The First Order

Facing the heavily armored barbarian warrior, White Mask charged out from the defensive position and killed him in front of the defensive position. Then it stripped him of his heavy armor and brought it back to camp.

This was because P5092 had said he wanted to study the structure and load-bearing properties of the heavy armor, and Ren Xiaosu easily helped him with that.

After the ambush by the expeditionary army’s heavily armored warrior, the entire defensive line became even more cautious.

In fact, the mutual probing conducted during the initial phase of the battle was just both sides constantly making mistakes and correcting them. It was not only the 6th Combat Brigade that wanted to find out what other trump cards the expeditionary army had. The expeditionary army was doing the same.

After the heavily armored warrior was killed by White Mask, no other similar heavily armored barbarian warriors appeared again in battle that day.

Everyone understood the expeditionary army did not only have one heavily armored warrior. It was just that the opponent felt it was not yet time to send out a large number of them into battle.

When these trump cards appeared again on the battlefield, it would probably be the time for both sides to fight to their deaths.

White Mask returned to the camp with the heavy armor. Even Ren Xiaosu found it too heavy to carry. “Moving so quickly while wearing this thing, it looks like the elites among the barbarians are also quite fearsome. If there’s hundreds or thousands of such warriors, won’t it be very dangerous for our position?”

P5092 examined the heavy armor and said, “Even if they have a unit of heavily armored warriors, they’ll still need to sacrifice many lives to trade for this position. I’ve had a look at the ammunition brought by the 6th Combat Brigade. Something surprised me quite a bit. Don’t worry. When these heavily armored warriors appear again, I have a surprise in store for them.”

If the defensive position could be so easily breached, P5092 would not have chosen to continue defending it after learning about the Pyro Company’s defeat. He had said before that if the expeditionary army wanted to take down this position, they would have to trade with their lives for it, and he meant what he said.

The battle went on for four hours before the first group of defenders were rotated out. Since this was going to be a protracted battle, P5092 would have to consider the physical fitness and energy levels of the troops.

In a high-intensity battle that went on for a long time, if the soldiers got tired, their reaction speed and shot accuracy would decrease while their vision would gradually blur.

Therefore, P5092 had already drafted a new defensive plan to ensure that the soldiers at the defensive position were always energetic.

The first thing the troops who rotated away from the defensive position did was replenish their fluids.

They had been shouting and fighting at the front line without having much of a chance to get a drink of water. Some of them even shouted until their voices turned hoarse. Amid the intense gunfire, they had to shout as loudly as they could so their comrades could hear what they were saying.

In current battles, soldiers did not wear any communications equipment as there was nowhere to recharge them. The battle could last more than ten days or even up to a month, so communications equipment was no longer versatile for their operations.

Therefore, they could only return to the most primitive way—roaring.

Although some of the veterans in the relieved troops were exhausted, they still patted the recruits on their shoulders encouragingly. One of the veterans said with a hoarse laugh, “You’ve taken some lives on the battlefield now. From today onwards, you’re also veterans.”

Some of the recruits were still in a panicky state. The first time killing someone would always bring about a psychological impact on humans. This impact was definitely not something that could be eased by shouting some slogans.

But before they could fully lose themselves to their fear and panic, the veterans dragged them to the chow hall to eat and drink.

Then the veterans led them back to their barracks and conducted firearms checks. They did some basic physical training to prevent their muscles from tensing up before sleeping.

After going through a flurry of activities, the initial fear the recruits had was starting to subside.

This was the difference between veterans and recruits in the military. It was also the importance of having veterans lead recruits. The veterans would teach the raw recruits through their actions on what to do and how to dispel their fears.

When it was time to sleep, one of the recruits was lying in his sleeping bag with his eyes closed. But all he could hear was the sound of gunshots coming from the defensive position. As such, he realized it was impossible to quickly replenish his sleep and energy. How could he possibly sleep in a place like this?

When one of the veterans nearby realized the recruit was wriggling around in his sleeping bag, he gave him a kick and joked, “Yang Qingzhou, why aren’t you asleep yet?”

Yang Qingzhou said meekly, “Platoon Commander, I can’t fall asleep. The gunfire is too loud….”

The platoon commander thought for a moment and then plucked some cotton out from a hole in his military uniform’s cotton-padded jacket before handing it to him. “Here, stuff your ears with it. Although it can’t completely block out the noise, it’ll help a lot. The other recruits who can’t sleep, stuff your ears with cotton like he did.”

A recruit asked, “Then what if we can’t hear the command for us to muster?”

“Hehe, I’ll kick y’all awake one by one. Now hurry up and go to sleep!” After that, the platoon commander crawled into his sleeping bag and started snoring within two minutes.

When the recruits who had just returned from the battlefield heard the snoring, they felt much more at ease. All of them stuffed their ears and quickly fell asleep from the exhaustion.

Only at this moment did the veteran platoon commander crawl out of his sleeping bag to check on the soldiers one by one. After confirming they were all asleep, he sat down at the entrance of the tent with a sigh.

The platoon commander lit a cigarette for himself. A few other veterans also came out from the tents beside his. They looked at each other and realized they were all facing the same plight.

The veteran platoon commander smiled and said, “When I saw them, I suddenly remembered when I was still a new recruit. At that time, Fortress Commander Zhang had just returned and was carrying out an internal purge. Our troops were stationed at the Zong Consortium’s border to prevent their troops from coming over to cause trouble. In the end, a skirmish broke out on the same day we arrived at the border and many people died. I was very panicky then, but my platoon commander kicked me in the butt and I nearly faceplanted. Only then did I stop feeling anxious…”

Calculating the time, it had not been long since this soldier became a veteran.

But legacies in the military were actually passed down through the generations of people like these veteran platoon commanders. The high-ranking officers were in charge of strategy, while they were responsible for showing the recruits what war was about.

Next to him, a veteran puffed out a mouthful of gray smoke. “I’ve already been constipated for the past two days. I couldn’t even take a dump after squatting there for a long time yesterday. A soldier in my platoon asked me why I took such a long trip to the latrine. Haha, I didn’t even know how to answer him. I just told him that he’d understand soon, and then he told me today that he also became constipated.”

This was actually a very crude topic, and their conversation was also very crude. But only those who had been in battle before would understand that in a high tension environment, it was very normal to either suffer from incontinence or constipation.

War was not about machines taking up arms to kill enemies and achieve victory. Instead, it involved people with flesh and blood, building a new wall for others with their own bodies.

It would soon start smelling at the defensive position as well. There was not enough spring water here for everyone to scrub down. Sometimes, the water supply could even get a little low.

Moreover, they couldn’t go outside the defensive position to take a dump before running back in. If they really did that, they might not be able to make it back. Even if they managed to get back, they would probably have an axe stuck in their back or the like.

So they could only dig a latrine and bury their waste in there.

As such, this place was not as clean and tidy as one might imagine. The soldiers were not as glamorous as the heroes of legend. Instead, as time passed, they would only become more and more unkempt.

However, this did not stop them from understanding their purpose here.