When it came to infighting, you could beat each other half to death, but when facing outsiders, you had to stand united.
Clearly, the platoon leader was an outsider.
Gao Fei followed Sholokhov as they hurried a long way off. Only when they could no longer hear anyone talking behind them did Gao Fei finally ask, unable to hold back, “What’s the deal with the platoon leader?”
“The platoon leader…”
Sholokhov sighed and said, “The platoon leader, that guy… he’s just… how should I put it? The platoon leader is a madman.”
“Oh?”
“Our company commander worked his way up from squad leader, step by step, and the platoon leader was one of the soldiers under him. After the company commander became company commander, the platoon leader became platoon leader too. They used to fight together. Now, whenever the company commander has the most difficult missions, his first choice is to go to the platoon leader, and the platoon leader hands those missions to the assault team in the assault platoon.”
“If it’s already an assault platoon, why form a special assault team?”
“Because a whole platoon is too large a unit. A lot of the time, an eight-man combat team is the best choice. Some platoons temporarily pull people together to form an assault team, or just hand the mission to one squad. But our platoon leader likes forming a fixed squad. As long as there’s an offensive mission, he sends those people in.”
Gao Fei thought for a moment and said, “Can the platoon leader transfer me directly into the assault team?”
“Of course the platoon leader can forcefully transfer you away, but he has to respect our squad leader, so he won’t force you out.”
“That’s good.”
Sholokhov let out a breath and said, “The assault platoon uses the best equipment, enjoys the best treatment, and suffers the highest casualty rate. They don’t need to stand guard in the trenches, and they don’t need to do odd jobs, but they have to fight almost every day.”
“I never wanted to go.”
Sholokhov said with great relief, “I didn’t expect the platoon leader to come over. He said he saw you on the drone feed, so he wasn’t there to stop me and Nevin from fighting at all. He came for you. Good thing the squad leader got back in time.”
Gao Fei said in a low voice, “Why did you have to go fight Nevin?”
“Of course I had to fight! The guys next door made such a huge mistake. If we didn’t make a show of it, people would think we’re easy to bully. If we didn’t beat them up, if we didn’t make a big deal out of it, what happens the next time something like this happens?”
After saying that, Sholokhov could not help sighing. In a tone filled with regret, he said, “If Samuel from First Team were still around, there’s no way something like tonight would have happened.”
“Who’s Samuel?”
“He was First Team’s designated marksman, also a retired veteran. He was with First Team for less than half a month, then as soon as the platoon leader said a word, he went to the assault team. Then on his third or fourth battle, he died. He fought too fiercely, got spotted by a drone, and was blown up.”
With a sigh, Sholokhov said quietly, “Nevin tried to keep Samuel, but Samuel himself wanted to join the assault team. There was nothing to be done about that.”
On this battlefield, the protagonists were artillery, drones, tanks, armored vehicles, mortars, and landmines.
In any case, the protagonist was absolutely not the infantry.
No matter how capable you were, if a shell landed next to you, you were dead.
Samuel from next door had been very skilled, and a single drone had taken him out.
So, one still had to keep a low profile. One still had to tuck in one’s tail and scrape by. One absolutely could not start jumping around just because one had a bit of shooting talent.
Gao Fei decided that as long as he could refuse, he would absolutely never join any assault team.
After returning to their own position, Sholokhov did not say much else. He simply said casually, “Sleep if you can. There won’t be any major action tonight. Glaski, you take the first watch. I’ll take the second. Samir takes the third. Rex rests. You can do whatever you want.”
“You can do whatever you want” meant that if he could sleep, he should sleep; if he couldn’t, he could go find someone to chat with, or wander around wherever he liked.
In any case, it was special treatment. It was favoritism. It was being treated differently from everyone else.
Gao Fei did not need to feel embarrassed either, because it was like this in almost every position.
Then he would sleep. Restore his energy. Grabbing sleep whenever there was an opening was an essential quality for a veteran.
It took Gao Fei a very long time to fall asleep. After he woke up the next day, he discovered that an extremely smelly blanket had appeared over him.
He had no idea whose blanket it was.
Still not used to checking his watch, Gao Fei wanted to know what time it was and was just about to look for his phone, but he quickly remembered his situation. He raised his wrist and glanced at it. It was nine in the morning.
Unexpectedly, there had been no shelling this morning. It was actually quite quiet, which was why he had been able to sleep so long. He just did not know whether there would be a routine shelling later.
Lifting off the blanket, Gao Fei got up and first drank a few mouthfuls of water. Then, just as he was leaving the artillery shelter to go take a piss, he heard Sholokhov say quietly, “You awake?”
“I’m awake.”
“Give me the blanket. I’ll sleep for a while.”
The weather at the end of October was already a little cold. It was fine when moving around, but once asleep, it really was cold.
Gao Fei picked up the blanket and brought it over to Sholokhov.
“If you need to shit, dig a hole. Bury it when you’re done. Don’t go outside.”
“Uh, okay.”
Gao Fei picked up the entrenching tool, walked a few steps to one side, turned a corner where his comrades could not see him, dug a hole, and took a dump.
On the first day, he had only felt excitement. After the thrill and fear faded, the hardships of life in the trench only began to show themselves on the second day.
Returning to his own artillery shelter, he took out a compressed biscuit, opened it, and gnawed a couple of bites. Yesterday, he had thought the salty-sweet compressed biscuit was not bad, but today he felt it was somewhat unpalatable.
There were still a few pieces of black bread in his bag. At a time like this, the advantages of black bread became apparent.
Holding the black bread, Gao Fei thought for a moment, then took it over to find Glaski and said quietly, “Have you had breakfast? I still have a few pieces of black bread here.”
Glaski took the black bread without the slightest politeness. After dryly gnawing two bites, he said, “I have canned pork here. Do you want some?”
“Is canned pork good?”
“No. It’s greasy and salty. If there were a fire and we could heat it up, it’d be all right. Cold, it’s practically impossible to eat.”
“Is there nothing else?”
“No. Anything tasty has already been eaten. Only the bad stuff gets left behind.”
That made perfect sense. Gao Fei shook his head and said, “Then forget it. I’ll just eat some black bread. Does no one deliver supplies during the day? When they do, will there be anything good to eat?”
Although only a day and a night had passed, their relationship was already different now. Friendship between men formed quickly; friendship between comrades formed even faster.
Glaski said absentmindedly, “They should deliver supplies today, but there won’t be anything good. Maybe canned luncheon meat and canned beef. Don’t even think about canned fruit or canned vegetables. There’ll definitely be compressed biscuits.”
“That’s it? There’s nothing else to eat?”
Once a person became familiar with a new environment, what he cared about most was food.
Gao Fei was hungry. According to Gao Fei’s father, if you were full, you wouldn’t miss home. But judging from what he could eat now, Gao Fei felt that he might really end up starving.
It was not that there was nothing to eat. It was the kind of hunger where the calories were enough, but the stomach still felt empty—a psychological hunger.
On his second day at the front, Gao Fei began to resent the diet of Russian frontline soldiers.
Although the food in the rear had not been especially tasty either, the food at the front was simply inedible.
Glaski said faintly, “All I’m missing now is a bowl of borscht. Black bread with borscht, soaking the bread in the soup until it softens…”
It sounded unappetizing, but for some reason, Gao Fei actually began to salivate a little.
Glaski sniffed, then changed the subject. “If at some point you feel weak and limp all over, that means you need to replenish enough calories. No matter how awful the canned pork is, you’ll be able to eat it then.”
“Mm. Got it.”
Neither of them wanted to say anything more. They simply gnawed silently on the black bread.
Before the two of them had finished their bread, the radio suddenly crackled to life.
It was in Russian. After Glaski replied over the radio, he said with an excited look on his face, “The people bringing our supplies and bonuses are here. Didn’t expect them so soon. I think last night’s fight got the higher-ups’ attention. Listen, if the platoon leader comes with them, you have to hold firm. Don’t let him talk you into it.”