Chapter 255: An Opportunity Even Better Than A First-class Merit!
All doubts have been resolved, and the Red Army Headquarters is now filled with joy and excitement, with everyone’s mood unprecedentedly pleasant.
The Special Operations Platoon returned too secretly and suddenly, catching the Broadcast Team caught off guard.
Tuo Yonggang had already completed all reports, and the Broadcast Team, upon receiving the referee’s notification, finally rushed over in a hurry.
They lifted the tent flap and quickly started filming, broadcasting the jubilant scene at the Red Army Regiment Headquarters.
At this time, all attention in the Directing Staff was still on the Red and Blue Sides engaged in frontline combat, hoping to find the missing Special Operations Platoon through their perspectives.
The screen on television was broadcasting the vanguard troops of the Red and Blue Armies.
Neither the Red and Blue Armies had found the Special Operations Platoon, and after a brief moment of mutual confusion, they quickly spotted each other and entered combat range.
Since the exercise had not yet ended, the two armies naturally could not avoid a battle upon encountering each other.
The matter of where the Special Operations Platoon had gone was temporarily set aside, as both sides wanted to eliminate the enemy right in front of them first and address the crisis that was already at hand.
The Red Army’s assault consisted of two Tank Companies, plus half a company of the elite Steel Seventh Company.
Their combat effectiveness was very fierce!
The Blue Army troops dispatched to annihilate the Special Operations Platoon were also the most elite parts from various companies, without strong strength they simply could not maneuver quickly.
Both sides were elite troops from their respective units, and their clash was wonderfully spectacular.
The leaders in the Directing Staff watched intently, even temporarily forgetting about the Special Operations Platoon, with their minds fully focused on seeing which side would have the last laugh.
This battalion-level scale encounter battle, with four or five companies crammed into a narrow area fighting chaotically, was indeed extremely satisfying to watch.
Little did they know.
Although the frontline troops were still fighting desperately, the Confrontation Exercise was already nearing its end.
The Special Operations Platoon had already brought back the opponent’s battle flag, and with Regiment Commander Wang waving his hand briskly and energetically, he loudly issued the order: “Special Operations Platoon, proceed to the position and plant the flag.”
“Yes!”
Tuo Yonggang, upon receiving the order, raised his hand in salute and dashed out of the command tent in a few strides.
He led the entire Special Operations Platoon straight to the Red Army battle flag.
The Red Army Regiment Headquarters was only six hundred meters from the battle flag’s position, so the Special Operations Platoon drove there in just one or two minutes.
The referee team, driving synchronously behind, waited for the Special Operations Platoon to plant the flag on the position.
The Red and Blue Sides’ battle flags fluttered together in the wind.
The referee team immediately picked up the radio and reported to the Directing Staff that the Red Army had successfully seized the Blue Army battle flag and returned it to its position.
The Broadcast Team that followed closely used cameras to broadcast the flag-planting scene to the regiment headquarters.
Time rewinds to thirty seconds earlier.
The leaders staring at the screen watching the Red and Blue Sides’ troops fighting fiercely at the frontline had no idea the exercise was about to end.
Until the Directing Staff received the referee team’s report, and the director also received the broadcast footage.
The Directorate Head was startled.
Because the Red Army’s move was too sudden, they nearly missed the critical confrontation ending scene, which would have been a major work error.
Chen Jun said he would give the director a big surprise, and it truly was an enormous surprise.
The first to be shocked was the Directorate Head.
He immediately notified the director to switch the television screen from frontline combat to the Red Army’s rear area, the battle flag’s position.
The first image on the screen was Tuo Yonggang and several warriors planting the flag together.
“????”
The sudden change in the television screen left the spectating leaders momentarily unable to react, staring at the screen with heads full of question marks.
They genuinely could not react.
The changes before and after were too fast.
One second the frontline was still in full swing, the next second the rear was already celebrating victory.
The plot transition was really too fast.
Anyone would find it hard to take!
Only after the Directing Staff recovered from a brief shock and confirmed that the Blue Army’s battle flag had been seized by the Red Army and planted on the Red Army’s position.
Did they rule the Red Army as the final winner of the confrontation and inform the commentator.
The commentator who had just been describing how intense and deadlock the battle between the Red Army and Blue Army was, predicting it would last at least one or two more days.
Suddenly received the news that the Red Army had won, and was truly caught off guard.
Amid the disbelief and shock, his heart was indescribably embarrassed.
It was as if ten thousand grass mud horses thundered past!
However, despite the face-slapping being embarrassing and still unable to figure out how the Red Army Special Operations Platoon returned, as the commentator he still had to continue.
He had to publicly announce to the leaders that the exercise had officially ended, with the Red Side as the winner.
The leaders, who had been stunned for a while, finally came to their senses upon hearing the commentator, realizing what the scene before them was.
What followed was a sudden uproar, an intense discussion under extreme shock.
“The Red Army won? What’s going on? Is this flag-planting by the Red Army’s Special Operations Platoon?”
“How did they do it? I can’t figure it out.”
“The last news about the Special Operations Platoon was them successfully decapitating and seizing the flag in the Blue Army’s rear—how did they return so suddenly?”
“Deep in the Blue Army’s heavy encirclement, not only did they return, but so quickly—this is too bizarre, could they fly to the sky and escape to the earth?”
…
The leaders truly could not figure out how the Special Operations Platoon did it.
Even though they were all experienced in combat, having served in the army for many years, even most of their lives, old leaders who had seen everything.
They still could not imagine what method the Special Operations Platoon used to return.
Only a very few leaders with more active thinking and thorough tactical research seemed to grasp something while pondering.
But they still had not fully figured it out, only vaguely feeling they had caught onto something.
Among them, the Commander of the General Military Region, to clarify exactly what happened and resolve everyone’s doubts, immediately ordered: “Go invite the Red Army Regiment’s Regiment Commander over—I want to chat with him.”
“Yes!”
With the Commander of the General Military Region making a request, it had to be treated with utmost importance, and an officer immediately stood up and hurried out.
During the time the officer went to fetch the Red Army Regiment Commander, the Blue Army Command Post was in a state of dismay.
The regiment leaders including the Blue Army Regiment Commander had originally seen the Second Battalion Commander’s outstanding command and the companies below reacting very promptly.
Even though they had been eliminated as “corpses” at this point, their moods had involuntarily improved greatly.
Thinking further that the director had been helping the Blue Army all along, constantly creating various troubles for the Red Army, making the Red Army “plagued by disasters” and unable to exert their advantages.
They were convinced the Blue Army had a good chance!
Even though the Blue Army’s more than a dozen forces of various sizes for annihilation had failed to flush out the Special Operations Platoon and only collided with the Red Army’s reinforcing troops.
The Blue Army’s regiment leaders still had confidence, believing the Blue Army still had a chance to win.
The Special Operations Platoon could not have vanished into thin air; the reason they weren’t found was surely they were hiding, now lurking somewhere—and in the Blue Army War Zone.
As long as they eliminated the Red Army’s reinforcing troops, leaving the Red Army without two Tank Regiments and suffering heavy losses.
Then assemble a force for a blanket search in the Blue Army War Zone area, they would surely drag out the hiding mouse.
Then the Blue Army could launch a counterattack and wipe out the Red Army in one fell swoop.
The Blue Army’s regiment leaders were full of confidence, and in the temporary command post below, the battalion and company cadres were the same, believing the scales of victory had tilted to their side.
They all focused their attention on the frontline, on swallowing the Red Army reinforcing troops.
It was under this premise where everyone in the Blue Army up and down believed the situation was excellent that they suddenly received the Directing Staff’s notification.
“The Red Army has seized the Blue Army battle flag and has brought it back to the designated area. The Confrontation Exercise has ended, with the winner being the Red Army Seventh Hundred and Second Regiment…”
This notification from the Directing Staff to the Blue Army instantly turned the entire Blue Army upside down.
The Blue Army’s regiment leaders were dumbfounded on the spot.
They even thought they had misheard.
The Blue Army battalion and company cadres in the temporary command post all could not accept this sudden result, let alone understand what had happened.
Why did they suddenly lose???
And the warriors below fighting passionately, as if doused with a bottle of cold water, instantly deflated like punctured balls, all passion dissipated, leaving only speechless confusion.
They too could not figure out why they lost when things were going so well.
However, no matter how confused the Blue Army was, no matter how unable to understand what had happened, they still had to obey the Directing Staff’s orders from this moment on and accept that the Confrontation Exercise had officially ended.
They, the Blue Army, were the losing side!
Meanwhile, the four battalion commanders under the Red Army flag, including Combined Arms Battalion’s Gao Cheng, like the Blue Army, only learned the result at this time.
They were excited to learn of the Red Army’s victory, but realizing even they had been kept in the dark, they could only smile wryly!
…
The scene shifts to the Red Army Command Post.
When Regiment Commander Wang received the Directing Staff’s phone notification to immediately go see the Commander of the General Military Region, a thick smile immediately spread across his face.
Forget suppressing an AK.
Even suppressing a Barrett would be a piece of cake.
He quickly straightened his uniform and attire, put on his hat properly, fastened his webbing, and went to meet the leader in his best state.
One must know, these were leaders standing at the ceiling of the army.
Not to mention ordinary grassroots cadres—even many officers at the regiment commander level might never get to interact with them in their entire lives.
Now, not only could Regiment Commander Wang interact with them, but they had personally requested his presence.
They even used the word “invite”!
This was undoubtedly a supreme honor, one worth boasting about for a lifetime.
While excited and thrilled, Regiment Commander Wang could also guess with high probability why the Commander of the General Military Region had summoned him.
If it were a more selfish regiment commander, he would have gone alone.
Since the leader only requested to see him, going alone for a conversation would allow him to claim all the credit for himself.
But Regiment Commander Wang was a loyal and righteous leader without personal ambitions.
He knew what the Commander of the General Military Region wanted to ask, and even though he could answer everything himself, he still specifically brought Chen Jun along.
Not for anything else.
But to promote Chen Jun.
At his level, he knew full well the value of a company-level officer appearing before the General Military Region.
If in certain important occasions, with standout performance or as a core member.
Then, a single conversation with the Commander of the General Military Region would bring benefits to a company-level cadre no less than a first-class merit.
Regiment Commander Wang deliberately brought Chen Jun to push him forward.
Even though Chen Jun was excellent enough, he still wanted to give him a boost.
As the saying goes:
Wine aroma also fears deep alleys!
Regiment Commander Wang believed Chen Jun was excellent and was confident in his bright future.
But he still wanted to do everything in his power, within his ability, to help Chen Jun go as high and far as possible.
Surpassing Gao Cheng, surpassing him Wang Qing Rui.
Even surpassing his old friend who had reached the group army ceiling, Gao Mouren.
Chen Jun, having spent several lifetimes in the army, understood the ropes better than Wang Qing Rui. When Wang Qing Rui asked him to come along to the Directing Staff, he immediately got it.
This was Regiment Commander Wang promoting him!
Thinking that he and Regiment Commander Wang were not relatives, yet handing such an important opportunity to him, Chen Jun was truly deeply moved.
One must know…
If Wang Qing Rui were more selfish and claimed all the credit alone, with this opportunity, he could absolutely leap to deputy division commander.
In no more than a month, from being under Division Commander T, to becoming a member of the same party committee.
Now, by deliberately bringing Chen Jun, it meant Regiment Commander Wang would push Chen Jun forward, and with Chen Jun’s excellence, he would inevitably steal the spotlight.
Regiment Commander Wang’s presence in this exercise would be reduced by at least eighty percent.
It would be equivalent to handing over all the credit from this exercise—credit that Regiment Commander Wang could have swallowed alone—entirely to Chen Jun without complaint.
As a veteran regiment commander who had stayed in position for so many years without moving.
Yet willing to yield the opportunity…
This favor was heavy.
Chen Jun silently noted it in his heart, engraving it deeply.
He put on his hat, straightened his uniform, and followed Regiment Commander Wang to the Directing Staff.
At this time, everyone in the Directing Staff had not yet left, still immersed in the unbelievable ending, wanting to figure out exactly what had happened.
When Regiment Commander Wang entered from outside, all eyes locked onto him.
“Report, Comrade Commander, Seventh Hundred and Second Regiment Regiment Commander Wang Qing Rui reporting for duty.” Regiment Commander Wang arrived before the leader, gave a standard salute, and said.
The two brilliant stars on his shoulders nodded very satisfactorily and said: “Worthy of a veteran regiment commander—rich in combat experience, outstanding command ability, with advantages young people can’t match.
The way this battle ended was something I never expected, giving me a huge surprise that left me extremely satisfied—not a wasted trip.”
After praising him first, the Commander of the General Military Region curiously asked: “I specifically called you over to ask how on earth you did it—how did your Special Operations Platoon suddenly return?”
