Reborn in 1977

Chapter 288: True Skill

A dozen or so minutes later, with Zhang Wenliang’s miserable scream, the contest ended.

Chen Fan emerged from the woods, cheerfully taking the two handguns from Xiao Liewen’s hands, and slung the temporary rifle over his shoulder, looking around as he said, "Captain, where’s the shooting range? I’m going to fire a few rounds."

A militia training session only happens once a quarter. If I don't take this opportunity to shoot to my heart's content, how can I justify running over here with such effort?!

Xiao Liewen looked at him with a strange expression, "Don't go yet, wait for San Huzi to come out before we talk."

Chen Fan quickly covered the handguns, staring at him with wide eyes, "You're not going to go back on your word, are you?"

Xiao Liewen said unhappily, "I've already given you the guns, how can I go back on my word?"

Then he explained, "As the judge, I need to summarize your competition, and also San Huzi, how he lost, where he lost, and how to improve next time? These things need to be clearly summarized, otherwise what's the point of our training? Just to pull you out here to play with guns?"

Hearing this, Chen Fan chuckled and kept silent.

It's just waiting a little while, he can afford to wait. Anyway, today no one can stop him from firing off two magazines!

Before long, Zhang Wenliang emerged from the woods, clutching his head, his face still contorted in pain, immediately drawing laughter from many around him.

"Company Commander, were you stung by a bee, or bitten by a bug?"

"It must have been a bee sting. Flowers are everywhere in the spring, and bees need to collect nectar. When it saw our company commander looking like a flower, how could it let him go?!"

As soon as these words came out, there was another burst of laughter.

Zhang Wenliang waved his hand repeatedly, "Get lost, get lost, all of you get to the side. Are you done with your training? If not, don't run around. Today's training will be doubled."

The militiamen whose training volume was doubled were not at all aware of being punished, each of them laughing and leaning this way and that.

Zhang Wenliang was too lazy to continue paying attention to them. After climbing onto the levee, he glared at Chen Fan and said, "What kind of sorcery are you using? I didn't even see you, and I got hit on the head by a stone?"

Chen Fan chuckled, took out a quail egg-sized pebble from his pocket, waved it at him, and then pointed to a tree branch not far away, "That branch with two flowers on it, see it?"

Zhang Wenliang looked in the direction he pointed, then looked at him, "I see it, so what?"

Chen Fan smiled, "Tell me, do you want the bigger flower, or the smaller flower?"

Zhang Wenliang's eyes darted slightly, pointing to the branch, "I want both flowers, and the branch too."

Without another word, Chen Fan flicked his wrist, and the branch snapped and fell down.

Zhang Wenliang's eyes widened when he saw this, turning to look at him, "Where did you learn this skill?"

Xiao Liewen also looked at Chen Fan with a surprised expression, "When did you learn this?"

Chen Fan chuckled, "It was the last time I went hunting, at Team 9, I met Master Peng who used to work for the provincial hunting team. Master Peng is an old hunter, he knows the forest like the back of his hand, not to mention he's good with a bow and arrow, he also has a knack for slinging stones, I learned it from him."

After a pause, he looked at the mountain forest again, and said, "Captain, didn't you want to summarize the experience? My experience is using the hunting methods taught by Master Peng to find which places are the easiest for animals to appear."

Seeing that Zhang Wenliang's face had turned dark, he couldn't help but chuckle, "Applied to people, it's about seeing which positions people are most likely to choose, and then using hunting thinking to find a position where I can see you, but you can't see me, and finally using a stone to deliver a fatal blow."

Speaking of this, Chen Fan tossed the stone in his hand, "Just now I only used 30% of my strength to ensure I wouldn't hurt you…"

Zhang Wenliang covered his head, speechless, but he also admitted that what Chen Fan said was true. This stone hitting his head really hurt, but that was it. At most, he'd get a big bump, which might disappear tomorrow.

Chen Fan continued, "If I used 50% of my strength, your head would be bleeding right now. If I used full strength, you would definitely be dead. And this is just using a stone. If I used a bow and arrow, you would die even faster."

Zhang Wenliang felt a little creeped out, "Don't always talk about death, okay?"

Chen Fan laughed and said, "Don't you have a lot of weasels there? As long as you don't mind, give me a few weasel skins, and I'll make you a backpack. Why use guns to gamble?"

Hearing this, Zhang Wenliang immediately grinned, not even feeling the pain in his head anymore. He immediately stretched out his right hand, palm open, "Then give me back the gun."

Chen Fan immediately covered it, "Gambling integrity reveals character. How can you ask for it back after losing?"

Zhang Wenliang looked dejected, wishing he could slap himself.

Xiao Liewen looked at the mountain forest thoughtfully. After the two of them finished joking, he said to Chen Fan with a serious expression, "Are you saying that you're applying hunting skills to the battlefield?"

Chen Fan turned to look at him, nodded, and said, "Yes, isn't that what you said? As long as it's useful, any skill can be used."

Xiao Liewen nodded slowly, then said to Zhang Wenliang, "Take note, talk to the people from Team 9 later to see what that Master Peng usually does. If it's appropriate, you go to Team 9 yourself tomorrow and bring Master Peng over. We'll chat with him together."

Zhang Wenliang immediately understood, "You want him to teach our militiamen how to fight in the mountains?"

Xiao Liewen shook his head slowly, and smiled softly, "Almost, but not fighting. Hunting and fighting are still very different after all."

He looked at Chen Fan again, "The reason why Little Chen was able to defeat you so quickly is because he understands both hunting skills and individual combat skills. Most importantly, he can integrate the two skills, which is his ability. But he's still lacking, because he doesn't understand team tactics."

"I'm asking you to invite Master Peng over to teach our militiamen how to hunt, and then you need to pay attention to how to combine this hunting skill with our individual combat skills and team tactics. In this way, it will definitely be of great help in improving the combat effectiveness of our militia."

After he finished speaking, Zhang Wenliang nodded without hesitation, "I understand, I'll take care of it later."

He turned to look at the Flower-mouth Luger on Chen Fan's waist, and smiled, "If we can use this gun to improve the combat effectiveness of the militia, it's worth it."

Then he smiled at Chen Fan, "I have a brand new Type 56 rifle there, do you want to play again?"

Chen Fan looked at him speechlessly, "Playing again would be the same old way. You break my old way first."

After a pause, he said disdainfully, "The Type 56 is a rifle, and I can't own a rifle. What would I do with your gun? Please find something useful next time, okay?"

Zhang Wenliang's face fell, "Hey, I'm being looked down upon."

Chen Fan turned to Xiao Liewen and asked, "Captain, is there anything else?"

Xiao Liewen waved his hand, "No, go play with your gun."

Chen Fan immediately ran away with the rifle, firing a volley at the target on the shooting range.

The surrounding militiamen, including the nearby female communications soldiers, quickly ran away.

Good heavens, not a single bullet landed on the target, this is too dangerous.

Seeing this scene, Chen Fan revealed a smug smile.

Hmph, common mortals, how could you understand my unique 'edge-tracing gunmanship'.

Edge-tracing gunmanship points where it aims, just not on the target!

… …

The next day, May 4th.

Today, the entire Lujiawan, no, the entire Nanhai Commune was in a frenzy.

The reason is simple, a movie is going to be shown in Lujiawan Team 10!

Chen Fan looked at Xiao Liewen, his face full of suspicion, "Even the other brigades, even the neighboring communes, would run over to watch a movie? That's too much, right?!"

Before Xiao Liewen could speak, Ye Shubao said, "What's too much? You don't understand the appeal of movies."

He crossed his legs and smoked, his eyes full of reminiscence, "The first time I watched a movie was more than 20 years ago, and the movies back then had no sound..."

Chen Fan curiously interjected, "They were showing silent movies?"

He remembered that by World War II, sound movies were the mainstream, so 20 years ago, in the 1950s, they were still showing silent movies?

Ye Shubao was interrupted, but he wasn't angry, and instead smiled and said, "What silent movies? It's just that there were no speakers, so even if there was sound, it couldn't be played."

Secretary Yang held his tea mug, a single shirt draped over his shoulders, and grinned, "Back then, speakers and stereos were rare. The projection team only had a projector, no speakers, so naturally no sound could come out.

So the movies we watched back then were like that, no sound, no subtitles, or if there were subtitles, many of the common people couldn't understand them. So what did we do?

That's where the projectionist's skill came in. When the movie was playing, the projectionist had to stand on high and loudly interpret the movie, saying who each person was, where they came from, what they did, and then how the story went, who was good, who was bad, all relying on the projectionist's mouth."

Speaking of this, he picked up his tea mug and took a sip, and Ye Shubao continued his words, "Like that, the people watching the movie were packed in layers, and a large playground couldn't hold them all, and people were standing on the rooftops."

He took a puff of smoke, his face full of excitement, and continued, "The first time we showed a movie with sound was in the mid-1960s, I remember it was in the Bailang Lake Brigade.

That brigade was rich and had free time. When we were busy to death, they had nothing to do, so they found someone to invite the projectionist to show a movie. It just so happened that the projection team was equipped with large speakers at that time, and the movie had sound, so people from several of our brigades ran over to see the novelty."

As he spoke, he turned to look at Captain Zhang, "There must have been several thousand people there that time, right?"

Captain Zhang smoked, chuckled, and smiled, "No one counted, who knows how many there were? Anyway, some said 5,000, some said 8,000, and some even said 10,000. It was dark, a dark mass, and you couldn't see clearly at all."

Tens of thousands of people watching a movie?

Chen Fan tried hard to imagine the scene at that time, and couldn't help but ask, "Could they see the movie?"

Hearing this, Ye Shubao and Captain Zhang both grinned and laughed.

They laughed so hard they couldn't speak, and Xiao Liewen said with a smile, "It would be a ghost if they could see it. That piece of cloth was so small that you couldn't see people's faces beyond 20 zhang. The farthest ones were probably two li away, what could they see? They were just listening to some sounds, just for the novelty."

Chen Fan couldn't help but chuckle when he heard this, but he believed Ye Shubao's statement in his heart.

If they could watch a movie from two li away, then running more than ten li seemed like nothing.

As the few were chatting, Zhang Wenliang suddenly appeared at the door, and behind him was another person, it was Master Peng from the 9th team.

As soon as Chen Fan saw him, he quickly got up to greet him, "Master Peng."

Old Peng raised his hands in a bow, with a bit of restraint on his face, "Hello, Teacher Chen."

Then he looked at the others, "Secretary Yang, Captain Zhang, Captain Xiao, Captain Ye."

Xiao Liewen had already stood up to greet him, reached out and shook Old Peng's hands, and laughed, "Master Peng, we didn't even say hello, and we took the liberty of inviting you over, please don't mind."

Chen Fan stood aside, watching them exchange pleasantries, without saying a word.

At this time, Lin Yuanxiang walked over, carrying a long wooden box in his hand, and gently patted him on the shoulder, "Come out for a moment, I have something to ask you."

Chen Fan was slightly stunned, watching Old Man Lin already go out, so he apologized to Master Peng and quickly followed behind.

Lin Yuanxiang walked unhurriedly to the backyard, and when Chen Fan came over, he handed him the wooden box, and smiled, "This is the thing I promised you."

Chen Fan immediately guessed what it was, took the wooden box with both hands, and opened it to see that it was indeed a saber.

And this was no ordinary saber, it looked quite exquisite in its decoration.

A dark green scabbard, a handle of the same color, with a wire-wrapped handguard below the handle, it looked different from the others at a glance. At the handshake of the scabbard was a section of redwood, and the style of the knife was a typical Western saber.

However, looking at the traces of this saber, it seemed to be quite old?

He looked at Lin Yuanxiang, and just as he was about to ask a question, Lin Yuanxiang put his hands behind his back and said softly, "This is a Japanese cavalry saber, like your Toyo horse, both are spoils of war."

Chen Fan immediately beamed with joy, I love to hear that!

Lin Yuanxiang's words did not stop, "This saber is not ordinary, it was the saber of a Japanese cavalry regiment commander back then. The Japanese cavalry generally used Western sabers, and even the sabers of the three-army officers were Western sabers. It was not until the later stages of the war that they gradually used Toyo sabers as the sabers of the generals, but the main officers of the cavalry did not change, and still used Western sabers.

The Japanese are no good, but the knives they made are indeed good. After one of my friends captured this saber back then, he treasured it very much."

He turned to look at Chen Fan, and suddenly smiled, "Unfortunately, he later lost his life on the northern battlefield, and I used this knife to chop off thirty-seven heads to avenge him."

As soon as Chen Fan heard this, he quickly put the knife back in the box and held it back with both hands, "This is too precious, I can't take it."

This thing can go to a museum, okay? How can he want it?!

Lin Yuanxiang waved his hand, not taking his words, just smiled and said, "My friend has no family, so this saber fell into my hands, and I will give it to you today. The knife was delivered yesterday, and I will leave later. Before I leave, I will teach you something more."

Chen Fan was a little numb for a while, and could only hold the knife and look at him quietly.

Lin Yuanxiang smiled and said, "After fighting with me for so many days, you should have learned everything you should learn, right?"

Chen Fan nodded with a slightly embarrassed smile, "Thank you, Old Man Lin."

The moves he used to fight back were all learned from him, it would be strange if he wasn't seen through.

Lin Yuanxiang smiled, and continued, "Actually, everything I taught you, I have already left in the army. The inheritance I told you before is not these things."

Chen Fan was stunned, what does that mean?

Lin Yuanxiang laughed, "The real test for you is not going abroad, but the network of relationships that I deliberately told you about. If you are moved, the fate between our grandfather and grandson will end here."

He looked at the wooden box in Chen Fan's hand with a complicated expression, "This knife will never reach your hands either."

Then he raised his right hand and pointed at him, and smiled, "My real skills, I won't tell you either."

After a pause, he stretched his muscles and bones, "My skills, ordinary people can't learn, so many good seedlings in the army, none of them have learned it, and I won't just casually teach it to others. You kid is good, today I will leave the last bit of things to you."

He looked at the dazed Chen Fan, and smiled, "Don't worry, I don't want you to become a disciple, and there are no requirements, just one, learn this skill, don't let it be cut off."