We made you practice martial arts, and you've mastered the Great Golden Body?

"Company Commander, what you're saying is clearly a nice thing, but the way you're saying it makes it sound like you're cursing." Even though the deafening roar of the artillery fire was already making his ears ring.

But the skinny monkey's big ears weren't for nothing.

Because of his large ears, the skinny monkey's hearing was exceptionally developed compared to ordinary people, earning him the nickname "Hearers of the Wind" in the army.

Only the skinny monkey could accurately capture the sharp, explosive sound of the "cannonball" rapidly cutting through the air amidst the deafening explosions that echoed across the sky as it hurtled towards the horizon.

However, many soldiers preferred to call him Skinny Monkey.

As for the skinny monkey's specific name, it's Zhang Ergou, emmm... not as good as the former, but this is the norm of this era, a microcosm.

Zhang Weishan was the battalion commander of the 3rd Battalion of the 561st Regiment of the XX Division, and one of the participants in the Tieyuan blocking battle.

"Damn it, these shells are like they have eyes. Luckily you were here this time, otherwise I, Old Zhang, would have died a very unjust death." Zhang Weishan cursed as he stood up from the ashes in the tunnel, spitting out ash from his cracked lips.

He naturally didn't hear what the skinny monkey said, because all he could hear was a buzzing sound like bees flapping.

Even he himself sometimes doesn't understand what he's saying.

Because at that moment, his mind was also a complete mess.

"Battalion Commander, water, have some water." Seeing this, Skinny Monkey chuckled, then quickly unscrewed the water bottle on his waist and handed it to Zhang Weishan.

"Skinny monkey."

"You saved my life again!" Zhang Weishan said to himself, completely ignoring the skinny monkey's words. He glanced at the sky shrouded in thick gray clouds, where the sharp howling sound had gradually dissipated.

The deafening sound of the shells exploding naturally faded away.

A brief moment of tranquility fell over the entire brutal battlefield.

but.

"Eh~" After confirming that the battle had entered a truce period, Zhang Weishan's tense nerves suddenly relaxed. He let out a long sigh, and his body suddenly went limp, collapsing onto the gray ground with his back against the pit wall.

But the next moment.

"We've made a profit, and we can live another day." Zhang Weishan thought for a moment, considering their victory.

Their battalion held out for over an hour on this death-grinding iron plain, and then a relieved grin spread across their faces, revealing their grayish-yellow teeth.

One of the front teeth had long since fallen out and its whereabouts were unknown.

Perhaps it had already been reduced to fragments in the flames of war.

Beneath the gray military uniform, some obvious wounds could be vaguely seen, and many of them had turned grayish-red and scabbed over.

That was flowing blood.

"Battalion Commander, water." Skinny Monkey's face was covered in soot, making it impossible to see his expression. He squatted down, tugged at Zhang Weishan's sleeve, and handed him the water bottle.

"Hmm." Zhang Weishan shook his head, shook off some of the dust from his head to clear his mind, then took the water bottle and gulped down the water.

As for whether the lips match?

At a time like this, who cares about such trivial matters?

On the battlefield, only those who survive can continue fighting, and for those with obsessive-compulsive disorder, it is nothing short of hell.

But guided by a powerful ideology, even hell is not insurmountable.

Skinny Monkey stared blankly at Zhang Weishan, who was drinking heartily, but only for a moment before he looked away.

Zhang Weishan is the battalion commander of the Third Battalion, the core strategist of this team.

"I'll go see if there's anything usable inside." Although the skinny monkey felt a burning pain in his throat, he suppressed his desire, nimbly got up, and walked towards the previous position as he spoke.

"Wait."

Before the skinny monkey could take his first step, he heard Zhang Weishan's voice behind him, and then a familiar water bottle was handed to him by a cracked hand.

Upon closer listening, it was discovered that there was still more than half a bottle of water left in the kettle.

"Hmm." Zhang Weishan gestured with his eyes for the skinny monkey to take the water bottle, but seeing that the latter hadn't moved for a long time, he shoved it into the other's arms, patted him on the shoulder, and laughed:
"What? You don't even want the kettle anymore? Don't you want a drink?"

"Drink!" Skinny Monkey's smile was genuine and without a trace of pretense, and he happily accepted the water bottle from Zhang Weishan's hand.

Then he put it to his lips and drank it down.

However, after a short while, he drank the remaining large portion again, leaving about a quarter of it to prepare for the battle to come.

After all, only about a third of the time has passed in this battle.

The battles to come will become more intense, and the value of water resources will naturally increase, since they are not soldiers from the United States.

stomping on...

With the rapid thud of captured boots hitting the ground, Skinny Monkey cautiously and steadily made his way toward the collapsed command post.

His movements were extremely skillful.

“This child…” Zhang Weishan watched the skinny monkey’s slightly unsteady but determined figure disappear, a complicated smile appearing on his lips, before he sighed softly.

Although Skinny Monkey had been officially incorporated into this new army for several months, the habits he had developed in the old army seemed to be deeply rooted in his heart and had not completely faded away with the passage of time.

Whenever facing his superiors, Skinny Monkey's eyes would involuntarily reveal an indescribable sense of fear, a deep-seated, habitual awe that clashed with the atmosphere of equality and mutual trust advocated in this new army.

Such performance is indeed extremely rare among the new army, and even somewhat out of place.

Here, everyone is a comrade-in-arms, a partner fighting side by side, rather than the obedience and subservience relationship under the strict hierarchical system of the old army.

Of course, Zhang Weishan also understood that it would take more time and patience for Shouhou to completely get rid of the shadows of the past and integrate into this brand-new group.

He was also very confident that he could get the skinny monkey to integrate.

This confidence stems from great ideas.

Of course, there is no doubt about the skinny monkey's military skills; otherwise, he wouldn't have been able to serve as Zhang Weishan's bodyguard after only a few months of being recruited.

"I'll go see if I can pick up some equipment," Zhang Weishan thought, and prepared to set off.

But the next moment.

"Battalion Commander! Battalion Commander, come here quickly—!!!" A sharp shout suddenly came from the collapsed command post.

Another brother survived?!

This was the first thought that popped into Zhang Weishan's mind. He then gripped his rifle tightly and sprinted toward the front-line command post.

In order to more effectively block the enemy on this vast plain, and also to avoid being bombarded by artillery fire, the Third Battalion, under the command of its superiors, adopted a tactic of breaking up into smaller units.

This tactic severely tests the overall comprehensive quality of the army. Because once the tactic of breaking up into smaller units is adopted, it means that the soldiers no longer have superiors to command them, and under such severe circumstances, the lower-level units, having suffered heavy losses, are at risk of mutiny at any time.

As the fighting continues, the higher-ups might realize that once the people are gone, everything is wiped out.

However, this was not a problem at all for the newly formed army, which had already experienced many battles, and they had great confidence in it.

Of course, this is also a helpless move.

Because the new army now has nowhere left to retreat.

Zhang Weishan bent over and darted through the tunnel, running towards the source of the sound. As he ran, his mind cleared up.

The "shell" that was just fired should have been a dud, although the chances of that being a well-equipped U.S. army are not very high.

But it's not entirely impossible; otherwise, given his and Skinny Monkey's condition at the time, they would have had no chance of escaping the blast radius.

The thought that some people might still be alive filled him with immense joy, for those people were his brothers and sisters.

Zhang Weishan quickened his pace, and in just a few seconds, after turning a corner, he saw several figures frantically digging in the former frontline command post.

Just as he expected, the shell was a dud.

Although those figures had their backs to him, after years of sharing life and death, Zhang Weishan had long since etched the actions of those figures into his mind.

You can tell who's who without even looking at their faces.

The tall, rather thin man was Vincent Fang, a scholar whose former nickname was "Four-Eyes," but after a bloody battle, his nickname changed from "Four-Eyes" to "Scholar."

He is also his right-hand man and has considerable family connections. As long as he survives this battle, he will be highly successful and rise rapidly in his career.

As for why it is said to be a survivor.

That's because in war, there are never any true victors.

The two men flanking the scholar were a burly man nicknamed "Bear Bear," whose strength was outrageous. He had practiced swordsmanship at Wudang in his youth and wielded a steel sword with great power.

In the past Liberation Wars, one could kill at least four or five enemies with a broadsword in a single battle.

However, in this battle of Tieyuan, the bear truly faltered, because his prized hand-to-hand combat skills were completely ineffective against those steel behemoths.

As for the other person?
He is the "Thousand-Mile Eye" in the phrase "Thousand-Mile Eye and Wind-Following Ear," also known as the "Silent Gourd." He has exceptionally good eyesight and is an excellent marksman; while he may not be a perfect shot, he can hit ninety-nine targets.

As the saying goes, there are no bad nicknames, only bad names.

If it weren't for their personalities, Xiong Xiazi and Men Hulu would have been promoted long ago.

Zhang Weishan was once worried about Xiong Xiazi and Men Hulu, fearing that the two would offend people, but this problem was easily solved after the scholar fully integrated into the group.

"What are you doing? Four people huddled together, digging for shit to eat?" Zhang Weishan walked up to the four people, but found that they were unmoved and still digging in the ground.

"Battalion Commander, your manners still need improvement. After this is over, you must go to night school to study properly." Upon hearing this, the scholar immediately stopped what he was doing.

"Night school? Humph!" Zhang Weishan said disdainfully, "Back in my day, I, Old Zhang..."

But before he could finish speaking, he was interrupted again by the skinny monkey's exclamation.

"people!"

"It really is a person!" The skinny monkey stared at the face that had taken on a human-like appearance, his pupils suddenly contracted, and he froze on the spot.

Even the scholar and others, upon seeing the figure inside the mound of earth, felt cracks appear in their long-established, atheistic worldview.

"People? Who are they?" Zhang Weishan frowned slightly as he watched the scholar and his companions' actions, realizing the importance of the matter.

After all, the scholar was a top student, not a simpleton like him.

It's rare to see something that can elicit such an expression from a scholar.

Zhang Weishan pushed the scholar aside and stepped forward. When he saw the blurry figure in the mound of earth, his brows furrowed even more, because he didn't recognize the person.

He had memorized the appearance, name, and character of every soldier in the Third Battalion, but none of them matched the figure in the mound of earth.

Moreover, judging from its exposed palms, it was not a mummified corpse.

"Where did he come from?" Zhang Weishan asked, looking at the skinny monkey.

"It should be... in the sky, right?" the skinny monkey hesitated for a moment before answering uncertainly.

"???" Zhang Weishan looked at the skinny monkey as if he were an idiot and replied indifferently, "Did you get stunned by the shock? Paratroopers will land here?"

“No.” The scholar pointed to the blurry figure in the mound of earth, rubbed his forehead in frustration, and said, “Battalion Commander, do you think it’s possible that this person is the shell from earlier?”

“How could a person be a cannonball? Your head was…” Zhang Wei said, looking around, but stopped before he could finish.

Because he didn't find a single hair on that dud.

Gollum~
Zhang Weishan swallowed hard, looked around carefully again, but still couldn't find the dud. His gaze fell on the figure in the mound of earth, and his expression suddenly turned serious. He said coldly:

"Bear, set up the machine gun. I want to see if this is a human or a ghost!"

"Yes!" The bear didn't care about anything else. The moment it heard the order, it sprang into action, grabbed a captured general-purpose machine gun, and aimed it at the mound of earth.

Zhang Weishan glanced at the remaining three people, and the scholar and the others immediately understood, grabbed the tools nearby, and began digging.

As time passed, everyone's mood became unusually depressed.

Because it was a real person, not some kind of terracotta warrior or stone sculpture.

With the concerted efforts of the four people.

In less than a minute, a tall figure, cleaned of dirt and dust, appeared before Zhang Weishan and his group of five.

After some simple processing, it can be clearly seen that the person was very tall, reaching a full 1.9 meters, with strong and powerful muscles.

However, the other person's face still looked rather youthful, and although it appeared rather pale for some unknown reason, their face was exceptionally clean.

The dust on it could be easily wiped off with a gentle touch.

It wore clothes made of an unknown material, as smooth as fine silk, yet exceptionally tough, so tough that even a bear couldn't tear them.

"This, this...is this a person...or a ghost?" The scholar studied it for a long time, but found that he could not explain the person he saw in front of him even with all his knowledge.

"I don't know either, but at least one thing is certain."

"what's up?"

"This person is Chinese." (End of Chapter)