Chapter 60: A Signature Move, the Company Commander Can't Hold Out Anymore!

Tong Lianzhong was about to play dirty.

Of course, the main reason was that he wasn't really intimidated by him.

Even though the other man was a battalion commander and his own official rank was only a deputy company commander, he wasn't from the artillery battalion.

Why should he care so much? If the sky fell, there were people taller than him to hold it up; he could just let the battalion commander deal with it later.

Right now, Battalion Commander Lan was clearly furious as well.

"Comrade Deputy Company Commander, I hope you understand the situation. The current tension is high, and our artillery battalion is in desperate need of such exceptional soldiers. If the situation continues to deteriorate, his usefulness as an artillery observer would far outweigh his usefulness as a mere infantryman charging into battle. Do you understand?"

Pausing for a moment, Battalion Commander Lan continued with a solemn expression, "I hope you will stop harboring him with your narrow-minded thinking and put the overall situation first!"

Battalion Commander Lan's expression was dead serious, but to Tong Lianzhong, his words were essentially preaching to a deaf ear.

Although Tong Lianzhong was a cadre, he was not an artilleryman and was completely unfamiliar with artillery operations.

In fact, throughout his previous military career, he had always served in infantry companies, and his usual station was far away from the artillery battalion.

His understanding of artillery was limited to those few 82mm mortars in the battalion's mortar company.

He had watched them use them—you just had to stick your thumb out and take aim.

Given this background, talking to him about the importance of an artillery observer was completely meaningless; Tong Lianzhong had no clue.

He only knew that this soldier was under his command, and the battalion commander had already given him a heads-up to secure him with a priority quota.

Therefore, no matter what kind of flowery words Battalion Commander Lan used today, he had no intention of calling Chu An out and letting the man take him away.

"Comrade Battalion Commander, do I still need to go assemble the First Company of Recruits? Please give your instructions!" Tong Lianzhong said with a rigid, deadpan expression.

This nearly made Battalion Commander Lan cough up blood from pure anger.

So after I said all that, you basically took it as farting in the wind!

"Fine! Fine! Fine! You... you..."

Battalion Commander Lan was truly furious, his hand trembling slightly as he pointed at Tong Lianzhong.

Turning around, he re-packed the roasted chicken on the table, picked up the bottle of liquor, and turned to leave.

Before stepping out the door, however, he still shot a glance at Tong Lianzhong. "Hmph! Just you wait!"

Naturally, he had no intention of letting go of such a natural-born artillery prodigy so easily.

Since going directly through the recruit company's route was a dead end, he was prepared to take the matter to a higher authority that could make decisions.

For instance, the regimental headquarters.

If Tong Lianzhong didn't understand the importance of artillery, surely the leaders at the regimental headquarters did?

Perhaps in peacetime, the regimental commander would still consider the feelings of the Second Battalion Commander.

But what time was it now?

The Vietnamese devils were constantly provoking them, and their regiment had already entered a state of Level 1 combat readiness earlier.

Although that status was quickly lifted—and in fact, over the past two months, the regiment had suspended all combat alerts, with some companies even returning to agricultural and production duties—that was only because they wanted to actively de-escalate the situation and avoid provoking the enemy into larger actions.

The reality, however, was that even as they sought to de-escalate, the Vietnamese devils showed no appreciation for it and continued their endless petty provocations.

Under these circumstances, the nerves of the regimental commander and the others were stretched taut. If he went to them right now to ask for a natural-born artillery prodigy, he refused to believe they wouldn't grant it!

Watching the artillery battalion commander storm off in a huff, Tong Lianzhong couldn't help but offer a wry smile.

Just then, the political instructor quietly opened the door from the adjacent dormitory.

"Old Tong!"

"What are you shouting for? You didn't dare show your face just now!" Tong Lianzhong rolled his eyes.

"Hehe, isn't it because I wanted to ask you for Chu An, but Chu An was never meant for me anyway!" the instructor chuckled.

Although he was the political instructor and theoretically shared the same priority selection rights as the company commander, there was a battalion headquarters standing above them, and the deputy political instructor was from the Second Battalion. It was two against one, and besides, he and the battalion commander weren't even from the same battalion.

As for a soldier like Chu An, it had already been internally decided that they had no claim to him.

Giving the instructor a sideways glance, Tong Lianzhong said the next second, "Keep an eye on the company. If I'm not back in time later, you'll have to lead them over. I have to head out right now!"

With that, he bolted, bypassing the direction the artillery battalion commander had gone and instead leaping over the compound wall from the opposite side.

There was no help for it; the pressure was getting to be too much.

Political Instructor Cui wouldn't be able to handle it either, especially since his official rank was only deputy.

He had to go back and find the battalion commander right now!

Besides, judging by the artillery battalion commander's posture, this matter was far from over.

...

Back in the Fourth Squad's dormitory, Chu An was completely unaware of what had transpired at the company headquarters.

Of course, he actually knew that recently, several company commanders had tried to offer various conditions to acquire him.

Old Wang had already told him all about it.

One of the company commanders from their own battalion had even tried to bribe Tong Lianzhong with a combination of Moutai and high-grade Dahongjiu cigarettes.

One had to know that those two items together cost the equivalent of a month and a half's allowance for soldiers like Chu An.

Cadres received salaries, but after deducting mess fees, they didn't have much cash left over.

The fact that they were willing to shell out those two items showed they were truly making a desperate gamble.

Unfortunately, Tong Lianzhong had withstood that test.

A good soldier might help him advance further in his career, whereas Moutai and Dahongjiu—well, if he gritted his teeth, he could still afford to buy them eventually.

"Alright, put the letter away once you're done reading it. Time's almost up, get yourselves ready, we're falling out for drill!"

Under the state of pre-battle training, the midday break had been further compressed, though in truth, the soldiers hadn't known what a proper noon break meant since the very first day they were assigned to their squads.

At least in name, it still existed.

Previously, official training didn't start until two-thirty.

Now, it had to begin at one o'clock sharp.

*哔哔~* (Beep-beep~)

At the sound of the whistle, the entire company assembled.

The political instructor stood before them.

At this moment, many of the soldiers looked visibly puzzled.

What was going on? Where was the company commander?

Everyone found it very strange.

It wasn't that the political instructor couldn't lead the formation, but today felt a bit unusual.

Today was Saturday, and specifically Saturday afternoon.

According to routine, this afternoon featured a special reserved program!

A company-level live-combat bayonet drill.

In reality, it was just the First Company and the Second Company engaging in a mass brawl on the back mountain.

Normally, the company commander had never missed this event.

Clearly, the political instructor noticed their perplexed expressions and immediately spoke up: "The company commander suddenly had an urgent matter to attend to, but he'll catch up with us shortly!"

After offering this explanation, his expression suddenly shifted, and he roared at the troops, "Even though the company commander isn't here, today's traditional event will proceed as scheduled!

Comrades, what is our slogan?"

"Defend our homes and protect our country, invincible and unstoppable, kill! kill! kill!"

The entire company roared in unison.

At the same time, from across the drill ground, the Second Company's slogan echoed back: "United as one, guard our mountains and rivers, kill, kill, kill!"

Tit for tat, this was the steadfast tradition held every Saturday afternoon.

Shortly after, the two companies marched off to collect their protective gear.

Within ten minutes, both companies—fully geared up and armed with wooden sticks fitted with rubber caps—converged with unyielding determination and marched toward the back mountain.

Meanwhile, on the other side, Tong Lianzhong had finally run all the way to his destination, panting heavily.

The Second Battalion was not stationed together with the regimental headquarters, but rather independently more than ten miles away.

And because of that, Tong Lianzhong was now paying the price.

He had run the entire distance in one breath.

In this era, company commanders didn't have official vehicles; even the battalion headquarters barely had any, relying solely on military horses.

There was no helping it. Vehicles were scarce in those days, and an infantry battalion of a Class-B unit truly lived up to the name of infantry: they relied on their own two legs to traverse the world, only resorting to a horse's four legs when things got desperate.

*Bang!*

The door to the battalion commander's office was pushed open violently.

"Oh? Why are you back?"

The battalion commander, who was sitting at his desk writing with a pen, looked up at Tong Lianzhong with immediate astonishment and asked.