The First Order

Fu Rao, who was feeling extremely lucky just a moment ago, was now whining in pain. His injuries were like the ones Ren Xiaosu had suffered back then. Such internal injuries would only slowly heal after the black medicine that was applied onto the skin was fully absorbed. Ren Xiaosu reminded him repeatedly not to take it orally, otherwise, who knew what effect it would have on him?

When Ren Xiaosu and the others returned after taking care of the Zong Consortium company, Fu Rao struggled to get up and thanked Ren Xiaosu.

In the earlier situation, everyone knew the best option for the Razor Sharp Company was to let Fu Rao die a swift death before they avenged him.

If it were the past, everyone would definitely have done the same if they were stuck in a similar impasse.

Zhang Xiaoman looked at the way Fu Rao was moving and scolded, “Your dislocated arm has been reattached, huh? You’re all good again now, huh? Lie down and get some rest already! Brothers, set up the stretcher for him. You better fucking lie on the stretcher obediently til you’ve recovered from your injuries.”

His face pale, Fu Rao said to Ren Xiaosu, “Thank you.”

“Gratitude received from Fu Rao, +1!”

These words of gratitude were worth a great deal because it was given for a truly lifesaving act. Ren Xiaosu smiled and told Fu Rao to get well soon. After that, he went to the medics to get his wound bandaged as well. Ren Xiaosu had also been shot in the shoulder when he sprinted out during the skirmish.

However, Ren Xiaosu knew that it would take at most three days for this type of injury to be completely healed by the black medicine.

While the medic bandaged Ren Xiaosu’s wound, he said in surprise, “Ren Xiaosu, your muscles so strong that the bullet only penetrated an inch?!”

Everyone gathered around Ren Xiaosu and looked at his wound with curiosity. “Wow, is your skin bronze and bones steel?!”

Zhang Xiaoman was sitting cross-legged on the ground next to Fu Rao. Rather than going over to look at Ren Xiaosu’s wound, he was thinking about something else with his head lowered.

Fu Rao looked at Zhang Xiaoman and asked, “Captain, what’s on your mind?”

“Nothing much.” Zhang Xiaoman said softly, “Before I set off for the war, I told my wife that I might not make it back this time. After all, we know just how dangerous it is in our Razor Sharp Company. So I made it clear to her in advance so she wouldn’t get too upset.”

Fu Rao did not say anything and listened to Zhang Xiaoman talk to himself. “The people in Fortress 178 have had this thinking since childhood that it’s some kind of honor to die in battle. But if we really had a choice, who’d be willing to die in a gods-forsaken place like this? Don’t you think?”

Fu Rao kept quiet for a moment before saying, “Who wants to die?”

“We can’t die even if we want to now.” Zhang Xiaoman said with a helpless smile, “A lunatic has suddenly appeared on the battlefield saying he’ll make sure that all of us survive and won’t leave a man behind…. What a fucking lunatic!”

Zhang Xiaoman would be turning 30 this year. He had lived in Fortress 178 for 27 years and spent three years assigned to an outpost outside of the fortress.

His days at the outpost were very difficult. He had neither any communication nor entertainment to speak of, and the weather was also very cold all year round due to the outpost being situated at a high altitude making it rare for him to perspire.

To prevent the soldiers from developing renal failure, they did their physical training around a stove just so they would sweat.

During fall, winter, and spring, they couldn’t even drink water since it froze into ice. Their comrades on sentry duty had to chew on ice if they wanted to have a drink of water.

A decade of hardship, yet their dreams remained. Most people probably never understood just how miserable it was to chew on ice.

Zhang Xiaoman was prepared to die when he set off for this war. Just as he had said, “How can there be no casualties in war?”

When a soldier died in battle, his comrades would knock out one of his teeth and bring it back to Fortress 178 to place below the copper bell if their bodies couldn’t be brought back for burial. In that sense, it would be regarded as bringing their dead comrades back home.

This was so their souls could return to their hometown.

All of the veterans said that the fallen of Fortress 178 would watch over them whenever the copper bell rang.

But it was a little strange this time. A lunatic had sprung out of nowhere and claimed he would bring all of them back home alive.

“Only a lunatic would say and do something like that, right?” Zhang Xiaoman asked Fu Rao.

Fu Rao said calmly, “But I like this lunatic. I’m not only glad but also feel honored to be his comrade.”

“You feel honored?”

“He’ll be the commander of our Fortress 178 in the future. And right now, you and I are both witnessing history get made.”

After some reorganization, Zhang Xiaoman led everyone back to the place where the battle had broken out. He thought for a while and said, “Listen, we might encounter even more of the Zong troops on our way to Mt. Qiangwan. Why don’t we change into these dead soldiers’ uniforms and pretend we’re a Zong company?”

Ren Xiaosu rolled his eyes. “What if Battalion Commander Zhou’s Forward Strike Battalion encounters us and strikes us down in one shot?”

Zhang Xiaoman was left speechless for a moment. “We can just take a detour and not run into him, can’t we?”

“But there are a lot of bullet holes and bloodstains on the dead’s uniforms. If you pretend to be a defeated company, it might not be obvious at first glance, but any observant person will wonder why you can still fucking move and jump around after getting shot in the chest.” Jiao Xiaochen said in a speechless manner, “Captain, can you stop fantasizing? Also, wouldn’t they recognize their comrades?”

Zhang Xiaoman analyzed, “Look here, see if my analysis is correct. The Zong Consortium claims to have more than 200,000 soldiers. Are you sure they’ll recognize each other when they bump into one another on the road? For our troops at Fortress 178, we all live in the same stronghold for most of the year and can’t avoid seeing one another. Even if we don’t know everyone, we’ll still look familiar to each other. But their soldiers are normally scattered across a dozen strongholds, so it’d be natural if they don’t know the others since they’re only being mobilized for the war.”

Everyone looked to Ren Xiaosu. Zhang Xiaoman’s face darkened. “I’m the fucking captain here, so why’re all of you looking at Ren Xiaosu when I’m the decision maker? Are the words of a private more effective than mine?!”

Ren Xiaosu said in seriousness to Zhang Xiaoman, “It really won’t work.”

“OK…” Zhang Xiaoman replied.

Jiao Xiaochen piped up, “After wiping out four enemy companies in this battle, we still haven’t suffered any casualties yet. Not even the Recon Battalion’s pathetic Flying Eagles are capable of that.”

The Razor Sharp Company of the Forward Strike Battalion and the Flying Eagle Company of the Reconnaissance Battalion had always been at odds with one another. The top ten competitors of the military combat tournaments were always from the Flying Eagle Company. They were accurate marksmen, well-versed in combat, knew many skills, and even had snipers within their ranks.

To them, the Razor Sharp Company was just a group of thugs who resorted to more unconventional methods while they were the real elites.

Meanwhile, from the Razor Sharp Company’s point of view, they were the ones who could fight and win tough battles. If the two sides encountered each other in a military exercise, they were destined to be rivals.

Of course, they both won some and lost some. The Razor Sharp Company had won 30% of the time while the Flying Eagle Company won the other 70% of the time.

Now that they had achieved such great success, they had definitely outperformed the Flying Eagle Company. Zhang Xiaoman suddenly said, “I’ve always disliked the Flying Eagles. They don’t call each other by their real names in the bases and use code names instead. What the hell is up with that pretentious act?!”