Chapter 359: One part military service, two parts memories

On the mountain path, a hundred‑person troop, like pulling noodles, was stretched out endlessly.

Lu Yang ran in front with a backpack on his back, sweat soaking through, his lips turning pale.

As the lead sheep, if he didn't stop, the others had to keep running.

Behind him, even Zhou Kaidong, with eleven years of service, clutched his waist, his face twisted in pain—let alone the others.

Liu Ziqiang and Sun Chen supported each other, panting like a broken bellows, sweat dripping behind them onto the ground.

Kang Changyi and Zhang Jiaheng were even more out of breath, each step dragging their feet, legs feeling as if filled with lead.

At the very rear of the column were a few new recruits kneeling on the ground, retching nonstop, like dying dogs.

Their stamina had long been exhausted; without the veteran soldiers in the squad helping to pull and share the load, they couldn't have made it this far.

Yet strangely, no one in the whole troop complained of hardship or fatigue.

Anyway, since the troop never stopped, they just kept moving forward.

Not knowing where they were headed or how far they had to run, it felt as if there were no destination at all.

"Doing it this way, won't something go wrong?"

Behind them, a jeep followed far off, with He Zhen Tao watching anxiously.

"It must be nearly thirty kilometers by now—we've been running since noon without really stopping, right?"

"In past training, the most we'd run bare‑handed was twenty‑plus kilometers; today it's this hot, and we're still in full gear?"

Ma Qing'an shook his head: "Don't worry, he knows what he's doing; Lu Yang just wants to vent everyone's negative feelings along with the sweat."

"Exercise best relieves negative emotions, releasing dopamine."

He Zhen Tao: "I know that, but I wonder if it'll work only temporarily, then lose effect when we idle? We can't run like this every day, or we'd run people to death."

Ma Qing'an hesitated: "I don't know; let's wait and see."

As time passed, the Sixth Company's column stretched out even longer.

Even Lu Yang at the head of the platoon could open a gap of three or four hundred meters from the last soldier at the tail.

Until the veterans' legs felt leaden and they could barely hold on; until most soldiers in the troop had empty eyes and pained expressions, only then did Lu Yang finally stop and not move forward any further.

Not far off was a small stream; Lu Yang stood by the bank, treating this as the endpoint and waiting for everyone to arrive one after another.

A few minutes later, a crowd lay sprawled before him, almost everyone completely drained.

Besides extreme exhaustion and pain, their sweat‑soaked faces showed no other emotion at all.

Lu Yang simply stood there, despite his own fatigue, still upright like a spear.

For a full ten minutes of silence, the forest held only the rising and falling of breaths, plus the faint rustle of wind brushing leaves.

Seeing the rest was nearly done, Lu Yang pulled a whistle from his pocket and blew it.

The sprawled crowd then came together like puppets on strings, forming up.

Because they carried packs, had rifles slung over their necks, and could barely muster strength, the formation stood loose and sloppy.

Lu Yang shouted: "Do you know how far you've run?"

Below, silence fell; they'd all run themselves into a daze, their brains not working.

But estimating, it had to be at least twenty‑plus kilometers, maybe thirty.

Such a distance, they had never run before; even if they had, it was rare to be in full gear.

Moreover, the route differed from before, so they couldn't precisely gauge the distance at once—only roughly guess from experience.

"Zhou Kaidong, you answer?"

"Over thirty, kilometers."

"Chen Panpan?"

"Probably, over thirty."

"LiMin."

"Twenty‑eight or twenty‑nine kilometers? I—I've never run that far, not really sure……"

Lu Yang randomly pointed at a few people, then revealed the answer and held up four fingers.

"It's forty‑three kilometers—you ran it all in one go!"

As soon as he said that, an uproar broke out; nobody had expected they could run that far in one breath.

Lu Yang then asked: "Do you know, among all branches of the army, how many can manage a forced march of forty‑three kilometers in full gear within just a few hours?"

The crowd shook their heads blankly; Lu Yang answered himself: "Less than one‑tenth!"

He pointed at everyone: "You are in that less than one‑tenth!"

Although the process was agonizing, even a veteran mechanized infantryman like Zhou Kaidong was on the verge of breaking down.

But receiving such affirmation and recognition, everyone still felt happy inside.

"If a squad had fifty people, you'd be the top five in performance!"

"Behind you are countless troops striving to catch up but never able to!"

"That's why the Sixth Company will become the vanguard of our regiment's transition from army to navy, and thus a model for all units!"

Seeing Lu Yang finally get to the point, He Zhen Tao and Ma Qing'an were both energized.

And upon hearing Lu Yang's words, everyone also showed a very complex expression.

But they still worried, after the Sixth Company is disbanded, what will become of them?

Lu Yang seemed to see into their hearts and shouted: "First, I want to stress: the Sixth Company isn't being disbanded; it's being reorganized as a whole following the Special Third Regiment!"

"This isn't the big demobilization of 2003, and no one will be discharged early because of it!"

"Everyone, it's just a change of posting, a change of skin, a change of uniform—shifting from earth‑attribute bonuses to water‑attribute points!"

Zhou Kaidong laughed; Liu Ziqiang, Sun Chen, and Kang Changyi also chuckled a bit.

Anyone who's played games knows skins and costumes require extra purchase.

As for shifting from earth attribute to water attribute, it's like resetting skill points in a game—choosing a different skill direction.

Lu Yang then said: "Vigorously developing the navy is a necessity of national defense construction, it's the trend of the times, and it's the general direction; compared to land, our maritime strength is far insufficient to resist external threats."

"As the top one-tenth, as representatives of the army's elite strength, we should feel honored about this."

"In the future, we will have many ships launched, even several carrier task forces; by then, the world's attention will focus here."

"At that time, as the vanguard of the first batch of army personnel supporting the navy, amidst flowers and spotlights, how glorious would that be?"

He proudly said: "At that time, I will proudly say: I was once an army soldier, I completed the heavy duty of protecting the land and defending the territory; now I am a navy sailor, I am willing to shed my hot blood into the motherland's blue sea, swearing to death to guard our territorial waters."

Lu Yang's words were very inspiring and also extremely vivid.

Everyone will unconsciously imagine themselves wearing white navy uniforms, standing on the flight deck of a domestically developed aircraft carrier.

Under the sea breeze, accepting the review of the people and the motherland, surrounded by flowers and flashing lights.

The army may be the elder brother, but future navy development is the focus of national defense construction.

As Lu Yang said, they have basically completed their duty of protecting the land.

Next, to guard the blue sea and achieve another kind of life accomplishment—why not?

Lu Yang: "Others, when they retire, only have one set of uniform; but when we retire, we have two sets, and even our memories are more than those of other retired veterans."

"You say, is being a soldier worth it?"

"Worth it!"

Zhou Kaidong responded loudly.

Finding no one to follow up, he again felt a bit embarrassed.

Lu Yang, however, gave him an encouraging smile, indicating he shouldn't be embarrassed.

Because as long as you aren't embarrassed, the embarrassed one is someone else.