Siheyuan (traditional courtyard house): Starting with the Korean War, returning home to take charge

The days of intensive training were soaked in sweat, sticky and slow, yet they flew by in the blink of an eye. The fresh-faced or rustic appearance of the new recruits had long since been tanned into a uniform dark tan, and their eyes had developed a hardened, gleaming light.

He Yuzhu's position as deputy squad leader was becoming more stable. With more responsibilities, he also gained access to training arrangements and occasionally managed to exchange a few words with the squad leader, or even the stern-faced Li. Sun Ba appeared to be relatively well-behaved, snorting as a greeting when they met, but the gloom in his eyes never dissipated.

That evening, training had just ended, and everyone was still drenched in sweat when a sharp emergency assembly whistle ripped through the camp's clamor. The whistle was short and piercing, carrying a sense of urgency. Everyone dropped their towels and water bottles and scrambled out to line up.

Li, with his hands behind his back, stood on the earthen platform, his face more somber than usual. His gaze swept over the panting queue, and he cut to the chase:

"Order from higher command! Each unit is to select key personnel to supplement reconnaissance units! There are also openings in the recruit camps!"

A buzz of commotion arose below. Scouts! That was the sharpest of the sharp, the most elite among the veterans, a place rumored to be both dangerous and treacherous.

"Stop laughing!" Li, with a dark face, interrupted the discussion. "It's not like you can just go whenever you want! You have to take an exam! If you pass, that's your skill; if you fail, come back and keep practicing!"

He paused, his gaze sweeping across the crowd like a sieve: "There's only one test—tonight, on the back mountain, we'll simulate an enemy command post. The map gives a general area; there are 'enemy' patrols, checkpoints, and sentries. Your mission is to sneak in, find the command tent, retrieve the 'intelligence' circled in red on the table, and then return here unharmed. The deadline is 4 AM tomorrow. Rules: No weapons allowed, no harm! If you're spotted by a sentry, called out by name, or captured, you're immediately eliminated! Understand?"

"Understood!" The roar was deafening, but many people's eyes were unfocused. In the pitch black, sneaking into a wary, unfamiliar mountain area, searching for something, hiding from people... just thinking about it makes your scalp tingle.

"Voluntary registration! If you want to try, step forward!" Li, with a dark face, said sternly.

The crowd fell silent for a few seconds. Then, one after another, people stepped forward. He Yuzhu didn't hesitate and took a step. Wang Dazhuang gritted his teeth and followed. Sun Ba hesitated for a moment, then stepped forward with a grim face. In the end, about thirty people stepped forward, all of them outstanding in physical strength and courage from their respective classes.

"Alright!" Dark-faced Li nodded, gesturing for the staff officer to hand out a makeshift mimeographed map and a piece of charcoal for marking. "You only have ten minutes to look at the map, then hand it in. Remember, this is an assessment, and also a rehearsal for actual combat! Keep your eyes peeled!"

He Yuzhu took the map and quickly scanned it. The map was rough, only marking a few main mountain ridges, a river ditch, and a red circle indicating the approximate area of ​​the "enemy command post." The terrain was complex, with dense vegetation. He quickly memorized several key terrain features and locations.

Ten minutes later, everyone handed in their maps. Each person was given a white armband for identification. Stern-faced Li waved his hand: "The assessment begins! Choose your own route and set off!"

The group of over thirty people dispersed, like water seeping into sand, disappearing in the blink of an eye at the edge of the camp and heading towards the dark back mountain. He Yuzhu didn't rush in; he crouched in the shadows of the camp, watching the direction in which the figures disappeared, and silently activated the reconnaissance map.

A spherical perception system with a radius of 100 meters silently unfolded. Within the camp, the light spots were densely packed and stationary. Outside the camp, in the direction of the mountains and forests, the white light spots representing the examinees were scattered and moving slowly towards the red circle area. Further into the depths of the mountains and forests, sparse, moving pale red light spots appeared at the edge of the map—those were the instructors and veterans playing the role of the "enemy," numerous in number and distributed in a rather orderly manner.

He chose a side path, following a dry ditch. The ditch would provide cover and lower his profile. Knowledge of basic camouflage flashed through his mind. He grabbed handfuls of wet mud and smeared it on his face, the back of his hands, and reflective parts of his clothing. He also broke off some leafy shrubs and tucked them into his backpack straps and waistband, simply to disguise his shape.

Then, like a nocturnal animal, he slipped into the shadows of the ditch and crept toward his target area.

His reconnaissance map was his greatest asset. The 100-meter range allowed him to "see" in advance whether there were sentries ahead, whether they were stationary or patrols. He avoided main roads, choosing instead to travel through dense vegetation and rugged terrain, moving at a slow but extremely steady pace.

As he approached the core area of ​​the red circle, the density of "enemies" increased significantly. He lay prone behind a clump of tall grass. The map showed two almost overlapping stationary points of light on the hillside eighty meters ahead, likely two stationary sentries positioned at a narrow pass. Thirty meters to his flank, another point of light moved slowly back and forth, a mobile sentry.

He decided against forcing his way through. He observed the terrain and discovered a steep slope behind the fixed outpost, covered with loose stones and low bushes. There were no bright spots on the map, but it was difficult to traverse and prone to making noise.

He took a deep breath, using his camouflage to its fullest extent, and inch by inch moved up the steep slope, using the shadows of the bushes and the potholes in the ground. His hands and knees ached from the loose rocks, and he held his breath to a minimum. It took him nearly twenty minutes to maneuver around the two-man checkpoint.

The core area was a flat patch of woodland dotted with several canvas tents. A gas lamp hung above the entrance of one of the larger tents, its dim yellow light swaying in the night wind. That was the target. But within fifty meters of the tent, the map showed at least four stationary beacons and a moving beacon representing a group of three.

The patrol was moving to the other side of the tents. He Yuzhu seized an opening, slipping out from behind a tree, crouching low and using the shadows between the tents and the storage boxes for cover, quickly approaching his target. Forty meters, thirty meters, twenty meters…

Less than ten meters from the side canvas of the tent, just as he was looking for the entrance, the three-man patrol suddenly changed course and headed straight for the box where he was hiding! They weren't moving fast, but their route passed right behind the box!

They've been discovered? Impossible, he's been monitoring the map the whole time, the other side's change of direction was very sudden.

Without time to think, he suddenly darted out from behind the box, not rushing towards the tent, but instead lunging into the dense bushes beside it. At the same time, he grabbed a pine stone from the ground and threw it with all his might in another direction away from the tent!

The stone struck a tree trunk in the distance with a muffled thud, which was particularly clear in the silence of the mountain forest.

"There's movement over there!" A hushed shout came from the direction of the patrol team, and the three points of light immediately turned towards the spot where the rocks had fallen and quickly searched.

An opportunity! He Yuzhu peeked out from the bushes. The sentry at the tent entrance was also attracted by the noise and was turning his head to look. He darted to the side of the tent like a shadow, his fingers feeling the seams of the canvas. No door; the side was sealed off. Looking up, he saw a small ventilation window propped up by a wooden stick near the top of the side, with a curtain half-drawn.

That's it. He took two steps back, took a short run-up, pushed off the tent poles, lifted himself up, grabbed the windowsill with both hands, used his core strength, and silently pulled himself up, sticking his head through the window.

The tent was dimly lit, with only a faint light filtering in from the doorway. In the center was a rough wooden table, on which lay several documents, one of which was circled in striking red paint. Beside the table was a "enemy officer" dozing, his head resting on the table.

He Yuzhu held his breath, stretched his arm as far as possible, and barely reached the edge of the table with his fingers. He carefully moved the circled document to the edge of the table, pulled it out, and held it tightly. Throughout the whole process, the dozing "officer" continued to snore.

Success! He let go and landed on the ground, stuffing the document into his pocket. The reconnaissance map showed that three patrolmen were still searching in the distance, and the sentry at the gate had returned to his position, but seemed suspicious of the sound he had just heard.

He couldn't return the way he came. He chose to retreat along the edge of the forest from the other side of the tent. He had only gone around to within fifty meters when the map suddenly showed a pale red dot that had been stationary behind a tree ahead. As if sensing something, it slowly turned towards him.

A hidden sentry! The map wasn't clear just now; perhaps the enemy was well disguised, or was in a low-health state.

The two spotted each other almost simultaneously. The sentry, a seasoned veteran, reacted swiftly, shouting "Stop!" before lunging forward to grab He Yuzhu's arm, attempting to "grab" him according to the rules.

He Yuzhu shifted his feet slightly and turned his body slightly, letting his opponent miss. The veteran changed his move quickly, bending his elbow with his other hand to strike He Yuzhu's chest. He Yuzhu neither dodged nor avoided, blocking the elbow strike with his left hand, while his right hand, with fingers like a knife, swiftly sliced ​​into the exposed carotid sinus caused by the opponent's exertion, the force just right.

The veteran groaned, his movements froze, and his vision went black. He Yuzhu seized the opportunity to crouch down and step forward, bumping the veteran in the stomach with his shoulder and tripping him. The veteran lost his balance and fell backward. He Yuzhu didn't let him really fall; he reached out and caught him, taking off the training cap from his head and gently placing him beside the tree roots—according to the rules, this didn't count as "catching," and the other party didn't even have time to call out his name.

Without stopping, he took his hat and ran a short distance in the opposite direction from the meeting point, hung the hat on a conspicuous low branch, then turned to another path and disappeared completely into the darkness.

Behind them, they could faintly hear the murmurs of other searchers discovering the fallen veteran and his hat; the search focus had indeed been misled.

He Yuzhu held back, unleashing his full physical prowess. Like a cheetah familiar with the mountains and forests, he navigated by map and remembered the terrain, avoiding all possible points of light and speeding toward the rendezvous point.

When he handed the circled document to Black-faced Li, panting heavily (partly feigned), the assembly point was still empty. The timekeeping officer glanced at his pocket watch and exclaimed in surprise, "1:42 a.m. Less than four and a half hours."

Dark-faced Li took the document, glanced at it under the kerosene lamp, and then looked He Yuzhu up and down—his face was covered in mud, his clothes were covered in straw, but his eyes were clear. He didn't ask about the process, but simply nodded and pointed to the side: "Rest and wait."

People returned one after another. Some were dejected, having been "killed" halfway; others barely made it to the vicinity of the core area but couldn't find a chance to enter. It wasn't until after 3 a.m. that Wang Dazhuang finally ran back in a disheveled state, his clothes torn in several places, and he was carrying a document in his hand—he had managed to sneak in from another direction while He Yuzhu was creating chaos and the patrol team was distracted. Sun Ba returned just before the deadline, empty-handed, his face ashen, his clothes covered in mud, clearly having failed in his attempt.

In the end, only seven people returned on time and successfully obtained the "intelligence". He Yuzhu took the shortest time, the documents were intact, and apart from mud and grass, he didn't even have a "death" mark on him.

Li, with a dark face, dismissed the other recruits to rest, leaving only these seven. He paced back and forth in front of them for a few steps, his gaze finally settling on He Yuzhu's face, lingering there for a long time.

The morning mist hangs heavy in the mountains, its chill penetrating to the bone.

Dark-faced Li finally spoke, his voice low but like a hammer blow to the heart:

"Tonight, you've really seen something new. What are scouts for? They're there to lurk right under the enemy's nose, pull their teeth, stab their eyes, and still get away unscathed."

He walked up to He Yuzhu, almost face to face: "You, He Weiguo."

"Avoiding sentry posts, luring patrols, sneaking into tents, retrieving documents, eliminating hidden sentries, and even knowing how to create a diversion..."

Black-faced Li's eyes shone eerily in the darkness.

"Who taught you these methods?"

He Yuzhu stood at attention: "Reporting, instructor! Nobody taught me. I just figured it out myself, plus... I used to catch cats and birds in the hutongs of Beiping, and played hide-and-seek with people, so I developed some eyesight and legwork." He had already prepared a half-truth and half-lies.

Li, with his dark face, stared at him, as if trying to pluck something from his eyes, but in the end he only grinned, a smile that looked eerie on his dark face.

"Catching cats and birds in the alley? Sure."

He stepped back and looked at the seven soldiers, their faces weary but their chests held high.

"The seven of you have passed the assessment. Further assignments will be announced later."

He paused, then added, more like a soliloquy, but everyone heard it:

"Some people are just born to be spies. You can't stop them."

As the morning mist gradually dissipated, a sliver of dawn appeared in the eastern sky.

He Yuzhu stood in the queue, his face expressionless.

Scouting... seems like a good place.