Military career: Starting with a recruitment letter

Chapter 7 Something went wrong with the letter?
"Hey, Xiao Mo from Old Chen's family is back. What is he doing so early in the morning?"

Chen Mo pushed his bicycle out of the house and ran into his neighbor who was digging radishes in the vegetable garden in front of the door.

"I'm going to town to buy some things, aunt, do you need anything?"

"No, no, please ride slower. It's cold."

"Okay, I'm leaving, aunt."

Chen Mo got on his bicycle and pedaled hard towards Shiqiao Town. Their home was at the entrance of Dongtou Village. After saying hello to the neighbor aunt, they were out of the village in the blink of an eye.

It was really cold in the early morning. The wind blowing on my face felt like a knife cutting into it, causing severe pain.

But Chen Mo was in a surprisingly good mood and didn't care at all about his almost frozen face.

Someone once said that the period from eight to eighteen years old is only ten years, but the period from eighteen to twenty-eight is a lifetime.

This sentence perfectly explains Chen Mo's previous life.

His glory began when he joined the army at the age of eighteen. His regret, which led to his eventual departure from the army, happened before he turned twenty-eight.

His best years and countless regrets were all left in these ten years.

Now, he has returned to the starting point of his life, and the letter in his arms is his belief in setting sail again in this life.

Chen Mo wants to regain this belief and fight on his journey again. Compared with his current mood, this little bit of coldness is nothing.

Xinglong Village is not far from Shiqiao Town, and it is about one kilometer away from the village.

Chen Mo parked his bicycle in front of the post office. It was probably not time for work yet, but there were already people busy inside the post office.

Rubbing his frozen hands, Chen Mo touched the letters on his body again. After making sure he had them with him, he pushed the door and walked into the post office hall.

"Sister, are you selling envelopes and stamps here?" Chen Mo looked at the elder sister who was cleaning and asked with his head stretched out.

"Hey, whose child is this?"

The busy staff heard the noise, turned around and saw a young man, smiled and waved, "Come in, it's cold outside."

"We have envelopes and stamps here. How many do you want?"

"One will do." Chen Mo took out the letter from his pocket and said, "I need to mail a letter to the county. I don't have any envelopes or stamps at home."

"To the county, then you wait a moment."

The busy older sister put down her work and walked to the counter. She pulled out a khaki envelope and a stamp with a landscape painting on it. She said, "It's eighty cents in total. If you're mailing it to the county, write the address on the envelope. There's glue on the side for you to seal it."

"The county postman will come over later. I'll give the letter to him for you. If he's quick, it should be delivered this afternoon."

"Okay, thank you sister."

Chen Mo took out some money from his pocket and handed it over, then wrote down the address of the Fucheng People's Armed Forces Department, stuffed the letter in, sealed it, and took the change.

All that’s left is to wait for news.

After coming out of the post office, Chen Mo was actually a little nervous.

Although he was familiar with the two people in charge of the Fucheng Armed Forces Department, he was also familiar with the cadres of the Military Department, Political Work Department, and Support Department there.

But these are the foundations laid in the previous life. I am afraid that the current People's Armed Forces Department does not know that there is a person named Chen Mo in Fucheng.

On the way home, Chen Mo recalled the scenes of joining the army in his previous life, and still felt a little sad.

In 1998, all the new recruits in Fucheng were sent to the 63rd Army of the Kyoto Military Region. In his previous life, Chen Mo was assigned to the 63nd Division of the 82rd Army.

To be precise, he was assigned to the 82nd Motorized Infantry Brigade, because it was also this year that the 28th Army of the Kyoto Military Region was disbanded during a large-scale military reduction of 82 troops, and its 63nd Division was transferred to the rd Army. Even the organization of the division was changed to a motorized infantry brigade.

A division-level unit was assigned to a new place and had to be downsized. In addition, it was said that infantry ran faster than motorcycles. It was conceivable how badly Chen Mo was trained when he was first assigned there in his previous life.

All the officers and soldiers in the brigade held their breath and vowed not to bring shame to their old unit and to gain a foothold in the new unit. It was common for them to be trained to the point of urinating blood.

But the saying is true.

Training, training, every soldier needs training. The new unit needs role models. Chen Mo is strict with himself and willing to endure hardships, so he soon seized the opportunity to be promoted.

Otherwise, I would not have had the opportunity to participate in that debate competition, let alone the chance to meet my mentor.

It’s a pity that after the incident in 03, the 63rd Army was also disbanded.

This became a regret that Chen Mo could never get over throughout his life.

If I choose to enlist again, I will most likely not be assigned to the same unit as I was in my previous life, as the way I joined the army is different from my previous life, but the general direction will definitely be right. Because local recruitment is directly connected to the army, this is determined in advance, and it is impossible to not know where to send people at the critical moment of recruitment.

Chen Mo has made up his mind that no matter where he is assigned, he will give it his all this time.

December 1998, 12, Saturday, 12: p.m.

At the People's Armed Forces Department at No. 20 Fucheng West Street, a man in his forties wearing a military uniform rode a large-beam bicycle into the unit.

"Minister, you're back."

Downstairs in the office building, a young man also in military uniform hurried forward.

"Why are you so silly? Go and park the car."

The middle-aged man cursed with a smile, got off the bike, and casually pushed the bike to the young man.

"Is the political commissar upstairs?"

"Yes, the post office just delivered a letter. I gave it to the political commissar. I guess he's opening it right now."

"Letter? What letter? To the political commissar?" The middle-aged man tugged at his collar. The yellow epaulettes on his shoulders, with two red bars and three golden stars inlaid on them, were particularly dazzling.

He is Cao Deming, the head of the Fucheng People's Armed Forces Department, and the person in charge of parking is Wang Mingming, an officer of the Military Department.

"It shouldn't be for the political commissar. The letter is quite strange. It was mailed from Lion Bridge. It only said it was for the leader, but didn't specify which leader it was for."

"The political commissar happened to be here, so I sent it to him."

"It should be a letter reporting work issues. I'll take a look at it when I have time."

Cao Deming didn't take it seriously and walked upstairs quickly.

The overall building of the People's Armed Forces Department is not grand and majestic. The office space has only two floors. Cao Deming's office is in the same building as the political commissar.

The furnishings in the room were very simple, with a square table with peeling paint, three or four chairs, and a filing cabinet in the corner, which only took up a total of more than 20 square meters.

When Cao Deming pushed open the office door, Political Commissar Dong Guoqiang was sitting at his desk, flipping through several sheets of paper with a serious expression.

"What are you busy with, Mr. Dong? Why are you so engrossed?"

Cao Deming walked into the office. He didn't pay attention to what the political commissar was doing. He just picked up his white porcelain jar, poured a cup of warm water into it, and drank it from his mouth.

Dong Guoqiang heard the noise, looked up at Cao Deming, and then grinned and said, "Old Cao, come here, let me show you something good."

"What good stuff?"

Cao Deming looked at the political commissar with suspicion.

"Haha, Xiao Wang from the Military Department just brought me a letter. He said it was from Lion Bridge." Dong Guoqiang returned his gaze to the letter in his hand and continued, "This letter is well written."

"I'm afraid I can't even match his writing skills, and the signature is from a high school student, which is quite impressive."

"It took a lot of effort to get us to agree to let him enlist."

"You've been talking too much and praising too much, haven't you?" Cao Deming didn't believe it at all. His partner had been writing materials for the county, city, provincial military region and military district for many years.

If they received a random letter that was better than the one written by the political commissar, then wouldn't all their time be in vain?

"I'm telling you, Mr. Dong, the enrollment quota is low this year. I just went to various towns to check the situation, and the enrollment quota is almost enough. Stop bragging about it."

"You wrote a letter and didn't even meet the person, and you want to take shortcuts from me? I tell you, there's no way."

"Don't jump to conclusions." Political Commissar Dong shook his head, thrust the letter into Cao Deming's hands, and said, "It's true that someone wrote a letter to get into the army as a shortcut, but they weren't being clever."

"The person who wrote this letter is really something. You should take a look first."

"Let's not talk about anything else, just the content of this letter. Apart from those veteran comrades in the army, I'm afraid that those who grew up in the military compound and were influenced by it would hardly have such insights."

"Not to mention we're recruiting soldiers here. I've never even heard of such a young man, let alone seen one."

"Is it really that mysterious?"

Cao Deming didn't believe it at first. He felt that his old partner did too much ideological work and it was just a habit for him to praise people.

But when Lao Cao lowered his head to read the letter.

I was immediately attracted by the other party's writing style and the elegant and lively handwriting.

(End of this chapter)