His old friend had to retire recently due to a relapse of an old injury, which made Zhang Qingshan consider retiring as well. After all, time waits for no one, and it was time to step down and make way for younger people.
It was precisely because of this that he risked his reputation to go to the military headquarters and pester the army commander to ask for He Chaoyang, a young and capable officer. He couldn't let the reputation of the elite army that the old regimental commander had built up be ruined.
After watching He Chaoyang lead his troops off, Zhang Qingshan returned to the regimental headquarters to have some tea, feeling quite pleased with himself.
Meanwhile, on He Chaoyang's side, the truck took more than an hour to reach the small intersection ten miles away from the Heping Brigade.
Further in, it becomes a mountain road, inaccessible by car; one must walk.
So, He Chaoyang, the deputy commander, led his team into the mountains to hunt wolves even before he had officially reported for duty.
Fortunately, He Chaoyang had the infamous reputation of "King He" throughout the entire military region, which deterred the 358th Regiment. Although the soldiers of the 358th Regiment were a group of troublemakers, they all respected the strong.
After He Chaoyang calmly shot and killed the wolf king from thirty meters away, his soldiers were completely convinced of his abilities.
With over a hundred men facing more than three hundred wolves, and all of them armed, the battle wasn't particularly difficult.
The problem is that wolves are the most vengeful species. If the wolf pack cannot be wiped out in one fell swoop, the alpha wolf or other wolves that are qualified to become alpha wolves will escape back to the mountains.
After they leave, the Peace Brigade may face relentless retaliation from the wolf pack.
So the first thing He Chaoyang did after entering the mountains was to use his professional knowledge to track the wolf pack's whereabouts, and then he directed the soldiers to surround and wipe out the wolf pack.
They were the first to spot the wolf king, who was trying to escape, and shot him dead with a single shot.
From the moment the team entered the mountains until the final battle ended, it took only two hours. They killed 318 wolves and no one was injured.
Such a record convinced all the soldiers in the company. Unlike when they sneaked into the mountains, the group of hot-blooded warriors carried the wolf carcasses down the mountain with great pride and high spirits.
After descending the mountain, the team first went to Heping Brigade to inform the village officials that the wolf pack had been wiped out. At the same time, they left some of the wolf carcasses with the people of Heping Brigade before setting off on their return journey.
He Chaoyang used a brilliant victory and a meal of wolf meat to make the 358th Regiment aware of himself as the newly promoted deputy regimental commander.
He Chaoyang became famous overnight.
Chen Jiandang also realized during a wood-chopping trip that his sister's life was not as easy as she wrote in her letters and appeared to be.
Arriving at the wood-chopping spot with the other educated youth had already exhausted Chen Jiandang, who always thought he had good stamina.
Immediately after arriving at the mountain, the older educated youth began chopping firewood without taking a break, and even the women quickly gathered up the scattered dry branches.
Finally, a number of dry tree trunks and branches were placed at the meeting point.
Chen Jiandang, who thought he could finally rest, was shocked to find that no one was resting. The male educated youth returned and began to use axes to trim the branches on the tree trunks, while the female educated youth used resilient vines to bundle the dead branches they had collected.
After small piles of firewood were erected on the flat ground at the temporary assembly point, everyone found a place to sit down and began to eat the dry rations they had brought.
By this time, Chen Jiandang was exhausted and even his favorite meat buns no longer appealed to him.
He was currently worrying about how to carry back the dry branches he had just collected, even though he hadn't collected as many as the other female educated youth.
Sitting on a dead tree branch, holding a steamed bun stuck in the branch, he idly roasted it over a makeshift fire lit by the male educated youth.
All he could see were withered branches and fallen leaves or snow-covered landscapes, and he couldn't even spot the pheasants, rabbits, or deer he had imagined.
Chen Jiandang, who had barely managed to eat two steamed buns, turned to Gao Hongyuan, who was sitting next to him, and quietly asked.
"Brother Hongyuan, how are we going to carry all this firewood back?"
Gao Hongyuan really liked this cheerful young man.
Because his girlfriend had been asked to take care of this young man, he, as her boyfriend, naturally felt obligated to look after him. The two chatted quite congenially along the way.
Upon hearing Chen Jiandang's question, he smiled and replied, "We can't move all of these back at once. We'll start moving them down the mountain after we finish eating. We'll probably make two more trips and they'll all be back."
"Huh? You have to make two trips for such a long distance? Brother Gao, do you usually do this?"
Seeing the undisguised heartache in Chen Jiandang's eyes, Gao Hongyuan probably guessed what he was thinking and smiled and said, "It's much better now that we don't have to work. It's just carrying firewood back and forth a few times, which isn't so tiring."
Before the winter hibernation began, I would go into the mountains to collect firewood after work every day, and that was when I was really tired.
"I'm already exhausted from work every day, and after dinner I still have to go up the mountain to collect firewood."
Chen Jiandang frowned: "Is my sister this tired too?"
"That's how it was for everyone. The female educated youth who lived in the front yard were a little better off, because they didn't have to go up the mountain to collect firewood on the day they were supposed to cook."
However, it's a bit tougher for us who live in the backyard. Every day after work, we have to gather firewood before we can go back to cook and eat.
Back then, we just collected dry branches and such, enough for cooking, and stayed at the foot of the mountain, not going that far.
Seeing the little guy's eyes full of heartache, Gu Xinyi missed her brother a little. Of course, she was her brother from her past life, because in this life she was all alone.
So he quickly comforted her, "Don't worry, your sister was only tired for a few days when she first arrived. Later, Comrade He helped her chop the firewood."
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
