The brigade's snipers are in training. Photo by Niu Tao

How to make nails "three-thirds of the way into the wood"?

At a Marine Corps brigade sniper training range, the answer to this question was: drive a nail into wood with a bullet.

On June 15, the reporter observed a sniper training organized by the brigade on site. Chen Yi, the platoon leader of the first company of a certain battalion, verified this answer on the spot with a sniper rifle.

Such training standards may seem a bit harsh to outsiders.

Chen Yi said: "This is just one of the common methods we use to train snipers. There are many more rigorous training methods, such as placing a disc 5 centimeters directly in front of the target and requiring the bullet fired by the sniper to accurately pass through the disc. The round hole in the center hits the bullseye; or a row of bullet casings is placed 100 meters away and the snipers are asked to hit them one after another."

Thanks to these rigorous training methods, the brigade has forged a group of highly qualified sniper soldiers. In October 2018, Zhang Heng, a sniper from the brigade, participated in the "Edge-2018" international sniper shooting competition. On the day of the competition, Zhang Heng used only one bullet to accurately hit a thin tube with a diameter of only 3 mm that hung a dagger.

In that competition, Zhang Heng won the first place in the "Sniper Challenge" single event.

Behind the amazing skills is a lot of boring and arduous basic training -

Let the snipers thread rice with needle and thread to temper their character; after running 5,000 meters, they immediately put into shooting training, forcing snipers The hand learns to quickly adjust between movement and stillness; after randomly disordering the chalks of various colors, the sniper is required to quickly reset them as they are to improve memory...

At the training site, the four "bed boards" suspended by iron chains looked a bit special. Chen Yi explained that this is a training equipment created by officers and soldiers to simulate the bumpy environment of an assault boat sailing at high speed on the sea.

While talking, the four soldiers climbed onto the "bed board", adjusted their postures, and quietly aimed their guns. During the training process, no matter how the "bed board" shook, the muzzles of the four soldiers were always steadily aimed at the target 130 meters ahead.

Under the scorching sun, large beads of sweat fell from the faces of the four soldiers, and the reporter also felt his body burning. Chen Yi told reporters that such training is already "comfortable" for snipers. "Once, my comrades and I lay motionless on the ground for 5 hours wearing camouflage..."

For snipers, waiting for a "fighter opportunity" often requires persisting in silence for hours or even days. It is a "lonely and long" process.

During the interview, Huang Guolin, deputy commander of a certain company who organized concealment and camouflage training on site, pointed to the hillside not far in front of the shooting range and asked the reporter a test question: "There are 30 snipers hiding there, how many can you find?"

Looking at it, the hillside is small, gentle, with low vegetation, and some places are even bare. Can someone hide in a place like this?

With strong curiosity, the reporter climbed up the hillside and started searching with all his eyes: the barrel of the gun reflected in the sun and was exposed; the camouflage stripes were slightly more prominent than the surrounding environment, which was exposed; the moving position caused the weeds to swing, exposing...

Even though he was clearly informed that snipers were lurking on this hillside, and even knew the number of lurking snipers, the reporter finally found only a small part. Most snipers are "invisible" right under our noses.

"Stand up!"

With Huang Guolin's loud slogan, a group of strangely dressed soldiers who looked like "savages" stood up in the ditch, under the fallen leaves, and in the grass.

The reporter found himself "surrounded". What’s even more surprising is that there are actually snipers hiding in places that look barren.

Huang Guolin told reporters that snipers are "silent hunters" on the battlefield. They pursue one-shot hits in order to achieve combat goals quickly, accurately and efficiently. Therefore, perfect "stealth" with the help of the environment is a basic skill. The training just conducted was to hone the camouflage ability of officers and soldiers.

As the sun gradually moves overhead, the snipers’ training is not over yet. Taking off their thick disguises, they rushed to the next "battlefield"...