Chapter 35: A Spy from Yue Sneaking into the Barracks to Steal?

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“Come on, can I take that move back? Just one move! I shouldn’t have played it like that!”

Inside Fourth Company’s barracks, Gong Liqun, seated opposite Chu An, wore an expression of utter regret. Everyone had agreed before the game began that no one was allowed to retract a move—anyone who did would be called a puppy.

But now he truly could not hold himself back.

Losing like this was simply too painful.

He had clearly seemed to hold a huge advantage. He had more pieces left on the board, including his major forces—a chariot, a cannon, and a horse—as well as four pawns. Chu An, by contrast, had only two horses and a lone pawn remaining.

Yet Chu An had just killed him outright with a coordinated attack by his two horses.

Gong Liqun was deeply unwilling to accept it. Three moves earlier, he had not noticed the slightest hint of danger.

“Hehe. A true gentleman never takes back a move once the piece has been played!”

Chu An laughed cheerfully, casting a sidelong glance at Old Wang.

Naturally, Chu An was not waiting for verbal praise.

After sitting down earlier, he had suddenly come up with a plan.

That old veteran was full of tricks and had been setting traps for them all along. Chu An had begun wondering whether he could set one for him in return.

And so this plan had taken shape.

He would pretend to be weak, making it appear that he could barely defeat Gong Liqun, only to suddenly deliver a brilliant checkmate.

His goal was to lure Old Wang into playing against him next.

Well… ideally, he would make Old Wang do a hundred push-ups as well.

As the deputy squad leader, if he wanted to help improve the entire company’s physical fitness, then naturally the best outcome would be for him, as the squad leader and one of the company’s members, to keep improving too.

“Not bad. You’ve already made the move—how could you take it back? If you’re dissatisfied, challenge him next time. Now, are you going to perform a talent or accept a punishment?”

Old Wang was grinning too. At that moment, he had no idea that Chu An had buried a hook and was preparing to fish.

“This… all right!”

Gong Liqun stared at the chessboard with pain and resentment written across his face, but in the end he could only rise helplessly.

“Squad leader, I choose…”

“Quick, someone catch the thief!”

Quite suddenly, a shout came from outside.

The voice sounded somewhat familiar to Chu An.

“An old soldier named Liu from the cookhouse!”

Old Wang’s smile vanished almost instantly. He turned and pulled open the wooden door, which had been left ajar.

The voice became even clearer from inside the barracks.

“Catch the thief! Company Commander Tong has brought people out to help catch the thief!”

The shouting was plainly coming from the direction of the parade ground beside the barracks.

“Come on, follow me outside!”

Old Wang shouted over his shoulder and immediately took off running.

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The others stared at one another in bewilderment, but then hurried after him.

As he ran out the door, Chu An could not help wondering whether this was another one of Old Wang’s tricks.

After all, the whole thing seemed rather absurd.

Who in their right mind would come into a military camp to steal something? Wasn’t that practically handing the soldiers a chance to earn merit?

Besides, soldiers standing guard in military camps carried live ammunition in their rifles these days!

On the second day after entering the camp, Chu An and the others had asked the cadre responsible for receiving recruits about it, and had received an unequivocal answer.

Under such circumstances, someone had actually come here to steal?

Chu An truly found it hard to believe.

How foolish could a person be? A thief might be poor, but surely he was not stupid.

At that moment, however, Chu An was the only one with time to think about such things. The other recruits felt their blood surging and had no room in their minds for anything else. They wanted only to catch the thieves.

Perhaps everyone had come to enlist for different reasons.

Some wanted simply to eat their fill. Others hoped to change their rural household registration or secure an arrangement for returning home.

But they were all seventeen or eighteen-year-old young men. More importantly, unlike Chu An, they had not been tempered by the internet and the perspective of a later generation.

At present, they had only one thought:

Catch the thief and earn merit.

“Quick, quick! Catch him! There are others running in a different direction!”

On the track along the side of the parade ground nearest Chu An’s barracks, a man was sprinting ahead with a sack in his arms.

He kept looking back as he ran. Several dozen meters behind him, an old soldier from the cookhouse was chasing him with a long-handled spatula. When he saw the recruits and veterans of First Company emerging, he immediately shouted.

In truth, there was no need for him to say anything. The moment everyone came out and saw the scene, they knew who the target was.

He had mentioned that there were other thieves, but no one could see them. As a result, nobody chose to split up and search. Their objective was perfectly clear: secure the merit right in front of them first.

By then, the thief had already passed First Company’s barracks when the soldiers came out.

He was only about twenty meters away.

And to be honest, the man was not running very fast. He even appeared unsteady, stumbling as he went.

If the cookhouse soldier could not catch him, it was probably because the old veteran assigned to the recruits’ camp had gone too long without training.

The soldiers of First Company were different. Chu An ran with all his might, thinking that whether or not this was another trick, catching a thief and earning merit would surely make it easier for him to become a squad leader after recruit training.

But at that moment, all his effort was useless.

Sixth Squad’s barracks were closer to the track, and their men had not been slow to come out. Moreover, their veteran squad leader seemed genuinely formidable. After racing forward, he launched himself into a fierce tackle.

“Ah!”

A cry of pain rang out as the man responsible for throwing the entire company into commotion was slammed onto the puddle-strewn track.

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“Don’t move!”

After pinning him down, the Sixth Squad leader barked sternly. At the same time, a large crowd of recruits and veterans surrounded them.

“There are two more running toward the camp entrance! Hurry and help!” the cookhouse veteran shouted breathlessly as he caught up.

“No… no… ah… not… don’t… we… we aren’t bad people!”

At that moment, the man pinned beneath the Sixth Squad leader, his neck locked from behind, twisted his head and struggled to force out a distorted voice.

“Hm? Vietnamese?”

One of the veteran squad leaders stared in astonishment.

The man had said “no” in Vietnamese.

This place was close to the national border. Moreover, relations between the country and Vietnam had still been quite good two years earlier, so it was perfectly common for some of the veterans stationed here to understand, and even speak a few words of, Vietnamese.

The Sixth Squad leader, however, clearly paid no attention to that.

Instead, he tightened his hold around the man’s neck and shouted sternly, “So you’re Vietnamese spies? You’ve got some nerve, infiltrating our military camp!”

It had to be said that the Sixth Squad leader had a remarkably quick mind.

With a single accusation, he had placed an enormous charge over the man’s head. Chu An could see the captive’s face turning blue as he struggled to speak beneath the pressure of the chokehold.

But the Sixth Squad leader gave him no opportunity. He tightened his grip until the man could barely breathe.

“Old Liu, what’s going on?”

Tong Lianzhong and the political instructor came running over at that moment.

The instructor immediately stopped the cookhouse veteran and questioned him.

“Whew…”

The cookhouse veteran first drew a deep breath, then pointed with the spatula at the man subdued by the Sixth Squad leader.

“We were taking a break when we suddenly heard some movement in the back kitchen. At first, we thought it was a rat, but who would have guessed that several people had sneaked in to steal things!”

As he spoke, he started toward the prisoner with the spatula in hand.

“Hey, Old Liu, don’t be impulsive!” the instructor hurriedly restrained him.

Just then, the First Platoon leader ran over to Tong Lianzhong and the instructor and said in a low voice, “Company Commander, Instructor, this man may be Vietnamese. The first thing he said was in Vietnamese.”

“What?”

Tong Lianzhong’s expression changed. He immediately shouted, “All squad leaders, listen up! Take your men toward the camp entrance and help. Remember, you must bring the other two back to me!”

“Yes, sir!”

“Come with me!”

“Fourth Squad, follow!”

One squad leader after another answered and dashed away with his men.

Who knew how long they had served in the army without ever encountering an opportunity like this? Now that one had finally appeared, someone else had seized it right before their eyes.

Since there was still a chance, they naturally had to grasp it.