“Dong, dong, dong…”
There was a knock at the door.
“Who is it?” Fang Qiu asked.
“Commander asked me to come and get you over.”
A soldier’s voice came from outside the door.
Fang Qiu got up and opened the door.
Looking at the soldier at the door, he asked, “What does he want with me?”
The soldier shook his head and replied, “I don’t know.”
At this point, Fang Qiu saw several bonfires in the base, with lots of people around each one.
“Who are those people?” he inquired, pointing to the people around the bonfires.
“They’re members of the second squadron,” the soldier replied.
“They just came back from a mission.”
“Oh?”
Fang Qiu nodded his head with understanding.
Then, led by the soldier, he walked all the way to a bonfire not far away.
“Here you are,” the commander greeted him with a smile as soon as he saw Fang Qiu.
“You lit bonfires in the forest?”
Fang Qiu pointed at the bonfires and said, “Even if there’s no danger, it’s easy to get others’ attention. Wouldn’t that give away the base?”
“This is the border.”
The commander shook his head and said, “You really don’t know the border.”
“What do you mean?” Fang Qiu asked curiously.
“The forest is very dense on both sides of the border. Normally, the smoke doesn’t rise as high as people can see. Only people within a kilometer can notice it.”
Then, the commander smiled and added, “Besides, there are many ‘ghosts’ hidden in the deep mountains and wild forests; some of them hide for more than 10 days at a time. They usually don’t have enough food, so they have to hunt animals and cook them on fire. Over time, a bonfire in the forest, though alerting the criminals, is not much of a deterrent.
“Last but not least, the second squadron has just returned from a mission, so there are absolutely no others within 10 kilometers of this place tonight.”
Hearing his words, Fang Qiu nodded his head.
He understood.
“Of course, it’s a big risk to start a fire here, but this is only a temporary training base for us and we will leave in a few days. So to celebrate the success of the second squadron, we made an exception and lit the fire,” the commander explained.
“I see.”
Fang Qiu nodded again.
“What’s so terrible about lighting bonfires?”
Li Ji came over and said, “Our Huaxia’s soldiers are upstanding. Why should we be afraid of others?”
“That’s a good point.”
The commander laughed while nodding.
Fang Qiu burst into laughter, too.
It felt good to be with these soldiers.
“By the way,” Fang Qiu asked the commander, “what did you want to see me about?”
The commander grinned and said, “The second squadron is back, and they’ve done a great job. Not a single man is hurt. It will inevitably lead to a rise in their pride. I’m afraid…”
“Well?”
Fang Qiu paused.
The commander clearly wanted him to take the edge off the second squadron’s spirit.
“Look, why don’t you do it again?” the commander said with a smirk.
“No need.”
Fang Qiu shook his head and said, “It’s not appropriate for me to do it. After all, they have just won. Of course, it is better to let their comrades crush their spirit.”
At his words, the commander and Li Ji laughed at the same time.
“That’s what we thought. In fact, we asked you to come here just to hear your opinion, and to have a look,” Li Ji said.
“Then let them get started.”
Fang Qiu smiled, walked over to the bonfire next to them, and sat down.
“Yeah, get started,” Li Ji said, sitting down next to Fang Qiu.
“Good.”
The commander let out a laugh and went straight over.
“Stand up!”
With a deep voice, the throng of people around the bonfires immediately rose to their feet.
There were 200 people around the 10 bonfires.
The moment everyone stood up, the flames danced.
“First of all, I want to commend the second squadron for their successful completion of the superior’s instructions and objectives.”
With that, the commander clapped his hands.
Everyone clapped, too.
A moment later, the commander raised his hand to stop everyone from applauding.
“Next, in order to raise everyone’s enthusiasm and create a good atmosphere, I decided to choose a team respectively from the first and the second squadron to compete with each other.”
His words caused everyone present to shout excitedly at once.
This kind of team competition was common in the base.
After all, they could improve in competitions.
In each match, the members of both teams would try their best to give full play to their strengths.
“The vice-captains of the first and second squadron,” the commander called.
“Yes.”
Two men ran out.
“It’s up to the two of you to decide which squads to take part in the match,” the commander said with a smile, and then backed away.
Suddenly, the two vice-captains became the hosts.
“Okay, which squad are you going to pick?”
As his squadron had just returned from a successful mission, the vice-captain of the second squadron was the first to question his opponent with a triumphant look on his face.
“How about I leave it up to you?”
The vice-captain of the first squadron beamed and said, “How about you choose a squad from your squadron, as well as one from ours?”
“Okay, let the best squads of the two squadrons fight with each other.”
The vice-captain of the second squadron smirked and said, “We are sending the first squad, and your first squad will also come out!”
At his words, the first squad of the two sides, each with 10 men, stepped out.
The 10 members of the first squad of the second squadron were all ready and confident.
The 10 members of the first squad of the first squadron looked at each other and grinned.
Then the competition began.
The 20 soldiers bumped one-on-one.
It used to be a match where they had to fight until there was only one person standing, but this time it was different.
Within three minutes, the men of the first squad of the second squadron were all knocked to the ground.
The 10 men of the first squad of the first squadron not only did not fall but still stood in a row, looking at the 10 men on the ground with a playful face.
Seeing this, everyone present was surprised, including all the members of the first squadron, who had no idea that their team had been so powerful.
After all, they had been neck and neck with the second squadron before, but now they beat the second squadron easily.
Their improvement was simply too great.
For a moment, all the members of the first squadron couldn’t help but look at Fang Qiu with respect.
On the other hand, the eyes of the vice-captain of the second squadron widened with shock. He stared at the scene in disbelief.
“What is this? What happened to your people? Why are you so fierce?”
The vice-captain of the first squadron instantly burst into laughter. The rest of the first squadron laughed too.
“This round doesn’t count. Another round!” shouted the vice-captain of the second squadron.
“All right.”
The vice-captain of the first squadron nodded without fear.
Once again, the vice-captain of the second squadron selected the squads.
However, the result was the same as that of the first match.
Soon the men of the second squadron were knocked to the ground again.
The second squadron was even more surprised.
At this time, the vice-captain of the first squadron stood up, wearing a proud face, and pointed at the vice-captain of the second squadron, saying, “Ask all your people to fight with us. We can defeat all of you with three squads!”
“Don’t brag!”
The vice-captain of the second squadron was furious.
His soldiers were even angrier than him.
They had won most of the previous matches, so they had never been so humiliated.
“If you don’t believe me, why don’t you have a try?” said the vice-captain of the first squadron.
“Don’t you regret it,” snapped the vice-captain of the second squadron.
“Don’t worry, I won’t regret it.”
The vice-captain of the first squadron laughed.
“Good.”
The vice-captain of the second squadron shouted, “Guys, come on!”
Then, the two squadrons had a group scuffle.
The commander and the drill master didn’t stop them but watched with interest.
“You’re going to let them fight like this?” Fang Qiu asked.
“Where there is a competition, there is improvement. They improve in competitions and co-exist in improvement,” the commander said with a smile.
“But it’s absurd, isn’t it?”
Watching a group fight involving 130 people in front of him, Fang Qiu felt excited, but he also thought it was inappropriate.
“What are you worried about? No one else will see it,” the commander said, shaking his head.
“I finally understand why ex-soldiers are so rampant in society.”
Fang Qiu shook his head and smiled ruefully.
“That’s none of our business.”
The commander quickly distanced himself from that and said, “We belong to the special forces. This is training, which will deepen their friendship. My ex-soldiers will never do such a thing.”
Fang Qiu shook his head and chuckled.
By this time, the match was drawing to a close.
With careful observation, the 30 men of the first squadron actually knocked down all the 100 men in the second squadron.
This scene scared even the drill master who had been sitting by.
30 men beat 100 men!
The strength of the first squadron increased more than three times!
The drill master took one look at the battlefield and then turned his head in utter shock to look at Fang Qiu. There was an unmistakable shock in his eyes.
A moment later, the soldiers of the first squadron came forward and pulled the men of the second squadron to their feet.
“It’s weird.”
The vice-captain of the second squadron put his arm around the shoulder of the vice-captain of the first squadron and asked, “What’s the matter? You guys weren’t that strong before. How did you get so powerful so quickly?”
Then the men of the second squadron knew that a master had come to the base.
Without further explanation, the vice-captain of the second squadron immediately ran up to Fang Qiu with the whole squadron and begged him to help them improve.
Facing their request, Fang Qiu looked at the commander beside him in surprise but saw the commander smirking at him.
“Damn it!”
Cursing in his heart, Fang Qiu found that he was in a trap again.
He really thought the commander had invited him over just to watch the two squadrons’ competition. It turned out that the commander had set a trap. Eventually, he was asked to train the second squadron.
Actually, Fang Qiu wanted to say no, but he felt bad about it.
Helplessly, he could only say that it was too late for practice because he had to leave early the next morning. Then he went back to his room.
However, the next morning when Fang Qiu got up for his morning exercise, he found all the soldiers of the second squadron standing in front of his door in unison.
This situation left Fang Qiu stunned.