Chapter 91: 702 Regiment’s Strongest New Recruit
The farther the bullet flies after leaving the barrel, the more it is affected by external factors, and the more considerations are needed.
The value of gun sense becomes greater!
The sniper becomes the one who needs gun sense the most; having this talent or not can be said to be completely different categories.
The former is a sharpshooter, the latter is just shooting a gun.
Gun sense cannot be specifically described in language; it is a very unique feeling, innate if you have it, and almost impossible to cultivate later.
When a sniper has gun sense, he can understand the various “tempers” of the sniper rifle in his hand.
As soon as you touch a sniper rifle and fire two bullets, you know which way the bullet deviates, how much it deviates at what distance, how to control the bullet’s impact error, and so on, with all kinds of data completely clear in your mind.
Combined with calculations of air resistance, the influence of wind and humidity on bullet flight.
Then…
The error of a sniper rifle in several MOA, this fixed unchanging panel dead data, is almost negligible for a sniper.
Historical records of hits beyond a thousand meters all far exceed the effective range of the firearm itself.
Hitting them relies entirely on talent.
Gun sense thus becomes the biggest difference between an ace sniper and an ordinary sniper.
All competitors in the 500-meter sniper rifle event are very clear about the various problems with the Type 85, and know even better how difficult it is to hit the bullseye beyond 500 meters.
It is not like shooting at 100 meters or 200 meters, where as long as the telescopic sight locks onto the bullseye and the sight scale is adjusted, you can hit it.
Even at 500 meters, even if locked on, there is a high probability of missing; you must use various calculated predictions.
So no competitor has absolute confidence.
All competitors are under great pressure, leading to an especially depressing atmosphere in the preparation area.
Cheng Cai drew number 11 and was assigned to the third group.
After several months of cultivation and development by Chen Jun, Cheng Cai has now preliminarily comprehended gun sense, with strength far higher than in the original drama.
But after all, it is his first time participating in a major competition, so his mentality is not as mature as that of a veteran.
Even though he hit 50 rings in the company test and has some information to hit 50 rings again, Cheng Cai does not dare to relax even a little in his heart at this time.
Only because gun sense is really too profound.
Not to mention the special highland climate here, where the most abundant thing is uncontrollable wind.
Sure enough.
When the five competitors of the first group were in position preparing to shoot at the target, a gust of wind suddenly blew across the martial arts competition field.
The wind was not strong but kicked up loess and dust, floating everywhere in the air, affecting line of sight to some extent, and having an even greater impact on bullet flight.
Difficulty increased another level.
The time for competitors to compete is limited, stipulated not to exceed two minutes; it is impossible to wait until the wind stops.
This also matches the opportunities for snipers to fire on the battlefield, often just those brief few seconds.
The first group competitors have already started the competition; even with wind, they can only shoot against it, and the influence of luck is shown to the fullest.
On the battlefield, no matter how poor the mission environment, you have to shoot, and in the competition, you have to shoot even more.
The five competitors of the first group, considering themselves unlucky, could only grit it out against the flying dust, using all their skills, and successively completed shooting.
No surprise.
The results were very unsatisfactory.
The best competitor only hit 42 rings, not even reaching the excellent standard of 45 rings.
Although company daily training is at 300 meters, those who can participate in the competition are elites from each company, so the standard must be higher.
Failing to hit 45 rings or above at 500 meters is typically underperforming.
Seeing the wind kicking up loess dust on this loess plateau having such a big impact on shooting, the pressure on subsequent competitors was even greater.
Even the spectators at the sidelines were sweating for the competitors on the field.
“Cheng Cai this kid is participating in a competition for the first time, and now such an unexpected situation arises. Platoon Leader Chen, do you think he can withstand the pressure?” Gao Cheng said worriedly.
Another competitor from Seventh Company, Huang Tian, was very hardworking and trained extremely diligently, but he was ultimately lacking in talent.
In the company’s 18-select-10 elimination test, Cheng Cai hit 50 rings shocking the whole audience, while Huang Tian gave his all and only hit 48 rings.
Gao Cheng regarded Cheng Cai as the top seed sniper competitor, so worrying about him was completely reasonable.
“Don’t worry, Company Commander, there won’t be any problem. With wind, everyone is affected, results will drop, it’s equal to being on the same level, and…”
Chen Jun changed his tone and said confidently: “Although Cheng Cai is a novice and has been in the troops for less than a year.
But he is a talent-type competitor, and moreover a major competition-type talent competitor; pressure that crushes others will only turn into power for him.”
In the original drama, Cheng Cai had no one helping him, no Xu Sanduo’s various benefactors, and went through the whole process relying on himself alone.
He withstood pressure in the early and mid stages, and under pressure advanced all the way to the final selection of old A, only collapsing when he thought he was really going to die.
Therefore, Chen Jun had sufficient reason to believe that as long as it did not threaten his life, Cheng Cai could absolutely withstand it.
And as long as he did not join old A, and stayed well in Steel Seventh Company, Cheng Cai would have no death threat in his lifetime, so this final bottom line was equivalent to not existing.
“This kid does have strong resilience, with a competitive spirit deep in his bones, and he trains very diligently on a daily basis. If he can withstand the pressure and perform well in this martial arts competition, his future will be promising.”
Gao Cheng’s evaluation of Cheng Cai was quite high, and it was indeed worth such a high evaluation.
Cheng Cai had already earned a third-class merit, and promotion to non-commissioned officer was a done deal, giving him sufficient qualifications to stay in the troops for continued development.
If he earned another third-class merit in this martial arts competition, it would be even more remarkable.
Two third-class merits would meet the promotion to officer standard; with Gao Cheng arranging him to be a backbone squad leader, pulling full all the elements for promotion to officer, he could become an officer in no more than three years.
A new recruit with such deep potential would be a hot commodity in any company.
Gao Cheng had every reason to give extra attention!
Chen Jun clearly remembered that at the end of Soldiers Sortie, Yuan Lang’s evaluation of Cheng Cai was far higher than Xu Sanduo’s, explicitly pointing out that Cheng Cai’s path was much longer than Xu Sanduo’s.
The meaning of this was already very clear, that is, openly stating the two’s talents.
Xu Sanduo could only become a soldier, at most a Soldier King if pushing the limits, while Cheng Cai was completely different; his talent destined him to walk the path of a commander.
The path a commander walks is much longer than that of a soldier.
In the combined arms unit Chen Jun wanted to build, he needed excellent backbone squad leaders like Shi Jin, excellent warriors like Xu Sanduo and Wu Liu Yi, and even more needed mid-level command cadres to connect upper and lower.
Cheng Cai was the standard good seedling!
It was precisely out of this demand that Chen Jun had been cultivating Cheng Cai from the beginning, and up to now, he had invested quite a bit of thought in him.
Cheng Cai could feel Chen Jun’s cultivation of him; Cheng Cai, who was rarely valued by others like this, cherished this benefactor in his life especially.
He secretly swore to give his all and take first place in every competition project he participated in.
Under this heavy self-imposed pressure, Cheng Cai withstood the pressure as the results of the following second group were also poor, and the atmosphere on the field became even more oppressive.
Carrying his old partner that had accompanied him for four months, he began his performance as the number one target of the third group.
Seeing Cheng Cai take the field to start competing, Chen Jun, Gao Cheng, and others below the stage stopped discussing, their gazes focusing on Cheng Cai.
Even Regiment Commander Wang and others on the grandstand turned their attention to this strongest new recruit of the 702 Regiment.
