regiment of the 27th Army, reporting for duty."

  "Ah, sit down." The Chief of Staff said without raising his head.

  "Yes." I replied. I walked to the edge of a chair and sat down, straightening my back as I began to take in the elderly man before me, likely over 60 years old, wearing reading glasses. His body was sitting very upright, head bowed as he wrote something. The room was quiet, the sound of pen on paper scratching away, very clear. After about five minutes, the leader in front of me still hadn't lifted his head or shown any intention of speaking to me. I couldn't bear it anymore and said: "Leader..."

  "What's wrong? Can't you hold on for just a little while?" The Chief of Staff finally lifted his head to look at me, then took off his glasses and put them on the table. He continued, "You're quite something, aren't you? Just finished fighting and now you're openly beating up your superior." I heard this and my sweat started pouring down, my heart racing out of control. I swallowed hard, suddenly feeling very dry in the mouth, really wanting a drink of water. "Hmph! If it weren't for the fact that only a few of you are left from the 53rd regiment, even if you had achieved great merits, I would still have to discipline you. This is unacceptable! Do you know what your mistake was?"

  "I shouldn't have hit my superior."

  "Really? And then what?"

  "Is that all?" I exclaimed in surprise.

  "What? Can't think of it?"

  "Hmm, this... I thought about it from head to toe and wondered; is that all? Is there anything else?"

  The Chief of Staff looked at me and said loudly, "Fool!" Then he walked in front of me, pointing at me and saying, "You teach trash, you won't come secretly, you won't cause trouble. Clearly knowing that coming openly will not work out well for you, what are you doing?! I really don't know how you survived on the battlefield. Nowadays, war is about brains, not brawn." I listened with my eyes wide open and mouth agape, unsure of what to say.

  "However, your fighting skills are quite good, relieving. I've also been fed up with those soldiers in front, clearly having no experience or skills, yet acting like they're the king of the world. If it weren't for the fact that the vanguard is directly appointed by the Military Commission, I would have kicked them out a long time ago."

  The Chief of Staff shook his head and sighed, then asked me, "What are your plans from now on?" I immediately replied, "I am a screw in the socialist new society, wherever the Party needs me to go..." "Stop, stop, don't talk nonsense, say something practical."

  "No, really no. I just know that I should work hard in the 53rd regiment and live up to the expectations of our leaders."

  "Well, if I say if, let you be the leader of the 53rd regiment, what would you do?"

  "I don't know, I haven't thought about it, sir."

  "Now think, speak as you think."

  "If I were the team leader..."

  That day, I talked with the Chief of Staff for a long time. After finishing, he asked me to go back and wait for the appointment and ordered that the content of the conversation was not allowed to be disclosed. When I went out, he called Zhao Liang in. I waited outside until all the other 7 people came out, then under the leadership of Korean Staff Officer Han, we moved into the military region's guest house.

  Three days later, I received the order from the military region, brought by that Korean staff officer, who also brought a brand new set of military uniforms. On the jacket of the new uniform, I clearly saw two bars and three stars on the shoulder epaulette.

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