Starting from the deputy company commander of the Soldier Assault Team

Watching He Hongtao's retreating figure, Shi Jin asked with a mixture of doubt and certainty, "Deputy Company Commander, is it the right thing to strengthen the guard force at the training ground by transferring Xu Sanduo there?"

"Is that right? You've been a veteran for so many years, how could you not know? But it's okay, three new recruits have come to the Third Company, you can ask them about it later. You've done your best for him, haven't you?"

Alright, I have some things to do at the company, so I'll head back now. Remember to visit your family when you have time. Also, keep an eye on Bai Tiejun; he's never been very enthusiastic about training.

After Zhang Anbang finished speaking, he turned and got into the jeep, which made a stylish U-turn and sped away in a cloud of dust.

Watching the jeep disappear into the distance, Shi Jin nodded. The soldiers of the Seventh Company can't afford to be complacent. It seems that Bai Tiejun really needs to be dealt with properly, so as to save the company commander and the others some trouble.

……

On the way back to the company headquarters, thinking of Xu Sanduo, a thought suddenly came to Zhang Anbang's mind.

The soldiers today are all children from peacetime who come to the military, undergo training to become recruits, and then become soldiers.

However, soldiers who grow up in peacetime have a big problem: although they are educated from the moment they enter the army to defend their country and not be afraid of sacrifice.

Even with such in-depth education, most soldiers still encounter various problems when faced with real combat.

Just like when Xu Sanduo followed the Old A to encircle and suppress drug dealers, he disobeyed orders and told those drug dealers who surrendered to lay down their weapons and surrender.

His statement exposed his location, leading to him being targeted by drug dealers. Although no one was injured or killed, it is undeniable that he violated discipline.

Furthermore, after he killed a drug dealer with his bare hands, he developed severe psychological problems and even considered retiring.

This is Xu Sanduo's sore spot, a big problem. When he watched this TV series in his previous life, many people thought that Xu Sanduo was not suitable to be a soldier.

Zhang Anbang once thought so too.

After all, in the eyes of most people, what the army needs are soldiers who can quickly form combat effectiveness, not rough gems that need to be polished over a long period of time.

An excellent soldier should absolutely obey orders, be ruthless towards the enemy, and never falter at critical moments.

But after serving in the military in his previous life, he no longer saw it that way. Soldiers are not emotionless fighting tools; a soldier's bottom line is to respect life.

Napoleon once said that the primary quality of a soldier is the tenacity to endure fatigue and hardship; courage is secondary. Poverty, scarcity, and need are the true schools of good soldiers.

After leading troops in this life, Zhang Anbang gradually realized his own truth: are there naturally gifted soldiers? Of course they are, but they are extremely rare.

Moreover, they are simply born with innate qualities that suit the military profession. To achieve something, they still need to learn. However, the learning experiences of geniuses are often hard for others to understand.

The vast majority of soldiers and officers are ordinary people with average qualifications who have worked their way up step by step through hard work, perseverance, and a strong sense of principle.

In this peaceful era, the so-called naturally gifted soldiers are hard to verify. Many abilities, such as battlefield intuition and decisive action in a crisis, can only be demonstrated in actual combat.

Regular drills and training tests may assess physical fitness and skills, but they cannot measure a person's true reaction in a life-or-death situation.

Many talented soldiers, when faced with high-intensity, realistic combat exercises, panic and make decisions that are ultimately disappointing because they are unaware of the realities and mistaken for actual combat.

The most typical examples are Xu Sanduo and Cheng Cai.

Why did Yuan Lang admire Xu Sanduo? Xu Sanduo first chased after him like a madman during the exercise, and finally won him over after Yuan Lang softened his heart.

Under the circumstances, Xu Sanduo's performance immediately left a deep impression on Yuan Lang.

Afterwards, Xu Sanduo was left to guard the barracks alone; he could have easily been less responsible.

Even without supervision, he still adhered to the military's regulations and rules day after day, something most people couldn't do.

This made Yuan Lang, who had investigated the data, even more interested.

After being trained by Old A, all the new members stepped into the testing grounds carefully prepared by Yuan Lang. Wu Zhe, the smart guy, saw through it at a glance.

Xu Sanduo didn't see anything; he only knew to follow orders and complete the mission, without considering the possibility of life or death.

Even when he saw that the robbers were not wearing protective clothing and were only wearing masks, he changed his clothes and blended in.

According to the intelligence he received before the mission, he would die if he didn't wear protective clothing. Did he hesitate? No, he didn't hesitate. Did he not know he would die at that moment?

He knew it, but he didn't hesitate. Why was no one praising him at this moment? Instead, everyone was laughing at him for not realizing it was a trap.

Cheng Cai, who had always performed well, became afraid when faced with this situation because the information he had received made him clearly aware that he would die, so he dared not leave.

This is why Yuan Lang gave up on Cheng Cai, and also why he kept Xu Sanduo.

What Old A needs is never those seemingly perfect soldiers, but soldiers like Xu Sanduo who have principles, perseverance, and can grow after making mistakes. These are the people who dare to expose their backs to them.

As for whether Xu Sanduo is suitable to be a soldier.

His taciturnity, stubbornness, and inflexibility may seem like weaknesses, but on the other hand, they are also the most valuable qualities of a soldier. These traits, developed through long-term training and group life, can be transformed into combat effectiveness far exceeding that of ordinary people.

Old Ma, a very good squad leader in the Third Company, was transferred to the Fifth Squad on the grassland with the intention of changing the state of the Fifth Squad. However, Old Ma failed to do so and instead went with the flow.

Even after Xu Sanduo joined the Fifth Platoon, he stubbornly continued to carry out everything he had learned in basic training.

The Fifth Platoon on the grassland, a paradise for cowardly soldiers, became unbearably miserable for everyone in the platoon after he left, with Sergeant Old Ma even having a sudden change of heart.

Here, he used the slow pace of life in the Fifth Squad of the Grassland to give Xu Sanduo the confidence to take root, the courage to persevere, and the original intention to do meaningful things.

In peacetime, when there are no actual combat missions, the value of soldiers is often reflected in doing small things to the extreme: not being lazy when on guard duty, not shirking during training, and not compromising when carrying out missions.

Xu Sanduo did all of that, making him more reliable than those clever but impetuous soldiers.

His growth serves as the best example for ordinary people in the military.

Xu Sanduo started from a very low point. He was called a "turtle son" by his father, suffered from motion sickness, was a burden to others, and was looked down upon by the vast majority of people.

But his growth trajectory perfectly illustrates the saying that the military camp is a great school. From an outlier in the fifth platoon of the grasslands to a king of soldiers in the seventh steel company, and then to an elite soldier of the Old A, every step he took was paved with sweat and perseverance.

This replicable growth is exactly what the military needs.

In the millennium, most of the soldiers were ordinary young people like Xu Sanduo. They may have been ordinary and clumsy, but as long as they were put into the crucible of the military camp, tempered by discipline and driven by the collective, they could be transformed into qualified soldiers.

This is why Wang Qingrui, a veteran who came from the battlefield and a commander of a main force regiment, thought so highly of Xu Sanduo. His experience told him that Xu Sanduo was a good soldier.

As Zhang Anbang's mind wandered, he drove and quickly arrived at the company headquarters.

"Company commander, what kind of equipment do we have for playing videos?"

"This, isn't this just like the traditional way? A Yangtze F16-4 projector, playing 16mm film. Wasn't it you who organized that trip to see the wreaths under the mountain before we went to basic training?"

"I know, I just wanted to confirm with you, right? Besides that, there's only that 29-inch Changhong color TV in the company canteen, right?" Zhang Anbang thought for a moment, there shouldn't be anything else.

Gao Cheng laughed and said, "Xiao Qi, have you been too busy lately? Our company's activity room has a VCD player, although it only has two discs: Tunnel Warfare and the Battle of the South and North."

The soldiers had watched it dozens of times, and were tired of it, but at least we had it, right?

Zhang Anbang then realized that in those days, military company activity rooms usually had video recorders or DVD players, but since he came to the Steel Seventh Company, the company activity room had never used such a thing, and he had forgotten about it.

Gao Cheng laughed, then suddenly paused, "Xiao Qi, why are you asking this? How do you have connections to get films that will pass censorship for the soldiers to watch?"

"I do have that idea. I was thinking that when I'm on vacation, I'll go and ask my classmates from Tsinghua University to see if they can get me some movies that can pass censorship."

We'll show it to the soldiers on Wednesday afternoon, during political education day, or Sunday evening after dinner. We've heard from the soldiers that the films we're watching are always the same, and they're tired of them."

Zhang Anbang continued with his explanation.

He couldn't very well say that it was because on the way back he thought about Xu Sanduo's reaction after killing someone, and that the soldiers all grew up in peaceful environments.

The military doesn't directly talk about killing; they frame these concepts within the framework of protecting the country and using force in accordance with the law and morality. But soldiers are, after all, flesh-and-blood human beings.

Abstract knowledge based on theoretical education and cinematic imagination can have a tremendous psychological impact on soldiers when they encounter real combat.

Despite repeated emphasis from the troops that this was not killing people, but eliminating the enemy and annihilating the invading enemy, which was the mission of soldiers and a legitimate action, many soldiers were still afraid to face the real bloody scene.

The sources of soldiers in peacetime are very different from those in wartime. Soldiers in the latter era had already seen death before they even joined the army.

The recruits at that time of the millennium did not have this experience. Not to mention them, even Zhang Anbang was not sure how he would be. Long-range killing would definitely be much better, but if it was close-range hand-to-hand combat, most people would probably vomit.

This is actually a very normal phenomenon, belonging to PTSD. However, even abroad, research on this symptom is just beginning, and there is a severe shortage of psychological personnel in the domestic military.

There are no corresponding contingency plans in special forces. In the event of a similar situation, the usual approach is to temporarily remove them from their combat posts and assign them to light physical tasks.

There are one-on-one counseling sessions with instructors, but no standardized PTSD screening and treatment procedures.

Zhang Anbang had read related reports and concluded that the core of resolving battlefield PTSD is to help the individual establish a legitimate understanding of their actions, rationally manage their emotions, and balance reverence for life with their mission.