newbobooks Chapter 51 The Blow of Facts
Chapter 51 The Blow of Facts
The morning after the exercise ended, at the foot of Helan Mountain, at the temporary camp of the Northwest Military Region.
Inside the makeshift tent conference room, the atmosphere was so oppressive it could be squeezed out of you. Thirty "Grey Wolf" special forces members stood in three rows, each bearing traces of paint left from the exercise, their faces etched with exhaustion, confusion, and a hint of suppressed anger.
Gao Cheng stood at the front of the line, his chest ramrod straight, but the sharpness in his eyes was gone.
The tent flap was lifted, and Commander Jiang Tao and Chief of Staff Yang Zhenhua walked in one after the other. Jiang Tao's face was expressionless, but the wrinkles at the corners of his eyes seemed to be deeper than yesterday.
"Attention!" Takashiro shouted.
With a "whoosh," all team members stood up straight.
Jiang Tao walked to the front of the column, his gaze sweeping over the young faces. These soldiers were the elite he had handpicked from thousands of officers and soldiers in the Northwest Military Region; they were the sharp blades he had forged himself. But now, the edge of those blades had been blunted by human hands.
"Please sit down," Jiang Tao waved his hand and sat down first on a folding chair.
The team members hesitated for a moment, looked at each other, and then sat down on the ground one after another. The tent only had folding chairs and the ground; there wasn't much to it.
Jiang Tao was silent for a moment before getting straight to the point: "I know what you want to ask. What exactly happened in yesterday's exercise? Who inflicted such damage on us?"
The team members immediately looked up, their eyes blazing with determination. They had been pondering this question all night.
Gao Cheng was the first to speak, his voice hoarse: "Commander, which unit is the other side? How many of them are there? What tactics are they using? Why are we..."
He asked four or five questions in a row, and the teammates next to him nodded in agreement. This was the question on everyone's mind—they didn't think they were weak, but yesterday's overwhelming defeat, where they were completely helpless, was too bizarre.
Jiang Tao and Yang Zhenhua exchanged a glance, both seeing the bitterness in each other's eyes.
"Old Jiang, you say it," Yang Zhenhua said in a low voice.
Jiang Tao took a deep breath and looked at his team members: "First, let's correct a misconception. Yesterday, it wasn't just one unit that caused damage to the Northwest Military Region."
The tent fell silent.
Gao Cheng frowned: "Not a unit? Then what is it? Could it be...?"
"It's one person." Jiang Tao's voice was calm, but his words exploded like a bomb in the tent.
"one person?!"
"How is that possible?!"
"Commander, you must be joking..."
The team members were in an uproar, standing up one after another, their faces filled with disbelief.
Jiang Tao raised his hand to lower his voice, and only continued after his voice had subsided: "I'm not joking. From the start of the exercise to the destruction of the command post by missiles, and then to the takedown of the army aviation base, all of these actions were carried out by one person."
The tent was deathly silent.
Gao Cheng's face turned pale instantly. He recalled the ghostly figure in the woods yesterday, and the image of that person single-handedly taking down all seven of them. At the time, though shocked, he had assumed the opponent had at least a small team working together. But now the commander was telling him that it had been just one person from beginning to end?
"Then...what about the Southwest Military Region?" a young team member asked, his voice trembling.
"There's only one person from the Southwest Military Region," Jiang Tao said in a deep voice. "The entire exercise turned both military regions upside down, and there were only two people involved."
"Whoosh—"
This completely blew things up.
"Two people fighting against two military regions?!"
"What the hell is this monster?"
"Commander, who are they?!"
Gao Cheng stared intently at Jiang Tao: "Is it... that unit?"
He didn't say it explicitly, but everyone present was a special forces soldier, and they all had their own guesses. Within the Chinese military, there had always been legends circulating about secret units.
Jiang Tao nodded, then shook his head: "I can only tell you that they come from the country's top-level secret unit. Each one of them is a war machine cultivated with countless resources. Hand-to-hand combat, shooting, tactics, infiltration, electronic warfare, multilingualism... they are all-rounders."
He paused, looking at his team members: "As for which specific unit it is, what its number is, and how many people it has—I'm sorry, that's top secret, I can't say."
Silence fell over the tent once more. The anger and confusion on the team members' faces gradually turned into shock, and then into bewilderment.
One person single-handedly brought down an entire military region. This was beyond their comprehension.
"Then...what are we?" a young team member murmured, his eyes vacant. "Are we, these so-called special forces soldiers, just like children playing house in their eyes?"
This question reflects the sentiments of everyone.
Jiang Tao stood up and walked to the middle of the line: "You ask me who you are? I'll tell you—you are the best soldiers in the Northwest Military Region!"
His voice suddenly rose: "But the best soldiers aren't necessarily the strongest! There are always mountains beyond mountains, and people beyond people—you're only truly understanding this today!"
He looked into each team member's eyes: "Yesterday's lesson, did it hurt? Yes! Was it embarrassing? Yes! But it was the pain that made you realize your weaknesses! It was the embarrassment that made you realize you weren't strong enough!"
"Commander..." Gao Cheng's voice choked with emotion, "Do we... still have a chance to become stronger? As strong as them?"
Jiang Tao patted Gao Cheng on the shoulder: "I don't know if you can become as strong as them. But I do know that if you give up because of one failure, you will never become strong."
He walked back to the front and faced all the team members: "This exercise was something that Commander Chen Jianfeng and I requested on our own initiative. We wanted to take this opportunity to give you a warning—and also to give ourselves a warning. As you can see, the warning was too harsh; it brought our entire military region down."
"But I don't regret it." Jiang Tao said, emphasizing each word, "Because this lesson was worthwhile! It showed you what true top-tier combat power looks like, it taught you how modern warfare can be fought, and it made you realize—you are still far from being the strongest!"
The team members remained silent, but their eyes gradually changed. From bewilderment to resentment, and then to determination.
Gao Cheng suddenly straightened his back: "Commander, do we know... the contact information that person left me yesterday, is it usable?"
Jiang Tao was taken aback: "He left you his contact information?"
"Hmm." Gao Cheng took the note out of his pocket. "He said that if I want to know where I went wrong, I can contact him."
Jiang Tao took the note and glanced at it; it contained only an encrypted email address. He pondered for a moment, then handed the note back to Gao Cheng: "Use it. But remember, all contact must be conducted with confidentiality in mind. Also…"
He looked at everyone: "What we say here today must not be told to anyone else. Not a single word can be mentioned to your comrades or your family. Understand?"
"Understood!" the thirty people answered in unison.