Siheyuan (traditional courtyard house): Starting with the Korean War, returning home to take charge

The reconnaissance regiment's base was ten miles from the division headquarters, hidden in a mountain valley beside a half-collapsed mine. When He Yuzhu's jeep drove in, the soldier on guard at the gate glanced at him, his salute unhurried, his eyes scrutinizing him.

The regimental headquarters was converted from the mine's original dispatch room. The brick walls were plastered with mud, and the windows were mostly boarded up. A few people were sitting inside, warming themselves around a brazier. The smell of smoke and feet mingled together, making it quite pungent.

He Yuzhu pushed open the door and went in; the room was quiet for a moment.

A dark-skinned man sitting against the wall looked up, a scar running from his eyebrow to his ear. He slowly stood up: "Regimental Commander. I am Deputy Regimental Commander Chen Dashan." He pointed to the three men beside him, "First Battalion Commander Wang Tiechui, from the 38th Army; Second Battalion Commander Zhao Hai, from the 20th Army; Third Battalion Commander Li Shitou, a veteran scout from the 42nd Army."

He Yuzhu nodded and put down his luggage roll: "Sit down."

No one sat down. Wang Tiechui stared at him; he was a burly man with worn-out padded jacket sleeves and cracked chilblains on the back of his hands. Zhao Hai was tall and thin, with sharp eyes, sizing up He Yuzhu. Li Shitou was the youngest, his face still showing some immaturity, but a scar on his neck suggested he wasn't a new recruit.

"I'm new here and not familiar with the situation." He Yuzhu pulled up a chair and sat down. "Tell me about the current situation in the troupe."

Chen Dashan pulled a crumpled notebook from his pocket: "The entire regiment has 427 men present. The equipment is better than the infantry, with submachine guns, semi-automatic rifles, and one light machine gun per squad. The problem is..." He closed the notebook, "Batteries are severely lacking, and six out of ten radios are out of commission. There aren't enough cotton-padded coats either; a third of the men are wearing ones they've taken from enemy corpses."

"What about training?"

"Each trains their own way," Wang Tiechui said in a hoarse voice. "The first battalion is doing night infiltration, the second battalion is practicing mountain raids, and the third battalion..." He glanced at Li Shitou, "...likes to scout and catch people. As long as they can complete the mission, that's fine."

He Yuzhu watched the flickering flames in the brazier. The room was so quiet that the crackling of the charcoal could be heard.

"The whole group will assemble at five o'clock tomorrow morning," he said.

The next day, before dawn, the whistle blew sharply.

He Yuzhu stood on the earthen platform at the entrance of the dispatch room, watching the dark mass of people gathering below. More than four hundred people arrived within five minutes. No one spoke; only their breaths turned into white mist in the cold air.

He walked down the earthen platform, from the front of the line to the back. The soldiers, dressed in all sorts of cotton-padded clothes, held their rifles to their chests, their eyes fixed on him.

"My name is He Yuzhu, and from today onwards, I am your team leader." His voice was not loud. "I know you are all top students and have your pride. But here, even top students have to follow the rules."

He paused for a moment: "Starting today, the training syllabus will be standardized. We'll do a five-kilometer cross-country run with weights in the morning, tactical coordination exercises in the morning, wilderness survival exercises in the afternoon, and theoretical study in the evening. We'll have a nighttime exercise once a week and a live-fire confrontation exercise every two weeks."

A slight commotion arose within the ranks.

"Anyone who disagrees," He Yuzhu's gaze swept over the front row, "step forward now. Beat me, and you can set your own rules."

Wang Tiechui's cheek muscles puffed out as he stepped forward: "Regimental Commander! Tiechui disagrees! Being a reconnaissance soldier relies on solid hand skills! If you're going to draft the outline, you need to let the brothers know whether the person drafting it is truly capable!"

He Yuzhu's face remained expressionless: "What do you want to compete in?"

"Nighttime infiltration, spotting sentries and capturing intelligence!" Wang Tiechui's voice boomed. "Right now, this mountain hollow will be the arena. I'll pick ten men to defend, and you'll attack alone. Reach that tattered flag behind the control room before dawn, and you win!"

Gasps of astonishment rose and fell in the ranks. This was Wang Tiechui's signature move.

He Yuzhu was silent for two seconds, then suddenly smiled and said, "No need for that." He pointed to an old locust tree a hundred paces away, with a broken earthenware pot the size of a fist hanging from its top, just a gray shadow in the morning mist.

He took a Mosin-Nagant rifle from a soldier next to him, cocked it smoothly, and without aiming, pulled the trigger.

"Bang!"

Gunshots rang out in the mountain valley, their echoes reverberating. The broken earthenware pot crumbled into dust.

The entire room fell silent. Wang Tiechui's face flushed red and then turned pale. Finally, he lowered his head and said, "...I give up."

"Attention everyone," He Yuzhu handed the gun back, "Right turn! Five-kilometer cross-country run, let's go!"

I finished running five kilometers just as dawn was breaking.

In the morning's combat training, He Yuzhu broke up and mixed the three battalions. The result was chaos—the 38th Army engaged in a head-on confrontation, the 20th Army attempted a flanking maneuver, and the 42nd Army spread out to snipe. Orders were issued, but the execution was inconsistent.

Halfway through the fight, He Yuzhu called a halt.

"See the problem?" He squatted on the ground, drawing a topographical map with a twig. "Individually, each one is a master. But put them together, and they're just a disorganized mess." He stood up. "This afternoon, we'll practice teamwork. Two people per group, one leg tied together, walk five kilometers. If you don't finish, no dinner tonight."

Wailing cries filled the air.

"What are you howling about!" Chen Dashan roared.

The afternoon training was even worse. A group of elite athletes, who were usually so agile, were now stumbling and wobbling with their legs tied. He Yuzhu watched with his hands behind his back and noticed something interesting: Wang Tiechui's group fell the hardest, but got up without a sound and continued; Zhao Hai's group complained to each other and almost came to blows; Li Shitou's group was the most comical—the two of them had actually figured out a way to coordinate their small, quick steps, and although it was slow, they didn't fall once.

"That's interesting," Chen Dashan muttered from the side.

That evening, when the cafeteria opened for dinner, a third of the people didn't get to eat.

He Yuzhu got his own food and sat in the corner. Chen Dashan leaned over and said, "Commander, that was pretty ruthless today."

"We have to be ruthless." He Yuzhu took a bite of sorghum porridge. "We have to break it up and start over."

Chen Dashan lowered his voice: "Before you came, the division sent word that you are good at predicting the future and have never lost a battle."

He Yuzhu paused, chopsticks in hand. "So what do you think?"

"What do I think?" Chen Dashan grinned, the scar on his face twitching. "I think you can lead us to victory, and that's enough. Everything else is none of my business."

After finishing his meal, He Yuzhu returned to the small cabin at the regimental headquarters.

He lit the oil lamp and pulled out paper and pen from his pack. He had noticed during the day's training that battery shortages made debriefing difficult and that the soldiers' tattered cotton-padded clothes hampered their nighttime infiltration. These details lingered in his mind.

The system interface unfolds, revealing over forty million points shining brightly.

He flipped to the "Materials Technology" section and selected the two cheapest items: Kevlar fiber fragments (50 points) and high-energy battery samples (30 points). He confirmed the redemption.

He found a piece of dark yellow fabric and a silver-gray cube in his palm. He examined them closely; the fibers were light yet tough, the battery felt heavy, and the interface standard was different from the current one.

"There has to be an explanation..." he murmured.

He spread out the letter paper and began writing a report: "Preliminary Analysis Report on the Capture of New Individual Protective Materials and Portable Power Devices from the U.S. Army." In the report, he described these two items as "captured by a reconnaissance unit in contact combat," emphasizing that their performance far exceeded that of existing equipment, and recommended that they be sent to the domestic research center.

After finishing the report, I attached a private letter to Commander Song. Just as I sealed the envelope, I heard footsteps outside the door.

Chen Dashan pushed open the door and came in, his face grave: "Regimental Commander, an urgent order from the division headquarters."

He Yuzhu looked up.

"We need to find out the deployment and activity patterns of the newly transferred armored reconnaissance company of the enemy forces at Eagle Peak within three days." Chen Dashan handed over the telegram. "The telegram says that these guys are well-equipped and just wiped out a platoon from our brother unit last month."

He Yuzhu took the telegram, the oil lamp flame flickering on his face. Outside the window, the night was deep, and the mountain wind swept across the mine ruins, making a mournful sound.

He glanced at the unsent report and the two out-of-the-time samples on the table, then at the "three-day deadline" on the telegram.

"Notify all battalions and companies," He Yuzhu stood up, his voice calm, "that training will proceed as scheduled tomorrow morning. A combat meeting will be held tonight."

"yes!"

Chen Dashan turned and left. He Yuzhu blew out the oil lamp and lay down on the hard bed. Of the more than forty million points, eight hundred thousand had been spent. The rest needed to be used wisely.

The footsteps of the changing guards outside gradually faded into the distance. Three days. He closed his eyes, and his mind began to sketch out a topographical map of Eagle Peak.