Chapter 31: The Division Commander: Can’t Find Him? Did Li Yunlong Really Sacrifice Himself? A Tremendous Change in the New First Regiment!
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At the headquarters of the 129th Division.
The division chief of staff strode in and looked toward the division commander.
“It has already been three months. We have spent the entire time searching for Li Yunlong and the New First Regiment, yet we have not received the slightest word.”
“Could Li Yunlong and the New First Regiment really have vanished into thin air?”
The division commander frowned, worry clouding his face.
“Could it be that Li Yunlong truly died in battle, and the New First Regiment was wiped out to the last man?”
“Otherwise, how could there be no news at all? It is as though they simply disappeared from the face of the earth.”
“That probably isn’t the case...” The deputy chief of staff shook his head and said solemnly, “We already sent people to Cangyun Ridge to investigate. They found no bodies belonging to our soldiers.”
“Ah...” The division commander sighed.
“It has been so long. Even if there were bodies, they would surely have been buried by now. If corpses were left exposed in the wilderness for too long, they could easily cause an epidemic.”
Jin Sui Town lay far beyond the current operational range of the Eighth Route Army’s bases, and the army had never sent anyone to investigate in that direction.
After all, more than a hundred kilometers lay between Jin Sui Town and Cangyun Ridge.
Thus, the Eighth Route Army still had not uncovered the slightest information about Li Yunlong or the New First Regiment.
It was precisely this complete lack of news that made the division commander increasingly worried about Li Yunlong.
After all, a living man should not simply vanish into thin air.
And this was not just one man, but an entire group of them.
Under such circumstances, the only explanation that seemed to make sense was that the entire regiment had been wiped out.
The division commander clenched his fists, his expression grave.
“Could that boy really have died?”
Seeing how troubled he was, the chief of staff hurried to reassure him.
“Commander, you know better than anyone how tough Li Yunlong is. That boy certainly isn’t going to die so easily!”
“If he didn’t die, then why haven’t we received even the slightest word?” the division commander shot back. “Could that boy really fly through the heavens and burrow into the earth?”
The chief of staff was rendered speechless.
Truthfully, he too was beginning to wonder where Li Yunlong and the New First Regiment had gone.
He drew a deep breath and asked, “Should we continue searching?”
The division commander slowly exhaled a heavy breath.
“We have searched for so long without finding anything. I’m afraid the chances are slim.”
“Still, we can arrange for a few people to continue looking. There is no need to send out large numbers anymore. We will simply regard Li Yunlong and the soldiers of the New First Regiment as having sacrificed themselves at Cangyun Ridge while covering the headquarters and the field hospital in their battle against the Sakata Regiment.”
“Understood!”
The deputy chief of staff immediately accepted the order.
After he left, the division commander sat at his desk. The rims of his eyes had turned faintly red, and tears glimmered in them.
No matter how the deputy chief of staff tried to persuade him, the division commander could not shake the ominous feeling in his heart.
Li Yunlong and the New First Regiment had remained completely silent. The division commander could not help feeling that Li Yunlong might truly have died.
Whenever he thought of Li Yunlong, his heart felt painfully constricted.
To be honest, the division commander held Li Yunlong in very high regard. Thus, when he came to believe that the man had most likely died, his eyes still grew moist.
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...
One week later.
Jin Sui Town.
After finishing the matters at hand, Li Yunlong called out to Wei Dayong.
“Come with me. Let’s inspect the training of the recruits and the Snow Leopard Special Forces.”
“Yes!”
Wei Dayong immediately acknowledged the order.
The two men then headed straight for the training grounds.
...
The recruit training grounds.
By the time Li Yunlong and Wei Dayong arrived, a large number of recruits had already gathered there.
According to the Recruit Accelerated Training Manual, all the recruits had been organized into companies of two hundred men for training.
Training was proceeding in full swing across the field.
Wei Dayong’s eyes lit up when he saw the scene.
“It has only been a few days, yet these recruits are already beginning to look like soldiers.”
“If they were sent onto the battlefield right now, it seems they would already possess a certain degree of combat ability.”
“Indeed.” Li Yunlong smiled faintly. “But this alone is not enough. They still need time.”
As they chatted, Li Yunlong and Wei Dayong carefully observed the recruits training before them.
At the northeastern corner of the field, the soldiers of the First Recruit Company were undergoing endurance training for firing positions.
Every soldier knelt on one knee, rifle in hand, maintaining a firing stance.
Bricks of equal weight had been tied with ropes to the muzzles of their rifles.
All the weight was concentrated at the rifle’s muzzle, making it far more difficult to hold the firing position.
The soldiers of the First Recruit Company had already been holding the posture for some time. Nearly every man’s arms were trembling slightly, and cold sweat poured from their foreheads.
The aching in their arms constantly tested their nerves.
Even so, every soldier gritted his teeth and persevered, their eyes shining with extraordinary determination.
At the southeastern corner of the training grounds, the soldiers of the Second Recruit Company were conducting live-fire drills.
Twenty soldiers stood in a group, rifles in hand, several dozen meters from the targets. They were already prepared to fire.
“Fire!” the company commander shouted.
Bang, bang, bang, bang...
All twenty soldiers pulled their triggers at once, and bullets flew through the air.
Every shot struck the target.
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After the targets were scored, even the worst performer among the twenty recruits had achieved seven points on the ring target. It was clear how greatly their training over the past few days had improved them.
More importantly, the New First Regiment’s marksmanship training included live-fire exercises. This allowed the soldiers to master shooting techniques far more effectively.
Li Yunlong knew all too well that excellent marksmanship was fed one bullet at a time.
Fortunately, the Jin Sui Arsenal’s copper-plated steel ammunition production line had already begun operating, and the New First Regiment now possessed ample ammunition reserves.
Otherwise, Li Yunlong would never have dared to let the recruits conduct live-fire training.
Of course, he was not wasting bullets either.
At the southwestern corner of the training grounds, the soldiers of the Third Recruit Company were undergoing physical conditioning.
Under their company commander’s instructions, the recruits performed push-ups one after another.
...
Under Li Yunlong and Wei Dayong’s watchful eyes, every recruit trained with all his strength. Not a single man slacked off or tried to cut corners.
The sentence the recruit company commanders repeated most often was that the purpose of training was to stay alive on the battlefield.
No one wanted to gamble with his own life.
More than ten minutes later, Li Yunlong smiled faintly.
“Let’s go. Seeing everyone training so seriously puts my mind at ease.”
Before long, Li Yunlong and Wei Dayong arrived at the separate training grounds of the Snow Leopard Special Forces.
The moment they arrived, Wei Dayong’s eyes widened.
The training of the Snow Leopard Special Forces was simply too extreme.
The thirty special forces soldiers were not training as a single unit.
Some were practicing rock climbing with their bare hands, scaling cliffs dozens of meters high using nothing but their own strength.
Others were skillfully dismantling and reassembling firearms.
Still others were training in radio communications.
In short, the array of complicated exercises left Wei Dayong dazzled.
With so many men, each possessing his own unique skill, gathered together, Wei Dayong could hardly imagine how great a storm they might one day unleash.
Just as Li Yunlong and Wei Dayong were inspecting the training, a soldier suddenly came running over.
“Commander, someone outside is asking to see you!”
---
Can you guess who has arrived? There will be a reward for anyone who gets it right.
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