From the 7th Steel Company to the Synthetic Division

Forgery of military officer identification is strictly prohibited, even during exercises and confrontations.

Therefore, as long as he can produce an officer's ID to prove his identity, there will be absolutely no problem with his identity, and the guards are not worried at all that he is a Red Army soldier in disguise.

Not a moment.

The guard led Li Zuo to the command post tent, reported, and went inside, saying, "Reporting to the brigade commander, Chief of Staff Li of the reconnaissance battalion has arrived."

"Quickly call him in." The chief of staff's eyes widened when he heard about the reconnaissance battalion.

"Who is it? Who's here?"

Chu Zhangang was also jolted awake. After so many days without any news from the reconnaissance team, he couldn't believe it was true.

I thought I was hallucinating, so I asked again to confirm if it was true.

"Reconnaissance Battalion, Li Zuo, Staff Officer Li!" the chief of staff answered excitedly in a loud voice.

"Quick, let him in." After confirming that he hadn't misheard, Chu Zhangang also began to get excited.

Eight days have passed, and the reconnaissance team has not provided even the slightest bit of information. Chu Zhangang is so anxious that he's practically spitting fire.

It's hard not to be excited when I hear the news now.

"Comrade Brigade Commander, Li Zuo, staff officer of the 909th Brigade Reconnaissance Battalion, is reporting for duty." Li Zuo pushed open the curtain, walked in, saluted, and reported to his superior.

Even though Li Zuo spoke very loudly, you could still hear the weariness in his voice.

"You've finally shown up."

Chief of Staff Ding excitedly shook Li Zuo's hand, then asked, "Where is Battalion Commander Hong Yi? Where is he? What's the situation now?"

"Xiao Li, if you hadn't introduced yourself, I almost wouldn't have recognized you." Chu Zhangang looked Li Zuo up and down, his eyes full of surprise.

Chu Zhangang couldn't believe that the staff officer of the reconnaissance brigade was covered in mud and looked like a beggar.

"Is there any food, Commander?"

Li Zuo's voice grew increasingly weak, as if he would faint at any moment.

"Yes, I'll get it for you."

"Come, sit down and rest first."

The chief of staff hurriedly helped get the food, and the brigade commander personally helped Li Zuo walk to the conference table.

The two men could tell that Li Zuo was indeed hungry and tired. Chu Zhangan helped Li Zuo to sit down at the table, and the chief of staff brought over bread, biscuits, and bottled water.

Sla~
Li Zuo tore open the bag of bread and wolfed it down as he said, "Our reconnaissance on the perimeter spotted our artillery regiment, so the brigade command post should be nearby as well."

So Captain Hong specifically ordered me to withdraw from the front lines and find a way to establish direct contact with the brigade headquarters.

"You've been lying in wait on the front lines of Langshan all this time?" Chu Zhangang couldn't believe that the reconnaissance team could hide for so long right under the enemy's nose.

"Yes, aside from the journey and preliminary reconnaissance, we were in hiding at the front for a full six days," Li Zuo replied.

"Why didn't you report it sooner? You could have sent a text message or an encrypted telegram. You've been out of contact for six days, and the brigade commander has been worried sick," Chief of Staff Ding said.

"No, absolutely not."

Li Zuo swallowed the bread in his mouth, then opened a bottle of water, took a sip, and said, "The Red Army's electronic reconnaissance is very strong; they will definitely be able to detect it."

Captain Hong believes that all current telecommunications methods are unreliable and could be overheard by the Blue Army, especially since we are lurking right under the Red Army's nose.

So as soon as the troops arrived at Langshan, Captain Hong ordered all radios and wireless terminal equipment to be turned off and their batteries removed.

Even personal cell phones had to be removed, sealed, and buried underground, to be dug up again after the exercise.

After finishing his sentence, Li Zuo started eating voraciously again, stuffing half a piece of bread into his mouth in one bite and swallowing it down with mineral water.

I didn't care about the taste at all; all I wanted was to fill my empty stomach.

"Captain Hong sometimes sees danger everywhere, but under the enemy's nose, such caution is still necessary."

Chu Zhangang acknowledged this and then asked, "Now that you've discovered the armored regiment, have you contacted the artillery regiment?"

“We can’t contact them, otherwise they will definitely report to the brigade command that the special operations brigade is lurking at the front of the 535 defense line. If the radio is monitored by the Red Army, all our efforts will be in vain,” Li Zuo said quickly.

"So you disguised yourself as a fellow villager just to avoid being detected by the Red Army?" the chief of staff asked.

"Correct."

Li Zuo nodded and said, "In order to find our command post as soon as possible, I borrowed a motorcycle from a fellow villager and drove more than 100 kilometers to find this place."

"You've worked hard. How are things going with your battalion commander and the other soldiers?" the chief of staff asked with concern.

"Our situation is not optimistic."

Li Zuo seemed to recall something upsetting, and he lost his appetite for the cookies he had just opened. He said sadly, "We only prepared three days' worth of field rations, and we didn't expect you to be gone for so many days."

In the last few days, we ate wild vegetables, insects, and caught rats and snakes. We ate whatever we could find to get by. Many soldiers' hands and feet were bitten raw by insects.

Even if the situation gets worse, we dare not evacuate from inside, because once we evacuate, it will be impossible to go back in.

Chu Zhangang and the chief of staff listened in silence for a long time, feeling very guilty about what the reconnaissance brigade had gone through.

The fact that we haven't reached Langshan in eight days is a dereliction of duty on the part of the command.

Li Zuo waited a few seconds to calm himself down, then bent down, rolled up his right trouser leg, and pulled out a package wrapped in a plastic bag from his sock.

He solemnly handed it to Chu Zhangang and said, "Brigade Commander, this is the reconnaissance report on the 535 defense line that the Battalion Commander asked me to give to you. It's been the last few days."

It clearly marks all the bunkers, fortifications, and firing positions.

"Great, they came just in time."

Chu Zhangang was just about to make final arrangements when this intelligence was a godsend. He took it and eagerly spread it out on the table.

It was a standard military map, with many areas circled in red.

"Your reconnaissance battalion has made a great contribution, which our brigade needs right now." The chief of staff also got excited and quickly went over to take a look.

Because the map is very small, the text written on it is very small.

In order to see every piece of information clearly, Chu Zhangang specially took a magnifying glass and examined it carefully, inch by inch, making sure not to miss any of the marked points.

I watched it for almost twenty minutes.

Chief of Staff Ding didn't dare disturb Chu Zhangang, and watched intently from the side.

Only after Li Zuo had eaten and drunk his fill, and feeling safe enough in the Blue Army's command post, did he succumb to a wave of intense drowsiness and fall asleep on the table.

"Arrange for him to sleep in my bed." Chu Zhangang immediately instructed the chief of staff with concern when he discovered that Li Zuo could fall asleep like this.

"You two come here and help Staff Officer Li to the brigade commander's bed to rest." The chief of staff called over two radio operators and asked them to come and lend a hand temporarily.

Just as I helped Staff Officer Li to lie down on his cot, I heard the sound of a car approaching outside.

"It must be the political commissar who's back."

The chief of staff calculated that the time was about right, then turned around and looked at the entrance of the command tent.

But it wasn't Xu Xiaocun who pushed open the door; instead, a second-class sergeant saluted and said, "Reporting to the brigade commander, the political commissar didn't receive the call."

"What happened? We bought round-trip tickets together, the flight number is definitely correct, and the political commissar is a very punctual person, how could he have missed us?"

Chu Zhangang frowned again as he looked at the soldier he had personally sent to pick up the man.

"I waited until the last flight, until the last passenger had disembarked, but I still didn't see the political commissar come out. I tried calling his cell phone, but it was switched off. Later, I went to the airport to check, and the result was that the political commissar had not checked in," the sergeant replied.

"I know, you go out first."

Chu Zhangang waved for the soldiers to leave, his brows furrowing even deeper than before. He muttered to himself, "That's strange. How could they not have boarded?"

Chu Zhangang couldn't figure out what had happened, and he even lost interest in looking at the map that he had previously cared about so much.

Chief of Staff Ding Kai was equally bewildered. He couldn't understand why the political commissar hadn't returned in time after calling back and clearly telling them that human trafficking was a psychological warfare tactic employed by the Red Army and that the investigation was complete.

The main problem is that not only did they not come back, but they didn't even call the command center and turned off their cell phones.

Everywhere you look is eerie!

at this time……

The telephone operator received a call and immediately stood up to report loudly, "Reporting to the brigade commander, the directing staff is calling and wants you to come and answer the phone."

"There's been no activity late at night, why is the director's office suddenly calling?"

With some doubt, Chu Zhangang got up, walked over, took the microphone from the chemical weapons soldier, and put it to his ear, saying, "I am Chu Zhangang, the brigade commander of the Blue Army..."

After listening to the phone for less than ten seconds, Chu Zhangang's expression suddenly changed drastically.

Raising his voice three octaves, he roared in shock, "What? What did you say? Political Commissar Xu Xiaocun has... has been captured by the Red Army?"

That can't be right, you must have made a mistake, that's absolutely impossible.

"Director Fang, Political Commissar Xu is my political commissar. He's not even in the exercise unit right now; he's in Chenghai City, over a thousand kilometers away. How could the Red Army capture him? This isn't a joke."

From Chu Zhangang's perspective, his logic is perfectly sound.

But Chu Zhangang completely forgot one thing.

That is, if his reconnaissance battalion of more than 300 men could fly there by civilian airline under Hong Yi's command, why couldn't the Red Army fly to Chenghai City by plane?

Not to mention that the 7th Steel Brigade is best at decapitation strikes behind enemy lines, a talent that has been evident since its early development.

Back when it wasn't yet a combined arms company, but during the era of the Seventh Combined Steel Company, which was reformed under the leadership of Chen Jun, Shi Jin led a squad to carry out Chen Jun's infiltration behind enemy lines and captured the Blue Army's deputy commander-in-chief, "Railway Captain."

Throughout his career, Chen Jun has developed various decapitation operations, creating a unique and distinctive style of operation.

Now, we are once again conducting a confrontation exercise with the 909th Brigade. No matter how far apart we are, even if it were 15,000 kilometers, a decapitation strike would be indispensable.

Chu Zhangang couldn't believe that the political commissar had been captured alive; the directors in the directing department had witnessed it firsthand.

Therefore, Director Fang of the Director's Department replied seriously: "I'm not joking with you. Xu Xiaocun was lured into a car and captured alive by the special operations team of the 7th Steel Brigade in Chenghai City. He is now being held in a temporary prisoner-of-war camp converted from a hotel in Chenhai City."

Two directors from the exercise's directing department were on-site and recorded the entire process. I am now formally informing you of the ruling from the 2001 exercise's directing department.

The Blue Army's Deputy Commander-in-Chief and Political Commissar, Xu Xiaocun, has been captured and is now out of the exercise. Information regarding this will be uploaded to the exercise's dedicated network, and you can check it online at any time.

Director Fang explained the process in great detail, making Chu Zhangang realize that it had really happened.

But he couldn't accept this result. The humiliation of the political commissar being captured alive made him even angrier. He couldn't control his emotions and roared into the phone, "What kind of acting is this? It's just a bunch of thugs fighting in the street!"

Without waiting for a reply from the directing department, he slammed the microphone down on the phone and hung up.

Fortunately, this phone is of high-standard military quality. If it had been replaced with a useless one, it would definitely have been smashed to pieces after being hit so hard.

Brigade Commander Chu Zhangang's angry roar startled everyone present.

The entire command post fell silent.

I didn't even dare to breathe too loudly.

Even after hanging up the phone, Chu Zhangang was still seething with anger. He paced back and forth in the command post, his breathing heavy like that of an old ox plowing a field.

As he walked, he grew increasingly angry and roared again, "Get me to the exercise command center immediately!"

"Yes!"

The operator responded immediately.

"Commander, calm down, you must calm down,"

The chief of staff himself was also in a state of confusion and didn't know how to persuade Chu Zhangang. All he could say was these few words.

Chu Zhangang, who was in a fit of anger, completely ignored what the chief of staff said.

He rushed over in a few strides, picked up the phone again, and said seriously to the other party, "I am Chu Zhangang from the 909th Brigade. I want to speak to Commander Zhou from the base. Commander Zhou, please answer the phone."

“I’m right here. What’s up?” Commander Zhou from the base asked.

"I protest! I seriously protest!" Chu Zhangang shouted angrily.

"Brigade Commander Chu, don't take it out on me. We can talk this out." Commander Zhou glanced at Chief of Staff Shen, who was sitting not far from him.

"First, the directing department's decision to withdraw from the exercise after our political commissar was captured is wrong. Second, if such despicable means are considered a victory for the Red Army, then we, the Blue Army, would rather withdraw from the exercise," Chu Zhangang threatened Commander Zhou.

"Commander Chu..."

Commander Zhou was about to patiently persuade him, but Chief of Staff Shen couldn't stand it anymore and snatched the microphone from his hand.

"Chu Zhangang, listen to me carefully. If you withdraw from the exercise now, I will immediately sentence your 909th Brigade to annihilation and send you to a military court to be convicted of desertion. Your fate will be even worse than Wang Kezheng's. I give you three minutes to make a decision."

Chief of Staff Shen announced Chu Zhangang's punishment with swift and decisive action, and then immediately hung up the phone.

“Shen Can…”

Hearing the dial tone from the receiver, Chu Zhangang froze, as if struck by lightning. (End of Chapter)