Chapter 299: Trip To Langde Village
“This shows that you are a self-righteous person. On the battlefield, if you were a soldier, you would harm yourself. As an officer, the scope of harm would be even greater.
Unfortunately, you are the latter, so now you can understand why I dislike you, right?
Especially now, I haven’t lived enough yet!”
Hearing Chang Ning’s words, Xia Lan was stunned. How had she become self-righteous?
This concerned her personal image, so she needed to have a good talk with Chang Ning about it.
Just as she was about to put her thoughts into action, Chang Ning had already turned and left.
Looking at that gradually receding back, Xia Lan felt a breath stuck in her heart that she couldn’t vent, nearly making her faint.
She wanted to defend herself a few words, but the person had already walked far away. Calling him back would make her seem petty.
Noticing Xia Lan’s impotent rage behind him, Chang Ning felt a trace of satisfaction in his heart. This could be considered revenge for the displeasure of having to protect her.
Early the next morning, Xia Lan, with a stern face, found Chang Ning who was maintaining his weapon.
Now, seeing Chang Ning’s face made her think of being scolded like a dog yesterday, making her even more displeased.
Before she could speak, Chang Ning opened his mouth and spat out infuriating words like venom: “Staff Officer Xia, I didn’t eat your family’s rice. Why do you come in with a look like ‘I owe you something and won’t pay it back’? By the way, a friendly reminder: getting angry often is bad for your health.”
Xia Lan, who had wanted to counterattack, was left speechless by Chang Ning’s few words and could only glare at him puffed up like a river child, as if trying to kill him with her eyes.
“Hmm, nice glare.
I hope your glare can kill those criminals.”
Hearing Chang Ning praise her, Xia Lan first felt a joy in her heart, thinking he wanted to ease relations with her. But before she could react and tease him, she heard the latter sentence.
Sure enough, she shouldn’t have any hope for this nasty guy, unless the river flows backward and the sun rises from the west.
“I’m not here to bicker with you today. Hurry up and pack your equipment and come with me.”
With that, Xia Lan turned and left without looking back.
Watching Xia Lan’s departing figure, Chang Ning quickly assembled the parts scattered on the ground, carefully checked the magazine, then got up to follow.
They went silently all the way until the two arrived early at the rendezvous point with the informant.
“Half an hour later, I will rendezvous with the informant there.”
Xia Lan pointed a place out to Chang Ning.
Looking in the direction of her finger, Chang Ning saw it was an open ground surrounded by shrubs and weeds, requiring considerable effort to enter.
Unfortunately, that place was surrounded by woods and weeds on all sides, severely limiting Chang Ning’s field of vision.
“Choosing to rendezvous here is because this place is very hidden. If something goes wrong, we can use the terrain to withdraw quickly and conveniently.”
For some reason, Xia Lan casually explained.
Hearing this, Chang Ning nodded without offering any opinion.
Although the field of vision was limited by the environment, it was no big problem for him.
If he couldn’t overcome such a small issue, his training would have been in vain.
“You just rendezvous normally with the informant. Leave the rest to me. I’ll be responsible for your safety.”
Chang Ning’s words inexplicably warmed Xia Lan’s heart, even though she knew it was just him completing the mission.
“Who needs you to be responsible?”
Xia Lan turned and laboriously entered the rendezvous point, muttering softly at the same time.
But her voice was so soft even she herself didn’t hear it.
After parting with Xia Lan, Chang Ning began selecting a suitable position in the woods centered on the rendezvous point. This position had to balance concealment and the widest possible field of vision.
Of course, with Chang Ning’s shooting accuracy, even a worse shooting environment than this would be no problem for him.
But this was a mission, not showing off. He should make it easier for himself if possible, no need to make things hard.
After careful selection, Chang Ning finally found a position before the informant arrived.
“I’m at the 200-meter position to your side and rear.”
“Received.”
Chang Ning’s voice came from the miniature earpiece. Xia Lan acknowledged after receiving it.
This earpiece was only the size of a soybean, directly installed in Xia Lan and Chang Ning’s ear canals, invisible from outside and requiring tweezers to remove.
Unlike those in movies and TV shows, blatantly hanging on the ear for anyone to see at a glance.
Yet the villains act as if they’re blind and just can’t see them.
After selecting the position, Chang Ning used local materials for camouflage, draped in a simple ghillie suit he made, lying on the ground observing Xia Lan through the scope.
Both sides were now prepared, just waiting for the informant to arrive.
Ten minutes later, Chang Ning saw a man wearing ethnic costume like Xia Lan approaching them through the telescopic sight.
There was only Langde Village in the vicinity of this mountain forest, and the villagers had all been warned by B Group not to go out recently.
So at this time, the only one who could come to the woods was the informant Xia Lan mentioned.
So he spoke to remind: “Attention, a man wearing black ethnic costume is approaching you, holding a machete and carrying a backpack. It cannot be ruled out that he has weapons inside.”
“Received.”
Hearing Chang Ning’s reminder, Xia Lan remained relaxed.
That was an informant she had personally developed, and their previous cooperation had gone smoothly, so she didn’t think this informant would betray her.
After formally meeting the informant, the two immediately began exchanging intelligence.
“I received news that a 200-man criminal gang will launch a retaliatory attack on Langde Village in a week.”
The informant briefly handed over the intelligence he obtained to Xia Lan.
Hearing this intelligence, Xia Lan appeared expressionless, but her heart was already in turmoil.
A criminal gang of over 200 people coming to attack Langde Village—this intelligence was quite bad for Xia Lan and B Group.
No, a scale like this could no longer be called a criminal gang, but armed terrorists!
With such a huge numerical gap, Xia Lan was very pessimistic about whether they could defend Langde Village.
“Okay, I got it. Any more important intelligence?”
Xia Lan suppressed the shock in her heart and continued asking the informant.
The informant’s expression was subtle: “None.”
“Okay, report to me if you receive more news in the future.
If you don’t want to be an informant anymore, tell me, and I’ll find a way to get you back.”
Xia Lan’s mind had long been shaken by the informant’s intelligence, so she had no energy to observe the informant’s expression changes.
Anyone who could be an informant was definitely skilled at managing expressions, impossible to let Xia Lan see easily.
But that fleeting change was still caught by Chang Ning, who had been watching him: “Careful, your informant has a problem!”
When Chang Ning said this, Xia Lan had just turned around.
Hearing Chang Ning’s words, Xia Lan was stunned and immediately wanted to turn back to check.
But it was too late!
In the instant Xia Lan turned, the informant pulled out a handgun already loaded from the backpack. A light pull of the trigger would fire the bullet and kill Xia Lan.
The turning Xia Lan had the gun pressed right against her forehead.
“Why?”
Facing Xia Lan’s question, the traitorous informant first showed struggle on his face, then steeled his resolve and glared viciously at his former handler.
“I have no choice. Do you know how much your head is worth?”
At this point, the traitorous informant’s eyes were full of excitement, his face ferocious.
He shouted loudly: “One million, a full million!”
“You…”
Xia Lan wanted to persuade this traitor a bit more, but the words on the tip of her tongue were swallowed back because Chang Ning had acted.
Looking at the bullet hole in the forehead of this former informant, all words turned into a sigh.
Arriving at the rendezvous point, Chang Ning ignored the complex expression on Xia Lan’s face and fired a few more shots into the traitor with the hole in his forehead.
“The informant betrayed. Is his intelligence still reliable?”
Looking at the dead traitor, Chang Ning worried about the authenticity of the intelligence. After all, if the person was unreliable, the intelligence’s authenticity needed verification.
“The intelligence should be fine. I’ve cooperated with him for a long time. He knows he can’t deceive my eyes.
If there was a problem, I would definitely discover it.”
Listening to this confident statement, Chang Ning felt a wave of disgust in his heart.
She would definitely discover it—who was it that just had a gun to her head?
This was also why Chang Ning disliked Xia Lan: she could never see her own strength clearly. Call her self-righteous, and she wouldn’t admit it.
But now, the only reference they had was this intelligence Xia Lan had just obtained, even though it came from a traitor informant.
Better to have something than nothing.
Xia Lan’s bad habit had been noticed by Chang Ning long ago, so he wasn’t surprised by her current attitude.
The informant’s body couldn’t be left here, and if the informant disappeared, his criminal gang would definitely suspect. What if they came looking?
Such situations weren’t impossible. The informant walking here on foot showed his criminal gang might not be far away.
On missions, one couldn’t harbor fluke mentality.
No “possible” or “probably”—only yes or no.
Not taking it seriously would cost lives!
Like Xia Lan’s rendezvous this time—if they had followed her opinion from the start and not sent someone, they could be preparing her corpse by now.
Chang Ning reported the mountain situation to Geng Jihui. The comrades on the radio end secretly felt fortunate.
Fortunately they had prepared; otherwise, not only the intelligence but the person would be gone.
By the time Chang Ning carried the body down from the mountain, Geng Jihui and the others had already dug the pit.
Seeing this, Chang Ning unceremoniously threw the traitor’s body into the pit.
He didn’t want to carry this body a moment longer—it was heavy.
No wonder the old saying goes “dead heavy, dead heavy.”
After burying the body, B Group members and Xia Lan went to the meeting room together. Without even a sip of water, they immediately began formulating the combat plan.
“Sniper Team and Assault Team, how is the militia training going?”
To formulate a more complete combat plan, the overall situation needed to be clear, so Geng Jihui first asked about the militia’s combat power.
With the enemy vastly outnumbering them, victory obviously required fully utilizing the villagers’ strength.
Facing Geng Jihui’s question, Ostrich felt bitter inside: “Time tight, weapons few, task heavy—under these conditions, I can only say we did our best.”
“Don’t complain first. I want to hear the result.”
Geng Jihui knocked on the table. He had no time for Ostrich’s nonsense now.
“Yes, after our short training, Langde Village militia can provide some support in combat, but can’t be relied on for frontal fighting.”
“Provide support?”
Geng Jihui thought for a moment and continued: “Being able to provide support is already good. Frontal combat still depends on us.”
Next, Geng Jihui took out the result of his days running up and down—a topographic map.
To draw this topographic map, he went up the mountain before dawn with instruments and didn’t return until dark when he couldn’t see.
“Staff Officer Xia, you arrived half a month earlier than us and are more familiar with Langde Village terrain. Based on your experience, which direction do you think these criminals will choose to attack from?”
Geng Jihui spread the topographic map on the table and asked Xia Lan.
Xia Lan first looked at the topographic map, then carefully pondered combining it with the terrain in her mind.
At this time, the entire meeting room was quiet. Everyone was looking at Xia Lan, hoping she could give a reliable answer.
After all, it was a major matter concerning lives!
“Here.”
Xia Lan pointed to a place on the topographic map and said.
Before B Group could ask, she continued: “I arrived a few days earlier than you and scouted everywhere around Langde Village. Only this road is easy to walk.”
“Since these criminals want to retaliate against Langde Village, why take such an easy road? Aren’t they afraid of ambush?” Qiang Zi asked curiously.
From his perspective, he would attack from an unexpected place.
“You said it—they are criminals, not mercenaries, and unaware of Langde Village’s current situation.”
Chang Ning’s one sentence made Qiang Zi’s mind turn the corner. He had just viewed it from a special forces perspective, ignoring the opponent’s information.
“Chang Ning is right, but Qiang Zi’s point can’t be ignored.
So we prepare for both possibilities.”
Geng Jihui paused here to let everyone follow his thinking, mainly to accommodate Xia Lan.
The others were brothers who lived and trained together; one look and they knew what each other thought.
But Xia Lan wasn’t; their contact time was short, tacit understanding insufficient.
Seeing everyone focused on listening to him formulate the plan, Geng Jihui continued: “Mountain Wolf, you’ll need to work hard next. Lead the militia to the place Staff Officer Xia pointed out earlier and set up traps and explosives.
Chang Ning, take a few militia to guard these places.
Only your physical fitness, speed, and combat will ensure you can arrive in time no matter where the problem is, so assigning you here puts my mind at ease.”
Geng Jihui pointed to several difficult-to-traverse paths on the map. These paths were extremely hard to walk and barely roads. If not for asking Langde Village villagers, he wouldn’t have known people could pass.
Chang Ning and Lao Pao responded: “Yes.”
“Assault Team, extend forward and scout this criminal group’s distribution and weapon equipment situation.”
“Yes.”*2
“Sniper Team, set up sniper positions within this range.”
Geng Jihui drew a rough range on the map and said to Ostrich and the medic.
“Yes.”*2
After assigning B Group’s tasks, Geng Jihui looked at everyone and said: “This time we’re fighting positional warfare, enemy vs. us 200:8.
Comrades, the situation is very severe. If there are material needs, list them out for Evil Wolf to telegram Wolf Den.”
Everyone: “Yes.”
Xia Lan sat on the stool, feeling more and more off as she listened. How come after half a day of combat plan, there was no task for her?
“Wait, I have a question.”
