From the 7th Steel Company to the Synthetic Division

“We don’t need any rescue. I want to carry out the exercise to the end. Please leave.” Deputy Director Liu refused the rescue without hesitation.

"The joint rescue operation between the Red and Blue Armies is just one of the exercises in the drill," Chief of Staff Gui insisted.

“We have joined the Seventh Steel Brigade and are your opponents. If you want to leave, you can only take us away as prisoners,” Deputy Director Liu said, showing off his armband.

"What? You've joined the Seventh Steel Brigade?"

Chief of Staff Gui was astonished; this outcome was beyond his expectations, and he was at a loss for what to do.

Fortunately, at this time, Brigade Commander Wang arrived with a group of men in a hurry. Chief of Staff Gui found his backbone and ran over quickly.

"Brigade Commander, there's not even a trace of the 7th Steel Brigade here, and the experts aren't cooperating with the rescue," Chief of Staff Gui said.

"Not cooperating with the rescue?" Brigade Commander Wang's voice rose several octaves.

"They said they weren't hostages; they had joined the 7th Steel Brigade and were part of the Piano Corps. They only wanted to be taken away as prisoners," Chief of Staff Gui explained.

"What kind of nonsense is this?"

Commander Wang had no interest in listening to this nonsensical and irrelevant nonsense, and directly ordered, "Immediately organize the experts to board the plane and leave."

"But some experts don't want to leave," Chief of Staff Gui said with difficulty.

"Why?" Wang Hu really couldn't understand.

"These experts wanted to continue participating in the exercise, saying they had never been detained before, that they had voluntarily joined the Seventh Steel Brigade, and that they didn't understand why they were rescued so inexplicably, claiming that being a prisoner of war was perfectly justified," Chief of Staff Gui said.

"What does this all mean? I can understand each word individually, but I just can't understand it when they're put together. Is there any connection between the expert group and being taken prisoner?"

Commander Wang was truly at his wit's end, unable to comprehend the experts' wild ideas.

After thinking about it for a long time, the only explanation I can come up with is that Chen Jun must have brainwashed the experts for a long time and completely fooled them.

"Alright, let them be whatever they want. If they want to be prisoners, take them away; if they want to be hostages, rescue them. They must leave here under whatever pretext. We only have one mission: to bring the experts back."

Wang Hu made a swift and decisive decision, then ordered Chief of Staff Gui: "Go and carry it out immediately. Blow this place to the ground in ten minutes."

"Yes!"

With Brigade Commander Wang backing him up on his decision, Chief of Staff Gui no longer felt any psychological pressure.

He quickly ran back to the experts, saluted, and said loudly, "Experts, our brigade commander has agreed to your request. Please cooperate with us to leave."

“Alright, then we’ll be prisoners of war,” Deputy Director Liu insisted.

"Deputy Director Liu, you are a senior military expert in our army. How can you be taken prisoner?" Chief of Staff Gui still wanted to make one last attempt.

“If we become prisoners, the Seventh Steel Brigade will come to rescue us, and the exercise can continue,” Deputy Director Liu stated his purpose.

"Oh, so that's what you think."

After a sudden realization, Chief of Staff Gui said, "Alright, let's take you away first and then talk about it. Take them away."

As Chief of Staff waved his hand to give the order, the special forces soldiers of the Tsunami Brigade immediately surrounded them, preparing to politely guide the experts one by one to the helicopter.

Deputy Director Liu, with his natural flair for performance, readily cooperated by covering his head with his hands, portraying the image of a prisoner, and the other experts also consciously cooperated.

The whole thing really does give the impression that the entire expert team has been hijacked and detained.

"Well, we came here for a joint rescue, but it turns out the Seventh Steel Brigade is the righteous side, and we've become the bad guys who are being detained."

Commander Wang, who witnessed this scene from not far away, felt it was utterly ridiculous.

but.

Overall, the mission was accomplished, and Brigade Commander Wang then reported via radio.

"Deputy Commander Qian, this is Wang Hu, the commander of the Tsunami Assault Brigade. I have a report to you. The joint rescue operation between my unit and the Mountain Eagle Brigade has been successful. All the experts have been rescued and are being escorted back by helicopter."

"Oh, that's great."

Upon receiving this news, Deputy Commander Qian smiled broadly, his face crinkling with wrinkles, and said, "Brigade Commander Wang, I want to ask Team Leader Tan to commend you."

"receive."

Wang Hu wasn't interested in such polite words, so he just gave a perfunctory reply and hung up the call.

At this moment, the company commander of the special operations team ran over and reported to Wang Hu: "Reporting to the brigade commander, we have searched all the surrounding woods and gullies, but we have not found any trace of the Steel Seventh Brigade."

"That's weird."

Wang Hu frowned, then contacted the Mountain Eagle Brigade via radio and said, "Brigade Commander Xiahou, this is Wang Hu. The expert team has rescued everyone, but they haven't found a single member of the Steel Seventh Brigade. Do you know what the situation is?"

As an air force helicopter unit, the Mountain Eagle Brigade has a greater advantage in reconnaissance than the Tsunami Assault Brigade.

“My helicopter squadron has completely surrounded Longchi Valley. Chen Jun has no chance of escaping; he must be hiding somewhere. I will intensify reconnaissance efforts,” Xiahou Lan said.

"Alright, then it's up to you guys."

At this point, Wang Hu had no other options. While pinning his hopes on the Mountain Eagle Brigade, he also sent out men to continue searching the surrounding area.

After a period of time.

Sun Zhu, a senior reporter who had temporarily separated from the expert group and was searching for the people of the Seventh Steel Brigade alone, wanted to reunite with the experts after failing to find them.

When he suddenly appeared alone, it immediately alerted the soldiers of the Tsunami Brigade.

Brush brush.

More than a dozen guns were aimed at him.

As a senior colonel, Sun Zhu was quite confident, and as a reporter, he was also an uncrowned king, so he wasn't afraid of the soldiers who surrounded him.

Despite being surrounded by more than a dozen guns, he still shouted forcefully, "Get out of my way, I need to speak with your leader."

"Put the gun down."

Wang Hu then walked over, ordered the soldiers to lower their guns and lift the alert, and asked with a frown and a puzzled look, "Who are you? Which unit are you from, and why are you here?"

Faced with Wang Hu's three direct questions, Sun Zhu straightened his back and said, "I am Sun Zhu, a reporter from the Z Military Daily. What? You can't catch Chen Jun, so you're going to use me as a substitute?"

Upon hearing that the other party was a reporter from Zunyi, Wang Hu's heart tightened immediately, and he saluted, saying, "I am Wang Hu, commander of the Red Army's Tsunami Assault Brigade..."

Just as Brigade Commander Wang finished introducing himself, he noticed Chief of Staff Gui and Xiahou Lan leading a group of soldiers rushing over in a flurry.

Xiahou Lan was in a helicopter the whole time, which is why he was able to get here so quickly.

"Chen Jun escaped? Didn't they catch him?" Xiahou Lan asked anxiously as soon as she arrived.

"Hmph, they left long ago. By the time you arrived, it'd be too late," Sun Zhu sneered.

"Why didn't you leave with the experts? What are you doing hiding here?" Wang Hu asked, frowning. "I'm waiting for you."

Sun Zhu's words puzzled Xiahou Lan, who asked, "What are you waiting for us for?"

“I interviewed Chief of Staff Chen before, and he asked me to give you a letter. At the time, I didn’t know why he asked me to give it to you. After they left, I realized what was going on, so I waited for you here.”

As Sun Zhu explained, he opened his handbag, took out a folded envelope, and handed it to Xiahou Lan.

Xiahou Lan opened the envelope with a puzzled look, and saw a few words written on it in pen.

"Greetings, brigade commanders. Congratulations on the successful rescue operation. This operation marks the successful conclusion of the Warrior Action combat exercise."

For your hard work during the more than one month of training, for Deputy Commander Qian's tireless efforts day and night, and for the successful completion of our exercise.

I think this result is pretty good now, but you two must be very disappointed that I didn't meet your real expectations and capture me alive, right?

The whole passage seemed innocuous, but the last two words were particularly jarring.

"It seems we've all been tricked by Chen Jun," Brigade Commander Wang sighed helplessly.

"This is not the result Chen Jun wanted, nor is it the result the two of us wanted," Xiahou Lan said with dissatisfaction.

“But an exercise needs to come to a close.” Brigade Commander Wang seemed to understand.

"This is a subjective result, a result that I find shameful. I do not accept it, and I cannot accept it." After saying this, Xiahou Lan turned and stormed away.

"Brigade Commander Xiahou, Brigade Commander Xiahou."

Brigade Commander Wang wanted to persuade Xiahou Lan, but he didn't know how.

“Brigade Commander Xiahou is right, this is indeed not the only outcome.”

Sun Zhu's words caught the attention of Brigade Commander Wang, who asked with suspicion, "What other results could there be?"

“I asked Chen Jun what outcome he hoped to see. He said that because it was an exercise, this was the only possible outcome. If it were war, the outcome would be different; it would be a disaster.”

Although Sun Zhu was repeating Chen Jun's words, it was clear from his tone that he agreed with them.

Unbeknownst to him, he had already been conquered by Chen Jun.

Whether it's his personal charm or his abilities, he couldn't help but be attracted to Chen Jun.

Is it a disaster?

Wang Hu stood there with his hands on his hips, lost in deep thought.

The reason Chen Jun chose to conclude the exercise in this way was not his own intention, but rather a requirement of the exercise.

After communicating with Chief of Staff Shen and Team Leader Tan, this final conclusion was determined.

It was precisely because he knew the outcome in advance that Team Leader Tan did not stay to continue watching the exercise, but left early because of an unimportant meeting.

The reason for making this decision was not because of the outcome of the great battle that everyone wanted.

The reason lies with Team Leader Tan and Chen Jun. They both clearly understand that reform is not something that can be accomplished overnight; it is a long-term and important task.

It is said that serious illnesses require strong medicine, but strong medicine can have side effects.

Team Leader Tan represents the intentions of those above, and their thinking is actually quite simple.

That's just two words—

Stablize!

The Chinese military needs stable growth and progress. Only by taking steady steps can it lay a solid foundation and avoid leaving any lingering problems.

Being too eager for quick results is not what the higher-ups want, so the best "outcome" is to stop short of making progress.

to be honest.

The goal is to enable the Mountain Eagle Brigade and the Tsunami Assault Brigade to deeply recognize their own shortcomings through the interference and pressure from the Steel Seventh Brigade in this exercise.

In the subsequent development of the Blue Force, we should do our best to correct and make up for the shortcomings, so that the strength of the military can steadily improve and eventually become a model for the navy and air force.

Only in this way can we use them as models to build more "informationized forces" on a large scale in the navy and air force.

However, if the exercise were to end in a different way, with the 7th Steel Brigade finding a way to defeat the other two brigades, it would certainly be very exciting, but there would inevitably be side effects.

Putting aside the two major branches of the armed forces, the navy and air force, who have invested so much effort in building "professional opposing forces," what kind of "impact" would it have on both branches if their two brigades couldn't defeat one brigade in this exercise?

Including but not limited to two old-timers from the military, who might take the opportunity to cause trouble.

At best, it will make the development of the opposing forces in these two branches of the military very difficult in the later stages; at worst, it will lead to the disbandment of the two opposing forces.

If the formation of the Army's Blue Team faces such great resistance, the resistance from the Navy and Air Force will only be greater.

The higher authorities want to promote the informatization reform of the military, and professional opposing forces are one of the key areas of informatization reform. They certainly don't want this line to be affected.

Secondly, the 7th Steel Brigade has been established for less than a year, and it may have an absolute chance of winning against two regular brigades.

It can face a joint air and sea strike launched by two top-tier elite blue force units, which the navy and air force have built at great cost and with the full strength of the military.

Whether the 7th Steel Brigade can withstand the pressure is also a big question mark.

The formation of the 7th Steel Brigade was already under pressure, with voices constantly emerging to voice opposition, and some even wishing for the brigade to be disbanded.

If the 7th Steel Brigade loses this battle, many people will also come forward to criticize it.

Faced with criticism from all levels, the 7th Steel Brigade might be disbanded. Even if it survives, it will be a long time before it is formally incorporated into the organization.

The 7th Steel Brigade, formerly the No. 1 Battalion in the entire army, is now the second digitalized combined arms brigade of the Army.

Those in charge also value this highly and don't want the future development of the 7th Steel Brigade to be affected, so they will try their best to eliminate risks.

Since forcing a fight would be bad for all three parties and would bring huge risks to all three forces.

Is it even necessary to fight to see who wins and who loses?

Obviously not!
However, if we only consider the three units themselves, whether it is Xiahou Lan of the Mountain Eagle Brigade, Wang Hu of the Tsunami Brigade, or Chen Jun of the Steel Seventh Brigade, etc.

They definitely hope for a decisive battle, a good fight to end things.

and so.

The final result of the Warrior Operation exercise not only surprised the expert group and all the journalists and guests, but also surprised the three participating troops.

Looking at everyone involved in this exercise, it seems that only Deputy Commander-in-Chief Qian's needs were met.

Because only Deputy Commander Qian didn't want innovation; he just wanted to complete the exercise steadily and methodically. As long as the task was completed, he didn't care about anything else. (End of Chapter)