Chapter Ten Counter Maneuvers

  Munich, in the Strack household, Hal sat with several sheets of stationery intently staring at them. Liliana leaned against Hal's side, her gaze a bit dazed as if thinking about something. It wasn't until Hal finished reading that Liliana came back to herself, and she asked somewhat impatiently: "What did the child write, making you look for so long?"

  Haru tried to hand the letter over, but Liliana refused. "I think you should read it out loud. Seeing the child's handwriting always pains me - I don't know what kind of training would make him unable to even write with strength."

  Ha'er is a bit silent, but as a husband, a father and the head of the family, he must be strong.

  "Karl is doing well; he has completed the training prescribed by his instructor like a man. The boy inquired after us in his letter, merely a regular family letter."

  Liliana chose to believe her husband's words, unaware that the letter was actually Xu Yang's suggestion to the family to improve the 1928-style rifle. In the letter, Xu Yang urgently requested that Hal speed up his pace, as time was not waiting for anyone, and no matter what difficulties lay ahead, he had to complete the military-industrial transformation before 1935.

  Xu Yang once made a grand and difficult suggestion to Hal, which is what Hal is currently doing, trying his best to help his own son fulfill his dreams.

  ……

  In the dead of night, in the woods next to the Young Sprouts training base, 38 trainees were divided into two teams for a confrontation exercise. The objective was simple: capture or annihilate the imaginary enemy, with no holds barred. The deadline was set at 5 am; failure to complete the mission would result in punishment from the instructors.

  Xu Yang was assigned to the second team, where he led a squad consisting of Galirhi, Olin, Danso, Mijel, Mahan, Baral, Hohenzollern and Diba.

  At this time they were forming a circle with raincoats blocking out the light and discussing the ambush point.

  Shen Feng Dansu (Book Club [Fog] participating role) is a very handsome boy, fifteen years old this year. His movements are very agile and he is good at observing the terrain. He borrowed a tactical flashlight to observe the terrain: "There's a depression here, with weeds on both sides providing cover, making it a great ambush point."

  Xu Yang asked: "How many people can this pit hold?"

  "Three! Only three can be accommodated, any more will expose us."

  Xu Yang asked seriously, "Are you sure that's the most likely passage for them?" After getting Dan Su's affirmative answer, he nodded at three people, "Baral will be the main force, Mahan will cover, and Diba, you'll be Baral's deputy. Your task is to help Baral determine the attack target. The others will scatter and hide on both sides to provide firepower support... Galirishi, stop fiddling with your gun, beware of accidental discharge!"

  Only one person, Baral (Book Friends Group [Ace Sniper] participating role), had a weapon in his hand that was different from others. He held a Mauser 98 improved rifle, which is very suitable for sniping.

  Xu Yang emphasized: "Baral must hit the enemy commander at the first time, fire and then quickly transfer, understand?"

  The light was too dim to discern Baral's expression, but he heard him say in a firm tone that he had already understood.

  Xu Yang asked again: "Aolin, did you record it?"

  Xu Yang must set up tactics within a certain time, Olin records Xu Yang's tactics and then hands over the record to the assistant coach. The confrontation will be determined by the arrangement between the team leaders, which is a test of the team leader's overall planning ability and coordination with teammates. After Olin finishes recording, he must immediately hand it over to the assistant coach. When the confrontation exercise begins, they have to enter the exercise area immediately.

  Aulin didn't answer, he turned off the flashlight and quickly ran into the darkness, probably about a minute later he came back, this also shows that the referee is not far from them. Aulin said briefly: "The confrontation will begin in five minutes."

  Xu Yang ordered the team members to synchronize their watches and check their equipment. The bullets in their magazines were blank rounds specifically for training, each person was equipped with five magazines, and the first team to run out of ammunition would be considered eliminated. They did not have hand grenades or machine guns.

  ……

  Feng Xike led the assistant instructor to stand not far from the exercise location, using the darkness to conceal themselves. After receiving the records handed over by the second squad, he got into the vehicle and carefully looked at them under the weak light.

  Generally speaking, von Seckendorff did not appreciate Xu Yang's deployment. He thought that this ambush tactic was too passive and completely relied on luck. Once the enemy did not pass through the ambush point and directly bypassed the ambush point to advance and reach the designated location, their action would also fail. However, it is fair to say that Xu Yang-led Team 2 could only choose this way, as they had too few team members.

  "The chosen ambush site is not bad, they have a good kid who is skilled at reconnaissance. In the depression with good visibility, set up snipers to try to disable the enemy's command system in the first place, this seems to be against the spirit of chivalry, but it's great!" Von-Sieckt muttered to himself, he glanced at his watch, the exercise had started for a while now, and yet there was still no sound of gunfire, it could be confirmed that Xu Yang's second team had already entered the ambush site.

  ……

  On the other hand, Xu Yang hid in a thick pile of weeds and didn't dare to move. He could feel several unknown insects biting inside his clothes, but he couldn't move. The flexibility of the grass was very high, and even a light touch would produce friction sounds.

  The moon cooperated and drilled into the cloud layer, the field of vision in the forest became extremely dim, the small insects felt the oppressive atmosphere and stopped their chirping, and the surroundings were eerily quiet.

  This was a complete test of the soldiers' endurance. If anyone couldn't bear the itch and made even the slightest movement, they would definitely make a sound.

  An hour had passed, and Xu Yang and the others were still quietly hiding in the pile of weeds. They were extremely depressed, feeling that their whole body was crawling with insects, and the hand holding the gun was a bit numb. With the help of the moonlight, they could even see some unknown strange insects biting on their fingers, and the painful itching sensation was unbearable.

  Two hours have passed and still no discovery has been made.

  Xu Yang could feel the impatience emanating from his partners, a feeling that came entirely from his sixth sense. He thought to himself, if they still didn't make a move, his partners might lose their patience and drive away the crawling insects, forcing him to order a transfer of their ambush point, which would undoubtedly lead to defeat.

  "Believe in your own judgment, believe in Dan Su's detective skills... Believe in your partners, they will hold on!" Xu Yang kept cheering himself up in his heart, time was still passing second by second.

  "Hush...hush..." The sound was particularly clear in the quiet of the night.

  "Wind? No! It's the sound of people moving, the enemy is approaching!" Xu Yang's spirit shook, and while he was glad that his judgment wasn't wrong, his fingers were already ready to pull the trigger, waiting for Baral to fire the first shot before suppressing them with firepower.

  "Bang!" The gun went off...

  A gunshot broke the silence of the night.

  A figure emerged from the depression, it was Balal. His appearance drew fire from the enemy, and the night sky in the woods was instantly filled with gunfire. Balal barely had time to crawl up before he had to lie down on the ground, crawling forward in a prone position towards the grass thicket not far behind him. Soon, his figure disappeared into the depths of the grass thicket. Xu Yang's order to him was to fire the first shot, regardless of whether or not it hit the target, relocate and protect himself first, then look for an opportunity to shoot at important targets.

  Xu Yang and others did not shoot immediately when Baral climbed up. According to the tactical arrangement, Baral had to act as bait, and Ma Han and Di Ba in the pit would fire first to attract the enemy's attention. When the enemy entered the ambush circle and reached the best shooting range, the partners on both sides opened fire to achieve the goal of eliminating most of the enemy.

  In the darkness, the enemy in front first crouched down to shoot, and then divided into a small team of five people to explore ahead. When this small team found that there were only two people in the pit, they called their teammates to move over from both sides within a short range.

  According to the exercise, two members of the reconnaissance team had already been killed. The other three took advantage of this brief opportunity to approach the pit, and Ma Han and Di Ba shouted out loud as they desperately fired their guns. Soon, another two enemy soldiers were seriously injured, leaving only one enemy soldier pinned down behind a tree trunk by heavy fire.

  "Bang!" Another shot from the Mauser 98 rifle rang out, indicating that Baral had targeted and eliminated an enemy soldier.

  Xu Yang and his teammates hid very well, the enemy's team member stepped on Xu Yang's palm without discovering that there was an enemy lying in the bushes. They may have been affected by the death of the only surviving scout and commander, starting to disregard their own safety, standing up and charging forward with their waists bent.

  At this moment, Xu Yang and his companion Huo Di stood up and roared: "Put down your weapons, you can choose to be annihilated or surrender with honor!"

  The team members were suddenly frightened by the enemy who came out, they had just circled around from both sides in a small range, and before they could choose, Feng Xike and other assistant coaches had already declared Team B the winner.

  In the dark of night, it was impossible to see Von-Sicket's face clearly, but from his voice, he was furious. The consequences for the losing student would be severe.

  "Second team, fall in!"

  Xu Yang's companions quickly formed a line, under the light of the car lamps, although their bodies were full of grass clippings, but their dirty faces all wore joyful expressions. Xu Yang did not feel joyful, if according to the drill regulations, his two team members had already been declared dead, Ma Han and Di Ba would have died if they were on a real battlefield at this moment.

  Feng Xike looked at Xu Yang and others with a expressionless face and asked: "If this were not a forest but a plain, what would you do?"

  The young men suddenly calmed down, and in unison they shouted a very depressing phrase: "Kill the body to achieve benevolence, sacrifice one's life for the country, my honor is loyalty!"

  Von Schlichting's face was a picture of astonishment, he didn't dare to express the thoughts in his mind, "Bastards! You're disgracing German soldiers!" He turned around and roared, "Gerl!!!!"

  Jarl, the sole ideological assistant instructor at the Young Shoots Military Academy, hastened to von Seyditz's side.

  "Ensign, your salary for this month is gone!" Von-Sikert was furious, the consequences were severe. "Your officers will die in their posts, so you won't have a salary for this month, next month, or even for the next half year!"

  Jie Er held his head high, without showing any dissatisfaction. "Yes! General, I completely obey your decision! I am proud to have such a group of students!"

  Feng Xike stared at Jel for a full minute, then said in a rare gentle tone: "Now you're a captain. Return to your unit!"

  Jie Er was stunned for a moment, then used all his strength to give a military salute, stiffly walking into the assistant instructor's lineup. He couldn't believe it would be such a result, half a year's salary in exchange for a promotion of one level, this seemed like a good thing that only happens in dreams. But this wasn't a dream, Feng Xike's loud shout awakened him from his daze.

  "Fall in, team!" Von-Sikert kicked the trainees' butts with a look of desperation. For his age, kicking people was really exhausting. Finally, he panted, "You are losers! Shameful losers! You lost to the second team of only one class! Now, give me an explanation!"

  The team leader, the poor guy who was sniped by Baral from the very beginning, walked out of the lineup with a red face, "Cadet K024 reporting for duty!"

  Feng Weiqing, who had just recovered a bit of strength, almost slapped him with a palm, he was really furious, "Speak!"

  "This unlucky guy's name is Zamoi, actually he has very good tactical talent, but before he had a chance to show it off, he was judged out of the game, which made him very angry. 'Report! I...I was shot and killed by the enemy in the dark at the first time, unable to command the actions of my teammates.'"

  Feng Xike thought this guy was a poor thing, "How far were you shot? What are your teammates doing? The scouting team? They're all dead!!!! Are they all dead???" The old general didn't make things too difficult for the student who was about to cry. He shifted his anger to the tactics instructor, "Captain Kapu! You can choose to leave the military academy or do unpaid teaching. If you can't satisfy me, you'll be retired ahead of schedule!"

  Karp's somewhat innocent choice to stay behind wasn't because of his teaching, but rather the commander of the first team was really unlucky and got sniped at the very beginning. If they had a commander, they should have discovered the second team hiding in the bushes during the small-scale skirmish, which would have changed the outcome.

  Feng Xike took over the score statistics handed over by Ou Gen, and he seriously read it through, saying: "The captain of the second team, Sida Ke, scored 75 points, the firepower hand Balal sniped two enemy commanders to get 45 points, Ma Han and Di Ba were judged as array deaths with no score, and other team members each got 20 points. Very good! Your performance this time is surprising, you will have three days of vacation time, and can freely choose how to arrange it."

  Feng Xike turned to a team member, "You are losers, no time off. There will be another confrontation exercise in a month, hoping you can use actions to regain lost honor."

  After finishing speaking, Feng Xikun slowly walked towards the vehicle parked on the side, his back showing a sense of helplessness. This sixty-four-year-old old general yearned to cultivate a group of excellent military officers, rather than giving birth to an unpredictable and dangerous genius in his own hands.

  "Perhaps... Little Stark's theory is correct." In the carriage, General Laan leaned back against the seat, his eyes fixed intently on Xuyang, who was organizing the team outside the window.

  ……