Chapter 220: Gao Cheng Grins From Ear To Ear!
Chen Jun left Tie Lu’s office and contacted the regiment using the military line in the telephone room on the second floor.
Regiment Commander Wang had been waiting for Chen Jun’s news all along. Upon learning that Chen Jun’s call had come through to the regiment, he immediately had the regimental duty room transfer the call to the office.
He first greatly praised Chen Jun’s work efficiency, then began to discuss the reception details in detail.
Besides discussing with Regiment Commander Wang, Chen Jun also had to consult with Company Commander Gao Cheng at the final reception point to ensure no mistakes in any link.
After all, those coming were all elite soldiers, and they must be given a good first impression.
The two calls took quite some time.
Less than half an hour passed.
The cadets who completed the early morning shooting assessment were brought back to the barracks area, all covered in dirt and grime, evidently with very poor results.
When Wu Zhe, Cheng Cai, and Xu Sanduo returned to the dormitory, Tuo Yonggang had already packed his luggage.
Wu Zhe was still unaware of Chen Jun’s arrival. Seeing Tuo Yonggang back in his air force uniform, looking like he did when he first arrived, Wu Zhe felt quite uneasy inside.
Though they had only been together for a little over a week, they had developed feelings under shared adversity.
But not knowing how to comfort him, he could only say with some reluctance, “Are you really… leaving? Won’t you think of another method? How about apologizing to the bad guy? There might still be a chance.”
“Do you think apologizing would really work? Do I still have any face left to stay?”
Tuo Yonggang had thought it through by now and smiled nonchalantly, saying, “I didn’t want to stay any longer anyway, so leaving like this is pretty good.
I was wrong, very wrong, I spoiled myself. This lesson has made me truly recognize myself.
But getting to know you guys and sharing a dormitory with you, I’m still pretty happy about that.”
With that, Tuo Yonggang looked at Cheng Cai and Xu Sanduo and teased, “Forty-one, forty-two, you two don’t need to say goodbye to me.
Maybe, perhaps, if you get eliminated, we’ll still have a chance to be comrades.
Of course, I hope more that you can persist to the end, accomplish what I couldn’t, and not end up leaving disgraced like me.”
Voluntarily withdrawing and being eliminated are different concepts; the latter is a very shameful thing.
Fortunately, Chen Jun provided a second path, giving him the expectation of regaining his face; otherwise, Tuo Yonggang’s emotions wouldn’t be so stable now.
“A chance to be comrades?”
Wu Zhe was baffled by this, but Cheng Cai and Xu Sanduo laughed.
Cheng Cai had reacted to it.
But to avoid exposing his secret mission, he forcibly suppressed his excitement and didn’t say it directly, pretending not to understand as he asked in confusion, “Twenty-seven, aren’t you from the airborne troops? How would you be my comrade?”
Xu Sanduo’s thinking was very straightforward; he took it literally and said happily, “Twenty-seven, did you apply to go to our Seventh Company?”
“Yes, if nothing unexpected happens, I’ll be heading to your Seventh Company soon.”
Tuo Yonggang nodded in admission and said, “You two have been saying all along how awesome Steel Seventh Company is, so I have to go see for myself, right?”
“Twenty-seven, you’re really going to Steel Seventh Company? Not returning to your old unit?” Wu Zhe asked in surprise.
“Um, yes.”
Tuo Yonggang sat down on the chair nearby and said with some yearning, “Just now, Assistant Instructor Chen came to chat with me and invited me to join the combined arms battalion formation.
I think this might be a good opportunity; I should give it a try.
Of course, I’m mainly going for Assistant Instructor Chen. I think he’s very reliable, capable, and shouldn’t let me down.”
Tuo Yonggang’s words weren’t fake, but he didn’t state the real purpose.
Defeating A Detachment was the main reason.
“Combined arms tactics are indeed the core of informatization reform and are still in the exploration stage so far; the entire army has no established combined arms battalion yet. Choosing to join should be a good opportunity, but…”
Wu Zhe wasn’t holding him back; he had concerns too.
“But what?” Tuo Yonggang asked.
“Building a combined arms battalion isn’t that easy; the probability of failure is extremely high. You’d better be psychologically prepared,” Wu Zhe hinted.
“Anything you do can fail; people have to take a gamble or two,” Tuo Yonggang said nonchalantly.
“As long as our deputy company commander is around, the combined arms battalion won’t fail. Number twenty-seven, go with peace of mind; this is absolutely the wisest choice of your life,” Cheng Cai vouched for his company.
Vouching at this critical time could also have a better effect.
“Great, we can be in the same company again. After our training camp ends and we go back, we can train together,” Xu Sanduo said happily.
“You two have pretty strong abilities. To be honest, I really admire you. As long as you two are willing to fight, you can definitely become old A members. Then, the chance of us becoming opponents might be even greater, haha,” Tuo Yonggang laughed.
“The people of our Steel Seventh Company never abandon or give up. We’ll go back; this isn’t our home, Steel Seventh Company is our home,” Xu Sanduo said seriously.
“Uh…”
Tuo Yonggang said speechlessly, “You still want to go back? Don’t you want to stay in A Detachment? Then why did you come here? Masochists?”
“Yeah, your logic is really problematic; it confused me,” Wu Zhe was speechless too.
“I’m here for training; the purpose is to become stronger through this harsh training camp, to become a better warrior.”
Cheng Cai spoke passionately, almost raising his hands high.
It wasn’t convenient to mention at this time either, but his main reason for coming here was Chen Jun’s promise, which would allow him to go from soldier to officer.
“Forty-one and I are from the same hometown; forty from the adjacent dormitory is too. They both came to participate, so I figured they must be doing something meaningful, so I came too.”
Xu Sanduo’s answer was even more bizarre, nearly making Wu Zhe and Tuo Yonggang laugh.
Turns out…
Everyone from Steel Seventh Company was a weirdo, impossible to understand normally.
Just as Wu Zhe and Tuo Yonggang were stunned and didn’t know how to respond, Qi Huan suddenly walked in from outside.
“Twenty-seven, the vehicle’s downstairs; time to go.”
Qi Huan still had that black face like before, but his action of proactively helping Tuo Yonggang with the luggage inadvertently revealed his true nature.
The fierceness and coldness were all pretense; Qi Huan’s heart was actually quite soft.
He truly couldn’t bear seeing Tuo Yonggang eliminated.
And at this moment, Tuo Yonggang also felt Qi Huan’s unusual gentleness. With the attitude he had shown before, it was impossible for him to help carry luggage.
Kicking you flying would be more like it!
All the previous dissatisfaction with Qi Huan the butcher vanished completely the moment Tuo Yonggang gave Qi Huan a brilliant smile.
He handed the travel bag to Qi Huan to carry, then turned to grab the backpack from the bed.
Xu Sanduo, Cheng Cai, and Wu Zhe were reluctant to see him go and walked over together to help with the luggage, to bid farewell to this brief roommate.
“No! Stop right there.”
Tuo Yonggang waved them off in refusal, smiling on his face but with some reluctance as he said, “I was the first to be eliminated; it’s not very honorable. I don’t want you to lose face with me. Let’s say goodbye here for now.
Besides, this isn’t a permanent farewell, right? Don’t make it so sentimental; we’ll have chances to meet again.”
Qi Huan carried the luggage to the dormitory entrance but didn’t leave; instead, he stood at the door waiting, giving Tuo Yonggang time to say goodbye.
“Twenty-seven, don’t worry; we’ll definitely persist to the end. Then we’ll rendezvous at Seventh Company and accomplish our dreams together.”
Cheng Cai said this very seriously; every word was from his heart.
“We’ll meet again soon,” Xu Sanduo said with a silly smile.
“Three words for you: keep a normal mind. I also hope you can realize your dreams in your new unit and walk your own path in life,” Wu Zhe offered his blessing.
“Brothers, thanks, keep it up.”
Tuo Yonggang stood straight and tall, giving the three a standard military salute, then turned and walked toward the door.
Xu Sanduo, Cheng Cai, and Wu Zhe returned the salute, watching Tuo Yonggang walk out the door and disappear around the corner, then all ran out of the room.
Unable to go downstairs to see him off to the vehicle, they would see him off in the corridor.
“The place you’re going this time is Steel Seventh Company. A vehicle is ready downstairs, which will take you to the military station. There’s a supplies vehicle to Seventh Hundred and Second Regiment in the afternoon; you can take that one. Someone will pick you up at the station when you arrive…”
Qi Huan explained the rules in detail to every cadet upon arrival, and sending Tuo Yonggang off was equally meticulous.
He detailed the entire process, echoing the scene before arrival.
When the two of them reached downstairs, Chen Jun, who had been on the phone earlier, also appeared by the vehicle and proactively called out, “I’ve already made the arrangements there; someone will be fully responsible. No need to worry.”
“Got it, thank you, Assistant Instructor Chen.”
Tuo Yonggang was genuinely very grateful to Chen Jun and gave him a standard military salute.
“I should be the one thanking you, for your trust.”
After returning the military salute, Chen Jun said, “After I finish the training camp work here, I’ll rush back to the company. Don’t feel pressured during this time; adapt to the environment first. I’ll arrange your specific work later.”
“Alright, I’ll listen to you,” Tuo Yonggang nodded.
“Then get in the vehicle. Safe travels,” Chen Jun stepped aside to open the vehicle door.
“Goodbye.”
Tuo Yonggang raised his hand, got into the military vehicle.
“Vroom vroom vroom…”
With the military vehicle’s engine roaring to life, it drove toward the base gate.
The corridor of Pumpkin Building was already crowded with people, all watching the first eliminated competitor leave with complex moods.
“What’s to see? Everyone downstairs for assembly.”
Qi Huan, who had just shown some sentimentality, once again turned into the black-faced butcher, barking at those upstairs, as the torment journey restarted.
Perhaps Tuo Yonggang’s early departure disrupted Yuan Lang’s original plan.
Or maybe Yuan Lang realized that the training camp plan he initially set was too harsh, and there might really be no cadets who could last to the end.
From the training after Tuo Yonggang left, the intensity was noticeably lower than before.
However.
After all, it was A Detachment’s special forces training; even with reduced intensity, compared to ordinary troops, it was still a super-enhanced hell level.
The cadets were still constantly losing points, living under high pressure every day.
As the cadets’ points slowly dwindled, the pressure they faced grew greater, with both body and spirit under torment.
Gaps in physical fitness and personal ability began to show more and more obviously.
The weak only got weaker, falling further behind.
When the training camp reached the sixteenth day, finally a cadet’s points were completely exhausted, becoming the first to be eliminated as per the training plan.
And after half a month of various torments, Yuan Lang and Qi Huan’s verbal humiliations, and varied corporal punishments, the side effects became increasingly obvious.
The cadets hated them both thoroughly and had long lost dreams of A Detachment.
The only reason they persisted in training was not to be looked down upon by A Detachment, not to lose, not to bring shame to the old company.
Thus, the subsequent eliminated cadets were much easier than Tuo Yonggang.
Chen Jun barely had to exert much effort.
He simply pulled out the simple three key points—make you stronger, give you a chance to beat A Detachment screaming, better future development—and slapped them in the face of this cadet whose points were exhausted and eliminated.
This eliminated competitor was thus persuaded by Chen Jun to voluntarily join Steel Seventh Company.
And with this competitor’s elimination, the training team officially entered the “mass elimination phase,” with cadets one by one eliminated due to exhausted points.
Chen Jun’s joyful yet busy life thus began.
During the day, he had to keep a close eye on every cadet, and whenever one was eliminated, he immediately privately contacted them to persuade them to join Steel Seventh Company.
During free time in the day and at night, he still had to seize the time to write lesson plans.
Tie Lu had already selected two pieces of theory; Chen Jun had to turn them into lesson plans before the training camp ended and hand them to Tie Lu to fulfill his duty.
Working furiously day and night, Chen Jun’s work intensity was no less than the cadets’.
Fortunately, Chen Jun’s physical fitness was extremely strong; such high work pressure didn’t faze him. Even sleeping only two or three hours briefly a day didn’t affect his abundant energy.
The training camp days passed day by day, with cadets’ strength improving day by day.
The numbers also decreased day by day!
Meanwhile, at Steel Seventh Company 1,200 Chinese miles away, the number of officers in the barracks building kept growing, so many that the dormitories were almost not enough.
Gao Cheng, who had been worried sick and looking grim when Xu Sanduo and others left.
Now had turned beaming with joy!
Seeing Steel Seventh Company’s officer numbers increasing daily, nearly catching up to the entire Second Battalion, Steel Seventh Company almost becoming half an officers’ company.
Gao Cheng was over the moon inside, with crow’s feet appearing at the corners of his eyes.
All from smiling during this time!
To properly accommodate this group of treasures dug up by Chen Jun, not letting ten squeeze into one dormitory, but giving them spacious four-per-room conditions.
Gao Cheng really spared no expense and used every trick up his sleeve.
Not only did he vacate half of the warriors’ dormitories; the original ten-per-room dorms were changed to twenty-per-room, almost turning into large communal sleeping areas.
He even vacated his own company commander’s office to use as a dormitory.
He himself moved to share a house with the political instructor.
Tuo Yonggang and the other cadets pulled over by Chen Jun, seeing everything Gao Cheng did for them, truly felt the importance and respect.
This was a warmth and comfort they had never felt in A Detachment.
Instantly, they had even more good impression of Steel Seventh Company!
