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Climb the mountains

■Ocean

The sun was blazing, and the ground was like a big steamer, seemingly able to steam and roast everything. The heat wave hit, and the camouflage uniform was already soaked with sweat. I moved my toes slightly and felt that my combat boots were also full of sweat.

Illustration: Jiang Chen

At this point, I had been lying in the bushes for more than 30 minutes. The long-term unchanged posture made me feel indescribably uncomfortable. However, no one knew when the target would appear, let alone how long I had to wait here.

I glanced at the sniper Wang Yibo next to me. He was sweating like me, and I didn't even know when a bug quietly crawled onto his face. This young man in his 20s seemed to be unaware of the hot weather and the mosquito bites, and his eyes were fixed on the front.

"Here they come!" In the distance, several figures vaguely appeared in the grass as tall as a person. When I saw the target appear, my heart suddenly rose to my throat.

I thought the moment of the gunshot was about to come, however, in the following time, Wang Yibo kept aiming, closing his eyes, and aiming again... the action was repeated over and over again.

Time passed by minute by minute, and waiting made the time seem long. The target appeared and disappeared in the grass, and was about to disappear from sight. My inner anxiety was like this rolling heat wave.

If you don't shoot now, you will have no chance! Just when I was wondering, suddenly, a gunshot rang out, and wisps of smoke came out of the target. Wang Yibo took a deep breath, then picked up the shell and quietly left the "battlefield" with me.

"Why did you hesitate just now?" I asked out my doubts when we got back to the campsite.

Wang Yibo smiled shyly and told me that this was his first time to appear on the "battlefield" as a sniper and that he was not experienced enough. "I will not hesitate at all next time and I will definitely perform better."

A few years ago, when Wang Yibo learned that the group army was about to organize a sniper training, he resolutely decided to sign up for the reason he said: "I want to be a sniper who can kill the enemy with one shot and has a dashing and heroic demeanor."

The ideal is good, but starting from scratch across disciplines and fields is an extremely difficult journey that everyone can imagine.

Just when Wang Yibo had just entered the training camp, a lot of theoretical knowledge, operational skills, and shooting methods that he had never been exposed to came one after another, making him feel the pressure and gap.

Starting from scratch, learning from scratch, starting from primary school. Facing unfamiliar knowledge and skills, Wang Yibo was determined to overcome this difficult mountain.

When training with a gun, he hung a water bottle on the barrel of the gun. Even if his arms were so numb that they were shaking, he gritted his teeth and held on for as long as he could. When practicing concentration, he prepared a small desk lamp and practiced "threading a needle with a grain of rice" in a dim environment until late at night. When memorizing professional knowledge, he carried a theoretical notebook with him and took it out to recite whenever he had time...

No one is better than anyone else, only who works harder. With his persistence day and night, the sniper "rookie" made rapid progress, and his comrades in the training team couldn't help but give him a thumbs up. However, the standard of an excellent sniper is not so easy to achieve, and there are higher peaks on the other side of the mountain.

When Wang Yibo saw a teammate score close to full rings, he realized that rapid progress meant that his starting point was low. He still has a long way to go from a sniper to an excellent sniper and a gold medal sniper.

In the days that followed, Wang Yibo charged towards higher goals. Carrying heavy loads, prone position with a gun, extreme challenges... No matter what the subject was, he would always practice a little more than others. When he encountered a problem, he would always use theoretical knowledge to deduce and solve it. If he couldn't solve it, he would run to the coach to get to the bottom of it. Every time he shot live ammunition, he would record the bullet's impact point in detail, so as to reversely deduce the problem he had when shooting...

Time soon came to the final assessment of the sniper training team. Wang Yibo squinted his eyes, held his breath, and stared into the distance motionlessly.

"Bang, bang, bang..." The sound of gunfire echoed in the valley. When everything returned to silence, Wang Yibo won the first place in this training camp with excellent results, and finally realized his dream of becoming an excellent sniper.

Looking back on that time, Wang Yibo made people feel like a steed, galloping tirelessly through the mountains, crossing one mountain after another...

Night falls, and the moonlight shines on the earth. Looking up, the sky above the mountains and forests is extremely bright. Wang Yibo holds his sniper rifle, looking at the stars in the sky, and his mind is already aiming at the next target.

(This article was published in the "Long March Supplement" of the "People's Liberation Army Daily" on August 9, 2024)

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Editor: Su Pei