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

Chapter 586 Hao Jixiang’s resentment!!!

This year, the war in the southwest gradually died down, but heavy snow fell in the northeast.

It's time for winter conscription again.

The small waiting room of less than 200 square meters at a railway station in a county at the foot of Changbai Mountain was packed with more than a hundred recruits who had just got off the train.

It was a sea of ​​green people, but at this time of year there weren't many people coming in and out of the small county town in the mountains, so the road didn't affect anything.

The winter in Northeast China is really cold. I estimate it may be minus 30 degrees Celsius today.

Fortunately, there was a large coal stove with a chimney in the middle of the waiting room, which allowed the recruits to finally feel warm after four days.

But they didn't feel comfortable for long, as the car from the group arrived to pick them up.

Hao Jixiang is from Tianjin, and he is not yet 18 years old. He is a well-known rich second-generation in the local area.

Because he was too dissolute at a young age, his father, who was disappointed with him, sent him to the army for training during the conscription.

Hao Jixiang was one of the more than 30 new recruits who got off the sealed carriage. Under the command of a burly officer, they boarded an uncovered Jiefang truck.

It formed a convoy with several other military trucks, left the town, and drove deep into the mountains and forests in the night.

On a night when the snow reflected the rolling hills, in the depths of a dense forest with howling cold winds, in the trunks of several trucks without any cover, a group of new recruits who had been on a long journey for five days and four nights and looked silly were huddled together, continuing to move forward towards an unknown destination...

The north wind blows, the forest waves roar, and the canyon shakes..."

Old Lu, who also came from Tianjin, suddenly shouted out a passage from Taking Tiger Mountain by Strategy.

You know what, the scene here and now is so similar to the scene described in "Lin Hai Xue Yuan".

"Look at the flying snow, dancing all over the sky."
Moved by the scene, Hao Jixiang, Da Xu and Li Zi also joined in the singing loudly.

The other recruits on the bus heard their four buddies singing and shouting at the top of their lungs and burst into applause for them.

Except for Hao Jixiang and the other four, most of the other people on the truck were from rural areas. It was basically their first time to travel far away from home. They were all relatively honest and shy, not as bold and aggressive as those who came from big cities.

"You don't need to pretend to be..., you really look like..., especially with the way you're wearing now!" Li Zi teased Da Xu loudly.

Da Xu took a step forward to catch Li Zi, but Li Zi turned around and hid behind Hao Jixiang, and there was a burst of laughter in the car.

Hao Jixiang is also a playful person. He doesn't care what the occasion is. He shouted to everyone in the car: "Let's sing together. Don't let down the snow-covered mountains!"

After all, they were all young people, and more people in the car sang along with them:

"I swear to carve the mountain,

Buried in the mountain stream,
Ambition shakes mountains,
Ambition shakes the abyss,
Then wait until I meet my comrades for a hundred chicken banquet,
Destroying the bandit's nest will definitely turn the world upside down..."

The recruits in the two cars in front and behind probably heard the people in their car shouting and singing, and soon their singing was also blown by the cold wind.

The convoy moved steadily on the winding and undulating mountain road covered with ice and snow, crossing three ridges in the middle.

Looking in the direction of the car lights, the road was surrounded by mixed forests of birch, oak, pine and unknown shrubs. The deep snow-covered forests were deserted.

After more than an hour, I finally saw the lights that flickered in and out in the distance...

Battalion commander Liu Wu jumped out of the cab of the front truck and shouted to Hao Jixiang and the others, "Everyone get out of the car and assemble!"

"We're here now?"

Hao Jixiang jumped out of the car in confusion and looked around. There were dark mountains all around him. The cold wind made the trees on the mountains rustle. The rumbling sound coming from the distant mountains was like a group of giant beasts roaring, which made people feel somewhat terrified.

"What the hell is this place?" Old Lu said to himself.

With the dim light from the snow, Hao Jixiang saw dozens of dark shadows already lined up on the roadside of this open snow-covered area. It turned out that they were the veterans' representatives welcoming us.

Liu Wu frowned slightly and looked at the young man in front of him with a hint of doubt.

He and Hao Jixiang were also acquainted, after all, the two families had a close relationship.

"Why was this kid assigned to my place?" He couldn't help but feel a little helpless and felt that the situation was a bit tricky.

Liu Wu's eyes became sharp, and he stared straight at Hao Jixiang, with an unquestionable majesty in his tone: "That new recruit, yes, it's you! Stop looking around there, come over and line up!"

Hao Jixiang was stunned for a moment, then pointed at himself with a surprised look on his face: "Brother Wu, don't you remember me? I am Jixiang!"

Upon hearing this, Liu Wu's face suddenly darkened, and he said in a low and stern voice: "You have no respect for elders! What do you mean by Brother Wu and Brother Liu? This is the army, you have to address me by my rank! Also, you have to report before you speak, don't you even understand this little rule?"

Hao Jixiang was frightened by Liu Wu's sudden severity. He straightened his back quickly and shouted loudly: "Report! Private Hao Jixiang requests to return to the team!" Liu Wu snorted coldly and nodded: "That's more like it. Remember, the army is not your home, the rules are the rules, and no one can be an exception." He waved his hand, motioning Hao Jixiang to join the team.

In the queue, other recruits secretly looked at Hao Jixiang, and some whispered: "How does this guy know this leader?"

Hao Jixiang didn't care about these things, he was nervous and confused. He thought that Liu Wu would take better care of him because of the friendship between the two families, but he didn't expect to be scolded instead.

As soon as the new recruits got off the bus one after another, applause broke out among the veterans.

Hao Jixiang and more than 100 other recruits lined up on this small open area of ​​ice and snow to receive their first collective training after joining the army.

"Comrades, welcome to join the army and come to the base of your unit." Liu Wu, who also serves as the battalion commander of the recruit training camp, stood in front of the team solemnly with a loud voice.

"We are in a certain regiment of a certain division under the military region, and I am your battalion commander. From today on, you will begin your military career here."

"Tsk! This mountain is full of wilderness, how can it look like a military camp?" Hao Jixiang's bad habit came back again, and he muttered to Da Xu in front of him.

Liu Wu glanced at him and saw that he was indeed a troublemaker. He continued, "Along the way, everyone kept asking where our troops were. Because we are a garrison, this location is confidential, so I cannot tell you in advance. This is military discipline. I hope you understand."

"Report! Then how do we leave our address when we write to our families?" Hao Jixiang raised his hand and asked. He was a guy who was not afraid of anything.

"I knew you couldn't help but ask this question." Liu Wu was not angry because Hao Jixiang interrupted him, and continued to speak calmly to everyone:
"I guess many of you will write letters home tomorrow to report your safety. Remember! No one can write home about the specific location of our troops. We will send you a special mailbox in the city. You can write to this mailbox and receive the letter."

"Damn! This place must be at least 200 kilometers away from the city." Hao Jixiang couldn't help but complain in his heart.

"Here I would like to introduce the company commanders of our battalion."

He turned around, pointed at the four officers standing beside him and began to introduce them one by one:

"This is Captain Zhang of the First Company, Captain Yu of the Second Company, Captain Wang of the Third Company. The Captain of the Artillery Company..."

It turned out that the tall and burly officer who came to the station to pick them up was Captain Wang of the Third Company.

Then, the battalion commander Liu Wu said: "Our battalion is currently carrying out barracks construction. For the time being, we are still living in simple barracks. The tactical training ground has not been built yet, so this time the battalion will not form a new recruit company. The more than 100 new recruits of you will be directly assigned to each company now, and each company will form a new recruit platoon for training."

When they put on their new military uniforms in their hometown, four new recruits including Hao Jixiang had a drinking party and vowed that the four brothers would serve in the army together, retire together, and would never be separated. However, they were separated before they even set foot in the barracks.

Da Xu was assigned to the first company, Lao Lu was assigned to the second company, Hao Jixiang was assigned to the third company, and Li Zi, the most connected guy, was assigned to the battalion headquarters.

Hao Jixiang came to report to Captain Wang and asked in a low voice: "Captain, what is the name of this place?" "You are the Tianjin-Hong Kong soldier they call the "God of Songs", right?"

When Captain Wang was taking Hao Jixiang and the others to the waiting room just now, he probably heard them joking with each other.

"Report to the company commander, the four of us are all from Beijing and Tianjin, they are just joking." Hao Jixiang said with a flattering face.

Captain Wang glanced at him without leaving any trace, thinking: "This kid is really not an easy person to deal with. No wonder the battalion commander asked me to..." Then he said: "This is a mountain pass valley. It is more than 20 miles away from the nearest village to the west. The place names here are relatively vague, but we have our own military geographical codes."

He pointed to a mountain pass between two mountains in the distance ahead that seemed to be hidden and yet not visible, and said with a smile:
"This mountain pass closest to us is shaped like a lying turtle, and locals call it 'turtle neck', so we usually call it Gada by that name."

"Turtle Neck? How can there be such a weird place name?" Hao Jixiang looked at the dark mountains in front of him and felt incredible.

When Captain Wang saw that the new recruits of the third company had arrived, he began to lead the team towards our company’s base.

In this way, Hao Jixiang and more than 40 new recruits were assigned to the third company of the first battalion. After crossing a small hill, they followed the veterans and marched into the company in high spirits.

Hao Jixiang was assigned to Class 18 of the th Platoon, with Zhao Guozhu as the squad leader. There were also new recruits Zhang Pingquan and Chen Zhiguo in the squad.

The dormitory is not large, with most of the room being an L-shaped dormitory bed. It is very different from the barracks Hao Jixiang had seen, and has a bit of a field army style.

When Hao Jixiang first arrived at this place, he trained again and again every day, and the training conditions were quite difficult.

Even in temperatures as low as minus thirty degrees Celsius, the soldiers would sweat profusely during training, and the sweat would usually form a layer of ice on the inner surface of the belt.

Train in the coldest days of winter and the hottest days of summer. Soldiers should train in accordance with the season and fight according to orders.

At this time, the northern border was covered with snow and ice for thousands of miles.

Just after the winter solstice, we entered the coldest days of winter, with the temperature dropping sharply to minus 30 degrees Celsius.

Liu Wu led the troops to carry out winter training under severe cold conditions in a timely manner.

Severe cold is the calling card of the northern border guards, and wind and snow are the character of the snow-covered eagles.

Fighting the severe cold, defying frost and snow, passing through forests and snowfields, this winter training is aimed at the reality that the Northeast region has long periods of low temperatures and severe cold and rugged and complex terrain. Everything is based on actual combat and everything is for winning the battle. The adverse winter weather is used as a favorable opportunity for training and preparation for war, as a "sharpening stone" and "multiplier" to improve and test the combat effectiveness of the troops, and to hone the officers and soldiers' adaptability, combat capability and support capability under extremely cold conditions.

Walking out of the office, walking to the training ground, walking into the deep mountains and dense forests, and running towards the vast northern land. This winter training highlighted the "walking, fighting, eating, living, and hiding" drills under severe cold conditions, allowing the extreme cold of minus 30 degrees Celsius to test the effectiveness of the troops' training.

Liu Wu followed the idea of ​​"training soldiers according to how the war is fought";
It integrates topics such as combat readiness level conversion, emergency evacuation and concealment, foot marching, combat service, political work and rear support, and squad tactics;
Relying on the information platform, we will open up the command links of reconnaissance, strike, and support, conduct hierarchical deductions around mission topics, and organize online remote synchronous inquiries and discussions on key and difficult issues;
The focus is on forming a combined combat force of the reconnaissance, control, attack, assessment and protection systems, practicing command, strategy, skills and courage in an environment close to actual combat, and tempering the troops in all aspects in the forest and snow.

Liu Wu inherited the true teachings from his father. Back then, Liu Zhiye was the first person to conduct winter training in the army.

The key to this training is that it should be genuine, difficult, strict, practical and fast.

During winter training, the operating conditions are basically based on real cases, forcing commanders and agencies at all levels to "get into the situation", understand their respective combat tasks, and make combat decisions;
During the guidance and command, various unfavorable factors were set to be more difficult and higher, some even close to the extreme conditions. Many commanders in the battalions said that they really did not expect the conditions to be so complicated this time, and they sighed "It's too difficult for me";

When marching on foot, they changed their route on the spur of the moment, not taking the main road, but choosing the mountain and forest trails, facing the wind and slipping every three steps, with heavy snow covering their boots;

During the relocation of the command post, reports of satellites passing overhead, road damage, fire raids, etc. were continuously sent down, and the random guidance and control was overwhelmed.

Commanders, agencies, and participating officers and soldiers reported that there were "plots" from the beginning to the end, and the slightest mistake would result in being judged "out";
The cadres and soldiers led by example and obeyed orders. They braved the wind and snow and traveled long distances together. They always marched and fought together.

Life in the recruit company is stressful and boring.

It mainly focuses on the training of basic military qualities, including formations, emergency assemblies, marching, and later target shooting, assassination, standing guard, strict housekeeping and hygiene, and occasional study of military history, military discipline and military songs.

Housekeeping training requires that everyone's bed sheets be spread flat, quilts be folded neatly, and toothbrushes, towels, and washbasins be placed neatly.

Folding quilts is a key point in the housekeeping training of the recruit company. Not only must the horizontal width of the quilt be folded to basic dimensions, but the most important thing is to roll out the front, back, left, right, up and down surfaces over and over again to form horizontal and vertical lines so that it looks like a cut piece of tofu.

The quilts of the Northeastern garrison were relatively thick. It is conceivable how much effort it took to "cut a thick irregular quilt into tofu cubes". It would take at least half a month or twenty days of repeated training and smoothing.

The sheets were also required to be laid without any wrinkles. The military sheets used by Hao Jixiang and his men were all made of pure cotton, and it was not easy to make them smooth and wrinkle-free.

For this reason, Hao Jixiang and his family often carefully folded the sheets flat and pressed them under their pillows when they went to bed at night. The next day, they would spread the sheets, which were pressed relatively flat and had several horizontal and vertical creases, on the bed.

At 5: every morning, a loud wake-up call wakes them up on time. Five minutes later, Hao Jixiang and others have to dress neatly and line up on the playground.

January is the coldest time of the year. We wore cotton coats and trousers, big-toed shoes covered with sheepskin inside and out, sheepskin hats on our heads that had to be lowered to cover our faces and the straps under our chins tied tightly. We also had to wear sheepskin gloves on our hands. These are the standard equipment for the troops stationed in Northeast China today.

Despite this, Hao Jixiang and his friends were still shivering from the cold.

As soon as the wakeup call sounded, the recruits jumped up, dressed quickly and ran to the playground. No one dared to fall behind, otherwise they would be severely reprimanded and punished.

Some people are afraid that getting dressed in the morning will take time, so they simply don't take off their clothes before going to bed at night.

It is not easy for the recruits to do morning exercises. It is called morning exercises but actually it is running, and the veterans lead the team in the front. They run for five or six kilometers at a relatively fast speed.

The eldest son Hao Jixiang had never suffered such a torture. He was always exhausted and out of breath, and had to fall behind if he couldn't hold on any longer halfway.

The most difficult thing is standing guard in the middle of the night, and everyone has to take turns.

The cold is secondary. The main thing is fear and timidity. Fortunately, two people are grouped together for one hour at a time, and the company also considered factors such as age and courage when forming the groups.

The first time it was Hao Jixiang's turn to stand guard, even though he was in a group with a comrade who was a few years older than him, who was braver and more experienced, Hao Jixiang was still trembling with fear.

There were no stars that night, and it was so dark that one could not see one's hand in front of one's face. Only a lamp on the sentry box at the entrance of the eerie and silent barracks emitted a faint light, and the howling cold wind added a bit of fear.

Hao Jixiang closed his eyes tightly, gritted his teeth, and kept pulling at the corner of his comrade's clothes. He trembled and finally endured the longest 60 minutes in his memory.

In addition to the hard work in training, there are also hardships in life.

Due to the inadequate logistical support in the mountains, they had to eat steamed buns, potatoes and cabbage every day, and only had meat once or twice and fish once a week.

Hao Jixiang has been accustomed to a life of luxury and cannot stand this.

What Hao Jixiang fears most is standing at attention in the cold wind. They have to stand for one or two hours with their body straight and motionless.

The squad leader will walk back and forth in front of you to check whether your "three straightens and three retracts" are maintained properly. If you are lazy, you will be punished.

Then came the training of standing at attention, at ease, turning while standing still, taking off hats, putting on hats, adjusting clothes, sitting down, squatting, saluting, marching and stopping in the three major steps (marching, marching, and running), changing formations, changing directions, etc.

It sounds complicated, but it looks simple. However, it is very difficult to standardize everything.

For example, when turning while standing still, some people may turn in the wrong direction, or when marching in step, some people may swing their hands to the same side. It will take a few days of practice to correct these mistakes.

If you can complete this series of actions relatively standardly, the image of a soldier will emerge.

After finally completing three months of recruit life, Hao Jixiang was directly assigned to the third company.

He didn't think he had finally made it, but he didn't expect Brother Wu to really treat him as an "outsider"...

(End of this chapter)