My years as a soldier

The process of falling is frightening. Although it is only a second, or even less than a second, the strange feeling of the heart hanging in the chest can always magnify and prolong the human senses at that moment.

As soon as he felt the downward force, Hu Jiuzhang let go of Zhang Zhi's shoulder. Even if he had the ability to hold on to Zhang Zhi, he wouldn't have the heart to let Zhang Zhi be his meat pad.Besides, if the cliff is really not deep, and all my weight falls on Zhang Zhi, why not crush him to death?So Hu Jiuzhang let go without any hesitation, it was a gamble after all, and he also wanted to be free and easy for a while, leaving life and death to God to decide.

Hu Jiuzhang originally thought that when he touched the ground, his whole body would receive a huge impact, and that must be extremely painful.If he really wanted to die, he hoped that he could die instantly the moment he hit the ground.But in fact, when he did feel the bump, the pain was constant.Hu Jiuzhang couldn't help feeling a little dazed.He felt as if his body was cut by a sharp knife, and he felt like he was hammered by a heavy object, both heavy and light.Under such buffering again and again, he finally fell to the bottom of the cliff.

The pain and the dizziness of falling continued to spread in Hu Jiuzhang's mind. The moment he really touched the ground, he passed out. Even he himself didn't know if he lost consciousness this time. Netherworld.

Or maybe, this time, it will be the eternal separation between man and heaven, right?

At the moment when his consciousness was completely lost, he thought hopelessly.After an unknown amount of time, he suddenly heard Zhao Xiaoyang's voice next to his ear.

"Hu team, Hu team! Hu team!"

Zhao Xiaoyang's voice was full of tears, which upset Hu Jiuzhang.Several times he wanted to open his eyes and tell Zhao Xiaoyang to stop talking, but he just didn't have the strength.

He didn't know how long he slept like this, and when he really woke up, it was dawn.

Hu Jiuzhang lay on his back on the ground, saw the blue and cloudless sky above his head, and heard the beautiful and leisurely singing of birds in his ears.

For some reason, tears fell from the corners of his eyes.Tears overflowed from his eyes uncontrollably, and his nasal cavity was also sour.At that moment, Hu Jiuzhang had no mission, no army, and no Li Muyun in his mind.He seemed to be able to see his old mother in Chengzhou far away in the blue sky, and the home he hadn’t returned to for many years. He wanted to go home and eat honey shortbread baked by his mother, and drink a big pot of dirty wine. Mother talked about the experience of going abroad for these years.

The touch at that moment belonged only to him.

survived... just survived...

Hu Jiuzhang let his tears flow freely, and after a while, Zhao Xiaoyang's face appeared in his vision.

"Hu team!!"

Zhao Xiaoyang's cry shocked Hu Jiuzhang so much that his brains were about to explode.

"Captain Hu! You're awake!"

Seeing his excited appearance, Hu Jiuzhang couldn't help laughing.

"Wake up. Are you not afraid of being heard when you yell so loudly?"

Hu Jiuzhang's voice was still a little weak, but against the background of his voice, it was an unconcealable joy.Even if he still has a little strength, he will sit up from the ground at this time, and then take a good look at the world, the cloudless blue sky, and the lush vegetation around him.

"Don't be afraid, don't be afraid! Captain Hu, we are almost at the boundary of Tongguan, the slowest, the slowest, and we will reach Tongguan in another four or five days."

Zhao Xiaoyang was in high spirits, but Hu Jiuxian was obviously taken aback.

"How...you can go back so soon?"

"What do you mean so fast? Team Hu, you have been in a coma for five days! If Team Zhang and I hadn't taken turns feeding you water and food, you would have starved to death."

As Zhao Xiaoyang said, there was already a sense of sadness.

"Hey...it's good if we can survive. The place where we fell was a forest. If it weren't for the dense canopy below, none of us would have survived, but it was also because of the branches that followed, and each of us had a lot of pain. Minor injuries. Team Zhang’s left arm is crippled, and a large strip of flesh was cut off from my waist. But it’s good to be alive...it’s good to be alive.”

Hearing Zhao Xiaoyang's words, Hu Jiuzhang couldn't help feeling a little dazed.He fixed his eyes on Zhao Xiaoyang, and suddenly found that this cheerful young man was even thinner than before, even to the point of being skinny, and what about Zhang Zhi... Hu Jiuzhang turned his head sideways with great effort, and saw Zhang Zhi sleeping soundly under a big tree , and the one tied to the treetop was helping the captive they had gone through all kinds of hardships to capture.

One of Zhang Zhi's arms was wrapped with a bandage, and was hung obliquely around his neck with sackcloth strips.And the prisoner also had a lot of injuries, but fortunately, the man was still alive and kicking, and looked towards Hu Jiuzhang from time to time.

"Hey... I'm sorry for you..."

Hu Jiuzhang couldn't help but sigh.After sighing, his nasal cavity was sore again.He really didn't know whether he was lucky or unlucky.Unfortunately, he shouldn't have developed a high fever when the team needed him most.And fortunately, there is too much to say.Knowing Zhao Xiaoyang and Zhang Zhi is his greatest luck this time.

"Xiao Zhao, help me up."

"Hey—no way! Team Zhang told you that you are too seriously injured and don't take a good rest. You may still have a fever. Team Hu, we have already left the boundary of Shan County, so there is no need to rush. You made a stretcher, and we'll just carry you back like this, you don't have to do anything, just take care of yourself."

"This..." Although Hu Jiuzhang wanted to refuse, he tried several times, but he still couldn't sit up from the ground.And every time he moved, his body was in excruciating pain, but he could only lie down motionless as Zhao Xiaoyang said.

Helpless, he couldn't get up by himself, so Hu Jiuzhang had to be taken care of by Zhao Xiaoyang and Zhang Zhi in turn. Of course he was very sorry, but fortunately, although he was seriously injured, he recovered quickly.Under the careful care of the two, he didn't dare to move at first, but after a few days, he was able to sit up and eat by himself.

But this time, Zhao Xiaoyang did not dare to urge the team to go on the road anymore. The whole group was injured and had to take care of Hu Jiuzhang, who was seriously injured. Most of them are mountain roads, so the speed has to be slowed down a bit.Originally, Zhao Xiaoyang expected to complete the journey in four or five days at the slowest, but it took more than ten days for them to walk.When the three of them saw the Tongguan city wall standing far away on the mountainside, none of them were so excited that tears filled their eyes.

Zhang Zhi and Zhao Xiaoyang carried Hu Jiuzhang on the stretcher one behind the other, and the remaining prisoner was tied up tightly by Zhang Zhi, and followed the three of them like walking a dog.

Entering Tongguan, the first time they saw Wang Zheng, the three of them were originally determined, but in a blink of an eye, they all wilted like cucumbers that have been drained.Wang Zheng looked at them, wanted to laugh but couldn't make a sound.

"What? Am I Yan Luo? When you see me, you are half dead?"

"Hey, Lieutenant Wang, Captain Hu and Captain Zhang are both seriously injured, and now we've got your tongue back. Let's rest for a few days, okay?"

"to make."

Wang Zheng asked someone to take the prisoners away, and when he turned around and looked at them again, he wanted to laugh.But the more he looked at it, the more he couldn't laugh.How could these three people be the three high-spirited soldiers before they left?Their current appearance, not to mention pretending to be hungry people, or real hungry people, is not as miserable as them.

The bandage on Zhang Zhi's arm had already been stained gray-black by sweat and mud, and there was still a bit of scarlet in that gray-black.It was even worse for Hu Jiuzhang. He was sitting on a stretcher with too many wounds on his body, so he had to be temporarily tied up with cloth strips through his clothes.Even so, he still had several wounds on his upper body, which were still oozing blood.As for Zhao Xiaoyang, he was in good spirits, only the area around his waist was also heavily stained with blood, and it must have been seriously injured.

These three people were all dark and thin, their bodies were dirty, mixed with dried blood clots and mud, and there was not a single piece of good meat visible all over their bodies.Even Wang Zheng couldn't imagine how much determination they made and how much pain they endured before they dragged their bodies and walked over eighty miles of mountain roads to bring the captives back.

"Hey...you go to the military doctor for treatment, and I'll report to Shangfeng right away, so you can rest assured and wait for the reward!"

Before Wang Zheng left, he smiled in relief.Soldiers, isn't that the case?Fortunately, people are back now.As long as people can live, it is better than anything else.

Even after returning to the camp, the three of them are now like conjoined twins, walking together wherever they go.Zhao Xiaoyang and Zhang Zhi supported Hu Jiuzhang, one on the left and the other on the right, and reported to the military doctor.

They have gone through the mountain roads outside for more than ten days, and now they are in front of the military doctor, but these three can't stand it anymore.When Zhao Xiaoyang was treating the wound, he screamed in pain. The scream was like killing a pig, and it could be heard hundreds of meters away from the barracks.Zhang Zhi and Hu Jiuzhang, two veterans, were very calm. Zhang Zhi's arm was completely useless, and the military doctor told him to cut it off. Zhang Zhi sat in front of the berth and didn't answer for a long time.

They all know what it means to have an arm amputated.

After a long time, Zhang Zhi raised his head.But his face is not bitter, but a kind of relaxation from the heart, mixed with some helplessness.

"Cut it off."

This taciturn tall man, even at this time, behaved calmly.

"I'll be discharged from the army when the wound heals." He said lightly, not knowing whether he was targeting Hu Jiuzhang and Zhao Xiaoyang, or the family in his heart that could never be cut off or let go.

"If there is no war in the future...you can all come to Zezhou to find me. My family lives in Gaoping, Zezhou. Our sliced ​​noodles are delicious. When you come, I will keep enough to feed you."

"No war? When can we stop fighting..."

Hu Jiuzhang was lying on the bunk opposite Zhang Zhi, and the military doctor was applying medicine to his body. The medicine touched the wound surface, and it was hot, but the pain was insignificant to Hu Jiuzhang.

"One year later? Two years later? The longest and the longest, three years later. I don't believe that when I return from the Northwest of the Tang Dynasty, I won't be able to kill such a group of Xiaoxiao!"

"Three years? That's something to bear."

Zhao Xiaoyang didn't cry at this time, but lay on the other side of the bunk and pouted.

"Why, if you don't want to fight, you can just leave the army." Hu Jiuzhang looked sideways.He actually wanted Zhao Xiaoyang to quit right now.After all, Zhao Xiaoyang's two efforts, along the way, hasn't he seen enough?If this kid really went to the battlefield and survived the battle, it would be his luck.

"I'll quit? I really want to." Zhao Xiaoyang opened his mouth, eyes full of discomfort.

"I retired, and I can't even eat. Do I want to escape into the mountains and become a savage?"

"But if you can live as a savage, wouldn't that be great?" The military doctor who was administering medicine to Hu Jiuzhang asked.

"In these days, you can't live long when you go out to fight, but you can't live long if you stay at home. Those aristocratic families have to flee with their families. It is a great gift for us ordinary people to have a bite to eat. Now in the pass, How many people died because of the famine? Why do you want to live a life, marry a wife and have children? Humph, it’s good to be able to live, and I can’t think about those who have what they don’t have.”

After the military doctor finished speaking, everyone in the room was speechless, only a few sighs drifted past the tent.The heavy reality has already been deeply planted in the depths of everyone's heart, lingering and avoiding.I am afraid that only death can completely free people from this unchangeable heavy reality...