In this extremely bad environment, honor is the wind of the frontier, the rain of the battlefield, and the scars of the sun.

It is every bullet hole that focuses on the bull's-eye, it is a determination, a loyalty, a perseverance, it is a fall, get up and continue to rush forward, it is the courage to show the sword at the critical moment, and guard the gate of the motherland behind you.

More than ninety percent of the soldiers of the Second Frontier Company have blackened and sunken nails, purple faces, and molting, which is caused by long-term hypoxia and malnutrition on the plateau.

The border guards cannot be understood by the information composed of the characters on the document, and cannot be interpreted in one or two sentences.

When Chen Ming heard the instructor's sentence "There is no shortage of people in the second border company", he felt sad, these are indeed details that he has never learned in the information.

Yes, their border guards are in a difficult environment, their work is dangerous, and it is a place where it is difficult to retain people.

Even if ordinary recruits leave the company and stay for two years, they will basically choose to leave the army in a hurry, and there are very few people who choose to stay in the team every year.

In addition, there are occasional conflicts, or natural disasters faced during patrols, and the encirclement and suppression of some unknown elements must be carried out in such a harsh environment.

If the battle is fierce, they will face attrition at any time.

Over the years, even if the Second Frontier Company will withdraw every once in a while and let other companies come and garrison them, they will still come up sooner or later, and it is hard to imagine that such a well-known ace company has not experienced what it is like to be full for a long time.

The number of people has always been scarce.

How did Chen Ming know that the regular class of the Second Frontier Defense Company usually has about ten people, but here, each class can generally maintain seven people, which is already quite good.

Instructor Geng Yanrong paused, and sighed: "Then go to the second class in the first row, that class just left two days ago, and now there are only five people in the class plus the squad leader, let Chen Ming go to the top." ”

A class of five people, only half of the regular class, and a lot of work could not be carried out.

Even if there is a war, even the conventional three-three system cooperation cannot be formed, and it really needs to be supplemented.

Company Commander Wu Xueliang listened, was silent for a while, nodded and said, "Okay, then let's be in a row and two shifts." ”

One row and two shifts.

Hearing this, Chen Ming's expression was slightly stunned, and he couldn't help but sigh in his heart, fate is really wonderful.

When the recruit went down to the company, the only place he stayed in was the first platoon and second squad of the second battalion of Yuanhuo, but he didn't expect that this time he went to the grassroots level and was assigned to the second platoon and second squad again.

When his thoughts were sighing, the company commander got up and smiled at Chen Ming: "Let's go, I'll take you to see your new class, there is no turn for the second squad to patrol today, and the team should not rest at this time." ”

After speaking, Wu Xueliang took the lead out of the office, the instructor followed, Chen Ming also hurriedly followed, and by the way, he looked at the time again, it was almost ten o'clock in the evening at this time, even if there was no patrol mission, it was time to close the team?

You can't just stop the queue because it's dark late this season in southern Xinjiang, right?

But when he first arrived, it was hard to ask.

The company commander and the instructor came out of the office, did not go to the dormitory, and took Chen Ming straight out of the company gate, walked five or six hundred meters along the position where he had gone up the mountain just now, and turned to a small road on the left.

After walking for about seven or eight hundred meters, there was a very steep slope in front of me, about forty or fifty degrees, and the length of the entire slope was also 100 meters, leading to the top of the mountain.

On the slope, there were nineteen figures sprinting again, all of them blushing, and rushing towards the top of the slope with all their strength.

Under the refraction of the light reflected by the snow, the figures of these nineteen people seemed to be glowing with halos.

At the bottom of the slope, a second lieutenant platoon commander stood straight, staring at the slope and watching the performance of the men rushing to the slope.

Company commander Wu Xueliang and instructor Geng Yanrong took Chen Ming and walked behind the platoon commander, as if they heard movement from behind, the platoon commander turned his head and took a look, and found that it was the leader who came, and hurriedly saluted: "Good company commander, good instructor!" ”

Chen Ming looked at the platoon commander slightly, if nothing else, he should be in charge of this person when he went to the grassroots level during this time.

Company commander Wu Xueliang waved his hand with a smile, signaling that he didn't need to be polite, and glanced at Chen Ming with a smile: "Lao Cao, let the comrades gather, I have something to announce." ”

The platoon commander known as Lao Cao, whose name is Cao Fei, is quite thin, but he is the kind of lean thinness, giving people the feeling that the thin body contains strong explosive power.

Cao Fei nodded heavily, and after noticing the company commander's eyes, he also glanced at Chen Ming, then picked up the whistle on his chest and shouted: "Assemble." ”

The soldiers who were rushing down the slope in the distance heard the whistle like a pack of wolves howling, and their movements were uniform, ignoring the steep slope, and collectively rushed down the mountainside.

Run fast in this direction.

Taking advantage of the time when the soldiers were going down the mountain, the company commander Wu Xueliang stretched out his hand and pointed at the second lieutenant platoon commander, and introduced with a smile: "Chen Ming, this is your future platoon commander, and his name is Cao Fei." ”

Then he turned his head to Cao Fei and said: "Old Cao, the one assigned from above is also considered a veteran, isn't there only five people in the second row of the first row now?" Put him in your second class, you can have more snacks and bring people to understand our company. ”

"Yes!!"

Platoon Commander Cao Fei didn't have any expression on his face, and after responding to the company commander's arrangement, his eyes just glanced at Chen Ming, and asked in a cold voice, "Are you Chen Ming?" ”

"Yes, platoon commander." Chen Ming hurriedly stood upright, took a step forward, saluted Cao Fei, and responded in a sonorous voice.

But this performance did not make the expression on Cao Fei's face soften in any way, nodded lightly, and said, "Well, welcome." ”

The words that came out of his mouth, and the expression on his face, didn't look like a welcome look.

Chen Ming looked at his paralyzed expression, and couldn't help muttering in his heart, good guy, isn't there a shortage of people here?

It seems that there is no shortage of people.

Or is it that he was lucky, he met Zhao Lifei when he first entered the barracks, but he didn't smile at the winner, and now he just went down to the grassroots level and ran into it again.

However, the two are still a little different, Zhao Lifei, as the squad leader of the recruits, has a black face that is not right for things, and is simply very coquettish and cold, and he doesn't like to laugh, because it is ugly to laugh.

And Cao Fei doesn't seem to be pretending, his expression matches his eyes, he is really the kind of person who is very calm.

This can't be blamed on him, Chen Ming's military uniform is newly distributed, even the military rank is the same, and then look at his young face, with a brand-new military uniform, no matter how you look at it, he looks like a fledgling recruit.

The border troops are not conventional troops, they know how to be sleek, and they can get mixed up, Cao Fei is worried that soldiers like Chen Ming will either be arranged to be gilded by someone above, or they are too unlucky, and it is difficult to adapt to being thrown over.

At most, he stayed for a few days and cried and wiped his tears, and then looked forward to being discharged from the army, or writing an application for transfer, which was really incompatible with all the soldiers of the Second Frontier Company.

There is a shortage of water here, and the weather is bad, and the military uniforms are about to fade, and they seem to be dirty, and they are about to be pulped.

But in fact, the military uniforms are very clean, but because of the environment, they are not durable.

At this moment when Chen Ming was muttering, those soldiers who rushed to the slope, holding steel guns, came to gather in front of him neatly.

Company commander Wu Xueliang had a faint smile on his face, walked up to the soldiers, and said with a smile: "Comrades, I came here today mainly for one thing, to introduce you to our new members. ”

After speaking, he waved his big hand, motioned for Chen Ming to step forward, patted him on the shoulder, and continued to say to the soldiers: "This is Comrade Chen Ming, the new comrade who was disbanded from the original unit because of the reorganization and then assigned to our unit. ”

"Although I am only twenty-four years old this year, I have five years of military experience, and I hope you can get along well and make progress together in the future."

After the company commander finished speaking, the soldiers in the team applauded symbolically, just like what Chen Ming said when he first came to meet the sentry.

Maybe they haven't had a new face in the Second Frontier Company for a long time.

The soldiers who were lining up applauded at the same time, their curious eyes kept sweeping towards Chen Ming, with novelty and excitement in their eyes.

It may be a very new thing for them to face the snow-capped mountains, black soil, and harsh environment all day long, and suddenly a new person and a new face.

The applause fell, and the company commander shouted loudly to the soldiers in the line: "Second squad leader." ”

"Here."

"The new comrades will be placed in your class first, and you will have a good run-in in the past few days, take care of some new comrades, and strive to complete the run-in as soon as possible and carry out the tasks together."

"Yes."

The company commander's voice fell, and in the queue, a second-phase squad leader who looked like a tiger and a bear waist and was as strong as a brown bear strode out and saluted heavily.

Chen Ming stood at the front of the queue and obviously saw that in addition to the squad leader, there were four other people in the team who suddenly looked at him with a bright light in their eyes, if they guessed correctly, these four people should also be from the second class.

It may be that the long-lost enthusiasm of the grassroots company has returned, Chen Ming looked at them, and inexplicably began to look forward to the days in the second border company in the next few months.

After the company commander introduced Chen Ming, he left here with the instructor.

Platoon commander Cao Fei originally wanted to continue training, but looking at the novelty of the people in the second squad, they were not in the mood to stand in line, and then saw that Chen Ming was still carrying a backpack in his hand and wearing regular clothes, so he simply waved his hand and announced the disbandment.

Originally, this was not the time for training, and it was dark, but the altitude was high, and the snow and moonlight were irradiated, and compared with the daytime, in addition to the less dazzling light, the gap was not very large.

"Classes, put your guns in storage, go back and get ready to rest."

"Disband."

"What, the new comrades are here, they all know each other, go to the cafeteria to see what to eat, and prepare it."

After Cao Fei finished announcing, he turned around and left.

The soldiers of the other squads followed behind the platoon commander, looking back at Chen Ming step by step, and then at the military uniform he was wearing, full of curiosity.

On the contrary, it was on the second class, and after all the others had gone away, a few people who were still curious just now became a little shy.

Hehe smirked, walked over and surrounded Chen Ming, looking up and down, but no one spoke.

Their squad, plus the squad leader, there were only five people, and they looked at it for more than forty seconds, and a thin and youngest-looking senior soldier stretched out his hand and rubbed his pants seriously, and said with a smile: "Brother, hello, my name is Wu Bing." ”

"Hehe, thanks to you, this is the first time in half a year that we have ended the evening training early."

"Haha, finally a new person has joined, and you can stand guard for a few hours the day after tomorrow."

"Squad leader, don't be stupid, there's a newcomer here, don't you have to get some game to entertain?"

"Chen Ming, right? Come on, come on, give me the bag, let's go back to the dormitory first. ”

~~~~~~~

A group of soldiers in the second squad surrounded and chattered, and there was no chance for him to interject.

It's not as Chen Ming expected at first, the border guards are particularly fierce, and they will find fault or something when they come over, on the contrary, these people are very enthusiastic.

Faced with this situation, Chen Ming could only smile when he looked at the enthusiastic appearance of others.

Surrounded by five people, follow them back to the dormitory.

Rao had been mentally prepared for a long time, but when he really saw the dormitory environment, Chen Ming found that he was wrong again, and he was outrageously wrong.

He still underestimated the poor dormitory of the Second Frontier Company.

The dormitory is a row of small bungalows, a total of twelve rooms, nine combat classes, plus a cooking class, one for each class.

There is one room for three platoon commanders, one room for company commanders and instructors, and the assignment can be said to be simple and rude.

Entering the room, it is even more rudimentary.

Five bunk beds are arranged in two rows, and at the end of the room, there are 10 compartments for personal belongings.

There is a chandelier hanging on the top in the middle, and this is the whole view of the dormitory.

There is not even a toilet, if you want to go to the toilet, you have to go out and run to a public thatched house about 50 meters away, if you want to take a bath, next to the canteen opposite the dormitory, there is a shower room, there is a sink outside the shower room, and the morning washing is also there.

After listening to this introduction, Chen Ming was a little stunned, even if he had never been to the border guards, at least he had seen some in the military newspaper and military news.

Many border troops on this side of the Southern Xinjiang Military Region do not say that they have already built new barracks, but in the past, it was even more miserable; many border troops did not even have their own barracks, and they had to go to the barracks in the distance for accommodation and food, and they would only come over when they were standing guard and patrolling.

Later, with the development of the domestic economy, the army upgraded the border defense environment on a large scale, why are the conditions here still so simple?

Chen Ming put his things on the bed, looked at the soldiers who followed behind him, and couldn't help but ask in surprise: "Are we also troops?" ”

"And it's still a relatively dangerous border guard, even the toilet is now a latrine, this, the condition."

Chen Ming didn't say anything further, after all, he had just arrived, and it seemed hypocritical to talk too much.

But although the above advocates saving in all aspects and implementing the principle of saving, the place where it should be spent is still to be spent, right?

Looking at his surprised face, the squad leader who looked like a bear walked up, scratched his head innocently, and said with an embarrassed smile: "No way, we are too far here, there are a lot of large equipment that can't be transported, and it's troublesome to hire workers." ”

"We make a lot of things ourselves, paint them, pave roads, make beds, dig toilets, we can do all of these things ourselves."

"In addition, we have a large number of border guards, and the construction of the country must be done step by step, so we will do it first."

Yes, Chen Ming, who was relieved, nodded slightly, even if they are called infrastructure madness, but building things also requires equipment and time.

Although the conditions here are simple, at least everything is complete, and many objects are made by themselves at first glance, such as the lame table in the company commander's office.

The road here is really poor, just transporting large bricks, it is a big problem, not to mention the workers, and the problems of the pipes.

One toilet is so difficult, and all other infrastructure has to be built step by step.

Even if Chen Ming had already done a good job of psychological construction, in the face of this environment, he had to sigh.

He's really not hypocritical, suffering or anything is acceptable, but the fact that the toilet has to run fifty meters away is a little uncomfortable.

After all, it's quite cold at night, and if you have diarrhea one night, you just think that you have to hold a paper in one hand and cover your ass with the other, and run up fifty meters in the bright moonlight.

Well, this picture is really beautiful, Chen Ming can't imagine it.

It seems that his hesitation caused several people in the second class to be a little silent, and the Wu soldier, who took the initiative to talk to Chen Ming just now, pursed his lips and said with a lonely expression: "Brother, since you are here for the border guards, then you must be prepared to endure hardships." ”

"If you can't endure hardship, then you should quickly write an application for transfer, if you know someone in another unit, and someone in other units is willing to accept you, our company commander will not be forced to stay."

"As long as you write an application and have a place to ask for it, the company commander will release you."

Walk?!!

Chen Ming was stunned for a moment, and then he reacted, maybe he was too obvious just now, which made them realize the wrong meaning.

Looking at the soldiers of the second class, sitting on the edge of their beds one by one, looking at him, there was some regret and loneliness in their faces.

It seems that there should have been a lot of people like him who were transferred before, but they didn't stay long, and they applied for transfer again.

The hardships of border defense are not something that everyone can bear, and there is a gap between imagination and reality after all.

Chen Ming smiled, and now he would look very pale when he explained anything, so he asked casually: "Then since our company commander will release people, why don't you write an application?" ”

"We?"

When several soldiers in the second squad heard the inquiry, their eyes seemed to bloom with a little brilliance.

One of the tall and thin warriors looked up and smiled: "If they are all gone, who will guard the gate of the country?" ”

"I took the initiative to apply for a transfer to the border, and I won't leave."

"Haha, I won't leave either, border defense? Bitter, bitter? If you don't do it, don't you spoil yourself. ”

"When the heart is stable, the hand will be stable, and if the hand is stable, the person will be stable."

"It's not bitter, it's not something I should think about, young and frivolous, youthful agitation, guarding the frontier, and setting sail for dreams."

"Haha, I won't leave, the squad leader praised me for making rapid progress here, but I know that my progress is fast because I have a low starting point, but what's the matter, dare to defend the country for the motherland, I am proud."

(End of chapter)