It's better to conquer them than to command the steel torrent

Chapter 3｜Road to Revenge

"Shang Ke, the company commander of the 1st Mobile Division's military police, will be observing this operation with me and Staff Officer Liu. Sorry for the inconvenience."

Shang Ke did not put on airs. After returning the gift, he gave a brief introduction. He knew that his identity was prone to prejudice, and being pretentious here was simply courting death. Finding a way to establish good relationships was his top priority.

"Don't worry, Commander Shang. This time we will definitely give the Russians a good slap in the face. But it's windy and snowy outside, and it's freezing cold. Commander Shang, you have to think carefully." Fang Rui was afraid that the captain from the mainland could not endure the extreme cold in winter, so he gave him a preventive shot.

How to integrate as quickly as possible?
"I'm not that delicate." Shang Ke, looking composed, quickly composed his words. Then, looking around, he said, "The sacrifice of thirty-three of my border guards is an eternal sorrow and shame. I empathize with you all. Now that we're here, it's my duty to help."

Hearing this, Fang Rui nodded and said nothing more.

Next, several officers and non-commissioned officers present gathered together to discuss the battle plan.

The staff officers in the rear sometimes make some absurd mistakes of "talking about war on paper", the most typical of which is to underestimate the roughness of the road and overestimate the marching speed.

“This route is possible.”

"The terrain coefficient and hill slope are wrong, right? How can it be so fast?"

"At least one long break should be added in between."

"Damn it! I was wondering what was wrong. The idiot brigade staff officer underestimated the snow correction factor!"

Although no one had the intention of making indirect accusations, Staff Officer Liu's face turned red - he thought of some embarrassing things that happened in his unit during the autumn military exercises this year.

Compared with him, Shang, who was standing next to him, seemed to have no psychological burden and was listening with great interest.

There is always a difference between theory and practice, he thought.

The proposed changes to the operation were quickly reported to the brigade headquarters, and while waiting for a reply, both teams made their preparations.

As the witness and person in charge of the cross-border retaliation operation, Shang Ke checked the photographic equipment - a rangefinder camera manufactured by Tsinghua Unigroup with a 35mm fixed-focus lens, and his own 10mm pistol.

The soldiers were sitting casually on the ground against the wall, chatting, with several grenades hanging on their belts and their bullet bags filled with magazines.

Fang Rui walked over with a rifle in each hand and handed them to Shang Ke.

This bolt-action rifle was well-made, with both the wood and the steel milling process being excellent. He tested the bolt with an empty rifle, finding it opened and closed smoothly, and the overall grip felt quite comfortable.

He remembered that it was called the Type 26 rifle, with a total length of 1.1 meters, firing 7.2×56 mm rimless heavy pointed bullets, with a bullet mass of 10.8 grams and a muzzle energy of 3119 joules.

In the 1930s, the armies of most countries paid very little attention to light automatic weapons. Great powers such as Britain, France, and the United States generally did not include submachine guns as standard weapons at the squad level, which shows the conservatism and tradition of the army.

As for the present, because the border terrain is vast and the exchange of fire distance is basically hundreds of meters, submachine guns with too short a range have become very useless for the border guards of the National Defense Force.

But Shang Ke insisted on having a submachine gun for self-defense. At his strong request, Fang Rui asked someone to get him another submachine gun.

Fang Rui smiled helplessly - for inexperienced people, perhaps something like this that can shoot loudly can satisfy a sense of security?

The revised action plan was approved the next day, and the two teams set out one after another. The artillery team arrived earlier and had already set up artillery positions and observation posts behind the nearby hills.

They arrived near Post 77 in the afternoon, the first day of December. During a phone call to report, Xu Bowen on the other end of the line said, "Be brave but careful. I await your good news. Take care."

After a brief rest, the ambush team of dozens of people set off first.

The sky was still gloomy, but the wind and snow gradually stopped, which seemed to be a good sign.

Walking on the white snow that was up to their calves, the group crossed the border line and cleared the snow on the boundary marker.

It was the first time for Shang Ke to set foot on foreign soil in this way, and a feeling of excitement and nervousness surged in his heart.

Seeing Fang Rui and the others were calm and composed, he hesitated and asked, "Uh... have you conducted many cross-border reconnaissance missions before?"

"It happens all the time," Fang Rui replied nonchalantly. "Usually, two or three people go over there to survey the land and draw a map."

"Is this the first time for us to do this?"

"It must have happened before, but I haven't heard of it in nearly twenty years."

The mixed coniferous and broad-leaved forest composed of spruce, red pine and white elm is covered with snow, and the snow-covered forest is like a fairy tale world.

Each soldier carried a load of more than 40 kilograms and trudged along, one foot deep and one foot shallow. The moisture they exhaled quickly condensed into frosty white mist.

Some details can also reflect a country's strength. It is hard to imagine that the winter military coats of 1937 were filled with a mixture of refined cotton and goose down, and were equipped with wool linings. They were warm enough even in the freezing cold of Northwest China.

After about four hours of forced march, the group arrived at the designated rest point very punctually. At this time, they had already penetrated nearly ten kilometers into the territory of Imperial Russia, only half a quarter of an hour later than planned.

However, there is no time to rest yet. Camping overnight in the snow in winter requires extreme caution. Everyone must dig a snow pit for themselves and set up their tents before it gets completely dark.

The crescent moon rises high in the sky, and the darkness is boundless.

For Shang Ke, it was an impressive, even unforgettable, cold night.

After daybreak, the ambush team continued its march and successfully arrived at the designated location - next to the railway more than ten kilometers deep in the border line.

"Four hundred meters ahead, there's a landmark: a single tree!"

The railway and the highway run parallel to each other, and the terrain is uneven. As long as one or two hills are occupied and heavy machine guns are set up, an area of ​​1,500 meters in radius can be blocked from a high position.

Fang Rui was about to issue a deployment order. In order not to neglect Shang, who had come with him, he asked seriously, "Captain Shang, do you have any opinions on setting up an ambush in this place?"

Everyone present knew that this was just modesty. He was just a military police officer from the mainland. His theoretical insights and real experience were two different things.

"Me? If I were to do it..." Shang Ke looked around thoughtfully, then pointed into the distance and said hesitantly, "First, there must be a heavy machine gun on our high ground. A platoon will be placed on the opposite high ground. The second heavy machine gun... look, that small mound next to us, let's put it there. The mines brought by the engineering squad will be placed on the left and right flanks of the foothills of the opposite high ground."

"Oh? May I ask Commander Shang, why is the second heavy machine gun not placed directly on the high ground opposite, but on the slope on the side?" Fang Rui asked with interest.

"It's unlikely that the enemy will passively take the beating after being attacked, right? Their first choice is to seize the nearest high ground. So placing the heavy machine guns next to the high ground and using flank fire to attack the enemy attacking the high ground should be more effective?" Shang Ke explained his thoughts.

(End of this chapter)