Soldiers' Assault: Veteran Special Agents and New Recruits

The division's standing committee members and squad leaders split into several groups and set off, with Political Commissar Lu being the first to arrive at the village where the conflict had broken out.

Political Commissar Lu was very worried on his way here and had prepared various plans in order to effectively resolve the conflict between the military and the local authorities.

When he arrived at the scene, he found that it wasn't as serious as he had thought.

The village chief arrived before Political Commissar Lu. Instead of taking the villagers' perspective and seriously denouncing the "Old A" gang, he cursed like a shrew.

Moreover, he is very intelligent.

Without saying anything more, he directed everyone present, including the villagers and several old A members, to sing "The Three Main Rules of Discipline and the Eight Points for Attention" with him.

The Three Main Rules of Discipline and the Eight Points for Attention are widely sung and are also a very meaningful song.

Singing this military song together can not only subtly imply to the officers that what they are doing is wrong and violates the discipline of their army.

It can also let the people present know the difficulties faced by soldiers, which can evoke a certain degree of empathy and resolve conflicts through understanding.

When Political Commissar Lu arrived by car, the old A members had already started singing with the villagers.

Seeing such a scene of great unity between the military and the people, Political Commissar Lu finally felt relieved and decided to step up his efforts to completely resolve the conflict.

"Dear fellow villagers, I am Lu Yunhe, the political commissar of the First Division."

Commissar Lu first introduced himself, and after the villagers’ attention was focused, he continued, “I could hear your singing from far away, and you sang very well.”

After hearing you sing, my throat is itching too, and I want to sing a song with you all.

"Then everyone, let's sing a song together, a grand chorus of unity between the army and the people, singing about how the army and the people are one family."

"Great, excellent!" The village chief enthusiastically led the applause.

Clapping sounds.

The entire audience erupted in applause.

"The army and the people, we are one family, ready—sing!"

As Political Commissar Lu took the lead in directing the operation from the center, a military song that perfectly suited the current situation began to play again, and the already minor conflict dissolved with the song.

Jackie Chan drove to the Information Brigade's camp and found Long Xiaoyun, who had already returned.

Going directly to the power supply station won't help; it won't resolve the conflict. We need to find Long Xiaoyun first to understand the situation and prevent the situation from escalating.

"Captain Long, I'd like to understand why you sent troops to occupy the power station?"

Jackie Chan found Long Xiaoyun and got straight to the point.

"Commander Cheng, there are some things to do. I've sent a detachment, but not to occupy the area. Instead, it's a joint effort between the military and civilians to help him better manage the power supply station."

Long Xiaoyun had already prepared an excuse beforehand, and answered the successful question with ease.

"I know you've been experiencing power shortages lately, mainly due to unstable power supply. But sending troops to the local power station is a bit impulsive. To avoid escalating the situation, let's bring them back first," Jackie Chan advised.

"I'm sorry, I can't do that right now." Long Xiaoyun rejected Jackie Chan's offer.

"Why?" Jackie Chan asked.

"I can't let my new equipment sit idle every day, nor can I let hundreds of officers and soldiers be idle all day long," Long Xiaoyun said confidently.

"No matter how big the difficulties you face, you shouldn't have conflicts with the local authorities. You should find a way to overcome them yourself. If you can't, then report to the division headquarters, and we'll work together to find a solution," Jackie Chan said seriously.

"We can't build a power plant right now, and we don't have the money to rent generator sets. My unit is special; what it needs most is electricity. Equipment needs to be debugged, and personnel need to be trained, all of which require a stable power supply."

Long Xiaoyun once again contradicted Cheng Long and asked seriously, "I ask you, if a war breaks out tomorrow and our information forces cannot be deployed, how will Li Cheng Long fight against the enemy's information?"

How do you defend against enemy electromagnetic attacks? How do you defend against enemy high-frequency interference? How do you ensure communications? How do you operate reconnaissance equipment?

Long Xiaoyun's points were all very concrete and reflected the very value of the Information Brigade.

"What you say makes a lot of sense. Your information brigade is indeed very important to the synthesizers. I will deal with the problems you are facing as a priority, but before that, you need to withdraw your people immediately."

Instead of trying to persuade him as before, Jackie Chan issued an order in his capacity as mayor.

"Okay, you said it. You're the teacher, and I believe you'll keep your word."

Long Xiaoyun could not disobey her superior's orders, and since Jackie Chan had already made a promise, she did not insist any further and turned to go get the car.

There was no need for the two of them to drive two cars over; Jackie Chan simply stood there and waited for the car to come over.

A female soldier secretly ran over and said, "Commander, please don't blame Long Da. She had no choice but to do this."

"Oh? Really? Tell me about it," Jackie Chan asked.

"Dragon is organizing us to develop software, a brand new E5W command and control system software. Several sudden power outages without notice caused the loss of all the data storing critical program code. A week's worth of work by more than a dozen programmers was wasted. She was very upset, so..."

"Okay, I understand, I'll handle it."

When Jackie Chan saw that the car had already driven up, he interrupted the female soldier and waited for the car to pull up in front of him before opening the door and getting in.

On their way to the power station, Political Commissar Lu had already resolved the villagers' conflict.

I accompanied the old village chief and we had a private chat.

To solve the village's water problem, it is essential to communicate effectively with the village chief. Only through such communication can the potential risks be completely resolved.

"This is our responsibility, old village chief. Please come with me to the army later, and I'll treat you to a meal as an apology," Political Commissar Lu warmly invited.

"To be honest, the responsibility isn't entirely yours. I think we should each take equal blame. As for the meal..."

The old village chief laughed heartily, "I just don't know if you have any good wine. If you don't have good wine, I won't go. I just love that kind of wine, haha."

This is clearly just polite talk; Political Commissar Lu, who is in charge of political work, couldn't possibly not understand it.

"Haha, of course! I'll definitely get you the best wine and food."

Political Commissar Lu picked up where the old village chief left off, and then, to lighten the mood, changed the subject by asking, "Old village chief, what year did you join the army?"

"Me? That's a long time ago. I was born in 1953. I missed the fight against the American devils, which is my lifelong regret."

The old village chief sighed regretfully, then suddenly asked with a puzzled look, "Oh, by the way, how did you know I had been a soldier?"

"Hahaha, the marks left by serving in the military can never be erased. We are all the same," Political Commissar Lu said with a loud laugh.

"Absolutely, it's etched into your bones and flows in your blood."

The old village chief expressed his strong agreement and asked in return, "Comrade, what year did you join the army?"

"I joined the army in 1973, which is a full twenty years later than you. If you really think about it, you're still my old squad leader, haha," Political Commissar Lu laughed.

"No, no, no, I can't be the old squad leader. I'm just an old man. You are a leader in the army," the old village chief said politely.

"Senior, if I may ask, when was the last time you ate at the military base?" Political Commissar Lu asked.

"That's a long time. Since I came back from the army, I haven't eaten in the army again. It's been more than fifty years, half a century has passed," the old village chief said with emotion.

"Then you've come to the right place. This time, I must let you experience what it was like to be a soldier back then," Political Commissar Lu said.

"That's great!"

The old village chief immediately perked up and said expectantly, "When people get old, they often think about the past. It's great that they can reminisce."

"Then I must make the arrangements for you."

……

Political Commissar Lu and the old village chief had a pleasant conversation and went together to the nearby special forces camp, allowing the old village chief to reminisce and, incidentally, to completely resolve the issue.

Meanwhile, Jackie Chan and Long Xiaoyun drove to the local power supply station.

There were two guards on either side of the entrance. Although they were from the Information Brigade and were not armed, their uniforms made the power supply station look imposing.

Long Xiaoyun drove through the gate, parked the car by the roadside in the yard, got out, and walked together toward the power supply station building.

"Reporting to the division commander, the second squad of the first network detachment of the information brigade is currently cleaning and inspecting and maintaining equipment with the comrades from the power management station. Please give instructions."

Cao Ying, the deputy captain in charge of overseeing the situation, jogged over to report to Jackie Chan.

"Where is the director? Take me to him," Jackie Chan ordered.

"Director Ma is inside. Commander, please wait a moment, I'll go and call him over right away." Cao Ying said and ran out quickly.

Soon he brought over a middle-aged man wearing a shirt and dress pants.

"This is our division commander. He came here specifically to see you," Cao Ying introduced.

"Hello, Station Master Ma."

"Hello, hello, boss."

Jackie Chan waved hello, then asked seriously, "I'd really like to know why your power supply station keeps cutting off our troops' power."

Station Master Ma was intimidated by Jackie Chan's aura; the young, tall, and imposing commander made him nervous.

He quickly complained and explained, "Oh dear, boss, we can't do anything about it. Things are very complicated here. Let's go inside and sit down and talk. Let's have a cup of tea."

"OK."

Jackie Chan nodded and strode over.

The group arrived at the power station's reception office and sat down around a desk.

"Actually..."

While pouring tea, Station Chief Ma said, "We also know that the troops have heavy workloads, and shutting down the power will have a significant impact on their work."

But we also have to listen to those above us. They tell us which power line to supply, and we supply that line; they tell us which line to shut off, and we shut off that line.

Station Master Ma placed the two glasses of water he had poured in front of Chen Long and Long Xiaoyun, respectively.

"I don't want to hear what you're saying. I need to know the main reason for the power outage." Jackie Chan asserted his dominance in the conversation.

"You may not know this, but we lack nothing here except water and electricity."

Station Chief Ma sat down opposite him and said helplessly, "Although troops would occasionally come here for training in the past, this many troops have never been stationed here before."

Especially your Captain Long's troops, their electricity consumption is really too high, more than a factory.

Our station's power supply lines are not high enough to support local electricity consumption. They are already operating beyond capacity and can only barely keep up.

Now that your troops have arrived, the power supply simply cannot be maintained.

According to regulations, troops like yours that are stationed here long-term must apply for dedicated power lines and transformers to separate them from the local power supply.

"Setting up dedicated lines and transformers requires paying sufficient capacity expansion fees, but you haven't paid them yet."

Station Chief Ma was telling the truth, and Jackie Chan could tell he wasn't deliberately playing tricks on the military, so he asked, "How much is the capacity expansion fee?"

"It will cost at least several hundred thousand," Station Master Ma replied.

"Hundreds of thousands? Is that much really necessary?" Long Xiaoyun was startled by the number.

Although it's now 2008 and domestic wages have risen, several hundred thousand is still not a small amount.

"Don't be fooled by how expensive the capacity expansion fee is. You should know that this dedicated line is not being pulled from here. It has to be pulled separately from a substation dozens of kilometers away and delivered to your troops. Several hundred thousand is already the minimum cost."

Station Master Ma then poured out his grievances to Jackie Chan: "Boss, we really didn't mean to cut off your electricity, we just had no other choice."

There has been a prolonged drought recently. People need to irrigate their fields, and factories need to produce. It would be bad to shut down any of them, and in the end, the country would suffer the losses.

We have always been very supportive of the military and believe that the military is more important, so we have always prioritized ensuring your power supply.

Just like the power outage before today, we deliberately cut off the power to several villages so that you could have power for half a day.

Station Master Ma spoke the truth frankly, completely eliminating the possibility of the salted fish deliberately cutting off the power.

So now there's only one thing left.

How to ensure a stable power supply?

"If the capacity expansion fee is paid, how long will it take to set up a dedicated line?" Jackie Chan asked.

"It'll probably only take a month or so," Station Master Ma replied.

"Station Chief Ma, how about this, I'll figure out a way to increase the capacity fee as soon as possible. Our unit has a special mission these two days and can't afford to have the power cut off. I hope you can find a way to support us. If it's absolutely necessary to cut off the power, please be sure to give us an hour's notice in advance. Can you do that?" Jackie Chan made the request.

"I... I'll try my best," Station Master Ma could only agree helplessly.

After all, he was just the director of a power supply station, and there were a bunch of leaders above him. He really couldn't guarantee the power supply for the troops.

but.

Jackie Chan never expected the power station to provide continuous 24-hour power; all he wanted was the latter, which required an hour's notice.

As long as the power supply station can notify us in advance, they will find a way to ensure power supply.

Now that Station Master Ma has agreed, there's no point in staying any longer. Jackie Chan said to Xiao Yun, "I think we've talked enough. Let's get ready to leave. Call all your men."

"Okay, I'll make the arrangements right away."

Long Xiaoyun believed in Jackie Chan's ability to solve problems, even though she had no idea where to get the money or how to supply electricity after the power outage.

It's about unconditional trust!!!

(End of this chapter)