Soldiers Assault: Starting from the 7th Steel Company

Chapter 165 A cat is a good cat as long as it catches mice, regardless of whether it's white or black.
"Please sit down." Yuan Lang's voice was very gentle. He didn't know Anya, but he felt that this girl was very quiet and gentle.

Almost all the people who came for the interview today were men, and she was the first woman among them, and such a beautiful one at that.

Anya nodded her thanks and walked gracefully to her seat. At that moment, she recognized Chen Jiang. A look of surprise flashed across her face, and she lowered her head to smooth out the hem of her skirt.

"Anya, do you know what the job we're recruiting for entails?" Yuan Lang cleared his throat. "I see you attend a private college that's a Sino-foreign cooperative program. The tuition must be quite high, right?"

"Yes, it is indeed very expensive, but when you were recruiting, you didn't say that students from private colleges were not allowed to apply," Anya asked, somewhat surprised.

"Well, you might have misunderstood me. What I meant was that you spent so much money on university, and then you applied for a job in our brigade, but the salary and benefits might not meet your expectations." Although Yuan Lang had a good impression of Anya, the previous applicants had really made him a little scared. Students from private colleges like Anya usually come from very wealthy families, so their expectations for employment are very high. If he didn't make things clear now, it would be troublesome if they went there and started making a scene.

“I know about your treatment; I had a general understanding of it before.”

"Oh?" Yuan Lang was quite surprised, but just to be on the safe side, he still asked, "Why did you sign up?"

Anya glanced at Chen Jiang, then answered directly, "I signed up because I'm drawn to military and police life. Don't worry, I don't really care about the pay. As for my work ability, my resume should prove it."

Chen Jiang was also looking through her resume.
Indeed, this girl's resume is very impressive. She majors in Information and Computing Science, which is technically a mathematics major, but leans towards computer software.

She started taking various certification exams in her freshman year, and by her sophomore year she had already obtained the CET-6 (College English Test Band 6) and a software engineer certificate. In her junior year, she won an award in the National Modeling Contest. Now she is a senior and has already taken the system analyst exam, and it is highly likely that she will pass.

Such talent is indeed very helpful for the informatization of the military. Chen Jiang noticed that she got a perfect score in the database management course, which is really amazing.

Furthermore, her brother is a foreign citizen, while she is a native citizen. It's likely that Quincy had already planned ahead to ensure she could live a peaceful life here, given that this place has the best security in the world, bar none.

"Okay, could you please go to the lounge outside and wait there? We need to discuss this before finalizing the selection." This was a serious matter, and he felt he should consult with the railway authorities.

Anya smiled slightly, bowed politely to everyone, and then walked out gracefully.

There were a few more people behind, but like the people in front, the negotiations all broke down.

So now there are only two options: either sign Anya or wait for the next batch of applicants. But this time we've already sent out invitations to many people, and the next time is probably even less reliable. The key is that we can't afford to wait for the IT infrastructure development.

They need to make a decision quickly.

Yuan Lang and his team needed to discuss it amongst themselves before reporting to the railway.

Some people raised objections because there were no female soldiers or officers in the A Battalion. If Anya went there, it would be troublesome for her to eat, stay, shower, and use the toilet.

Another point is that in Anya's resume, the family information section did not include her parents, and her brother Kunji's workplace was only listed as "working abroad," with nothing else.

However, some people expressed their support, because Anya's level is undeniable, and recruiting her would definitely be a great benefit to the advancement of information technology construction. Such talent is rare.

"Chen Jiang, why aren't you saying anything? This is your responsibility, and the people you recruit will be placed under your supervision. Your opinions and suggestions are very important!" Yuan Lang actually preferred to use An Ya. It's hard to find computer talent these days, especially people with real skills.

The key point is that they've made it clear they don't care about the salary, isn't that enough? This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

Chen Jiang hesitated for a moment, but finally spoke under Yuan Lang's encouraging gaze.

"The reason I'm not saying anything is because I know Anya. I saved her during a mission before!"

As soon as Chen Jiang spoke, the way the others looked at him changed. Could this girl have signed up just for Chen Jiang? No wonder a girl from a well-off family would be willing to go to a remote area with a bunch of men to work on information technology construction.

"Don't look at me like that. I only saved her for work, and I had no idea she was also studying computer science, and so excellent at it." Then Chen Jiang explained his brother's situation, which made everyone even more restless.

So Anya's brother was a drug dealer? How could the military allow someone with such a family background to join?

This is clearly not in accordance with the relevant regulations.

Sure enough, upon hearing this, many people raised objections, feeling that Anya was not suitable.

But where will they find the talent they need?

"Teacher Chen, what do you think?" Yuan Lang asked, seeing that Chen Jingsong remained silent. He wanted to hear Chen Jingsong's opinion.

Chen Jingsong said helplessly, "That's just how the market is right now; it's hard to find talent in the computer field. Anya applied on her own, but her teacher wouldn't let her go because she's a top graduate candidate from her school, and many large companies are interested in hiring her with high salaries. So since she's willing to come, and you really need her, why not give it a try?"

Chen Jiang knew that Chen Jingsong was telling the truth. He had also studied computer science at Nanjing University, and now his classmates had already been pre-booked by large companies before they even graduated, with very generous offers. There was no way his classmates would want to come.

Yuan Lang remained silent for a long time after hearing this. It was only after a while that he finally made up his mind.

"Let me say a few words. First, regarding Anya's family background, which is of most concern to everyone, as far as I know, her brother Kunji's whereabouts are unknown, he is not on the wanted list, and he has not been convicted, so this vetting process cannot be considered a violation. Most importantly, Anya applied for a clerical position, not a military officer position, so I don't think this is a big problem. Of course, the specific oversight definitely requires approval from higher authorities."

"Furthermore, there's her professional expertise. It's easy to find a thousand soldiers, but a good general is hard to come by. As everyone saw in today's interview, it's extremely difficult for us to recruit highly educated and skilled personnel, while advancing the informatization of the military is urgent and cannot be delayed. Since she has such expertise in computers, why don't we let her give it a try? As Deng Xiaoping once said, 'It doesn't matter whether a cat is black or white, as long as it catches mice, it's a good cat!'"

Yuan Lang's words were forceful and left the others speechless.

Ultimately, everyone tentatively agreed to include Anya as a candidate for consideration, and then Yuan Lang called the railway.

After carefully listening to their opinions, the railway immediately took on the task: to form an investigation team to investigate the actual situation at her school, and finally submit the matter to the A Brigade leadership meeting for discussion and decision, and then report the matter to General Gao Jianjun.

When Yuan Lang told Anya, who had been waiting outside for a long time, about their opinions, Anya was very happy. Chen Jiang also went over to congratulate her and reminded her not to leave the school recently, as the army would arrange an inspection team to learn about her study and life.

Anya readily agreed. In the days that followed, the inspection team got to know Anya very smoothly. She was already an excellent student in both character and academics, and through further understanding, they discovered that she not only excelled in her studies but also did not live a life of extravagance.

The only drawback was that she wasn't very sociable and had almost no friends at school. The railway staff thought this might be related to her brother, but these weren't major problems. So the railway staff persuaded the other team members, and everyone agreed that they could recruit her first and then gradually bring in other talents, especially a few from the military academy's allocated student quotas. This way, they could build up the team's structure.

After the railway team reported the situation to Gao Jianjun, Gao Jianjun expressed his support for the actions of the A Brigade and instructed that her daily life should be taken care of as much as possible so that the outstanding young people who were willing to serve the army would not have any worries!

With the support of the military region leaders, the work of Brigade A became much easier.
The brigade provided a single dormitory room with a private bathroom, water heater and air conditioner, and also installed surveillance cameras and a security door.

When they brought Anya over, the squadron held a grand welcoming ceremony for her.

Railway and Yuan Lang both attended the welcoming ceremony. Chen Jiang introduced her to the team members one by one. Everyone was very happy to see such a beautiful technician.

Women are a rare sight in this place, and now that a beautiful female technician has arrived, everyone's enthusiasm for learning information technology has soared to unprecedented heights.

Although Anya doesn't drink alcohol, she made an exception and had two drinks at the welcome banquet. One of them was offered to her by Chen Jiang. Her fair, oval face turned red and slightly shy from the alcohol, making her look exceptionally youthful and beautiful.

Anya was awakened by a sharp whistle on her first morning in Team A, or rather, in the early hours of the morning, because she really didn't expect that training in Team A would start so early.

She sat up abruptly in bed, already hearing loud counting and slogans coming from the male soldiers' dormitory area in the distance.

She rubbed her temples; the two glasses of baijiu she drank at the welcome banquet last night still made her a little dizzy.

The alarm clock on the bedside table showed 3:30 a.m., a time she had never woken up before during her college years.

Since she was already there, Anya hurriedly put on her military uniform—the civilian personnel training uniform she had just received yesterday, similar to that of other soldiers, except that the shoulder insignia were brown-green with olive branch patterns. Combined with her short haircut from yesterday, this dashing image felt quite unfamiliar to her.

Seeing her disheveled hair in the mirror, she quickly combed it with her fingers, put on her military cap and rubber boots, and hurriedly washed up before running downstairs.

When she reached the squadron's assembly area, the team had already been assembled, and Chen Jiang was giving a passionate pep talk at the front of the ranks.

"Today's task is a 10-kilometer armed cross-country training exercise, which is just an appetizer for you."

"report!"

A woman's report immediately made everyone turn their heads.

Chen Jiang shouted angrily, "Mind your military appearance and discipline!"

Everyone immediately looked straight ahead again.

Chen Jiang walked over and asked, "Why are you up so early?"

"Since I'm already awake, I might as well go with you guys and see how things are going. That way, I can integrate into this new group more quickly."

"No, we're going for training, not playing house. Besides, you're a civilian employee, so you don't need to participate in this kind of high-intensity training. I'll have someone teach you some basic drill knowledge later, and that will be enough."

Chen Jiang meant well, because Team A's cross-country running is quite fast, how could a college student like Anya possibly adapt to it?

And he didn't have time to take care of her.

After saying that, Chen Jiang turned around and gave the order, "Let's go!"

The entire squadron immediately started running, led by their squad leaders one by one.

Although Chen Jiang didn't take her with him and ran away with the squadron, Anya still managed to use her beauty to get on the squadron's recovery vehicle.

She was curious about everything here and wanted to see how the squadron trained. After seeing it, she realized that the soldiers' training was really tough. All the officers, including Chen Jiang, participated in the training without exception.

Furthermore, Chen Jiang's physical fitness was ridiculously good. He ran around in front of and behind the team, and occasionally he could shout a few words to boost everyone's morale.

After the cross-country run, there were other required training sessions, which Anya definitely couldn't participate in, but she watched quietly and attentively from the sidelines.

The training finally came to an end around 6 a.m.

The young men in the squadron lined up before heading to the canteen for their meal.

Chen Jiang arranged for Anya to sit at a table with them. Anya wasn't actually very hungry because the driver had given her a bag of biscuits on the rescue vehicle, which served as a temporary snack.

Chen Jiang and the others were starving. After the squad leader gave the order, everyone began to wolf down their food. Chen Jiang served Anya a bowl of millet porridge and handed her a meat bun from the rice bowl.

"Anya, you got up too early. You must be exhausted. Hurry up and finish eating, then take a nap before starting your work." Chen Jiang knew that college students usually get up very late. Even though Anya was just watching everyone train, she must be exhausted by now.

Her task wasn't training; good steel must be used where it's needed most.

"I'm not tired. You guys are all training so hard, I'm just watching. What's there to be tired about?" Anya smiled gracefully and then began to chew on the meat bun in her hand.

Actually, she didn't like eating meat buns when she was in school, but for some reason today, these buns smelled so good and were very much to her liking.

(End of this chapter)