From the 7th Steel Company to the Synthetic Division

Chapter 441 Commander Chu's defenses were broken!

Command post of the Blue Army's 909th Brigade.

Chu Zhangang and Ding Kai avoided the cameras and went to a more spacious area outside the tent.

"What? No news from inside either? This is bizarre. Even the directing department doesn't know Hong Yi is at Wolf Mountain? There's no information about him at all?"

Chu Zhangang found it incredible, and even felt a little admiration for him.

It's one thing if the Blue Team didn't spot Hong Yi, but the Director's Department has "all-seeing eyes." It's impossible to get away with the Director's Department without some serious skills.

“Hong Yi and his team traveled by commercial airliner and may not have had any contact with the Langshan command post during the entire journey.”

The chief of staff guessed at the possible reasons and then said, "We can't contact Hong Yi right now, and it's not appropriate for us to openly inquire with the command headquarters."

Fortunately, we still have an inside contact who's currently at the base command center. If there's any important information, he'll text us.

"Yes, that's the only way."

Chu Zhangang had no choice but to ask Hong Yi some other questions: "Ask our inside source where Chen Jun of the Seventh Steel Brigade is located."

"Row."

Ding Kai nodded, took out his phone, selected one of the numbers and sent a text message, then said, "The message has been sent. He'll try to reply when he sees it."

"Is it reliable?" Chu Zhangang asked.

"He should be reliable. He was a soldier from our brigade who was transferred to the base for support work a month ago. Before he left, I gave him a few special instructions. But it just so happens that he sent me a text message a few days ago to tell me that he is doing duties at the command center," the chief of staff said with a hint of pride.

"I never expected that you would actually place your informant right under the leader's nose. That's truly brilliant," Chu Zhangang said with great satisfaction.

“If we fight according to the rules, we’ll follow the rules. But if the 7th Steel Brigade wants to break the rules and resort to underhanded tactics, then it’s only natural that we fight them with extra caution and use some unorthodox methods,” the chief of staff said with a smile.

"Makes sense."

Chu Zhangang patted the chief of staff on the shoulder, his face beaming with satisfaction.

"What are you two whispering about? Staff Officer Yu has marked the location of the artillery positions. Come over and confirm it," Political Commissar Xu Xiaocun shouted as he ran out.

"understood."

Chu Zhangang waved to Xu Xiaocun, then lowered his voice and said to the chief of staff, "Don't let the political commissar know about this inside information for now."

"clear."

Just as Ding Kai finished speaking, his phone rang. He knew it was a message and immediately handed it to Chu Zhangang, saying, "A message has arrived, Brigade Commander, take a look."

"What does it mean?"

Chu Zhangang frowned, puzzled, when he saw that the text message was just a bunch of letters and numbers.

"Chen Jun is at the 535 defense line," Ding Kai translated.

"Good, great! As long as he's on the defensive line, I'll have to pay him a proper visit and talk to him face-to-face about those street fighting techniques," Chu Zhangang said fiercely.

"What's so good?"

Seeing that the two hadn't come over for a long time, Xu Xiaocun went over to ask them, puzzled.

"Chief of Staff Ding said that Chen Jun is on the 535 defense line and has been waiting for us for many days. We can't keep dawdling on the road. I think it's time to set off and take the main force to pay homage to his mountain."

Chu Zhangang waved his hand triumphantly and strode back to the command post tent, as if victory was already within reach.

……

Outside the airport in the city where Brigade 909 is located.

Cheng Cai, Xu Sanduo, and Wu Liuyi, dressed in civilian clothes, met Deputy Political Commissar Ma Tianxiang, who was also dressed in civilian clothes and had just flown in by civil aviation, at the exit of the station.

"Deputy Political Commissar, why isn't the Chief of Staff coming?" Wu Liuyi asked in confusion.

Two days ago, Wu Liuyi, Xu Sanduo, and Cheng Cai, carrying out a mysterious mission from Chen Jun, parachuted into the enemy's main city.

The basic work is now complete, and we are just waiting for Chen Jun, the leader, to come and start the project.

Instead, it was the deputy political commissar who arrived.

"The chief of staff suspects there is a mole in the base and is reporting our situation to the Blue Army. In order to avoid exposing the operation, he sent me here. The Blue Army is not interested in me and will not pay any attention to me. It is actually more convenient for me to come."

Ma Tianxiang and Wu Liuyi and the others were already quite familiar with each other, having spent two or three years together.

"I don't think so, do you think the Blue Army's arms are that long?" Cheng Cai said in astonishment.

"This possibility is not out of the question. Don't forget, Chu Zhangang has a wide network of connections. He has many acquaintances in the war zone, let alone the Wolf Former Base. There might be fellow villagers from the Blue Army or soldiers transferred there."

Wu Liuyi's analysis was even more in-depth, and everyone understood it clearly after he explained it.

"Alright, let's not dwell on this. Getting down to business is the priority. Are you all ready?" Ma Tianxiang asked.

"Everything is ready, and we can start anytime," Wu Liuyi replied.

"Alright, let's not delay, let's set off now," Ma Tianxiang decisively ordered.

……

After half an hour.

Under Chu Zhangang's organization, the 909th Brigade completed the final offensive plan arrangements and left the command post to prepare for departure.

Just as Xu Xiaocun stepped out of the tent, his phone suddenly received a text message.

After opening the text message and reading its contents, Xu Xiaocun was struck dumb, muttering in disbelief, "This... how is this possible? This is too outrageous."

"what happened?"

Seeing that Xu Xiaocun's expression was off, Chu Zhangang curiously leaned over to check the contents of the message.

The text message was sent by Xu Xiaocun's wife. The message read: "Come and save us! Li Haiyun and I have encountered human traffickers."

"Your wife encountered human traffickers? And who is this Li Haiyun?" Chu Zhangang asked, both surprised and puzzled.

“Li Haiyun is the wife of Commander Zhu of the artillery regiment, a tall woman from Northeast China,” Xu Xiaocun explained anxiously.

"They were kidnapped by human traffickers? That's impossible."

Chu Zhangang simply didn't believe it; the whole thing sounded utterly absurd.

Although human trafficking was indeed rampant in China at that time in 2001, with frequent cases of children and women being abducted.

But they were all family members of soldiers and lived in military camps, so human traffickers could never get in.

That's why Chu Zhan didn't believe it at all.

"Whether this is true or false, I think we should call the police immediately," Chief of Staff Ding Kai said anxiously.

“I suspect it’s another psychological warfare tactic by the Red Army. Chen Jun of the Red Army is cunning and treacherous. He definitely wants to use this incident to distract us at this crucial juncture, making us unsettled and unable to concentrate on attacking 535,” Chu Zhangang said confidently.

"No way, this phone number belongs to my wife. How could Lan Jun possibly have my wife's phone? And it's even less likely that he would use her phone to send text messages." Xu Xiaocun, as the person involved, was starting to believe it, after all, it concerned his wife's safety.

"In that case, you should call your wife right away and ask her what's going on."

Chu Zhangang wasn't entirely sure if this was a trick Chen Jun was deliberately playing, so he didn't dare to insist and decided it was better to play it safe.

"Okay, I'll start right away."

Xu Xiaocun was worried that his wife was emotionally unstable; his hand holding the phone was trembling slightly.

He forced himself to calm down and dialed the number. He listened to the phone for a few seconds, but the voice on the other end only made him more anxious.

"What's going on? I can't get through on the phone." Xu Xiaocun became increasingly anxious.

"This……"

Chu Zhangang didn't know what to say.

"Political Commissar, are you sure the phone number you sent the text message is your wife's phone number?" the chief of staff asked.

"How could this be wrong? Don't you remember my wife's phone number?" Xu Xiaocun's voice rose involuntarily, showing that he was completely flustered.

"Is there something urgent over there? Why don't you call someone else and ask?" Chu Zhangang said.

“Yeah, Lao Chu, hurry up and call your wife,” Xu Xiaocun urged.

"Why would you call my wife?" Chu Zhangang asked, puzzled.

"Hey, I talked to my wife last night, and she mentioned that she had made plans with your son, Xiao Gu, and Li Haiyun. They were going to take Xiao Gu for a walk in the park this morning. Judging by the timing, they should be together right now."

"What??"

As soon as Xu Xiaocun finished speaking, Chu Zhangang, who had been calm, raised his voice by two octaves, and he also became a little anxious.

It's only when it involves your own wife that you realize how urgent this matter is.

Especially since Chu Zhangang's wife is pregnant, which is a very special time, the consequences would be unimaginable if she were to encounter human traffickers.

Before Xu Xiaocun could say another word, Chu Zhangang pulled out his phone.

The result was the same when they called back; the other party could not be reached.

This means the other party's phone has no signal.

"It's the same for both of us, we can't get through. What's going on? This shouldn't be happening."

Chu Zhangang also became anxious, pacing back and forth and complaining, "Why did you have to go to the park when you were just staying at home? Now look what's happened."

"Old Chu, don't worry, we've probably reached a place where there's no cell phone signal. We'll try calling again later, and we should be able to get through." Seeing that Chu Zhangang was even more anxious than he was, Xu Xiaocun had to turn around and comfort him.

"Hey."

Chu Zhangang sighed anxiously, forcibly suppressing his emotions. He knew he couldn't afford to lose his composure at this moment, or he would definitely lose the performance.

He took several deep breaths before saying, "This matter must not be known to anyone else, especially Commander Zhu. The artillery regiment must not have any problems."

There are two possibilities for this to happen: either it's psychological warfare by the Blue Team...

“It can’t be psychological warfare by the Blue Army. Chen Jun was at the 535 defense line just five minutes ago. How could he have run to Chenghai City, which is more than a thousand kilometers away?” the chief of staff interrupted.

"How did you know Chen Jun was on Hill 535?" Xu Xiaocun asked abruptly.

"The footage from the Red Army command post, just like ours, was projected onto the large screen in the command center hall. My informant could see it all clearly from there," the chief of staff explained.

"You sent someone to the command center lobby?" Xu Xiaocun asked in surprise.

"The military administration department selected soldiers from our brigade to go to the base for support work, and it just so happens that one of these soldiers is from my hometown..."

"Let's not talk about this for now."

Chu Zhangang impatiently interrupted the chief of staff, saying very seriously, "If it's not Chen Jun himself causing trouble, it could be someone else from the Steel Seventh Brigade."

Of course, this is just my speculation, and I hope it is correct.

The second possibility is that something serious has really happened. News of human trafficking is frequent, and it's not impossible that they encountered each other in the park.

Chu Zhan had just finished speaking when he retorted, "No, I specifically instructed before I left that if Xiao Gu wanted to go out, the driver Xiao Li would accompany him. If something really happened, Xiao Li would definitely call me."

"Then you should call Xiao Li right away and ask him if this is true or not," Xu Xiaocun urged.

Chu Zhangang didn't say anything, picked up his phone and dialed, his movements were exceptionally fast, but after only two seconds of listening, his expression became even more unpleasant.

The driver, Xiao Li, could not be reached by phone either; when he tried to call, the message indicated that the call could not be connected.

"asshole!!"

Chu Zhangang cursed angrily, his hand gripping the phone so tightly that the veins bulged, showing just how agitated he was.

Xu Xiaocun could sense Chu Zhangang's feelings and knew that he was in great pain at that moment.

I wanted to offer comfort, but I didn't know how to say it.

Chu Zhangang was indeed very emotional at this moment. On the one hand, the brigade command post had to set off immediately, otherwise it would be impossible to launch the offensive operation on time, and the exercise might be lost.

If they lose this exercise, Chu Zhangang's position as deputy chief of staff will be in jeopardy.

On the other hand, his pregnant wife went missing and posted a strange message that seemed to indicate she had been abducted, making him worry about her safety.

Should he immediately return to save his wife, or lead his troops to continue the "battle"...?

After nearly half a minute of intense deliberation, during which his facial expression changed drastically countless times, Chu Zhangang finally chose the latter.

"I'm leaving this to the two of you. You two need to figure out a solution quickly. I'll take the command post to Wolf Mountain first. We absolutely cannot let this affect tonight's operation," Chu Zhangang solemnly instructed.

"That's not a good idea, Lao Chu. How about this, we wait here for a while until your wife calls, then you can set off," Xu Xiaocun suggested.

"No, we can't wait."

Chu Zhangang firmly refused, saying, "With such a big incident, is it right for a brigade commander to prioritize his own family?"

Without waiting for Xu Xiaocun's reply, Chu Zhangang strode towards the command vehicle.

"Why don't we call the police and let the local police handle it? We're so far away now, even if we wanted to help, it would be too late," Chief of Staff Ding Kai said.

"Based on a text message on my phone, how am I supposed to call the police? If it really is a psychological warfare tactic by the Blue Team, but it gets to the local public security bureau, the media gets involved, and it's all made public online, then it'll be a huge joke. How will we handle this then?" Xu Xiaocun objected.

"Well... I really didn't think that much about it." Chief of Staff Ding also lost his confidence.

"Sigh, it seems we can only wait and try calling again later. If we still can't get through, I'll think of something else."

Xu Xiaocun had no choice but to follow the brigade command convoy ahead.

(End of this chapter)