Chapter 209: Chang Ning Lays Mines Again
The person who hit the jackpot froze in place, not daring to move a muscle.
“Captain, I stepped on a mine.”
The unlucky guy in the pursuit team who stepped on the landmine said.
“Vigilance, Demolitionist mine clearance.”
Hearing the order, everyone half-squatted with guns at the ready for vigilance, preventing Wolf Fang’s people from launching a surprise attack on them.
“Relax.”
The Demolitionist pulled out a dagger and carefully cleared the camouflage off the landmine.
A cylindrical landmine revealed its true face.
Seeing the landmine’s appearance, the Demolitionist breathed a sigh of relief; fortunately, it wasn’t a directed sword mine, just an ordinary Type 72 anti-infantry landmine.
“Do I look nervous? It’s just a training mine, not the real thing.
What do I have to be afraid of!” The unlucky guy said stubbornly.
Everyone is equal before a landmine; it won’t distinguish who stepped on it.
The pressure inside changes and it explodes immediately.
No matter who it is, few can keep a straight face when encountering a landmine.
Even those old birds in the engineers who have seen plenty of landmines will have their hearts skip a beat the instant they step on one.
The Demolitionist saw through his comrade’s tough talk but didn’t call it out, focusing on carefully clearing the camouflage to save his comrade’s face.
After successfully demolishing the landmine, the Demolitionist smiled and said, “Alright, you’re good to go.”
Hearing this, the unlucky guy carefully lifted the foot that had stepped on the landmine, and only relaxed after seeing it really didn’t explode.
“Why aren’t you getting up? What are you looking for on the ground?”
Seeing the Demolitionist using a dagger to poke diagonally into the soil around the landmine, repeatedly doing this motion, the unlucky guy asked.
“Mine clearance.”
The Demolitionist paused, then added, “To prevent booby traps. I suspect what you stepped on earlier was just bait.”
He knew all about mine laying tricks; chain mines were very common.
Back when he was a newcomer engineer, the Old Squad Leader had taught him plenty of lessons; whenever he encountered a landmine, he would probe to see if it was a booby trap—it had become a conditioned reflex.
The sensation of the dagger tip touching a hard object was unusually clear; the pursuit team’s Demolitionist smiled.
As he expected, there was indeed something below.
Special operations folks were all underhanded tactic users!
“There really is something.”
The unlucky guy, who originally didn’t believe it, knew from the Demolitionist’s expression that this guy had discovered something.
Unaffected by the unlucky guy’s voice, the Demolitionist steadily demolished all the landmines Chang Ning had used to warn them.
“Danger cleared.”
After reporting to the team, the Demolitionist stood up and gently placed the two landmines he had demolished into his backpack.
They might come in handy later; couldn’t waste them.
Seeing the landmine successfully demolished, Li Hua Mao ordered the team to continue pursuing Chang Ning and the other two.
This time they encountered no more trouble; the pursuit path was very smooth.
In the silent jungle where few human traces could be found, it was filled everywhere with the calls of unknown insects.
Here, they were the masters; Chang Ning and the others and the pursuit team were uninvited guests.
“What was that black shadow that flashed by just now?”
Xiao Zhuang, who was spacing out, saw something flash past in his line of sight.
Thinking it was debris in his eye, he blinked and carefully looked in the direction where the black shadow first appeared.
Where was any black shadow? It was clearly one human figure after another.
“It’s Blue Team’s pursuers!”
Xiao Zhuang directly ruled out the possibility of it being others from B Group or A Group.
B Group’s chosen mission places were in different directions, with zero probability of encountering each other.
A Group’s numbers didn’t match the size of this team; though he couldn’t see exactly how many, Xiao Zhuang was sure there were more than six coming.
They were now in Blue Team’s heartland; ruling out the chance of friendlies, the rest could only be Blue Team.
The accuracy of this answer was over 95%!
“No, I have to tell Chang Ning and Lao Pao.”
If he were alone encountering Blue Team’s team, he would say nothing and run off while they hadn’t spotted him.
But now he was the sentry; running off alone would be selling out his two comrades who were still resting.
He carefully controlled his body to inch out of the sentry post bit by bit, keeping his movements minimal to avoid being discovered by that group of Blue Team.
“Chang Ning, Lao Pao, wake up quick.
Blue Team pursuers are coming!”
“What? Blue Team!”
With a clatter, Chang Ning chambered a bullet.
“Where did you spot Blue Team?” Lao Pao asked.
“Right in front of the sentry post.
It’s too dark; by moonlight, I roughly saw no fewer than six people.”
Xiao Zhuang’s words made Chang Ning’s heart sink.
The situation was somewhat bad; Blue Team was coming from directly facing the sentry post, which was also the direction of the meadow.
If it was just a chance encounter, Blue Team had no need to cross the meadow—they could go around.
Moreover, the warning landmine hadn’t worked; it must have been demolished by the arriving Blue Team.
The landmine he set was very concealed; for it to be found in such darkness meant the other side had experts, very likely Lei Keming’s people.
So this group of Blue Team was most likely coming for them, and all a special forces team just like theirs.
“This is trouble.”
Chang Ning smiled wryly; the situation was quite unfavorable for them.
Both sides had the same identity and were familiar with each other’s combat patterns; once entangled, it would be extremely hard to shake them off.
“A hard fight won’t work; we could take a few down with us, but we’d definitely get annihilated in the end,” Lao Pao said.
He was afraid Chang Ning and Xiao Zhuang, these two youngsters, would act rashly.
“So we have to retreat, quietly without being discovered.”
If they were spotted, they couldn’t escape the other’s pursuit.
He himself might escape relying on speed, but Xiao Zhuang and Lao Pao probably couldn’t.
Chang Ning thought to himself.
At the moment, he felt a faint worry.
If B Group’s people were here, he wouldn’t feel this frustrated; annihilating the other side wasn’t impossible.
“Then let’s hurry; I just checked, they’re pretty close to us,” Xiao Zhuang urged.
“You two go first; I’ll catch up right away.”
Saying this, Chang Ning took out a landmine from his backpack; this time it was an anti-infantry bouncing mine.
Seeing what was in Chang Ning’s hand, Xiao Zhuang and Lao Pao smiled.
“Be careful, don’t get spotted,” Lao Pao cautioned.
If the pursuing Blue Team spotted him, he and Xiao Zhuang alone couldn’t rescue Chang Ning.
“Relax, don’t you know me?”
Chang Ning waved them off, telling the two to hurry.
The three had delayed a bit; now they could even hear Blue Team’s clothes brushing through the weeds.
After seeing Xiao Zhuang and Lao Pao off, Chang Ning jumped out of the rest shallow pit, took out fishing line and tied it to the jump mine’s pin, then buried the landmine at the edge of the shallow pit.
The other end of the fishing line was connected to the branch covering the shallow pit.
Finally, he cleared the traces of their departure, camouflaging it to look like someone was still in the shallow pit.
“Done!”
If it was seen through, then Blue Team was just lucky.
After finishing this, Chang Ning also left their temporary camp.
Meanwhile, the Blue Team pursuing the three had no idea about this.
