War Military: From 1978

Chapter 265 The Scarce Number of Volunteer Soldiers

"Commander, what can fifteen slots do? My Third Battalion has 160 or 170 soldiers who meet the requirements!"

"Yeah, our Second Battalion is too small."

"Commander! This isn't a promotion, why are you so strict about the quotas?"

Before Chu An even entered the regimental headquarters, he heard a commotion coming from inside.

Chu An paused in his steps.

"Do you think I wanted to block it?"

The regimental commander's voice rang out: "They are all comrades who have shared life and death on the battlefield. In my opinion, as long as the comrades are willing, I am willing to let them stay, and I would love for them to stay."

But can my word alone decide this matter?

Upon hearing this, Chu An was momentarily unsure whether he should continue walking forward.

Although it was just a brief conversation, Chu An could tell that it was probably a discussion between several battalion commanders and the regimental commander about vying for volunteer soldier slots.

Moreover, Chu An also heard that it seemed that a third battalion had been given fifteen.

He frowned.

To be honest, the number is indeed small.

That's an entire battalion.

With three infantry companies and one machine gun company, not counting the battalion's direct subordinates, just the four companies alone couldn't even get four slots per company.

"Hey, what are you doing standing outside?"

Suddenly, the door to another office not far away opened, and Cui Jiying walked out.

"Hey!"

Chu An looked at him and sighed.

Then he didn't rush to find the regimental commander.

Walk towards him.

He entered the room, reached for a cigarette, lit it, and exhaled a thick cloud of smoke.

"Did you have a fight with your husband?" Cui Jiying asked with a smile as she stood to the side.

Chu An rolled his eyes: "What do you mean?"

He didn't keep me in suspense any longer: "A few veterans from the platoon came looking for me just now!"

As soon as Chu An mentioned Pai Li, Cui Jiying naturally knew which one it was.

Chu An is not leading troops now, so the platoon can only consist of the previous reconnaissance platoon.

"The volunteer soldiers?" Cui Jiying's smile vanished instantly.

"Okay!" Chu An nodded.

Cui Jiying immediately frowned as well.

This is not a good matter.

After troops are rotated out of the front line, various procedures will definitely need to be followed.

Let's leave aside the celebration party for now.

As long as the company unit number is not revoked, the reorganization has nothing to do with the grassroots soldiers.

However, the issue of reinstating veterans who were called up to serve as volunteers immediately concerned the fate of a group of people.

They were drafted into the army, and their mission upon returning was to fight.

Now that the battle is over, their mission is also over.

In other words, once they reach the point where they can no longer become volunteer soldiers, they will have to take off their uniforms and go home again.

Many people had previously said they wanted to stay.

But now it's not as simple as them wanting to stay.

Even a third-class merit is not enough to guarantee a job unless one has made a second-class merit or higher.

There are far too few volunteer soldiers available.

Chu An had actually heard about this problem before.

They withdrew more than three months later than other units. Many of the veterans who had been called up have now returned home and harvested a season's worth of rice.

The exact number of personnel in these units has been leaked.

However, Regiment C is different from ordinary troops.

This is a unit that has received the title of Hero Regiment.

But just now I heard the sounds coming from the regimental commander's office.
"Has the reconnaissance ranking been finalized?"

Chu An shook his head: "No, they were just worried, so they came to me in advance, wanting me to ask the regimental commander and have a word with him!"

Chu An was the only soldier in the regiment to receive an honorary title, and he was the one who led the reconnaissance platoon into battle. Now, although the reconnaissance platoon has a new platoon leader, the special operations company has also changed its company commander.

But the platoon leader only brought it up when the war was almost over, and he himself was a veteran who had been demobilized and called up.

As for the company commander, he was transferred from another unit after Chu An was promoted following the war.

He had no connections in the regiment and wasn't familiar with the regimental commander or the others, so now that something like this was happening, his former subordinates would definitely come to him, and he certainly wouldn't refuse.

Amidst the swirling smoke, Cui Jiying remained silent for a moment before turning to Chu An and saying, "Logically, the reconnaissance platoon should indeed have more slots."

The reconnaissance platoon is a heroic platoon, and reconnaissance soldiers are also a technical branch of the military. Now, most of the veterans in the platoon are probably over twenty-five, right?

"Yes, just two!"

These demobilized veterans were all veterans who retired in 1977 and 1978.

It is worth mentioning that the ideological awareness of our army veterans in this era is truly high.

Before and after the war, veterans were recalled, and many of these veterans knew that they were being recalled to go back to the battlefield.

But they returned without hesitation.

According to the newspaper, none of the veterans who were recalled and were on the list were late or absent.

"Then you and I will go talk to the chief of staff together later and sound him out!"

He's the deputy chief of staff, which sounds pretty impressive—a battalion-level officer.

But in reality, that's not all there is to it.

As long as the title "Deputy" is not removed, he will always be number two, still number two in the headquarters, and one rank lower than the regimental level.

However, he was actually quite confident.

After all, he has a father who is a division commander.

"Okay!" Chu An nodded.

You can talk to the chief of staff first; in fact, Chu An had just wanted to talk to the chief of staff first.

After all, this was his direct superior.

However, when he came over just now, he found that the chief of staff was not in the headquarters.

They might still be sleeping, or they might be busy with something else and not there right now.

But Chu An didn't ask.

Soon, Chu An and Cui Jiying, having finished their cigarettes, stayed in his office for a while longer.

Just over ten minutes later, Chu An heard someone outside calling for the chief of staff.

Chu An and Cui Jiying immediately stood up.

We walked into the headquarters together, where the chief of staff was pouring boiling water from a thermos into an enamel cup.

"Chief!"

"chief of staff!"

Chu An and the other person greeted each other.

The chief of staff looked at the two men who came in through the door and laughed, "You two are quick! You followed me in right behind me!"

"Sir, I've actually been here for a while. I noticed you weren't at headquarters, so I went to Deputy Chief of Staff Cui's office to wait for you!"

Chu An smiled and offered an explanation.

"What's matter?"

"Yes," Chu An repeated what he had said to Cui Jiying earlier.

"Commander, the reconnaissance platoon is not an ordinary unit. The situation at the front is unclear right now, and the enemy is pressing in with a large force. If any further incidents occur, the reconnaissance soldiers will play a very important role!"
"Besides, almost every soldier in our reconnaissance platoon has rendered meritorious service, so shouldn't we be able to ask for a few more slots?"

The chief of staff's hand, which was holding the enamel mug, froze.

Chu An has definitely presented him with a major problem.

"Xiao Chu, this might not be easy to handle!"

The chief of staff frowned and said, "The quota for volunteer soldiers is indeed very tight. I won't lie to you now, the reconnaissance platoon has eight slots. This is only because the reconnaissance platoon has honorary titles, the soldiers have made contributions, and the regimental commander worked hard for two days to get the result!"

"Eight!"

Chu An also frowned deeply.

Compared to the Third Battalion, which only had fifteen slots per battalion, having eight slots per platoon was an absolute preferential treatment.

But Chu An was still not satisfied.

Eight is still too few.

The reconnaissance platoon still has more than twenty demobilized veterans, and about half of them had clearly stated on the battlefield that they wanted to stay after the war.

Chu An expected that there would be at least thirteen or fourteen spots.

(End of this chapter)