Four, peers in the military camp

  The military vehicle drove through the bustling streets of C City, passed through the green and endless fields of the suburbs, drove down the wide national highway, and entered a not-so-wide but very flat military road. Finally, it entered a simple, solemn, clean and quiet military camp. When the military vehicle entered the gate, Lin Fanghua noticed that the sign on the gate read: Chinese People's Liberation Army 5XX42 Troops. The familiar solemn and mysterious atmosphere gave her a sense of homecoming. After all, as a national secret unit, the institute was also surrounded by high walls and heavily guarded, despite being located in the mountains.

  The military vehicle stopped in front of a large playground with a row of low-rise houses. A military officer with a red card, accompanied by four soldiers, gathered the girls who had just gotten off the car together and began to take roll call. It turned out that when they first boarded the car, they were arranged by platoon. Lin Fanghua belonged to the third company, ninth class of the first battalion for military training. The leader of the third platoon was Jiang Tao, 21 years old, from a military family background, and after joining the army, he also passed the entrance examination for Shijiazhuang Army Academy, and this time he came to practice with the troops. The leader of the ninth class was Xiong Buyang, a private first class, who was not yet 19 years old, and they were almost the same age as the military training students.

  Jiang Tao was tall and slender, with a dignified appearance. His skin was white and no matter how much he sunbathed, it wouldn't darken, so the other platoon leaders would secretly call him "Little White Jiang". But now his face had turned a bit dark. When assigned to lead the female platoon by the company commander, Jiang Tao was very unhappy in his heart. Those platoon leaders all envied him on the surface, saying "Little White Jiang, you're going to have a romantic fortune now!" but actually they were gloating - female college students are a bunch of trouble, and it's impossible to scold or hit them during training; you Little White Jiang may be able to suppress us in military theory and training, but no matter how capable you are, you can't turn a group of orioles into eagles! Just wait for our male platoon to make you lose all your teeth.

  Looking at the group of girls in front of him, who were all sloppy and lazy, some answering "yes" or "present" when their names were called, while others chattered incessantly in small groups, whispering to each other (although their voices were so loud that they had to shout to be heard), Jiang Tao's headache started again. He glared at them as he finished taking roll call, and only said one sentence: "Each class will return to the dormitory, tidy up, and assemble for dinner at 6 o'clock! Dismissed!" After finishing speaking, he turned around and walked away without looking back.

  Four squad leaders looked at me, I looked at them, and we all knew each other. The usually competitive platoon leader was still holding back a belly full of fire and hadn't even said the usual welcome words. The soldiers who could be transferred from the old unit to the military training team were all top-notch soldiers with excellent military quality, competing for first place and shouting loudly. Moreover, the performance of the squad leaders had a great impact on their future in the army. Originally, the four soldiers were proud and confident when they knew they were selected for the military training team, but when they found out they were leading a female soldier class, it was like falling from heaven to hell, and they didn't have any other thoughts except hoping to carefully serve these "young ladies" without making big mistakes.

  They had no choice but to follow orders. The conditions for selecting a female class leader also included being honest and having a good temper, so the small class leaders resigned themselves to leading their own female soldiers to each dormitory and arranging their beds.

  The dormitories are lined up in two rows, with the male students' first and second battalions on the outside and the female students' third battalion's four classes on the inside. The military training team organized this time's training according to the actual situation, organizing the Medical Department's Class 1 as the First Battalion, Class 2 as the Second Battalion, Class 7 into the Second Battalion, and the Tibetan Class of Class 9 into the First Battalion. In addition, the Pharmacy Department, Stomatology Department, etc. were organized into the Third and Fourth Battalions.

  There were four girls' classes in a row, Class 7 corresponding to the girls of Classes 1-3 of the school, and Class 10 corresponding to the Tibetan class. Each class had one large room, and Lin Fanghua's Class 9 was located in the third room. Inside the room, there were bunk beds arranged symmetrically on both sides, with two small stools under each bed, a row of storage cabinets at the door, and no other furniture.

  No hard and fast rules, Bear Monitor let everyone choose their own bed, a group of girls immediately got excited, scrambling for the beds near the house, near the window, and with bright light. Lin Fanghua smiled faintly. After all, she had worked and lived in the army for so long, and was very clear that during military training, you can't sit or lie on your bed during the day; besides, it's only four weeks of sleep, no need to be picky. She casually threw her quilt onto the top bunk at the outermost door and began to put out her toiletries in the storage cabinet.

  Wang Jutian was born with a gentle nature, and as a child from the countryside, she was neither spoiled nor overly cautious. She stood at one side, holding her quilt, waiting for others to settle down before finding her own place. Seeing Lin Fanghua, who came from a high-ranking intellectual family, sleeping soundly by the door without any concern, Wang couldn't help but approach her and ask: "Aren't you worried about anything? The class leader said that we don't close the doors at night when we sleep. Aren't you afraid of sleeping by the door?"

  Originally, Lin Fanghua and Wang Ju were also close friends who had been through military training together and often played poker. Now, Lin Fanghua didn't feel any estrangement from her old friend at all, and naturally included her in the list of people she cared about and helped. She whispered mysteriously into Wang Ju's ear: "There are PLA soldiers standing guard everywhere, what's there to be afraid of? Don't say I didn't tell you, but in the future when we have an emergency assembly, sleeping by the door will allow us to rush out the fastest..." Wang Ju suddenly realized and quickly put her bedding at the bottom bunk by the door, while giving Lin Fanghua a thumbs up: "Great, really great!"

  Sometimes losing out in life's affairs is actually gaining an advantage.

  Before everyone had finished packing, a "tweet-tweet-long" whistle sounded from outside the house. Bear Squad Leader hastily called out to the female soldiers: "Quickly assemble outside! Don't pack up, hurry! Hurry up!"

  The military style of being strict and decisive still hadn't faded, Lin Fanghua quickly pulled Wang Ju to run to the empty space between the male and female dormitories, facing Jiang Piao's team standing in formation, unexpectedly coming in first in the whole regiment. The duty officer Jiang Tao, who was wearing a red armband, actually took an extra glance at Lin Fanghua and Wang Ju, his expression seeming not as dark as before.

  However, as the boys' team quickly assembled, the girls' team took three minutes to barely form up, and there were still late-arriving girls who slipped into the formation without reporting. The team leader's face turned gloomy again, as if a thunderstorm was about to erupt. He waited for another minute, then spoke slowly: "First assembly, some students are too slow! This time is forgiven. Next time, whoever doesn't arrive within one minute after the whistle blows will not be allowed to eat!" His sharp eyes specifically scanned the latecomers in the girls' team.

  At this moment, both boys and girls were shocked by his momentum, and for a while, the team was silent.

  Jiang Tao nodded in satisfaction: "Everyone is here! Turn right! Target: cafeteria. Quick march!"

  At the entrance of the company's cafeteria, the company commander delivered a brief but warm speech on behalf of the troops. Grade Director Guo Mei, as the chief instructor of the military training team, also spoke on behalf of the school and the trainees, expressing gratitude for the strong support from the troops. Then, the deputy company commander also said a few words. He introduced that this troop is a heroic troop with a glorious war history, which is the ace division of Chengdu Military Region, participated in the Sino-Vietnamese War and the two mountain battles, and was stationed in Lhasa to perform martial law tasks a year ago. The troops had just withdrawn from the Tibetan Plateau a week ago, this camp is not the original residence of the troops, it has just been taken over, so many living facilities are lacking, hoping that students will be more tolerant, carry forward the spirit of hard work and plain living, overcome difficulties, and achieve victory in military training.

  The students lined up and entered the cafeteria, only then did they truly understand what the deputy commander had said earlier. It turned out that there were no tables or chairs in the cafeteria, each class was gathered around a large round plate of food on the ground, like peasants in the north holding their bowls and squatting on the ground to eat. Such a hard way, indeed made most students frown. But seeing the leaders including the instructor eating with normal expressions, the classmates also followed suit and started eating.

  After all, eating while squatting was very uncomfortable, and many girls didn't eat much before leaving the cafeteria. Lin Fanghua, on the other hand, said to Wang Ju with a grin: "Don't mind them, we'll eat our own! Now they can't finish their food, but in two days, they'll be scrambling like wolves! How can you do military training if you don't eat enough?" Wang Ju was a simple and hardworking child, and she didn't think squatting to eat was uncomfortable. She asked strangely: "How did you know so much about military training?" Lin Fanghua thought to herself: I said too much, almost blew my cover! She covered up by saying: "Hehe, my brother went through military training last year in his freshman year and told me some things!" Wang Ju responded with an "oh" and didn't say anything else.

  After dinner, the first class meeting was held.

  After the contact in the afternoon, the girls have already become familiar with Bear Classmate. Although the classmate is older than most of the girls, he has a baby face and often speaks with a shy smile, looking like a neighbor's little brother, so the girls unanimously call him "Little Bear Classmate".

  The first class meeting didn't have anything major, mainly the squad leader Little Bear introducing everyone to the history of the troops and some basic information about the company. As he spoke, facing the straightforward squad leader, the girls kept asking questions, almost getting a clear picture of all the leaders' birth dates, military service histories, marital statuses... even how many teeth the company commander's son had at that age. Little Bear's face turned red then white, his sweat soaking through the back of his uniform, silently cursing in his heart.

  At this time, the sound of footsteps came from the door, and Jiang Pailang's military boots with freshly nailed hobnails made a "ta-ta-ta" sound. Xiong Banshang hastily stood at attention and shouted loudly: "Attention!"

  Most of the girls were still sitting there, looking at the class leader in confusion. Lin Fanghua, who was "well-trained", reacted again for the first time and quickly pulled up Wang Ju beside her and stood upright. She saw that others had not reacted yet, so she blinked her eyes hard to signal them to stand up quickly. Everyone saw Jiang Pailang standing at the door with a dark face, and they all reacted one after another, hastily standing up in succession.

  Xiong Bu Yang saw everyone's reaction was okay, and he secretly let out a sigh of relief. He turned around and saluted the platoon leader: "Reporting to Platoon Leader! Class 9 is having a class meeting! Please instruct!" Jiang Tao returned the salute: "Continue!" "Yes!"

  Headmaster Bear hastily pulled out a spare stool from under the empty bed and handed it to the team leader, asking him to take a seat. Then he continued with the next item on the agenda: self-introduction by the trainees.

  The girls were a bit intimidated by the long-faced black man, and one by one they obediently reported their names, places of origin and other information in order, no one dared to say more nonsense. The atmosphere in the room became a bit dull.

  The last one was Lin Fanghua, who sat at the door. After introducing herself and just about to sit down, Jiang Piao suddenly asked: "Is your family in the army?" Lin Fanghua was taken aback and quickly replied: "Report to the platoon leader, no. My parents are both engineers." Jiang Tao asked again: "Then have you participated in military training before?"

  Lin Fanghua finally understood that the platoon leader had sensed the military aura on her and came to investigate. She couldn't help it, after all, she had spent 6 years in the army, and her behavior and gait naturally had a unique feel to them, especially when contrasted with the gentle girls around her. She carefully replied: "Reporting to platoon leader, my parents work in a military factory with a security battalion and anti-aircraft artillery battalion stationed for protection. Our school has a partnership with the troops, we often visit the company and they also provide us with national defense education." This was half true, half false; there really was a security company, but the military training was fake; at that time, military training in middle schools was not common, except for some key middle schools in big cities. But for Platoon Leader Jiang, who was only familiar with the army and not with local conditions, it could pass.

  He nodded and asked other girls: "Is there anyone else who has received military training?"

  Most of them shook their heads, and only a quiet girl slowly raised her hand, saying in a low voice: "I also had military training for a week in high school." Lin Fanghua knew that the girl's name was Tao Jianping, a top student from a key middle school in a large city outside the province. She was the first in her class and among the top in her grade, with the highest score on the college entrance exam. Now she was the temporary leader of the girls' class and also the deputy leader of the ninth military training class (the temporary leaders were designated by the school at the beginning of the semester, not only had good grades but also held positions as student cadres in middle school; these temporary leaders later mostly took on formal roles as class leaders or team branch secretaries). In her previous life, due to the small number of students in the seven-year program, after military training, the school selected a few top-scoring students from the five-year program to transfer into the seven-year program. Tao Jianping was one of them, and therefore Lin Fanghua had little contact with her and didn't know much about her.

  Jiang Pai Chang also took a look at Tao Jian Ping, then said: "Good! I hope you two students who have received military training can play a leading role in the future and help other comrades to improve the military training results of Class 9!"

  Lin Fanghua almost loudly answered "yes", fortunately she thought to herself that she shouldn't be too militarized, so she just slightly nodded her head. On the other hand, Tao Jianping softly replied with a "yes".

  Jiang Tao stood up and said: "Alright, you all continue with your class meeting! Xiong Bu Yang, come out with me for a moment!"

  The squad leader followed his own platoon leader out of the door for over a dozen steps before stopping. He turned around, patted Xiaoxiong's shoulder and said: "You little guy have good luck, there are two female students who have received military training, you train them well, bring out two model soldiers, and strive to be an advanced class!"

  Little Bear looked at the disappearing figure in the distance, feeling both happy and worried. He was happy that the resentment towards him seemed to be dissipating, but he was also worried that from now on, the class leader would focus his attention on Class 9.