Chapter 42: Dog Head Old Gao Arrives
“Tsk tsk, so the 323 area originally deployed an artillery position. The Blue Team has been hiding such a big killer weapon, they must be plotting something bad.”
Chen Guotao saw an order from the Blue Team Command, which instructed the artillery position to advance two kilometers, but did not tell them to act, instead continuing to remain silent.
“Use their radio to send these things to our frontline command post. Remember to use the code.”
“Got it, Chen Pai.”
Xiao Zhuang sat in front of the radio, lighting up the buttons one by one. He began contacting the command post to pass back the intelligence in hand.
“It’s done. Let’s prepare to retreat.”
Chen Guotao saw that everything was finished and they couldn’t stay any longer. Who knew when the soldiers outside would come in.
“Chen Pai, we can’t just leave like this.” Chang Ning grabbed Chen Guotao and said.
“Nonsense, not leave and wait for them to invite you to dinner?” Chen Guotao said irritably. He knew from Chang Ning’s grin that this guy was definitely up to no good.
“Chang Ning, are you saying we find a way to cripple this place?”
Xiao Zhuang and Chang Ning were the same age, with the same thought patterns. He immediately got Chang Ning’s idea.
“Correct.”
“Don’t mess around. Do you know how many radios the entire base has?”
With just our three or two people, how could we manage? Unless we have a large amount of explosives in hand.
Chen Guotao thought Chang Ning’s idea was unreliable as soon as he heard it.
“We don’t have any, but the Blue Team does.”
Chang Ning winked at Xiao Zhuang. He believed Xiao Zhuang could guess his meaning.
“Chang Ning, are you thinking of targeting the artillery position?” Xiao Zhuang asked tentatively, unsure if he guessed right.
“What idea? Tell us.”
Chen Guotao nearby became interested. If there was a chance to cripple the radar base, the balance of victory in this exercise would definitely tilt toward their Red Team.
“We use the Blue Team’s radio to send a message to their artillery position, making them launch a saturation strike here.”
“What’s the reason?”
The best straight man Xiao Zhuang came online.
“A large number of Red Team scouts have infiltrated. Our side has suffered heavy losses and has decided to withdraw from the exercise with them!”
“What do you think of this excuse?”
“That’s too far-fetched. How could they possibly believe it?”
Chen Guotao somewhat regretted listening to Chang Ning’s nonsense. Which Blue Team commander would believe this reason?
“Whether they believe it or not doesn’t matter. It costs us nothing anyway. But if they do believe it, we’ll profit big time. It’s effortless.”
“You’re right.”
Chen Guotao agreed to Chang Ning’s proposal.
“Woo… woo!”
Zhang Guangzhi on the ground had heard Chang Ning’s plan crystal clear. He was extremely angry.
Chang Ning was trying to ruin their radar base’s reputation. Being eliminated himself was nothing, but using them to lure friendly forces was too despicable!
No matter how Zhang Guangzhi protested, the three ignored him.
They sent the telegram in plaintext. They had no choice; none of the three knew the Blue Team’s telegram code.
After finishing, Chang Ning cut the telegram wires, creating a sense of urgency for the artillery position.
The three quietly returned the way they came and left silently under the cover of night.
After leaving the radar position, Chang Ning and the others lurked in the dense forest. They wanted to see if the Blue Team’s artillery position would take the bait.
The result was naturally very unsatisfactory, just as Chen Guotao had said before—it was too ridiculous. They wouldn’t believe it.
Besides, where were all these Red Team scouts now? Most had been captured by Gao Zhong Dui’s team.
“Platoon Leader, it seems the Blue Team artillery position commander didn’t take the bait. We should retreat. This vast forest makes me afraid of an ambush.”
Chang Ning crawled out from the grass. He hadn’t forgotten that the Blue Team search team was searching everywhere for them.
Chen Guotao shone his flashlight on the map: “Where should we go next? We’ve hit the deployments in 321 and 322 areas. The artillery position in 323 area must be on high alert now.”
“Since there are no targets, let’s go all out and cause a big commotion. Attract as many people as we can.”
Xiao Zhuang, fearing the world wouldn’t be chaotic enough, shouted to give Gao Zhong Dui a lesson. He still remembered how they had slapped the Night Tiger that day, though it hadn’t succeeded with Chang Ning there.
“We can’t be reckless in causing trouble. Let’s think of a plan to maximize our battle results with just us three.”
Chen Guotao said seriously. Unlike Xiao Zhuang, he had to think from the commander’s perspective. First, expand the battle results; second, how to safely bring everyone back.
Thinking of this, Chen Guotao glanced at Chang Ning nearby. He felt this matter still depended on Chang Ning.
“Shh, don’t speak. There’s movement!”
Suddenly, Chang Ning covered Xiao Zhuang’s mouth just as he was about to speak, while signaling Chen Guotao to stay quiet.
At the same time, at the other end of the forest, a 12-man team was silently advancing forward.
The two groups kept approaching. Suddenly, the assault specialist of this team raised his hand to signal: someone ahead.
The team tacitly dispersed, found cover, gripped their steel guns tightly, and watched ahead, waiting for Gao Zhong Dui’s next order.
Gao Zhong Dui ahead didn’t notice anything wrong, but a trace of unease lingered in his heart, making him more vigilant.
He raised his right hand, changing from fist to palm, and lightly sliced downward. This was the order to advance.
The team continued forward in a vigilant posture.
Weeds and branches scraped against the search team’s combat uniforms, making faint sounds.
Sounds negligible normally were very obvious in the quiet forest.
Chang Ning’s hearing was extremely sharp to begin with. At first, he thought it was some wild beast.
He gestured for Xiao Zhuang and Chen Guotao to be alert. From the sound, they seemed to have encountered an unknown large beast.
The sound grew closer; the beast was clearly heading straight for them.
“Chen Pai, what do we do?”
Chang Ning whispered. He was conflicted; firing now would expose their position.
“What do we do? Of course, shoot!”
With that, Chen Guotao fired first. Compared to withdrawing from the exercise, survival came first.
Seeing Chen Guotao shoot, Xiao Zhuang followed suit.
The three caught Gao Zhong Dui’s team off guard, instantly eliminating four of them.
The others hit the ground and counterattacked, but weeds between them severely blocked both sides’ lines of sight, so hit rates were low.
The three eliminating search team members at the start was pure luck.
‘It must be those three fish that slipped the net!’
Gao Zhong Dui was certain, his eyes lighting up with fighting spirit. It had been years since he encountered such interesting new recruits.
Seeing Chen Guotao had fired, Chang Ning then prone-fired, mentally preparing to draw the Blue Team search team.
What the three didn’t expect was that the other side also fired back, meaning it wasn’t a beast but Blue Team personnel.
Hearing the gunshots, Xiao Zhuang had a flash of inspiration and shouted: “Which unit are you from over there?”
Both sides ceased fire, and the combat zone fell silent.
Chen Guotao had no patience to wait. Just as he was about to order a quiet retreat, the other side responded.
“Blue Team search team. You?”
No doubt, it was Gao Zhong Dui’s voice!
Chang Ning was all too familiar with this voice!
“We’re search team too.” Chen Guotao replied.
What came back wasn’t Gao Zhong Dui’s voice, but the sound of a Type 95 rifle.
Gao Zhong Dui knew full well if there were search teams nearby. He seized the chance of Chen Guotao speaking to pinpoint his position and fired without hesitation.
Hit by the blank round, the intense pain made Chen Guotao grunt involuntarily, red smoke rising from him.
“Damn! So sneaky!”
Xiao Zhuang was furious and pulled the trigger to return fire. Chang Ning recalled Gao Zhong Dui’s speaking position from earlier and tried a few shots, but as expected, no reaction.
Clearly, they had moved long ago. It made sense; Gao Zhong Dui wouldn’t give Chang Ning the same chance to counter him.
Instantly, gunshots rang out everywhere. Both sides kept making tactical maneuvers in the small area, evading bullets as much as possible.
Because Gao Zhong Dui’s team had more people, and a few unlucky guys were hit by Chang Ning and Xiao Zhuang and eliminated, while on Chang Ning’s side, aside from Chen Guotao being out, no one else was “killed.”
Chang Ning lay in the grass, patiently seeking a counterattack opportunity, while Xiao Zhuang drew fire.
Chen Guotao could only spectate now, occasionally throwing in sarcastic remarks.
“Hey, Blue Team brothers, you missed.”
……
Gao Zhong Dui’s team were professional special forces team, too good at hiding with almost no flaws exposed. Plus, with nightfall and extremely low visibility increasing shooting difficulty, even Chang Ning’s marksmanship couldn’t overcome it.
Moreover, they weren’t idle; during the firefight, they kept closing the distance between both sides. The numerical gap was right there.
If they got close, Chang Ning and Xiao Zhuang wouldn’t be far from elimination!
Listening to the rhythmic gunshots from the other side, Chang Ning thought that this Blue Team search team led by Gao Zhong Dui had much stronger combat power.
Luckily, their numbers weren’t too many, so the gunfire wasn’t dense.
“Xiao Zhuang, hold them off first. I’ll set up three anti-personnel landmines, then we retreat.” Chang Ning said, moving up to Xiao Zhuang.
“Hurry up. I can’t hold them alone for long.”
Without Chang Ning sharing the pressure, Xiao Zhuang struggled alone against the search team.
“Give me one minute.”
Simple mine-laying didn’t take much time.
After Chang Ning left, Gao Zhong Dui on the other side immediately noticed something wrong.
Though Xiao Zhuang kept changing positions to confuse them, such tricks weren’t enough against a veteran like Gao Zhong Dui!
“Press forward!”
Gao Zhong Dui charged ahead. Xiao Zhuang couldn’t withstand the pressure and slowly retreated, throwing his last hand grenade.
“Boom!”
The brief flames let both sides glimpse each other’s figures for an instant.
“Xiao Zhuang, it’s ready. Retreat.”
“Da da da… da da da…”
Chang Ning fired from a kneeling position, with fierce and dense firepower, suppressing the search team so they couldn’t lift their heads.
The two cross-fired and retreated in an orderly manner. At such a time, they couldn’t just turn their backs—that would be suicidal.
When Gao Zhong Dui passed Chen Guotao, he didn’t bother looking, and got tripped.
Chen Guotao sneakily stuck out his leg to trip Gao Zhong Dui. Seeing him stagger, Chen Guotao finally vented his anger.
As for the glare from the person involved, Chen Guotao didn’t care. With the chaos, who else would know?
Now wasn’t the time to tangle with this second lieutenant. Gao Zhong Dui wanted to pursue before Chang Ning and the others got too far.
A sudden explosion flipped him to the ground, thick gunpowder smoke enveloping Gao Zhong Dui.
The other search team members weren’t as lucky as Gao Zhong Dui. Eager to capture Chang Ning and Xiao Zhuang, they missed the landmines underfoot and were all eliminated one by one.
Now it was two against one, and the scales seemed to tilt toward Chang Ning. Actually not; Gao Zhong Dui’s rich actual combat experience outclassed the two by miles.
As the smoke cleared, Gao Zhong Dui saw that the entire search team except him had been “sacrificed.” This infuriated him, but he was also somewhat pleased that Chang Ning had thought of laying landmines.
After all, this guy would join Wolf Fang’s training camp selection later. Such talent would eventually become his teammate.
Seeing the smoke signaling death rising from his comrades around him, Gao Zhong Dui’s fighting spirit surged. He started finding it interesting.
Every exercise was the same old tricks, opponents always from regular units. This level of individual combat wasn’t enough for him with one hand. This year, he finally met an interesting soldier.
Gao Zhong Dui followed the faint traces left by the “prey” and pursued quickly, without pause.
At this moment, he was like a lone wolf, silently tracking his prey.
After chasing about three kilometers, he vaguely saw figures in the jungle ahead.
Gao Zhong Dui grew even more cautious. He wasn’t young anymore; if discovered, he wouldn’t have the stamina to continue chasing.
He slightly observed the terrain around him and found the left side lower, perfect to avoid Chang Ning and Xiao Zhuang’s line of sight. So he decided to circle left and ambush them ahead.
“The Blue Team search team’s strength is too strong. I really don’t know how you escaped their tracking before, Chang Ning, and even annihilated two of their teams.”
Xiao Zhuang said with lingering fear, increasingly admiring Chang Ning. The search team chasing them was one that Chang Ning could annihilate—this was the gap in strength.
Thinking this way, the light in his eyes dimmed. This sadness came too suddenly, leaving Xiao Zhuang somewhat dejected.
They enlisted together, yet Chang Ning had progressed far more, the gap increasingly obvious. Back then, aside from better physical fitness, where did Chang Ning outdo him?
“Xiao Zhuang, you misunderstood. If I guessed right, the one we fought earlier was Gao Zhong Dui, and this search team is different from the ones I encountered before.”
“Their strength is greater, and their teamwork is very smooth. They might be the Blue Team elites.”
With Chang Ning saying this, Xiao Zhuang immediately felt better. The gap with Chang Ning hadn’t reached despair; he still had hope to catch up.
Xiao Zhuang: He would never give up!
If Chang Ning knew Xiao Zhuang’s thoughts, he’d pat his shoulder and encourage him. Sometimes, you have to give people a bit of hope.
After all, not everyone has the confidence to compete with someone who seems to cheat.
Completely crushing Xiao Zhuang’s confidence wasn’t Chang Ning’s way.
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