After Ren Xiaosu pushed the motorcycle and set off, Zhang Xiaoman quickly led the Razor Sharp Company in digging the trenches.
After all, Ren Xiaosu was not well-versed in military knowledge. Although the gullies could indeed save them a lot of steps, there was still a need to work on them before the gullies could be useful as trenches. They needed to select the most suitable position for the ambush and set up emplacements as well.
It would take an hour for Ren Xiaosu to head up the mountain and probably another hour for the reinforcements from Mt. Dingyuan to reach this location. So there wasn’t much time left for Zhang Xiaoman and the others to get ready.
As Jiao Xiaochen led the group to construct the trenches, he muttered, “I thought the commander sent us a weakling, but it turns out he’s the best.”
“Do y’all feel that he has a grudge against these bandits?” someone wondered. “I feel like he really wants to fight these bandits and the Zong Consortium until he kills them all.”
“I can feel it too.” Zhang Xiaoman sighed. “There’s some sort of ferocity deep in that kid’s bones. He could kill someone just like that without batting an eyelid. Before we could even react, he finished off that bandit.”
“When he was pushing the motorcycle to go up the mountain just now, I could sense a killing intent in him.”
“You must’ve fucking listened to too many stories! You can even sense something like killing intent now? Get out of here!”
Zhang Xiaoman was sitting in the trenches and estimated the time. “Are the mortars ready?”
“Captain, our mortars definitely can’t hit the mountain since their effective range is only three kilometers.” Jiao Xiaochen wiped away his sweat and said, “Should we get a little closer? That way, we can still provide some cover for him. Our mortars are probably still a bit far from the bandit lair on Mt. Guan to effectively hit them.”
“No.” Zhang Xiaoman shook his head. “Our most important task is to wipe out the bandits coming from Mt. Dingyuan. It’s not that I don’t want to provide cover for him, but our mission must be completed. We can only talk about other matters after the mission is done.”
“What if he—”
“There’s no ‘what ifs,’” Zhang Xiaoman refuted. “It’s an honor for a soldier to die on the battlefield. Since he’s decided to go, he must have some skills to keep himself alive. Don’t ever underestimate a supernatural being. Have you forgotten how strong old Xu’s superpower is? And Ren Xiaosu might even be stronger than Old Xu?”
Supernatural beings had now become a variable on the battlefield. They were sharp daggers that could kill the enemy as soon as they were stabbed in the right position.
When it was time, Zhang Xiaoman immediately ordered Jiao Xiaochen to launch the mortars and create a distraction. After the mortars exploded, intense gunfire suddenly came from the mountainside.
Someone said, “It seems like the bandits on Mt. Guan have already started fighting. Are we really not going to support him?”
“I think I just heard a train whistle. Did I hear wrong?”
“He definitely can’t deal with them by himself. No matter how powerful a supernatural being is, they’re still afraid of bullets. Why don’t we attack Mt. Guan first?”
Zhang Xiaoman said coldly, “Keep your guards up, all of you! Our current enemies are the bandits from Mt. Dingyuan, not the bandits here at Mt. Guan!”
But at this moment, the gunfire on the mountainside subsided. Zhang Xiaoman frowned. “Why have the gunshots stopped so quickly? Has he retreated already, or did he sacrifice himself?”
“He sacrificed himself, more than likely.”
Based on last year’s intel, there were at least 700 bandits gathered up on Mt. Guan. No matter how powerful Ren Xiaosu was, he could not possibly wipe out all the bandits by himself.
Moreover, there should be gunshots from the pursuing bandits if Ren Xiaosu had fled down the mountain. But right now, they couldn’t hear any gunshots at all. This suggested the battle on the mountain had already ended.
Therefore, the most reasonable explanation was that Ren Xiaosu had overestimated his own strength when he said he would pin down the bandits on Mt. Guan. In the end, his plan backfired on him.
“But the reinforcements at Mt. Dingyuan won’t come over here to give support if the battle’s ended so quickly. Then our plan is ruined.” Jiao Xiaochen sighed. “What should we do now? Should we retreat?”
“Wait awhile longer.” Zhang Xiaoman said, “What if the bandits from Mt. Dingyuan rush here? We can fight as many of them as we can then. Our enemies have motorcycles that allow them to travel freely in the valley while we retreat on foot. If we evacuate at this moment, we’ll be caught up to very soon by the enemy. If that’s the case, we might as well defend this position and fight back.”
The soldiers of the Razor Sharp Company leaned against the trench walls, hugging their guns. “The commander is really unlucky. The two candidates he chose so far have both ended up dead.”
“There’s nothing to be sorry about.” Zhang Xiaoman said calmly, “On the battlefield, you never know when someone will die.”
However, the Razor Sharp Company waited for nearly an hour in the trenches at the foot of the mountain. They did not see any bandit reinforcements coming from Mt. Dingyuan, nor did any bandits charge down from Mt. Guan to kill them.
“This feels a little strange.” Zhang Xiaoman wondered, “We exposed our position when we fired the mortars earlier, so why’re the bandits on Mt. Guan not coming down to attack us? Never mind that the bandits from Mt. Dingyuan did not come, why aren’t the bandits on Mt. Guan coming down either?”
But at this moment, a soldier poked his head out and saw someone walking slowly on the mountain road towards them. The figure was covered in blood and prominently stood out in the dusty landscape.
“Isn’t that Ren Xiaosu? He’s still alive?!” Jiao Xiaochen exclaimed.
They had been speculating and coming up with many scenarios, but never had they thought Ren Xiaosu would be walking out of the mountain alive!
When the calm-looking Zhang Xiaoman heard Ren Xiaosu’s name, he immediately got out of the trench and ran towards him. He circled Ren Xiaosu for a while and asked, “Did you get injured? How did you manage to escape? Medic! Medic, get over here!”
Ren Xiaosu stayed silent for a moment before suddenly saying, “I’m sorry, I didn’t complete the mission.”
Zhang Xiaoman chuckled when he saw that Ren Xiaosu was alright. “It’s good enough that you’re still alive. I said that you were too overconfident. How could you possibly pin down the bandits on Mt. Guan all by yourself? Follow me into the trenches. When the bandits charge down, we’ll still have a tough battle to fight!”
Ren Xiaosu said, “No, what I meant was that I killed them so fast they couldn’t even call for reinforcements from Mt. Dingyuan.”
Everyone from the Razor Sharp Company was stupefied. ‘Is it fucking appropriate for you to say something so ruthless while putting on a sad face like that?!’
Zhang Xiaoman asked in bewilderment, “You aren’t joking, right?”
Ren Xiaosu said, “The bandits of Mt. Guan almost turned out in full force for a battle last month, but they were all killed. There were only about a 100 bandits left on Mt. Guan, so they weren’t as strong as y’all thought.”
“Aha!” Zhang Xiaoman was stunned for a moment. “But how do you know about it?”
Ren Xiaosu did not reply. He suddenly missed Liuyuan a little.
Zhang Xiaoman and the others still felt that something was wrong. Even with only a 100 bandits left on this mountain, the battle should not have ended this quickly, right?! In that case, did it mean that Ren Xiaosu had killed all the bandits on the mountain single-handedly?!
“Are you sure the bandits on the mountain are all dead?” Zhang Xiaoman asked in confirmation. “You better not joke around in the military!”
Ren Xiaosu said, “There’s still some HMGS and a lot of ammo left on the mountain, so I think we should go up and get them. We don’t have enough ammo, after all.”
“That’s not what I was asking about…” Zhang Xiaoman was a little speechless.
An hour later, Zhang Xiaoman was looking at the bodies lying around the bandit lair on Mt. Guan. Then he said to a radiotelephone operator, “Notify Commander Zhou. I’ve gotta give him a sitrep.”
The RTO walked over with a portable radio. When Zhang Xiaoman took the handset, he heard Zhou Yinglong shouting on the other end: “Maggot, why’re you looking for me at a time like this? Are you thinking of giving up because you feel you can’t take Mt. Dingyuan? Lemme tell you, you already pledged to do it, so even if you can’t, you’ll still have to fight!”
Zhang Xiaoman said in a speechless manner: “Battalion Commander, we’ve already taken Mt. Guan. We will be attacking Mt. Dingyuan tomorrow….”
