Chapter 425: Rushing to the Farm Overnight
Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation
“Idiot!”
In the company commander’s office, Jiang Huai sat up when he heard the whistle.
Quite helpless.
The whistle sounded.
But there was no smoke coming from his tent, and he was well aware of what that meant.
Another failure.
And, unsurprisingly, it was the second platoon’s soldiers who had discovered it.
Because he knew that Wang Ye had given whistles to the new recruits.
In fact, Wang Ye had given them on the very first night.
And not just to the Class Five; all the new recruits in his platoon were given whistles when they took their turns on guard duty.
When he found out, Wang Ye’s explanation was that it wasn’t too much for sentries to have whistles.
He also said that giving them whistles was just to help his squad’s soldiers stay alert and remind themselves that they were sentries.
So, Wang Ye required all of his soldiers to carry a whistle when they went on duty.
As for Li Jun with a whistle in his mouth, that was his own idea.
Of course, the main reason was that he was on a covert post, and he wanted to keep the whistle in his mouth to constantly remind himself that he was a sentry, thus staying alert.
But in reality, the whistle wasn’t the key.
This thing itself couldn’t change anything.
Blowing a whistle required a breath of air.
The same breath that could blow the whistle could also be used to exclaim, “All!”
“All!”
A sigh, and Jiang Huai shook his head with a wry smile as he got up.
“Beep beep-”
Outside, another whistle sound echoed in.
Of course, this time it wasn’t blown by Li Jun.
In fact, at this moment, his whistles had been confiscated by the special forces soldiers.
Receiving the order to withdraw, the two special forces soldiers were frustrated but had no choice.
The mission had failed, so they could only grab his whistles and run.
Currently, in the Class Eight, a sentry kept blowing his whistle into his mouth when others shouted about an enemy attack.
Soldiers from nearby tents rushed out.
“Where’s the enemy?”
“What’s going on?”
“Okay, stop blowing!” At this moment, the Class Eight leader ran over to the new recruit in his squad, snatched the whistle from his mouth.
He wiped it off and put it in his own pocket.
The new recruit didn’t have a whistle; it was his whistle.
“Assembly!”
At this moment, Wang Ye’s loud shout rang out.
He didn’t let anyone go searching for anything; after all, the new recruits weren’t in training after lights out.
It would be chaotic for the new recruits to run around in the dark like this; they didn’t want to lose any of them.
Furthermore, the intent of this attack was just to train the sentries and remind everyone of the importance of sentry duty.
If the sentries defended successfully, the whole camp would be safe from smoke grenades. On the contrary, if all the sentries were touched, the new recruits sleeping in their tents would have to endure a baptism of smoke grenades.
“Report!”
One by one, the soldiers quickly lined up at the sound of Wang Ye’s voice, and suddenly, someone came running from the periphery.
It was Li Jun.
At this moment, he came to stand in front of Wang Ye, saluting excitedly.
“Was it you who blew the whistle?” Wang Ye asked with a smile.
Tonight, there were two covert sentries in the second platoon, and the other one had also come over, but he had directly joined the formation.
“Yes! Platoon Leader, two guys touched me, and in my haste, I blew the whistle. But they took your whistle!” Li Jun replied.
“Haha! It’s alright, let them keep it as a souvenir!” Wang Ye laughed heartily.
This left Jiang Huai, who had walked over, feeling quite speechless.
A souvenir, for heaven’s sake. If they took this whistle back, his company commander tonight might just take it out on the platoon leader who led the team.
“Hehe!” Li Jun laughed again.
Wang Ye looked at him and said, “Alright, get in formation!”
“Yes!” Li Jun stood at attention, saluting and responding loudly.
At this moment, as he walked toward the formation, he held his head high and felt like a victorious general.
“Atten-tion… A-t ease…”
Wang Ye began to organize the formation, and after the roll call, he let them stand at ease.
Jiang Huai felt bitter inside, but at this point, he had to take his position.
“The sentries from earlier, report your situations!”
He needed to understand what had happened earlier.
“Report!”
First came the soldiers from the first squad.
He was also a covert sentry, and at this moment, his face turned red, and his voice sounded somewhat hesitant as he spoke, “I… 1 was… someone… someone snuck up behind me and covered my mouth!”
At this moment, after speaking, he didn’t dare to raise his head at all.
Because he didn’t want to see the hungry eyes of his squad leader.
Fortunately, what gave him a bit of comfort next was that out of the six covert sentries, five had experienced the same situation.
Only Li Jun’s report was different. He had heard a noise, saw someone coming at him, couldn’t dodge in time, and had to hastily blow the whistle in his mouth.
“Li Jun from the Class Five performed well tonight, living up to the responsibilities of a sentry. But what about the rest of you? Were you all dead? Someone sneaks up behind you, and you don’t even notice?!”
Despite the fact that the special forces mission ultimately failed, not all sentries were touched, and they didn’t succeed in throwing smoke grenades into the entire new recruits’ tents. Nevertheless, five covert sentries had been touched, so the reprimand could continue.
Jiang Huai spoke loudly, “The most important thing for a sentry is alertness, but you guys allowed someone to sneak up on you without noticing, and you couldn’t even make a sound! Are you on sentry duty? Or are you sleeping on duty? Putting you on sentry duty is no different from placing a pig there! I feel like even a pig, when grabbed, might grunt a few times!”
Jiang Huai’s scolding left these five individuals unable to lift their heads, and it made the other new recruits secretly relieved.
They were relieved that it wasn’t their shift when the attack happened. Otherwise, thinking about their own vigilance during sentry duty, they were filled with dread.
Meanwhile, in the dark woods over 100 meters from the campsite, all the special forces soldiers gathered.
“What happened with you two?”
Looking at the two special forces soldiers who had just caused the problem, Tian, the platoon leader, with his face smeared with camouflage paint, now appeared as if everyone owed him millions of dollars.
“Pl… Platoon Leader, it’s our fault!”
One of the two special forces soldiers lowered his head and admitted his mistake without any attempt to make excuses.
Both of them were seasoned soldiers, and they understood that there was no room for excuses on the battlefield.
Success was success, failure was failure, and no excuse or reason could hide a mistake.
Because there was only one life, and on the battlefield, the failure of a mission could mean lives at stake.
Platoon Leader Tian took a deep breath and looked at the two of them, saying through gritted teeth, “Tell me all the details!”
“Yes, Platoon Leader. When we heard the order to attack, we launched our assault. However, this new recruit wasn’t sleeping on duty, and his alertness was high. When we were at least four or five meters away, he noticed us.
Furthermore, his reaction was quick. When he saw that we weren’t startled, he actually rolled away quickly, preventing us from covering his mouth immediately, and he successfully blew the whistle!”
As they spoke, one of them opened his hand to reveal an iron whistle.
Platoon Leader Tian glanced at it briefly and then turned his head in the direction of the campsite.
“Sigh-”
Taking another deep breath, he looked at the two soldiers and then turned his gaze towards another person among the group.
“Xiao Le, take the whistle back with you. Go back and explain the situation to the company commander and platoon leader!”
Xiao Le was a squad leader from the second platoon. He hesitated for a moment before speaking, “Platoon Leader…”
H
1’11 go feed the pigs on the farm!” Platoon Leader Tian gritted his teeth as he said this.
And when he said this, his gaze once again fell on the two special forces soldiers who had just messed up, “Both of you, come with me!”
“Yes!”
The two of them felt bitterly helpless inside!
As special forces soldiers, they used to not even spare a glance at the soldiers on the farm when they passed by that area.
Little did they know that this time they would also be serving there.
From wielding a rifle to now wielding a shovel for manure.
But, with no other choice, they were even willing to go and raise pigs right now.
For example, they really didn’t want to face the company commander and the staff officer with those expressions.
It was the second time!
They had capsized once last year, and now they had capsized again this year.
They could almost picture the company commander and the staff officer’s faces, as dark as ink.
Just thinking about it sent shivers down their spines.
Going to raise pigs seemed like a good way to avoid trouble.
In the Criminal Investigation Company, Fu Wei was actually still awake.
Sitting in his office, he had a lit cigarette in hand, but he had only taken one puff. His eyes were closed, and he sat in his chair, trying to relax.
Suddenly, the partially opened office door was pushed open.
The instructor walked in.
“Old Fu, it’s almost two in the morning!”
He opened his eyes, glanced at the instructor, and then raised his hand to look at the cigarette that had burned down to just the butt due to his inaction.
He threw it into the ashtray and absentmindedly checked his watch before nodding to the instructor. “Hmm, let’s wait a bit longer!”
He was waiting for Platoon Leader Tian’s call.
At this time last year, he hadn’t paid any attention to this matter at all. When they conducted the night raid on the new recruits’ camp, he was sleeping soundly.
In his mind, such a thing shouldn’t have had any room for mistakes in the first place.
But later, things went awry.
Because of that, he couldn’t sleep this time around.
After flipping the car once, he had to be cautious this year.
He could only sleep soundly once he heard that the mission was completed.
However, it was already two in the morning, and Platoon Leader Tian’s report indicated that they were supposed to strike between zero and two.
He didn’t know whether Platoon Leader Tian and his team had already executed the mission or were in the process of doing so.
Nevertheless, as a company commander, he remained composed.
“Ding ding-”
Right on time, the phone on his desk suddenly rang.
“It’s here!” the instructor said with a smile.
“Alright!” Fu Wei smiled as well.
Then he restrained his smile and picked up the phone. “I’m Fu Wei!”
In that moment, his expression was relaxed, thinking that it was the second platoon leader calling to report the successful completion of the mission.
He didn’t even bother to check the caller ID.
But in the next moment, his face abruptly changed.
Because the call wasn’t from Platoon Leader Tian.
At this moment, Platoon Leader Tian was on his way to the countryside, conducting the raid. He wouldn’t dare to report the failure of the mission to the company commander.
The call was from Jiang Huai, informing him of another failure by the special forces soldiers.
“Alright, I got it!”
Through gritted teeth, with a grim expression, Company Commander Fu’s hand gripping the phone showed bulging veins.
“Damn it! They failed again!”
“OldFu!”
The instructor also felt a jolt in his heart at this moment, watching the company commander still holding the phone and called out.
Fu Wei didn’t answer; he simply hung up the phone.
Standing up and looking at the instructor, he didn’t say anything for a moment, but his frustrated expression was evident.
“Smack- Smack-”
Suddenly, several folders on the office desk were swept away by him.
“Damn it, is Tian Feng a pig? Damn it, is he a pig?” After his temper erupted, the company commander started cursing.
The curses were so loud that several special forces soldiers from the third platoon in the dorms on the same floor instantly sat up.
“What’s going on?”
“Is the company commander losing his temper?”
■I
It seems like he’s cursing the second platoon leader? But isn’t the second platoon leader out on a mission?”
“Really?” Someone thought, could it be that the mission failed?
They all knew what the second platoon was up to.
“Don’t talk nonsense!” The third platoon leader, sitting on his bed, interrupted their chatter with a stern voice.
If it had only been a one-time occurrence, they might have laughed it off right now.
After all, the second platoon and the third platoon had always been competitors.
They competed in every aspect, just like last year when they messed up under Wang Ye’s command. Throughout this year, they hadn’t missed the opportunity to mock the second platoon.
But now, if they messed up for the second time in a row, it wouldn’t be just a problem for one platoon.
When they embarrassed themselves before, others could say it was the second platoon’s own mistake, not dragging the third platoon into it.
But if it happened twice in a row, others would definitely say, “Your special forces soldiers must have an overall problem with their skills.”
The nature of the matter had changed.
However, while the third platoon leader had stopped the soldiers from speaking, he could still hear the continuous curses outside…
He knew that this time they were probably in serious trouble.
“Everyone, get up. Call the soldiers from the eighth and ninth squads to assemble downstairs.. I’ll go find the company commander!”