"There is a plan." Shen Rusong replied.
In fact, Xu Bowen's question about whether to pass the military academy is basically nonsense. Not to mention that it is difficult for soldiers who have not attended an officer crash course or a serious military academy to be promoted to second lieutenant level. Who doesn’t want officer treatment that is visible to the naked eye? Ordinary conscripts and volunteers are just that. After all, many of them don't even get up to the level of the sergeant school in the unified examination, otherwise they wouldn't be able to become top soldiers. When soldiers take the military academies, firstly, there are few recommended places, secondly, it is very difficult, and thirdly, they don’t have time. Do you work hard every day after training and then sacrifice your rest time to review military courses? This is not something that can only be achieved by rote memorization in the liberal arts. Calculation of a ballistic function alone is enough to make people scratch their heads.
A soldier is one thing, a sergeant is another. Although Shen Rusong holds the rank of corporal and is still essentially a professional soldier, his biggest advantage compared to ordinary soldiers is that he has a diploma from a sergeant school, which is equivalent to a junior college degree.
In today's resource-scarce era of an extremely strictly planned economy, most citizens only have a high school diploma. They must serve in the military at the age of seventeen, be demobilized after five to seven years, and then participate in skills training arranged by the state, obtain a technical school diploma, and then Being assigned to work at a facility maintenance station as a maintenance worker or an assembly line worker. A very small number of talents are able to cross the single-plank bridge and be admitted to university undergraduates and military academies. The former are exempted from service and assigned to enviable jobs after graduation, and the latter are awarded at least the rank of second lieutenant when they serve.
For example, the Xu Bowen in front of me is 21 years old and graduated from the Second Infantry Academy. With this status, he has a safe journey. Even if he has to pass the qualifications, it is a certainty that he will retire with the rank of captain. If there is a chance, it will not be difficult to become a lieutenant colonel. .
But it was more difficult for Shen Rusong. He missed out on the military academy by a few points during the unified examination. The policy prohibited repeated admissions, so he could only attend the Engineer and Soldiers Officer School. After joining the army, he was only given two opportunities to take the military academy exam. The prerequisite is that you will not be allowed to take the exam until you have served for three years, and you will be disqualified after you reach the age of twenty-five. It is equivalent to saying that he cannot take the exam until he is twenty-three years old, once each at the age of twenty-three and twenty-four, and then he will automatically lose the qualification.
Of course, there is one exception: meritorious service, first-class merit once or second-class merit twice, third-class merit and collective honor will not be counted. But how difficult is it to make meritorious deeds? Now is wartime. Simple training exercises and troubleshooting are difficult to be rated as high standards. They must have real combat achievements and must be achieved with one sword and one gun.
Shen Rusong casually said that he had an idea to take the exam, but it was still early and he would not consider it yet.
Thinking about three years from now? Why bother? It is better to think about whether I can hold the girl and sleep well in three minutes...
Xu Bowen sighed sympathetically, smoked another good cigarette, and said with a certain swipe here and there: "Hey, yes, the policy of the military academy is a bit rigid. We are soldiers. Not easy……"
After chatting about the hardships of being a soldier for a while, Xu Bowen changed the topic when he saw that Shen Rusong was becoming more and more impatient and kept looking towards the barn. He burned out three or four cigarette butts and patted Shen Rusong on the shoulder. Seemingly casually he said: "I heard from the staff of the regiment headquarters that the military region had a back-and-forth on the matter of criticizing Company Commander Xia for meritorious deeds. I feel that our company suffered too much loss and its early performance in the mountains and snow was not good. …”
"It means finding fault."
After hearing this, Shen Rusong immediately frowned, twisted into the word "Chuan", and said angrily: "Damn, these staff officers are just mouth-talking and finding fault? Picking on him#@% batch, how can we know the hardships of our front line if we are not in the army? Chasing How can Professor be able to quibble for so long? If the company commander is still alive, wouldn’t he be repaid and not repaid?"
The two scolded the incompetent staff officers in the military region, starting with the combat staff, then moving on to the training staff, and then to the headquarter staff who came from the Tianjin Navy and had eyes that were always on his head, and the most classic of all. As a staff officer of the General Staff, we all have our own people here anyway, so we can scold him hard, scold him hard, and at the same time, scold Shen Rusong for not giving him any credit, so he was holding on to his breath.
The two of them were scolding each other, and Xu Bowen took advantage of the situation and said: "To be fair, I feel that what the company commander did at that time... was not very good in some places."
"If we get lost in a snowstorm, if we hire a local guide at the farm, we won't be desperate."
Shen Rusong remembered the conversation he heard between the company commander and the farm workers when he was clearing out spider webs and mouse nests. After thinking about it, he felt that it was right. If he hired a local farm guide, how could he go the wrong way? So he nodded in agreement: "It's about eating too much food, but there is no regret medicine."
"It's nothing, especially the decision to go to Sulfur Spring. The deputy company commander, Zhang Ya, doesn't particularly agree with it. It's good for the company commander to be decisive, but he ran to death, and he sent you to the reserve later, oh Huo, who knows what kind of ghost place that is? A dozen or so people were sent there, and you were stuck in there. After a few symbolic beatings, you refused to continue. You said you wanted to take a rest, and killed horses to satisfy your hunger. After you were full, you continued. Yes, this is too much."
The more Shen Rusong listened, the more he felt that this was the case. He couldn't help but get angry and said, "Yes! I fell into the ground and suffered a huge sin. Thinking about it now makes my head hurt. If I had done it at that time, The tunnel is penetrated and we are allowed out, where is the mess behind it? Damn it!"
"Ah, the most worthless thing is this!" Xu Bowen slapped his ankle fiercely and pointed at the sky angrily: "We can't say much about the dead, but those who died should be treated equally. Why is it that only the company commander is remembered? The 2nd platoon leader and the 3rd platoon leader died in the battle. They only have basic death benefits. What about so many brothers and sisters? There is no trace of them!"
This got to Shen Rusong's heart. He was fine with himself and didn't care, but what was so special about the four people in his class who were killed, seriously injured, and missing? What's special is that he borrowed Yang Qi's flowers to offer to the Buddha, collective merit? To be honest, it doesn't mean much. The honor is for the company. As long as the company is not revoked, it will always have this honor. The people in the company will not always be there, only their military merits will always be there. Just like the military medal issued by Shen Rusong's father when he died that year, it has always been there.
"Approval of credit, the military region is stuck, there is a reason for it." Shen Rusong's nostrils grew, he puffed out, shook his head and said.
"But, hey, after all, credit must be approved after all. What can I do? It's useless to say anything."
Xu Bowen put his arm around him and said to a female worker who was poking her head next to the barn: "Go, go, I'll see you later, I'll wait a minute!"
After that, he didn't look at Shen Rusong, looked at the moon, remained silent for a moment, and said, "What if I said, re-evaluate?"
"What is the assessment? First-class merit? Platoon commander, are you dreaming? This is a matter for the military region. Can you ask it to change its mind?"
"You and I both have doubts. Is there a military district? Otherwise, it wouldn't have been stuck for so long. The investigators will come over in two days and ask the parties concerned. The questions and materials should be truthful."
"True to the truth, what I said is right." Xu Bowen emphasized.
Hearing this, Shen Rusong understood what he meant. He was silent for a while and then said hesitantly: "Return to the truth as it is, the dead are the most important."
"The deceased is the elder, right, and the other brothers should be the younger?"
"Originally, the company asked you to take credit, and Deputy Company Commander Zhang asked you to do so. The regiment nodded at first, but then they changed it for some reason, saying that one heroic model in the company is enough. Not only are you gone, but everyone else is also gone. No, the 3rd Platoon Commander, his merit is gone."
Shen Rusong stopped talking. In front of him was a bare field where the wheat had been harvested. The straw had not yet been tied up and was piled scatteredly in a corner. The night wind was quite cool and occasionally brought a few sounds that should be heard at night but should not be heard. A faint, melodious cry.
"Well, I've been in coma for more than a month, and I've been lying in and out of consciousness for two months. I don't know a lot of things, and I may have missed them..." Shen Rusong said, spitting out the peony cigarette in his mouth and replacing it with a spicy one. white bird.
"Anyway, if there is anything you can do later, if you can win something for the brothers, I can come in handy. All the platoon leader needs to do is call me."
In the faint red light of the cigarette butt, Xu Bowen seemed to tap his chin slightly, then took a cigarette from Shen Rusong's cigarette box, flipped the lighter with another "ding", lit it, and started smoking together.
"Let's talk about the future later. I won't delay you for now." Halfway through the cigarette, Xu Bowen started holding the cigarette in his mouth. As if he thought of something, he put the lighter into Shen Rusong's hand. He blew out the snow-white smoke and said:
"Matches are fine for daily use, but it becomes difficult when the wind is strong. This windproof one can last a long time with some kerosene. Hey, if you don't return it, it's not worth a lot of money. I have several old ones from the base market. I have several of these. You use it."
Shen Rusong followed Xu Bowen's example and used his fingernails to push up the lighter cover with a "ding" sound. Not to mention, the "ding" sound was really nice, and the flame started to flame even if he blew on it.
"Then I won't be polite to the platoon leader." Shen Rusong put away the lighter and touched it with his fingertips. He felt that it was a line of inscriptions. He thought for a few seconds before he remembered that it was a foreign alphabet used before the war. It was an antique, but ...Which thing dug out of the ruins today is not an antique?
"Well, let's just say it. Oh, go quickly. The girl is waiting impatiently. Oh yes, have you brought the coupons? Industrial coupons! If you don't have enough, I will give you two for use?"
"No, no, I'll carry it." Shen Rusong patted his trouser pockets hurriedly.
Xu Bowen smiled, gestured with his thumb and said, "No, I have to do something!"
"Yes...there is nothing we can do..." Shen Rusong murmured. While he was in a daze, a pair of hands hugged him from behind.
"So, brother, what can you do or not?"
