Chapter 18: Making Gao Cheng Ecstatic
Fortunately, Chen Jun had been a soldier for three lifetimes and was already an old hand; the troops’ standards were etched into his cells, so he could do the work straight and proper even with his eyes closed.
He finally managed to get the room’s housekeeping sorted out before the sun set in the west.
In the evening, there was a place to sleep.
He had thought the first day was tiring because there were few people, but on the second day, when the backbone leaders from each company arrived, doing it with a dozen people together would surely be much easier.
But when the barracks area hygiene officially started on the second day, Chen Jun realized what labor intensity really meant.
In his previous life, he wasn’t doing special operations as the “chief instructor,” leading a bunch of soldier kings to sweat on the training ground or fighting enemies on the battlefield.
He was in the combined arms division as part of the leadership team, worrying about important division-level work.
Pulling weeds on the parade ground, mowing the lawn, wiping dozens of iron bunk beds with a rag, and so on—these bits and pieces of hygiene work, he hadn’t done for at least ten years.
If he could swap.
Chen Jun would rather run 20 kilometers fully armed than squat on the lawn with his butt sticking up, huffing and puffing to clip weeds for two hours.
He would rather be physically exhausted like a dog than mentally drained and haggard from housekeeping.
But the troops are just such a place, like a super huge melting pot of a big hodgepodge; you have to do everything you know and don’t know, improving combat effectiveness in the minutest things.
Housekeeping sounds completely unrelated to combat effectiveness.
But under the Chinese characteristic army system, housekeeping really does directly affect combat effectiveness.
Because neat and orderly housekeeping is a manifestation of obeying discipline and being strict with oneself.
And discipline is the ceiling of combat effectiveness!
An army without discipline to control and constrain it, even if everyone inside is a soldier king, will ultimately only be a failed army.
Our army’s combat effectiveness could beat the White Eagle on the peninsula precisely because of the resolute willpower produced under iron discipline.
As the cookhouse, armory, infirmary, telephone room, and so on gradually came online, various training equipment arrived, and the company’s internal hygiene cleanup was completed.
In the blink of an eye.
Time came to December 3rd.
“Today is the good day the new recruits arrive. In a bit, we’re going to the train station to pick them up. I’ll call a few to go together; the rest stay on standby in the company.
Everyone named, perk up your spirits for me; we can’t let the new recruits see us as a joke…”
Gao Cheng received the notification from the regiment; the new recruits would arrive in the morning, so he was to bring people to the train station to pick them up. He immediately assembled all the backbones on the parade ground.
After a few minutes of various instructions, Gao Cheng named a few people to head out, waved his hand, and officially led the team off.
Chen Jun had already come to the Soldiers Sortie world once, but last time it was as a new recruit, and at this very moment’s angle, he was still on the train.
This time coming to another Soldiers Sortie universe, his identity changed from new recruit to new recruit platoon leader.
Going to the train station from another angle, experiencing things he had once experienced, gave a pretty wondrous feeling, making Chen Jun exceptionally anticipatory inside.
Anticipating standing from Gao Cheng’s angle, seeing the moment the new recruits got off the train.
“Xu Sanduo’s surrender pose, is it really that ugly? Really that sleazy? To the point that Gao Cheng takes one look and explodes in rage on the spot.”
Chen Jun recalled the plot from memory and was quite looking forward to seeing this screen from the company commander’s angle.
With this somewhat comical anticipation, Chen Jun and Wu Liu Yi and the other backbones responsible for picking up troops took the vehicle to the train station to wait for the new recruit special train.
All the new recruits enlisting this year in the entire mechanized infantry division were being sent over on the same freight train.
To bring back their regiment’s new recruits, the troop reception teams from each regiment’s new recruit camp all gathered at this train station today.
Plus, to maximize the train’s efficiency, the personnel carrier had already switched from passenger cars to trucks.
Transported over together with the new recruits were also the equipment prepared for delivery to the companies of 702 Regiment—China’s first-generation tracked infantry fighting vehicle—
The Type 86 tracked infantry fighting vehicle!
This was the mechanized infantry division’s first regiment-level scale upgrade; all the old Type 63 armored personnel carriers used by the entire 702 Regiment were to be replaced with new Type 89 armored personnel carriers.
At the same time, adding and updating Type 86 infantry fighting vehicles to further optimize the armored infantry’s combat effectiveness.
The replaced Type 63 armored personnel carriers were also to be transported away today via this personnel carrier special train.
Steel Seventh Company’s eliminated Type 63 armored personnel carriers had already been sent to the regiment two months earlier, and many veterans were quite reluctant back then.
After all, they had been together day and night for so many years; even steel machines would develop feelings.
Suddenly parting was inevitably sentimental.
Wu Liu Yi, Jin Dashan, and several other troop reception backbones, seeing their former partners again at the train station, couldn’t help but report to Company Commander Gao Cheng.
They wanted to give a final farewell to their old partners who had accompanied them for years.
To wipe its body one last time.
Gao Cheng could understand everyone’s emotions. Thinking the personnel carrier special train hadn’t arrived yet and the new recruits getting off would take time, he approved the application.
When Chen Jun crossed over, the old armored personnel carriers had already been transported away; what he saw were the new Type 86 combat vehicles and Type 89 armored personnel carriers.
So he had no big emotions about the old equipment being transported away.
He continued staying by Company Commander Gao Cheng’s side, and while waiting for the personnel carrier special train to arrive, he discussed leading troops and combat with Gao Cheng, exploring from a theoretical angle.
Drawing on his experience from three lifetimes as a soldier, he conveyed it to Gao Cheng through casual chat.
Unnoticeably, he let Gao Cheng know that he, Chen Jun, had plenty of real stuff in him, that he was a cadet soldier with true skills, further elevating his status in Gao Cheng’s mind.
And the actual effect was very good.
Chen Jun’s eloquent talk on modern warfare, spouting various combat theories off the cuff, being well-versed in the international situation, forward-looking on army reform, and so on.
All truly made Gao Cheng look at him in a new light.
As the two chatted, unknowingly from initial discussion it turned into Gao Cheng’s inquiries.
Gao Cheng kept asking various questions, even deliberately asking tougher ones. Chen Jun answered them all fluently like an encyclopedia.
Gao Cheng’s eyes lit up.
For Chen Jun’s vast and abundant knowledge volume, his admiration directly upgraded from convinced to impressed.
If at this moment Gao Cheng were a regiment commander and had sufficient appointment authority, without a doubt, Gao Cheng would absolutely make Chen Jun his chief of staff.
Having massive military knowledge and theory—wasn’t that the perfect chief of staff template?
A staff officer doesn’t need to make decisions and has no right to.
Its role is reference and planning!
“You kid hid it deep enough; I really suspect those first few months were on purpose, haha.” Gao Cheng patted Chen Jun’s shoulder, his face blooming with smiles.
Just as Gao Cheng was conquered by Chen Jun’s knowledge volume, increasingly convinced he had picked up a treasure cadet soldier this time, with laugh lines wrinkling his face.
The personnel carrier special train finally appeared in the field of vision, gradually decelerating toward the train station.
The long-awaited crowd of troop reception teams all put aside other matters at this moment, focusing all attention on the personnel carrier special train.
