Police officer Chen Shu

Chapter 415 Special Police Competition (Part Two)

The first event in the competition was manual bomb disposal, also known as bomb defusing.

Nowadays, with the advent of high-tech and powerful policing, bomb disposal methods are diverse, including detonation with detonators, water cannons, remote detonation by robots, and simple and brutal methods such as direct burning and crushing. Manual labor is actually a last resort and has not been used at incident sites for more than a decade.

Therefore, the commemorative significance of this competition far outweighs its practical significance. After all, in the early days, bomb disposal police, who were poor and had nothing, truly risked their lives to protect the safety of the people. However, the Zhengming Brigade also benefited from this project. In terms of actual combat, whether considering practical experience or bomb disposal equipment, the brigade's direct assault team would definitely have a complete advantage.

The current competition event is manual bomb disposal, which is Xu Mingliang's forte, who is nearly forty years old and has been tinkering with bomb disposal for more than a decade. After all, none of today's bomb disposal experts physically disarm bombs; they all use high-tech equipment. When it comes to manual bomb disposal, veteran SWAT officer Xu Mingliang is the best.

Wearing a bomb disposal suit weighing 35 kilograms and carrying a bulky helmet, Xu Mingliang frowned and asked, "Why aren't Li Da and Xie Chi here?"

As the most reliable scorer in Zhengming Brigade, Xu Mingliang had the confidence to call the brigade leader by name.

"Brother Xu, you're awesome! You're even calling people by their first names now." Chen Chuan punched Xu Mingliang's thick and sturdy bomb disposal suit in the abdomen and clicked his tongue, "Isn't this thing uncomfortable to wear?"

"Hehe, I've already given them a lot of face by even showing up today. If they had made me unhappy, they might have just turned around and left. Chen Chuan, have one." Xu Mingliang held up two fingers in front of Chen Chuan.

Xu Mingliang has been working in the Zhengming Special Police Brigade for several years since he was transferred from the detachment. However, due to his own reasons, he has never represented Zhengming in the traditional project of manual bomb disposal.

"I know, I know. Brother Xu's presence today is a huge honor for Chen Shutian. One cigarette isn't enough, you have to have two!" Out of respect for the old comrade, Chen Chuan immediately adopted a listening posture and hurriedly handed him a few good cigarettes.

"Great!" Xu Mingliang raised his eyebrows, letting Chen Chuan offer him a cigarette and light it for him.

Approaching forty and with a wealth of experience from his early years, Xu Mingliang has reached an age where he no longer needs to prove himself on the martial arts field. His willingness to volunteer this time is indeed out of respect for Chen Shu, and he also hopes to do his part to help this rather good captain.

After all, he is still young and has a bright future ahead of him.

Chen Shu walked over with two bottles of mineral water, handed one to Chen Chuan and the other to Xu Mingliang, and said, "Brother Xu, how's the preparation going? Are you confident?"

Xu Mingliang curled his lip at the detachment's direct assault squadron not far away and said dismissively, "I haven't done this in so many years, so I've definitely gotten a bit rusty. I can't handle high-tech stuff. But with this kind of skill, it's still better than those fancy tricks."

The brigade's direct assault squadron truly lived up to its reputation as the brigade's favored son. Due to the importance they placed on the competition, their equipment was the best in the entire arena. The sniper team, in addition to carrying their competition rifles, were also fully covered in jungle camouflage suits, with their faces painted with camouflage paint. Although the bomb disposal team's competition was for manual bomb disposal, they still brought water cannons and robots to their temporary base.

That's a truly correct attitude.

"That's your old employer, give them some face." Chen Shu patted Xu Mingliang's arm encouragingly, "Wear the heaviest gear and do the most delicate work. Go for it, Brother Xu! Show them that experience counts, and what a steady hand really is!"

The time had come. Xu Mingliang nodded to the Zhengming Brigade and solemnly picked up his helmet with both hands to prepare for departure.

Temporary rest room of the First Brigade directly under the detachment.

Squad leader Wei Hengyuan was stunned, his single-eyelid eyes flashing with light. He stared at Zhang Zhongzhen, incredulously saying, "Zhongzhen! Don't be fooled by our current first place; the two behind us are neck and neck. One wrong move and we'll lose!"

After a pause, Wei Hengyuan stamped his foot, sighed deeply, and complained, "Why did you send all the newcomers to the previous projects? At least send some of the top performers and leave a few winners for the team, otherwise we wouldn't be in such a passive position now."

In Wei Hengyuan's mind, or rather in the mind of all the police officers in the Special Police Detachment, if the First Detachment, which has an assault squadron, didn't win first place in the city-wide competition, it would be no different from losing. If something like this, which hadn't happened in over a decade, were to happen, it would be a severe blow to the reputation of their First Detachment.

As the captain, Wei Hengyuan is undeniably culpable, and as long as he remains within the SWAT system, he will never have a chance to recover. The same principle applies to Zhang Zhongzhen, the captain of the assault squadron.

Fearing Zhang Zhongzhen hadn't fully grasped the situation, Wei Hengyuan quickly outlined the current state of the competition among the various teams: "Zhongzhen, we can ignore Yong'an, who's in second place. The remaining events are all his weak points, so he doesn't have much staying power. But Zhengming, who's also neck and neck with us and currently in third place, is a different story. Their captain is Chen Shu, who has held the sniper record for eight years. If he wins the sniper event, his total score will immediately surpass ours. What if we..."

"Wei Da, don't worry. Even if Chen Shu wins the sniping competition, he won't be a match for us in the final team event. We'll definitely win the championship in the end," Zhang Zhongzhen said with a faint smile, unhurriedly.

Wei Hengyuan's eyes lit up. He took out his phone, did some calculations, and nodded, saying, "According to your calculations, even if Chen Shu wins the sniping competition and then gets second place in the team assault event, his total score is still one point lower than ours."

Zhang Zhongzhen went to the water dispenser in the corner of the lounge, filled two glasses with water, handed one to Wei Hengyuan, and said confidently, "Brother Wei, I've calculated all the points. We're sure to be in first place again in this competition. As for why we arranged for all the newcomers to compete earlier, it's mainly because of the provincial competition at the end of the year. Taking advantage of today's opportunity, we can let the promising newcomers get a chance to adapt to the atmosphere of the competition. This will greatly help them in terms of both mentality and adaptability when they participate in the provincial competition later."

Wei Hengyuan pondered for a long time before finally shaking his head: "Zhongzhen, your calculations are accurate, your arrangements are thorough, and your considerations are meticulous. In terms of the competition alone, your setup is flawless. But have you considered that while we did win first place, what if we were only one point ahead of second place? How would the brigade leaders view us? We are the most elite assault team, built with all the brigade's resources and effort! What would the leaders think if we were only one point ahead of those county and district brigades who only patrol the roads?"

Zhang Zhongzhen, whose mind was completely focused on the provincial competition, was stunned. His original plan was simply to win first place at the city level; he hadn't even considered how many points the first-place winner would need to surpass the second-place winner!
It's just a martial arts competition, why all the fuss?
"Wei Da, we can explain to the brigade leaders that the team we've sent this time consists of young players, and their performance will indeed be slightly worse than the elite team. But this arrangement is also for the provincial competition at the end of the year."

Wei Hengyuan waved his hand, interrupting Zhang Zhongzhen's explanation, and stared into the other's eyes, saying in a deep voice, "No leader will listen to our explanations; they only care about the final result. Zhongzhen, you've already given the younger team members some practice time, as you always have. For the next event, we must send the elite players! That's an order!"

Zhang Zhongzhen clenched his fist and retorted, "I'm the squadron leader, and only I can report personnel arrangements! If the brigade leaders don't understand, then so be it! As long as I win the provincial competition at the end of the year..."

"Zhongzhen!" Wei Hengyuan, who had been a leader for more than ten years and had far more experience in management than Zhang Zhongzhen, could no longer stand it and shouted to stop Zhang Zhongzhen's explanation.

He gripped Zhang Zhongzhen's arms tightly with both hands and said, word by word, "Zhongzhen, you need to understand that if you don't give the brigade leaders a satisfactory answer in this competition, do you think you can still lead the team to the provincial competition?"

These words shattered Zhang Zhongzhen's defenses. Winning the provincial competition had been one of his biggest goals in staying with the SWAT team for so many years, and he had given everything for it. In the end, he could only nod in agreement.

Chen Chuan and Pu Shu, who originally thought they would be grateful if they could just maintain the second-to-last place in the city, couldn't help but widen their eyes when they saw the number "3" in the last cell of the "Zhengming" column under the scoreboard of each team.

how can that be!

They are notorious throughout the entire Dongzhou City Special Police System, consistently ranking last in performance.

They themselves firmly believe this.

Therefore, neither the battalion commander nor the political instructor came to this competition, nor did Zou Qing, the internal affairs officer who was supposed to be in charge of logistics.

"How is this possible!" exclaimed a SWAT officer who came over to copy the scores. He quickly patted his colleague standing next to him, "How did Zhengming become third place? Could they have specially recruited some special forces?"

The colleague, whose face was still covered in green camouflage, looked shocked and confused: "I don't know either. There are only two projects left now. If nothing unexpected happens, they will make it into the top three."

"Top three? They might even get first place! If that group from the First Brigade keeps putting on airs and only sends in new recruits, hehe, they're definitely going to suffer a major upset this year." A passing SWAT officer couldn't help but comment.

"Hehe, they're not stupid. They'll definitely send their main players out next. Hey, let's not even talk about whether Zhengming is first or not. Getting second place is already a great achievement for them."

Because the special police detachment has a special task force that spends every day on the training ground and training is their only job, in the eyes of the district and county brigades, winning second place in the team competition is already a remarkable achievement.

"Second place!" The SWAT officer who exclaimed first was shocked again and said indignantly, "How could it be second place! There's still the individual sniper rifle event and the team assault event. If we compare those two events, Zhengming might be ranked much lower."

"Heh." A passing SWAT officer scoffed, pointing to the competition registration notice not far away, "Go see who's participating in the sniping competition. Chen Shu! The sniping record for this competition is still held by him!"

"Really?"

"Why would I lie to you? Anyone who's older knows this!" A passing SWAT officer, looking like he'd seen it all, continued confidently, "The sniper competition starts this afternoon. Once Chen Shu wins that individual event, Zhengming's total score will immediately surpass Yong'an's. As long as they play steadily in the team events and don't make any serious mistakes, they're basically guaranteed second place overall!"

"Not necessarily. It's been so many years since he last touched a sniper rifle, so Chen Shu might not be able to maintain his form. I still think Zhang Zhongzhen from the assault squadron is the best. That guy is an all-rounder. If it weren't for the rule that each person could only sign up for one event, he might have scored a hat trick!"

"Do you think Zhang Zhongzhen chose the sniper event because he was deliberately trying to challenge Chen Shu, the veteran sniper king?"

"That kid is very arrogant, and I think that's pretty much what he means."

"Heh, how naive! Zhang Zhongzhen wasn't the first person they selected for the sniper project in their direct command. They changed him at the last minute! Even for the final team assault project, look, in the list of applicants, only their first brigade just pasted sticky notes on the original list. Why? Because they changed the person!"

"Could it be that their first brigade has finally started to take this seriously and is finally putting up a fight? Heh, this is quite rare in the past."

"Look! Look! Zhengming won first place in all three individual events: the unarmed 5km run, the armed 5km run, and the manual bomb disposal. If he wins another one in the sniping event this afternoon, he'll have four. He's almost as good as the First Battalion!"

"Hehe, luckily they weren't very good at the 400-meter obstacle course, drones, and rapid-fire, otherwise they would have stolen the limelight this time."

"Luckily? Bro, the limelight has been stolen. Zhengming has truly turned things around this time!"

The three of them copied down their scores, then, shaking their heads and commenting on the interesting things that happened in the arena, slowly walked back to their team's temporary camp.

With their backs to the three, Chen Chuan and Pu Shu, standing under the scoreboard, finally couldn't help but laugh. As the three left, they burst into laughter.

Chen Chuan nudged Pu Shu lightly with his elbow: "Great hero, wasn't that great?"

Pu Shu, a rich second-generation who graduated from a sports school, received recognition for the first time not because of his family's wealth.

Pu Shu was secretly pleased and raised an eyebrow, saying, "Brother Chuan, actually, we were able to get third place this time largely thanks to your efforts."

"Huh? You're making fun of your brother Chuan, aren't you? You're getting cocky just because you won a prize?"

"How could I dare? Brother Chuan, have you heard the story of 'Tian Ji's Horse Race'?" Pu Shu paused, his eyes crinkling with laughter as he looked at Chen Chuan, shaking his head and saying, "Now, you're using your inferior horses against their superior ones."

"roll!"

"Hahaha!"

(End of this chapter)