Chapter 42: Shi Jin’s Inner Turmoil
Wu Liu Yi thought about selecting two from his own squad as well, but he didn’t directly make the request to Gao Cheng, as that would seem petty. He deliberately came up with a proper-sounding reason.
“Wu Liu Yi, what you said does make some sense. Then let’s do it as you said. You take the pen and make the change yourself.”
Gao Cheng liked aggressive and competitive soldiers, and Wu Liu Yi was one of the desperate fighters among them. Gao Cheng’s fondness for Wu Liu Yi was no less than for Shi Jin. Giving Wu Liu Yi some appropriate benefits was completely within Gao Cheng’s acceptance range.
Anyway, this new recruit selected from Eighth Squad wasn’t much stronger than Bai Tie Jun from Wu Liu Yi’s perspective, so Gao Cheng had no need to insist.
To lead a company well and become a good company commander, it was very necessary to give key squad leaders sufficient respect appropriately.
“Hehe, thanks, Company Commander. Then I’ll make the change.”
Wu Liu Yi’s little scheme was satisfied, and he happily grabbed a pen and started modifying it right away.
He crossed out the new recruit’s name from Eighth Squad and added Bai Tie Jun’s name beside it. Wu Liu Yi was fully content, and he handed the document to Jin Dashan next to him.
Jin Dashan had a clear sense of his own limitations.
He knew his personal ability was not as good as the desperate fighter Wu Liu Yi, and in leading and training soldiers, he was not as good as third-level non-commissioned officer Shi Jin. His status in Gao Cheng’s heart was limited.
For Fourth Squad to have two new recruits selected by the company commander was way beyond Jin Dashan’s expectations, and he was already very satisfied.
So when Wu Liu Yi pushed the document over, he pushed it right back to Wu Liu Yi with a smile and said, “Company Commander, I think all these new recruits are pretty good. I can’t point out any specifics. Let Squad Leader Shi do it. He’s much better at judging people than me.”
Shi Jin had originally felt utterly hopeless, thinking that adding Xu Sanduo was completely out of the question.
After all, with Xu Sanduo’s training results, even though he had been working very hard, most subjects were still only barely qualified, far inferior to the other new recruits.
Have him pick an even more excellent new recruit from the list to replace the next barely qualified one.
Shi Jin really couldn’t bring himself to do it.
Back then, taking Xu Sanduo from the village had already violated the principle of selecting the best recruits.
Fortunately, it wasn’t a violation and didn’t cross Shi Jin’s bottom line. Xu Sanduo met the standards for enlisting in terms of physical condition and political review.
As for not having a high school diploma, that wasn’t a hard standard; it was just Steel Seventh Company’s individual standard. Other companies didn’t have this requirement.
To align with the army’s modernization reform, Steel Seventh Company had a goal of achieving “all high school graduates company-wide” within three years.
But now, knowing that Seventh Company had the all high school graduates company goal, and with this rare opportunity to select from the new recruit company, under the premise that Gao Cheng wanted a batch of top new recruit students.
To forcibly bring Xu Sanduo, who clearly wasn’t a top student, to Steel Seventh Company because of a personal promise.
That would be different in nature.
It would obviously harm the company’s interests.
But if he didn’t bring Xu Sanduo to Seventh Company, he wouldn’t be able to fulfill his own promise. The conflict left Shi Jin extremely torn.
His thoughts were engaged in a fierce struggle, hesitating whether to make a personal request.
Shi Jin had basically decided to give up, but Wu Liu Yi successfully swapped Eighth Squad’s soldier for his own, giving Shi Jin a glimmer of hope amid despair.
The hand that was pushing the folder away stopped abruptly with no movement.
He just pressed down on the folder with his hand, his two eyes fixed on the names on the document, his facial expression constantly changing, and he didn’t utter a word for a long time.
“Squad Leader Shi Jin, did you fall asleep staring?” Gao Cheng saw that Shi Jin had something on his mind and deliberately teased.
“No, no.” Shi Jin covered up.
He wanted to smile but could only force it, and it looked worse than crying.
“If you’re not asleep, then say something. How about it? Give your opinion.” Gao Cheng said.
“No, no opinion. They’re all good soldier material. Um, I just think… that thing…” Shi Jin wanted to say it but was too embarrassed, hemming and hawing for a long time.
Gao Cheng, with his impatient temperament, couldn’t stand it and interrupted Shi Jin, urging, “Don’t hem and haw. Just say it. Go ahead and say it. If you say it, I’ll do it. I’ll definitely give face to you, Squad Leader Shi Jin.”
“Really, really? Company Commander, then I’ll… then I’ll really say it.” Shi Jin tried saying.
“Say it, go ahead.”
Gao Cheng took a drag on his cigarette and said very seriously, “You, Shi Jin, are too much of a stuffy jar. You see a lot, do a lot, think a lot, but you never make any requests to me, never compete for any honors. It makes me uneasy.
The troops are streamlining and demilitarizing every year. You, Squad Leader Shi, are too nice, giving away all the honors. But I’m just afraid of letting you down.
So, no matter what methods I use, I have to keep our Squad Leader Shi Jin.
This is the first time you’ve made a request to me, so I’ll put it this way: as long as it’s not poking a hole in the sky, I’ll try my best to satisfy you.”
Shi Jin was famously a nice guy, not just good to Xu Sanduo alone.
Having been in Steel Seventh Company for so many years, as the most valued excellent backbone, normally he should have a third-class merit and several commendations on his record without any issue.
But Shi Jin never competed for these honors; he even actively gave them to others.
When he was still young, only a first-class or second-class sergeant, it wasn’t a big deal—youth was capital, and there were plenty of opportunities to strive for more.
No matter how sharp the knife of demilitarization was, it wouldn’t fall on Shi Jin.
But now Shi Jin was already a third-level non-commissioned officer, and there was a big hurdle in the troops between third-level and fourth-level. Above fourth-level were professional non-commissioned officers, requiring excellence in professional fields.
For a non-professional backbone non-commissioned officer like Shi Jin, advancing to fourth-level was already quite difficult.
Plus, Shi Jin had given away all his honors, so to this day, he didn’t even have a single third-class merit; nothing had increased except his age.
Once the three-year term was up, the trouble would be big.
Gao Cheng knew Shi Jin was excellent, but that wasn’t enough; the superiors’ leaders had to know too.
And the leaders usually didn’t interact with the grassroots. Their primary criterion for judging a soldier’s quality was definitely the honors and merits on the personal resume.
Suppose two third-level non-commissioned officers competing: one opens the resume full of honors, the other almost blank.
Who the superior leaders would choose was basically a no-brainer.
That’s why Gao Cheng said he was afraid of letting Shi Jin down.
He was afraid Shi Jin would keep giving away honors, staying his nice guy self and dragging himself down, and when the time came, he’d have no choice but to demobilize and go home.
Shi Jin had just become a third-level non-commissioned officer not long ago, with three years until the three-year term for third-level non-commissioned officers expired, meaning three years left to fight for it.
Gao Cheng wanted to use every method in these three years to accumulate enough capital for Shi Jin.
Also, because Shi Jin never made requests and silently contributed to Steel Seventh Company, Gao Cheng felt guilty as company commander and wanted even more urgently to do something for Shi Jin.
Today, finally hearing Shi Jin wanted to make a request, Gao Cheng naturally wanted to satisfy it to the maximum extent.
Of course.
Gao Cheng also had his bottom line.
The bottom line was that it couldn’t harm Steel Seventh Company or let this honorable steel force lose face.
