Courtyard Houses: Starting with Li Yunlong's Comrades-in-Arms

Zhao Gang was silent for a moment, then suddenly asked, "Old Liu, I went to pay my respects to the old brigade commander a few days ago, and he told me that you refused to go to his place? What happened?"

Upon hearing this, Li Yunlong, Kong Jie, and Ding Wei all looked over simultaneously. Li Yunlong put down his teacup, his brow furrowing slightly: "What's the situation with the old brigade commander?"

Liu Yuheng nodded, not hiding anything: "The old brigade commander is preparing to establish a military industrial academy and wanted me to be the department head. I thought about it and declined."

Li Yunlong picked up his wine glass, took a swig, smacked his lips, and said dismissively, "School? That's a no-go. Sending me to fight, no problem; sending me to sit in a classroom, I'd rather take two more bullets. No matter how good the old brigade commander's school was, it was a place for scholars. People like us who carry guns would only suffer there."

Kong Jie and Ding Wei nodded in agreement, their expressions identical, each more reluctant than the other.

"So you're planning to move somewhere else?"

Liu Yuheng was silent for two seconds, then nodded: "Basically, they've been sent to local areas. The exact destination is still uncertain. We'll discuss it after the troop reduction work is finished."

Li Yunlong leaned back in his chair, his expression complex: "Then you won't be able to get your rank conferred in time?"

Liu Yuheng picked up his teacup, took a sip, put it down, and said calmly, "Most likely. Unless something happens that makes me wait another year or two, if we can really catch up, maybe we can get two stars too."

Li Yunlong curled his lip: "You? I think one star is the maximum."

Kong Jie chimed in, his tone full of sarcasm: "I can't say for sure how many stars Old Liu gets, but you, Li Da Nao," he pointed at Li Yunlong, "are at most one star."

Ding Wei added insult to injury: "That's right. Although Lao Liu is still a division commander, he's already at the quasi-corps level. Lao Kong and I are both division commanders at the full army level, and you're just an acting division commander. You should be grateful if you're not promoted to senior colonel."

Li Yunlong's face darkened instantly. He opened his mouth to refute, but found he couldn't. His rank was indeed lower than Liu Yuheng's and Kong Jiedingwei's, and his position as acting army commander hadn't been officially confirmed yet—these were facts, and no matter how stubborn he was, he couldn't change them. After a long pause, he finally managed to squeeze out, "You bastards... you're just making fun of me."

Everyone burst into laughter, the sound echoing in the private room.

After laughing for a while, Zhao Gang put down his teacup, looked at Liu Yuheng, and said in a more serious tone, "Old Liu, if you're transferring to another place, is there anywhere you'd like to go? I can keep an eye out for you."

Liu Yuheng thought for a moment and said, "When I went back home for the Spring Festival, the commander told me that the old political commissar wanted me to go there. The old brigade commander also said that the director mentioned that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs could also consider it. But personally, I still prefer to go to the old political commissar's side."

"Why?" Zhao Gang asked.

"There are no small matters in diplomacy." Liu Yuheng's tone was very frank. "Diplomatic work is meticulous; a single wrong word can have international repercussions. I have no experience in this, and I'm afraid of making a mistake. It's more suitable for me to do some down-to-earth work at the local level."

Zhao Gang nodded without speaking. Li Yunlong, however, stared wide-eyed at Liu Yuheng in disbelief: "Ministry of Foreign Affairs? You can do diplomacy?"

Zhao Gang laughed and explained for Liu Yuheng: "You don't know this, do you? When Old Liu was fighting in the war, he learned two foreign languages, English and Korean."

Li Yunlong was stunned for a moment, clearly not expecting Liu Yuheng to have this ability. Kong Jie and Ding Wei also showed surprised expressions, obviously hearing about this for the first time as well.

Feeling a little embarrassed by the stares from the group, Liu Yuheng waved his hand and said with a smile, "Keep it down, keep it down. It's all just superficial knowledge. Being able to understand a few everyday conversations and read a few documents is nothing special."

"Dealing with the M army on the battlefield, sometimes they surrender and you don't understand what they're saying, which causes a lot of trouble. I learned a little from the translator, but it's only for emergencies. If you really asked me to do diplomacy, it would be like forcing a duck onto a shelf."

Li Yunlong raised his glass to Liu Yuheng and said, "Well done, Lao Liu. You've been keeping this under wraps all this time."

Liu Yuheng picked up his wine glass and raised it to the four of them: "Alright, alright, let's not talk about this anymore. It's rare for us to get together, let's have a drink."

The five men raised their glasses at the same time, and the crisp clinking sound echoed in the private room.

......

Five days flew by in a flurry of activity. The second batch of officers on leave returned to their units one after another, and the barracks gradually returned to their usual bustling state. Commands and orderly footsteps echoed again on the training grounds, and the offices were once again filled with the sounds of people coming and going.

Liu Yuheng stood by the office window, watching the figures in military uniforms moving around the camp below. He knew that this lively scene would soon cool down.

Disarmament is about to begin.

He returned to his desk, opened the list that had been revised several times, looked at it again to make sure nothing was missing, then closed the folder, picked up the phone on the desk, and shook the handle: "Notify all officers at the battalion level and above that there will be a meeting at the headquarters conference room at 2 PM tomorrow. Everyone must attend; no leave is allowed."

At 2 p.m. the next day, the headquarters conference room was packed with people. The long conference table was filled to capacity with the commanders and political commissars of the three divisions, the regimental commanders and political commissars of each regiment, the battalion commanders and political instructors of each battalion, as well as the heads of various departments of the military headquarters, making the conference room extremely crowded.

Some people had cigarettes between their fingers, some held enamel mugs, some were looking down at their notebooks, and some were whispering to the people next to them. The air was filled with the mixed smell of tobacco and tea, as well as that tense silence that was unique to the pre-conference period.

Liu Yuheng sat in the main seat, with Political Commissar Li to his left and two deputy army commanders and the chief of staff to his right. A document lay before him, his hands clasped on the table. He glanced around at everyone present, not speaking immediately. The meeting room gradually quieted down, all eyes fixed on him.

"Comrades, you have all received the Central Military Commission's order. The reduction of troops is a decision made above, an inevitable trend that no one can stop."

He paused for a moment, his gaze sweeping from left to right, taking in everyone's expressions.

He continued, "I know that you feel bad about cutting so many comrades at once, and I feel bad too."

These words were like a thorn, piercing the hearts of everyone present. The atmosphere in the meeting room grew even heavier.

"However, an order is an order. It must be carried out resolutely, thoroughly, and without any compromise. Now, I will announce the specific regulations for this disarmament."