Courtyard House: From Deputy Division Commander to Civilian, Progressing All the Way

The next morning.

As dawn broke, the wind on the Gobi Desert still carried a biting chill.

A military truck was parked at the entrance of the division headquarters compound.

Lin Weidong and Lin Jianguo changed into ordinary coarse cloth clothes, carried patched green canvas bags, and silently walked towards the truck.

There was no celebratory farewell with gongs and drums, nor any big red flowers.

But the roads on both sides of the truck were spontaneously filled with people.

The regimental commander and company commander of the armored regiment, Gao Dashan, along with all the comrades of the spearhead platoon, stood upright in the wind and sand, fully armed.

Gao Dashan's eyes were as red as a rabbit's. He bit his lip tightly until Lin Weidong walked up to him, at which point he suddenly stood at attention.

"salute!"

brush!

Hundreds of tough men on both sides of the road raised their right hands at the same time to pay the highest respect to their two comrades who were forced to take off their uniforms.

Lin Weidong did not return the gift, because he was no longer entitled to it.

He simply looked at his brothers intently, etching their faces into his mind. Then, he turned and climbed onto the truck without hesitation.

With the engine roaring, the truck drove further and further away into the swirling yellow sand.

……

Four days later.

Northern Jiangsu, saline-alkali land, Qinghe Brigade.

Unlike the vast and desolate Gobi Desert in Northwest China, the late autumn here is permeated with a cold, damp, and decaying atmosphere.

The endless reed beds swayed in the wind under the gray sky. The muddy dirt road was full of potholes and puddles. The air was filled with the smell of fermenting mud and fish.

A dilapidated long-distance bus broke down on the dirt road at the entrance of the village.

Lin Weidong and Lin Jianguo, carrying heavy packs, trudged through ankle-deep mud into the impoverished village.

Qinghe Brigade was a notoriously poor village in the surrounding area. Most of the land was saline-alkali soil, and the grain produced was not even enough to pay the grain tax. For most of the winter, the villagers had to rely on digging wild vegetables and reed roots to fill their stomachs.

The brigade headquarters was a row of dilapidated thatched houses, with the thatch on the roofs blown off by the wind.

Old Liu, the brigade secretary, was squatting under the eaves smoking a pipe. He was wearing a tattered cotton-padded jacket whose color was indistinguishable, and his face was covered with deep wrinkles like walnut shells.

Old Liu was taken aback when he saw two tall, upright young men with sharp eyes walking over.

These past few days, a notice came down saying that two educated youths from Beijing would be assigned to their village. Old Liu was extremely unhappy about it. These pampered city kids were useless, unable to do anything, and in this poor, remote place, the village would have to subsidize their food rations.

But these two people in front of me don't look like young masters from the city at all.

Their clothes, though old, were very clean. They stood as straight as two iron towers, their bodies perfectly stable as they walked on the slippery, muddy road. The slightly younger one, in particular, had a chilling, menacing look in his eyes.

"You... are you the two Beijing educated youths sent from above?" Old Liu stood up and tapped his pipe.

"Lin Weidong. Lin Jianguo." Lin Weidong simply gave his name and handed over a crumpled letter of introduction.

Old Liu took the letter of introduction, didn't even look at it, and stuffed it directly into his pocket.

"When you get to Qinghe, no matter what you did in the city before, you have to put away your spoiled brat attitude. We don't support idlers here. If you don't finish your work and don't get work points, you'll go hungry," Old Liu said sternly.

"I understand. Where will you stay?" Lin Weidong asked casually, without any of the complaints and fears commonly seen in urban youth who had just been sent to the countryside.

Old Liu was taken aback and pointed to a dilapidated mud-brick house at the east end of the village.

"That used to be the team's cowshed. The cows starved to death a few years ago, and it's been empty ever since. You can make do there for now. Tomorrow morning, you'll go with the third team to dig drainage ditches on the east beach. That's tough work, don't blame me for not warning you."

Cowshed.

The mud walls let in drafts from all sides, and the thatched roof had a large hole in it. The floor was covered with dried cow dung and rotten straw. Inside, there was nothing but a bed made of broken planks.

A cold draft blew through the room, making people shiver.

Lin Jianguo put down his luggage, looked at the bleak environment, and gave a bitter laugh: "Weidong, this place is even worse than the snow pits we dug during our winter training in the Northwest. At least snow pits don't let in any wind."

Lin Weidong remained silent.

He opened his canvas bag, took out a military entrenching tool, walked directly to the corner of the room, and began cleaning up the cow dung on the ground.

"Stop complaining," Lin Weidong said coldly while shoveling cow dung. "This is northern Jiangsu, not Beijing, and certainly not an armored division. We're just the lowest-ranking educated youth here. Dad said he threw us here to shut those people up."

Lin Weidong straightened up, looking at the dilapidated roof, his eyes gleaming with a wolf-like light in the dim cowshed.

"Do they think that by exiling us to this quagmire, they can force the Lin family to bow down and break our bones?"

Lin Weidong forcefully shoveled the entrenching tool into the hard mud.

"Jianguo, get to work! Turn this cowshed into a field barracks! Tomorrow we'll dig ditches. I want everyone in this poor mountain village to see that armored soldiers who came from the Gobi Desert in Northwest China can uproot this saline-alkali land even with just hoes!"

Lin Jianguo took a deep breath, sweeping away his earlier frustration. He took off his coat, revealing his muscular physique, and picked up a broken broom to join in the cleaning.

In this cold and damp cowshed in northern Jiangsu, there were no more roaring tanks, no more armed comrades. But the indomitable steely will of the Lin family's sons began its most brutal second tempering in this mud.

Meanwhile, in the distant city of Beijing.

Lin Yang was sitting behind a large mahogany desk, looking at the red-headed document on the table, which had just been issued by the Municipal Revolutionary Committee, entitled "On Strictly Investigating the Privileged Children of Military Personnel".

At the end of the document, it was specifically noted that "after investigation, Lin Weidong, Lin Jianguo and other educated youths have been strictly transferred to Qinghe Brigade in northern Jiangsu in accordance with regulations to receive re-education from poor and lower-middle peasants."

Zhao Lichun stood aside, carefully observing Lin Yang's expression.

"Minister, Ma Guoqiang's investigation team came up empty-handed in the Northwest Military Region and returned in disgrace."

Previously, not only had they failed to find any fault with Commander Kong, but they had also been severely reprimanded by the Central Military Commission for affecting frontline combat readiness. This time, they've truly shot themselves in the foot.

Lin Yang's lips curled into a cold, mocking smile.

He casually tossed the official document into the wastepaper basket.

"Politicians' tricks can only be played on paper."

Did they think they could defeat me by throwing my son into the mud?