Soldiers Assault: Starting from the 7th Steel Company

Chapter 170 Spring Thunder No. 1 Exercise Begins
Since confirming his relationship with Chu Ning, Chen Jiang has indeed found great satisfaction in his love life.

It's always a good thing that someone cares. The railway staff and the subordinates in the squadron could clearly feel that the all-powerful Chen Jiang of the past seemed to have returned.

He not only allocates his time reasonably between training and IT development, but also occasionally takes time to spend with his girlfriend.

Chu Ning had visited the team a few times, and their relationship was now completely public.

In this way, Chen Jiang's work and life were indeed back on track, the system was further improved, and at least his squadron was able to initially adapt to the needs of information warfare, and the squadron's name was changed to the Information Warfare Squadron of the A Battalion.

Chen Jiang's promotion order followed, and his military rank was raised by one level, from Army Lieutenant to Army Captain. This speed of promotion was already considered astonishing.

Yuan Lang's recovery is progressing smoothly. Although he is not yet able to be discharged from the hospital, he is already able to take leisurely walks in the hospital courtyard.

Just when everything seemed to be going well, the army group issued a notice requiring the A battalion to send personnel to the military region to attend the exercise mobilization and deployment meeting, codenamed: Spring Thunder No. 1.

The A Brigade sent Brigade Commander Tie Lu and other team members. Among the company commanders, only Chen Jiang was taken along, because Tie Lu had a premonition that this exercise would be a great opportunity for the informationized troops to shine.

Sure enough, at the mobilization and deployment meeting for the exercise, everyone saw the latest exercise plan, and compared with the past, the Red Army's troop strength advantage was terrifying.

Not only did they have almost all of their air force and powerful armored units, but they also had a large number of artillery units. In contrast, the Blue Army's forces were extremely weak, with barely any air force, almost no armored units, and few artillery units.

The only consolation was that the exercise command assigned a missile battalion from the Second Artillery Corps to the Blue Force.

When Chen Jiang looked at the plan, he noticed that Team A had once again been assigned to the Blue Team. He couldn't help but frown. It was always the weaker team that won against the stronger one.
Although this missile battalion is quite good, the number of missile vehicles is too small, and the range is extremely limited.

According to the plan, the equipment consists of relatively old surface-to-surface short-range missiles, and no surface-to-air missiles. This means that the Blue Force will have almost no air superiority in the war zone. This missile battalion must be well hidden, otherwise it will be doomed if it comes out.

After the groups were formed, the majority of the officers from the Red Army remained in the meeting room to continue the meeting, while the officers from the Blue Army went to the next meeting room to hold their meeting.

As Chen Jiang and his men stood up to leave, the Red Army commanders and soldiers looked at them with sympathy. In their eyes, the outcome of this exercise was a foregone conclusion; with such an overwhelming advantage, it would be difficult for the Red Army to lose.

Chen Jiang followed the railway to the small conference room next door. Because there were so few people, everyone could recognize each other, which made the officers, who were about to fight a major battle, even more uncertain, because their strength was too weak.

At this moment, the Blue Team's commander-in-chief entered.

Chen Jiang had met this man once before; he was Colonel Cheng Guoqiang, the chief of staff of the 84th Group Army.

When I first met him, he was in Gao Jianjun's office. I never imagined that he would become the commander-in-chief of the Blue Team. But thinking about it, it makes sense. He can't stay stagnant forever. The key is to have some impressive achievements.

"Everyone, relax a bit, don't be so serious." Although Cheng Guoqiang was a Z-level cadre, it didn't mean he hadn't served as a commanding officer in the military. According to Chen Jiang's understanding, he had previously served as a regimental commander and only transferred to the Z-level line later on.

Moreover, he has an outstanding academic background, having studied at the National Defense University and is a highly qualified individual. He is quite supportive of new military technologies and combat methods.

Cheng Guoqiang picked up the Blue Team list and began calling out names.

"railway!"

"To!"

The officer whose name was called stood up and saluted Cheng Guoqiang and everyone else. When Chen Jiang's name was called, Cheng Guoqiang paused deliberately.
"Captain Chen Jiang, you're something else! I've heard Commander Gao praise you many times, saying that your informationized force reforms have been very effective. Whether our Blue Army can win against the odds this time depends on you playing a good role, okay?"

Cheng Guoqiang's tone was very gentle, which gave everyone present a preliminary understanding of Chen Jiang.

After all, among those who could attend a meeting of this caliber today, only Chen Jiang held the rank of captain. And if everyone knew that he had only recently been promoted to captain, they would probably be astonished.

"Commander-in-Chief, you flatter me, but we are confident that we can demonstrate our capabilities in the exercise!" It's not Chen Jiang's style to spout nonsense before anything has even been arranged, so it's better to keep a low profile.

While everyone was still discussing, Cheng Guoqiang finished the roll call and began to introduce the Blue Army's troop composition and main combat objectives.

In terms of troop strength, the Blue Army was much weaker than the Red Army. Whether it was the air force or the ground forces, they were simply incomparable. Therefore, Cheng Guoqiang's strategic thinking was to prioritize defense and use counterattacks as a secondary measure.

However, Chen Jiang and the railway were deeply worried about this. With such a disparity in strength, simply defending the position would likely not be able to hold out, let alone win.

Soldiers, whether in exercises or actual combat, have an extreme desire for victory; otherwise, they are not true soldiers.

The conference only briefly outlined the strategic concept; the specific details will depend on the operational orders from the Blue Army command.

Chen Jiang always felt that Cheng Guoqiang shouldn't be that incompetent. Sure enough, after the meeting, he, the railway officer, and another major were called into Cheng Guoqiang's office.

The major had just introduced himself as Pang Chenggong, a key member of the missile force.

Although they only have one missile battalion, its importance is self-evident, and Chen Jiang could already guess Cheng Guoqiang's intentions.

"Come, come, sit down. I've secretly called the three of you here today. You should be able to guess why I did this, right?"

Chen Jiang understood that the commander-in-chief of the Red Army this time was a deputy commander of the 84th Army Group, who also held the rank of senior colonel. He probably needed a victory to earn glory for his promotion. As a deputy commander, he had been in charge of many units in the army group. The group meeting just now could easily lead to leaks due to too many people talking.

From this perspective, Cheng Guoqiang is indeed quite capable to serve as Gao Jianjun's chief of staff.

"Chief of Staff, just give the order, we will all obey without question!" Tie Lu was the highest-ranking of the three, so it was most appropriate for him to express his determination.

"Yes, Chief of Staff, wherever you order us to strike, my missile battalion will strike!" Pang Chenggong hurriedly replied. Chen Jiang knew that the A Battalion was created by Gao Jianjun, but as the army commander, he had no time to attend to the daily work of the battalion. So, nominally, it was under Gao Jianjun's direct command, but in reality, it was managed by Cheng Guoqiang.

Pang Chenggong's missile battalion was probably temporarily transferred from the Second Artillery Corps by Cheng Guoqiang, since there was no such unit as a missile battalion in the army group.

"Commander, are you asking us to cooperate in carrying out the 'decapitation' mission?" Chen Jiang noticed Cheng Guoqiang staring at him and knew he wanted to see if Chen Jiang's thoughts aligned with Cheng's.

As soon as Chen Jiang said those words, Cheng Guoqiang immediately laughed.

"That's right. Our Blue Army has too few options. A direct confrontation or a defensive strategy will only lead to defeat. So we can only take the 'decapitation' route. We will use Team A to locate the Red Army's command post and then guide the missile units to annihilate the enemy from a distance."

"This requires your two units to work together closely and in close cooperation. As long as you can accomplish this, the exercise will be a complete victory, and the results of the ground troops will be irrelevant."

Cheng Guoqiang's thoughts were exactly as Chen Jiang had predicted.

"Please rest assured, Chief of Staff, we guarantee the mission will be accomplished!"

"Please rest assured, Chief of Staff, we guarantee the mission will be accomplished!"

Railway and Pang Chenggong stood up at attention and answered loudly.

Cheng Guoqiang was very satisfied; this was exactly the kind of morale he wanted. However, when he saw Chen Jiang's solemn expression, his heart skipped a beat.
"Chen Jiang, what's wrong? Do you have any concerns?"

Both Tie Lu and Pang Chenggong turned to look at Chen Jiang. Normally, when a superior asks such a question, subordinates would stand up and express their determination to cooperate.

But Chen Jiang knew that this exercise was not only related to Cheng Guoqiang's promotion, but also determined the future of his information technology team, so he had to be careful.

"Sir, please allow me to ask a few questions."

“Go ahead and ask.” Cheng Guoqiang sat down. He knew that Chen Jiang was always a steady person. Half a month before the exercise, when he learned that the A team was under the command of the Blue Army, Gao Jianjun told him that Chen Jiang, that young man, was very capable of coming up with ideas at critical moments, even though he was young and inexperienced!

Moreover, in all the exercises, "decapitation" operations have been his specialty.

Therefore, he was still willing to listen to Chen Jiang's opinion.

After receiving Cheng Guoqiang's approval, Chen Jiang immediately got to the point, asking in a tactical assessment tone:
"Battalion Commander Pang, what are the maximum effective range and CEP (Circular Error Probable) of the missile systems deployed by your unit? How effective are they at penetrating and damaging hardened underground targets?"

Pang Chenggong's eyes narrowed. Chen Jiang's question directly pointed to the core operational parameters of missiles, which were clearly not something an outsider could talk about in general terms.

He immediately and seriously replied to each question. Cheng Guoqiang was very perceptive and immediately understood Chen Jiang's intention in asking the question.

"Chen Jiang, do you mean the other side will move its command post out of the missile's effective range?" But as soon as he said that, he felt it was unrealistic, because the exercise area was regulated, and it was unlikely that this area would avoid the missile's attack range.

"No, avoiding their range is too difficult, but they can hide in underground fortifications, then our missiles will be useless."

Chen Jiang knew that the United States would use high-performance bunker buster bombs with precision-guided technology, and that they could even penetrate ventilation ducts to attack.

However, we obviously do not have such advanced weapons at present, and ordinary missiles have very limited destructive effect on solid underground concrete fortifications.

“Indeed, if the Red Army command really did run into an underground air-raid shelter, our missiles really wouldn’t have any good countermeasures,” Pang Chenggong said dejectedly.

Upon hearing this, Cheng Guoqiang's heart sank. If Chen Jiang could think of something, how could the other party not know it? Even if he didn't know, with so many outstanding talents below, it was impossible for them not to notice this issue.

Therefore, the success rate of their plan can be said to be extremely low.

Thinking of this, Cheng Guoqiang frowned. "So, according to you, our method simply won't work?"

The mention of railways gave them a headache. If taking risky tactics didn't work, they could only resort to conventional methods. But with the Red Army's "wealth and resources," they could wear down the Blue Army even if it meant attrition warfare.

Looking at it this way, it's practically a dead end!
"Commendations, we don't necessarily have to use missiles. If they're foolish enough not to run underground, we can remotely guide missiles to bomb them. But if they do run underground, the small drones in my squadron can come in handy!"

Chen Jiang was very confident in the small drones. Such things would be almost unsolvable on the international battlefield in the future. In addition, with their newly developed electronic jammers and multi-functional individual soldier communication equipment, the squadron's elite teams would definitely be able to operate at close range and launch drones to solve the mission that even missiles could not accomplish with suicide bombs.

Chen Jiang's statement made Pang Chenggong scoff. In his view, drones were just toys. If the other side really ran into the underground bunker, then they were completely finished.

Cheng Guoqiang was also somewhat skeptical about the new tactics Chen Jiang had mentioned, because he had not seen the testing of the new equipment. However, Gao Jianjun had a strange confidence in Chen Jiang, so Cheng Guoqiang could only be considered half-believing and half-doubting.

Only the railway was impressed by Chen Jiang's words. Chen Jiang's squadron was now vastly different from what it used to be. If Yuan Lang's squadron was an invincible steel blade in the past, then Chen Jiang's squadron had been forged into an unbreakable hammer.

"Chief of Staff, I think since Chen Jiang said that, he must be confident." The railway station staff came out to encourage Chen Jiang.

"If that's the case, does that mean there's nothing for our missile battalion to do?" Pang Chenggong was a little discouraged when he saw that Cheng Guoqiang had also sided with Chen Jiang. Otherwise, this would have been a great opportunity for their missile unit to show their skills.

His unit doesn't get many opportunities to show its face, since it operates in a different order of operations from the regular army. The fact that his superiors sent him out to participate in the exercise is actually a bold attempt to modernize the unit, so he cherishes it all the more.

Even though he was assigned to the Blue Team this time, it didn't matter to him. Missiles? It's not close combat. No matter how many planes or tanks you have, can you stop missiles?
"No, Battalion Commander Pang, your missile battalion will not only not be idle, but will be put to great use!" Chen Jiang stated firmly.

(End of this chapter)