Chapter 362: Regiment’s Tactical Change
Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation
“Captain, more than a third of the troops that entered the mountains have been casualties. These guys are truly despicable, too cunning!”
Outside the mountains, inside one of the armored vehicles parked together, someone spoke cautiously to the Second Company Commander in front, reporting the latest situation.
The Captain sat inside the troop compartment, giving him a glance but remained silent.
He continued to sit back against the ammunition crate, closing his eyes to rest.
His mood was quite irritated right now.
He even wished he had a helicopter with thermal imaging to locate those rats in the jungle one by one and just blast them with the machine gun.
Those reconnaissance soldiers in the jungle were too slippery.
So far, it had been almost four hours since his company of nearly two hundred soldiers entered the mountains.
Currently, they had suffered over seventy casualties.
More than a third of the entire company had been lost, but they had only managed to kill two enemies.
It was embarrassing!
He couldn’t help but feel frustrated by these results.
The ratio was too disproportionate.
Especially based on the feedback that Wu Jianfeng led his team, losing forty men while the enemy didn’t even lose a single hair. It was only when Zheng Ke’s team caught up and killed one of them that he felt his blood pressure rising.
It was a good thing Wu Jianfeng wasn’t in front of him.
Otherwise, he would have unleashed his furious attacks.
What kind of fight was this?
It left him thoroughly disappointed.
“Captain, the Regiment Commander is calling!”
Suddenly, the communications officer sitting in front spoke up.
“Give it to me!”
He didn’t want to bother with the operations staff, but he couldn’t ignore a call from the Regiment Commander.
Soon…
“Yes…”
“Alright…”
“Yes, repeat it, all units occupy the high ground, shift from offense to defense, temporarily abandon active searching.”
The phone call was brief, lasting only a few seconds. After hanging up, the Captain looked at the communications officer and said, “What are you standing around for? Didn’t you hear the orders just now? Execute them!”
The regiment headquarters had changed the operational plan.
The losses in the mountains and forests were too great, but the gains were too little.
The reconnaissance soldiers were expert at hiding and cunning.
Moreover, they had mostly scattered into small groups and were now operating independently.
In addition, they had night vision goggles, which only the two reconnaissance platoons in the Iron Bone Heroic Battalion had. The other companies didn’t have them.
So, the Regiment Commander issued a new order: all combat personnel would no longer actively attack but shift to a defensive stance. They would occupy advantageous terrain in the mountains, turn off their lights, and focus on covert surveillance and sniping.
After all, the 88 sniper rifles were not in short supply within the Iron Bone Heroic Battalion.
The scopes of the 88 snipers could even be used as observation scopes at night.
They would lie in wait, eliminate their own battalion’s weaknesses in night combat, and await the break of dawn.
“They seem to be retreating!”
In the jungle, Wang Ye and Wen Xiaoman had now come together.
After engaging in combat with the Eighth Company’s forces, they had been wandering in the jungle for over half an hour, but they still hadn’t exited the forest.
It wasn’t because the mountain was vast, but because there were a lot of people inside.
Moving cautiously and stealthily at a natural pace wasn’t particularly fast.
Now, they had encountered another search party.
About two platoons of soldiers.
But before Wang Ye could take action, they unexpectedly started retreating.
“I don’t know. Let’s follow and see!”
Wang Ye whispered and then the two of them separated once more.
In a team, it wasn’t necessary for two individuals to stick together constantly.
They worked in a way where they supported each other, only coming together quickly to exchange opinions when they discovered something or needed to discuss tactics.
Quietly trailing the retreating group in front, Wang Ye didn’t immediately take action to eliminate them.
He wanted to observe their situation first.
In military operations, tactics took precedence, and tactics were built on intelligence.
When you knew nothing, all you could do was go in blindly.
Although Wang Ye had developed well-defined muscles by now, he didn’t like acting recklessly.
Of course, the main reason was that Wang Ye was on the verge of completing his mission; all he needed was a major’s epaulet, and he could finally leave the mountains.
Soon, Wang Ye figured out what they were up to.
They had actually found a relatively high slope.
Then they turned off their lights and stayed silent.
A faint sound like “swish, swish” came from nearby, and Wang Ye held his pistol ready behind cover.
“It’s me…” Wen Xiaoman called out with a greeting before coming out.
Then she approached Wang Ye and crouched beside him, speaking quickly in a low voice, “They seem to have changed tactics. What do you think?”
H
Let’s get closer and see. If they aren’t spread out too far and we’re confident, we’ll take them out. Then we can continue with our original plan!”
Wang Ye certainly wanted to continue his mission of leaving the mountains.
However, the group of people in front of him had been trailing them for quite some time, and it wouldn’t be wise to let them go now.
Especially since this wasn’t a time for mercy.
His stance had to be clear; he was currently a soldier of the Second Reconnaissance Company.
From the perspective of his mission acceptance in the Second Company, Wang Ye had no reason to let them go.
Moreover, he had already taken out Wu Jianfeng, so there was no reason to spare these individuals.
“Alright, let’s do it this way!”
Although Wen Xiaoman was an experienced reconnaissance soldier, she was currently listening to Wang Ye’s orders.
It wasn’t because of any personal preference, but because Wang Ye had consistently made the right decisions, and his plan aligned with her thoughts.
They discussed a few more specific action details and then separated once again.
Wang Ye went left, and she went right.
After about two minutes, Wang Ye, hidden behind a tree, spotted someone on the hillside crouching and using binoculars to scan the surroundings of the high ground and the surrounding mountains and jungles.
Naturally, he couldn’t spot Wang Ye and Wen Xiaoman.
Both of them were mentally prepared and had guessed the situation above, so there was no way they would be easily discovered.
However, the challenging part now was that Wang Ye couldn’t see what was happening with the other individuals behind the person he had identified.
Did they split up?
Or were they just resting on that hill?
Wang Ye carefully stowed his sniper rifle and then removed his backpack, which held the sniper rifle and the extra hand grenades.
After placing them behind the tree, Wang Ye descended to the ground.
Crawling forward, although Wang Ye didn’t have a ghillie suit, he moved quietly. With the ability to observe the actions of the sniper on the hill, he didn’t need to worry about being detected while crawling.
After a few more minutes, Wang Ye had reached a point less than twenty meters from the high ground.
“Hmm…”
Suddenly, in the midst of the usual forest sounds of birds and insects, there was a frog call that only Wang Ye could detect as unusual.
In the next moment, Wang Ye began to retreat.
This was the signal they had agreed upon with Wen Xiaoman.
If the situation didn’t seem right, Wang Ye would make a specific rhythm of bird calls a few times. And if she thought the situation was unfavorable, she would mimic a frog call.
Wang Ye didn’t know what she had discovered at the moment, but in times like these, blind trust in your teammate was the right approach.
Soon, Wang Ye retreated to where he had left his equipment.
After reequipping himself, Wang Ye continued to withdraw, moving more than a hundred meters away. After waiting for a while, Wen Xiaoman reappeared.
Coming over, Wen Xiaoman immediately whispered, “It’s not possible. They’ve all separated into groups of three or four around the high ground, taking turns to stand guard and rest. It’s not just sentries; the others are together!”
“In that case, let’s give up. We’ll take a detour and continue moving towards the outside of the mountain!” Wang Ye was resolute.
If he had the opportunity to eliminate these people, he would naturally choose to do so.
For example, if they had only assigned single sentries while the others rested together, then Wang Ye and Wen Xiaoman could have lurked and approached. They could have eliminated the sentries and thrown a grenade at the place where the others were resting.
However, since they were using this method, it was clear that they, as a duo, didn’t have the ability to attack without injuries.
Retreating was the wisest decision.
“Alright, but from now on, we’ll need to be extremely cautious. They have clearly received orders, and they may have changed their tactics completely. As we navigate through the jungle, we must be careful of their hidden sniper rifles!”
“I understand, but we’re not far from the outskirts of the mountain now, maybe two kilometers at most. Sneaking over should be feasible, but it might be even more challenging if it gets light. However…”
At this point, Wang Ye looked at her, hesitated for a moment, and then spoke again, “Why don’t you stay behind and continue with your way of doing things?”
Wang Ye felt that it wasn’t right to drag her along and put her at risk for his mission.
“My plan is just as unworkable now. If I don’t move, my only options are to ambush and fight chaotically or hide until it gets daylight. But I’d rather go out and take a look!”
“Alright!”
With his agreement, Wang Ye didn’t dwell on it any longer and quickly confirmed the next course of action.
Subsequently, Wang Ye and Wen Xiaoman abandoned the Iron Bones Hero Regiment soldiers from these two platoons and began to make their way out.
They were very cautious, moving slowly all the way. Even when they felt there might be something suspicious, they checked it first, afraid that a member of the Iron Bones Hero Regiment, like Wu Jianfeng, might be hiding somewhere with a sniper rifle.
Fortunately, they had a safe journey without any incidents, and finally, when it was just starting to get light, Wang Ye and Wen Xiaoman reached the mountainside.
Outside the mountain was a road, but there were no people or vehicles.
However, a wheeled armored vehicle had just passed by.
After lurking for more than ten minutes and seeing another armored vehicle pass by, Wang Ye and Wen Xiaoman quietly descended the mountain.
“There are landmines here!”
“I can see that! The way they’re buried is really crude. It’s obvious that it wasn’t done by our Fourth Company!” Wang Ye chuckled lightly.
The forested area where they were operating was actually quite large, and it was impossible for the Iron Bones Hero Regiment to surround it with vehicles and personnel, forming an impenetrable barrier.
Even the number of soldiers in a battalion wouldn’t be sufficient.
Not even a division could achieve it.
So, what they could do was patrol and lay landmines.
However, for reconnaissance soldiers like them, detecting and avoiding these types of landmines was not particularly challenging.
Soon, Wang Ye and Wen Xiaoman ran outside the encirclement.
Afterward, they checked the map, walked for a while, and used the road to verify their position on the map. After a brief discussion, they continued to quietly make their way around the outside of the encirclement.
Their objective was to find tanks and armored vehicles on the external roads, and then use a rocket launcher to deal a heavy blow to the big fish..