Military career: Starting with a recruitment letter

Chapter 74: Preparing for Target Shooting, This is Too Disrespectful to the 81 Bar
The commendation meeting of the recruit company was not very grand, but it was fresh enough.

From the moment they enter the barracks, new recruits deal with abusive squad leaders and the cold, hard land every day.

I am taught all kinds of discipline and self-discipline all day long, and my ears are almost callused from hearing it.

Now, I suddenly see what they do every day.

You can actually get a big red commendation letter and a "model flag" that is bigger and brighter than the red flag of housekeeping, and it belongs to you personally.

This makes the new comrades, who feel unbearable all day long, desire honor.

At this moment, the climb reached its peak.

Especially looking at Xiucai, who was often praised by the squad leader and mentioned by the company commander, now held a commendation certificate in one hand and a red flag of training model in the other.

When standing on the stage and performing, he exudes confidence from the inside out.

It also made all the new recruits in the second company envious, envious from the bottom of their hearts.

Once the seeds of striving and desire to make achievements are planted, they are not so easy to be transferred or erased.

Bang bang bang.
The spontaneous applause became more and more intense, and the veterans watching next to the queue were also applauding.

Seeing this, Cheng Dong nodded, took two steps back, and gave the speaking position to Chen Mo.

He knew the eloquence of his scholar, which was so good that even he himself would be defeated repeatedly.

Chen Mo was not shy, as giving speeches was his specialty.

Wait until the applause in the queue gradually subsides.

When everyone looked up at him.

Chen Mo puffed out his chest and said loudly: "Hello comrades, let me introduce myself first. My name is Chen Mo, from the eighth squad of the second company of recruits. My squad leader is Zhou Yongjie, and he is also the third platoon leader."

"Since entering the military camp, many squad leaders, including our company commander and instructor, have always called me a scholar."

"To be honest, I quite like the title of 'Xiucai' because it represents outstanding talent. Even in ancient times, it could grant people privileges such as exemption from corvée labor and the ability to meet the county magistrate without having to perform formalities."

"But I know that the title is just a way of teasing. After joining the army, I can't rely on a title to survive. The squad leader told me that putting on this military uniform means choosing responsibility and commitment."

"At first, I didn't understand what this responsibility was, and what this responsibility meant."

"But now I understand, because we are soldiers, and soldiers are born to represent the iron backbone of the motherland."

"When we put on the military uniform, it is the mission entrusted to us by the country and the people. When we hold the gun tightly, it is the beginning of our undertaking of this mission."

"No matter what difficulties we encounter, we must maintain the fortitude and perseverance of a soldier with a mission and responsibility on our shoulders."

"Because only this kind of perseverance can support our iron backbone, protect the lights of thousands of homes, and contribute more to our country and people."

"I am grateful to the army for giving me the opportunity to wear this military uniform. I am also grateful to the veteran squad leader for his guidance, and even more grateful to the company commander and instructor for their supervision."

"thank you all!!"

After Chen Mo finished speaking, he handed the certificate in his right hand to his left hand, stood at attention and raised his hand to salute.

Bang bang bang bang
Another round of even more enthusiastic applause rang out. Although many recruits were a little confused, this did not prevent them from thinking it made sense and wanting to applaud.

Cheng Dong was also clapping, but he looked a little embarrassed.

"What's wrong?" Instructor Huo Linshan noticed that the company commander's face looked a little off. He curled his lips and whispered, "Are you feeling embarrassed?"

"Look at the enlightenment of the scholar, and then look at you. You looked down on him at the beginning. There is something wrong with your thinking, it's prejudice."

"Hearing the new recruit thank you, you must be embarrassed, right?"

"roll roll roll."

Cheng Dong was a little annoyed by what he said. He kicked his old partner and led the applause again.

He was embarrassed because Chen Mo mentioned the title of "scholar". In fact, at the beginning, this nickname was not a good thing.

In the army, especially in places like the reconnaissance company, scholars represent the weakness of the weak and somewhat pedantic people who are considered "scholars who bring ruin to the country."

In front-line units like Lao Ye, the more powerful nicknames are like armor-piercing bullet, tank, iron head, Scud, etc., which tell you that they are not easy to mess with.

The commendation meeting ended.

After the company commander announced the disbandment, Lao Pao led the people from Class 8 back to the dormitory with their heads held high.

This deputy squad leader is still excited about being awarded the title of training model.

Everyone also discovered that the red flag of housekeeping, which had not been hung at noon, had appeared on the wall in front of the metal cabinet at some point.

"Wow, our class is really number one?" Yang Dali walked into the dormitory, stared at the red flag of housekeeping, and then looked at the red flag of training model in Chen Mo's hand.

He grinned and said, "Our class has two red flags. If I can win one more, that will be three red flags. Just thinking about it makes me happy."

"If I can fight for one side, then that would make four sides."

Feng Junling smacked his lips beside him. He was not joking, but he really meant it.

The veterans never really care about this kind of communication between recruits.

As young people, it’s normal for us to like to talk and be lively.

As long as you train actively and have no mental problems, we won’t interfere too much.

He walked over to the metal cabinet and took out his meeting notebook, then clapped his hands and said, "Alright, alright, let's have a class meeting before dinner."

"The squad leader will be in charge of hanging the standard-bearing flag in the dormitory and putting the certificate of honor away. This is your first commendation in the army. Keep up the good work."

"Yes."

Chen Mo nodded quickly, and the others also brought their stools and gathered together.

"Today's class meeting will focus on two points." Lao Pao flipped open the notebook in his hand and said seriously, "First, I told you two days ago that you should change your uniforms before the New Year, and you will also be awarded your titles in advance."

"Recently, our company may have a lot of people from other units coming to watch the training results and the performance of each class."

"You can use your own discretion. The purpose of their coming here is to get a feel for who has performed well in training. Each unit will determine your placement in advance based on the roster."

"If you encounter these people, you can ignore them, or you can ask them in detail. If you can't make up your mind, you can come to me for advice."

"Now the conscription has been changed to a two-year system, which means that you have to stay in the unit you decide to join for at least two years. If you need anyone, you can come to me and I will help you find someone."

What Lao Pao said was really sincere.

He did have the ability to arrange everyone who was assigned to the company after Class 8 to the unit they wanted to go to.

It’s a pity that many recruits can’t seize this rare opportunity at all.

Because they don't understand.

At present, Yang Dali and his friends are still thinking about joining Chen Mo in the next company.

Anyone who privately talks to Lao Pao and says that they want to go to the civil service class, the training camp, or even go to the retirement home like Lu Jun from the next class.

Given Lao Pao's personality, he will most likely not refuse and will help.

According to Chen Mo's guess, in Lao Pao's case, Class 8 might be the last class of recruits he would lead in his military career.

When new recruits join the camp in the future, veterans with such experience will not be allowed to lead them. This is really a waste of talent.

"Secondly, as I mentioned earlier, after the physical and tactical weeks, our training schedule will be unified."

"That means we have to go through all the training to make the final sprint for the competition. Starting tomorrow, everyone will carry a backpack and a gun when they go to drill."

"All aspects of training are strictly aimed at passing scores. Each class will practice separately, and we will focus on the subject that does not meet the standard."

"okay."

Lao Pao closed the meeting book, stood up and said, "That's all for the class meeting. The class deputy will hang up the housekeeping flag and then lead the team to the cafeteria for dinner."

"Disband."

Time passes day by day.

January 1st soon arrived, which was the sixth week of training for their second company of recruits.

During this period.

The training arrangement is similar to what Lao Pao emphasized in the class meeting.

The training schedule is still packed, but classes will no longer have to take common subjects.

In order to arrange the next competition, the squad leaders of each class practiced separate subjects according to the training situation of the new recruits in the class, and found out which subjects had unsatisfactory results.

Just stick to this subject and stick to it.

Class 8 is no exception. They have been practicing obstacle course running, bomb throwing and horizontal bar pulling in the past few days, which has made everyone in the class very tired.

Because comprehensive practice does not require you to master the essentials beforehand, you just need to learn them.

For example, in the 400-meter obstacle race, the requirement is to run it within one minute and forty seconds. If you reach the passing standard, everything will be fine.

If anyone can't reach it.

That would be terrible. The old man would stare at you and make you run more than 30 times in the morning.

My heart almost started to smoke.

Do you know what more than 30 times means? Including rest and restart, each time is about eight minutes.

The north wind howled in the dead of winter, driving you to the point where white smoke billowed from your head and your whole body steamed like you were about to cultivate immortality. Throwing bombs was a non-issue; the passing score was 35 meters, and the veterans took the average, requiring each bombing distance to be no less than meters. If you failed to meet the standard once, you would be in trouble.

That's it, get your arms swinging and prepare to throw for an hour straight.

After practicing for a whole morning, my arms are so sore that I can't hold chopsticks.

Pull-ups are even more demanding, requiring continuous and uninterrupted movements. You can choose to stop for three seconds during the exercise, and you will pass if you pull up fifteen times.

But if someone can't do it enough or can't hold on, the belt will be used as a rope to hang the person's arms to the top of the horizontal bar, and the hanging time will be at least three hours.

After finally passing these three items.

Class 8 entered the gun-holding period as a whole, taking turns to practice in standing, standing, and kneeling positions. In addition to running during the morning exercises, they also practiced gun-holding during the daytime and night training.

In Lao Pao's words, it doesn't matter whether you aim or not, it doesn't matter whether you can aim or not at the moment.

The important thing is that as a soldier, you must first learn to hold a gun and ensure that the gun is in your hand for several hours without shaking your hands, legs, or eyes, before you are qualified to engage in target shooting.

Ten o'clock in the morning on the 31st.

As usual, Chen Mo and his team were holding 81 rifles and practicing standing shooting movements.

The Type 81 rifle is the most hands-wasting gun. I don’t know where this rule came from, but when practicing tactical moves, you must make a noise with the gun, which means you must release the magazine.

After a day of training, if you shoot frequently, you can shoot hundreds of times. The magazine will be fine, but your hands will swell up like pig's trotters every time.

Even when practicing standing position, you must hold the magazine with your left hand, the butt of the gun against your shoulder socket, and the grip with your right hand.
Seeing that they had persisted for nearly an hour and Lao Pao was still nowhere to be seen, Yang Dali lowered his voice and asked, "Deputy Squad Leader, can you still hold on?"

"I'm almost done."

"Hold on a little longer." Chen Mo responded with gritted teeth and cold sweat on his forehead. He had to grit his teeth.

The other soldiers in the eighth squad all used bullet belts when holding their guns in a standing position, and hung two bricks at the position of the gun barrel.

Only he was different. He had seven water bottles hanging on the muzzle of his gun. From high to low, the one at the bottom was almost touching the ground.

There is no other way. Soldiers who perform well should have different privileges.

Of these seven kettles, only one was hung by Chen Mo himself, and the remaining three were hung by Lao Pao.

As for the three, Cheng Dong observed two of them for a while during his inspection and felt that Xiucai had not reached his limit, so he killed two of them.

The last one is hung up by the instructor.

"Deputy squad leader, you're really strong. You can still hold on even with seven kettles. If it were me, I would have given up long ago." Yang Dali grinned and wanted to laugh, but couldn't.

Because he was also suffering.

Zhu Gaituan licked his dry lips, tilting his head and blinking hard. "I really don't know when this will end. You guys say it's just a gun, what's the point of hanging this thing up every day?"

"The competition is about to start. If we are not allowed to shoot, how can we win?"

"If I let you shoot now, can you hit the target?"

Everyone was complaining and didn't notice that Lao Pao had walked behind them.

A sudden sound suddenly rang in his ear, and Zhu Gaituan was so scared that he almost dropped his gun.

The others were also frightened by the sound, their hearts pounding, the hair on their foreheads stood up, and they closed their mouths tightly, not daring to say a word.

"Speak up," the old man said, walking around to the front of the group with his hands behind his back. "Don't you want to shoot? I'm asking if you can hit the target. Why don't you say anything?"

When the old man saw the string of kettles hanging on Chen Mo's gun during the questioning, he was also stunned for a moment: "Who hung it there?"

"Report, it's the company commander and the instructor." Chen Mo said with difficulty.

"nonsense."

Lao Pao frowned, took out all the kettles, and waved his hand: "You guys should take a rest too."

This statement came out.

The squad of eight collapsed instantly. Everyone put down their guns and rubbed their arms vigorously. Although they had been practicing holding the gun recently, they couldn't adapt to the one-hour training session.

Chen Mo's hands were shaking like the old lady selling popsicles. He squatted on the ground and rubbed his shoulders vigorously.

Seven water bottles filled with water. Although the Type 87 water bottles they used were light in weight, they weighed almost three pounds when filled with water, and more than twenty pounds in total. Chen Mo didn't know how he had been aiming for more than half an hour.

Seeing that everyone was resting, Lao Pao simply sat down cross-legged on the ground: "I just asked you, did you think I was joking?"

"The company is organizing a shooting today. We don't have live ammunition, but the reconnaissance company has already started transporting bullets here."

"Each squad will be issued five bullets for target practice. This will be used for rifle calibration. The target is a prone chest ring at a hundred meters."

"Now that there's no one at the shooting range, I can go practice my aim."

"Go."

When they heard Lao Pao say he wanted to shoot, the people who were sitting on the ground rubbing their arms were stunned and looked at each other.

They were all a little confused.

The main thing is that I was just complaining about not having the chance to shoot a gun. Isn’t this happiness coming too suddenly?
"Sergeant, are we really going to shoot?" Yang Dali asked stupidly.

"Why, do you need me to explain it to you again?"

Seeing Lao Pao pressing his right hand on the ground as if to stand up, Lao Yang shook his head like a rattle and hurriedly stepped back.

Chen Mo, on the other hand, was much more relaxed. He turned his head to look around the training ground and asked, "Squad leader, where is the shooting range?"

"We don't have a shooting range." Lao Pao raised his hand and pointed to the east of the company headquarters. "Go over there. The motor company has a shooting range."

"After you get in the car, turn right and go straight. You will see the open space in the northwest corner."

"Someone from the company has already gone over to draw the line. You guys go ahead."

The location is stated so accurately, there must be no problem.

Chen Mo raised his gun, grinned, and shouted, "Everyone, line up."

"Target car company, march in step."

"Press two-one, press two-one."

A group of people, carrying guns, walked out of the training ground.

When Chen Mo turned his head and could no longer see Lao Pao, he raised the rifle in his hand and said with a smile: "Brothers, charge, target range."

"Rush!!"

A group of new recruits were running wildly on the road in front of the company headquarters like wild horses.

I practiced holding a gun every day, and even in my dreams I complained about how uncomfortable it was.

Now we can finally get serious about it.

Even Chen Mo couldn't help but let out a sigh and rushed towards the car company with his men.

At the entrance connecting the recruit company and the motor vehicle company, there are two sentries on duty, one standing and one sitting.

When he saw this group of new recruits rushing over, he let them pass without even raising his eyelids or looking at them.

At first, Chen Mo thought that only their Class 8 was special and could see the terrain in advance.

Unexpectedly.

After they arrived at the shooting range of the other party's motor vehicle company, in less than five minutes, almost all the squads of the second company of recruits were present.

That guy, his teeth were bared, and the smile on his face was harder to suppress than a pig during Chinese New Year, and it wasn't even Chinese New Year yet.

The atmosphere is more festive than Chinese New Year.

Squad Eight arrived early and indeed occupied a good position. Several of them lay down in front of the line drawn in advance by the veteran with white lime, aiming blindly with their guns.

The shooting range lines have been drawn, but the target paper and other items have not been installed yet.

Chen Mo was not that interested. He just sat on the ground with the gun in his arms.

I heard Zhu Gaituan explaining the shooting techniques to the people in Class 8. As for where he got his experience, I don't know.

Anyway, hearing things like "changing the aiming point", "slowing down the shooting speed", and "following the bird's movements throughout the process" sounds like experience gained from shooting birds with a shotgun.

One person was talking and six people were listening. Five of them took it seriously and nodded in agreement.

Chen Mo listened for a while and smacked his lips.

I stood up and moved around, trying to sit a little further away. The main reason was that after Zhu Gaituan finished teaching, Feng Junling also started to explain how to use his own bird gun.

Otherwise, why do they say that a skilled person is brave? They were all recruits, and not only did someone dare to teach them how to shoot, but some even dared to listen.

It is indeed a bit disrespectful to the 81 bar.

When Chen Mo was sitting here feeling bored, the new recruits in the distance suddenly became restless and the crowd gathered together.

He then stood up and looked into the distance.

I saw more than a dozen veterans coming over with target paper, including three veterans, each holding a small green wooden box in his arms.

The box has a sense of age, and there are a lot of small white words faintly printed on the surface.

It looks like a bullet box at first glance.

(End of this chapter)