Literary Master 1983

Chapter 416 Learning from the Spirit of Laoshan
According to Squad Leader Li, things were even worse back then. There weren't even any stilt houses; there was only a small reef slightly below sea level. How could they "set up camp" there?

Because of the rising and setting of the sun and moon, the sea has a time of high and low tide. When the tide is high, the soldiers would go back to rest by boat. When the tide is low, a small part of the reef would be exposed, enough for one or two people to stand on... So, they would take the national flag, stick it on it, and stand guard with their guns.

This move is more symbolic than substantive, but its form demonstrates our jurisdiction over this area.

There are not only specialized agencies, but also specialized personnel.

"Therefore, we will no longer give those enemies any excuses from a legal standpoint! They always say that this place is far from your capital, but very close to our coastline. But the division of the sea area was decided long ago, and everyone agrees on it."

Upon hearing this, Xiao Hu said angrily, "So it was these monkeys who made me suffer and stand guard! If I were to criticize their absurd logic... I would say that Vietnam is closer to the capital, shouldn't they listen to us?"

"I'm going to Hanoi to stand guard and plant the flag!"

Everyone laughed.

Squad Leader Li then began to recount his experiences on guard duty a couple of days prior.

The terrifying thing about standing on the reef is that when the tide comes in again, you have to watch the water gradually engulf your body, and you have to hope that a boat will come to pick you up on time.

What if the boat doesn't come to pick you up?

Although Sergeant Li had never encountered this situation while on duty, he had made his own plans: if the boat didn't come to pick him up, he would stay afloat around the reef. He was in good physical condition and could float all night—even until the next low tide.

In this way, as soon as the boat that comes to pick him up arrives, he will be seen standing on the reef again!

Everyone else was stunned.

How the hell are we supposed to stand guard like this?
Squad Leader Li said, "This was a special measure for a special period of time, and it didn't actually last for more than a few months. As a member of the scientific expedition team at the time, I was probably the first person in China to plant a red flag on this place. I think I haven't lived my life in vain."

Everyone was shocked.

That night, Lu Yingmo wrote about this experience in his "Sailor's Diary." There was no light in the stilt house, and he relied entirely on the moonlight at sea to decipher the writing. However, the light was naturally very weak, so Lu Yingmo's handwriting was crooked and uneven, and he himself did not know what he had written.

As he wrote more, Lu Yingmo forgot the earlier parts of the text.

Ugh!
Lu Yingmo couldn't help but sigh.

Teacher Yu encouraged me to write novels. He didn't know that most people don't have his talent, but their circumstances are even more difficult than his.

At least he had a desk available at that time.

Lu Yingmo stared blankly at the sea.

"Xiao Lu?" someone suddenly called him.

Lu Yingmo was startled and turned to look, only to see Squad Leader Li's face: "Are you creating something?"

"Report... I am indeed creating."

"Why are you even writing?! It affects your rest and makes it difficult to get your manuscripts published. Do you expect someone to come and pick up your manuscripts by warship?"

Yes! With such difficult conditions, what's the point of creating anything?
"I don't know either," Lu Yingmo said after a moment of silence.

As soon as the words were spoken, a new tide suddenly rose on the sea, the waves gleaming in the moonlight, surging in one after another. The highest point visible between heaven and earth was the stilt house where he stood. Beyond that, all that remained were the ocean waves, which would never learn to speak.

It is so desolate, it seems it will never change for millions of years.

Lu Yingmo suddenly felt melancholy, but the class monitor shook his head and said, "No, you should be doing creative work! You should write about our lives."

Now it was Lu Yingmo's turn to doubt himself: "Class monitor, this isn't ten years ago! There are too many people who can write novels, and everyone has a literary dream. If I spend all my time writing novels, I'll never make a name for myself in my entire life."

“Moreover…” Lu Yingmo sighed, “With Teacher Yu’s masterpiece as a precedent, and his writing being so good, none of us will be able to write as well as him in the future.”

“You’re wrong. One day, even Yu Qie won’t be able to write as well as you!” the class monitor said.

Lu Yingmo looked up in surprise.

But then the squad leader said, "This is what Teacher Yu said himself. He said we should travel more and see more! The army encourages soldiers to engage in creative writing, and people outside the army also write military novels. However, almost no one writes about us island-stationed sailors, and there aren't many who write about the navy either. Not many people know about our situation."

“When I first started training, we anchored not far from the shore. We called it ‘anchor training.’ The warship would leave the dock, and the people on board could see the land but could not go ashore. This kind of training would last for one or two months. When Captain Zhou’s wife came to visit, she could only stand far away on the shore and watch the warship. She couldn’t even see the people.”

"When Lao Zhou had free time, he would stare blankly at the shore from the ship. We felt that we were like the relationship between the warship and the land, being held back by a rope but unable to go ashore. That's why we call our hometown 'anchorage'! I've read many novels since the term 'anchorage' appeared, but no one has ever mentioned it! Actually, we all say it that way! But people outside the warship don't know it!"

That night, Squad Leader Li talked about many things.

The difficulties faced by officers and soldiers are far more severe than those depicted in novels. And while there are many military novelists in the literary world, they at most write about the green flowers in the military; they could not possibly actually train on offshore ships for several months.

Not to mention setting up camp on the reef.

In other words, when we further subdivide military literature, there's still a void in novels depicting sailors. It's precisely the kind of work that needs someone like Lu Yingmo to fill that gap.

One solution cannot solve all problems.

He couldn't possibly be in Laoshan, Nansha, and simultaneously aboard a war falcon in the sky. He was alone.

Lu Yingmo understood! This was why he should create.
-
After the publication of the standalone booklet "The Battle of Laoshan", the second installment of the serialized novel was also published simultaneously in newspapers and periodicals such as "Military Literature".

More than sixty newspapers and periodicals across the country have already serialized or will soon serialize this novel.

Since the novel's publication, it can be said that from April to June of 88, the whole country flocked to see Laoshan, and military literature showed signs of a resurgence!
In the story, "Zhang Xingwu" displayed great prowess on the Laoshan battlefield, his small figure constantly running across the battlefield.

Zhang Xingwu, carrying a medical kit, weaved through gunfire to stop the bleeding and bandage the wounded, even when all he was left with was a torn shirt. The enemy, recognizing him as a medic, concentrated their fire, but he miraculously remained unharmed.

The troops launched a campaign to "learn from the spirit of Laoshan" and invited Yu Qie to give a report to everyone.

The soldiers were most puzzled by Zhang Xingwu's unscathed crossing of the fire line.

"He seemed to be blessed by the gods, he represented the will of God... That's the Western way of saying it. Here, I understand it as excellent combat skills and some inexplicable luck, which should be acknowledged," Yu Qie said in his report.

Someone in the audience asked him, "Why is Zhang Xingwu able to avoid getting injured? Why does he dare to charge into battle?" This was a comrade from the cultural troupe.

Yu Qie said, “I wrote about it in detail in the novel. Most casualties in war do not come from bullets, but from artillery fire. Zhang Xingwu did not use his flesh and blood to attack the position, but rescued his comrades on the secondary front, putting them in one shell crater after another... Statistically speaking, the possibility of the same shell crater being bombed twice is very small.”

"The Vietnamese artillery has been suppressed by our charge. If you've ever been on the battlefield, you know that as a spearhead company, the more afraid you are of death, the more likely you are to die. To survive, you have to put yourself in a life-or-death situation."

"Therefore, his 'bravery' should not be interpreted as recklessness, but rather as a rational tactical choice."

Yu Qie's answer won applause from the entire audience.

Because Yu Qie had conducted in-depth investigations, he truly understood the front lines.

"The Battle of Laoshan" is an ensemble drama novel. In addition, Shi Guangzhu, the battalion commander, and He Zhiguang, the Tibetan soldier who cut off the snake's head, all have their roles. In their respective stories of bravely fighting the enemy, there are also memories of why they joined the army and why they dared to be the spearhead.

Shi Guangzhu's success stems from his family's glorious tradition—his parents were both long-time members of the Communist Party.

Zhang Xingwu was proactive; he joined the army at the age of sixteen, and he already dared to make decisions about his own life.

He Zhiguang, a soldier from Tibet, came from a family that had been serfs for four generations. In his generation, he finally turned his life around. On the battlefield, he didn't think too much about the consequences; he only knew that he must never let anyone make him go back to the days of serfdom.

There was also the battalion commander, and the young soldiers from the next company...

The diverse members of the "spearhead company" gradually formed a single point—why the Battle of Laoshan was won, and even why the war revealed the ambition of the people of this country.

It is a collective entity that has been continuously propelled upward by countless people, and Yu Qie's novel breaks down this chaos into specific stories.

This is precisely the writer's talent.

After its release, the single-volume edition quickly sold out, with 300,000 copies sold within a month.

Sold out! Sold out!
All over the country, in post offices, Xinhua bookstores, magazine kiosks... you can see this sentence everywhere!

"The Battle of Laoshan" is no longer available! Please look elsewhere!
Newspapers at the central government and provincial and municipal levels rushed to reprint the article, it was broadcast repeatedly on People's Radio, and dozens of local theater troupes adapted it...

Li Cunbao, a fellow military novelist, commented: "Yu Qie is very ambitious! He reminds me of the masterpiece 'And Quiet Flows the Don,' about how a farmer is drawn into many wars, including World War I, the February Revolution, and the October Revolution, without knowing anything about them. Grigory is a Cossack living on the Don River who goes to the Red through war, suffering, and bloodshed."

“When we look back on Grigory’s life, we not only remember his hometown deeply, but also feel the magnificent epic feeling. Although the Battle of Laoshan is not that many words long, it has the charm of an epic. The Soviet writer Sholokhov took fourteen years, while Yuche only took four years.”

How many people know that Yu Qie actually wrote it in just six months! That's jaw-dropping!
The novel's fame grew and eventually reached the front lines, where it was heard by the Vietnamese.

The negotiations between the two countries to ease tensions are already underway.

The front lines were no longer a matter of life and death like they had been four years ago; people could now talk outside their foxholes in broad daylight. News came from the soldiers on the front lines: the Vietnamese had a love-hate relationship with the film "The Battle of Laoshan," generally mocking and ridiculing it, yet unable to resist watching it.

They called those who loved Yu Qie's books "Yu-isms" and traitors in the Vietnamese army, but Yu Qie's novels were so well-written that so many people read them that it was impossible to catch all such traitors!
Sometimes, the Vietnamese military police would catch "remaining elements" from the front lines and confiscate the novel "The Battle of Laoshan" that they had exchanged with the frontline soldiers. Then, when it was quiet at night, they would immediately start reading it by themselves, and then be reported by others... causing all sorts of funny situations!
Liu Jiaju from Military Literature came to congratulate Yu Qie. He had won the new "Special Prize for Outstanding Novel in the Whole Army," ranking first on the list.

“There was an officer on the Vietnamese side who thought your novel was too exaggerated—it looked down on their combat skills! He said that you wrote very well at the beginning, pointing out that they were not just small fry, but elite soldiers who had fought for many years... However, as the plot developed, they became very dissatisfied.”

"Oh?" Yu Qie said, "They actually dare to be dissatisfied? Did they pay me the copyright fees?"

"Royalties? If you can get copyright fees from Hanoi or Ho Chi Minh City, that's your skill!"

Liu Jiaju recalled the words spoken by the other person: "He said, 'I don't believe that a dozen machine guns couldn't kill a medic, not even a scratch!'"

Yu Qie laughed loudly: "You'd have to ask their army! I'm just stating the facts. Zhang Xingwu is still alive, and he's even much younger than me!"

Zhang Xingwu is a real person, and moreover, almost all the characters in "The Battle of Laoshan" have real-life counterparts. Yu Qie has donated all of his royalties to his foundation, distributing them to the characters in the book as "interview fees."

He doesn't lack the hundreds of thousands of yuan in royalties from domestic publications, but that money can support veterans to have a good social foundation.

In fact, the military has never mistreated the members of the elite unit. It's just that some of them have chosen to leave the military and start their own businesses in recent years, and quite a few have failed... Four years is enough time to change many things.

When the soldiers from back then met Yuqie again, some of them were even heavily pregnant and had started small businesses in the south.

Both sides were filled with emotion.

The film "The Battle of Laoshan" once again mentions their achievements four years ago, and the veterans are very grateful to Yu Qie.

In early May, magazines such as *October* and *People's Literature* reprinted Yu Qie's novels. Within a week, countless letters arrived, and editor Zhang Shouren, just like he had done years before, personally delivered the carefully selected letters to Yu Qie's home.

After a novel becomes a success, replying to readers' letters is a major challenge.

Within a few months, the letters I received each week could be delivered by a small tricycle, carrying two large sacks of mail!

Modern writers still retain the noble character of traditional writers, striving to reply to as many letters as possible. Feng Jicai, Wang Zengqi, and others would set aside two hours each day specifically for replying to letters.

The children's literature author Zheng Yuanjie even bought ten houses to store his letters—planning to reply to them one by one when he has time in the future.

After Lu Yao became famous for "Ordinary World," he sometimes had to borrow money to repay readers' letters! This is truly a testament to the kindness of his readers!

Yu Qie didn't have time to reply, so the task fell to editor Zhang Shouren.

Zhang Shouren is 55 years old this year. He has begun to feel his body declining rapidly and he is becoming increasingly weak.

Shouldn't it be time to retire gracefully?
Zhang Shouren felt conflicted.

But Yu Qie's novel once again brought him the joy of being an editor. His new work has received high praise from all sectors of society, and the tremendous response it has generated represents a new high point in Yu Qie's recent creative output.

2666? Subway?
Chinese people still prefer to read Chinese novels.

Zhang Shouren tirelessly replied to Yu Qie's letters, writing countless blessings in Yu Qie's name.

As he passed the entrance to Gulou Street, he felt his heart begin to beat strongly again.

(End of this chapter)