BXBX NOVEL Chapter 342 - 342: Scout’s First Class
“Not sleeping yet?”
It was past 10 o’clock at night, and they were at the Iron Bone Heroic Regiment’s training camp.
The instructor had just returned from duty inspection outside and happened to run into Wu Jianfeng coming out of a tent.
“Come out for a smoke!”
Wu Jianfeng looked at him and then took out a pack of cigarettes from his pocket.
After he lit one for himself, he handed another to the instructor.
“Hehe!” The instructor chuckled lightly.
They didn’t say anything, just quietly waiting for Wu Jianfeng to give him a light with his lighter. Then they both took a drag.
“Huuu…”
After exhaling a puff of smoke, the instructor spoke with a smile, “Hawks will eventually soar to the sky. No matter how comfortable the nest is, they can’t stay there forever.”
“I know, it’s just… sigh, he left so suddenly. Now 1 don’t know when we’ll see him again!”
The instructor smiled and said, “There will be opportunities. You, Wu Jianfeng, won’t immediately retire and go home!”
“Yeah, let’s not talk about that. Smoke up!”
Wu Jianfeng still felt a bit down inside.
For a regimental commander, it was quite common for ordinary soldiers to leave, and they had become accustomed to it.
Goodbyes happened every year, and this year was no different.
But Wang Ye, he was not just an ordinary soldier!
The sense of reluctance was understandable.
However, no matter how reluctant he was, Wu Jianfeng knew that Wang Ye couldn’t stay in the Fourth Platoon forever.
Taking a drag from his cigarette, he looked up at the sky.
The moon was quite round tonight, but it still had its imperfections.
Just like the Fourth Platoon right now, everything was good, but they were about to lose someone…
The Division Reconnaissance Platoon.
In fact, Wang Ye also found it hard to sleep tonight.
Just a few hours ago, he was still in the training camp, but now he had moved to a different place, a different dormitory, and was surrounded by a group of comrades he had only met two hours ago.
He was a new recruit, and even though he was already a Private First Class, he was still a new recruit.
He hadn’t experienced saying goodbye to comrades leaving the army yet.
In reality, he was even less accustomed to farewells, but he didn’t say anything about it.
He closed his eyes in silence, telling himself that he was a soldier.
Being a soldier meant adapting to these comings and goings.
“M16, designed by the Amalite Corporation of the Eagle Empire in the 1960s, based on the frame design of the civilian AR-15 semi-automatic rifle!”
In the Second Platoon, the weekend didn’t change their plans because of Wang Ye’s arrival; they turned their rest day into a training day.
But in the First Squad, no one was going out or resting in the dormitory this Saturday morning.
On the floor of the First Squad’s dormitory, there were many firearms, but none of them were domestic.
At the moment, An Ping held a rifle and, after pulling back the bolt, handed it to Wang Ye with a smile while continuing to speak, “This rifle fires 5.56x45mm ammunition, with a theoretical rate of fire of around 750 to 900 rounds per minute.”
As Wang Ye took the rifle, he continued, “The rifle has good accuracy, strong penetration, and its recoil is not much different from the Type 95. It’s a very user-friendly firearm for us.”
Wang Ye held the rifle and examined it from top to bottom.
This was the first time since joining the military that Wang Ye had come into contact with foreign firearms.
“It looks quite different from our Type 95,” Wang Ye remarked casually.
When he touched the rifle, familiar sensations immediately flooded Wang Ye’s mind.
He hadn’t actually used this rifle before, but when he maxed out his shooting skills in his final training, the fused shooting experience included almost all the shooting techniques and some experience with automatic rifles from around the world.
While the experience with other firearms was limited, the main focus was on proficiency with the Type 95.
But as soon as he touched this rifle, that sense of familiarity came back to him.
Wang Ye was confident that even if he held this firearm for the first time, as long as the calibration was correct or he calibrated it himself, he could hit the bullseye with every shot.
Having superhuman skills could indeed be quite enjoyable at times.
An Ping chuckled, “Indeed, there are quite a few differences, whether in appearance or structure. But we’re soldiers, the gun is just our weapon. Get familiar with it a bit, and as long as you can use it, it’s fine.”
As An Ping spoke, Qiu Shuang immediately looked at Wang Ye with a smile and said, “Wang Ye, you must make it clear; we soldiers can’t marry foreign wives, so your wife can only be from the Type 95 series. These foreign temptresses may look alluring, but you can only admire them from a distance. Occasionally having some fun is okay, but you can’t treat them as real wives!”
“What’s with all the talk!” An Ping immediately reached out and slapped Qiu Shuang.
What nonsense was this, it sounded so inappropriate.
In fact, in this moment, everyone in the dormitory was laughing, including Wang Ye, who was holding the M16, who couldn’t help but smile wryly.
This joker, what kind of metaphor was that?
Of course, it had to be said that his metaphor was actually quite accurate.
This rifle was just for him to get familiar with; it wasn’t his issued firearm.
In military terms, this wasn’t his “gun wife.”
His “gun wife” would be the Type 95 he would receive later.
“Alright, take a look at this one as well!” At this point, An Ping picked up another rifle.
It was another different weapon.
In fact, the several dozen firearms laid out on the oiled cloth in the dormitory right now were all unique; not one was a domestic product.
Today, during their rest day, An Ping decided to give Wang Ye his first lesson as a reconnaissance soldier.
Understanding enemy weapons.
Through these firearms, Wang Ye would learn what the role of a reconnaissance soldier was all about.
“AK47, another legendary weapon, but you’ll know its real power when you actually fire it; the recoil is much stronger than the Type 95…”
An Ping went on to introduce them one by one.
When Wang Ye saw these weapons they brought out earlier, his eyes widened.
There were so many of them, and they came in various types.
But as An Ping and the others explained, these were the weapons currently used by the bordering enemy forces they were guarding against.
A Division belonged to the frontline border defense units.
Although China’s military strength and international status had been steadily increasing, and the neighboring small countries were far inferior in strength, there had been precedents of conflict in the past, and their focus was still on guarding against them.
To understand the opponent, they needed to start by understanding their weapons.
As Qiu Shuang had said earlier, “We reconnaissance soldiers may have to operate deep behind enemy lines, sometimes even infiltrating enemy territory alone, and sometimes without carrying weapons. In such situations, being familiar with the enemy’s weapons is a necessity. If you learn now, you’ll be able to pick up these weapons and use them directly when carrying out future missions.”
So now, Wang Ye was getting this lesson.
Although this lesson was somewhat redundant for Wang Ye, others didn’t know that.
Moreover, what Wang Ye knew was only how to shoot and aim, not how to disassemble and assemble these firearms. And this lesson was about teaching him exactly that.
Of course, for now, they were just getting familiar with each weapon.
An Ping was explaining while occasionally, other comrades would chime in.
Wang Ye listened quietly, occasionally sharing his thoughts.
Once Wang Ye had gone over each firearm, An Ping started teaching him how to disassemble and assemble these rifles.
“Automatic rifles, in fact, have similar overall structures, although some rifles may have differences in their automatic mechanisms. But once you understand one, you can understand them all. When it comes to disassembly and assembly, if you get familiar with all these rifles, you won’t have any difficulty with other rifles you may encounter in the future!”
As An Ping spoke, he began disassembling the M16 in his hand.
Wang Ye watched once, and when An Ping reassembled it and handed it back, Wang Ye didn’t even need to use his skill. He quickly disassembled and reassembled it.
In fact, his skill wasn’t necessary.
Just like when he first encountered the Type 95 rifle, because his Type 81 rifle disassembly and assembly skill was maxed out, when he came into contact with the Type 95, he used his skill to assimilate the experience and techniques of disassembly and assembly from the Type 81 into the Type 95.
But now, Wang Ye didn’t even need to use the skill.
He could connect the experience by himself.
Quickly, one by one, Wang Ye disassembled and assembled each weapon.
An Ping smiled and said, “Very good, your fundamentals are solid. However, we’ll have to stop here for today. It’s the weekend, so we won’t be training today. Next week, we’ll arrange some target shooting for you. You can try out these guns and get a feel for them!”
An Ping waited until Wang Ye had gone through each weapon before he spoke and even called a few people from the squad and said, “Come on, get familiar with them and clean and maintain these firearms. Later, we’ll take out the machine guns and show them to Wang Ye!”
Here, they didn’t have all the weapons used by the opposing country.
Here, they only had automatic rifles, and they hadn’t brought over handguns and machine guns.
Mainly because there were too many of them.
The small neighboring country on the other side had a bit of an “Arms Bazaar” vibe, even though their military weapons might not be as famous as those directly made in Arsan Gongo, in reality, they had a wide variety of firearms.
There were over a dozen different types of rifles alone, not to mention the machine guns and handguns, which were equally diverse.
Of course, Wang Ye was very interested at the moment.
Being able to touch so many foreign firearms at once was quite exhilarating.
“First squad, call Wang Ye down!”
Suddenly, when Wang Ye was maintaining one of the rifles, Jiang Nan’s voice came from downstairs.
“Wipe your hands, and pay attention to the gun oil on your hands later!”
Across from him, Wang Ye had already learned that the assistant squad leader’s name was Ge Hui, and he reminded Wang Ye.
“Alright, thanks, Squad Leader!”
I’ll go down with you!”
At this moment, An Ping also picked up a cloth nearby and quickly wiped his hands.
Soon, Wang Ye and An Ping ran downstairs together.
“What are you here for? Just Wang Ye is enough!”
Downstairs, Jiang Nan looked at the two of them and directly spoke to An Ping.
“Hehe, I came to take a look!” An Ping laughed.
But Jiang Nan didn’t buy it. “What’s there to look at? Do what you need to do. If you can’t wait, even the toilet is off-limits…”
“Captain, First Squad is currently conducting familiarization and maintenance of reconnaissance weapons today. Look, both Wang Ye and I haven’t washed our hands yet, and we came right away!” An Ping interrupted immediately upon hearing Jiang Nan’s words.
No one wanted to handle dry latrines, for sure!
This was the kind of task typically assigned to the squad that had performed poorly in the past week, just as they were about to leave the barracks’ dry latrine duty.
First Squad was at the forefront, and they hadn’t done this kind of duty in two years.
Jiang Nan immediately looked at their hands and said, “Alright, go away, and Wang Ye, you go wash your hands and come back quickly!”
Yes!”
While Wang Ye was curious about why he was being called, if they were asked to wash their hands, then they should go ahead and do it. Gun oil could be corrosive, so it was best to wash it off.
About a minute later, Wang Ye came back downstairs.
However, this time, he was alone.
“Let’s go, follow me!”
Leading Wang Ye, he headed towards the garage.
Once they were in the car, he said to Wang Ye, “The Chief of Staff wants to see you, probably regarding what you discussed with the Chief of Staff yesterday!”