"Assemble, assemble urgently!"

In the entire huge camp, the sound of military whistles and emergency assemblies sounded one after another, accompanied by gusts of cold wind, resounding in this night sky.

Today is October 19, 1950, and although it is early autumn for most parts of the country, for the Tohoku region, it has entered the cold winter ahead of schedule.

Due to a heavy snowfall a few days ago, and the cleaning was carried out, the ground was naturally frozen and uncivilized, and the outside of the barracks could be described as icy and snowy, and there was still a whistling cold wind, and even the normal drill was canceled, and the entire company stationed here was on standby.

It was time to go to bed at night, and many of the soldiers in the barracks had taken off their uniforms and slept in the warm bed.

At this time, I heard the piercing military whistle and the shouting of the herald from outside.

It can be said that many soldiers were woken up this night when they had just fallen asleep, and they had to quickly put on their military uniforms, tie up three horizontal and two vertical marching backpacks with ropes, push open the door of the barracks, and rush to the training ground outside the barracks one by one to assemble.

Although it was cold and snowy outside, the soldiers of this company did not care, for the simple reason that they felt that after a month of resting without doing anything, they suddenly gathered urgently this evening, and there must be a battle to be fought.

As a soldier, fighting a war is his duty, not to mention, the soldiers in the company have long heard that this time they are going to cross the Yalu River into North Korea to defend their homeland and defend the country to resist US aggression and aid Korea, and they are a righteous army.

Soon, within five minutes, the soldiers in the various barracks were gathered at the training ground, and at this time, the ground of the training ground was not only covered with a thick layer of snow, but also frozen.

Because of the burning kang in the barracks, it was very warm to stay inside, but when I got out of the barracks, the temperature immediately dropped to more than ten degrees below zero.

At this moment, the soldiers standing on the training ground are ready to go, even if they are wearing face cloth boots on their feet, cotton pants on their lower bodies, and cotton jackets on their upper bodies. After less than a minute, many people began to tremble.

Company Commander Zhao Yifa, who was standing at the front of the team and was handling the soldiers, looked down at the pocket watch he was holding in his hand, the time shown on it was half past ten in the evening, and five minutes earlier, they had just received orders from the regiment headquarters to the companies.

The 3rd Company was required to set off on time half an hour later, that is, at 11 o'clock in the evening, cross the Yalu River Bridge dozens of miles away, and enter the northern part of the Korean Peninsula to carry out combat missions.

From the emergency assembly where the heralds blew the military whistle and shouted a lot just now, the soldiers of the three platoons of the entire company have all assembled on the training ground, and according to the countdown of the time pinched by the company commander Zhao Yifa, it took a little more than four minutes and less than five minutes.

According to the requirements of the marching assembly at that time, the soldiers had to assemble within five minutes, and needless to say, the soldiers of the company he led had fully met this requirement, which made him quite satisfied.

After he put the pocket watch with a rusty shell in his hand into the pocket of his jacket and military uniform, he glanced at Wang Wenju, the company instructor standing beside him, and nodded to each other.

After the two of them exchanged glances, the company commander Zhao Yifa said in a loud voice, facing the first soldier on the left hand side of the first row standing opposite him, and gave the order: "Report the number!"

Just waiting for the company commander Zhao Yifa to give an order, the soldier on the far left of the first row of the assembly team began to count: "One, two, three, four, five...... Ninety-four. ”

After listening to the report, Zhao Yifa, the company commander, was quite satisfied that his soldiers could assemble on time within five minutes, but at this time, his face suddenly changed, frowning, and his face was dark, which made people feel frightened.

He shouted loudly in a loud voice: "There are a total of ninety-seven of us, except for me and the instructor, it should be ninety-five, why is there one less." Each platoon and each shift looked at which platoon and which class was missing one person. ”

Most of the soldiers in the third company are veterans led by the company commander Zhao Yifa, and less than one-third of the soldiers were just added two months ago.

Now seeing Zhao Yifa's face is blue and angry, these platoon commanders and squad leaders don't dare to slack off in the slightest, and hurriedly go to count the soldiers under their command, who ate the bear's heart and leopard gall, and even dared not come to the emergency assembly, it was simply unorganized and undisciplined.

After less than a minute, a platoon commander took a step forward from the middle of the line and stood up, first issued a military salute to Zhao Yi, the company commander standing opposite him, and reported: "Report to the company commander, Sun Lei, a soldier from the third company and one platoon, did not come, this is a serious dereliction of duty for my platoon commander and a squad leader, and I am willing to accept the punishment of military discipline and military regulations."

After saying this, Liu Sanshun, the platoon commander, changed his words, strengthened his courage, and said loudly: "Liu Sanshun, the platoon commander of the third company, asked the company commander for instructions, I will now take the first squad leader Niu Tiezhu to the barracks of the first squad to bring Sun Lei, a little rabbit cub, over, and ask for the approval of the company commander and the instructor." ”

As soon as he heard the platoon commander Liu Sanshun say that the soldier named Sun Lei came from the three companies he led, Zhao Yifa, the company commander, felt even more annoyed than just now.

This is mainly because since the early days of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, this company has had a fine revolutionary tradition since its establishment, and there is no company that is the most brave and good at fighting in the whole regiment, and it has the reputation of "sharp knife company".

Whether it was participating in the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression at the beginning or the later War of Liberation, he fought more than 100 battles, almost winning 100 battles, no matter how powerful the enemy troops were, and he never suffered a defeat.

And Zhao Yifa, who is now the company commander, was the squad leader of the third company and one platoon at the beginning of the establishment of the company, and then worked from the squad leader to the platoon commander of the first platoon, and then to the current third company commander.

At the beginning, when he was the squad leader of the first platoon of the third company, their first squad was the "sharp knife squad" of the third company, and when he was the platoon leader of the first platoon of the third company, the three companies and one platoon he led were the "sharp knife platoon".

From the establishment of the third company to the present, no one has ever dared to be absent from even an emergency assembly, as the former platoon leader and platoon leader Zhao Yifa, if he is not thunderous and angry.

Zhao Yifa, the company commander who clenched his fists, looked at Liu Sanshun, the platoon leader standing opposite him, and Niu Tiezhu, the platoon leader of the platoon who lowered his head, and said angrily: "Don't go, you two, stay here honestly, I want to see for myself, what kind of character is this recruit named Sun Lei under your hands." ”

That's right, this recruit named Sun Lei is a recruit who was just added to their third company two months ago, and he has never violated military discipline and military regulations in ordinary times.

Those soldiers in three companies and one platoon, when they heard that the person who did not come to the emergency assembly tonight was Sun Lei, they were also taken aback, and felt that they couldn't believe that this person would be Sun Lei, who usually performed well.

Under the cover of dark night, all the soldiers in the first row of the three companies standing on the training ground, looking at the company commander Zhao Yifa walking towards the barracks in the distance, and the back of the gradual distant, they couldn't help but pinch a cold sweat for Sun Lei, who couldn't come in time.