Chapter 18: Unfair Competition 3

  After a hearty meal, Lei and the others took off their training uniforms that they had worn for nearly three months. As soon as he shed those tens of kilograms, Lei immediately felt like he was as light as a swallow. Zhang Nan jumped around beside him, shouting: "Squad leader! Look quickly, look quickly, am I flying?"

  Standing beside Lei, Li Yuan supported his chin with his hand and watched Zhang Nan slowly recite: "Hmm, not bad, quite impressive. The wonders of qinggong indeed allow a stout fellow like you to soar freely in the air."

  "Get out of here! You're the pig!" Zhang Nan heard and rushed over to Li Yuan, shouting loudly.

  Li Yuanbian dodged Zhang Nan's attack by running around Lei, shouting: "Oh, good, good. You're not a pig, you're a sick cat, haha..."

  "You're the sick cat! Look how strong I am!" With that, Zhang Nan stood there with his arms bent inward forcefully, striking a pose like a bodybuilder.

  Lei looked at the two of them and smiled, indeed, they had already turned all the fat from three months ago into muscle. Seeing Lian Chang walking over from the other side, he loudly shouted: "Stop messing around, we're about to set off soon, hurry up and pack your things."

  The company commander gathered everyone together, and the medical staff, non-commissioned officers, and superior soldiers all stood behind him. The company commander shouted loudly: "Now we're dividing into teams! First squad follows Gao Wen from the east to attack. Second squad, third squad follow Liu Ming and the medical staff to attack from the west. The rest of you follow me as the third squad to attack from the south." Then, the company commander glanced at the three people behind him and shouted loudly: "Remember, your mission is to attract the enemy's main force, don't engage in a fierce battle with them!"

  The three old soldiers also changed their usual joking tone with the company commander and shouted seriously: "Yes! Company Commander!"

  Lian Chang turned around and looked towards the north, that was where they were going to go. He swung his big hand and shouted loudly: "Alright! Let's set off!"

  With a loud shout, everyone rushed to the designated location. It was already one o'clock in the afternoon. Taking off their usual training uniforms, they were now lightly equipped and ready for battle. Lei's team marched at an extremely fast pace, covering what normally took fifty minutes in just forty minutes. By seven o'clock that evening, they had marched seventy kilometers non-stop. Now, only ten kilometers away from their target location, the area was filled with enemy ambushes. This was also where the three teams would split up and take different routes. Before leaving, the company commander once again briefed the other two teams on their tasks, and after the veterans gave him a thumbs-up, they led their teams to depart.

  Since they parted ways, Lei and his team's progress had noticeably slowed down. In an hour, they had only covered less than two kilometers of road. At this time, Gao Wen, who was leading the way ahead, suddenly crouched down. He vigilantly observed their surroundings in all directions. Lei thought there might be enemy activity and hastily ordered the people behind him to take cover. He then approached Gao Wen's side and asked in a low voice, "What's wrong? Have you discovered the enemy?"

  Gao Wen shook his head and said, "No, there isn't."

  Lei saw him say that no enemy troops were found, and he asked curiously: "Then why did you suddenly squat..."

  Before Lei could finish asking, Gao Wen lightly laughed and said: "Oh, I thought my shoelaces were loose, so I crouched down to tie them."

  Lei looked down and saw that the officer's hands were indeed tying his shoelaces. He thought to himself, "What is this? Why is he tying his shoelaces without even a word of warning, causing everyone to be on edge?"

  Gao Wenshi saw that Haoke was still crouching beside him, while everyone else had hidden away. He asked in a low voice, "What's going on? Is something the matter?"

  "No." Lei replied in a bad mood, then waved his hand behind him and called out softly: "Continue to move forward."

  Li Yuan followed up and asked Lei: "Monitor, what's going on just now?"

  Lei glanced at the officer beside him and said in a low voice, "No, I made a mistake. Let's continue moving forward."

  Although Lei didn't say anything, everyone couldn't help but take a glance at the officer. No matter what, they still trusted Lei a bit more than this officer. After walking another 200 meters, everyone gave up on the mountain path and instead moved forward on the rugged terrain, which made their speed even slower. After an hour of walking, they had only advanced less than one kilometer when Gao Wen suddenly raised his hand to signal everyone to stop. Although the situation in the past hour had made Lei extremely unhappy, he still quickly ordered everyone to hide and quietly came to Gao Wen's side. Lei asked in a low voice, "What's going on?"

  Gao Wen pointed to a place thirty degrees to the left front and said in a low voice, "Take a closer look at that place."

  Lei gazed out, and everywhere on the mountain were tall pine trees, with snow covering everything in a silver white hue. The scenery all around was difficult to distinguish what was where and what wasn't. Lei looked for half a day but couldn't see anything different, just as he wanted to ask Gao Wen again, through the weak moonlight, he saw fifty meters ahead a row of shallow little pits, although they were already covered by white snow, it could still be seen that they were footprints left not long ago. Lei turned around and signaled for everyone to hide again, then he whispered to Gao Wen: "Looks like the enemy is not far from us."

  Gao Wen smiled slightly and said slowly: "It's not far away, but it's right in front of us. Look under that big tree."

  Lei looked in the direction that Gao Wen pointed, and saw a pine tree that was slightly thicker than the others. The shallow footprints disappeared near that tree, and the snow under that pine tree seemed to be deeper than elsewhere. Since the officer said there was a problem there, Lei's eyes stared at the pile of snow without blinking. After two minutes, Lei found that the pile of snow seemed to have suddenly risen a bit, and then returned to its original state. Lei thought he had seen wrongly, and asked the officer in a low voice: "Is someone there?"

  Gao Wen looked ahead and replied in a low voice, "Hmm, not bad. That should be one of the enemy's hidden sentries. He's wearing white camouflage clothing, so it's very hard to spot him on a night like this. Luckily, I saw him when he moved just now. If not, we would have all been discovered by him."

  Lei took another look at the officer beside him, it seemed that he indeed had a gap with him, usually couldn't tell what was going on, didn't expect his vigilance and observation skills to be so strong.

  Scan the QR code at the starting point, everyone rushes to answer cold knowledge, gets a medal, and wins a big prize! Click on the + sign in the upper right corner of WeChat, select Add Friends, search for the public account "qdread" to participate! Various big prizes, easy to get!