Chapter 5 The Fifth Day of March

The fifth day of marching, deep in the primeval forest.

Fei Pingsheng's spearhead force, in extremely harsh conditions, had to maintain a marching speed of nearly eighty kilometers every day, relying on a pair of feet to wade a path to survival for hundreds of thousands of troops.

The physical and mental state of all the soldiers had reached their limit.

At a little after four in the morning, the sky was just beginning to lighten.

Fei Pingsheng looked at the sky, then at the muddy, exhausted soldiers, and ordered the troops to rest.

The soldiers unloaded their heavy military supplies, and as usual, looked for relatively safe places to rest on their own.

Many people's eyes had lost their luster. Everyone lay blankly on the ground, covered with anti-thermal detection cloths, motionless, like corpses.

Fei Pingsheng lay in a patch of grass, his head dizzy, preparing to take a nap.

Just then, the guard company commander under him came over, crouching, and said in a low voice, "Chief of General Staff… something's up…"

Fei Pingsheng sat up straight again and looked at him, asking, "What is it?"

The guard company commander continued, "Twelve men from Xing Yao's unit deserted without orders, looking like they were trying to escape, but were caught by our sentries."

Fei Pingsheng was stunned when he heard this, and immediately asked, "Did you exchange fire?"

The guard company commander waved his hand: "No, we just raised our guns and they surrendered… The men have been brought back."

Fei Pingsheng frowned, got up and said, "Let's go, let's take a look!"

"Yes!"

"Chief of General Staff!"

As soon as he finished speaking, Xing Yao, with an anxious look on his face, also came over crouching, hobbling quickly, and called out to him.

Fei Pingsheng stopped and turned to look at him.

The corners of Xing Yao's mouth were a bit rotten. He said urgently, "I just heard about the deserters! Damn it, these kids are not giving me any face! Chief of Staff, hand them over to me, I'll take care of it."

Fei Pingsheng looked at him and asked, "How do you plan to deal with it?"

Xing Yao immediately said, "I'll strip them of everything and send them to the back to carry heavy packs!"

Fei Pingsheng refused flatly, "No!"

Xing Yao was stunned. He understood what Fei Pingsheng meant, couldn't help clenching his fists, and said with a pleading look on his face, "Chief of General Staff, it's normal for the brothers to not be able to hold on in this situation. Don't be too harsh, I'll do some work and suppress this news…"

Fei Pingsheng looked at him, pointed his finger at the ground, and said, word by word, "Have you ever thought about whether this kind of thing can be suppressed? One person tells another, ten people tell a hundred, and in less than an hour, all the soldiers in the entire unit will know! If we don't deal with them today, if someone else runs away and is captured by the enemy in advance, our battle plan will be exposed! Understand? There were a total of eighteen thousand of us when we came, how many have died getting here? Can we take this risk? Can we allow this kind of loophole? The ones who die then won't just be us, the entire Old Mo, the Dragon City, will be finished!"

Xing Yao gritted his teeth and said, "Soldiers are people too. What can you do if some just can't take it anymore? Are we going to kill our own people because of these things?"

Fei Pingsheng met his gaze and said to him, "This is war! In war, you must abide by military law and obey military orders! This group of people must be dealt with according to military law!"

Xing Yao's eyes were red, he suddenly stood up and said, "These people have been with me for several years! They got in the car with just one word from me, without even a bit of mental preparation! Under military law, shouldn't we also consider the human factor?"

Fei Pingsheng looked at him, took a deep breath, and suppressed his emotions, slowly saying, "I don't want to argue with you… Although you don't want to accept it, you know I'm right. Opening this loophole will screw over even more people!! The ones who are still persevering, understand?"

Xing Yao stood there, his arms trembling, his teeth almost grinding to pieces.

The two stared at each other, and after a long silence, Fei Pingsheng ignored him and turned to leave.

"Chief of General Staff!"

Xing Yao's eyes were bloodshot, and he squeezed out a sentence from his throat, "You don't need to go, I'll handle my own men!"

…

Ten minutes later, they arrived at a secretly placed guard post.

Xing Yao looked down at the twelve people squatting on the ground.

They were all dirty, their faces covered in mud. Half of them were flushed and running a high fever, their spirits extremely weak.

Xing Yao carefully looked at these people, feeling both heartache and anger!

He stepped forward and kicked the leading soldier.

"Thump!"

The soldier sat down in the mud, but didn't say a word.

Xing Yao pointed at him and cursed, "Old Jiang! We've made it through so many days, can't you hold on for these last two days? What the hell are you thinking?!"

"Brigade commander, we really can't take it anymore…" Old Jiang sat in the mud, saying blankly, "You know me, I've been with you for so long. When have I ever been afraid on the battlefield? I didn't run even when a cannon was pointed at my head… Really, I'm not afraid of death, but I'm afraid of a living hell…"

Saying this, Old Jiang's emotions suddenly collapsed, and he lay on the ground, crying, "My brother had a high fever a few days ago, and when he woke up, he was gone… And these brothers around me, look at them, do they still look like people, can they continue to fight? I don't know why it's us, but I really can't take it anymore!"

The other soldiers around him also began to cry silently.

Xing Yao looked at them, gritting his teeth, his chest heaving violently.

Fei Pingsheng stood beside them, looking at them, feeling the same as Xing Yao. But… he had to do this!

This loophole must not be opened. If the mood of desertion spreads, it cannot be stopped in this environment. If someone runs out and is captured, everyone is finished!

Thinking of this, he turned to look at his guard company commander and ordered, "Call all the officers over."

The guard company commander nodded and stepped away.

After a short while, all the commanders around, including those at the battalion level and above, gathered around. They didn't dare to stand up, so they could only crouch on the ground, draped in anti-thermal detection cloths, looking blankly at the twelve people.

Xing Yao looked at Old Jiang and the others, thought for a long time, then bent down, took off the wine pot with only half a pot of wine left from his body, handed it to Old Jiang, and said with tears in his eyes, "Here… take a sip…"

"Okay!" Old Jiang got up from the ground, wiped his nose, took the wine pot, and drank directly, tilting his head back.

"Come on, Lao Er, you take a sip too." Xing Yao handed the wine pot to the next person.

Lao Er looked up at him, took the wine pot tremblingly, and also took a sip.

Old Jiang looked at them, gritted his teeth, suddenly pulled out the silenced pistol from Xing Yao's waist, and said with a flushed face, "Xing, the wine is finished! Lao Xing, I've been with you for so long, we're brothers, I won't make things difficult for you!"

Before everyone could react, he pointed the gun at his own chin and pulled the trigger.

"Pfft!"

With a muffled gunshot, a bloody hole was blown out of Old Jiang's head, and he fell into the pool of blood with a thud.

The blood splattered on Xing Yao's face, and he couldn't help but be stunned, staring blankly at Old Jiang's body.

All the officers who came to watch were also stunned, staring at this scene without making a sound.

…

After a while, all twelve deserters drank the wine, and none of them let Xing Yao do it. They all committed suicide on this land.

Immediately afterward, the soldiers of the guard company covered their bodies with anti-thermal detection cloths and placed them in the deep mountains.

Xing Yao knelt on the ground, his head lowered, his hands trembling constantly, trying to adjust his emotions.

The officers all knew what the higher-ups meant by executing these people. So, after watching, they turned to leave.

"Wait a minute."

Just then, Fei Pingsheng suddenly spoke, calling out to them.

Everyone stopped and turned back to look at him.

Fei Pingsheng was also looking at them, his voice trembling, his eyes also filled with tears, and said, "We've been together all these days! I've personally experienced how hard you've had it! I know that everyone has reached their limit, and so have I! But what I want to say is that since we received the order and came here, we should finish this journey! Because we can't fail! The war in the Old Mo region cannot be lost! Look back at the road we've traveled, how many comrades have fallen there! And think about the relatives and friends who have been leaving you since the war began, are you convinced, can you be content?"

The officers present looked at him, their eyes flickering.

Fei Pingsheng clenched his fists, pointed in the direction of The Dragon City, and said forcefully, "Brothers, we are not fighting for ourselves, but for tens of millions of overseas Chinese! If The Dragon City is defeated, the spines of these tens of millions of overseas Chinese will be crushed, and they will no longer have a foothold! Go back and look at history, do the people of those defeated countries have human rights? At this moment, our relatives are all in Panama City. Once we are defeated, they will also be displaced, and their lives will be a hundred times harder than ours now, are you willing to do this??"

The officers also had tears in their eyes when they heard this, and clenched their fists.

Fei Pingsheng took a deep breath and looked in the direction of the finish line: "We must fight for a breath, we must finish this journey! Gritted your teeth, we will definitely reach it! Even if we die, we will die on Mount Tian Shen!! This is what a soldier should do!!"

When everyone heard this, they slowly straightened their bodies, their eyes regained their luster, their arms trembling as they saluted Fei Pingsheng and shouted in unison, "Yes! Reach the target location and complete the mission!"

…

Three days later, Fei Pingsheng led everyone, with nearly eight hundred fewer men, and with their own legs trudged out of the gates of hell, finally walking out of this dense forest.

They traveled nearly eighty kilometers a day, taking eight days to walk more than six hundred kilometers and reaching the vicinity of their destination.

This troop penetration operation can be said to have broken the military war history of the southern region. Throughout the entire south, no troop has ever marched like this.

They measured the land of Old Mo with their feet and their lives.

They quickly set up a communications network near the target location, and reported the current location of the troops to Su Tianyu in a very primitive form of Morse code.

…

At the same time, the Old Mo Allied Forces combat position.

Su Tianyu was sitting in the command room, and a staff officer hurried to his side and said, "Commander-in-chief, Fei Pingsheng's unit has sent a message that they have arrived near the target location! At the same time, other teams have also sent the same message! Currently, nearly ten thousand people have gathered near the target location!"

Hearing this news, Su Tianyu closed his eyes and asked in a trembling voice, "Fei Pingsheng's unit… how many troops does he have left?"

The staff officer paused and said in a low voice, "About two thousand men."

Hearing this number, Su Tianyu closed his eyes for a long time, his heart filled with emotion. He knew how many people Fei Pingsheng had sacrificed along the way.

For ordinary people, three thousand and two thousand are just cold figures of departure and arrival. But only Su Tianyu knew what the missing one thousand people had experienced along the way.

After a long silence, Su Tianyu turned his back to everyone, his voice trembling, and said through gritted teeth, "Notify The Dragon City to launch a general offensive! Use the sound of guns and cannons to send off those warriors who sleep in the southern jungle!"

"Yes!"

…

The Dragon City battlefield, Xin Xiaodong used his terminal to connect to the entire army channel, and spoke powerfully to everyone: "Everyone, pick up your guns! The final battle has begun! I have only one requirement for you, any area where the military flag is not ours, open fire in one hour!!"