From the 7th Steel Company to the Synthetic Division

Chen Jun agreed to the Blue Army's blocking plan on the national highway, and then began to discuss blocking plans for the other two roads, with everyone brainstorming and expressing their opinions.

Chen Jun maintained his usual style, first listening to everyone's opinions and analysis, and then deciding what methods he wanted to use to fight.

He will only come up with a solution if he cannot find a suitable one.

The 7th Steel Brigade's command post was abuzz with discussion, and the leaders of the theater command were also paying close attention to this exercise, especially the Chief of Staff of Shenyang Aircraft Corporation, who was in charge of the confrontation.

He arrived at the office early that day and sat in his office chair, pondering for a long time.

As the person in charge of the formation of the Steel 7th Brigade appointed by the theater command, just as Wang Kezheng told Chu Zhangang, Chief of Staff Shen indeed valued the Steel 7th Brigade very much.

How should combined arms forces proceed nowadays, and what exactly constitutes a mature combined arms brigade?

No one had the answer!
Chief of Staff Shen didn't know what kind of combined arms brigade our army needed, so all he could do was unconditionally trust Chen Jun.

It is hoped that Chen Jun can understand the intentions of the theater commander and the specific concept of this unit.

And we will turn the idea into reality as soon as possible.

Under extremely limited conditions, a combat-ready combined arms brigade was built by simultaneously assembling, training, and conducting combat exercises.

The 7th Steel Brigade has completed the first phase of the confrontation and defeated the elite force that had won five consecutive championships in the exercise with almost no cost and with less than one soldier deployed.

This achievement surprised the commanders of the theater command and even more so Chief of Staff Shen.

This was completely beyond his expectations!

The 7th Steel Brigade has exceeded the expectations of the theater commanders since its formation, achieving a perfect score of 120 out of 100.

But how to manage, utilize, develop, and carry out the rest of this force?

They're still figuring things out!
Possible clashes between military and political leaders, and conflicts between new and old cadres, are probably unavoidable, as are communication and coordination issues between companies and battalions.

For the 7th Steel Brigade to become a mature combined arms brigade, there are still many, many challenges to overcome.

Fortunately, building a professional combined arms brigade has become a consensus among all officers and soldiers of the 7th Steel Brigade, and everyone came here with this in mind from the beginning.

As long as everyone works together with a shared goal, Chief of Staff Shen believes that the 7th Steel Brigade will surely overcome all difficulties.

Furthermore, in order to enable the 7th Steel Brigade to grow faster, Chief of Staff Shen felt that perhaps they could be given more freedom and a more relaxed environment.

Let the 7th Steel Brigade go for it!

Chief of Staff Shen believed that only by letting things run wild could they discover the limits of a newly organized unit, find its maximum potential, and develop its combat effectiveness to a higher level.

Even if problems arise during the process of going all out, Chief of Staff Shen is mentally prepared.

He took care of everything.

He will be the backbone of the Seventh Steel Brigade.

……

On the Zhonglu Expressway.

The motorized infantry battalion, the directly subordinate air defense battalion, the communications battalion, the electronic warfare battalion, and the brigade headquarters command post, along with a convoy of more than 100 vehicles, marched in a grand procession.

To prevent potential attacks, the entire convoy was on high alert.

The electronic warfare battalion, in particular, is operating at full capacity, maintaining the highest level of alert at all times, and conducting high-density scans along the route, ensuring that nothing escapes their notice.

Chu Zhangang and Xu Xiaocun sat in the command vehicle, accompanied by several technical staff members.

They handled all situations that arose along the way.

"Ding ding ding..."

Xu Xiaocun's private phone rang.

The caller was Captain Hong Yi, who personally led the First Company in civilian clothes on a mission. To avoid being exposed, they did not use the military radio.

Therefore, they could only report their situation to the brigade headquarters via private phone calls.

"Okay, I'll report to the boss right away."

Xu Xiaocun paused his call with Hong Yi and said to Chu Zhangang, who was sitting next to him staring at the computer, "Old Chu, Hong Yi and the others have arrived safely at Xiaoguang Airport."

"Alright, get them started. Keep in touch and report back on the progress as soon as possible," Chu Zhangang ordered.

"Ok."

Xu Xiaocun picked up the phone again and said, "Engineer Hong, General Manager Chu specifically instructed you to start construction now. Remember to keep in touch with headquarters at all times, and report the progress of the project regularly."

"Okay, got it, but once we get into the mountains, there might be no cell phone signal," Hong Yi reminded him.

It means that if I don't report regularly, it's not that I don't want to report, but that my phone has no signal and I can't report.

In 2001, mobile phones had only been around for a few years, and mobile phone signals could not even be guaranteed in urban areas, let alone in mountainous areas.

If the military radios brought with them were used, they would definitely be detected by the Red Army's electronic warfare units as soon as they were activated, and their location would be pinpointed based on the signals.

Therefore, unless absolutely necessary, Hong Yi will not use military radios to expose his location.

After all, he personally led a company there, and he even disguised himself in plainclothes to deceive everyone in the Red Army. He definitely had to keep the whole city silent and absolutely could not expose his whereabouts.

Otherwise, his secret plan would not have achieved its surprise attack effect.

"If you understand, then that's fine."

Xu Xiaocun naturally understood Hong Yi's meaning, so he hung up the phone without saying anything more.

However, Xu Xiaocun and Hong Yi used ordinary mobile phones for their call, without any encryption measures or methods.

Therefore, in order to prevent the Red Army from using technical means to intercept him, Hong Yi specifically instructed Xu Xiaocun not to use any sensitive words when he saw him off.

The two agreed to disguise their identities and pretend to be from a construction company.

This arrangement sounds simple, but if it's not precise number tapping, it's difficult to intercept the conversation between the two people if it's just a search using sensitive words.

Xu Xiaocun forgot to report the matter of the disguise to Chu Zhangang in advance.

This left Chu Zhangang completely bewildered, unaware that the two had communicated beforehand. He exclaimed in exasperation, "What are you two doing? What's with this 'President Chu' and 'Engineer Hong' stuff? I don't understand a word you say!"

"Haha, look, I was so busy I completely forgot."

Xu Xiaocun smiled apologetically and quickly explained, "This is a set of code words that Hong Yi and I made up on the spot when we went to see Hong Yi and the others off at the airport."

Didn't you learn from Wang Kezheng that the 7th Steel Brigade's electronic warfare unit was very strong?
We've developed a special set of anti-eavesdropping codes that can effectively prevent calls from being intercepted. This is perfect for dealing with them and preventing our plans from being exposed.

"What era are we living in? Why are they still making this kind of thing?"

Chu Zhangang scoffed at this tactic, saying with a hint of mockery, "Now we have frequency-hopping encrypted radio stations and network encryption technology, so there's no need to go to such lengths."

What Chu Zhangang said was indeed correct, but he only knew one side of the story and not the other.

You can certainly defend against it, but are you sure you can defend against it completely?
Even if you can't crack the content of a frequency-hopping encrypted radio station, as long as it's a radio station, it's bound to have a signal band, and you can't disguise that.

Once your signal is locked, finding the precise location is only a matter of time. Wouldn't that expose your position? Chu Zhangang didn't come from a reconnaissance background, nor did he have a technical background in this area, so he only knew the basics and didn't understand the implications.

Xu Xiaocun smiled and did not insist on explaining.

He knew very well that in terms of reconnaissance skills and abilities, Chu Zhangang was no match for Hong Yi at all; Hong Yi was a reconnaissance captain whose job was to specialize in that.

He just smiled and said, "Hong Yi is cautious in his actions, so it's still very necessary to be more vigilant."

It's just a matter of changing the name; it won't do us any harm. As long as Hong Yi and his men don't expose themselves, it'll be our trump card.

Although Chu Zhangang was very concerned about his reputation and would not allow anyone to contradict him.

But he was very clear-headed and didn't know what was right or wrong.

Considering the importance of Hong Yi's squadron, he felt that being cautious was indeed necessary, and asked curiously, "Besides these codes, there must be others, right? Tell me about them."

"There are still some."

Xu Xiaocun nodded and explained, "Hong Yi said that our 909th Brigade is a construction company, and he is currently an engineer in the company, while you are the general manager."

Now, he is being sent to lead an engineering team to a construction site to complete an engineering task.

The 535 defense line is like a construction site; combat operations are like construction plans; and actions are like commencing work—basically, it's all modeled after traditional construction engineering.

"Heh, this is actually quite interesting."

Chu Zhangang pondered carefully, completely overturning his initial statement, and said with great interest, "Old Xu, call Engineer Hong now."

Tell him again about the situation at the construction site, and remind him to pay close attention to construction safety and to absolutely prevent workplace accidents.

"Hahaha."

Xu Xiaocun laughed and said, "I didn't expect President Chu to get into character so quickly."

"I still have a lot of potential to be a general manager."

"Hahaha."

Chu Zhangang's serious, boastful tone made Xu Xiaocun burst into laughter.

However, when Xu Xiaocun dialed back, the other party's phone was switched off, instead of saying that the other party had no signal and was out of service area.

This surprised Xu Xiaocun.

Chu Zhangang frowned and said, "It's switched off? Weren't you on a call just now? What happened?"

"I guess it's out of power. He'll definitely call back once he's charged it." Xu Xiaocun thought for a while and that was the only reason he could think of.

Completely ignoring another possibility, that Hong Yi found Chu Zhangang annoying and his meddling interfering with his command of operations, so he simply turned off his phone.

If I can't listen, I'm not bothered.

Chu Zhangang agreed with Xu Xiaocun's statement and pointed to the computer screen, saying, "When they heard that I was going to fight the Steel Seventh Brigade, several of my old comrades-in-arms in the war zone headquarters tried to help me and sent me some information about the Steel Seventh Brigade."

This information is very useful to us. Let's take a look together.

Xu Xiaocun was indeed drawn over and peered over to watch with Chu Zhangang.

The very first piece of information is classified; it's information that no one outside the war zone headquarters could possibly know except for the relevant officials and a few individuals involved.

It was written more than half a year ago, when Chen Jun, then deputy battalion commander of the 7th Steel Battalion, sent a report to the war zone.

The content was to expand the 7th Steel Battalion and create a combined arms regiment.

At that time, the commanders of the theater command also had a similar idea to implement in response to the Central Committee's informatization military reform.

The idea is...

To further reform the training methods of the theater army, improve the level of combat-oriented training of the army, break through the bottleneck that the training of troops in a long-term peace environment is difficult to closely resemble actual combat, and enhance the combat capabilities of the theater army.

They wanted to emulate the Zhurihe model and create a hypothetical enemy force capable of defeating the entire war zone.

Through this powerful hypothetical enemy force, we can continuously hone and refine the various units in the theater of operations, thereby enhancing their combat effectiveness.

Without a strong hypothetical enemy to exert pressure, it is very difficult for troops to improve.

For example, the 708th Brigade participated in five exercises and won all five easily. Looking at other brigade-level units in the theater, no one could put pressure on it.

At best, it might end in a draw, or a back-and-forth struggle with wins and losses.

Is this kind of exercise effective in counter-terrorism?
The answer is no.

No matter how many times you play, it's useless; it's just going through the motions.

therefore.

The theater commanders had been discussing the plan for a long time, but had not yet implemented it, mainly because they could not find such a strong hypothetical enemy force.

There are ready-made hypothetical enemy forces, but their background is too powerful to be touched.

The First Blue Army Brigade at Zhurihe is very strong. When the base was first put into use, the First Blue Army Brigade "arrogantly" challenged the entire army and once won more than 20 consecutive victories.

Even though they were ultimately defeated by the Seventh Steel Battalion, which forcefully interrupted their winning streak.

With the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China as its backing, the First Blue Army Brigade has now far surpassed all other units in the military in terms of development, and is now the undisputed number one Blue Army Brigade in the entire army.

Over the past year or so, more brigade-level units have been deployed to confront them.

The results were all crushing defeats!

Zhurihe is developing very well now, and the strength of the First Blue Army is more than enough to hone the skills of the Capital Theater Army.

Unfortunately, Zhurihe belongs to the entire army, not just the Capital Theater Command.

The First Blue Army Brigade cannot ignore the other six theater commands and only serve the Capital Theater Command, improving the various subordinate units under the Capital Theater Command.

This is tantamount to trying to rapidly improve the overall strength of the Capital Theater Army by relying on the Blue Army at Zhurihe.

It's simply not realistic!

If we line up with the other six war zones to train, it would take forever.

Just then, Chen Jun delivered the application. The theater commanders, who were worried about not finding a suitable unit to use as a hypothetical enemy, were immediately impressed when they saw the application.

The 7th Steel Battalion had previously defeated the now-dominant First Blue Army Brigade in an exercise.

Furthermore, the 7th Steel Battalion was the first combined arms unit in the entire army, even earlier than Zhu Shihe, and has gone further down the road of information technology reform.

Its battalion-level combat capabilities surpass those of Zhurihe, and it is also the most standard information-based organized force.

If it were expanded into a combined arms brigade, and the momentum of the 7th Steel Battalion were successfully transferred to the expanded 7th Steel Brigade, wouldn't that be the perfect template?
The eyes of all the commanders in the war zone lit up.

Thus, after nearly a year of preparation, the 7th Steel Brigade was born in all its glory, becoming a formidable adversary that the 909th Brigade now faces. (End of Chapter)