Chapter 382: The Company Commander Who Couldn’t Even Survive Past Midnight Under Attack
Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation
“Lieutenant, do you think the special forces have thermal imaging devices?”
Wang Ye had just set up an anti-infantry exercise landmine and glanced around the jungle. Suddenly, he whispered through his earpiece.
He couldn’t help it anymore.
In fact, Wang Ye had this concern as soon as they entered the jungle.
After all, it was nighttime, and even though he and his team had night vision goggles.
But their night vision goggles were only low-light ones.
Wang Ye knew that in this world, there was another type of thermal imaging night vision goggles. Even before Wang Ye’s rebirth, thermal imaging scopes for sniper rifles had already been widely adopted by various countries.
In this situation, fighting with the most mysterious special forces in the middle of the night, Wang Ye would be strange if he didn’t have this worry.
“Huh? Why are you asking about this?” On the other side, Jiang Nan was also setting up traps. When he heard Wang Ye’s words, he responded.
The next moment, without waiting for Wang Ye to speak, a voice in Chinese came through the earpiece, “There must be thermal imaging, but it shouldn’t be possible to bring them here. Our military’s thermal imaging is mostly airborne or vehicle-mounted. The one you’re talking about is probably seen online or in foreign movies, right? We don’t really have that kind of stuff!”
As the document officer of the reconnaissance unit, he also served as the company’s quartermaster and had a say in military equipment.
But Wang Ye naturally knew what he was saying.
Mobile vehicle-mounted thermal imaging devices were available even in the
Iron Bones Hero Regiment, and the training program even included anti-infrared training.
But what Wang Ye was worried about was not this.
Wang Ye continued, “No, I’ve seen introductions online. It seems like this thing is no longer rare overseas, even if our army hasn’t widely adopted it, but it shouldn’t be difficult to issue it to small units like special forces, right?”
“It’s true, it shouldn’t be difficult, but I don’t think they have it. At least, I haven’t seen them use it in my previous encounters with them,” Jiang Nan’s voice came through.
But then Jiang Nan added, “However, Wang Ye, what you said makes sense. When facing special forces, we should tactically overestimate our opponent. Whether they have it or not, let’s prepare as if they do.”
“How do we prepare? If they can carry thermal imaging individually, 1 don’t think we can defend against it right now!” The head of the cooking squad also chimed in.
“Build simple tents according to anti-infrared standards and hide when on duty, find a good hiding spot!” Wang Ye responded.
This was a question that Wang Ye hadn’t brought up initially, and he wouldn’t have thought much about it, but now that he mentioned it, they had to take precautions.
It was like on a dark night when no one was telling ghost stories; you wouldn’t think about ghosts, but if someone mentioned it, you’d feel like there might be a ghost lurking around.
However, they didn’t have equipment specifically designed to counter infrared detection for individual soldiers. Even though they all knew other methods to counter infrared, like covering their bodies in wet mud or diving underwater, it wasn’t practical for the current situation.
This confrontation would last for five days, not just five hours. Being covered in wet mud and constantly reapplying it wasn’t feasible.
Perhaps, in the end, the special forces won’t even need to take action. They might be eliminated due to hypothermia on their own.
So, the only available option now was to construct simple tents with care, following anti-infrared standards. When on alert, each soldier would have to find their own cover as best they could.
After a little over ten minutes, the traps and landmines around them were set up. Their numbers weren’t large, totaling only six.
At the same time, the simple tents on the other side were also erected.
In fact, they had set up a simple sleeping space in a location slightly downhill, with wooden beams laid almost flat. They had covered it with soil and vegetation both on top and around it. Once a person crawled inside, even if there were thermal imaging devices, both ends were camouflaged with raised mounds of earth. After this kind of concealment, it was almost impossible for a person sleeping inside to be detected.
Of course, those who were on sentry duty didn’t have the same conditions.
Currently, Wang Ye and Jiang Nan were on the first shift.
Jiang Nan was hidden in a depression in the red mud rock about twenty meters away, while Wang Ye had climbed up a tree.
It was challenging because there were too many mosquitoes. Even though they had applied some mosquito repellent juice on their bodies, they still got bitten occasionally. Wang Ye had to grit his teeth, scratch himself from time to time, and consider these mosquito bites as a kind of invigorating tonic to stay alert.
“Black Cat, Black Cat…please respond!”
“Received, go ahead!”
“I’ve detected a heat source here…”
In the early hours of the morning, while Wang Ye was still up in the tree battling mosquitoes, he didn’t notice that about seventy to eighty meters in front of them, there was a bastard lying low.
Their situation was different from Wang Ye and the others who were cautious about encountering ambushes by special forces during their nighttime movement.
The special forces were acting more confidently at night because of their thermal imaging devices.
They had been actively searching for the reconnaissance team from Battalion A.
In fact, their tactics for this engagement were a practical test of using thermal imaging to counter the enemy at night.
So, their most basic tactic for this confrontation was to lay low during the day and strike the enemy at night using their equipment advantage.
Don’t talk about fairness; special forces, and even reconnaissance soldiers, never cared about that. Whether it was special forces or reconnaissance troops, they would always choose to ambush if possible and would never engage in a head-on fight if they could avoid it.
However, at this moment, he only spotted Jiang Nan, who was partially exposed in the red rock, with a bit of his body visible.
Honestly, if it weren’t for the thermal imaging, with Jiang Nan’s positioning and the minor camouflage he had applied, like inserting branches in front and arranging some grass, it would have been impossible for them to spot him using ordinary night vision goggles when looking from this angle.
However, with the thermal imaging they were using now, a quick glance revealed Jiang Nan, making him stand out like a light bulb in their field of vision.
But it was only Jiang Nan who was exposed.
As for Wang Ye, he had chosen a tree with dense foliage, and there were also several other trees nearby. Moreover, he had climbed relatively high.
To spot Wang Ye, someone would have to come within twenty to thirty meters of his position and look up at the tree to see through the leaves.
In the current situation, with a distance of seventy to eighty meters and multiple trees blocking the line of sight, it completely shielded the heat source from being visible.
“Report the specific location, wait for Bat and me to come together!”
This special forces team consisted of three members, but at the moment, they only had one handheld thermal imaging device.
The other two were relying on regular night vision equipment to search for any traces of Battalion A soldiers passing through the jungle.
However, since they had directly detected enemy activity, they needed to regroup and figure out their next move.
Seven to eight minutes later, to the north of Wang Ye’s location, the three special forces members converged.
They lay on the ground, and the other two took turns using the thermal imaging device to observe. Then, the three of them huddled behind a mound of dirt and began to discuss quietly.
“There can’t be just one. This team is highly alert! There must be others hiding. Should we get closer and conduct a more thorough search?”
“There are definitely more people, but we can’t get too close. This team seems to have some skills. Be careful; they might have set traps or laid mines in the area.”
“Laid mines” referred to digging pits or setting up booby traps in the area.
After all, reconnaissance soldiers were not rookies; many of them had been part of the reconnaissance units themselves, so they were well aware of the tactics used by reconnaissance units.
“Alright, Owl, you and Bat go find a sniper position over there, make sure you can take out his location with a single shot. I’ll stay here. When you eliminate him, don’t use a suppressor. Use the gunshot to make them come out on their own, and then we’ll call them out one by one!”
“OK!”
Both special forces and reconnaissance soldiers were proficient in silent infiltration and enemy elimination, but with the advantage of their equipment in this situation, they felt it wasn’t necessary to go that route.
One reason was that this squad was clearly resting, and they were concerned about the possibility of reconnaissance soldiers setting up traps or mines in the vicinity, which could result in unexpected accidents when approaching.
On the other hand, they had only spotted one person so far, and the situation of the others was unknown. Approaching them recklessly could lead to trouble.
Besides, at night, they weren’t worried about the enemy receiving reinforcements, and they had no concerns about the enemy escaping.
A few more minutes passed, and even though Wang Ye had been bitten by mosquitoes continuously, he remained lying on the tree trunk, battling drowsiness.
It was past three in the morning, and this hour was particularly challenging.
The waves of drowsiness came one after another, making it difficult to resist.
But…
“Bang!”
A sharp gunshot suddenly rang out not far away.
At that moment, Wang Ye jolted, and his whole body nearly rolled off the tree trunk.
Quickly clutching onto the tree, Wang Ye whispered through his earpiece, “Not good, enemy attack.”
In fact, not only Wang Ye, but also Jiang Nan on the other side, who had been drowsy, suddenly shook.
The next second, his face turned extremely pale.
He felt like he was on fire.
“What’s going on!
H
“Enemy attack!”
Over the earpiece, the document officer and the head of the cooking squad were also startled awake by the gunshot.
“I’m done!”
Jiang Nan’s weak voice came through.
He was now sitting there, looking utterly powerless and desperate. Just as the five-day challenge had begun, he, the company commander, hadn’t even finished the first half of the night, and it was already over for him.
“Company Commander!”
The document officer quickly emerged from the tent and swiftly crouched behind a nearby big tree.
The direction of the gunshot was quite clear, and even the approximate distance could be deduced. So, after crawling out, he glanced back at Jiang Nan’s position and then quickly used his night vision-equipped eyes to scan in the direction of the gunshot, searching for the enemy’s situation.
He didn’t know that his actions just now, when he got up, and his current position behind the tree were crystal clear in the thermal imaging of others.
Although the tree trunk couldn’t be penetrated in thermal imaging, some parts of the body exposed on both sides of the tree trunk were clearly visible in terms of heat.
“They’re out… one, oh no, there’s another one!”
The Owl, holding the thermal imaging device, whispered with a smile. Beside him, the Bat was still aiming with his sniper rifle.
The sniper rifle’s scope didn’t have thermal imaging, but it didn’t need it.
The scope of the sniper rifle had low-light night vision capabilities, and the thermal imaging was only used to locate the target.
“Bang, bang!”
Two consecutive gunshots came from another direction.
This was the original position where the remaining Black Cat had fired.
He was holding a Type 95 rifle, and now two gunshots had sounded.
The document officer, who had taken cover behind a tree and avoided the sniper’s line of sight, was directly exposed to the gunfire.
“Be careful!”
Up in the tree, Wang Ye whispered through his earpiece.
He had just been about to climb down, but at this moment, he hastily pulled himself back.
“Wang Ye, don’t come down!”
Almost simultaneously, the head of the cooking squad, who had just come out of the tent and was crouching beside it, using the tent and a small mound of dirt as cover, urgently whispered through his earpiece to warn Wang Ye.
“I know!”
At this moment, Wang Ye’s heart was pounding.
They were under attack. The directions of the two gunshots were very clear, forming a 45-degree angle. If he climbed down now, there was a high chance of death because he couldn’t simultaneously evade the attacks from both directions in his current position..