Rez Vázquez could only smile bitterly, knowing that he had no room for bargaining. Fortunately, with twenty-four bullets, it was not an impossible task to finish shooting within two minutes.
After all, the M1 Garand rifle is also known as the Big Eight. After the eight rounds in a magazine are used up, the metal magazine will jump out of the magazine by itself.
All he had to do was push a new clip into the chamber, then aim and fire.
But the biggest problem now is that my hands and feet are shaking and I can't even hold the gun steadily! It's not easy to hit the target with 15 shots at a 200-meter target.
Just when Rez Vázquez thought that was it, reality soon came to his rescue.
After firing two shots in a row while lying in the shooting position, Rez Vázquez noticed something was wrong. The accuracy of the gun seemed to be wrong, which immediately gave him a bad premonition.
As a veteran who had undergone long periods of professional training in the Marine Corps, he had his own feelings about weapons.
Although his hands were shaking badly during the first two shots, the bullets should not have been so far apart. Rez Vazquez calmed himself down and fired the third shot at the target.
This time he was very sure that there was definitely something wrong with the gun's aim. He would definitely not be able to hit the target accurately by aiming according to the aim. This made him unconsciously look at the soldiers around him.
...
...
But he found that the soldier didn't even look at him, but just looked at the watch on his hand silently.
At this moment he had a glimmer of understanding in his mind that this was not a mistake at all, but was intentional. However, he had wasted three bullets and now only had twenty-one bullets left, and at least forty seconds had been wasted.
He had to be more cautious with the weapon in his hand, took a deep breath, and forced himself to calm down. Recalling the impact points of the first three shots, he moved the muzzle of the gun to the upper left little by little.
He gritted his teeth and fired the fourth shot.
Sure enough, this time the bullet hit the target even closer. As time passed, he forgot all the gunshots and stared at the target 200 meters away.
Calculations began to circulate in my mind, and finally the fifth shot was fired.
This time the bullet finally hit the target paper, but it did not hit the ring. However, Rez Vázquez was no longer worried. He had figured out the temper of the gun. At the same time, he slowly adjusted his breathing to the best state.
The soldier who was supervising the design was obviously aware of the situation. He didn't expect the guy in front of him to be able to hit the target. He couldn't help but look up to him.
Rez Vázquez was not in the mood to pay attention to the gazes of people around him. He just carefully controlled his breathing rhythm and looked for the best opportunity to shoot.
After all, as a veteran who has undergone rigorous and professional training, Rez Vázquez's sixth shot actually hit the target.
This made him smile unconsciously.
As if to deliberately provoke him, the soldier beside him suddenly spoke up to remind him:
"One more minute."
This made his expression freeze for a moment, and he felt a huge pressure. He had to fire eighteen bullets in the remaining minute and make sure fourteen of them hit the target.
Without having time to think, he fired the seventh shot without hesitation. As expected, he couldn't panic, as the bullet missed the target.
But Lez Vázquez didn't have time to think about it. After taking a deep breath again, he fired the eighth shot without hesitation. With a ding, the magazine in the magazine jumped out and flew one meter away.
Without even looking at the magazine that jumped out, Rez Vasquez quickly inserted the new magazine in his hand into the magazine. However, the magazine of the M1 Garand rifle is easy to pinch the hand when installing, and in a panic, Rez Vasquez's hand was pinched hard.
The pain from his fingers to his heart made him gasp, but he didn't have time to think about it. He forced himself to control his breathing. The gunshots continued to ring out, "bang, bang, bang."
As the soldier next to him gave the command "Stop shooting", Rez Vázquez finally fired the last bullet in the gun.
After finishing the shooting, Rez Vázquez did not leave immediately, but lay on the ground and looked at the target in the distance. At this moment, under the target, someone was using flag signals to report the target.
Soon the soldier beside him showed him a rare smile and said:
"Congratulations! You passed the design test, hitting the target with sixteen shots. Please gather at the center of the camp!"
Hearing this, Rez Vázquez felt a sense of powerlessness as if he was about to collapse. This was an experience he had never had before. Even on a battlefield full of bullets and gunfire, he had never felt such an exciting feeling.
He knew that his test had just begun and there was no time to relax. After taking a deep breath of the air with the fragrance of earth, Rez Vázquez climbed up with difficulty.
Following the soldiers' instructions, they dragged their tired bodies to the center of the camp to gather.
At this moment, the center of the camp no longer had the lively scene of the morning's armed cross-country trip. There were only about twenty people in the center of the entire camp, lying in a mess on the grass in the camp.
They didn't even have the energy to talk to each other.
Seeing this, Rez Vázquez didn't care whether the ground was clean or not. He sat down on the ground and lay on his back. Soon a man wearing a military doctor's cuff came over and kicked him.
"Don't lie down on the ground after strenuous exercise. It will cause irreversible damage to your body. Sit up quickly."
Hearing this, Rez Vazquez could only get up helplessly. While he was lying on the ground, the number of people in the center of the camp was slowly increasing. He noticed that there were nearly 2,000 candidates yesterday, but after the elimination this morning, there were probably less than 300 people.
Looking at his comrades around him who were in a miserable state, Rez Vásquez smiled bitterly.
Fortunately, the assessment did not continue immediately. Instead, someone carried large buckets of food to the middle of the camp so that everyone could enjoy a hearty breakfast.
After everyone finished breakfast, General Fang, surrounded by several officers, came up to them and told them bluntly that this would be the only hot meal they would have for the next week.
Next, each of the remaining 280-odd people was given a simple map, two days' rations, a sharp dagger, and a signal gun loaded with flares. They were asked to find a way to cross the jungle on the map within a week.
Soldiers who evade the pursuit and interception of eliminated Marines and those who did not participate in the selection and successfully reach the destination within the specified time will be automatically selected into the Navy Special Tactics Research Group.
Soldiers who fail to reach the destination within the specified time or are caught by the pursuers will be eliminated. Soldiers who want to give up can take the initiative to fire the signal gun in their hands, and naturally there will be soldiers from the guard company responsible for taking them away from the assessment site.
After hearing this task, Rez Vázquez felt terrible. If he had known this would happen, he should have eaten a few more bites of hot food.
But now that breakfast has been taken away, you say this is the last hot meal of the week. How embarrassing for him.
General Fang then took the initiative to ask if anyone wanted to withdraw from the assessment on the spot, but no one chose to withdraw.
Because the assessment did not specify whether it was possible to form a team, Rez Vázquez noticed that the Second Battalion Commander Zhuang Xintian directly initiated an application to form a team within the team. As a veteran who had participated in German operations with the other side, he joined the other side's team without hesitation.
Soon, three veterans who had participated in the European War like him came out and stood behind Zhuang Xintian. When the team reached five people, Zhuang Xintian took the initiative to end the team formation.
Obviously, Zhuang Xintian did not ask for more manpower in order to avoid pursuit. After all, more people means a bigger target and it is easy to be tracked by a large force. It is easier to avoid pursuit with fewer people. On this point, Rez Vazquez very much agreed with Zhuang Xintian's idea.
After the five people formed a team, they rushed into the dense primeval jungle without hesitation, hoping to set off early to increase the distance between them and the search team as much as possible.
The dense primeval jungle is full of deep malice towards all strange intruders. In the primeval jungle where the sky is blocked and no sunlight can be seen, the eyes can only pass through the dense branches and leaves, and cast a mottled shadow to the bottom of the jungle.
The sunlight shining through the jungle is like sharp swords piercing the jungle, bringing much-needed warmth to everyone.
Having undergone a month of basic jungle warfare training in the Marine Corps, the group was not particularly unfamiliar with the rainforest, but they were definitely not at ease with it either.
Their five-man team had a relatively smooth first day and encountered no danger, but their speed in the dense jungle could only be described as snail's pace.
That night, everyone slept in a temporary hanging tent made of rattan. The next morning, they found that a soldier was bitten by a poisonous insect and needed urgent treatment. After carrying him to a relatively open and safe place, they helped him launch a signal flare.
The loss of one person on the first day made them feel a little depressed, but they couldn't just give up. They could only concentrate on their journey, looking for some fruits and vegetables to fill their stomachs along the way.
On the third day, they encountered the first wave of search teams, but they were alert enough to discover them in advance and take a detour to avoid them.
On the fourth day, they were ambushed by hunters at a drinking water source. Fortunately, they were discovered in time, but one soldier was captured, and only three people were left in the five-man team.
They had to be more careful in the following period.
By the fifth day, they had run out of dry food and could only hide and seek for food to fill their stomachs as they moved towards their destination.
At this time, Rez Vásquez was very grateful to the Amazon rainforest hunter who trained them in jungle survival knowledge. It was his training that enabled them to distinguish which animals and plants were edible and which were poisonous, so that he would not be poisoned in the dense rainforest.
On the sixth day, they were getting closer and closer to their destination. The number of people being rounded up was increasing, and their progress was becoming more and more difficult. That afternoon, he discovered that someone was following them based on the traces they had left along the way.
Fortunately, Zhuang Xintian was smart and quickly advanced a distance, leaving behind traces of the crowd ahead, then he retreated and found a place to hide. After the pursuers passed by them, they quickly changed direction and headed for their destination from another route.
On the seventh day, the three exhausted people stumbled through the last blockade line and reached their final destination. General Fang personally gave them a warm applause for their successful arrival.
This made Rez Vásquez, who felt that he had escaped death, feel that it was all worth it. When he looked at the dense jungle again, he was no longer afraid.
Instead, he felt an indescribable tenderness, and wanted to thank the other party for helping him. He was full of fighting spirit. He knew that he had succeeded in the challenge. From this moment on, he was no longer an ordinary soldier, but a real lieutenant in the navy.
He no longer had to consider whether he needed to retire. However, from this cruel selection, he realized that the Navy Special Tactics Research Group might not be such a good place to stay.
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