After Being Reborn, I became a firefighter again?

Chapter 127: Chapter 84: If your legs don’t work, it’s hard to succeed!

Q: How many firefighters can a dummy knock out of commission?

At least the bright red, chubby one in front of them had already scored three knockouts in 30 minutes.

Thirty minutes, just six rounds.

Fang Huai and two new recruits were already leaning on their lower backs gasping for air, no longer caring who had run an extra two hundred or four hundred meters; they just didn’t want to touch that faceless dummy that seemed to be laughing at them.

In those thirty minutes, Fang Huai had deeply felt the prowess of the Provincial Special Duty Team; of the seven people who had showed up so far, none took longer than 1 minute and 35 seconds.

Within 1 minute 40 seconds is considered excellent performance.

All of them were excellent!

These old soldiers were like showing off, barely setting down their equipment; sometimes they would start running even before the equipment had arrived, forcing them to bite the bullet and rush over, dropping the gear on the ground.

If any of the three had slacked off even a little while carrying stuff, the other two would have been dead tired. freёwebnovel.com

Thankfully, everyone was working hard, not lazy or stupid, trying their best to assist their teammates.

The Cadres seemed to have disappeared somewhere; at the starting line, only an intern platoon leader and a group of non-commissioned officers and first-class soldiers were left.

Seeing the three men who couldn’t straighten their backs, the squad leaders finally started talking to them.

"What are your names, you three?"

The first one toting the dummy spoke first, "Squad Leader... I, my name is Zhong Ruihua."

The speaking second stage officer picked up a clipboard, opened it to take a look, then shook his head.

"This one is not from our Second Squadron."

He then looked to the next one.

The other one said loudly, "Squad Leader, Li Zhongping!"

The squad leader shook his head again and looked towards Fang Huai.

"And you?"

"Reporting to the Squad Leader, my name is Fang Huai," Fang Huai straightened up and caught his breath as he answered.

The squad leader then smiled, pointing at something in the data in hand, and then looked up, "So you’re Fang Huai? The guy who hangs around with two Chiefs of Staff, making videos all over the city squads?"

Fang Huai felt like he was about to get singled out for criticism, but he couldn’t help wanting to laugh.

Chiefs of Staff? Are those with stars on their shoulders from the government agency also called Chiefs of Staff?

Operational training and fire prevention are handled by Chiefs of Staff; personnel from political and propaganda are called Cadres!

But as soon as he spoke, Fang Huai yielded very frankly, "Yes, Squad Leader!"

It was silly to get tangled up with him on this topic.

The next question of blame immediately followed.

"What are you doing running around outside instead of focusing on training? Do you find the outside fun?" the squad leader prodded.

"Reporting to the Squad Leader! Our squad leader sent me out! He said to do my job well and support the propaganda efforts! To earn honors for the company!" Fang Huai spoke out loud.

Fang Huai’s knack for dealing with people came back online immediately.

Saying the Cadres sent him, or the regimental commander, or even the vice commander of the provincial team would not do.

Only saying the squad leader sent him was the right answer.

Whatever the squad leader asked me to do, I did, and as a new recruit, obeying the squad leader couldn’t be wrong, right?

And as for bringing honor, you couldn’t overstate the unit’s importance; the biggest it could get was the new recruit company. If he mentioned the regiment, they would think he was a fool, overestimating himself.

"Hmm..." the squad leader gave a grunt of two parts satisfaction.

The intern platoon leader with a single stripe then whispered something to the squad leader.

The squad leader immediately frowned, "You’re here by the Regimental Commander’s arrangements? Do you have relatives in the Detachment?"

Fang Huai was momentarily stunned.

You guys don’t know?

Do I need to brag again about my uncle? Surely not, right?

The Special Duty Squad is definitely a deputy regiment-level unit; the news couldn’t be that disconnected, but it made sense that the Second Squadron, being a subordinate squadron, wouldn’t know.

"Reporting to the Squad Leader, yes!"

Fang Huai was too lazy to keep it a secret, let them think what they wanted.

A nearby first period non-commissioned officer said in a half-mocking tone, "Someone like you with talent should work at the Detachment."

"Reporting to the Squad Leader, I don’t know! It was our squad leader who asked me if I wanted to join Special Duty! I said I did!" Fang Huai feigned a bewildered state, his facial expression saying only one thing: Ah Sir, I don’t understand a word you’re saying?

"Your squad leader, is that Hao Chengbin?" the officer added.

Fang Huai then took another look at his epaulets.

Slowly he said, "Reporting, it’s ’Squad Leader’ Hao!"

He emphasized the words "Squad Leader" a bit more.

You, a first term non-commissioned officer, directly referring to a third term non-commissioned officer by name? Too awesome for your own good.

The group of old soldiers clearly heard the tone of Fang Huai’s words and laughed quietly, exchanging glances. They didn’t say much.

The first period officer, reminded by Fang Huai’s words, held back and was about to speak when he was interrupted by the second stage officer holding the training manual.

"Enough, you three, hurry to the training tower! Tell them to arrange another group to come here now!"

"Yes!" Fang Huai turned and left, with the other two new recruits jogging away.

Watching their departing backs, the second stage officer finally turned to the first term officer and said:

"Liu Jianfeng, that’s a soldier brought up by ’Squad Leader’ Hao. Watch your words next time."

Liu Jianfeng immediately expressed his dissatisfaction:

"I just don’t like him, so what? He becomes an intern platoon leader the moment he arrives!

What about Squad Leader Fang? In what way is he inferior?

All of us in the lower squad were led by Squad Leader Fang! We agreed not to let him come, yet he still did!

And the moment he comes, he’s made an officer! Ha, must be all about who you know, right?"

The second stage officer looked at him coldly, "Why are you griping to me? If you have the guts, go say it to the Captain Instructor!"

Liu Jianfeng just huffed and didn’t speak anymore.

Only then did the second-stage officer begin to arrange things.

"Little Hui! Zhang Yang, go put the dummy back in its place!"

"Yes!"

The two first-class soldiers standing nearby stepped out, looking towards the training tower as they ran towards the dummy not far away, starting to discuss things on the way.

The new recruit named Zhang Yang spat, "Damn, according to Squad Leader Sun, does this new recruit have an old squad leader covering for him?"

Little Hui laughed, "Not only that, didn’t you hear? He has connections in the detachment."

Zhang Yang scoffed disdainfully, "What connections? Doesn’t Chang Ming have connections? Isn’t he still getting messed with like us, wanting to live and die? Only in the second year was he allowed to join the Cooking Squad!"

Little Hui sighed, "It’s nice to have relatives, right? Meng Qiang went to the Communication Squad, Chang Ming to the Cooking Squad, and just the two of us... tell me, when the new recruits come down, won’t they let us manage them?"

Zhang Yang laughed as he reached the dummy, "Definitely! When we were new recruits, weren’t we led by first-class soldiers?

Meng Qiang, Chang Ming, heh heh.

When the time comes, we can also lead new recruits in training, huh, let them envy us!"

...

It was only when Fang Huai arrived at the training tower that he realized that the situation here wasn’t as good as he had imagined.

The First Squadron, which was doing load-bearing climbing in the training tower, was storming up one after another, with two stopwatches, one halfway up, the next one already on the way.

The whole building was filled with the sound of hitting water hose connections.

The tenth floor, ah.

Through the training tower windows, Fang Huai saw new recruits running down with two coils of hoses in hand.

One dry hose, 7 kilograms, two hoses weighing close to 30 pounds.

For the load-bearing climbing event, firefighters must wear the whole set of firefighting combat suits, carry an air respirator, and rush up to the tenth floor with two coils of hoses as quickly as possible.

Even if there is no oxygen in the air respirator cylinders, the total weight is no less than 60 pounds.

The more awesome guys can bite a 7-kilogram hose in their mouths or carry two coils with one arm, leaving one hand free to grab the stairs, assisting the climb.

The old soldiers of the First Squadron threw the two coils of hoses on the ground upon reaching the rooftop, and the new recruits were responsible for bringing them down.

The seven new recruits had hardly any chance to rest, continuously going up and down the stairs, which was tough.

The key issue was that the new recruits’ speed while lightly carrying the two coils of hoses down was even slower than the old soldiers climbing up.

There are two staircases in the training tower, the old soldiers take the external steel staircases up, while the new recruits go down the stairs inside the training tower.

As Fang Huai climbed to the rooftop, he kept hearing the countdown from above.

"56 seconds!"

"1 minute 12 seconds! What are you doing! So slow!"

"Damn, I got caught by the stairs on the seventh floor! Almost fell! I’ll run again in a bit!"

"49 seconds! Under 50!!"

"Damn! It’s Squad Leader Liu again! Awesome!"

"1 minute 22 seconds! Lian Qing! Look at your score! Your brother Lian Xu is so awesome, why are you so weak?! During the Martial Arts Competition, did you even dare to speak to your brother?"

Fang Huai was astonished all the way up.

Damn, even 1 minute 22 seconds was considered slow.

I, in my best days, had a time of 1 minute 40 plus! The first time climbing the tower, I was done by the seventh floor!

I’m screwed.

I only remembered from my past as a new recruit, when I was tormented on the bar, and it was so tough during Evening Exercise doing push-ups; all emphasis was on developing the arms and waist first, but the legs... are important too!

He had neglected one thing: he had been to a city squadron before!

The county squadrons had poor conditions, focusing more on pure physical training, whereas the city squadrons saw more frequent leadership inspections and practiced more comprehensive subjects.

Arms from the county squadron, legs from the city squadron!

Today’s subjects, all of them require full-body strength! Leg strength is the most important!

Hopefully the improvement of core strength can also drive the legs a bit!

Otherwise, it will be really tough to finish five kilometers in under 20 minutes.

At least for these firefighting-specific subjects, scoring high, difficult!

To stand out in the Special Duty Team, even more difficult!

As soon as Fang Huai and his group reached the rooftop, they saw a group of cadres smoking and chatting on the roof.

The captain who had given them a lecture earlier saw the three of them come up and immediately said to the new recruits waiting on the roof to receive the hoses:

"Good, you three, go to the training field, help out over there!"

The three new recruits originally on the rooftop were all somewhat out of breath, and upon hearing this, they were relieved and ready to go downstairs, to the training field.

Fang Huai turned his head and saw.

Damn, Brother Yong is here too!

He quickly said, "Report, sir! That... Han Yong is not very good at physical fitness! If he assists, it might delay their training! Their group... add someone else please!"

Letting Han Yong and these three go would totally wreck the other two, right?

To his surprise, before the cadre could respond, Brother Yong seemed a bit unhappy.

"Report! I can do it!" he said.

The captain looked at Han Yong, the fattest one sweating profusely, obviously the most struggling of them all, and frowned:

"Fine, then your group, go downstairs and see which new recruit is below, add one person and go!"

Han Yong walked away somewhat resentfully.

Fang Huai watched his back and couldn’t help shaking his head.

Brother, once you’re over there, you’ll know how good I’ve been to you!

While he was thinking, a voice came from behind.

"Kid, are you Fang Huai?"