Chapter 40
Greed and cruelty are a kind of original sin, and also the root of all evil.
Author's note
This is a memory that even the warm sunlight cannot penetrate.
Watching comrades who relied on each other fall one by one, the next day waking up to an empty house that had lost its usual bustle, the survivors dressing alone, huddling together for warmth in solitude. The shock was not just to the pride of being a special forces soldier.
Ever since the inexplicable fight with three mercenaries, life seems to have calmed down all at once. Team members get up normally every day for meals and training, and the days are dull but happy. During this time, they also frequently go out on escort missions, no matter how long or short the journey is, everything goes smoothly without any surprises or dangers. Liu Junhao says it's his credit because he has been praying to heaven recently, and it must be that heaven was moved by him, so there are such happy days. Shao Hui asked him what religion he believed in, but no matter how hard Liu Junhao tried, he couldn't come up with an answer, so he said he admired a goddess in his heart and thought of her silently every day. Left Ming heard this and suddenly remembered something, came over to search Liu Junhao's body, finally found the photo of his girlfriend, and left with satisfaction, leaving Liu Junhao speechless.
Shao Hui said it's now a bit too calm, with a taste of the eerie silence before a storm. Zuo Ming said he was being overly anxious, and Shao Hui replied "I hope so".
March 28, 2006, night, base dormitory.
Tonight, the temperature is very low, and even the heating in the house can't withstand the cold air that's everywhere. The poor people of Baserra only have a small stone or mud hut to live in, with a thin blanket on the ground serving as a bed. The winter season in this country is extremely long, so the people here are very resistant to the cold. On winter nights, even sentries standing guard wear short sleeves, but many people can't survive the harsh winter that can be deadly. As the snowflakes fall and melt on the land, by midnight, everyone except for the sentries and armed attackers has retreated into their beds to warm up, with only a few insomniacs still exercising.
Seven hundred and sixty-six... seven hundred and sixty-seven... seven hundred and sixty-eight... Zhao Zhenghao was doing push-ups while shouting slogans, his teammates were also doing push-ups with their feet on the head of their beds. The room was filled with a strong smell of sweat and heavy breathing sounds. Every person's sweat formed a human shape on the ground. Liu Junhao had placed his girlfriend's photo on the ground, every time he did a push-up, he could kiss the person in the photo. Gradually, the photo became wet from the sweat, he carefully picked it up with his mouth and put it away. Left Ming felt relieved, fortunately, he had taken back his girlfriend's photo today, otherwise, it was hard to say whose wife would be on the ground now. After finishing a thousand push-ups, the team members were all drenched in sweat. They walked outside wearing shorts and used snow to wipe off the sweat from their bodies. Back inside, they simply wiped themselves with towels, stretched their waists, and comfortably got into bed, soon falling asleep.
At two o'clock in the morning, Shao Hui turned over, wrapped the quilt tightly and fell asleep sweetly.
He suddenly lifted his head and listened carefully, feeling that something was wrong. He sat up abruptly to wake up his companion, but Zhao Zhenhao signaled him not to make a sound in the dark night. It was only then that he discovered everyone had already woken up and were listening carefully to the outside noise just like him.
Did you hear anything? Shao Hui asked in a low voice.
Zhou Yan said in a low voice, "It seems like there are several explosions coming from far away." The room fell silent, and everyone held their breath to listen carefully. After a while, another faint explosion sound came from outside. Shao Hui picked up the radio and started asking the sentry at the gate, who replied that they also heard the explosion sounds but didn't notice anything else. Zhao Zhenghao suggested in a low voice, "Let's go out and take a look. What if it hits our place again?" Everyone agreed with this proposal, and after putting on their bulletproof vests and loading their ammunition, they opened the door. The biting cold air immediately surrounded them, and the team members quickly ran towards the sentry post, climbing up to a high point to observe from afar. In the distance, there was a vast blackness, except for those few explosions, there was no other movement.
At this time, Su Yuesong was also awakened and rushed to observe the situation. Zhao Zhenghao took the opportunity to vent his grievances: Captain, can't you give us night vision equipment and low-light night scopes? Now that there's a situation at night, we're like blind people who can't see anything. How are we supposed to fight? Su Yuesong looked into the distance and replied: I also want to equip you with more good equipment, but due to some factors, I couldn't rely on domestic supplies, so I could only find them for you here. The equipment you're wearing now is already the best I can do, I hope you understand. Zhao Zhenghao nodded slightly. Everyone waited for a long time, and there was no more explosion sound. Finally, Su Yuesong looked at his watch and said: It's probably someone using mortars or rocket launchers to attack somewhere, they fired their cannons and left. Let's go back to sleep, but we must be vigilant, tonight is not peaceful. The team members followed the instructions and returned to their rooms. For some reason, perhaps because it had been a while since they heard an explosion, tonight's few explosions made everyone feel uneasy, and they simply took off their armor and lay in bed, sleeping with their clothes on.
The next morning, Su Yuesong called the town to inquire about the situation the night before. In a war-torn environment, it is necessary to understand the surrounding situation in the first time to make judgments and decisions to survive. However, the town government did not say anything clear, and at 10 o'clock, Su Yuesong called again to ask, but the other party still couldn't explain what was going on.
Su Yuesong suddenly understood that their inferior roots had acted up again - long-term war would lead to a decline in human morality, and inferior roots would replace morality as the dominant force in people's thoughts and behaviors. The staff who answered the phone were not unaware of the situation, but wanted to take advantage of it to ask for small favors.
Su Yuesong angrily called again, and as soon as he got through, he scolded the other party fiercely. The other party saw that this person must have lived here for a long time to dare to scold so boldly, so they told Su Yuesong what had happened. This is the story of the modern wireless version of "Three Visits to the Thatched Cottage".
Things were simple and terrifying. Last night, Kutala town, adjacent to Dekro town, was attacked by a small group of people. The attackers sneaked into the town like ghosts in the dark of night, killing indiscriminately, and slaughtered the town of Kutala. Even the hundreds of guards were instantly dispersed and fled in fear, abandoning their weapons. The attackers burned, killed, and looted in the town, turning a good town into a dead city in a very short time. They fought all the way to the border of the two towns, feeling unsatisfied, and fired several rockets at Dekro Town before leaving. Some surviving soldiers fled to Dekro for refuge, answering questions with wide eyes full of terror. When asked what kind of people they were, they shook their heads, saying they didn't see clearly how many people there were, only a few shadows in the firelight, and that they shouldn't be many. As for what kind of people they were, they only replied that they weren't human, those were ghostly shadows, yes, hellish spirits' warriors.
"What undead warriors? I saw a group of top-notch mercenaries doing it last night at 10," said Shao Hui.
The international mercenaries are a very mysterious profession in the world and are often stigmatized. There are two reasons why they are called "international": first, they come from all over the world; second, their battlefields are all over the world. Many countries or organizations hire them for many reasons; third, buying lives with money, hiring them to fight on the front lines can reduce the casualties of their own soldiers, thereby attracting more people to join their organization. Some countries also have another purpose, which is to reduce the casualties of their own soldiers, thereby avoiding domestic unrest due to the deaths of large numbers of young soldiers, because all mothers hate war. Secondly, mercenaries are not regular armies and are not bound by international laws of war. When some countries or organizations are inconvenient to show up, they can replace them to implement force, and after the fact, the hiring country can easily shirk responsibility. Again, mercenaries are cheap. At first glance, their salaries are very high, but in reality, it's not as expensive as imagined. If a regular soldier dies in a war, the high compensation and domestic settlement costs are not small sums of money. If the soldier is disabled, the compensation and pension costs are even higher, which can also lead to some negative social impacts. Mercenaries are different; they are purely a life for a sum of money, with an equal sign between them, regardless of whether they live or die. No matter how many mercenaries die in a war, they will not even appear as a number in the media, including recent news reports that a certain team won a victory at a very low cost by throwing away the bodies of countless mercenaries. From this perspective, apart from their enemies, no one treats mercenaries as human beings.
