Chapter 180: Yuan Lang Goes Berserk!
When the First Battalion Headquarters was attacked by Blue Army helicopters in the afternoon, and the news reached the Logistics Support Company.
Old Ma, who had been pondering this in his heart all along, felt that the rear was already very unsafe, and years of experience as squad leader in the Armored Infantry Company told him.
The enemy had completely infiltrated the Red Army Rear, and there was no place that was absolutely safe.
Even the Blue Army Rear Area far from the frontline!
Old Ma was honest and straightforward, with a very direct personality, saying whatever he thought without any tact, which had offended quite a few people, and now he felt even more uneasy.
He immediately found the Company Commander of the Logistics Support Company.
He solemnly made a suggestion to the Company Commander: split the Logistics Support Company in two, pull out half the people and supplies, and find another place to set up a camp.
Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.
“The Blue Army can easily bypass to the rear and hit the First Battalion Headquarters, so they are very likely to appear in our area too. That’s why I think we should split the supplies. Even if one basket of eggs is hit, there will still be eggs left to use.”
Old Ma’s suggestion was very simple, yet it embodied the idea that the simplest is the most effective.
But the Company Commander thought Old Ma was being overly cautious. Taking out the command post was one of the key points to victory, and the Blue Army wouldn’t go to such great lengths, wasting manpower and resources to come to the Blue Army Rear Area to find a hard-to-locate target.
The location of the Logistics Support Company was very concealed, and fully camouflaged. Even if a helicopter flew overhead, it wouldn’t be discovered without careful inspection.
Moreover, the frontline was in the heat of battle right now, with supplies being allocated very frequently.
Manpower and vehicles were severely insufficient.
If extra manpower and vehicles were diverted to set up another sub-camp elsewhere, it would be hard to guarantee frontline supply continuity.
After all, it was because logistics personnel were insufficient that Old Ma and others had been pulled for temporary duty to help.
If because of this two-basket egg thing, at a crucial moment a lot of manpower was occupied and frontline fuel supply couldn’t be guaranteed, ultimately leading to failure in the exercise confrontation.
If the Regiment Commander Wang held them strictly accountable, the Company Commander couldn’t bear that responsibility.
So he didn’t want to go to extra trouble!
But he really couldn’t withstand Old Ma’s stubbornness. Considering that Old Ma was the most senior squad leader in the 702 Regiment, he reluctantly gave Old Ma a brush-off.
“Manpower is tight and can’t be allocated to you. If you really think it’s necessary, take whatever supplies from the camp you want, and handle it yourself.”
The Company Commander only said this one sentence, originally just to fob off Old Ma.
After all, Old Ma and his group were only three people, and they couldn’t actually accomplish much, let alone set up a sub-camp. He thought Old Ma would just let the matter drop.
Unexpectedly, Old Ma was like Xu Sanduo in that deep down he had his own stubbornness.
Since the Company Commander wouldn’t give him more manpower, he took Old Wei and Xue Lin, with the Company Commander’s verbal order, and directly drove off two fuel tankers and one fuel truck.
The camp’s fuel was sufficient but not to the point of being that abundant.
The Deputy Company Commander ran out to stop them from leaving.
In the end, Old Ma could only drive off one fuel tanker and one fuel truck.
Yet this action from the Logistics Support Company, which neither the Company Commander nor Deputy Company Commander thought much of, unexpectedly became a lifesaver now.
The two vehicles that Old Ma drove out and hid carried a total of over ten tons of fuel.
At this critical moment when even Regiment Commander Wang was about to give up, Old Ma contacted Second Battalion Headquarters via vehicle radio, telling them he had over ten tons of fuel there.
The Second Battalion Commander, upon hearing this great news, personally drove to the Regiment Command Post camp.
The real command post!
This was an order from Regiment Commander Wang. Only he dared to gamble on this bold bet, betting on the most dangerous place being the safest.
“What? We have an old squad leader who hid over ten tons of fuel beforehand, and it survived this attack? He’s on the way now?”
This news was such a surprise that Regiment Commander Wang sprang up from his chair, eyes full of disbelief.
“Yes, I just got the report.” The Second Battalion Commander nodded excitedly too.
They had thought this confrontation was over, but unexpectedly there was still a chance to turn it around, still hope for victory—whoever it was would be thrilled.
“Great, haha, great! As expected of a veteran squad leader with rich combat experience.”
Regiment Commander Wang laughed excitedly, but halfway through his expression suddenly changed, and he sharply turned: “Wait, how did you get the news?”
“He notified via vehicle radio and said he’s heading to the frontline.” The Second Battalion Commander answered.
“They’re in danger. Our communications are being monitored. Him contacting you via vehicle radio means the Blue Army definitely knows we still have fuel—this is trouble.”
Regiment Commander Wang looked serious, thought briefly, and decisively ordered: “Contact them immediately, inform them communications are monitored, have them transfer positions at once—absolutely cannot be found by the Blue Army.
No more radio contact hereafter. Ensure their own safety. When we need them, I’ll send someone to find them.
Also, Second Battalion Headquarters must transfer immediately—your location is no longer safe.”
Regiment Commander Wang issued two orders in a row, and the previously dead atmosphere in the Regiment Command Post became active again, with several signalmen quickly running out.
At that moment.
Steel Seventh Company Company Commander drove up, rushed into the tent in a few strides, and shouted loudly: “Regiment Commander, only Second Battalion Headquarters is left. I have a method to preserve it.”
“What method?”
Regiment Commander Wang perked up immediately and asked, as the Chief of Staff and others gathered around.
“We originally hid the Regiment Headquarters in the Battalion Headquarters. Now that the rear has been infiltrated by the Blue Army, why not hide the Battalion Headquarters in the Company Headquarters, or even break up and disperse—absolutely will leave the Blue Army baffled.”
Gao Cheng’s plan was indeed clever, brightening everyone’s eyes.
“According to our current known intelligence, the Blue Army’s ground troops are extremely few in number. The more we disperse, the more it massively increases their reconnaissance and search workload—indeed the most effective check on the Blue Army.” The Chief of Staff praised admiringly.
“Alright, do it that way. You’re in full charge of the arrangements—I’m authorizing you completely.” Regiment Commander Wang ordered decisively.
“You got it, watch me.”
Gao Cheng had been waiting for this order, turned crisply, and ran out.
Everyone else was swamped in the exercise, but only Gao Cheng, because he had a super capable subordinate, had basically nothing to do.
This left him bored in the Company Headquarters, and after half a day of thinking, he came up with this method, so he hurried to the command post.
Now that the Regiment Commander had adopted his plan, Gao Cheng finally had something to do.
He felt much more at ease!
The Red Army side had new changes again, but Yuan Lang had no time to pay attention right now.
Because he had just received Railway’s order: Red Army fuel tankers had survived, the plan wasn’t thoroughly executed, so Yuan Lang must find it.
Yuan Lang didn’t know what went wrong, but he had to execute Railway’s order.
He could only temporarily abandon searching for the last Second Battalion Headquarters, and the Red Army Headquarters which still had no news or clues at all.
Temporarily throw all energy and troops into searching for the escaped fuel supply vehicles.
…
On the Red Army side, the war zone had been thrown into chaos under Yuan Lang’s team invasion, with several key points knocked out.
In contrast, the Blue Army war zone looked less chaotic, with much smaller disturbances.
However, this was just surface appearance.
The hidden crisis was actually greater.
First, Shi Jin’s side had already penetrated deep into the Blue Army Rear Area. Under Chen Jun’s deceive the heavens to cross the sea misdirection, neither Railway nor Yuan Lang had noticed at all.
Thus all attacks were very bold, without special concealment in their own rear.
Blue Army helicopters frequently launched attacks on the Red Army, and at ultra-low altitude flight—far away, blocked by mountains, indeed hard to detect.
But if someone was nearby, they could easily spot the helicopters with the naked eye.
Shi Jin’s Vanguard Squad gave up sleeping, traveled through the night, and kept moving during the day, without even a second of rest.
When the Blue Army launched high-frequency air strikes in the afternoon, the Vanguard Squad had already penetrated over thirty kilometers into the enemy rear.
This area belonged to the Blue Army Rear Area.
Large numbers of attack helicopters flew low over the forest, impossible to completely avoid Shi Jin and the others—especially since the Blue Army helicopters had no intention of hiding.
The Vanguard Squad, upon hearing the roar of helicopters, realized they were approaching the target.
As long as they found the helicopter takeoff and landing point, they could definitely find the Blue Army General Headquarters.
This was what Chen Jun had told them before departure.
Everyone in the Vanguard Squad trusted Chen Jun very much, so after hearing the helicopter sound, the next things they did were only two.
First, conceal themselves as much as possible to avoid detection by helicopters overhead.
Second, follow the sound of the helicopters toward the direction the sound came from, until discovering the Blue Army General Headquarters.
Though they didn’t know how far it still was, Shi Jin wasn’t impatient, still steadily leading the team forward step by step.
When Chen Jun, after being dissuaded by Gao Cheng and Hong Xingguo, agreed to abandon personally leading the reconnaissance team and let Shi Jin lead instead.
The core reason was actually that he valued Shi Jin’s calm demeanor—he absolutely wouldn’t take risks for minor gains.
Facts proved.
Chen Jun’s judgment was correct.
Shi Jin indeed kept the whole squad steady and composed, not speeding up just because they detected helicopter traces and the target might be right ahead.
And under Shi Jin’s calm tactical execution, in the evening they even avoided a huge crisis that nearly exposed them and ruined everything.
It was already six in the afternoon then.
That is, when the Blue Army attack helicopters launched again and successfully destroyed the Red Army Logistics Support Company.
As the Vanguard Squad was moving normally forward, suddenly the sound of helicopter rotors came from the not-too-distant sky, clearly heading toward their location.
Faced with this sudden accident, Wu Liu Yi and Cheng Cai both thought they had been discovered.
It was Shi Jin who steadied them at the crucial moment.
Scenes from the anti-infrared operations flashed clearly in Shi Jin’s mind.
Today is end of month overtime, got back late, to write enough 6000 words, worked to the last minute, nearly lost full attendance, not intentionally cliffhanging—you all know I haven’t cliffhung before, really could only write this far, time ran out.
Good thing I got it written.
Thanks to all the Eldest Brothers for your support, thank you!
New month, keep pushing hard, thanks for your support all along!
