The Red Era: Living in Seclusion in a Siheyuan as a Boss

Chapter 529: First time on the battlefield!!!

After finishing their last hot meal, Hu Aiguo and his trainee company from the Army Academy began to go to the battlefield.

Before setting off, Hu Aiguo and his comrades placed all the military uniforms, quilts, books, daily necessities they brought from the military academy at the military supply station.

Experienced veterans told them that they only needed to bring some trousers, vests and medicines with them to the battlefield, as they would not be able to go up with too many things.

But Hu Aiguo was given a special task: to bring a radio to the company.

The trench leading to the position is more than one meter wide. Due to the year-round rain in the tropical rainforest, there is a lot of water in the passage.

All the people who had to transport the wounded and martyrs and deliver ammunition and supplies to the battlefield had to pass through here, and the ditch was smelly and slippery.

It's okay if you're going uphill, but you have to be careful when going downhill, as you may fall if you're not careful.

The veterans who came down also told Hu Aiguo and his men to follow the footprints of those in front of them and never leave the route to avoid stepping on landmines.

As Hu Aiguo and his companions were walking, they suddenly heard gunshots.

The enemy on the opposite side discovered them!

"Da da da..." Bullets hit the edges of the pit around Hu Aiguo violently, making a "bang bang" sound.

The veteran leading the way shouted to them, "There is a hundred-meter life-and-death line ahead! Increase the distance and pass quickly!"

Hearing the gunshots and shouts, the students were startled and ran as fast as they could.

The slope was steep and the road was slippery, and as a result many people fell down.

Following behind Hu Aiguo was Li Yunpeng, who used to be a student at a sports school and majored in football, so he was quite nimble on his feet.

But he kept falling, now with a "thump" and now with a "thump".

Sometimes, when Hu Aiguo was slowly going downhill in front of me, Li Yunpeng would suddenly fly over his head and come in front of me.

Hu Aiguo asked: "What's going on?"

Li Yunpeng said, "I'm sorry, Lao Hu, there's nothing I can do! There are minefields on both sides, so I can't throw it to the sides, I can only throw it in front of you."

Not to mention Hu Aiguo, he was not in a good situation either, I don't know how many times he fell.

After more than an hour of intense running, the trainees finally arrived at the 6th Company's 268th Highland Transfer Station.

This is a large natural stone cave. It is pitch black inside and you can't see anything when you first enter.

At this time, the instructor of the 6th Company, Ma Daqing, lit a small candle and shone it in front of each of Hu Aiguo and the others, probably wanting to see what they looked like.

Instructor Ma Daqing said to them: "I'm sorry, comrades, you can't stay here, you have to hurry to the battlefield."

At this time, some comrades felt that Ma Daqing was being unkind and muttered, "We finally got to a safe place, but you didn't even let us take a break!"

Instructor Ma quickly explained: "Hill 266, where you are going, is right under the enemy's nose. You can't go up there during the day. You can only go up there at night when the enemy is not firing artillery.

The enemy's shelling has just stopped, so we must seize the opportunity to attack during the interval between shellings."

The students then realized that they had wronged Instructor Ma. The student who had complained earlier looked guilty and blushed as he apologized to Instructor Ma: "Instructor Ma, I..."

Without waiting for him to say anything, Ma Daqing patted his shoulder with a smile and said, "Take good care of yourself. When you come back, we'll drink together!"

The student's eyes turned red as he responded, "Yes, definitely!"

Ma Daqing was the first battlefield commander the students met on the front line, and also one of the best grassroots political cadres Hu Aiguo had ever met.

During the days and nights of holding the position, Instructor Ma led the way and always fought side by side with them.

While giving orders, he also carried out ideological and political work, playing a key role in helping the entire company complete its combat mission.

…………

So Hu Aiguo and his men hurried out. When they reached the cave entrance, a soldier opened a box of grenades and gave each of them one.

Hu Aiguo took it and looked at it. It was a Type 77 wooden-handled grenade.

Previously, they practiced with Type 67 grenades in the Army School. The Type 77 grenade is small in size, light in weight and powerful.

The 77-1 wooden-handled grenade is 67% lighter and 40% smaller than the 18-type wooden-handled grenade. It uses a pre-grooved steel plate body and can produce more than 300 effective fragments when exploded. The killing probability and metal utilization rate of the grenade are greatly improved.

Hu Aiguo was very happy. He had gained something from going to the battlefield: he had obtained new weapons. He said to the soldier who distributed the grenades, "One is too few. Won't it be gone after one throw? Give me a few more!"

The soldier smiled bitterly and shook his head, saying, "You can't take more than that. This grenade is not for the enemy. To put it bluntly, it's for you."

Hu Aiguo was stunned when he heard this and asked, "What do you mean? Why is it prepared for me?"

The soldier continued: "Our position was too close to the enemy, and we accidentally took the wrong path and ended up in the enemy's position.

Enemy agents often set ambushes to capture prisoners. If you encounter an emergency and have no time to escape, you must pull the trigger on the grenade and not throw it. You must die with the enemy, rather than be captured. This is called a "glory bullet."

"Ah?" Hu Aiguo was shocked. It turned out that this was the legendary "glory bullet".

When he heard that this was a "glory bullet", he suddenly felt that this grenade was not so cute.

Hu Aiguo carefully pinned it on his waist, thinking: "Don't ever use this precious thing! If you use it once, you won't be able to use it a second time."

But not long after, the Type 77 grenade in Hu Aiguo's hand was replaced by the newly-commissioned Type 82-1 grenade.

Later, the Type 82-1 grenade equipped on the front line was smaller in size and easier to carry.

Therefore, many L Mountain soldiers regarded this grenade as the first choice of "glory bullet".

"Glory Bullet" is the "standard equipment" for the frontline soldiers on L Mountain. Almost every soldier who goes to the front line carries "Glory Bullet" with him.

This is the most vivid manifestation of the "flower-growing" soldiers' readiness to sacrifice gloriously for victory and their bloodiness of "preferring death to being captured".

Hill 268 is less than 266 meters away from Hill 227, right under the nose of Hill controlled by the enemy, and is completely within the range of the enemy's direct fire control and artillery blockade.

Hu Aiguo and his men could only pass through secretly at night. Once their actions were exposed, they would immediately be attacked fiercely by the enemy.

This is a gravel-covered passage with no obvious signs. The way forward has to be groped by the memory and feeling of the leading soldier.

Later, Hu Aiguo and his colleagues often witnessed military workers being attacked by enemy fire on this road and saw them fall down.

Hu Aiguo and several other students and soldiers were very cautious, using their hands and feet, feeling their way forward step by step, and crawling slowly.

There was only a little moonlight at this time, and the battlefield was so quiet that it was a little creepy. Occasionally, a bird's cry could be heard not far away, which made people feel creepy.

Hu Aiguo felt his heart pounding, and he didn't even dare to breathe...

The result was relatively smooth and we didn't encounter any trouble while climbing up to the position.

A soldier led Hu Aiguo to a very small stone cave and said to him, "This is our home."

Hu Aiguo was very surprised and said, "Is this our home?"

He immediately waved his hand and said to Hu Aiguo: "Don't talk, there are devils everywhere, hurry up and get into the hole!"

Hu Aiguo glanced at the narrow and cramped environment and said, "This... is not easy to get through."

He told Hu Aiguo: "Go in with your legs first." As soon as Hu Aiguo put his feet into the hole, someone pulled him down. Hu Aiguo sat down on a pile of blasting tubes, and the hole was filled with a foul smell.

The soldiers inside rushed to shake hands and hug Hu Aiguo and his friends.

Squad leader Wang Chun used the radio to contact the company. It was quite interesting to hear him speak on the radio for the first time. He said: "Huangshan, Huangshan, the soybean oil arrived safely."

Hu Aiguo didn't quite understand, "Why do you call me soybean oil?"

Wang Chun hurriedly explained: "Platoon leader, this is a code word.

We are too close to the enemy. The radio they use is the same model as ours, so we can hear each other. Many enemy soldiers understand our language. To keep it secret, we have to speak in code on the radio."

Then he joked with Hu Aiguo, "Don't think the name 'soybean oil' is not nice. When we came here, the old soldiers called us 'cabbage'!"

At the frontline outpost, Hu Aiguo and his men mainly rely on the 861 radio (full name: "861 portable command machine") to communicate with the outside world.

This small ultra-short wave radio uses a headset and a laryngeal transmitter in one, thus freeing the operator's hands. Its laryngeal transmitter is very easy to use, and the voice is clear even when the vocal cords are not vibrating, such as whispering in the middle of the night.

The position where Hu Aiguo and his colleagues were located was very close to the enemy, so they never dared to speak loudly and could only communicate on the radio by "breathing".

Three months later, when Hu Aiguo and his men left their positions and reached a safe area, they could not help but shout loudly, but their voices became hoarse after just a few shouts - their vocal cords could no longer adapt to such intensity of pronunciation.

At daybreak, Hu Aiguo climbed out of the cave and carefully observed their position.

This outpost is located at the junction of two valleys. It is the throat of the entire front leading to the depth. It is a key defense point of the main peak of L Mountain and an important target of enemy fire blockade. It has to withstand thousands of various gunshots and artillery shells every day.

Now, on this small hill with a radius of only a hundred meters, all the green plants have disappeared, leaving only a piece of white rubble.

There was almost no grass growing on the battlefield. Hu Aiguo saw a blade of grass on the battlefield that was not growing on the ground, but on the top of a tree that was broken by a shell.

Later, whenever they were in the most difficult times, Hu Aiguo would always stick his head out to look at the grass, thinking to himself: "We should learn from that little grass. Its vitality is so strong! It cannot survive on the ground, but it stands proudly on the treetops."

At this time, the three soldiers in the cave also climbed to the entrance, wanting to see what Hu Aiguo looked like, because there should be no light in the cave at night.

When Hu Aiguo turned around and saw them, he couldn't believe his eyes: squad leader Wang Chun was older, with very long hair and beard, and looked like the eldest brother from the front and the eldest sister-in-law from the back.

Soldier Wang Feng had many sores on his body. Hu Aiguo counted them while applying medicine to him. He found that there were dozens of them all over his body. Each sore was as big as a 5-cent coin, and pus was flowing down his body.

But he was very optimistic, fought bravely and never complained.

The soldier Zhang Gui was even more interesting. He wore a big steel helmet on his head that made a loud noise, and a pair of Liberation shoes on his feet that were covered in mud. Apart from that, he was wearing nothing else.

Hu Aiguo asked, "Why are you so cool?"

He smiled and said, "We don't have any female comrades here, and no one comes to check the military appearance and discipline, it doesn't matter."

Hu Aiguo also advised him: "It's not good to wear nothing. It's not good for your health."

Zhang Gui said in embarrassment: "Platoon leader, it's not that I don't want to wear pants. I brought five pairs of pants with me when I went to the battlefield. There was no water to wash them, so I threw away each one that got dirty. Now there is only one left. I will wear it when I leave the battlefield."

Soon after, a new recruit named Yu Qing was added to Hu Aiguo's post. He had only fired five rounds of bullets before going to the battlefield and did not know how to use the squad's light machine gun.

Yu Qing was very nervous when he first arrived at the battlefield. Sometimes when he was on guard at night, he would hold a rope in his hand connected to Hu Aiguo. Every now and then he would pull Hu Aiguo and Hu Aiguo would also pull him.

Yu Qing felt at ease when he was with Hu Aiguo.

The soldiers were all great. Hu Aiguo quickly became familiar with them and gradually adapted to the battlefield conditions.

In the subsequent arduous and fierce battles, the trainees of the Army Academy's trainee company became more and more courageous and no one retreated.

At the same time, during the days and nights of fighting together, he also forged an extremely deep friendship of life and death with the soldiers on the front line.

On the second night after Hu Aiguo and his men took up their position, the enemy suddenly launched an attack on their high ground.

Artillery shells exploded one after another around the sentry post, and the position, which had just been peaceful, suddenly shook violently.

The huge explosion made my ears buzz, and the smoke and dust rushed into the cave, making it hard to breathe.

The voice of platoon leader Wang Dongshan came from the radio: "The enemy is attacking! Hold the position!" So Hu Aiguo and the soldiers rushed out of the cave quickly in the smoke of artillery fire.

Suddenly, soldier Wang Feng threw Hu Aiguo to the ground, and almost at the same time, a shell exploded next to them.

There was a loud bang, and I felt like my internal organs were about to be shaken out. The gust of air mixed with stone powder filled my mouth, and it tasted bitter.

Wang Feng leaned over to Hu Aiguo's ear and said loudly, "Platoon leader, your posture is too high! Pay attention to protection. He also said, you are a college student, you can't die!"

Later, Hu Aiguo learned that before they went to the battlefield, the company had notified them: "We must focus on protecting these college student platoon leaders."

When Hu Aiguo had just joined the battlefield and was still unsure of the situation, soldier Wang Feng's action made him remember it forever.

"My dear brother, you are protecting me with your life!"

Hu Aiguo and his men fired their guns and threw grenades at the enemy.

The enemy's first attack was repulsed.

After a while, the enemy pounced on them again.

Shells continued to explode around Hu Aiguo and his men, and the blast blew away the steel helmets on their heads.

The anti-aircraft machine gun bullets on the enemy's 227 high ground dragged red lines and flew over the heads of Hu Aiguo and his men, hitting the rocks with a popping sound, sparks flying, and weighing them down so that they could not raise their heads.

When Hu Aiguo saw that the enemy was coming fiercely, he didn't even bother to pick up his helmet. He hurriedly jumped behind a big rock on the right with half a box of grenades and threw grenades at the enemy.

Then he quickly changed his position and jumped behind another big rock.

As soon as I stood firm, a grenade thrown by the enemy exploded where I was just now, and the rubble fell all over him. The grenade box that Hu Aiguo brought was blown away.

Wang Chun, Wang Feng and Gui also took the opportunity to fire fiercely at the enemy and threw bombs. The friendly No. 2 and No. 3 sentry posts also opened fire fiercely, and the enemy was forced to retreat.

At this time, the sound of gunfire and artillery fire on the battlefield was still ringing, flares were rising into the sky, the surroundings were bright, and smoke from the explosion was rising in clouds.

Being in the fierce battlefield, Hu Aiguo felt proud: he finally arrived at the battlefield, at the front line, and they stood at the forefront when the motherland needed them most.

At this time, Hu Aiguo felt that there were countless relatives behind him watching them and expecting them.

Hu Aiguo couldn't help but make a secret resolution that he would stop the enemy's invasion even if it meant his death.

Hu Aiguo and his men were fighting relatively smoothly at their sentry post that day, but a young soldier at post No. 2 on their right was killed. His name was Chen Guodong, and he had just celebrated his 18th birthday on the battlefield.

At that time, Chen Guodong and Hu Aiguo's military school classmate Ding Haiyang were at the same sentry post.

After the battle started, Ding Haiyang was about to rush out of the cave, but Chen Yudong pulled him down and said, "Platoon leader, you just arrived and you are not familiar with the situation. I'll go first."

But as soon as Chen Yudong came out of the cave, a shell exploded beside him, and the powerful shock wave knocked him and Ding Haiyang to the ground at the same time.

Ding Haiyang didn't care about the pain in his body. He got up and saw that Chen Yudong's head and chest were blown up, his body was covered in blood, and his eyes were wide open.

Ding Haiyang held him in his arms and shouted his name. Chen Yudong's lips moved one after another, as if he wanted to say something, but he couldn't speak. He only felt that his body was getting heavier and colder...

Gently putting Chen Yudong down, Ding Haiyang roared "Ah...", picked up the gun with tears in his eyes, and shot angry bullets at the enemy.

Many years later, whenever Ding Haiyang recalled Chen Yudong's sacrifice, he could not help but feel the grief in his heart.

He recalled: "Yudong was very big, I carried him from outside the cave into the cave, wiped the blood off his face, and it took a lot of effort to close his eyes that were wide open with anger.

A few hours ago, he was still joking with me, showing me his "family portrait", and singing the two songs "The Full Moon on the 15th" and "Goodbye, Mom"..."

This was the second day after Hu Aiguo and his men arrived at the front line. It was their first time to participate in a battle, their first time to smell the smoke of gunpowder, and their first time to witness the cruelty and bloodshed of war.

At that time, Hu Aiguo and his trainee company were fighting bloody battles on the front line.

Liu Wu and other new students from the Lu Academy began to study the new teaching syllabus enthusiastically.

The requirements for military school life are the same as those for the company. We adhere to the daily life system and the curriculum is fully scheduled, with 8 classes a day.

The courses offered by Liu Wu and his classmates in the first semester are divided into two categories, one is politics and the other is military affairs.

Political courses include "Party history, Marxist-Leninist philosophy, and the leadership's works, etc." Military courses include "the leadership's military thought, the ten major military principles, the three major regulations, and practical operations, etc."

In the practical operation subjects, there are five major techniques: "shooting, bombing, assassination, blasting and earthwork".

Among them, shooting includes "automatic rifle one-two-three practice, pistol one-two-three practice."

Bombing: "35 meters pass, 40 meters good, 45 meters and above excellent."

"First, the basic movements, preparing the gun, thrusting, guarding the left, guarding the right, practicing stabbing at a straw target, and then putting on protective gear for stabbing."

Demolition "Placing the fuse in the detonator and placing the fuse-attached detonator into the explosive charge."

Among the more difficult military physical training, Liu Wu feels that "horizontal bar flexion and extension" must be included.

In fact, the movement is simple. Just jump up with both feet, hold the horizontal bar with both hands, and after the body is suspended, put your legs together and swing the waves naturally. When you feel the appropriate momentum, push hard with your feet, use inertia, and naturally and quickly flip your body onto the horizontal bar, standing upright on the bar.

This movement may seem simple, but many people, including Liu Wu, took several months to learn it. It is really not easy!

(End of this chapter)