Chapter Fifty-Four Steel Was Made This Way Five

  In the marshy land, there are some wet and soft muddy areas. These black flat lands where not even a blade of grass grows are quagmires. The ground covered with green moss like a carpet is often a dangerous trap.

  Zi Yunfei used a wooden stick to probe the road in front of the team, following the swamp escape method taught by the instructors. He walked along the positions where trees and weeds grew, as these places were absolutely safe. However, there were also some areas with no grass growing, and it was impossible to jump over or bypass them. At this time, he would use the wooden stick to test whether the ground was hard.

  All the students stepped on the road surface he had trodden, and their pace became extremely slow.

  After twenty-two hours of sleep deprivation, the scenery in front of Ziyunfei became increasingly blurred. He shook his head vigorously to drive away the annoying drowsiness, but within a minute, the drowsiness attacked again. He was actually dozing off while walking.

  Suddenly, one foot stepped on the black soft mud like cotton, he suddenly felt a strong suction force coming from under his feet, and the sleepy insect ran away without a trace. He struggled to pull his foot out, but found that the powerful force was pulling him down into the ground, his two legs were already submerged in the mud pit up to the thigh root, and in just one blink of an eye, the black mud had swallowed his waist.

  Behind him was Chu Heng, who saw him sink deeper and couldn't help but panic, forgetting the instructor's instructions on how to escape from the swamp, and stood still in a daze.

  Zhan Peng, who was slightly taller than Chu Heng, heard the unusual movement in front and looked forward from Chu Heng's shoulder. At a glance, he immediately shouted: "No. 19, don't move! Don't struggle! Lean back as much as possible! No. 17, get down quickly, what are you stunned!"

  Zhan Peng shouted as he took off his backpack and pulled out a rope, throwing the end of it with all his might towards Qi Yunfei.

  Zi Yunfei hastily grabbed the rope, while Zhang Peng shouted: "Posts 33 and 42, be on alert! Posts 7 and 17, get down and help me pull the rope!"

  Ding Licheng and Yang Zhiyong immediately stood guard with their guns, while Chu Heng and Xiao Wei crawled slowly to either side of Zhan Peng, the three of them using six hands to pull on the rope together, slowly pulling Qi Yunfei out of the mud pit.

  A search helicopter happened to be flying over the heads of the trainees, it quickly flew back, and once the trainees gave a signal, it would immediately lower the rope to lift them up, but this would also mean that they would be judged as failing the task. None of the six trainees paid any attention to it. The helicopter continued to circle until Ziqing Fei was completely pulled to safety before flying away in disappointment.

  Qī Yún flew to the ground, panting like a cow, and cursed: "Damn it, capsized in a ditch." He slowly crawled up with a body full of stench. At this time, they were still about 200 meters away from the edge of the swamp.

  Six people slowly moved out of the swamp, Zhan Peng frowned and sniffed at the stench on Qi Yunfei's body, saying: "We must find a water source to clean up this muddy smell, it can be smelled two miles away."

  Xiao Wei let out a "heh" and laughed, "If you didn't know any better, you'd think 19 had fallen into the toilet."

  "Ah!" Qi Yunfei took off his backpack and held it in his hand, looking around and finding a deeper water surface at the edge of the swamp. After much effort, he finally washed the mud off his body and backpack. He asked Zhan Peng: "Is there still a bad smell?"

  Chu Heng put his nose close to him and sniffed randomly, laughing and saying: "It's odorless now, you'd better wash it clean thoroughly, or your nurse will kick you into the ditch with one foot."

  Qī Yún Fēi stretched out his leg and kicked him, chuckling: "You want her to kick you, but she's not even willing!"

  "Stop messing around! Focus!" Zhan Peng scanned the surrounding mountains and forests, saying in a low voice: "There are too many hidden spots in the valley ahead, it's easy to be ambushed. We have fewer people, can't search thoroughly. I suggest going around from the mountain slope, but we'll need to walk an extra 4 or 5 kilometers. Does everyone agree?"

  Xiao Wei said in a low voice: "Agreed." The other students also expressed no objection. Zhan Peng waved his hand to indicate continued advancement.

  Qī Yún Fēi sprang up from the ground with his backpack on, and ran to the forefront to scout ahead.

  Xiao Wei walked towards his position, patting Zhang Peng's shoulder and smiling: "I find that you are more and more like a captain." He chuckled and walked forward, giving Zhang Peng a thumbs up along the way.

  The team moved up the slope, Qi Yunfei walked very carefully, he had to search every suspicious spot before signaling the team to move forward. The whole team slowly climbed over the slope without encountering any ambushes, and Zhan Peng's heart was filled with even more doubt.

  Zi Yunfei let out a breath of relief, thinking there was no danger here, and he had already started accelerating.

  Less than a kilometer ahead on the downhill road, Ding Licheng suddenly found that the grassland on the right side was somewhat out of sync, with two clusters of grass showing an obvious yellowish tint. This should be the inevitable reaction of the weeds inserted in the camouflage clothes after being exposed to the sun for days. He shouted loudly: "Right wing!"

  Xiao Wei's voice was also heard shouting in his ear: "Number 15, left wing!"

  Xiao Wei and Ding Licheng's guns rang out simultaneously with the shout, hitting the grass mound. Qi Yunfei's bullets arrived immediately after, and it was seen that the two battalions on the left wing, which had been attacked by the grass mound, rolled continuously to the back of the trees, and then fired a string of blank shells at them.

  "Everyone scatter! 17 and 33, suppress the right flank!" Zhang Peng shouted as he rolled into a clump of weeds, his sniper rifle taking quick aim at a grassy mound on the left flank before firing a shot. The grassy mound nimbly rolled to one side, and the bullet missed its mark.

  Two clumps of grass on the right flank suddenly jumped up, and two instructors hiding on the right flank appeared at the same time, rapidly closing in on the trainees. Yang Zhiyong's machine gun and Chu Heng's rifle fired wildly at them. Chu Heng tossed a practice hand grenade towards the right flank, without checking the explosion results, he rolled continuously to avoid the counterattack, fleeing in disarray.

  Two instructors hid behind a rock, setting up a defensive position. Yang Zhiyong and Chu Heng continuously fired at them, temporarily suppressing their counterattack.

  Two left-wing instructors dodged the first wave of bullets, holding assault rifles and quickly moving between multiple pre-selected positions, continuously firing at the trainees.

  The trainees continued to roll, and Zhang Peng shouted: "Number 7, Number 19, suppressive fire! Number 42, hand grenade cover!" He raised his sniper rifle and aimed at the instructor on the left wing through the scope.

  Ding Licheng continuously threw three hand grenades to the left wing, and Qi Yunfei and Xiao Wei's assault rifles "dada" kept spitting out flames, covering Ding Licheng as he relocated his position.

  However, the instructors' experience in moving under a hail of bullets was far richer than theirs. Seizing the opportunity when Qi Yunfei changed magazines, the students' firepower suppression appeared to have an opening, and an instructor suddenly jumped up and fired at Zhan Peng with one shot, and red smoke immediately burst out from Zhan Peng's body.

  Another instructor freed his hand, pulled out two grenades and threw them into the middle of the students. With a loud "Boom Boom", Qi Yunfei and Ding Lichen were smoked out, sitting on the ground in a daze.

  Seeing the situation was critical, the captain "died in battle", according to regulations Chu Heng should take over as captain, he immediately shouted: "Machine gun left wing suppression!"

  Yang Zhiyong hugged the machine gun and swept across his body to the left wing, and two instructors immediately fell into the grass. However, Chu Heng forgot about the two instructors on the right wing, who had taken advantage of this firepower gap to move out from behind the defensive position. After a few shots rang out, the remaining three team members simultaneously burst out with red smoke, and the entire student team was "killed".

  "Idiot! Why didn't you use a smoke bomb?" A instructor scolded and threw them new smoke bombs, ordering: "Captain 17, continue advancing!"

  Jin Huan, who had been observing from a distant mountain ridge, put down his binoculars and let out a gentle sigh. "Held on for five minutes, an improvement over last night. This captain is somewhat capable of commanding, but unfortunately lacks combat experience, and the division of labor among team members during battle is not very clear."

  "Just grind them a few more times, this team is much better than the one we saw earlier." Chen Jianfeng, standing next to him, also put down his binoculars and said to Xu Mingliang behind him in a calm tone: "Overall, all the snipers are too tender, they obviously don't know what to do when facing the enemy. After the training is over, gather them together, I'll help them practice."

  Xu Mingliang was overjoyed and exclaimed: "Great! You're willing to guide them, these few stinky brats are really lucky!"

  Jin Hao handed the binoculars to Cheng Xiaopeng, who was standing upright beside him, and pointed at Xu Mingliang with a smile: "Let's go, let's go, we said we'd come fishing, but this kid brought us here instead."

  Chen Jianfeng laughed and said, "If he really wanted to go fishing with us, why did he take us 200 kilometers away? Is there no fish in the river next to the training camp?"

  Xu Mingliang chuckled "heh heh" and lowered his head, scratching his neck without making a sound.

  Change into new smoke cans. Chu Heng used Ding Licheng as the vanguard, replacing the tired Qi Yunfei, maintaining the team formation when Zhan Peng was the captain, and the student team continued on their way.

  The students felt a bit downhearted, having been "killed" twice in less than thirty hours, with still a long way to go.

  Walking gloomily, Zhan Peng counted his steps silently while recalling the battle process just now, carefully grasping his own mistakes.

  Qiyun flew over and handed him a piece of dried meat, asking in a low voice: "What are you thinking about?"

  "I've been thinking, what was wrong with the command just now?" Zhan Peng stuffed the dried meat into his mouth and searched around while eating.

  "What's there to think about? The old guys have way more combat experience than us, it's normal to lose a game or two." Qi Yunfei shrugged, with an expression of "it's only natural".

  "It's not like that, we only have twelve chances, and we must summarize the lessons to avoid the same mistakes next time." Zhan Peng frowned at his careless appearance.

  "I also think we should make a tactical summary." Chu Heng, as the team leader, seemed to have not yet entered his role, walked two steps from his command position and asked Zhan Peng: "Or shall we stop and discuss it?"

  Zhan Peng walked while opening the map, calculated the mileage, and felt that time was still sufficient. He nodded and said, "Okay, let everyone stop for a moment."

  He and Qi Yunfei cast their eyes on Chu Heng, who was stunned for a moment before remembering that he was the captain. He rubbed his nose awkwardly and shouted: "Halt!"