Volume 1: The First Battle Chapter 2: Crossing
"Wow..." Why am I still in the sky? When I regained consciousness, I was surprised to find that I was still falling in the air. Was everything just an illusion? Was everything I just fell into the hole just a dream?
But soon I realized something was wrong, because I fell heavily to the ground, and I felt waves of choking pain in my chest. But I knew it was not serious. Compared with the pain of vomiting stomach acid just now, it was just like being bitten by a mosquito.
"There's a ghost..."
"Don't move! Put your hands up!"
…
There were shouting, yelling, and the sound of gun bolts being pulled. Before I could open my eyes, everything around me was in chaos.
I opened my eyes in confusion, and instinctively sat up and jumped up. In the gray sky, I was surprised to find that I was standing in a big pit, and under my feet were several "corpses" wearing cotton jackets and military caps that looked like corpses. Could this be real? I thought to myself, the only corpse I had seen since I was a child was when my grandfather died.
But looking at the pale faces of these "corpses", they didn't look fake. I kicked "them" a few times to make sure whether they were dead or alive.
"do not move……"
"You...are you a human or a ghost?"
I looked up following the sound and discovered that the area around the pit was already filled with people dressed in the same attire, and... they were all pointing their guns at me. They were old-fashioned rifles, and I recognized that most of them were Type 38 rifles.
"You...who are you? Where is this place?" I asked in confusion.
The reason why a newborn calf is not afraid of a tiger is that it has never seen how ferocious a tiger is. Similarly, I have never seen a gun and I don’t know how powerful it is. Facing the black muzzles of guns in front of me, I don’t feel scared at all, although I know I should feel scared at this time. So I thought for half a minute, considering whether I should pretend to be scared...
"Quick, hurry and drag him up..." After a long while, an old soldier with wrinkles all over his face but bright eyes was the first to react: "Xiao Shandong, go call the company commander and the instructor, there is a live person here."
"Get a blanket..." After several people dragged and pushed me out of the pit, the veteran quickly covered me with a blanket and rubbed me skillfully through the blanket.
I was being tossed around by them like a puppet, my mind was blank, what was wrong with me? Was I dreaming?
It was clearly summer just now, and I remember I was wearing short sleeves. How come there is snow everywhere now, and I am wearing this tacky cotton jacket, and these old-fashioned rifles that can only be seen in movies and museums...
"The company commander is here!"
"Where are the people? Where are they?" The voice was deep and slightly hoarse.
"At this……"
Before I finished my words, a square face appeared in front of me.
"Comrade, comrade..." He looked me up and down, and when he knew I was fine, he breathed a sigh of relief, stood up and said with a smile: "Comrade, we almost buried you alive... I'm so sorry."
Then he quickly frowned again, pointing his fingers in the air: "What are you doing ? You buried the person without even knowing if he's dead or not. Can't you just check if he's still alive? How can you complete your revolutionary work if you're so careless!"
"The one we touched seems to be dead..." The old soldier whispered with shame on his face, looking like a child who was caught eating secretly.
"Then this living person is still a fake!" Upon hearing this, the company commander became even more furious, his eyes widened as big as lanterns.
"Company commander...I heard there is still one alive?" This was a slightly scholarly voice.
"Instructor, you've come just in time." The company commander's expression eased, and he said to the young man who was jogging over, "Look at them, they've caused such a big fuss. If they really want to bury our comrades alive, how am I going to explain this to my superiors?"
"Ling Zhang (Company Commander)." A Shandong accent interrupted: "If it was really buried, how would the superior know..."
"Little Shandong boy, you are talking nonsense." The man called the instructor looked gloomy and quickly gave an order: "Quick, check again. We can't let our comrades die in vain because of our negligence in our work. Our comrades must die! They must die on the battlefield, not at the hands of our own people."
"yes……"
Company commander? Instructor? Comrade? Battlefield? Old-fashioned rifle...
My mind was in a mess, and I looked at this person and that person blankly. They were speaking Chinese, and I could hear every word clearly, but I couldn't understand what they were saying. This scene in front of me seemed familiar. Oh... I remembered that before I went to North Korea for an interview, I had looked up a lot of information about the War to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea.
I have a habit of checking the past and present of the interviewee as much as possible before every interview. The people and equipment in front of me are so similar to the Chinese People's Volunteer Army that I saw in the materials. Could it be that...
"Comrade, comrade..." A few shouts interrupted my thoughts. The man called the instructor said to me with an apologetic look, "Comrade, we were negligent in not noticing that you were still alive. I will ask the higher-ups to punish us. Which company are you from? Come with us, we will take you back to the team!"
"Which company?" I still couldn't figure out the situation, so I asked back in confusion: "What...what's going on?"
The instructor and the company commander looked at each other and explained to me, "It's like this, comrade. You froze to death last night... oh, or should I say, you froze unconscious. Our company is responsible for burying comrades who froze to death, and we will soon catch up with the main force. Comrade, which company are you from?"
"You...are you the Volunteer Army?" I looked at the people around me hesitantly, still not daring to believe this fact: "Are you the Chinese People's Volunteer Army?"
There was a moment of silence, and everyone looked at me strangely.
After a long while, the old soldier walked up to the instructor and whispered, "Instructor, I heard that people forget who they are after being injured. Do you think this comrade's brain has been frozen so that he doesn't even know who he is?"
The instructor hesitated for a moment, nodded in agreement, and then walked up to me and asked, "Comrade, do you remember which company you are from?"
Being mistaken for a man with amnesia, I shook my head in a mocking manner.
"Do you remember who you are? What's your name?"
"My name is Cui Wei."
"Okay." Hearing this, the instructor nodded, as if he was secretly relieved. It seemed that he was still worried that I had become a fool.
"Comrade, now I tell you clearly that we, including you, are soldiers of the Chinese People's Volunteer Army. We are now going to catch up with the main force. Revolutionary discipline stipulates that we are not allowed to abandon the wounded, so you must come with us. Do you understand?" Then he turned to the old soldier and ordered: "Old squad leader...you are responsible for taking care of him, don't get lost..."
