A graduate student who graduated from a prestigious foreign university, not engaged in finance or civil servants, but went to the Syrian battlefield as a mercenary. This seemingly fantastic story actually happened to a Sichuan boy named 肖然 .
Why didn't he travel so far away, and why did he make a puzzling career choice despite the danger? Before we want to figure out all this, let's talk about what a "mercenary" is.
A mercenary, as the name implies, is a special unit. Refers to armed personnel who participate in war for the purpose of money. It is a group or individual who participates in an armed conflict for profit. Generally speaking, the purpose of a mercenary's participation in war is just to sell his life for money. As long as the opponent's bid is high enough, he can be hired by anyone.
mercenary
working for money , this is the most direct reason for Xiao Ran to go to Syria. But from the experience that Xiao Ran has participated in countless battles since he was sent to Iraq in 2008, and finally played the rules of the battlefield thoroughly, Xiao Ran's reasons for becoming a mercenary are far more than that.
The desperate work in the eyes of others fell into Xiao Ran's hands, more like a game. And this feeling had been foreshadowed as early as his childhood.
In 1982, Xiao Ran was born in an ordinary family in Sichuan, China. Like other boys of the same age, his favorite thing to do in his free time is to play video games.
Xiao Ran is a brave child by nature. He likes novel things and pursues excitement. As a result, the war game , which made adrenaline soaring, became his favorite. Coincidentally, this type of game is often used to set the city-state of Iraq as the background of the game.
In the game clearance time after time, Xiao Ran has killed his opponent countless times. At the same time, he also developed a great interest in the way of life of Iraqi soldiers on the battlefield.
War Game
However, before becoming a professional "mercenary", Xiao Ran never thought of "fighting" as a career, he put all his mind on his studies. After completing his undergraduate studies in China, he went to University of Glasgow in the United Kingdom to take a postgraduate course in international politics.
At that time, his biggest dream was to work for a world-renowned financial giant company, to become a tie-in, suit-wearing mall elite, and it is best to have a group of subordinates behind him.
But no one can predict the fate of the arrangement. When he was about to graduate, Xiao Ran, who had always grown up smoothly, suddenly fell into an unprecedented situation of confusion. The plan to find a job was delayed, and his parents urged him to go home to take a civil service examination. After he was used to the field abroad, he almost lost his expectations for his life.
Seeing Xiao Ran getting depressed, a teacher who was close to Xiao Ran couldn't bear it, so he offered him a special job opportunity. Although the company is not the financial company Xiao Ran dreams of, it is also a large multinational company, that is, the famous defense company in the UK.
Mercenary
If you are curious what kind of company this is? Then we have to look back to the 2003 Iraq war . After the war broke out, although the U.S. military quickly won victory,At the same time, he plunged himself into a war quagmire that was difficult to get out of.
The continuous war has caused millions of civilians to die in the conflict and tens of millions of refugees have been displaced. The international community and the United States have therefore generated a lot of dissatisfaction with the actions of the US military. Under such high pressure of public opinion, the US government is deeply troubled, and they are eager to find a "scapegoat."
As a result, Paul Bremer, the first "Governor" of the United States in Iraq, issued a decree in 2004, stipulating that foreign military contractors (ie, "mercenaries") in Iraq do not have to bear legal responsibility in their operations. In this way, the "mercenary" business has gradually transformed into a legal private military enterprise or security company, contracting foreign businesses with a new type of "war service industry".
The main business of the British Aegis Defense Company is to train foreign mercenaries with high military quality, low cost, and no political risk for the Middle East battlefield.
Iraq
In 2008, the 25-year-old Xiao Ran became a reserve "mercenary" in 2008. It was not until he participated in the initial training that he finally realized that the direction of things seemed to be developing. It's kind of weird.
The company's newly recruited employees except him are all retired veterans of the British special forces . Among a group of muscular men, Xiao Ran's abdominal muscles seem so vulnerable.
All this was completely beyond Xiao Ran's expectations, but the unique excitement and mystery of the mercenary life completely netted Xiao Ran's heart. After careful consideration, he readily chose to obey the fate of the arrangement, and entered the career path of mercenary by mistake.
The training content arranged by the company for them can be described as omnipresent.Including: tactical strategy, ideological intelligence analysis, security defense, residential defense, vehicle protection, etc.
In his own words: "This knowledge may not be used by ordinary people for a lifetime, but as us, there are actually quite a lot of opportunities to use. After you learn it, there is one more thing to protect your life. "
It's just that Xiao Ran didn't expect that the opportunity to apply what he learned came so quickly. After a short "pre-job training", he and a group of teammates were immediately sent to the battlefield of in Iraq.
Iraq
The mercenary team where Xiao Ran is in has a famous slogan, "Near a hundred meters to kill it" . means: if you come in, I will fire two shots at the sky to warn you not to come, if you are still accelerating, then there is no discussion, I will definitely shoot at your cab.
Unlike previous virtual wars in video games, there are only real guns and real lives. A small bullet is enough to disperse any character, and there is no chance for to "resurrect with full blood" .
Fortunately, Xiao Ran understood this truth before he had time to experience a gunfight.
After arriving in Iraq, Xiao Ran often went to the Gun and Rose Bar in the Green Zone of Baghdad, Iraq with his comrades, to drink and chat. Because according to the prohibition of alcohol in Islamic countries, bars can only be opened within the green zone, and the Gun and Rose Bar has become a gathering place for intelligence personnel and military personnel from various countries.
There is one of the most unpopular sounds in the bar, that is the sound of the cup being tapped . Because every time this sound sounds, it means that someone will share with you the unfortunate news of "Where did the accident happen again, who was attacked, and whose car was blown up by the enemy".
Iraq
The fledgling Xiao Ran experienced the first two deaths here. One day, the news of the death of two acquaintances was brought along with the ringing of the cup. The two had obviously been drinking and chatting with everyone in the bar the night before. No one expected that they would die the next day.
One of the people died because he was accidentally blown up by a bomb car while standing on the side of the road, killing him innocently. The other person was found by the U.S. military when the car broke down halfway to repair the car. The U.S. military saw him not only wearing a complete suit but also holding a gun. They thought he was an anti-government militant and beat him to death. NS.
announcements like this are performed almost every day in the Gun and Rose Bar, and experienced veterans have become accustomed to it. But for Xiao Ran, it was a cruel reality that was unacceptable. The novelty in his heart because of the first time he got a real gun was instantly extinguished.
But in any case, listening to other people's stories is not as exciting as one's own experience. Xiao Ran secretly looked forward to it for a long time, and finally waited for the first gunfight experience in his life, and experienced a "protagonist halo" passionately in it.
Iraq
On the battlefield, everyone’s adrenaline is rushing upwards, the blood in the whole body is rushing up, and the whole body becomes cold and stiff, as if only the fingers are still alive. Involuntarily performing the mechanical action of pulling the trigger .
Faced with the real gunfire coming, Xiao Ran's mind instantly became blank. He was so nervous as if he hadn't drunk water for ten days, his mouth was dry and his throat was dry. He kept swallowing and swallowing saliva. The only thing he could remember was holding the gun tightly in his hand.
He hid behind the bunker, trying to discern the movement of his comrades not far away with his ears erected. Whenever he heard the sound of a gun from his comrades, he raised the gun and probed the muzzle. Go out, no matter what, do a burst of fire to the outside.
Time seems to have stalled in the battle, two or three minutes seems to be stretched to two or three hours. Xiao Ran, a young man with a strong body, was already out of strength in a short while, almost unable to stand, and he was half paralyzed on the ground in embarrassment.
Iraq
After this battle, Xiao Ran finally realized the huge difference between reality and the game. The country is no longer the background in the game. It is made up of strips of living life . What the bullets take away is no longer the player’s virtual health value, but what can be intertwined in a person’s life. The existence of everything.
Xiao Ran couldn't help but began to re-examine the meaning of this job. Every time he thought of the cruel scene of others being killed at his own gun, his retreat became more and more uncontrollable. But unexpectedly, he did to completely deny to his idea of shrinking shortly after.
Xiao Ran went along the street with the convoy as usual. Unexpectedly, a bullet passed through the front windshield and hit the convoy driver in the blink of an eye. The driver was killed on the spot without even calling for help.
All this happened so suddenly, Xiao Ran had no time to make any rescue measures, so he could only sit in the co-pilot and watched a life regret passing away. Especially the driver's help-seeking look at him at the last moment of his life, which shocked him greatly.
Xiao Ran read two words in that eyes, "Mom".He has always believed that human beings should be an existence woven by oneself and friends and relatives. No matter how strong the man is, he can't stop his thirst for life and attachment to his relatives.
Presumably, when dying, anyone can't help but think of mother and say something like "Mom, I can't go back, and can't be with you anymore." Just like himself, he has always felt guilty for not following his mother's advice and going home for the civil service examination.
Iraq
This close killing reminds Xiao Ran of his original intention to come here from a long distance. Although the most important factor is curiosity about the life of mercenaries, sympathy for the local innocent people is also an indispensable part of the reason.
Xiao Ran believes that although he cannot control the war, he can serve as a professional soldier with the honor of to help more innocent people avoid harm . As a result, his "protagonist feelings" burned again, and he made up his mind to take root here.
As a Chinese, Xiao Ran has never forgotten the cautious and gentle national spirit of the Chinese nation. So he especially likes to go to the mosque to worship with Muslims in his free time. It seems that only in those places can he feel a moment of peace in this bloody and murderous country.
And his gentleness has helped him forge many good bonds.
As his experience on the battlefield in the Middle East has become more and more abundant, Xiao Ran's status in the military has also been improved to a certain extent. He is often entrusted by the military to take some missions out.
Afghanistan
Once, he led a team in Afghanistan to do a mission,As a result, the convoy encountered a frantic attack when passing through a certain tribe's territory. A bullet suddenly shot out from a hidden corner, and just as they couldn't figure it out, the bullets became more and more, pouring down like a pouring rain.
In order to protect himself, Xiao Ran had to organize his team members to fight back. Unexpectedly, the opposing team's combatants were constantly increasing, and gradually surrounded from all directions, trapping the team in the middle. In order to facilitate the march, the mercenaries carried relatively limited weapons reserves, and all the bullets were shot in a short while.
Although the local military and police were called to request support at the beginning of the battle, the support army was delayed in coming, and there was no ammunition. Xiao Ran really felt unprecedented despair at that moment, and he couldn't help but began to imagine how the enemy would handle his corpse.
However, at this moment, the gunfire resounding across the sky stopped abruptly, and Afghan government forces finally arrived and successfully prevented the continued development of this tragedy.
It turns out that the local tribes have been deeply persecuted by the US military and hate them. When they saw that there were many European faces in this mercenary, they mistakenly thought that this was an American special force, and thus the idea of secretly annihilating them all came into being. Fortunately, the Afghan government forces arrived in time, proving that they are just "mercenaries" performing security tasks in .
Army on the Afghan battlefield
After the battle, Xiao Ran went to the tribe to personally visit the patriarch and brought some cash and live sheep to the tribe in accordance with local rules. As compensation .
Xiao Ran first apologized to the patriarch: "I'm sorry, we didn't tell you before we came. I'm sorry to let you waste so many weapons."
The patriarch also welcomed him warmly,He also deliberately explained to him: "In order to expel you, our tribe has shot how many bullets, how many people have been sent out from each household, and how much money has been spent. It depends on you that it is not malicious. . Next time you come to play, we will treat you warmly and we will be friends."
This is exactly the answer to the old Chinese saying, "If you don't fight, you don't know each other", Xiao Ran forged a deep friendship with this tribe.
mercenary
After years of hard work, the panicked rookie has already transformed into a leader among the "mercenaries". Xiao Ran, who has been accustomed to his chic life, is still unwilling to return to his hometown . In his words, "The game hasn't been cleared yet, how can we give it up halfway?"
All we can do is wish him a career as a mercenary. It's been safe and smooth!
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