The literary era since 1979

Chapter 192: Operation Sword

In the clinic, Zhu Lin stood blankly at the pay phone.

She just received a call from her old classmate Li Chengru, who explained the whole story and urged her to come to the National Theatre as quickly as possible.

Don't wait!
She was surprised, happy and anxious, and immediately asked for leave from her leader. Fortunately, she was only a drug tester, neither a doctor nor a nurse, otherwise, it would be difficult to approve the leave.

After rushing and hurrying, we finally arrived at the People's Art Theatre.

Li Chengru stood at the door, pacing back and forth.

"Hey, you're finally here!"

"I, huh, huh, am I late..."

Zhu Lin jogged over, panting.

"Fortunately, Guangbei is here to support us."

Li Chengru led her inside, talking as they walked.

Zhu Lin tried hard to adjust his breathing. He said that this time it was all thanks to Xie Fei's unremitting recommendation and Fang Yan's final decision. Otherwise, there would definitely be no such opportunity.

"Are you ready?"

Li Chengru stopped at the door of the rehearsal room and turned around to ask.

"Wait, wait, I'm not ready yet."

"Just follow the parts we rehearsed in school before, and perform them the way we should!"

"Ah."

Zhu Lin took a few deep breaths and walked in. She immediately felt a lot of eyes staring at her, as if they wanted to see through her.

Wan Fang's eyes lit up, and she whispered to Fang Yan:
"I didn't expect that the real person looks better than the photo, and the temperament is also better."

"Compared with Wang Ji, how is it?"

Fangyan asked in a low voice.

"Each one has his own merits."

Wan Fang felt that Wang Ji was bright and beautiful, while Zhu Lin was gentle and dignified. Relatively speaking, they were more suitable to play "Ying Yingyu" in terms of appearance.

Everyone agrees with this view.

Fangyan smiled without saying a word. To be able to play the role of the Queen of the Kingdom of Daughters who could arouse the "saintly monk's devotion", her appearance and temperament must be well-crafted.

Master Yu said: "Appearance alone is not enough, the real thing has to be shown on stage."

Fangyan agrees very much. In traditional performing arts such as opera and drama, an actor's acting skills are far more important than his appearance.

Among the voice, stage, shape and performance, the "shape" is precisely the least important one.

The other three parts are not outstanding, or even dragged down. No matter how good the appearance is, it is just superficial, with a beautiful exterior but rotten inside.

"We're still missing a co-star."

Wan Jiabao looked around.

Seeing Lan Tianye eager to try, Fang Yan raised his eyebrows.

Ying Yingyu does not have many scenes, and even less so, she has no solo scenes. She either plays against Duke Xiao of Qin, the Queen Mother, and King Huiwen of Qin, or has emotional scenes with Shang Yang. She is a tragic character who struggles and suffers between country and family, love and kinship.

The performance is difficult in itself, and it becomes even more difficult if you act opposite a veteran actor like Lan Tianye.

Zhu Lin pursed his lips, his face full of nervousness.

"In my opinion!"

Fang Yan spoke before Lan Tianye could, "Why not let her act out a scene that Comrade Wang Ji has acted out, so we can make a comparison?"

"Okay, then let Comrade Lu Chen come."

Seeing that no one had any objection, Yu Shizhi called out the name directly.

When Zhu Lin heard that they were playing a mother-daughter role and not acting opposite a big shot like Lan Tianye, he breathed a sigh of relief. His tense nerves relaxed and he gave Fang Yan a grateful look.

Then he went on stage and bowed deeply to the audience.

"let's start!"

As soon as these words were spoken, Zhu Lin and Lu Lin started to move.

Fang Yan looked at Zhu Lin's performance. Compared with Wang Ji's, her interpretation was a little immature, but the gap was not too big, because her appearance and temperament were in line with the role of "Ying Yingyu", the princess of Qin. She played the role in her true colors, which covered up many flaws in her acting.

Ouyang Shanzun said: "The basic skills are a little poor."

Yi Shizhi said seriously, "But there is still a lot of room for improvement. If you work hard on your acting, you will probably be able to act even better."

Lan Tianye said: "I agree with Lao Yu's opinion."

"Zhu Lu's plasticity and image are indeed better."

Fang Yan watched them make a decision between Wang Ji and Zhu Lin, and after weighing the pros and cons, he cast his vote for Zhu Lin.

After a brief discussion and voting, Zhu Lin was finally elected.

In addition, the actors for other roles in "Shang Yang" have also been announced one after another, with Lan Tianye playing Shang Yang, Lü Chen playing the queen mother, Yu Shizhi playing Jing Jian, Lü Qi playing Gongsun Ao, Gu Wei playing Gan Long, Bao Guoan playing Qin Xiaogong, Zheng Rong playing Ying Qian, and Ying Ruocheng playing Wei Huiwang...

Even Chen Daoming and Zhang Guangbei are only fit to be little Karami.

Just ask, who else is in this lineup!
After confirming the cast list, the next step is rehearsal.

Rough rehearsal, continuous rehearsal, detailed rehearsal... Although Fangyan is a member of the advisory group, he is not an employee of the People's Art Theatre and can only come here in the evenings and weekends.

But the most urgent task right now is to pick up Fang Yan and bring her home.

After saying goodbye to Wan Jiabao, Yu Shizhi and others, Fang Yan rode away on his bike. As a result, when Zhu Lin and Zhang Guangbei wanted to find him to thank him in person, they couldn't even find his shadow.

…………

Time flies, and with the end of the last exam of the high school entrance examination, a crowd of people poured out of the examination room.

"elder brother!"

Fang Yan shouted excitedly.

"How did you do on the exam?"

Fangyan handed her the Arctic Ocean.

"I passed the high school entrance exam smoothly this time!"

Fang Yan's tone was full of confidence.

Fangyan said happily: "Really? Are you so confident?"

"Of course! Just 2 hits, win it straight away!"

Fang Yan jumped up and down and said, "Brother, since I worked so hard on the exam, let's eat outside tonight."

"I'll take you to dinner tomorrow."

Fangyan said that Yang Xia had already prepared dinner at home.

Fang Yan nodded, sat in the back seat of the car, drank a drink, and said, "Brother, don't forget my martial arts novels."

"Wait until you get the acceptance letter."

Fangyan flicked her forehead.

"Okay." Fang Yan pouted, "Looks like I'll just have to rewatch The Legend of the Condor Heroes first."

"It's not necessary. In a few days, you will be able to read the military novel written by your brother. It's no worse than those martial arts novels."

"Brother, when can we see it?"

"Look at you, you're in a hurry, of course you have to pass the review first."

…………

After passing the review process of the editorial department of Contemporary Magazine, Operation Sword was sent to relevant departments for examination. One copy was sent to the desk of the General Political Department Office.

"Comrade Bang Kuan, what do you think?"

Liu Boyu looked at his old friend and superior opposite him, and at the manuscript paper in his hand, with a smile on his face.

"Never seen a military novel like this before."

Comrade Bangkuan said: "It is clearly about the Battle of Shuojiang and the Battle of Fakashan, but it is mixed with many things that our army has never had before, especially this 'special operations force'. Let alone eleven special forces, we don't even have one."

"This is called 'military fantasy literature' and it has groundbreaking significance in the subject matter of military literature," Liu Boyu explained.

"I think it's not just about literature, but also the ideas and concepts for future special operations mentioned in it are very constructive."

Comrade Bang Kuan said: "For example, the requirements and methods for the selection of special forces soldiers, first of all, they must have a certain level of education, be under 23 years old, have good physical fitness and basic combat skills, and must be among the best in the division-wide competition..."

"These shouldn't violate confidentiality regulations, right?"

Liu Boyu asked.

"Of course it's not a violation. It doesn't exist in the first place, so there's no question of whether it's a violation or not. But the things Xiao Fang mentioned are worth further study."

Comrade Bang Kuan said: "We are now in the process of streamlining and reorganizing the army to build a strong, modern and regular army. In my opinion, this special forces unit is a very important part."

"This manuscript written by Xiao Fang is just in time."

Liu Boyu said with emotion.

Comrade Bang Kuan said that such forward-looking and constructive manuscripts should be combined to write an internal reference report and submit it.

Liu Boyu nodded. "Also, can we issue a notice to the entire army and organize the troops to read Operation Sword, just like we did with The Wreath Under the Mountain?"

Comrade Bang Kuan said: "I think it's okay. It would be best if we could publish a few comments in the military newspaper to discuss 'special operations'."

A week later, Liu Boyu's comments on Operation Sword were published immediately following the publication of the latest issue of Contemporary.

Following "The Garland under the Mountain", "Operation Sword" quickly caused a huge response and chain reaction both inside and outside the military.

This is tantamount to releasing a signal flare of group charge in the entire new wave of military literature.

Just like what Liu Boyu wrote in his commentary published in the Liberation Army Daily:

“Before the 1982 Symposium on the Creation of Military Literature, although there were works such as Anecdotes from the Western Front in the new era of military novels, they were just individual combat and could not become a major trend.

However, today is different. The two novels, "The Garland under the Mountain" and "Operation Sword", one in the south and the other in the north, have been published one after another.

It not only announced the rise of a group of young military writers in the new era, but also opened the prelude to the climax of military novels in the new era.

Moreover, with this as a symbol, four fronts reflecting "peaceful military", "contemporary war", "future warfare" and "spy warfare and anti-espionage" have been successfully opened up, indicating that a large number of young military writers will be like Li Cunbao and Fang Yan, and will show their talents on these four fronts! "

“The new future of military literature is coming!”

(End of this chapter)