Chapter 932: Worry

"What did you say? Wang Yan voluntarily applied to participate in the war?" Hao Shuwen, holding the phone in Beijing, could not believe this news. Her eyes widened in an instant, and her heartbeat began to accelerate; it was a panic as if she had already lost someone.

At this moment, she even thought of Wang Yan's smiling appearance, him saying, "I'm not dead yet, why are you crying at a funeral?"...

Over in Mencius, He Xiaoping already roughly understood that she had said the wrong thing. She actually thought Hao Shuwen should have known, but there was no help for it; she had already said it. She could only hold her naughty son with one arm while swaying, and respond with the phone in the other hand.

"Hao Shuwen, don't get excited, everything is fine now. Haven't they only been fighting for two days? Isn't Wang Yan still known as the undefeated champion of the Kunming Military Region? I heard from Liu Feng that Wang Yan's marksmanship is accurate and his skills are good; he will definitely become a combat hero this time.

Liu Feng also said, it was Wang Yan who told him, that since he is so capable and has such a big reputation, if he doesn't go to the battlefield, he won't be able to establish himself in the army later, and the soldiers will look down on him. Liu Feng said Wang Yan is a strong-willed person, and his father was a martyr, so he doesn't want to lose face for his father.

Besides, Wang Yan knows so many high-ranking officials, and the officials will also look after him. And everyone knows Wang Yan's situation; if something really happened to him, Liu Feng would definitely be the first to know the news. Now there is no movement at all, which means Wang Yan is fine, you don't need to worry."

He Xiaoping didn't really know how to talk; this was already her greatest effort, and she was trying her best to comfort her.

But Hao Shuwen could no longer hear those words; she had already lost her composure. "The phone bill is quite expensive, I'm hanging up, Xiaoping." She hung up the phone quite politely.

Yesterday, she learned the news of the war, and she sent a telegram to Wang Yan the first time, but there was no reply. She also sent a telegram to Liu Feng, and there was no reply either. She thought, maybe the Art Troupe was busy with wartime comfort performances. So she waited for a day, and today she called He Xiaoping.

She knew the child was still young, and He Xiaoping must be at home watching the child. But she never expected that the news she got from He Xiaoping would be such a thunderbolt, shocking her mind into chaos.

She hurriedly settled the long-distance phone bill, went out, and pedaled her bicycle home.

Returning home, she picked up the phone and called her father. Her father was also a high-ranking official and would definitely be able to find out news about Wang Yan...

"You said Wang Yan went to the battlefield? And even performed meritorious service?" Xiao Suizi's tone was not surprise, but panic. Before Hao Shuwen could speak, she continued to ask, "How did he go to the battlefield? Doesn't he know it's dangerous? His family only has him left."

"They say he found a high-ranking official and voluntarily requested to fight. He said he wanted to go to the battlefield to observe and collect material, and after this battle is over, he wants to write a book, and also write about the gains and losses of this battle; if he doesn't go, he can't write it. He also said he is the undefeated champion of the Kunming Military Region, and if he doesn't go to the battlefield, he won't have the face to see the soldiers later, and it would be unfair to his father.

The official saw he was determined, so he fulfilled his wish and let him be a frontline reporter to take more photos back. However, at the beginning, the official looked after him and let him act with the troops. But after the war started, the company commander he was following was injured, and he had good marksmanship and charged forward without regard for his life, so he was appointed as the acting company commander. He acted as the spearhead all the way, and at four o'clock today, he broke into Old Street."

Hao Shuwen's account was quite detailed; it was all what her father told her. Strictly speaking, this was of course a military secret, but if you asked how secret it was, it wasn't really. After all, they were fighting in Vietnam, and the battlefield situation was clear; what kind of secret was that?

The reason she told Xiao Suizi was just that she was worried alone and couldn't suppress it; two people together would always be better.

Xiao Suizi was stunned, not knowing what to do for a while.

After a long time, she smiled: "Wang Yan will definitely be fine; he never does things without certainty. The reason he didn't say anything in advance is that he didn't want us to worry, which would instead become his burden. Maybe he wrote a letter before he participated in the war, but it just hasn't been delivered yet."

She was soft on the outside but firm on the inside, with a heavy heart; compared to someone like Hao Shuwen who was boisterous, she was still a notch stronger.

"Sigh..."

Hao Shuwen let out a long sigh, "You say he really is something; what would it have mattered if he had said something about such a big thing? Now there's nothing wrong, but who knows... sigh..."

She ultimately didn't continue; it was too inauspicious, *pui pui pui*.

"Sigh~"

Xiao Suizi also sighed, lying on the table, listless...

"I finally found you two, why didn't you call me when you were eating?"

At this time, following a slightly dissatisfied coquettish complaint, Lin Dingding sat down at the table, "What's wrong with you two? What happened?"

Hao Shuwen didn't answer, asking strangely: "How did you find us?"

"I looked for you first, couldn't find you, and then I thought about finding Suizi to go out for a stroll. Her classmate in the dormitory said you took her out to eat. I was originally going to leave, but I passed by this restaurant and saw you two sitting here with worried faces."

"Hi, don't mention it, that damn Wang Yan went to the battlefield." Hao Shuwen didn't hide it and just said it.

Although she didn't like Lin Dingding very much because of those things in the past with Xiao Suizi, now everyone was studying in Beijing, and Lin Dingding took the initiative to come over, so they reluctantly got closer. After all, they were comrades from the same troupe and the same dormitory; it was never good to make things look too ugly on the surface. After coming and going, they could barely be considered to have gotten better.

Of course, the main reason was that Lin Dingding didn't pester Wang Yan anymore and didn't look for trouble with the two of them.

"What?"

Lin Dingding was even more surprised, her eyes widening, "Wang Yan went to the battlefield?"

Seeing the dangerous looks in their eyes, she said again: "Isn't Wang Yan the only seedling in his family? How did he go to the battlefield?"

Hao Shuwen gave a rough account, and Lin Dingding understood the ins and outs. She nodded and said: "Since Wang Yan volunteered and is so fierce now, what are you two worried about? Rest assured, he will definitely be fine. Alright, alright, you two stop letting your imaginations run wild; the more you think, the worse it gets. Are you eating? If you are, I'll eat with you; if not, let's go out for a stroll and relax."

She spoke very easily, as if she were fulfilling the duty of a friend to comfort, but who could know her heart...

Breaking into Old Street after four o'clock, although Old Street didn't have many troops left, it was already noon by the time the street fighting to purge the remaining enemies ended.

Wang Yan and the others were of course not fighting alone; they were just the spearhead unit. At eight o'clock in the morning, another company of soldiers arrived, along with militia units, and units that had infiltrated earlier, completely sealing off Old Street and carefully sweeping through every building.

They saw mountains of supplies in the warehouse, all with Chinese characters on them. The soldiers cursed and directly used the supplies to cook.

Wang Yan took photos all the way to the Red River and took a picture of the opposite side.

Old Street included both banks, connected by a bridge across the river. Now, that bridge had of course been blown up, and it was blown into three sections. The Vietnamese army had built fortifications on the opposite bank to guard against our army crossing the river.

Seeing Wang Yan standing there swaggeringly taking photos, they didn't say a word and just unleashed a round of machine-gun fire; the ammunition was quite sufficient.

Wang Yan lay on the ground, bullets landing not far in front of him, leaving crater after crater and raising a pile of dust. The noon sun shone on the earth, feeling very warm on the body.

Just waiting through a round of strafing, Wang Yan *pui pui pui* spat out a few mouthfuls of saliva, spitting out the dust that had entered his mouth. Immediately after, he smiled and set up his rifle; if they wanted to play, then let's play.

The view was good, and the Vietnamese army was very arrogant. Wang Yan took away a machine gunner with one bullet, and was met with more strafing. He moved without panic, and with another shot, he killed another machine gunner.

After two such exchanges, the Vietnamese army was enraged; they set up mortars, wanting to bomb Wang Yan.

"Communications soldier..."

Wang Yan smiled and hid, finding the communications soldier to report a string of coordinates. There was no reason why others could bomb him but he couldn't bomb others.

The communications soldier had been following Wang Yan's side, and immediately obeyed the order, contacting the artillery to fire.

Now the artillerymen liked Wang Yan quite a bit, and they didn't say that Wang Yan called for artillery for no reason. They also knew this was the unit led by Wang Yan; after fighting for nearly two days, no one in the 40th Division didn't know Wang Yan was a company commander.

Of course, their liking for Wang Yan was partly due to his personal charm, but mainly because the coordinates Wang Yan reported were accurate. The artillery had already destroyed three enemy artillery positions, which were solid achievements; everyone remembered Wang Yan's kindness.

In fact, this was also one of the reasons why the progress was much faster than the original process; our army's artillery support was rapid, and the enemy's artillery positions were all destroyed, which played a quite decisive role.

The Vietnamese army at this time was indeed okay, but that was about it; they were not even one ten-thousandth as good as our Volunteer Army back then—that was the style of the strongest ground force on the surface. Without planes or cannons, they could still win.

Before long, shells from the rear smashed over, bombing the fortifications on the opposite riverbank. Wang Yan set up his rifle again and began fighting with the opposite side.

The attack on Old Street was not just by the 40th Division; there was also the 37th Division of the 13th Army attacking Bao Thang located on the south side of Old Street, coordinating with the 40th Division's action to attack Old Street. So the opposite bank was actually not safe either, but it was just that Wang Yan came over too fast, exceeding the Vietnamese army's expectations, and they hadn't had time to retreat. They also didn't expect their defense to be so fragile, still letting Wang Yan attack so quickly.

Now Wang Yan was just idle; Old Street had been taken, and the soldiers who had fought all night needed to rest. He, on the other hand, took photos as he pleased, reaching the riverbank, and the Vietnamese monkeys on the opposite side were ignorant, so he played with them.

Just like that, after Wang Yan fired over twenty shots, there was no movement on the opposite side.

They were scared by Wang Yan; in over twenty shots, he had killed at least fifteen people. There were only a few dozen people setting up rifles across the river.

They not only had to guard against this side but also had to guard against other places; they didn't have enough manpower.

"Company Commander is awesome."

The communications soldier hiding on the side watched the Vietnamese monkeys who didn't dare to raise their heads, offering sincere words of flattery. Having fought for two days, he understood best how amazing the Company Commander was. Because most of the time, he was following behind the Company Commander. Let's put it this way, he had followed the Company Commander to kill a whole squad.

"Hey, it's not the first day you've known, don't be boisterous, be steady." Wang Yan laughed and waved his hand, "Let's go, go back to eat and sleep, get a good rest. Fighting a war, you have to be well-rested to have strength."

"Company Commander, where do you think we'll attack tonight?"

"What do you think?"

"I think the battalion commander will have us sneak across the river, close the door and beat the dog—um... close the door and beat the monkey, not letting that bunch of Vietnamese monkeys on the opposite side run away. Otherwise, it's going into the mountains, killing all those monkeys hiding in the mountains."

"Hmm..." Wang Yan smiled and nodded, "Xiao Liang, you could be a battalion commander!"

"Company Commander is teasing me; this can be seen, there are just these two roads." The communications soldier scratched his head, giggling foolishly.

"Then tell me, which of these two roads should we take?"

The communications soldier thought hard and said: "We should be allowed to cross the river, right? Company Commander, you are so capable of fighting, and the brothers following you are also fearless. Having us attack Old Street shows they value our ability to assault. The sooner we get over, the more enemies we can annihilate. But the higher-ups should also be considerate of us; having fought for a night and half a day, our combat effectiveness can't be maintained, so they'll let us have a good rest."

"You could be a regiment commander!"

"Company Commander is teasing me again."

"A soldier who doesn't want to be a general is not a good soldier."

"I know this saying, Company Commander, you told us before, it was said by Napoleon."

"Good memory, high comprehension, you have a bright future, keep up the good work."

Wang Yan was still taking photos with his camera; he really brought a lot of film, walking back happily with the communications soldier. The communications soldier drank the chicken soup Wang Company Commander had casually poured, very happy. Following Wang Company Commander to fight a war had no tension at all, and it all disappeared.

The communications soldier didn't have it easy either; most of the time, he was running behind Wang Company Commander, which meant charging together and providing fire suppression. This Xiao Liang had a piece of flesh blown off his arm, a piece of his ear shot off, his shoulder grazed by a bullet, and his knees bruised from various tactical movements, and he was only 19 years old...

The pride of the West lies in their earliest entry into industrial society, their high-rise buildings rising one after another, a hundred years earlier than the East. Li Hongzhang visited the United States and was shocked three times; that was the mighty historical trend rolling over his face. No one knew what he was thinking the moment he landed in the United States and saw the high-rise buildings and the bustling traffic.

But the backwardness of the East was naturally a fact. As a provincial capital, even if you didn't look at it in black-and-white old photos, but actually with distinct colors, this city was not very good, equally dilapidated.

However, if you counted the bloodstains on some walls, the corpses lying on the ground, and the bullet marks everywhere, then it looked a bit better. The city was still that unattractive city; what looked good was the military might of our China.

Wang Yan pressed the shutter again and again, recording exactly these...

This time, the battlefield clearing was done by the following militia. The unit led by Wang Company Commander, which had already been upgraded to a spearhead company, naturally ate their fill early and went to sleep. In this battle for Old Street, they had fought continuously for eighteen hours, and they couldn't fight even if they wanted to. Even if they were more relaxed following Wang Company Commander, they were still dancing on the line of death, their nerves very tense, and coupled with physical exhaustion, they all needed to rest.

Wang Yan ate canned food and rice—these were all supplies that had been sent, all with Chinese characters on them. The soldiers were still the same; while eating, they inevitably cursed the Vietnamese monkeys, then talked to their brothers about their highlight moments, counted heads, and of course, there was no lack of ridicule from comrades. Fighting a war, no matter how fierce, there's always a time to make a fool of yourself. Like tripping while running, for example...

Then they sighed about the brothers who had been sent to the rear, and of course, there was no lack of remembrance for the fallen brothers. In the end, they were still laughing and joking, and before long, they were hugging their rifles and sleeping, snoring like thunder.

Wang Yan pillowing his hands behind his head, closed his eyes, brewing sleepiness... ===== CHAPTER 933 =====