Chapter Ten: Ambush (Part Two)

  "The thermal imager didn't capture the object, the target has anti-infrared equipment." The voice of Ma Ping came urgently through the earphones, he was apparently somewhat flustered.

  "Jackals retreat!" With the infrared equipment, Ma Ping staying behind could only become a target. Receiving the order, Ma Ping reluctantly and slowly crawled backward in retreat.

  "Leopard, I'm at your two o'clock position, 200 meters away." The voice of Long Fei came through the headset, he was one of the reinforcements who had rushed up.

  "Understood!" With a low response from Jin Huang, Long Fei pulled up the camouflage net to cover his head, and at the bottom of the bush, he crawled in a worm-like speed for over ten meters towards Jin Huang's direction, and drilled into a gap in a camphor tree. He picked up a withered wood bundle tied with rope, threw it forcefully towards Jin Huang's hiding spot, then slowly pulled it back, the withered wood passing through the grass cluster, the grass cluster swaying to open up a gap, from afar it seemed like someone was moving quickly.

  "Bang!" A bullet hit the rope.

  "5 o'clock, 200 meters." As soon as Jin Huan's voice fell, Chen Jianfeng held his breath, and the muzzle moved slightly to the left, "Puff" sounded.

  "Clear!" As the gun fired, Chen Jianfeng rolled over to the three o'clock position and transferred to the open area in front of the forest. At eleven o'clock and two o'clock positions, a faint muzzle flash emerged from the woods, and two bullets "cracked" into the tree trunk.

  Jin Huan carefully searched the 2 o'clock position, a dense clump of grass slowly retreating. He sneered, raising his AUG and slowly aiming at a thin stick moving horizontally in the grass with an 8x scope. Two minutes later, the stick slowly moved towards Jin Huan, the grass slightly lifted upwards, and the enemy sniper was looking up to observe. Jin Huan hooked his index finger, the distance was too close, the bullet hit the opponent flying out half a meter away, falling to the ground motionless.

  "Two o'clock, clear!" Jin Huan jumped up and ran in a zigzag pattern, "Rat-a-tat-tat" A burst of gunfire chased his footsteps, causing the branches and leaves of the trees beside him to fly horizontally. This was the sniper covering fire from the 2 o'clock direction shooting at Jin Huan.

  "Rat-a-tat-tat!" The AUG in Long Fei's hand rang out, and the dense burst of fire didn't give the opponent time to dodge, and they fell to the ground with a thud. Taking advantage of this brief moment, Jin Huan rushed head-first into the bushes. However, this also allowed the enemy sniper at the 11 o'clock position to pinpoint Long Fei's location, "Bang bang" two consecutive shots, Long Fei rolled and flipped to change positions.

  Chen Jianfeng's gun muzzle slightly shifted to the left, instantly locking onto the target. "One hundred percent!" As soon as Chen Jianfeng spoke, the enemy sniper who had jumped up to change positions had a burst of blood explode from his head and fell straight into the puddle.

  The forest gradually returned to calmness, the lingering gun smoke and faint mist mixed together, and were soon blown away by the wind.

  "Report in!" Jin Hao pressed down on the tactical radio.

  "White Fox, all normal, finished."

  "Hawk all normal, finished."

  "Fall back!" Jin Hao ordered in a low voice.

  Three people took turns covering each other as they retreated to the rest point, and the assault team members quietly and agilely surrounded them. Jin Hwang lowered his head, biting the water pipe on the edge of his collar, taking a sip of water and swallowing slowly.

  "Golden..."

  Ma Ping had just opened his mouth when Jin Huan waved his hand at him, "This isn't your fault, the other side is well-equipped, everyone's wearing infrared-proof clothing. Brothers, from the firepower exchange just now, it can be seen that the opponent has a lot of experience in jungle warfare, don't underestimate them! When we make contact again, we must pay attention to concealment and be careful not to expose our muzzle flashes! Got it?

  "Understood!" The team members responded in unison.

  "We've obviously walked into an ambush carefully laid out by the enemy, from now on until we reach our destination, there will definitely be many more such ambushes along this road, everyone must be doubly cautious." Chen Jianfeng's voice was as calm as water, his gaze swept over the faces of the team members with a satisfied look.

  "Get your gear in order, prepare to depart." Jin Huan took out a large map and divided the route into several target points on the map for the team members to see. "White Fox, Monkey lead the vanguard, advance in a V-formation search pattern, head towards the first marker point. Note that we need to spread out our skirmish line."

  "I understand!"

  The squad passed through the open area where they had just fought and entered a denser jungle, with dry branches and leaves covering the ground. The humid and sultry weather turned these fallen leaves into ankle-deep mud pits, making it difficult to move forward. The squad's progress was slow, and Jin Huan looked down at his watch, which already showed 10 pm. They were not far from the first checkpoint.

  Long Fei suddenly flew his hand to signal a stop, and with Cheng Xiaopeng, they swiftly pounced on the two large trees behind them.

  Jin Huang spat out a mouthful of air, knowing that the second ambush was imminent. He immediately ordered: "Hunting Eagle and Mountain Eagle set up sniper positions, Jackal use thermal imaging to search the opposite forest, Light Bulb be vigilant behind, others hide." The team members immediately hid their guns and controlled their search angles, preparing for battle.

  "White Fox?" Jin Huan pressed down on the intercom.

  "Unknown."

  Lin Jie found a tree with an extremely large canopy and climbed to the top after three or two attempts, "In position." He whispered softly in his earpiece.

  Ma Ping used the thermal imager to sweep across the opposite side, "One, 100 meters, single target." This time the thermal imager had a harvest.

  Lin Jie, hiding in the tree, moved slightly, his target was framed in his scope, the SVD with a silencer jumped lightly, and as the muzzle flashed, he had already leaped down from the tree. A burst of machine gun bullets "rattled" on the trunk where he was hiding. He fled at high speed without looking back, and a figure darted out from under the tree and took cover behind a fallen tree trunk.

  Ma Ping and Long Fei immediately raised their guns to return fire, covering Cheng Xiaopeng as he launched a 35mm high-explosive grenade. "Boom" With the explosion, a miserable cry rang out from the other side, the enemy machine gunner was blown in two, and the machine gun fell silent.

  A minute passed, and there was no sound from either side. Lei Meng couldn't help but poke his head out slightly, and immediately heard Chen Jianfeng's cold voice in the earpiece: "Lei Gong, don't move, sniper." Lei Meng quickly retreated behind the tree.

  Jin Hao took a glance at the thermal imager beside him, then raised his night vision scope to peer out through the gap in the bushes. At the same time, Chen Jianfeng's sniper scope was also moving slowly, searching for targets.

  "Three hundred meters, grenade launcher, prepare to clear." Jin Huan's voice was extremely low.

  "Target clear, locked, ready to fire at any time." The voice in the headset was as calm as water, Chen Jianfeng had already fully entered the sniping state, and now even if a shell exploded beside him, it would not shake him.

  "Three o'clock, one hundred meters, sniper." Jin Huan's voice came again.

  "Understood!" With Lin Jie's low response, "Puff" sounded, and the sniper's head in the three o'clock direction suddenly burst out a big blood flower, and was knocked down by the impact of the bullet. The enemy grenade launcher in the one o'clock direction suddenly jumped up to launch a grenade at Lin Jie's position, Chen Jianfeng's G3SG fired, and the 7.2mm bullet "puffed" through his heart and into the big tree behind him.

  "Clear!" With Chen Jianfeng's clear voice, "Rat-a-tat..." The M249 machine gun in Lei Meng's hand burst into a non-stop joyful shout. The enemy observer at the three o'clock position immediately fell into a rain of bullets.

  Long Fei continuously rolled away from the hidden point, a long shot knocked down an enemy observer who was watching from the side.

  The forest fell into a silence, the wind grew stronger, blowing away the floating clouds, and the bright moonlight shone through the gaps in the trees onto the empty space between them.

  "Don't move!" Jin Huan whispered.

  Seven or eight minutes later, there was still no movement in the woods.

  "White Fox, take a look back and be aware of hidden dangers!" Jin Huan ordered in a low voice.

  "Understood!" Long Fei flew past, and after advancing about 50 meters, he suddenly felt the ground beneath his right foot move slightly. A mountain vine buried in the fallen leaves sprang up with a "whoosh".

  Trap! He suddenly pounced to the side, and the rope made of mountain wisteria brushed against his body and swung open. A figure behind a tree rushed towards him, and a tightly clenched fist came crashing towards him. Before he could react, Long Fei's body suddenly leaned back, avoiding the fatal punch. Seeing that the punch missed its mark, the opponent changed the fist to a palm and slashed at Long Fei's abdomen. After falling to the ground, Long Fei immediately rolled over to the left to avoid it.

  "Sniper, pay attention." Jin Huan knew that Long Fei could handle himself completely, what he was worried about was whether there were any guns pointing at Long Fei around them.

  Two consecutive moves failed, the attacker angrily shouted "FUCK!" and took advantage of his large body to pounce on Long Fei from mid-air, with both hands reaching for Long Fei's neck. Long Fei's body shrunk back, and he quickly pulled out a dagger tied to his left calf, swinging it with his left hand, a cold light flashing towards the attacker's soft ribs. The attacker was in mid-air, unable to dodge, and could only raise his right arm to block, "whoosh" sound, the dagger stabbed into his right arm. The attacker let out a painful cry, already fallen to the ground, pulled out a Glock 7-type pistol from the holster, Long Fei's dagger flew out of his hand, "plop" sound, inserted between the attacker's eyes, straight in until the handle.

  Pushing away the attacker's corpse that had fallen on him, Long Fei didn't even take a moment to catch his breath. He sprang up and moved stealthily through the forest like a mountain cat, covering some distance before kneeling down to carefully search with night vision binoculars. Then he pressed the transmitter and said "Safe!"

  "White Fox vanguard, advance one kilometer and search for a campsite. Jackals and monkeys follow up. Once the campsite is confirmed, establish defense immediately! Others stay in place!" Jin Huan decided to let the troops rest temporarily.

  Half an hour later, the team members were eating compressed biscuits at the campsite and resting comfortably against a large tree.

  "Leopard, I've set up a defensive perimeter around the campsite. Within a 100-meter radius, I've laid out 30 infrared sensors in a circular pattern. The alarm signal is connected to everyone's radio. Within an 80-meter radius, I've buried 8 US-made steel ball anti-personnel mines and 3 kg of C-4 explosives, set up for remote detonation. This is the detonator."

  Jin Huang took over the detonator from his hand, "Turn on the radio and see if there's any message coming from the old nest."

  "Yes!" Ma Ping replied, opening a military laptop.

  "Attention all, except sentries, take a rest as soon as possible. We will depart at 3:00 AM sharp."

  Long Fei walked over and looked at Ma Ping fiddling with his laptop, saying in a low voice: "Leopard, I just searched around and none of the bodies had satellite phones or any other communication tools. It's likely that their accomplices haven't discovered we're here yet."

  Jin Huang pondered for a moment, "I reckon they've known we're coming all along, otherwise the ambush wouldn't have been set up so perfectly. They just underestimated us."

  Chen Jianfeng sat down beside him and handed him a compressed biscuit, "I've been thinking about this too, it seems like we've always been led by the nose."

  "I have the same feeling." Jin Huan opened up the map, used GPS to determine their location, and pointed at a mountain valley they had to pass through, saying: "You see, if they set up three snipers at the mouth of this valley, we'll be completely annihilated."

  Long Fei muttered softly, carefully examining the map. After a while, he pointed to a winding road and said: "Change the route of march, go around from here, need to walk 50 kilometers more mountain roads, but this road should be safer, they don't have so many troops to fully control."

  "This road may not be blocked, but there must be a minefield. When you're the vanguard, you have to be extra careful." Chen Jianfeng pointed at a thin line on the map and said: "This place is definitely a canyon, we'll need to set up a rope bridge to cross it."

  "Let's go this way, quietly slipping past their flank. At our marching speed, by the time they discover us and give chase, it will already be too late."

  Three people made a plan and lay down in their sleeping bags. Before long, Long Fei started snoring softly.

  Chen Jianfeng put his backpack under him and lay down, "The guest should have returned home by now?"

  Jin Huang also leaned against his backpack and closed his eyes. "According to plan, we should arrive at 4 pm this afternoon."

  The moonlight fell quietly on Chen Jianfeng's face, his position was just opposite a gap in the trees, and with one glance, the stars twinkled, beautifully and deeply, like countless sparkling jewels, shining with moving colors. He suddenly thought of the night he and Lin Ruolan watched the stars together on the mountain top, and a bitter smile appeared at the corner of his mouth. Suddenly, he thought of a sentence: "There will always be such kind of men in the world, who likes someone simply hopes she is doing well, he can be happy with all his heart, even if he can't have her, as long as he can see her from afar, seeing her beautiful smile slowly blooming because of another person's love and care, her happiness is his own happiness."

  Gently exhaling a breath of air, slowly closing his eyes, but in front of him appeared that pair of clear and transparent eyes.

  "Leopard, old nest telegram." Ma Ping's urgent voice made Jin Huan and Chen Jianfeng jump up suddenly. "Just received a sudden telegram from the radio station: The male guest has privately entered the mountain and is currently out of contact, asking if we have met him."

  Jin Huang was shocked! "Ask clearly what's going on?"

  Ma Ping encrypted the password and sent it over with a burst transmitter. Five minutes later, he received a reply: "The old nest replied that when they arrived at the airport this afternoon, the male passenger was still there, but suddenly disappeared before boarding the plane. The female passenger said he came into the mountains to look for us, and insisted on personally confirming the engine wreckage. Cold Arrow assisted Lin in searching the mountains, and they also brought Nightingale (Yang Xinxin) along."

  "Damn it!" Jin Hwang was furious and punched the tree trunk beside him. The team members woke up from their sleep, quickly jumped up and hid themselves.

  "It's okay, everyone take a rest." Chen Jianfeng gently pulled Jin Huan's sleeve, and the team members returned to their respective resting places, but instead of resting, they looked at Jin Huan with suspicion. Chen Jianfeng whispered to Ma Ping: "Ask them what equipment they brought, can we get in touch?"

  Jin Huan took a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down. His hands were shaking slightly, but his rich experience in jungle warfare made him more aware than anyone else of the dangers of entering the primeval forest without any survival training. The phrase "strong limbs and simple brain" did not apply to Jin Huan at all - apart from his powerful physical strength, he also possessed a sharp mind and clear thinking. So he quickly recovered from the shock, and his brain, which had been buzzing with impact for an instant, began to operate at high speed. He grabbed the map and started analyzing it carefully.

  "Two Type 92 handguns, two Type 03 assault rifles, and enough ammunition to last us at the embassy." Ma Ping had never seen his battalion commander lose his composure before, so he spoke with extra caution: "They were carrying laptops, but lost contact three hours ago. HQ judged that they entered an enemy electronic jamming zone, and the signal sent out before the disruption came from this area." He pointed to a location on the map.

  Long Fei's eyebrows furrowed, he looked at Chen Jianfeng who was also frowning and Jin Huan who was intently studying the map, "We have to send someone to find them, otherwise in this primitive forest, a wounded person with two untrained ordinary people, and following a possible traitor...and possibly encountering deadly mercenaries at any time..." Thinking of the string of potential fatal dangers, Long Fei couldn't continue.

  "Entering the electronic screen blind zone indicates danger, it's terrible! How can we find her in such a large forest?" Chen Jianfeng's index finger tapped on the gun handle, his mind was a bit confused, he hated to take up his equipment and rush into the vast primitive forest as soon as possible, to bring Lin Ruolan back at the fastest speed. The longer they delayed, the greater the danger would be. He could feel the extremely frightening destructive power emanating from Jin Huan's body - something that even he couldn't resist.

  Jin Huang's heart was filled with anxiety, almost unable to hold himself together, but he controlled his nearly collapsing spirit with a strong and stable self-control, restoring the calmness that had been lost. His facial expression remained as cold and composed as ice, and after thinking for a moment, he said, "I'll go find them, starting from the area where we lost contact. I must find them quickly, especially since Ye Ying is with me, I can't be at ease. Leng Jian is an old soldier, he should have left marks along the way. As long as I find these marks, everything will be fine." He took over his backpack and began to organize his equipment, "You all continue to move forward, following the route we discussed earlier. Once I find them, I'll immediately come back to catch up with you."

  Chen Jianfeng handed the G3SG in his hand to Jin Huan, "Take this, it might come in handy. I can use the M82A1. You can't go alone, after all, this is a primitive forest. Dēngpào, hóuzi, you two follow Bao."

  Jin Huang hesitated for a moment, took over the sniper rifle, "Monkey stays behind, Lamp follows me."

  Xu Mingliang responded with a sound and immediately began to pack his backpack.

  Chen Jianfeng grabbed Jin Huang's arm, "Bring the monkey along, one more person means one more share of strength. If...". He suddenly stopped and after a few seconds continued: "If something unexpected happens to our guest, both you and I will regret it for life."

  Jin Huang was taken aback for a moment, and a flash of understanding quickly passed through his deep black eyes. He slung his backpack over his shoulder: "Lamp, Monkey, follow me!" Picking up his gun, he looked at Chen Jianfeng with determination: "I will definitely find them back!"

  Three people quickly disappeared into the dark depths of the jungle.