novelSusiti Chapter 0079: Because you are the best
Chapter 0079: Because you are the best
The Seventh Company organized an assessment, but unlike previous assessments, this one was conducted with staff officers from the regimental headquarters following behind with notebooks.
After the assessment, a lot of things happened in the Seventh Company.
Because the "butcher's knife" that was raised high finally struck the Seventh Company.
The first batch of 35 men were discharged early, ostensibly because their service was nearing its end. Adding to this, Hong Xingguo was transferred to the 9th Company of the C Regiment. This single act effectively wiped out a quarter of the 7th Company's personnel.
From that day on, Gao Cheng's face never smiled again.
The day Bai Tiejun and his men left, the entire Seventh Company lay on their beds pretending to be dead, just like in a drill. It was also the first time Zheng Yingqi had ever done that.
"That was fast..." Bai Tiejun's murmur still echoed in Zheng Yingqi's ears, as if the guy was still by his side, but the commotion outside clearly told Zheng Yingqi that Bai Tiejun was gone, and many people had left with him.
This was Zheng Yingqi's first time experiencing a cruel farewell. As an outsider, he could only silently savor the sorrow of the characters in the story.
After that day, the Seventh Company continued to practice relentlessly. They were burning with anger; they were not convinced!
After that, the Seventh Company attacked the "Regiment Headquarters" again.
The two banners of Armored Tiger and Bloodstained Vanguard, a group of menacing soldiers, defeated the regimental officers, but this became the final curtain call—this was also the 7th Company's last act of stubbornness and resistance, even though the resistance was so futile.
Lists kept coming down, and soldiers kept being transferred. Shi Jin left for the division's reconnaissance battalion, and Wu Liuyi left for the 1st Mechanized Infantry Company of the B Regiment. Zheng Yingqi had always wanted to tell Wu Liuyi to take it easy, that his legs wouldn't be able to take it, but he never had the chance. When Wu Liuyi was transferred, Zheng Yingqi finally said those words.
But Wu Liuyi laughed and said, "I know my legs, and they can take it... just like this indestructible, unyielding, uncookable, and unyielding Seventh Company!"
As he turned to leave, Zheng Yingqi looked up in disbelief, wondering why it was raining under the bright sunshine!
Shi Jin didn't say anything, or rather, he couldn't say anything at all, and was just led away blankly.
Having already cried once, Xu Sanduo just stared blankly as Shi Jin left, until he disappeared from sight at the horizon. Perhaps that misunderstanding had made him cry his eyes out.
On the training field, there are still more than 30 people in the Seventh Company, but they are like the five thousand people, still the most dazzling group of handsome guys - Gao Cheng said, even if there is only one person in a class, it is still a class.
As if deliberately going against Gao Cheng, the very next day after he shouted those words, the last list arrived in his hands. The last thirty-odd people on the training field were called out one by one and then sent to new units.
Gao Cheng closed the list: "That's all for this batch..." He raised his hand and his voice: "I wanted to say..."
In the end, he said nothing at all; the word "disbandment" became his farewell.
The column disbanded silently, and the company commanders and political instructors waiting on the sidelines, like gluttons awaiting a feast, greeted the soldiers assigned to their ranks. Although there was no sound, the gentle pats on the shoulders conveyed boundless joy.
For the companies that could swallow 7 companies, it was a feast, but for the 7th Company, it was a... almost tragic war, and it ended in total annihilation.
No, it shouldn't be said that the entire army was wiped out. The 7th Company still had a company commander and two squad leaders, one captain and one deputy captain!
Xu Sanduo didn't care about his own fate. To him, the Seventh Company, which had just become like his own home, was gone just like that, leaving him with only endless confusion.
Zheng Yingqi didn't care about his own fate—he knew he would probably be assigned to the regimental guard company, but being in the already desolate Seventh Company, he always had a sense of unreality.
The Seventh Company should be a unit where the sounds of battle are deafening. This silence, this deathly stillness, makes him unable to believe it—even though he knew the ending from the beginning.
……
Gao Cheng wandered aimlessly in the small world of the 7th Company, like a lonely soul lingering in a graveyard. When he suddenly saw two figures still sweating profusely on the training field, for a moment, he thought he was dreaming.
After Zheng Yingqi and Xu Sanduo poured out all their energy, sweating profusely, they stood alone on the training ground that had once been filled with the sounds of battle. Gao Cheng wandered over and said, "So, you two are still here..."
"Company Commander, the three of us, don't we look like the last stubbornness of the 7th Company?" Zheng Yingqi lay down on the ground, looking at the blue sky.
Gao Cheng looked at Xu Sanduo, then at Zheng Yingqi, and suddenly laughed, but it was a very awkward laugh: "It doesn't seem like... it 'does'."
Zheng Yingqi laughed, while Xu Sanduo just stared at the two of them, wondering why they were laughing.
"Therefore, we can be stubborn to the end," Zheng Yingqi said.
For a while afterward, the three pretended to be a company, an indomitable 7th Company, continuing the last pride and stubbornness of the 7th Company, until one day, Zheng Yingqi, who was patrolling the night like a lonely ghost, encountered Gao Cheng, who was howling silently.
A company commander, as tough as iron, howled silently under the moonlight, his face disheveled with cigarette butts scattered all over the ground, a far cry from his indomitable spirit on the training field.
"I...I have an upset stomach..."
Upon seeing Zheng Yingqi, Gao Cheng stammered.
At this moment, Zheng Yingqi suddenly remembered Xu Sanduo saying to the company commander, "I'll carry you to the infirmary" in the story—that kid is a bastard who would punch someone even if they were stubborn to the very end!
"I'm in some pain too." Zheng Yingqi sat down by himself.
"Leaving tomorrow?" Gao Cheng asked hesitantly, at that moment, he resembled Xu Sanduo.
During the day, another transfer order came down, and Zheng Yingqi was transferred to the regimental guard company.
"Um."
"Old Meng, you've finally gotten what you wanted—I knew you'd leave, but I never expected it to be like this." Gao Cheng rummaged through his cigarette pack but couldn't find a single cigarette. Just then, a pack of cigarettes was handed to him. Gao Cheng looked at the pack: "You smoked too?"
"No, I bought a pack, wanted to smoke some, but I kept resisting."
"That's good," Gao Cheng said blankly.
"I'm leaving. You'll probably be staring at Xu Sanduo all day."
"Um."
"Company Commander..." Zheng Yingqi wanted to say something to reassure Gao Cheng, but he didn't know how to say it.
"No need for comforting, I can handle it." Gao Cheng understood what Zheng Yingqi meant and said self-deprecatingly, "Even after all this, I haven't collapsed. See? I've held on."
Zheng Yingqi changed the subject:
"Actually... I expected this day to happen."
"As expected?" Gao Cheng looked at Zheng Yingqi.
"During the reconnaissance soldier competition, I was thinking... what should the army and reconnaissance soldiers of the new era be like... I felt that those things were... outdated." Zheng Yingqi carefully chose his words, and in the end, he did not use the word "fancy" but instead used "outdated".
"Outdated?"
"Company Commander, times are changing, technology is changing, many things are changing, nothing remains the same—and many of the things we compete in are passed down from the Sino-Vietnamese War, some even earlier!" Zheng Yingqi finally spoke his mind: "Back then, I was thinking about what a reconnaissance soldier in the new era should be like—that's an answer you'll have to find out."
Zheng Yingqi knew that he had no chance to rejoin the reconnaissance ranks.
Gao Cheng nodded silently. He understood Zheng Yingqi's meaning—Gao Cheng knew the original intention of this reorganization, but why the 7th Company?
He asked, "Why not seven in a row?"
Why not use the 7th Company as a direction for exploration, but instead cut it off completely? Gao Cheng thought Zheng Yingqi wouldn't be able to answer this question, so he didn't intend to let Zheng Yingqi answer it, but unexpectedly, Zheng Yingqi answered:
"Because we are too good."
Zheng Yingqi smiled wryly.
After this reorganization, 702 will no longer have an armored reconnaissance company, because the higher-ups have realized the problem. If the 7th Company wasn't so outstanding, it could be reorganized on the spot. However, the 7th Company is too outstanding.
So excellent that turning the entire company into a shameful waste—that's why the Seventh Company was chopped down by the sharpened "butcher's knife".
"Too outstanding..." Gao Cheng murmured, his voice a mixture of tears and laughter. He thought of Zheng Yingqi's question earlier—"Why?"
It's all because we're too good...
So outstanding that many outstanding people lost their opportunities; so outstanding that in the end they even lost themselves in the process!
Gao Cheng really wanted to scream.
……
The next day, Zheng Yingqi continued training as usual, and Xu Sanduo and Gao Cheng didn't mention going to the regimental headquarters at all. It wasn't until they finished dinner with the 6th Company that evening that the three of them, who had been pretending not to know anything, could no longer keep up the act.
"Let's go," Gao Cheng said calmly, just like usual.
"Hmm." Zheng Yingqi responded, and Xu Sanduo blankly took out the luggage that had been packed long ago, which attracted Gao Cheng's glare - Gao Cheng was actually thinking that if he stayed for another 15 minutes, the 7th Company could stay for another 15 minutes.
"Company commander, I'm leaving."
"Um."
"Sanduo, I'm leaving."
Xu Sanduo remained silent.
"I'm leaving..." Zheng Yingqi said, picking up his bag.
"Go! All of you go! All of you fucking go!" Gao Cheng finally exploded, not because Zheng Yingqi wanted to leave, but because of this cruel ending.
Zheng Yingqi dropped his bag and sat down next to Gao Cheng.
"Phew..." Gao Cheng regained his composure. "Go on, Meng Ban is waiting for you there."
Meng Jianguo, who hadn't seen Zheng Yingqi report to the guard company, was at the door—he didn't come in. He felt that if he came in and saw Gao Cheng, it would be like snatching meat from Gao Cheng's bowl.
"Company Commander, can I ask you for a favor?" Zheng Yingqi said.
"Alright! Even if you want the stars in the sky, I, Gao Cheng, will pluck them down for you!" Gao Cheng said excitedly. The proud 7th Company, the proud soldiers of the 7th Company, every time someone left, he wanted to do them a favor, but no one made things difficult for him, and no one asked him to do anything.
Let me kick you.
"Huh?" Gao Cheng stared at Zheng Yingqi in disbelief.
Zheng Yingqi laughed and said, "I've never beaten up a second-generation official in my life—let me kick him and have some fun? I can brag about it for the rest of my life!" He also looked at Xu Sanduo, who had almost suffocated Gao Cheng after capturing him, and Bai Tiejun, who had almost forcibly kissed the company commander.
Then, he felt a pang of heartache, realizing he could no longer shout at Bai Tiepi, "You damn well better hold on!"
"Kick me—I know you want revenge," Gao Cheng said, trying to remain calm.
"You owe me one—Company Commander, remember, you owe me a kick!" Zheng Yingqi grabbed his bag and ran, cursing as he ran, "Damn it, it's raining again!"
At the gate, Zheng Yingqi stopped, turned around, and stared blankly at the territory of the 7th Company. After a long while, he solemnly gave a dignified military salute—as if paying a final tribute to this departed unit.
Gao Cheng stared blankly as Zheng Yingqi got into Meng Jianguo's car and drove away resolutely, without making a sound. Xu Sanduo also stood there blankly, the two of them standing there like statues—until night fell.
At this moment, Gao Cheng slowly said to Xu Sanduo, "Sanduo, you know what? You guys are all the best."
Xu Sanduo was confused and didn't understand what Gao Cheng meant by those words.