You've already received a first-class merit award, why are you pretending to be a new recruit a

The wind at the shooting range on the back mountain can change in an instant.

What was originally just a gentle breeze rustling the hem of my clothes became noticeably stronger in less than ten minutes.

The edges of the white-gray lines on the ground were blurred by the wind, and tiny grains of sand hit the training uniforms, making a soft rustling sound.

The red and white flags in the distance of the target area, which were previously half-drooping, are now half-stretched.

The tail of the flag slammed violently to the right rear.

The instructor walked to the front of the line, holding a megaphone.

"Attention, all platoon members!"

"Add one item to the final preparations before live-fire exercise."

"Wind deflection correction".

In the ranks, many new recruits immediately frowned.

Chen Jingxing stood in the middle of Class One, secretly wiping the sand off his face with the back of his hand, and muttered in a low voice.

"Do you need to worry about the wind when shooting at a stationary target at 100 meters? These bullets aren't made of paper."

Wang Dashan stood to his side and behind him, and kicked Chen Jingxing in the calf.

"Bullets aren't made of paper, but your grades are made of paper."

Chen Jingxing immediately straightened his back and shut his mouth.

The instructor put down the loudspeaker and turned up the volume.

"Don't assume that just because it's a short distance of 100 meters, the wind won't blow the bullet off course."

"Crosswinds and diagonal winds can both cause the point of impact to shift."

"If you don't learn to read the situation, the bullets you fire will just be blind luck."

He pointed to the wind flags in the distance.

"Can someone tell me how windage correction is calculated in theory?"

On the second class's side, Sun Ming's hand was the first to be raised.

Chen Fei didn't stop him; instead, he stepped aside to give Sun Ming room to perform.

"Report!"

"speak."

Sun Ming stood ramrod straight, his voice booming, and he spoke at an extremely fast pace.

According to the recruit training manual, the wind drift correction formula is: wind speed multiplied by wind direction constant multiplied by distance. Crosswinds have the greatest impact, followed by diagonal winds, and headwinds have the least impact. When firing, the wind speed should be judged based on the angle of the wind flag or the state of natural objects, and corrections should be made by adjusting the aiming point offset!

Word for word.

Even the pauses in punctuation marks are exactly the same as in the textbook.

In the second squad's ranks, several new recruits couldn't help but puff out their chests.

The instructor nodded.

"You memorized it well."

"Then tell me now, given the current wind force, how would you fix it if you were to fire live ammunition at a 100-meter target?"

Sun Ming was stunned.

He stared at the wind flag in the distance, then glanced at the dust on the ground, his mind racing with formulas.

The distance is 100 meters. What is the wind direction constant? What is the wind speed on the Beaufort scale?

He opened his mouth.

"Report... The wind flag is currently at a 45-degree angle, judged to be a level 3 wind... Correction..."

He got stuck.

The textbook provides formulas and reference points, but it doesn't teach him how much to move the sights when facing a sudden, fluctuating crosswind while standing on the shooting range.

The instructor didn't criticize him; he just waved him back to his group.

"Theory is static, but the firing range is dynamic."

"The wind direction is constantly changing; you can't just grab a calculator and apply a formula before you fire."

In the third squad's formation, Li Qiang tightened his grip on the training rifle.

He glanced at the target in the distance, secretly feeling resentful.

At a distance of 100 meters, a bullet will take less than a fraction of a second to travel that distance. As long as you hold your gun steady and pull the trigger decisively, a little wind won't affect the overall situation at all.

Zhao Hai, standing next to Li Qiang, noticed the subtle movements in his hands.

"You think it's useless?"

Li Qiang didn't dare turn his head, staring straight ahead.

"Report, I believe that in close-range shooting, stability is paramount."

Zhao Hai kept his voice very low.

"When you finally get an eight, you can figure out whether the other two rings were blown away by the wind or by your own arrogance."

Li Qiang gritted his teeth and didn't reply.

The wind grew stronger, bringing a chill from the back mountain.

At the back of the line, Liu Hai's right ankle was still throbbing.

The sound of the wind, mixed with the echo from the instructor's loudspeaker, caused the training gun in his hand to sway up and down at the edge of the safe zone, following the rhythm of his arm movements.

Xiao Longteng stood in front of him without turning around.

"Bangs".

The sound wasn't loud, just enough to penetrate the wind and reach Liu Hai's ears.

Liu Hai felt a shiver run through his body.

"arrive."

"Take a deep breath and look at the white line ahead."

Liu Hai quickly did as instructed.

"Ignore the wind, ignore the gunfire." Xiao Longteng spoke steadily, enunciating each word clearly. "On the shooting range, you only have one thing to do."

Liu Hai swallowed hard.

"Listen to the command."

Liu Hai's arm steadied a little.

"I've got it."

The instructor took two steps forward and stopped in the center of the field.

"Since we can't figure it out with theory, let's use our eyes."

"Look at the flags in the wind, look at the tips of the grass, look at the sand on the ground."

He suddenly turned his head, his gaze sweeping over the entire company.

"Now, can anyone give me a straightforward assessment? Where is the current wind coming from, and which direction should we take?"

The entire room fell silent.

Sun Ming dared not raise his hand, Li Qiang kept his mouth tightly shut, and Chen Jingxing didn't even dare to breathe.

Xiao Longteng stood at the back of the line, his gaze fixed on the wind flag in the distance.

The frequency of the flag's swing.

The angle at which the sand and dust swirl along the ground.

The sensation of airflow brushing against your cheek.

Six years of muscle memory honed on the edge of a knife were instantly condensed in this moment.

The instructor had barely finished speaking when Xiao Longteng's lips moved before his reason could.

"At the ten o'clock position, the wind speed is three to four meters per second."

"The point of impact is slightly to the lower right."

"Fix half of the crosshair."

The sound wasn't loud, but in the quiet shooting range, it was clearly heard by the first few rows.

The instructor suddenly turned his head.

Lei Zhan, who was looking at the training plan in his hand, stopped instantly upon hearing these three short sentences.

Discipline's pen paused heavily on the record board, leaving a black mark.

Wang Dashan was standing to the side and behind Xiao Longteng, closest to him.

The moment he heard those words, the hairs on the back of his head stood on end.

Direction, wind speed, landing point trend, and final correction amount.

No nonsense.

There was no formula used.

The firing range came to a brief pause.

Chen Jingxing turned his head and stared blankly at Xiao Longteng. He didn't understand the specific meaning of those words, but he could sense that something was wrong with the atmosphere around him.

Sun Ming stared wide-eyed in the second-class line.

The instructor strode towards Class One and stopped in front of Xiao Longteng.

"You said that?"

Xiao Longteng's fingers, hanging at his sides, tightened slightly.

For six years, he had become accustomed to quickly reporting firing data in any environment. It was to save his life, to get the bullet into the enemy's head before the enemy could fire.

But in basic training, these words crossed the line.

He stood ramrod straight, his gaze level with the front of him.

"Yes, sir."

The instructor stared at him.

"How did you determine that?"

Lei Zhan walked over from the side, and Ji Lu followed. The three veterans stood in a semi-circle in front of Xiao Longteng.

Wang Dashan's fingers gripped the edge of the training clip tightly, his knuckles turning white.

Xiao Longteng remained completely calm.

He raised his right hand and pointed to the wind flag in the distance.

"Report."

"Page 30 of the recruit training manual, wind force determination standards."

"The wind flag is spread at a 45-degree angle, indicating a level 3 wind with a speed between 3 and 5 meters per second."

He lowered his hand and pointed to the ground again.

"The surface sand and soil are moving from the front left to the back right. Based on the direction of the wind flag, the wind direction is determined to be from the front left, around the ten o'clock position."

He speaks at a steady pace and with clear logic.

Lei Zhan stared at his face, not missing a single subtle change in expression.

Xiao Longteng added further.

"When the wind blows across, the bullet will drift with the wind. When the wind blows to the left front, the bullet's impact point will shift to the lower right."

"At a distance of 100 meters, a level 3 wind has limited impact. Based on the revision suggestions in the textbook, a half-point deflection is within the theoretically safe range."

The complete explanation is all within the framework of the textbook.

Using the most basic theory, he worked backwards to deduce the three professional phrases he had just blurted out.

Sun Ming, listening nearby, kept swallowing hard.

The instructor looked at Xiao Longteng, then glanced back at Feng Qi.

That makes sense.

Very reasonable.

A new recruit who has memorized the textbook perfectly and can apply it flexibly to actual observations could very well come to this conclusion.

But the instructors were also veterans.

Theoretical derivation takes time. And Xiao Longteng's judgment came almost simultaneously with his question.

That's not a derivation.

That was intuition.

The instructor didn't ask any further questions. He took out a pen from his pocket and turned to the page for Class One in his training folder.

Next to Xiao Longteng's name, he neither ticked nor circled it.

He wrote down the character "准" (zhun).

"Return to the team."

The instructor turned and walked back to the center of the field.

"Did you all hear that?"

"That's called thoroughly understanding the textbook."

"Tomorrow is live-fire. If there's wind, don't panic. Use this approach to make judgments."

Lei Zhan didn't leave immediately. He stood there and looked at Xiao Longteng for a full five seconds.

The file states "Logistics Support Brigade".

How could a logistics soldier hone his intuition for windage correction to this extent?

Lei Zhan touched the old scar on his chin and turned to walk towards the discipline.

"Let me see the record board."

Discipline passed the stick over.

Lei Zhan glanced at Xiao Longteng's entry.

It remains blank.

No points were deducted, and no violations were committed.

Everything was so orderly that no one could find fault with it.

Lei Zhan returned the board to the discipline committee and walked towards the company command area without saying a word.

In the first class's line, Chen Jingxing lowered his voice, his tone filled with barely suppressed excitement.

"Brother Xiao, those words you just said were so inspiring. Sun Ming from Class Two turned green with envy."

Liu Hai nodded in agreement from behind.

Xiao Longteng did not respond.

Instinct overpowered reason. The textbook deductions just now couldn't erase the traces of concealment.

Wang Dashan walked to the front of Class One, his face gloomy.

He neither scolded Chen Jingxing nor looked at Xiao Longteng.

He simply pressed the training clip in his hand down, with the edge of the clip resting against the outside of his thigh.

Wang Dashan stared at the white-gray line on the ground.

Tomorrow is the live-fire exercise.

Just by observing the wind, half of the truth has already been revealed.

When you actually pull the trigger, the recoil, muzzle jump, and firing rhythm are things that textbook theory can't hide at all.

Wang Dashan loosened his fingers from the training clip.

This new recruit's skin is about to burst open.