Chapter 29 Chapter nine

The cooking team buried pots by the edge of the Jiandi stream, and used the half-dry and half-wet branches picked up from the forest by each team to light three gray-blue cooking smokes. Only then did Cheng Ming spare time to curse people: "Damn it, what are you doing eating!... People are so confused after eating rice!..." From last night to now, Cheng Ming has not encountered a single thing that went well: after the company arrived at Heifengjian, in order to implement Deputy Head Liu's instructions to let the soldiers rest and check their combat preparations as soon as possible, he and almost every cadre in the company They all quarreled, and in the end even Shangguan Feng, the third platoon leader who had always looked down upon him, contradicted him in public; he managed to sleep for a while at around three o'clock in the morning, and was woken up by the deputy regimental commander and the battalion commander. It turned out that they had just checked After learning about the camping situation of the Ninth Company, the deputy commander was very dissatisfied with the fact that the anti-aircraft guns in the first and second rows did not dig cat ear holes, and gave him a severe meal; after the deputy commander left, he did not fall asleep again. Leave the shelter at 1:00, go to the first row and second row to wake up the platoon leader and convey the instructions of the deputy head.The platoon leaders went to wake up the soldiers again. For a while, the sound of digging was not the sound of digging, but the yawning and cursing of the soldiers. "This dick company commander, if you don't fight, you will be tossed to death!" An angry voice came from the darkness, "When we first arrived there last night, he refused to let us dig a hole, and now it's midnight! Trick people up!" "Dig that fucking X!"... Many voices echoed.Cheng Ming is on fire. "What do you mean?!...Second platoon leader, what do your soldiers want to do? You don't care?!" He shouted loudly at the second platoon leader, Cen Hao. Unexpectedly, Cen Hao, who was always shy, also got angry at him: " Company Commander, I can't control it!...If you have the ability, you can manage it yourself!" Leaving him behind, he dug his own hole.Cheng Ming left the second row in a huff and came to the first row, thinking that digging is up to you, it is no longer my responsibility to kill you bastards with shells!Later, when he returned from the first row to the second row, he found that the cat's ear holes had been dug, and he felt more at ease; when he returned to the company headquarters' shelter, he thought that the battalion would call each company before the full-line bombardment, so that everyone could have a mental preparation , but no one called him, so when the bombardment started, he thought that the enemy artillery had fired at me first, and hid in the corner of the bunker in fear, feeling that every shot "swish" over his head. The projectiles will all fall, blowing up the shelter, and blowing up the people inside, including myself, to a bloody mess.At this time, Xiao Bin called and conveyed the instructions of the deputy head, asking him to make the whole company pay attention to anti-guns and prepare for battle!The illusion in Cheng Ming's heart became more serious. When he realized that the people in the shelter, including Liang Pengfei, were looking at him strangely, he realized that he was trembling all the time, and the sound of the shells flying and exploding outside was actually far away from him. "I'm scared." He thought suddenly, his heart gradually settled down, and he immediately thought that everyone in the company would despise him because of this, and it would be even more difficult for him to do in this company! "...I'm not afraid," he defended himself amidst the gradually fading gunfire, feeling aggrieved for a moment, "My situation is different from Liang Pengfei's. If my wife and children are like Liang Pengfei's wife and children If I have an urban hukou, or if I was born in the city and grew up eating commercial food, I will not have any worries, and I will be braver than anyone else...." At the end of the shelling, his mood became tense again, thinking that the entire company would be killed soon. After receiving the battle order, I waited for a while, but received an order to bury the pot for cooking, and the whole company must finish the picnic within 40 minutes.The tension in Cheng Ming's heart was greatly relieved. He came to the cooking class and conveyed the order to the Chief Secretary.But the secretary stared at him:

"Company commander, what do you want me to cook with!...I can't cook my thighs for Quan Lian to eat!" One sentence made Cheng Ming's face turn blue.He remembered: when he set off last night, the Chief Secretary had asked him for instructions, asking if he wanted Quan Lian to bring a day's worth of rice and vegetables.At that time, he snatched the Chief Secretary a meal: "When is it now, you still want to cook and eat comfortably!... Do you think that everyone carries less stuff?!..." Looking back, he saw Qilianhe on the west side of Jianxi. Smoke had already risen from two places in the eight company's cooking class, and Cheng Ming felt that his unhappiness had reached its peak.He always thought that the Chief Secretary was a bit useless, and he vented his anger involuntarily.

"I told you to eat shit, do you eat shit too?!" He yelled at the chief secretary, "You are the chief secretary, you know what to do!...Why did the chief chief of the seven companies and eight companies make the whole company bring rice? Did they also ask the company commander?" Suddenly, it occurred to him that the chief of staff was probably as abominable as the other cadres in the company, knowing that he didn't know much about marching and fighting, and deliberately found a trouble to embarrass him! "What are you doing for me? Are you starving me alone if you can't cook?!" The more he shouted, the louder his voice became.

The Chief Secretary didn't contradict him anymore, and got so angry that Qilian and Balian borrowed enough rice and vegetables for Quanlian's meal. Cheng Ming also ordered each class to send people to the forest to collect firewood for the cooking team.After finishing these things, 20 minutes had passed, and when we returned to the bottom of the stream, Qilian had already eaten, and Balian also blew the whistle for dinner! All the anger and grievances from last night to this morning came to my heart at once. Cheng Ming was about to curse, and the chief secretary became the most suitable target.

"...Damn it, it doesn't look like a war! Traveling in the mountains and rivers, you can bring something to eat! ... Have you ever eaten pork or seen a pig go away? I don't understand and don't look at what others do !..." The cooking squad leader and a Henan recruit named Yu Deshui carried a pot of washed rice, waded barefoot from the stream, and put it on the newly dug stove by the beach; The firewood in front of the three stoves that were already on fire, all mourned and deliberately made a lot of noise; the chief of staff stood aside and urged the firewood delivery squads to separate the branches and send them to each stove.The chief of staff was also pissed off this morning: the responsibility for not bringing rice and vegetables in the whole company was originally on the company commander, but he beat it back!Now that the rice and vegetables have been borrowed, he scolded him endlessly!The Chief Secretary is an honest man, but he is not so honest as to allow others to scold him in public!He couldn't bear it anymore, he raised his head and stared at Cheng Ming with fiery eyes, and he spoke viciously:

"Company commander, you... who are you scolding?!" "I know who I'm scolding!" Cheng Ming didn't expect the Chief of Staff to answer the question. He didn't go down the stairs after this answer, and his eyes were red, thinking that I'm the leader of the company. Is it not enough? ! The fleshy balls on the cheeks of the tall and burly Chief Secretary trembled, and his fists were clenched.Today the company commander ignored him and scolded his mother in front of the soldiers. This tone is too hard to swallow!I'm here to serve as a soldier, not to be scolded. Your company commander went to the battlefield to fight, and I don't want to go back alive. When is it, I'm afraid you won't succeed!Thinking of this, his whole body was on fire, and he rushed towards Cheng Ming with big strides, shouting loudly:

"You can scold others, but you can't scold me! Today I will fight you bastard!" The cooking squad leader and the cooks stopped their work, watching the quarrel that was about to develop into a fight, and no one came to persuade them.They were also angry: I don't blame the chief of staff for the incident, and besides, the chief of staff has already borrowed rice and vegetables, so why is your company commander scolding?The company commander is too domineering!The cooking squad leader and chief secretary were transferred from the same regiment before the war. He felt that the company commander was deliberately bullying outsiders. Fortunately, let him beat up the company commander, let Cheng Ming know that outsiders are not easy to mess with!

Since no one tried to persuade them to fight, the chief secretary's steps towards the company commander could not be stopped.Cheng Ming looked at the Chief Secretary who was getting closer, and all the muscles in his body twitched immediately.He also wanted to bluff the other party with his aura, and shouted at the Chief Secretary sharply: "You... what do you want to do?!" "I want to beat you up!" The mad chief did not listen to his tricks and pushed forward step by step. The two men were about to fight each other a few steps away; their shouts alarmed the people on both sides of the stream, and the soldiers of the seventh company and the eighth company were all looking this way with their bowls; at the edge of the forest on the side of the nine company, Instructor Liang Pengfei also saw what happened.He wanted to come over to persuade the fight, but suddenly he felt that it was better to walk away.Cheng Ming is narrow-minded, not only would he not appreciate his own appearance at this moment, but he would even think it was a joke.Their relationship had just eased up last night, so he had to be careful!

No one expected that in the end it was the new soldier Yu Deshui who was washing rice with the cooking squad leader just now, ran over, stretched out two thick and strong arms, stopped Cheng Ming and the chief secretary, and yelled indiscriminately: "Company commander, chief secretary, you are all chiefs, peace is the most important! Peace is the most important! As the saying goes, when two tigers fight, one will be injured!...It is not good to hurt anyone!..." Yu Deshui is not yet the confidant of the cooking squad leader, so he can't see the squad leader's attitude towards this fight; the company commander and the chief of staff in the army are still fighting, which really surprises him; but it has already happened, according to his countryman's thinking It would be impolite for me and the group of people around me to just stand and watch the fun without trying to persuade them to fight.At first, he felt that the squad leader and the veterans should do this kind of publicity, and it was not a recruit's turn. Later, looking left and right, no one was trying to persuade them to fight, so he had to stand up without thinking about the depth of the two "chiefs". up.As soon as he looked up and saw the figure of the instructor at the edge of the forest, he was happy, and felt that this was all right. A "chief" who could resolve conflicts came, and hurriedly shouted:

"Instructor—come here! There's a fight here—" Liang Pengfei didn't expect that he would be seen.He couldn't escape, so he had to come out. "What happened?!" He yelled in a serious manner as he walked towards the bottom of the stream. No one answered his words.The cooking squad leader and the cooking soldier didn't want to answer; Cheng Ming and the director of the department heard from this shout that the instructor knew what to ask.Cheng Ming was trembling all over: This Liang Pengfei, he saw everything, but pretended not to know, hiding in the woods and watching the cooking soldiers and chief stewards make me ugly!Look how triumphant and loud he is shouting, I'm afraid he wants to call the whole battalion over, and watch me get beaten!Cheng Ming felt that he was completely "planted" this morning. During the bombardment, Liang Pengfei and the soldiers of the company headquarters saw his fear, and now almost the whole battalion saw that the chief of staff wanted to beat him, but there was nothing he could do!Cheng Ming's face turned from red to white, and from white to red, his neck also swelled into purple, he threw off Yu Deshui's hand, ignored the chief secretary, turned around and walked towards the woods on the slope by a different road from Liang Pengfei's. While turning around, he shouted angrily:

"Good! Good!... I can't lead you! Whoever can lead will lead!... Chief Secretary, our business is endless!" His words were aimed at Liang Pengfei, and he meant to point fingers at Sang Huai, but the Chief Secretary didn't hear it, and yelled at him viciously with red eyes: "I am waiting for you every day, three hundred and sixty-five days a year!" Cheng Ming was already far away when Liang Pengfei went down to the bottom of the stream.He thought that he had to make a clear statement before the company commander walked into the woods, and let Cheng Ming know that he was not as small-minded as him.His face darkened, and he loudly reprimanded the chief of staff and the cooking soldiers: "What are you doing?!...The company commander can't criticize you a few words?...You still want to beat people, what kind of problem is this?!——" The Chief Secretary turned his blood-red eyes and gave him a fierce look, which made Liang Pengfei shiver in his heart, and he stopped speaking abruptly.He was suddenly afraid of the chief secretary: this honest man is on fire today, and he can do anything!He is not afraid of Cheng Ming, and of course he is not afraid of him!The corner of the Chief Secretary's mouth twitched terribly by the anger, and finally he could not utter the few words that welled up in his throat: You are not a fucking good thing!The reason why he didn't say it out loud was: he had just been transferred to a new company, so he couldn't completely get stuck with the two chief officers at the same time! Liang Pengfei simply explained a few words to the cooking squad leader, "Hurry up and make the meal ready", and walked back to the woods on the slope without looking at the chief steward again.The company commander stabbed the hornet's nest in the Jiandi cooking class today, so there's no reason for him to come here and get stung for others! Cheng Ming regretted it as soon as he returned to the cover department of the company: he made another stupid mistake this morning!It's really not the chief secretary's fault, it's him who has done too much to the chief secretary!Cheng Ming thought painfully why he had any objections to the Chief Secretary. In the final analysis, the unhappiness that filled his heart was caused by that old problem. "I'm not suitable to be the commander of this infantry company, and I don't want to fight. This war has nothing to do with my real life." Those thoughts that have been lingering in my heart quietly surfaced again, "At least, let me be with you." It is unfair for Liang Pengfei to fight together, people like them enjoy much more favors from the country than I do, and they should be the ones to fight for the country." He also thought: Let him be the infantry company commander is someone else's Wrong, but now, because of this mistake, he has to be the company commander of the Ninth Company; last night, deputy head Liu blocked his retreat with the words "martial court", and his situation became even more dangerous and despaired.The war had already started this morning, and he would lead the company to the battlefield at any time, but he was still not sure whether he could complete the combat mission.The war has driven him over a precipice, and he is alone, helpless, angry and desolate.He had to seriously think about what to do next, no matter what, the current state of mind couldn't last any longer, and if it continued, he would have even less prestige in the company!The more fundamental problem is that whether you are cowardly or heroic, it is impossible for you to go to war without taking this company! For the first time, a heroic emotion surged up in Cheng Ming's heart, filling his eye sockets with tears. "... If you put aside your wife and children, if you put aside everything related to personal interests, even if I, Cheng Ming, am not a qualified infantry company commander, am I not even a brave man?... In the end, I am a dead man. If we go to the battlefield like everyone else, the shells and bullets will not only hit me," he thought fiercely, and suddenly impulsively hoped that the enemy would shoot over now, or that the deputy commander would order them to attack a mountain immediately, "then I will I just have to make a show and show them, let them know if I am a coward or not!..." He thought like this, until the cigarette between his fingers was quietly lit, and something in his heart became firm and tough. Liang Pengfei didn't return to the company headquarters immediately after leaving Jiandi.At this time, he especially didn't want to see Cheng Ming.This morning he was not happy that Cheng Ming had a conflict with the Chief Secretary.The war had already begun, and the fear that Cheng Ming felt during our army's shelling at dawn also existed in his heart.The Chief Secretary actually wanted to shake his fist at the company commander just now, and eight or nine soldiers in the cooking squad stood still, and finally a recruit who spoke Henan dialect stopped them from fighting. This incident proved once again that Cheng Ming lacked ability and prestige, but it also did not It sounded the alarm for him: This is a battlefield, and soldiers are not so easy to lead. They are in a situation of life and death just like you, and if things go wrong, anything will happen.As one of the chief officers of the company, his situation is not much different from that of Cheng Ming.The company commander is an incompetent company commander, and the soldier has potential hostility towards the leader, and he is about to go to war...Thinking of all this, he suddenly felt that his actual situation was more dangerous and terrifying than ever ! In a bad mood, he sat down on the grass deep in the woods and wanted to smoke a cigarette, but the cigarette case was empty.Angrily, he crumpled the empty cigarette pack into a paper ball and threw it far outside the woods. The thought that all his calculations in life were wrong came to his mind again: he didn't go to the Ninth Company to fight, but On the battlefield; I thought that leaving Cheng Ming as the company commander would prevent the Ninth Company from fighting, but now I realize that is also unreliable.In the past, I always thought I was smart, but it was this kind of cleverness that brought me into the situation I am in today!The gunshots on and off Highland 001 in the southwest direction are getting more and more intense. The war is going on, and they will be drawn into the battlefield at any time. The orange-red sky is still high, clear and serene, and a dazzling white mushroom cloud floats motionless in mid-air, as if nothing happened in the world.He was going to die, and this might be the last time he sat quietly on the grass, looking up at the sky and the clouds, and they were still the same, carefree, beautiful and relaxed, and he couldn't stand this! Zhao Jian, the trumpeter who had been following him from a distance, came over quietly, and silently took out one of his cigarettes and handed it to him, Liang Pengfei did not refuse.He took out a match and lit a cigarette, took a big puff greedily, and his thoughts became smoother, and he understood why he had to sit here.Combat operations may begin immediately, and he has not yet seriously thought about a very important matter and made the final decision. "...No, I can't die. I didn't come to this world to be pierced by bullets, to have my legs broken by landmines, and to have half of my head cut off by shells." A trembling voice was clear in his heart stand up. "Whether it's for my wife and children or for myself, I want to live." The voice said again. "Now I'm on the battlefield, but no matter what happens, I have to find a way to survive." He didn't know how to make himself "survive", but the three words "survive" powerfully shook his heart , let his spirit get out of fear, anxiety, and bewilderment, and grasp a clear goal, and he becomes sober and brave again, "When you live, everything in the world exists for you; when you die If you die, everything will disappear. Therefore, living is the first priority, and other things can be considered after the war.  …” Like Cheng Ming, Liang Pengfei also completed his spiritual process from being weak to being strong this morning.Although the specific direction is quite different, it has the same important significance for the future psychology and behavior of both parties.Liang Pengfei was still the same person when he sat down on the grass in the forest, but he was a newcomer with a clear goal and a firm heart when he stood up. None of them paid any more attention to Jiandi's cooking class.The actual situation is: after Liang Pengfei left, the work pace of the cooking class did not speed up, but even more procrastinated.The Chief of Staff was full of grievances and had no place to vent, so he simply lay down on the slope by the forest and smoked; the Chief Cook felt that it was the outsiders who were bullied in the end this morning, thinking that the only way to let the company commander and the instructor go hungry Only then did they know that the cooking soldiers were not easy to offend, so they deliberately slackened their work; seeing the squad leader's listless look, the cooking soldiers understood, dawdling, and let several stoves turn off one after another; Yu Deshui, who stood up to persuade the fight, thought that the instructor wanted everyone to speed up the cooking, so they should speed up, running back and forth, left and right, and helping everywhere.The cooking squad leader thought he flattered the company commander just now and didn't let the fight go through, and hated his activeness now. After thinking about it, he yelled at him: "Yu Deshui, come here!" Holding a big iron ladle in his hand, Yu Deshui ran up to the squad leader and asked: "Squad leader, what's the matter?" "You boy is very capable! Everyone has been busy all morning, it's time to rest, you take care of these four pots by yourself, and replace them all to rest!" "yes!" Yu Deshui agreed, and ran to each pot and stove to convey the squad leader's instructions.Everyone knew that the squad leader deliberately punished him, but they were happy to be replaced.Yu Deshui didn't realize it, he grew up doing physical labor, and formed a concept since he was a child: Do more work and you won't be tired!The young man also thought happily: The squad leader thinks highly of me, let me cook four pots by myself! He was so busy that he turned out poorly.When Liang Pengfei finished smoking the cigarette Zhao Jian handed him and walked out of the forest, Yu Deshui had scorched a pot of food at the bottom of the stream, burned one pot of rice, and burned the other two pots of rice because of several times of flameout. Not cooked. Therefore, within the forty minutes that Liu Zongkui set for each company, the Ninth Company did not eat, and because the cooking team opened its posture at the bottom of the stream to cook for the whole company, the soldiers did not receive the notice that should be issued by the company headquarters. You can eat the instructions of the compressed dry food you carry.