Chapter 2: The Strongest Trio

  The real training is coming, the most brutal side of human nature is thoroughly exposed in this small base. The prisoners of war captured by the instructors from various parts of Vietnam are used to train these child soldiers in combat, and those who survive the combat are sent to be materials for interrogation classes. Those who are lucky will receive unprofessional medical treatment from students in the next battlefield emergency medicine class, and the corpses will be sent to the anatomy classroom...

  Motorcycle riding, aerial capture, helicopter driving, parachuting, all kinds of training are arranged on the schedule. All kinds of skills gradually penetrate into these children's bones. Various military evasive actions have been practiced to become instinctive reactions. Every step and every move already has a hint of a qualified soldier's demeanor. Those mainstream guns in the world are also familiar to them like their own arms. Various tactics have been deeply ingrained in their minds through day-to-day practice.

  Five years of cruel training passed day by day, each child had their own unique skills, no one was eliminated, which also means that everyone endured more severe pain than yesterday.

  "Today, you little wolf cubs have been basically recognized by me." The wolf head with a body full of gunpowder smell continued to say calmly.

  "From today on, I don't have the mood to play house with you guys anymore! Each of you has already mastered Khmer, Burmese, English, and French, although some of you are not even 15 years old yet. You all have the ability to survive in this Southeast Asian jungle. OK! No more nonsense, now form teams of three and you'll be on your own for a week. You need to trek through 40 kilometers of jungle on foot. In Ban Guang (a place located by the Mekong River), there's a drug processing base that's running low on narcotics. Your mission is to launch a surprise attack, and each team must bring back at least 20 kilograms of refined drugs for me. The last team to return will be cleaning the toilets! Now check your equipment, you'll be departing in ten minutes." With his lazy speech finished, Wolf Head shook his head and returned to his office.

  "Still got wolf head, you're just a lump of mud! What's with the craziness?" The oldest member of the group, Zhou Dang, muttered to himself as he applied a camouflage-colored "Ternaka" (a natural insect repellent, milky white in color, which can be mixed with tree frog blood to replace oil paint) to his face. This stuff is much more useful than oil paint in the jungles of Southeast Asia, at least it won't be detected by trained military dogs.

  "Hey! You're that silly kid who came in second when we ran 5 kilometers, right? Let's team up!" Ning Wei, now 14 years old, said with a chilly tone while painting camouflage patterns on his face and extending his right hand to Zhou Ting.

  "What the...?! Are you that little freak?! Every day, trying to keep up with you is exhausting me! How do you have so much stamina? Did you grow up eating tiger whip?" Ning Wei's sudden appearance startled him, and his face immediately gained another "big green worm".

  "Less nonsense, if you're willing, call that third-place brother to come with us. We'll set off immediately, Wolf Head has already given the green light. If we're late, we won't even have time for a fart." Ning Wei finished packing his backpack, shouldered his M4 and headed towards the base gate.

  "Wait! You guys wait for me below! Knife! Quickly gather your gear, let's set out as a team!" Only managing to call out to his own brother, Zhou Tong grabbed his backpack and chased after them.

  "Hello, I'm 00439411, my real name is Zhou Dao, just call me Knife!" Zhou Dao, dressed in a lucky outfit, extended his right hand.

  "00439413, just call me Broken Wolf, no name." Ning Wei replied cautiously, without shaking his hand.

  "What's with the serious faces? We're the strongest three in the whole squad, do we need to be like this? I'm Zhou Tang, machine gunner, just call me Big Eyes." With a big grin, Zhou Tang grabbed both of their hands and put them together.

  "Haha, I think I'll just call you Chicken Eye! Looking at your firepower suppression skills, it's like a little rooster's, haha! Kid, I'm a sniper, what about you?" Knife asked while adjusting the scope on his SVD.

  "Assault, also engineer and medic, you two are lucky to be on my team." The Lone Wolf smiled faintly as he started setting up the GPS. All three were thrilled, this team was both powerful and comprehensive, in the jungle a sniper was even more useful than a military satellite, while the medic could provide security for the team members' lives, as for the machine gunner... well, just consider him a transportation tool, haha.

  Marching in the jungle, a 50-kilometer journey often requires walking about twice as much, with undulating mountains, occasional small swamp lakes, and sentry posts that appear from time to time on the territory divided by various forces, all of which invisibly expand the distance.

  As night drew near, the three finally found a small clearing suitable for rest. By now they had covered nearly one-fourth of their journey. Unless they were ambushed, it was extremely dangerous to rush through the forest at night. Not to mention the poisonous snakes that could kill with one bite, even the palm-sized mosquitoes alone could suck a person dry.

  Three people took turns keeping watch, a night without words. The next morning, the thick fog unique to Southeast Asian jungles shrouded the three men's tracks. In a thicket of bushes on a small hill, three rifle barrels disguised as branches slowly emerged.

  He pointed his index finger at the remaining wolf, then curled his fingers into a cylindrical shape and placed them in front of his eyes, then stood his index finger in front of his mouth, and finally pointed to the sentry 200 meters away (sign language: Put on the silencer and snipe the sentry in front)

  The lone wolf made an "OK" gesture with his hand, then slowly pulled out a silencer from the pocket on his waist and screwed it onto the muzzle of his M4 rifle equipped with a white light sight. The rifle emitted three faint coughing sounds, accurately hitting three bridge guard soldiers 200 meters away.

  The distribution of power in Southeast Asia is complex, with large and small warlords carving up the territory. The quality of soldiers is poor, most are local villagers who took up guns just to make a living, their characteristic is to bully the weak and fear the strong, some even dare to go to the battlefield without knowing how to aim. So such sentries pose no threat to the three men.

  After easily dealing with the sentry, the three of them began to march hastily. Along the way, they would hide from any visible or hidden sentries if possible; if not, it was just bad luck for their opponents. Most of the scattered soldiers and brave warriors along the way became playthings for the three to practice on. Unbeknownst to them, however, other small groups were being chased by various forces that had been alerted by the trio's actions, making it impossible for them to sneak in again.

  Two days passed in the blink of an eye, and the three men had already infiltrated the outskirts of a small village where the drug processing plant was located. Using the SVD's scope, Daozi read out a series of data in a low voice. "The target is in a cave, with unknown internal conditions. There are about 100 guards outside the cave, with patrol teams of ten people each, and a shift change interval of fifteen seconds. All residents in the village are poppy farmers, basically every household has soldiers. The possibility of infiltration is not great, this processing plant should be owned by General Kunsah's side family, generally no one dares to mess with it, which also means that when fighting breaks out here, we have at least an hour to take advantage of the situation, otherwise, once their rescue team arrives, we will be trapped, and it will also bring a lot of trouble to our base. What to do next is up to you, Lang Hu."

  "Hey! I'm the boss here, okay?" The chicken muttered.

  Dàozi heard the words and smiled cruelly, saying: "Good, unless you can defeat him." Jīyǎn touched his swollen eye socket and couldn't help but shake his head with a bitter smile. These two days weren't without comparison, but every time the result was very brutal, as if to tell the audience that Jīyǎn comrade's skills were not refined and he was defeated by Cán Láng, who was three years younger than him.

  "Wait, let's act after nightfall. You go add some seasoning to their dinner later, and tonight we'll have a competition." The Lone Wolf gave the order with a faint smile.

  "What are you going to do? Why make things so complicated?" Ji Yan couldn't help but have a bad premonition.

  "Tú Cūn", two simple words made Dāo Zi and Jī Yǎn shudder.

  The village of Tu, such practices are not uncommon in the Golden Triangle region. Many factions' processing plants have their own poppy plantations, and a structure similar to a small village is formed near the processing plants. The villagers are composed of poppy growers, factory workers, and guards, and slowly develop into second-generation tobacco farmers. And the best way to suppress an opposing force is to destroy its economic source. Tu Village is precisely the best method that combines cutting grass and shocking.

  As night fell, the vigilance of the patrolling troops seemed to have dropped to its lowest point. Three black shadows covered in mud quickly approached the three soldiers walking at the back. Three agile left hands simultaneously reached out from behind the soldiers and covered their mouths, while nearly 20-centimeter-long custom-made triangular military daggers were stabbed into their lungs from behind. The same action was repeated three times by each of the three individuals. The last patrolling soldier had his tongue grabbed, and after a few simple threatening words, he revealed the general situation inside the cave. After confirming that there was no mistake, he casually twisted the soldier's neck.

  "Alright, beasts, the hunt begins. Don't let any little devils escape, including old men, women and children. Count yourselves, whoever has the least will be responsible for carrying those thirty kilograms of poison. GO!" Knife gave the order to massacre the village after re-examining everything.

  In the sweltering, humid air, a faint scent of blood began to spread, and in just thirty minutes, nearly two hundred people in the forty bamboo buildings had lost their lives. The three men shook their numb right hands, as maintaining a throat-slashing motion for so long was also exhausting. They casually washed their bloody hands in a small puddle, and exchanged a smile with each other.

  "79 of them" slipped out of the wolf's mouth as its own achievement.

  "Eighty-one" Daozi smiled and looked at Jiyuan.

  "Uh... 64 of them"... Ji Yan's old face turned red with embarrassment. Alas, this wasn't Ji Yan's fault either, who made him walk into the wrong room and mistake a cleaned-up room for the main one...

  Three people quickly retrieved their backpacks and took turns covering each other as they entered the cave. The huge belly of the mountain was echoing with the roar of diesel generators, various refining equipment was scattered all over the place, and a pungent acidic smell filled the entire cave. Two guards were leaning against a small pavilion at the entrance of the cave, dozing off, while from a nearby small cave came the sound of a woman's moans.

  The three quickly took care of the two guards and the last patrol. Looking at the complex processing plant in front of them, the three were like children who had seen toys, with excited light in their eyes.

  "Knife, go take a look at the situation in that small cave where the woman's voice came from. The woman killed the man and brought him here, he should be the leader of this place. Chick eyes, you carefully search the situation in the cave, kill anyone who is not related to us, and find as many finished products as possible, carry as much as you can. I'll go set up the explosives." Residual Wolf gave the order decisively, suddenly becoming the leader of the group.

  "Chicken Eye stared at him in surprise and said, 'Dear Wolf Brother, did you plan to blow this place up from the beginning? How come you even prepared a timed bomb?'"

  Without me, wouldn't you do it yourself? The wolf looked at the chicken eye with a gloomy expression and walked to the warehouse behind the diesel generator to put oil barrels. He stretched out his leg and lightly kicked the stacked oil barrels, and the hard forest combat boots kicked against the oil barrel, making a dull echo. After thinking for a moment, the left wolf pulled out the Otter Forest King from his chest, pried open a bucket of diesel fuel, then took out an offensive hand grenade, pulled out the safety rod, and wrapped the handle tightly with a roll of medical adhesive tape.

  He patted it a few times, but it seemed not enough, so he simply wrapped half of the medical adhesive tape around it. Then he casually threw it into the diesel barrel. As time passed, the diesel would slowly dissolve the adhesive glue on the tape, and at that time...

  Back in the cave hall, Knife was interrogating a naked man. Before long, Chicken Eye came back with a soldier wearing Chinese military uniform. "Boss, this guy should be from the border defense army, his left arm was amputated, I thought he looked miserable so I brought him back, and there's also 20 kilograms of drugs," Chicken Eye said, raising the backpack in his hand.

  "Alright, mission accomplished. We've got about twenty minutes before this place blows up. Let's get out of here, Knife, help me grab the goods."

  Twenty minutes later, turning his head to look at the flames soaring three kilometers away, feeling the tremors transmitted from the ground, the three people started a forced march. At least two tons of diesel should be able to flatten that small mountain, right? The residual wolf thought maliciously.