The First Order

Chapter 245 Abandoning vehicles and entering the mountains on foot!

Ren Xiaosu asked pleasantly, “What’s your name and rank?”

The nanosoldier answered, “I’m First Lieutenant Dong Mingshuai.”

Ren Xiaosu patted the nanosoldier on his shoulder and said, “Well, I’m a captain. You’ve performed pretty well. Hurry back and get some rest quickly.”

The nanosoldier nodded in a daze. He silently memorized Ren Xiaosu’s military ID number and planned on checking it after returning to his tent. He wanted to know if this guy was really from the Office of Special Investigations.

Meanwhile, the commander of the FOB was speechless when he saw the mess in the chow hall. The manager of the chow hall broke the silence. “Sir, there is something off about this Divine Arms Battalion. Their appetite is a little too large.”

It wasn’t only their appetite that was a little too large, but that their habit of taking some food away with them when leaving made the chow staff a little uncomfortable.

When Ren Xiaosu’s group came to eat, they felt a group of 30 people wouldn’t eat much anyway, so they just let them have what they wanted. However, a strange turn of events happened after that. Weren’t they just here to have supper? How did it end up with all their friends coming over for supper as well?

Suddenly, a soldier ran into the chow hall from outside. The commander of the FOB asked, “Have you found out what happened yet?”

That soldier hesitated before saying, “I’ve reported the matter to both the Divine Arms Battalion and Office of Special Investigations. As it turns out, both sides said… We have no right to question whatever goes on here.”

If they were told they couldn’t question the matter, then it was as good as tacitly admitting to it. If the people who came to eat were really imposters, the higher-ups would have already kicked up a fuss and demanded them to investigate thoroughly.

The commander of the FOB was unaware that the Divine Arms Battalion immediately knew upon receiving their information that the people who went to eat were only the private troops in disguise. But in order not to expose their plans, they had no choice but to admit they were their people.

As for Hu Shuo, he was used to it.

Actually, the commander of the Divine Arms Battalion did not care how much food these private soldiers had eaten since they were not eating into their battalion’s quota of rations anyway. What they were more bothered about was the fact that the Office of Special Investigations was actually investigating if there was a spy within their battalion’s ranks.

Hu Shuo had also gotten used to this.

When Ren Xiaosu and the others returned to their tents, everyone wondered why he did not receive any punishment. However, no one dared to ask him about it.

Actually, Ren Xiaosu had been very kind to inform them of where they could go to eat at, but they ended up betraying him in return. This made everyone feel somewhat guilty.

Chen Wudi sat down in the tent and asked Ren Xiaosu, “Master, don’t you blame them? You clearly helped them eat their fill, yet no one was willing to step forward and speak up for you.”

At the time, Chen Wudi was prepared to fight their way out together with Ren Xiaosu. But in the end, Ren Xiaosu used his Office of Special Investigations identity to defuse the situation.

Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment and said, “Of course I blame them, but I also expected

it.”

“But, Master, I couldn’t feel any anger from you.” Chen Wudi said softly, “I was infuriated, and I’m still infuriated. I’ll probably still get infuriated whenever I think about this in the future. And those things that happened in the past too and those evil people as well.”

Ren Xiaosu smiled and said, “It’s alright, they can’t hurt us.”

“Mhm.” Chen Wudi nodded. “Master, please sleep. I’ll keep watch for the first half of the night.”

“Alright.” Then Ren Xiaosu went straight to sleep. He did not have to worry about getting attacked with Chen Wudi keeping watch. In this tent, he only trusted Chen Wudi and the eight students. Not even Li Qingzheng was trustworthy to him.

The trust between him, Chen Wudi, and the students had built up little by little over time. None of them had betrayed him since the time in Stronghold 109. Of course, the most trustworthy person was still Chen Wudi.

Li Qingzheng and the others looked at Ren Xiaosu and wondered how he could remain so calm. After all of tonight’s events, he could still fall asleep so quickly?

Chen Wudi sat cross-legged next to Ren Xiaosu and forbade anyone from approaching him. He did not allow anyone to get close to him.

After daybreak, the officers of the Divine Arms Battalion continued on their journey with the entire battalion of private troops as though nothing had happened last night.

The front lines at Mt. Fengyi, Mt. Tantou, and Mt. Shuanglong were very deep. If a battle really broke out, there was a mountain path there the Qing Consortium would have to pass through to invade the heart of the Li Consortium. Therefore, the Li Consortium had sent a large number of private troops there to fill their defensive gap and act as cannon fodder.

It was said that there used to be a city north of Mt. Shuanglong in the Pre-Cataclysm times. It was located at the intersection of three rivers where a dam used to exist upstream.

However, that dam was neglected after The Cataclysm. As a result, no one opened the floodgates to release the excess water until it finally burst its banks. That caused the river to change its course, turning the once prosperous city into a floodplain.

In summer, the entire area would get covered by clouds and experience continuous rain due to the water cycle.

Fortunately, it was winter right now. Winter had gotten colder over the days, causing some of the smaller tributaries to freeze as a result.

But upon setting off, they encountered yet another problem.

The real Divine Arms Battalion had already driven off in all of their military transport trucks. They had only thought about switching their vehicles and forgot the private soldiers were not trained to drive. The private soldiers here who could drive were the minority.

While they were traveling by the truck, 30 of them could get in at once. If there were others on board who could drive, they could occasionally take turns at the wheel.

But now that they had switched to the off-road vehicles… there were not enough drivers to go around.

One of the Divine Arms officers was a little dumbfounded as he stood in front of the numerous off-road vehicles. Why were problems constantly messing up his plan?

However, this Divine Arms Battalion officer was also a decisive guy. He resolutely said, “Abandon the vehicles. We’ll enter the mountains on foot. Don’t take the main road so that it’ll look like we’re trying to cover our tracks on purpose!”

Ren Xiaosu understood this decision. By trekking through the wilderness of the mountains, it would create a sense of secrecy. If a spy discovered these troops wearing the uniform of the Divine Arms Battalion were trying to move under the cover of the wilderness of the mountains by deliberately avoiding the main road, they might get more interested in tracking their whereabouts.

But didn’t he just learn how to drive? And now they were just going to abandon the vehicles on the side of the road and not use them anymore?

Moreover, based on the physical fitness of these private soldiers, at least half of them were probably not going to make it to the specified destination if they really had to walk there via the wilderness of these mountains.

At this moment, Chen Wudi asked, “What if we don’t get discovered by the spy when we go into the wilderness of the mountains?”

Ren Xiaosu nearly applauded that. “That’s a good question.”

A spy would not wander into the mountains for no good reason. They would definitely travel on the main road with the main force, so the other possibility would be that the spy could be unaware of troops marching secretly in the mountain wilderness… due to them being too well-hidden….

The officer of the Divine Arms Battalion was speechless for a while. “Just do as I say!”

Even if Ren Xiaosu were from the Office of Special Investigations, he could not influence the Divine Arms Battalion’s battle plans. He could investigate the spy, but they would still have the final say on how to fight the war!

Even though the Divine Arms Battalion did not wish to offend the Office of Special Investigations, if something made their plan to fail, should the blame fall on the Office of Special Investigations or the Divine Arms Battalion?

Naturally, Ren Xiaosu did not actually care about whether the Office of Special Investigations would take the blame or not.