Chapter 144: Chapter 143: Another Meritorious Deed, An Accident, and a Proposal

Nowadays, Ling Chengyan no longer personally goes to bring in goods. Liu San and Gouzi handle it, only they now do all wholesale and no retail.

Seeing Wang Lianfa doing business quite well, Ling Chengyan directly told him to get goods from Liu San. For their business, Liu San and Gouzi rented a small courtyard in Huicheng last summer as a warehouse and wholesale point. It’s hidden among residential houses and hard to find without an introduction.

Each family was busy with their own affairs. Time flew by quickly, just after the New Year, and in the blink of an eye, the Lantern Festival had passed, and January was gone.

The weather gradually warmed, and the tasks for the year increased steadily.

Ling Chengyan went to the hospital for a check-up, obtained the doctor’s report to cancel her leave at the company, and then resumed long-distance trips.

Last year, the mission during which she was injured finally reached a conclusion, uncovering a major local robbery case. The investigation results were shocking, involving several nearby villages, over a hundred people, with robberies in excess of a hundred instances. The value of the stolen goods was huge, and there were also casualties.

In mid-February, the Huicheng Division held a commendation meeting to recognize outstanding personnel from the latter half of 1979. Ling Chengyan and Zhao Dahu were both on the commendation list. Ling Chengyan was awarded a third-class merit again, while Zhao Dahu received a commendation.

Just as the deputy company commander of the Automobile Company was transferred, Ling Chengyan naturally stepped in and was promoted to the position, still holding the post of platoon leader of the third platoon.

All the new trucks were in the third platoon, so the long-distance trips outside the province were all handled by the third platoon.

Ling Chengyan organized all the personnel in the third platoon for studying, focusing not only on policy regulations and technical theory but also on the precautions for long-distance trips, sharing various experiences from their long-distance trips to learn from each other and avoid repeating mistakes.

The first and second platoons laughed at the third platoon, saying they were wasting their time with struggle meetings.

Not a few days into March, Ling Chengyan received a task to go to the Three Eastern Provinces, a trip lasting half a month.

This time, she brought along Zhang Wanxiang. Two people, two trucks.

Heading north, it was still the season of snow and ice. The task time limit wasn’t tight, so the two traveled by day, rested by night, encountering no severe weather, and returned to Huicheng smoothly after twelve days.

Upon getting out of the vehicle, she immediately heard that something had happened.

Two old soldiers from the second platoon were on a long-distance trip within the province. Due to the urgency of the task, they were required to return overnight. On their return journey, after loading their cargo, they encountered a fellow villager pulling a cart, asking for help, saying someone fell from the mountain and urgently needed to be taken to the hospital.

These two veterans assumed they were too experienced to believe there was really an injured person and drove straight through, knocking aside the cart blocking the road… However, this time, they encountered a real villager who was injured. By driving away, they failed to rescue the severely injured person in time and also injured a villager pulling the cart.

One dead, one injured—this was an extremely serious accident.

The two had been enlisted for nearly five years, both with good prospects for conversion to regular soldiers. However, their futures were completely ruined, and they were sentenced—one for eight years, the other for five years.

This incident cast a gloomy and oppressive atmosphere over the entire Automobile Company. Many felt sympathetic toward the two elder soldiers: who would have thought that in the middle of the night, there would actually be an injured person?

Moreover, encounters with roadblocks and highway robbers weren’t uncommon. Few dared to stop and help an unknown person in the middle of the night.

Being at the grassroots level and going out with the automobile soldiers, Ling Chengyan understood more and actively approached the instructor Wu Yushu to report the situation.

Wu Yushu, who usually had a smile on his face, looked serious, slightly furrowing his brow and sighing: “The company commander and I have also noticed the sentiment among the comrades, but for the moment, we haven’t thought of a good solution…”

Ling Chengyan had a different perspective: “For long-distance trips or urgent overnight returns within the province, shouldn’t we consider adding a security officer to accompany the vehicle?”

For long-distance trips outside the province, the vehicle was equipped with weapons, but not for provincial trips. Also, without security personnel, it’s hard for automobile soldiers to drive and handle weapons simultaneously. Not to mention, it’s rare to find someone like Ling Chengyan who could use hearing and experience to detect hidden enemies and successfully strike back. At least, there was no second person like her in Huicheng Division’s Automobile Company.

Unable to protect their own safety, they naturally didn’t dare to casually stop or get out. This made it inevitable to drive on when facing roadblocks or even barrel through them.

Wu Yushu furrowed his brow even more, paused for a moment, and said: “I will discuss this with the company commander. If feasible, we will seek higher approval.”

Ling Chengyan continued: “Moreover, we should enhance the soldiers’ combat training. With stronger combat abilities, they can better protect themselves and fundamentally reduce the occurrence of accidents.”

This time, Wu Yushu nodded decisively: “This suggestion is excellent. I will discuss it with the company commander and arrange it promptly.”

The company commander and instructor had effective execution; a day later, they organized the automotive soldiers not on duty to intensify their physical and shooting practice.

Also, they re-evaluated the slots for long-distance trips. Only those who passed the evaluation could do long-distance trips. Those with lower scores could only operate within the province, and those who didn’t pass were directly suspended from driving tasks.

This measure naturally drew a lot of resentment and protest, and there were many grumblings.

In the evening, when Ling Chengyan organized the third platoon’s study session, she thoroughly explained this matter to them. She told them that the company commander and instructor cared for the soldiers and implemented these protective measures to prevent more accidents. By strengthening their physical and shooting abilities, they wouldn’t have to fear when encountering situations. They could stop the vehicle to check and make a sound judgment on whether there was indeed an injured person, thus avoiding misjudgments and grave consequences.

Of course, an important point was that comrades didn’t need to fear any danger when stopping—there were few people who owned weapons in the community.

Weapons naturally had a deterrent effect; ordinary people wouldn’t dare to confront them directly.

After hearing this explanation, the third platoon’s resistance lessened, and they became much more proactive and enthusiastic about training. As a result, their training outcomes were noticeably better than those of the first and second platoons. All the vehicles for long-distance trips passed the training evaluation flawlessly, and no one from the third platoon was disqualified for failing to qualify, nor was anyone stopped from driving due to non-qualification.

With the company’s work sorted out, Ling Chengyan also felt much more at ease.

One day, she made a trip to the Sea Defense Post and detoured to the sea market to buy some fish, shrimp, and crabs.

Crabs were delicious but were overly cooling, so she didn’t dare to send them to her second sister-in-law. She only took some fish and shrimp over to them. These rare fresh seafood could also provide some nutrition to the pregnant woman.

As a result, when Ling Chengyan arrived at the small yard where her second cousin and his wife lived, carrying a bag of fish and shrimp, she knocked on the door for quite a while but got no answer.

“Are you looking for the people who used to live here? They moved out, a few days ago,” said a big sister from the neighboring house, who happened to be leaving and kindly gave her some insight.

“Big sister, do you know where they moved to?” Ling Chengyan asked.

The woman shook her head: “We don’t know either. That couple didn’t really interact with the neighbors. They left quietly, and it was only yesterday, when someone from the street office came to check on the migrants, that we realized they had moved out.”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep