Chapter 106 The Devastation

The fourth day of the insertion force's departure. It was a little after eight o'clock at night, in the boundless primeval forest.

Old Qian, draped in anti-thermal detection cloth, was walking with a stoop, his steps unsteady. He had a spoon in his mouth and emitted bird-like whistles as he walked.

Soon, in the dark forest, one figure after another stood up.

These figures were similarly draped in anti-thermal detection cloth, constantly gathering the materials on the ground and carrying them back onto their bodies.

This kind of anti-thermal detection cloth was one of the essential pieces of equipment for modern insertion forces, capable of blocking the outward leakage of body heat sources to the greatest extent, preventing detection by drones and other detection equipment.

At the same time, Xing Yao slowly climbed up from the ground.

A new recruit from the guard company beside him came over to pack his things for him.

Xing Yao sat weakly on the ground, unable to stop himself from coughing violently twice.

"Commander, medicine."

The new recruit handed over antipyretic and painkilling drugs. Xing Yao took them, stuffed them into his mouth, and swallowed them down with a gulp of water.

After taking the medicine, Xing Yao turned his head and said to Old Qian, who had returned to his side, "Count the number of people, equipment, and prepare to leave."

Old Qian was also very weak at this time, but he still looked at Xing Yao with concern and asked, "Are you going to be alright?"

"Damn, my bones ache all over!" Xing Yao waved his hand and said, "But I can still hold on, you go and get busy."

Only then did Old Qian nod, blow his bird whistle rhythmically, and leave.

Xing Yao leaned on a tree, slowly stood up, shook his head, gritted his teeth, and strode forward.

Many soldiers around had already packed their things and were ready to depart at any time. But on the dirt road ahead, there were twenty or so soldiers lying down, one next to the other, all covered with anti-thermal detection cloth, as if they were sleeping soundly.

These soldiers were all from Xing Yao's guard company, most of whom had been his brothers for many years.

"Sleeping pretty soundly," Xing Yao walked over, stretched out his leg and kicked one of the middle-aged men: "Old Zhong, time to go!"

Old Zhong was his guard company commander, who had just been promoted by him not long ago.

The person under his foot did not respond at all. Xing Yao was stunned for a moment, then bent down again, reached out and pushed Old Zhong's shoulder, and shouted loudly, "Hey, wake up!"

Old Zhong still did not respond, and the others were also lying quietly on the ground.

Xing Yao's heart sank suddenly, and he quickly lifted the anti-thermal detection cloth covering them.

More than twenty soldiers were lying on the ground, motionless.

Xing Yao sensed something, his arm trembling as he pulled out a fluorescent stick from his waist, illuminating the area.

Under the faint fluorescent light, whether it was Old Zhong or these soldiers, their faces were all pale, their clothes soaked through with dew, curled up together.

They had lost their breath at some point, and their bodies had already stiffened.

When Xing Yao saw this, his head buzzed, his body also lost its strength, and he sat down on the ground with a thud.

The soldiers who could still move walked over silently, looking at him.

Faced with the scene in front of them, everyone looked solemn and remained silent for a long time.

A medic walked over, did a simple check on these people, then turned to Xing Yao and said, "Reporting, Commander... it's pneumonia... they all burned to death..."

Xing Yao tried to calm his emotions, clenched his fists, and said, "No time to bury them... use cloth to wrap them all up... find a drier place to put them down..."

"Yes..."

After speaking, Xing Yao fled the scene, wiping his cheeks with his rough hands as he walked.

From the fourth day onwards, large numbers of soldiers began to drop out of the insertion force.

Because of the fickle high fever and the extremely harsh natural environment, their bodies had no way to recover, and they could only rely on their own physical fitness to resist.

Of the nearly three thousand troops, only more than two thousand seven hundred could stand up after this night. The remaining soldiers had already fallen forever in this dense forest before they even reached their destination.

Among them, too many were old brothers who had fought in the Renmin Army for many years.

Xing Yao's inner emotions were extremely broken, but there was nothing he could do, he could only lead everyone to continue forward.

...

On the fourth night of the departure, a little after two o'clock in the morning.

The soldiers were silent, draped in anti-thermal detection cloth, carrying heavy military equipment, walking in this seemingly endless primeval forest.

Although their emotions were very suppressed, their bodies had been slightly relieved. Compared to lying on the ground in ambush, they preferred to walk, because it would only bring them some rare warmth.

"Boom boom!"

Just then, the roar of an engine suddenly came from the sky!

Fei Pingsheng, who was sitting in the team, immediately shouted vigilantly when he heard the sound: "It's a reconnaissance plane from District One! Blow the whistle and tell everyone to pay attention to concealment!"

A chorus of bird whistles immediately sounded around him, and all the soldiers immediately lay down on the ground without hesitation, covered with anti-thermal detection cloth, dormant in place, not daring to move.

The thick forest, combined with the mud on their bodies, was the best camouflage!

In fact, in recent days, Fei Pingsheng could clearly feel that the search efforts in this area of ​​District One had increased. During the day and night, almost every three or four hours they would search once, and everyone had become accustomed to it.

...

At the same time, on a fighter jet.

The leading black commander piloted the plane, looking down at the dense forest, and said to the intercom: "Reporting Colonel Richard, this is Air Unit One, no anomalies in the full-range exploration."

Colonel Richard replied, "Received! Air Unit One, Air Unit Two, segmented strikes, fire reconnaissance, empty your ammunition, and then return to base."

The commander joked, "Hey, Colonel, this is such a beautiful forest, it shouldn't be subjected to this kind of treatment...!"

Colonel Richard sat in the tower, drinking coffee, and said, "Bai Yia Qiao is still shivering even hiding among a force of more than 60,000 people. If you make him feel insecure, he will curse the mothers of all of us in his heart. Does your mother want to be cursed?"

"That damn warlord, he can actually order us, this is too absurd...!"

Although he complained like this, the black commander still gave the order to his air unit: "All units, open the weapon release bay, conduct segmented fire reconnaissance!"

"Roger that!"

"Whoosh whoosh whoosh!"

More than twenty planes suddenly swooped down towards the ground, and dense aerial incendiary bombs fell from the sky like dumplings.

Fei Pingsheng, who was lying on the ground, suddenly raised his head when he heard the sound and shouted at the people around him: "Quick! Everyone, put on your anti-thermal detection cloth! Scatter immediately, they're dropping bombs!"

As soon as he finished speaking, incendiary bombs had already landed on the ground.

"Bang!"

"Whoosh whoosh!"

Countless sparks shot out in all directions, and raging flames instantly burned, engulfing the entire forest!

Half of the sky was burned red, and large numbers of soldiers fled to the surrounding areas.

"Ah ah!"

But there were also many soldiers who were ignited by the flames without warning! They wailed, fell to the ground, and rolled around.

Because of the burning flames, their temperature was covered by the heat, and they were not exposed to the enemy aircraft's thermal detectors.

For a time, the forest was filled with the sound of flames burning, trees collapsing, and the wailing of soldiers.

In the sky, the black commander looked at the forest below that was constantly being swallowed by the flames, shook his head and said, "I don't know what Bai Yia Qiao is thinking, making us carry out this kind of order! God testifies, only monkeys would live in this place!! This is a forbidden zone for humans!"

After speaking, he still continued to order: "All units, drop another round of nerve gas bombs!"

"Roger that!"

"Bang bang bang!"

More than twenty planes swooped down again, dropping large areas of gas bombs.

Purple gas, along with the fire, spread around. For a time, the forest was surrounded by flames and gas, and large areas were instantly destroyed.

There were as many as a dozen fires, each about a kilometer in diameter, distributed in the mountains.

Fortunately, they were conducting fire reconnaissance strikes with no fixed targets, which allowed many soldiers hiding in the forest to escape.

Everyone could not fight back, let alone vent their anger, they could only flee to the surrounding areas like animals.

There were also some people who could not dodge in time, failed to escape the circle of death, and fell wailing in the forest...

...

Two or three hours later, the flames gradually died down, and the gas slowly dissipated.

The once lush forest was burned bare, and the ground was littered with animal corpses and the remains of many soldiers, all smoking black smoke.

These soldiers were in various postures, and there was no doubt that they had experienced extreme pain before they died.

In a forest that had not been affected by the disaster, a large number of soldiers were resting here after surviving the disaster. Xing Yao and Old Qian were ordering the units to quickly count the battle damage.

Soon, the two came to Fei Pingsheng. Xing Yao squatted on the ground and said with a pale face, "Reporting to the Chief of General Staff... my Fourth Battalion suffered the most losses. Two companies were covered in the fire detection zone, losing more than a hundred people. The other units have summarized a loss of more than two hundred people. Added together, a total of three hundred and sixty-five people... At the same time, the artillery equipment carried by the first company of the Second Battalion all fell into the fire detection zone and cannot be recovered."

"Bang!"

Fei Pingsheng heard this, his emotions became difficult to control, and he punched the tree trunk next to him, looking at the sky, his eyes red, and cursing: "I fucking hate this!"

Old Qian also tried to restrain his emotions and said softly, "Chief of General Staff, their detection has been very frequent in the past two days. Could it be that our movements have been detected?"

Fei Pingsheng turned his head and glanced at him, thought for a while and said, "Impossible. If they had detected us, it wouldn't be just a few planes coming over to conduct reconnaissance fire coverage. I guess it's because our front-line attack intensity has decreased recently, which has caused them to feel uneasy. Next, we should try to move towards the boundary line of the planned route. At the same time, we must speed up, otherwise we will not be able to withstand this kind of attack if it happens every two days."

Old Qian nodded.

At this time, everyone's emotions were somewhat suppressed, and everyone was very silent. Xing Yao also had red eyes and lowered his head.

Fei Pingsheng gritted his teeth, stretched out his hand, pointed to the distant target direction, and said to Xing Yao, "We have already come this far, the road back may be more dangerous than the road forward, and we may have to experience everything again! There is no other way now, we can only grit our teeth, continue to move forward, and reach the target location!"

After hearing this, Xing Yao slowly raised his head, looked at Old Fei, and then patted his cheeks hard: "I understand, I will gather the troops and continue to set off."

Soon, the entire team set off again under the obstruction of the enemy and the natural environment.

...

At the same time, the forward command position of the Old Mo Allied Forces.

In these four days, Su Tianyu had completed all the forward offensive plans. Now, everything was ready, only Fei Pingsheng and their easterly wind were needed!

However, during this period, he did not receive any news from Fei Pingsheng. Su Tianyu also knew in his heart that the air force in District One had increased its reconnaissance efforts, so Fei Pingsheng might be worried that the communication signals would be detected, so he temporarily cut off contact.

At this moment, Su Tianyu did not know where Fei Pingsheng and the others were now.

Under such circumstances, the torment in his heart could not be expressed in words.

"Didi!"

Just as he was waiting anxiously, a phone rang suddenly in the tent.

Su Tianyu immediately answered the phone and asked, "Hello?"

Xin Xiaodong's voice came from the microphone: "Report! Orders have been issued to all our troops! Can we start the war according to the pre-arranged plan?"

Su Tianyu's eyes fell on the map of the Old Mo area in front of him, and after a long silence, he said, "Wait a little longer."