The literary era since 1979

Chapter 168 Teacher Fang, come one!
The 41st Army stationed in Liuzhou has a glorious war history and brilliant achievements. From the Anti-Japanese War to the present, it has participated in the "Four Defenses of Linjiang", "Summer Offensive", "Autumn Offensive", "Winter Offensive", "Liaoshen Campaign", "Pingjin Campaign"...

The most noteworthy is the Battle of Tashan.

In 79, the 41st Army also took on the main offensive mission on the eastern front.

They dared to fight and struggled hard, and a series of heroic deeds emerged.

Li Cunbao had heard of the "blood-stained IOU" before when he visited the 41st Army Company. This time, he followed the dance troupe and went deep into these grassroots units again.

Fangyan was not idle along the way.

The soldiers signed their diaries along the way. They were very passionate about literature and especially liked the spy war trilogy "Listening to the Wind", "Insidious" and "Dark War".

Among them, the most frequently asked question is when can I write about the frontal battlefield, preferably the counterattack against Annan.

Through the communication, I heard about many personal experiences in battles and campaigns, such as the Battle of Shuojiang. Movies such as "Battle of Changpai Mountain" and "Lightning Operation" were all filmed with this as the background.

I have read many dialects in my previous life, but this is the first time I heard them tell the story in person, and it gave me a special feeling.

"Annan claimed that the natural barrier of Shuojiang was an impenetrable iron line of defense and that it would take three months to fight. But my division broke through it in just three days!"

"Don't say that. We didn't fight very well at the beginning and suffered heavy casualties."

"........."

"The credit for the Shuojiang battle goes not only to our division, but also to the 27th Artillery Regiment that coordinated our attack."

The soldiers sitting in a circle spoke one by one.

Fangyan raised his eyebrows and asked them to continue.

"The infantry has reconnaissance units, and the artillery also has reconnaissance units. These are the eyes of the artillery."

"The observation post behind enemy lines set up by the 27th Artillery Regiment seems to be the only observation post behind enemy lines in the entire eastern and western fronts, right?"

"That's right. After the war, this observation post behind enemy lines was awarded a first-class collective merit, and the deputy reconnaissance squad leader and his team were awarded a second-class merit!"

When they heard the awards of "First Class Merit" and "Second Class Merit", the soldiers spoke louder and their eyes blinked.

Li Cunbao sighed as he recorded, "What a pity! The 1st Artillery Division should have returned to its base in eastern Guangdong, not in western Guangxi."

"Don't feel too sorry."

Fangyan patted him on the shoulder. Although there was no first-hand information from the interviews with the parties involved, the 41st Army also had a lot of information about the observation posts behind enemy lines at that time, such as the operating procedures.

"Teacher Fang is right."

One of the soldiers comforted him by saying that although the 1st Artillery Division was not here, the artillery regiment of the Independent Division of the Guangxi Military Region had an established company that was drawn from the 1st Artillery Division.

Another soldier corrected him: "You remembered it wrong. The one cooperating with my division is the 27th Regiment, and the one that was transferred is the 26th Regiment. My comrades in the recruit company are in the nd Regiment of that independent division."

"The 26th Regiment? I seem to have some impression of it."

I vaguely remember talking about the dialect with Zhou Weizhi.

When Li Cunbao heard about the 26th Regiment, he immediately stood in awe, because the lyricist of the Volunteer Army's war song was from this 26th Regiment.

Ma Fuyao!
Once reminded, Fangyan suddenly remembered.

When the soldiers heard this, they were surprised and envious. They also wanted to have a battle song for the counterattack against Annan.

After chatting for a while, the two said goodbye and left.

“This time, I gained more than last time.”

Li Cunbao looked at the densely written words on the small notebook.

Fang Yan said, "Have you thought about how to write this article about the counterattack based on these materials?"

"I now have a preliminary idea."

Li Cunbao flipped through the small notebook again and again and handed it over.

Fangyan took it and looked at it, and saw a list of characters on it.

Liang Sanxi, Jin Kailai, Little BJ...

"I heard from the soldiers that there was a division commander named Zhang, whose son was a scout in the special forces company. He died while on a mission. This 'Little BJ' was written based on him."

"And what the instructor said wasn't entirely right. At the time, there was a saying of 'three fronts': the command post, officers, and the children of cadres. There were more than one little BJ like this."

There was respect in Li Cunbao's tone.

Fangyan looked at the beginning, ending, and relationships of the characters, and his sights finally fell on "Zhao Mengsheng", who was a spoiled young soldier before the war and a reborn fighting hero after the war.

"I created this post-war image based on Instructor Li. As for the pre-war image, I designed it based on interviews with soldiers and descriptions of some of the sons of cadres."

Li Cunbao reported truthfully.

Fangyan looked down and shook his head:
"Zhao Mengsheng's character arc is not good enough."

"Character arc?"

When Li Cunbao heard this word for the first time, he was completely confused.

"Character arc is a film term that refers to the trajectory of a character's personality change from the beginning to the end of the story, such as 'Zhao Mengsheng'."

Fangyan cleared his throat and Teacher Fang started the class!

Li Cunbao listened patiently, as if there was a layer of window paper that was being poked open, seemingly broken but not quite, with faint signs of being broken.

Fangyan handed over the book, "If the character's personality doesn't change, it will be too flat and too stereotyped. But if there is no logical fulcrum and the change is too fast, readers will not be convinced. Look at this 'Zhao Mengsheng', does it have such a problem?"

Li Cunbao thought for a while and then slapped his thigh.

"Yes, yes, that's right. That's right, Mr. Fang and Yanzi, you are absolutely right! So how do we change this arc light?"

“It’s all in the details.”

"detail?"

"There is a saying that a person's character can be seen from the details."

Fangyan briefly cited a few examples. Just like the "Chengcai" in "Soldier Assault", he hid three boxes of cigarettes in his arms, the high-end ones were given to the company commander and platoon leader, the medium-end ones were given to the squad leader and the deputy squad leader, and the low-end ones were given to his comrades. The image of a shrewd and mercenary man who was opportunistic and used tricks to get what he wanted was immediately established.

Li Cunbao took a deep breath, as if something had suddenly dawned on him.

Fang Yan said: "It seems that you have figured it out?"

"pass!"

Li Cunbao nodded excitedly. "I'm going to do this according to what you said. Zhao Mengsheng was eating candy alone in the dormitory. Liang Sanxi, Jin Kailai and others hid it as soon as they returned to the dormitory. Then, even though there were better Class A cigarettes in the drawer, he took a pack of Class C cigarettes and passed them to his comrades to share..."

"It's not handing, it's throwing!"

Fangyan corrected him, "Think about it."

"Throw? Yes, throw!"

Li Cunbao's eyes lit up. "From this detail of 'throwing', we can see that Zhao Mengsheng looks down on Liang Sanxi and his men. He has never thought about integrating into this unit. He is just doing superficial work."

"A detail is worth a thousand words, and these vivid details can only come from life."

"That's right. For example, I also interviewed someone who was about to go to the front line, but an officer received a transfer order. The comrades in the spearhead company said, 'Isn't he afraid of death? Let him come to our company.' This person was transferred to the spearhead company. Later, after experiencing the war, he repented and even made contributions."

"This can be regarded as the turning point of Zhao Mengsheng's character arc!"

"I think so too!"

The two were about to continue their deep conversation when a voice suddenly rang out from the crowd, announcing that the cultural and artistic consolation performance was about to begin.

These days, every time we arrive at a company, each company will organize everyone in advance to clean the houses in front of and behind the camp, wipe the doors and windows clean and bright, hold a simple and warm welcome ceremony, and help unload the car and move props.

In addition to Fang Yan and Li Cunbao, several visiting writers also accompanied the team, including propaganda officers and soldier reporters from the 41st Army.

Songs such as "The Red Detachment of Women" and "Happy Female Soldier" are very popular.

There were many encores and repeated performances.

While Li Jiangsheng was playing, the two people, who were still unsatisfied, continued with the previous topic, adding details to Zhao Mengsheng, Jin Kailai and others, increasing the character arcs, and became more and more engaged in the conversation.

As the drama and conflict became stronger, Li Cunbao was very excited. "Your changes have helped me to become more sublime, the hero has grown, and the image has become more three-dimensional!"

The sound was so loud that the surrounding soldiers couldn't help but look sideways.

"I'm sorry, I'm so excited."

Li Cunbao was extremely embarrassed.

Fangyan also apologized and clapped to signal Li Jiangsheng to continue singing.

"Clap clap clap."

The soldiers also applauded, pretending nothing had happened.

After the song was finished, there was a burst of applause.

Li Cunbao clapped his hands and said happily: "I didn't expect that Instructor Li plays the accordion so well and sings so well too."

The instructor smiled and said that the instructor was famous in the propaganda team back then. Whenever the 41st Army mentioned "the big guy playing the accordion", they were basically talking about Li Jiangsheng.

"Teacher Fang, the instructor can also compose music. He wrote the music for your song "Love Life" and sang it to us."

"Really!"

The dialect was a surprise to me and I really wanted to listen to it.

The soldiers also wanted to listen to it, and the female soldiers from the dance team, including Wang Wen, Lin Xiaoping, and Qin Yu, wanted to listen to it even more. They kept shouting for Li Jiangsheng to sing another one. They really wanted to listen to this song "Love Life".

"That's not right, let's let Teacher Fang recite it."

Li Jiangsheng waved his hand: "What do you think?"

"I can't say it as well as I sing it."

Fangyan laughed and said, "It still needs to be done professionally."

"How about both the instructor and Teacher Fang come!"

I don't know who shouted the first song in the dance team, but Qin Yu, Lin Xiaoping and others followed suit. They were looking forward to the instructor's song "Love Life" and even more so to Teacher Fang's performance.

"How about I show off my ugliness first?"

Li Cunbao took the initiative to stand up and wanted to sing a song to make amends for his previous disrespect. After all, in the army, one can sing badly but one must not be timid and sing like a woman.

Unexpectedly, it would have been fine if he hadn't sung, but once he sang it ignited the enthusiasm of everyone present, and they all applauded and cheered.

"Instructor, come one!"

"Teacher Fang, come one!"

Qin Yu, Lin Xiaoping and other female soldiers from the dance team shouted the loudest.

"Stop shouting, stop shouting."

Li Jiangsheng said, "If you keep shouting, we'll recruit the Annan agents!"

"Hahaha!"

Instantly, the whole audience burst into laughter.

Watching Li Jiangsheng being forced to play "Love Life", Fang Yan noticed that many eyes were cast towards him.

Li Cunbao reminded him that it doesn’t matter if the singing is bad, but the voice must be loud, and it is better to howl like a wolf than like a woman.

Fangyan touched his chin, his mind working rapidly.

You can't sing "Green Flowers in the Army" because you sing the song in the morning and your thoughts slip away in the afternoon...

“March of the Iron Torrent” won’t work either, because we don’t have the “Iron Torrent” at that time.

After a while, when Li Jiangsheng finished singing, both male and female soldiers applauded and stared at him like wolves and tigers.

(End of this chapter)