Mercenary I am the king

Chapter 429 The Most Basic Qualities of a Commander
Half an hour later, 50 "elite" backbone members of the ELN armed forces, each with a small stool and a folding table, sat in an open space in the school camp like elementary school students, looking at the maps and homework papers in front of them, scratching their heads.

Song Heping really only had one request.

That is, everyone uses maps and tools to develop a simple battle plan on the homework paper.

Taking the school site as the starting point, the target was a river valley that Song Heping had randomly marked on the map, about 30 kilometers away from the school.

Each student must use tools to calculate coordinates on the map and draw an attack route, including the starting position, attack position, attack route, attack plan, troop grouping, and firepower grouping.

In the eyes of people like Song Heping and Jiang Feng, such a simple drawing assignment can be completed easily.

But for these grassroots ELN backbones, most of whom had not received formal military training, it was a matter of life and death.

The most difficult thing is not the map work and the formulation of combat plans.

Right next to the open-air examination room, several large fires had been lit, and whole lambs on them were roasting, sizzling with oil and exuding fragrance.

The ELN trainees had been hungry for days, surviving in the jungle by catching small animals and eating wild vegetables. With empty stomachs, how could they bear the smell of food? Their souls drifted to the fire.

But you can’t eat mutton if it’s not finished.

This is what instructor Song Heping emphasized.

"Instructor! I really don't understand!"

One of the students threw down his pencil and stood up.

"We haven't even learned the basics. You should be teaching us this instead of giving us a test! We're here to learn!"

After saying that, he couldn't help but look towards the sidelines and landed on the roasted lamb.

Once someone takes the lead, others will immediately join in the fun.

“Yeah, we haven’t learned this.”

"This is deliberately making things difficult for us!"

"If we want to learn, we can learn tomorrow. We have already been walking for four days."

"We want meat! We want rice!"

The situation suddenly got out of control.

"I don't understand?" Song Heping had expected someone to say this. "Why did it take you four days to walk just a hundred kilometers? Didn't you gain any profound insights in those four days? If everyone fights like you, how can we fight? No wonder your ELN has been unable to defeat the AUC for so many years. Haven't you ever thought about the reason?"

Mentioning this touches upon the dignity of these ELN armed trainees.

After all, this is a pain in their hearts that cannot be mentioned.

Especially recently, the ELN armed forces have suffered a series of defeats and their territory has been compressed, while the AUC armed forces are becoming more and more courageous and are showing a tendency to swallow up the ELN territory.

It was for this reason that Morins was willing to spend a lot of money to send people to study, and also paid Song Heping tens of millions of dollars to help him counterattack the AUC armed forces.

"Instructor, you are insulting us!"

Anthony objected discontentedly, "The AUC took advantage of our leader's disappearance to launch an attack. We were caught off guard and lost territory, not because they were any more formidable than us." Song Heping said, "That's one explanation for the attacks over the first ten days, but I've reviewed all of your battle records over the past three months and conducted an in-depth analysis. I don't think your successive defeats were caused by the AUC's surprise attacks. It's because you simply lost all confidence in winning. It's fair to say your defeat was crushing."

After saying that, he pointed to a thick bound book next to him.

"This bound volume contains a record of all your battles over the past two months. It was sent to me directly by your leader. I've analyzed every single one of them. Many of these battles were caused by your own chaotic command, poor coordination, and lack of coordination. Using the AUC sneak attack as an excuse is simply not enough to cover up your incompetence."

"We're not incompetent, instructor!" Anthony's face flushed instantly, and he felt the blood rushing to his head. He was furious. "The AUC has the support of the government forces. They have advisors sent by the government for everything from weapons and equipment to commander training. That's a fact. Since you've analyzed all the battles over the past two months, let me ask you about the battle in Mani Town on January 1th. If the government forces hadn't suddenly sent two companies to flank our troops, we wouldn't have been forced to abandon Mani Town and retreat. We were fighting very well head-on at the time."

Song Heping picked up the bound book, flipped through it, found the battle example on January 1, and then began to draw on the blackboard.

Anthony and other students watched Song Heping write on the blackboard smoothly and fluently, and gradually realized that he had drawn a situation map of the battle in Mani Town.

What surprised everyone the most was that Song Heping was able to draw the battlefield situation at that time so accurately without having a map of Colombia in his hand.

About ten minutes later, a simple map and the offensive and defensive situation were all marked on the blackboard.

At this point, the ELN students were stunned.

Only then did they realize that the teacher in front of them was not just a name, but a real talent.

This solid map work alone convinced everyone present.

Song Heping changed to a red chalk, drew a circle on the town of Mani, and marked the troop distribution and defense line position of a battalion of ELN armed forces deployed there at that time.

Then he used blue chalk to mark the AUC's attack route and troop distribution. Finally, he used yellow chalk to mark the government army's attack route and troop distribution to the right rear of the ELN force.

"You held out in Mani Town for three days and indeed withstood the frontal attack. The problem is, you didn't deploy a single soldier on your right wing."

He circled the government's attack route with yellow chalk.

"Government troops were transferred from Bogotá, two companies belonging to the army. They had to pass through the Sila Valley to reach your flank. Why didn't your commander deploy even a platoon there to block the attack? Did he fail to anticipate a surprise attack by the government forces? How was your battlefield intelligence work? Your rear was completely empty, the gates were wide open, and you didn't even post a single security team?"

Anthony said, "Because there's no military force within 200 kilometers of our right flank. Those two companies were pulled from Bogota! We never thought they would come so far to attack us from the rear."

"That's stupid."

Song Heping said, "You don't need a whole battalion of troops to attack Mani Town. The AUC forces that attacked you only had a battalion. Two companies could have held Mani Town. If you place a security group in the direction of Bogota and deploy a company in the Sila River Valley, when their government forces pass through there, a single company would be enough to inflict heavy damage on the invading enemy. Do you know what 'attacking reinforcements' means?"

Anthony had never heard of such military terms and could only shake his head.

"Don't blame your mistakes on the enemy. How can you be a commander if you can't even see someone cutting off your retreat from the map? I told you to learn topography and map assignments, and you all refuse to obey? Then what do you think your leader sent you here to learn?"

Song Heping threw the chalk on the table and snorted coldly: "So don't complain to me here that you're hungry and need to eat. In a war, if you're hungry, the enemy will wait until you're full before attacking. You still have to formulate battle plans even when you're hungry, right? If you go back and lead troops in the future, even if it's just a company, the lives of more than a hundred people are in your hands. With your level of ability, are you qualified to be a commander?"

His eyes swept over every ELN student present.

"If you can't finish the homework tonight, go to bed hungry!"

　Asking for a monthly ticket!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)