From the 7th Steel Company to the Synthetic Division

The Red Army's long-range artillery battalion was already on its way back, so Wu Liuyi and his group didn't wait long by the roadside before they saw the long-range train convoy coming along the road.

"Get ready!"

With Wu Liuyi's low reminder, everyone perked up, adjusted their mindset, and walked towards the roadside as if they had just bumped into each other.

Battalion Commander Chen had received a fake phone call earlier. When he saw a group of strangers suddenly appear on the roadside, he was briefly puzzled, but quickly realized what was going on.

He immediately ordered the convoy to stop on the side of the road and personally got out of the car to greet the group of strangers.

"Excuse me, which one of you is Captain Wu?"

Battalion Commander Chen approached Wu Liuyi and his group, asking them questions with a friendly smile.

“Yes, I am. You must be Battalion Commander Chen,” Wu Liuyi asked.

"Yes, yes, it's me, Chen Chusheng."

As Battalion Commander Chen introduced himself, he also saluted Wu Liuyi, assuming that Wu was from the army group and giving him plenty of face.

"How did you know we were coming? And how did you know my surname is Wu?"

Wu Liuyi played his part perfectly, asking questions he already knew the answer to, and there wasn't a single flaw in his act.

“Our brigade political commissar personally called to inform us that your observation team was coming, so we came here specifically to pick you up.”

Battalion Commander Chen was a shrewd man; he spoke eloquently, then asked with a hint of doubt, "What are you doing here? You've already passed our camp."

The Red Army's headquarters was located in Chenghai City, which was closer to the artillery battalion's camp in the rear than the launch site the artillery battalion had just visited.

Wu Liuyi and his group appeared between the camp and the launch point. Without suspecting that they were enemies, the only plausible explanation was that they had gone too far.

"Have you passed by?"

Wu Liuyi was suddenly stunned. This was not an act; he was genuinely stunned. Cheng Cai and the others behind him also broke out in a cold sweat.

What does it mean to have a single oversight despite being extremely careful?

This is what is meant by "even the best-laid plans can have a flaw."

They considered every aspect, both before and after the event, and even devised a meticulous plan, but they forgot to overdo it.

Anyone who has studied psychology or specializes in micro-expressions would be able to see the panic in Wu Liuyi's face at this moment.

Fortunately, Battalion Commander Chen did not have any expertise in this area, and the Political Commissar Xu he invited was of considerable prestige.

Battalion Commander Chen hadn't considered that possibility at all. He thought Wu Liuyi had simply gone astray because he was directionally challenged, and now that it had been brought up, he was losing face.

He smiled and smoothed things over, saying, "You've already passed by, but it doesn't matter. Get in the car, I'll take you to the camp."

Seeing that Battalion Commander Chen hadn't discovered any flaws, Wu Liuyi secretly breathed a sigh of relief and immediately feigned surprise, saying, "Battalion Commander Chen, this must be a long-range rocket launcher. I've never seen one before. I didn't expect it to be so spectacular. It's amazing."

Wu Liuyi's sincere praise really hit the nail on the head for Battalion Commander Chen.

He couldn't help but grin and said proudly, "This is the most advanced rocket launcher in the country right now. It's much more spectacular to launch than it looks."

"Is this the launch vehicle?" Wu Liuyi asked, pointing to the first vehicle, feigning ignorance.

"This isn't it, this is the command vehicle. The ones behind it are the launch vehicles," Battalion Commander Chen explained.

"Oh, I understand."

Wu Liuyi suddenly realized and continued, "We've come a long way, and one of our comrades even sprained his ankle, so it's really inconvenient."

How about this? The cars behind are too crowded. A few of us can sit here without any problem. But this injured comrade, please sit in your command vehicle for a while.

This vehicle looks very stable. Let's give him a taste of the treatment afforded to a battalion commander. As the observation team, this is also part of our observation. What do you say?

Wu Liuyi's request was reasonable and didn't sound excessive at all.

Battalion Commander Chen had no reason to refuse and readily said, "Of course, no problem. Which comrade was injured? Should I call someone down to lend a hand?"

"No need, getting in the car will definitely not be a problem."

Wu Liu waved his hand in refusal, then turned around and said, "Xu Cai, help me get Cheng Duo into the car. Quickly, this is Battalion Commander Chen's kind offer."

"Yes!"

Cheng Cai immediately agreed and turned to help Xu Sanduo, who was standing next to him.

After so many years of training in the army, Xu Sanduo has long become a mature soldier. So he still has some natural naiveté, but his intelligence and emotional intelligence have been fully developed.

The moment Xu Sanduo saw Cheng Cai turn to him, he instantly understood and immediately started acting.

His legs bent, his face contorted, and pain etched itself on his lips.

That acting...

No doubt about it!
Battalion Commander Chen naturally couldn't see any problem. He warmly invited Wu Liuyi and his group to get on the bus and personally arranged which bus each person would get on.

Xu Sanduo, who was pretending to have a leg injury, was helped onto the command vehicle by Cheng Cai.

The command vehicle of the long-range artillery battalion is a modular container; simply put, it's a truck carrying a large box containing the complete command system.

Despite the large amount of equipment inside, the space is still quite spacious.

Cheng Cai and Xu Sanduo got into the command vehicle and were seated on a bench on the side. The other people in the vehicle didn't pay much attention and continued to do their own things.

Cheng Cai and Xu Sanduo are equally outstanding actors, appearing calm and even a bit reserved on the surface.

In reality, his eyes darted around everywhere, and his ears were all perked up, not missing a single piece of information, collecting everything he could hear and see.

While Cheng Cai was pretending to help Xu Sanduo apply medicine, he secretly installed a locator under the chair.

……

The reconnaissance team's infiltration operation went smoothly, and everything proceeded as planned, with a large amount of intelligence being continuously transmitted back to the command center.

The senior officers of the 7th Steel Brigade, having gathered information, held another meeting to discuss the various situations that occurred today.

"After a series of feints this morning and forenoon, we have achieved the desired effect; the Red Army's long-range artillery command vehicle has been located by us..."

Hong Yi summarized all the intelligence he had gathered and announced it to everyone present. "Then quickly contact the reconnaissance team and see how things are going over there," said Brigade Commander Wang Qingrui.

"Brigade Commander, Political Commissar, the plan was a great success."

Intelligence officer Qiu Ming came up with his laptop and said to everyone on the screen, "They brought six high-sensitivity signal generators, and three of them have already connected to the Beidou satellite signal."

Furthermore, this information is already reflected in our control system.

The Beidou-1 system, which was officially completed in 2000, has basically stabilized after more than a year of trial operation.

Not only secret units like the Old A and Zhurihe can enjoy Beidou's positioning and navigation services, but even elite units like the Steel Seventh Brigade and the 708th Brigade, which were among the first to be converted from divisions to brigades, can use the Beidou-1 system.

It was thanks to the BeiDou-1 system that our military achieved a major leap forward in positioning and navigation, no longer having to be subject to anyone else's control.

This is a landmark "technology"!
It was also thanks to the Beidou-1 system that Chen Jun's long-planned development of small drones was able to be accelerated by more than half.

It is estimated that it will take at most six months, and as short as two or three months to produce a trial unit.

Chen Jun is still waiting for the drones to show their power.

“We haven’t made contact with the reconnaissance team yet. How can you be sure that they have successfully installed the signal generator on the target vehicle?” Tian Baoguo asked.

This suspicion is very reasonable, since it's impossible to know what kind of vehicle the signal generator is installed on from such a distance.

"This is easy to distinguish."

Qiu Ming explained in detail: "Because there is a special chip designed inside this signal transmitting device. This chip can automatically capture a special corresponding signal inside the long-range fire command vehicle."

If no signal is detected, it will automatically become invalid within one hour.

However, once this signal is detected, the satellite signal generator will automatically operate, transmitting navigation and positioning signals to guide the missile to its target, and connecting with the BeiDou signal to guide the missile system to carry out the strike.

There are now three devices installed on the three vehicles of this Red Army, which means that these three combat units have been firmly locked down by us.

It's like putting a collar on a giant panda; no matter how far it roams the mountains and fields, we can accurately locate it anytime, anywhere if we want to catch it.

Qiu Ming's explanation was very easy to understand, and almost everyone present understood it.

"So, as long as we launch the missile now, it will hit the target?" Tian Baoguo asked in surprise.

Don't be surprised that Political Commissar Tian Baoguo was so astonished. It wasn't that his more than 20 years in the army had been wasted, but rather that technological progress was simply too rapid.

In this era of technological explosion, the equipment of the military is being updated and iterated at an incredibly rapid pace.

It's perfectly normal for a veteran like Tian Baoguo, who came from a time of nothingness and extreme backwardness, to not understand the technology of the new era.

“That’s right, and it’s 100% accurate. Even if these three cars are moving, we can still chase them down and hit them from behind, leaving them nowhere to escape,” Hong Yi replied confidently.

"Then I'll notify the flight squadron now to prepare for takeoff and shoot them down?" the air force commander asked expectantly.

"Staff Officer Qiu, this is a great opportunity. Immediately transmit the data to the Air Force command system." Wang Qingrui excitedly gave the order. He felt that this was such a good opportunity that no one would have any objections, so he didn't ask Chen Jun any further questions.

"No, no need to rush, the meat that's already in your mouth won't fly away."

Chen Jun stopped him, offering his opinion: "Let's wait for the reconnaissance team to withdraw from the target area; their follow-up reconnaissance is not yet over."

"That's true, there's no rush."

Wang Qingrui nodded in agreement and continued, "We can now prepare ourselves. Once the Red Army's long-range artillery battalion is destroyed, we will immediately utilize our combined air and sea superiority to launch a beach landing operation against Chenghai City."

Making preparations in advance means figuring out how to fight, which is a major issue.

"Once the threat from the long-range artillery battalion is gone, our warships will be able to get close. How to fight, how to win, and how to win with minimal losses is a big question."

Gao Cheng stood up and walked to the map, then addressed the crowd, saying, "After repeated reconnaissance in the previous stage, we can now confirm that the frontal forces at Dongping Mountain are not strong. There is only one motorized infantry battalion, and they are scattered throughout the 2-kilometer-long forward fortifications."

A coastal artillery battalion is full of soldiers, and they are deployed in scattered artillery positions. Due to historical reasons, these scattered artillery positions are not interconnected, so they can be easily wiped out by our landing forces.

There's another reserve battalion behind the mountain. If we take the forward positions in one fell swoop, it will be too late even if the Red Army brings their reserves over.”

Gao Cheng truly lives up to his reputation as a genuine second-generation Red Army descendant; his command skills are indeed exceptional.

The matter was explained clearly in just a few words.

"We can all see the shortcomings, so why did Chu Zhangang make this deployment? It's not like he lacks troops," Deputy Political Commissar Ma Tianxiang asked curiously.

"Is that so..."

Gao Cheng continued to explain: "This time, he focused all his efforts on defending against naval attacks on the defensive lines between 50 and 30 kilometers."

In other words, he placed all his frontal defenses on the long-range artillery battalion, having absolute confidence in them and not believing that we could break through these lines of defense.

As long as we can't attack the coast in three days and the fleet can't get close to the shore, everything he's planned will be fine.

Furthermore, he placed his two strongest motorized infantry battalions in the city as the main force for city defense, and set up a blocking position similar to the Maginot Line 100 kilometers to the northwest.

I think he wanted to deliver a crushing blow to Wang Kezheng at the very beginning of the second phase.

Gao Cheng's analytical skills were meticulous, and he perfectly grasped Chu Zhangang's situation, guessing almost all of Chu's tactical ideas and thoughts correctly.

"The first phase of the exercise has just begun, and they're already starting to plan for the second phase. Can Chu Zhangang win by fighting like this? Does he subconsciously believe that the Chenghai defense line is insurmountable and unbreakable?"

Tian Baoguo was taken aback, surprised by Chu Zhangang's confidence, and even more astonished that someone would dare to look down on the Steel Seventh Brigade so much, especially since it was a unit that had once lost to the Steel Seventh Brigade.

He had been beaten bloody in the first fight, yet he still dared to underestimate his opponent in the second.

This thought process is truly bizarre!

"What we are analyzing now is all part of Chu Zhangang's wishful thinking. As for who will manipulate the beads of this abacus and how they will be manipulated, that is probably beyond his control."

Wang Qingrui laughed as he spoke, and Chen Jun and the others present also laughed.

With everyone in the command post exchanging knowing smiles, the operational plan for the Red Army was finalized, and all that remained was for the reconnaissance team to successfully withdraw.

Once the reconnaissance team enters the long-range artillery camp, collects all the key information, completes the observation mission, and withdraws from the camp, they will be ready to leave.

Then the Blue Army's air force will roar in, swooping down from 10,000 meters above the ground to deliver a fatal blow.

The moment the Red Army's long-range artillery unit is destroyed, the decisive battle of the first phase of the exercise will begin, and the true winner will be revealed within a single day. (End of Chapter)