Chapter 247: Transformation
The two were talking when Chen Guotao, who had been secretly on guard in his heart, immediately noticed a subtle change in Xiao Zhuang’s expression, though Xiao Zhuang quickly masked it, he still saw it.
But Chen Guotao couldn’t guess the reason for the change in Xiao Zhuang’s expression for the moment.
“Chang Ning, shoot quickly!”
The sudden change startled Chen Guotao, so how could he maintain calmness to analyze whether Xiao Zhuang was bluffing them.
He saw that the Blue Team surrounding Xiao Zhuang shifted their attention from him to the surroundings at his shout, vigilantly looking around, fearing that Chang Ning would kill out from the side.
The situation was now very favorable, with the Blue Team about to win, and getting eliminated at this time would feel regrettable just thinking about it, so the Blue Team members were even more vigilant and cautious than one another.
“Bad!”
Turning back and not seeing Chang Ning’s shadow, Chen Guotao knew he had fallen for it.
Just as he turned back to look at the position where Xiao Zhuang had been, he saw a blinding flash in front of his eyes, accompanied by a violent beeping sound mixed with faint screams echoing in his ears.
This was a flashbang grenade, a weapon that could temporarily cause loss of vision and hearing, and those hit would also suffer dizziness and vomiting aftereffects.
“It’s over!”
Sighing in his heart, Chen Guotao knew that he and the soldiers around him were probably in grave danger.
This time, the Night Tiger Reconnaissance Company had made a name for itself under his command; both the Company Commander and Deputy Company Commander were gone, and in an instant, the entire company fell into a state of having no leader.
Dodging several sweeps from the Blue Team, Xiao Zhuang lay on the ground unhurriedly calling out each one by name.
Seeing that most people had been taken out, he quickly got up and ran; Blue Team members not far away were already approaching this side.
Shadows flickered, shouts continuously.
If Xiao Zhuang got arrogant and didn’t run, he would have to stay here, and afterward, he wouldn’t escape a beating—who made him eliminate Chen Guotao, directly slapping the Night Tiger in the face.
When other cadres from the company and Xi Wa arrived at the scene with people, seeing the smoking Chen Guotao, they immediately felt a chill in their hearts.
The Company Commander was gone, and if the new Deputy Company Commander was also gone, for their Night Tiger Reconnaissance Company’s combat power to perform at half capacity would be considered the heavens opening their eyes.
“Everyone, quickly check if anyone is injured!”
The leading cadre was full of anxiety; after counting the numbers, discovering the new Deputy Company Commander was missing, his heart sank to the bottom.
In the entire company, the only ones who could speak with authority were the Company Commander and Deputy Company Commander; now one was covered in blue smoke with hearing not recovered yet, having to shout to communicate; the other was even better, directly missing without a trace—in this pitch black, what if something happened, what to do?
Miao Lian, if only your transfer had been a month or two later!
The leading commander endlessly missed the days when Miao Lian was there; one truly doesn’t know the troubles of leading a company until they’re in charge.
There were too many things to worry about, giving him, who had just taken over as commander, a massive headache.
“Found him! Found him!”
The Second Lieutenant, who was agonizing over how to handle the current mess, was like receiving sweet rain after a long drought, tears welling up—not because he was happy to find the Deputy Company Commander, but because he finally didn’t have to worry about this chaotic situation.
Taking him to lead people in a charge was fine, but handling matters where the entire company’s burden was on his shoulders was truly not okay; he had no clue at all.
When the Second Lieutenant brought people to the Deputy Company Commander, Xi Wa was holding a water canteen wiping the Company Commander’s face.
None of this was a big deal; the most important was that he didn’t see blue smoke on the Deputy Company Commander.
What did this mean? It meant he finally didn’t have to bear the entire company’s heavy burden alone; this was the best news so far!
The cool plain water slowly flowed along the temple, nose tip, cheeks to the chin, then gathered into a stream and fell to the ground under gravity, seeping into the soil silently.
Perhaps the cool plain water took effect; the Deputy Company Commander felt his head wasn’t so dizzy anymore, even the nausea reduced a lot, though his ears were still buzzing and he couldn’t hear voices clearly.
Feeling his throat dry and tight as if he hadn’t had a drop of water for days and nights, the Deputy Company Commander opened his still somewhat darkened eyes, took the water canteen from Xi Wa, and gulped down all the remaining plain water inside in one breath.
Because he drank too urgently, some water flowed from the corner of his mouth down his neck, wetting the front of his clothes; that drinking manner was rough and bold, vastly different from the university student image in the surrounding soldiers’ minds.
In the early 2000s, the main recruits in the team mostly had junior high or high school education.
So in everyone’s imagination, a university student should be that fair-skinned, clean, and speaking gently and elegantly.
Now this rough-mannered Deputy Company Commander in front of them overturned everyone’s image of a university student; turns out university students were the same as them.
“What’s the situation now?”
After drinking water, his throat wasn’t so dry; the Deputy Company Commander asked hoarsely about the result of the incident.
When he and Chen Guotao surrounded Xiao Zhuang with people, he had secretly raised his vigilance in his heart; Special Forces were a group of elites, plus the army tradition of fighting to the death rather than being captured, so no matter how he looked, this soldier in front didn’t seem like one who would surrender without a fight.
Then Xiao Zhuang’s actions confirmed his guess, so when Xiao Zhuang threw the stun grenade, he sidestepped and timely leaped into the nearby grass.
The situation was urgent; Xiao Zhuang fired hastily and saw no resistance, didn’t bother checking, randomly chose a direction and ran off headlong, overlooking the Deputy Company Commander hidden in the grass, dazed from the stun grenade.
“Everyone except you has been eliminated by Xiao Zhuang.”
The Second Lieutenant reported the team’s situation to the Deputy Company Commander; the Night Tiger, already continuously losing members in the forest, had its Company Commander gone after Xiao Zhuang’s sneak attack.
After hearing the report, the Deputy Company Commander’s brows never relaxed; the situation he faced now was even more disastrous.
The most important thing now was to boost morale and get everyone rallied again.
“Special Forces Soldiers aren’t anything special; they’re just better at hiding than us, but in a hard clash, they crumble.”
At these words, the soldiers around him looked at each other, their faces full of skeptical expressions.
Thinking about it, if they were really as weak as he said, the Night Tiger wouldn’t have been beaten so miserably by just a few of them.
“I know you think I’m bragging, but look, no matter how awesome Special Forces Soldiers are, they still got blasted senseless by the shell.”
Several of them have already been captured by us; from what I know, the remaining few are veteran soldiers from our company before, so this battle is us fighting our own people, all acquaintances—taking a loss isn’t a big deal.
But we can’t keep losing; you all know these people’s backgrounds, catching them isn’t hard—comrades, do you have the confidence to catch them and redeem ourselves!”
The last few sentences were roared out by the Deputy Company Commander straining his voice, which completely wrecked his already uncomfortable throat.
The Deputy Company Commander’s mobilization wasn’t very infectious; the surrounding soldiers’ responses sounded perfunctory—if not for him being the commander, probably no one would have echoed him.
The times are progressing, people are progressing; it’s no longer the era where shouting a few hot-blooded slogans or gulping some chicken soup could make people follow.
Without showing people hope, no one will pay attention to you, not even if you’re the commander.
The Night Tiger could still maintain some combat power now because the company’s pride was supporting them; what the Deputy Company Commander needed to do now wasn’t to feed everyone chicken soup, but to organize everyone.
Leading soldiers must combine with actual conditions; this newly graduated Deputy Company Commander made a dogmatic error, rigidly applying theories from books without combining book knowledge with reality.
Fortunately, the Night Tiger Reconnaissance Company had a solid foundation; if this happened in another team, bigger problems would likely arise.
Since he was an outstanding graduate from the Army Command College, he couldn’t lack skills; the Deputy Company Commander quickly made corresponding adjustments.
Seeing everyone’s reactions, he knew the company now urgently needed a victory to recover morale.
“Pass the word: everyone keep distances from each other not too great.
We’ll conduct a dragnet search of this forest, push this group of Red Team towards the armored side, and hit them with a pincer attack from front and back!”
Although the Deputy Company Commander’s voice was wrecked, his tone was still firm and powerful.
Seeing this new Deputy Company Commander’s fierce side, everyone’s gazes towards him shifted one after another.
From this moment, the soldiers began to accept this student soldier in front of them.
