Chapter 120: The Southwest Rotational Warfare
The land of the southwest border of China has historically been a desolate area with numerous ethnic groups, tangled beliefs, and fragmented rule. Even in modern times, it remains one of the most difficult regions for local governance globally. Aside from the Kingdom of Siam, the entire underground world of Southeast Asia is in a state of chaotic disorder. Rogue blood clans and black blood gangsters proliferate, with ordinary people and blood clan society intertwining in chaos, where the weak are preyed upon by the strong, driven by profit.
In contrast to the northern inspection zone, which has only five operational teams and is the weakest in military strength, the western and southern inspection zones together have six operational teams lined up along the southwest national border, blocking the intrusions from the neighboring chaotic world.
Smuggling is fought against, infiltration is prevented, and black blood clans are eradicated year after year with no end in sight, and relaxation is never an option. Over the past half-century, 70% of the sacrifices among the commanding officers and soldiers from the Dark Arrow have occurred in the southwest border area, making it a brutal battlefield akin to a bottomless pit.
Each inspection zone of Dark Arrow sends a certain amount of troops to participate in the southwest rotational warfare every quarter, which has become the main model of the secret war in the southwest border; otherwise, the western and southern inspection zones would have long been overwhelmed.
On December 12, in the morning.
The headquarters of the Dark Arrow in the western inspection zone.
The commanders of the nine operational teams had once again gathered, with Chief of Staff Zhen Guangquan presiding over the meeting while Commander Wang Hongjun attended as usual, and Deputy Commander Han Guowei was still out on official duties.
The upheaval regarding the transfer of the position of the commander of the Xuanjia Team had ultimately been resolved flawlessly after communication with headquarters. Confirmation from headquarters indicated that the handover documents for the commander of the Xuanjia Team would indeed come into effect on December 30. This means that as long as there is no internal opposition in the western inspection zone, Meng Huai can occupy the commander position until the last day.
Everyone recognized Meng Huai’s dedication to the Xuanjia Team, and the willingness to serve the last shift was also supported by Wang Hongjun.
In the large meeting room, Zhen Guangquan was once again announcing this year’s fourth-quarter list for the southwest rotational warfare. Apart from the three fully-staffed regular teams stationed at the border, this time a mixed reinforcement squad would also be dispatched from the mainland to implement joint operations with the troops sent from other inspection zones.
“The situation around the southwest border has become more complex. Many foreign rogue blood clans, even black blood clans, have become quite active and are continually infiltrating, so this time the southwest rotational warfare will be more intense than before, and we must resolutely curb the rampant trend of foreign blood clans!”
After October, the Xiuyi Team had basically completed its troop replenishment and training. Originally, it should have been the Xuanjia Team’s turn this time, but considering the actual situation, more practical training opportunities were given to the Xiuyi Team. Additionally, logistics, intelligence, and internal affairs departments were to allocate personnel accordingly.
After exchanging glances with Wang Hongjun, Zhen Guangquan stood up and called Han Bi’s name.
“Thank you for the trust, Commander…”
“Wait a minute!”
Han Bi stood up, just beginning to express his views when Meng Huai also stood up from across two rows.
“Commander, I…”
Han Bi was startled and then looked over at Wang Hongjun on the podium, confused.
“Comrade Han Bi, please wait a moment. Let Comrade Meng Huai speak.”
Wang Hongjun smiled gently and made a calming gesture towards Han Bi.
“According to the annual plan, since the Xuanjia Team is responsible for this southwest rotational warfare, we will go by the rules. The Xiuyi Team has already participated once this year and suffered a significant loss three months ago; they should undergo more basic training now instead of seeking hardship in the south.”
Meng Huai spoke with indifference, and several squad leaders from the Xuanjia Team behind him nodded eagerly.
“Meng Huai, what do you mean!”
Han Xiao was now directly furious; not only was the last half of his sentence too harsh, but he also felt a premonition of something, turning pale and showing signs of panic.
Moreover, Xiao Tao had not participated in the southwest rotational warfare before; I was planning to take her with me to familiarize her with the entire operation.
Meng Huai didn’t even glance at Han Xiao, and his reasoning was almost flawless; even Wang Hongjun was nodding slightly.
The Xuanjia Team was about to change commanders, and with only a little over two years of experience, Tao Qiaoer indeed lacked experience in critical real combat command. Such an opportunity for rotational warfare, with Meng Huai’s personal guidance, would ensure the combat effectiveness after the change of leadership in the Xuanjia Team.
However, Meng Huai’s suggestion caused some unexpressed concerns in Wang Hongjun and Zhen Guangquan’s hearts.
Because five years ago, it was precisely the former commander of the Xuanjia Team who was tragically sacrificed during the southwest rotational warfare, and Meng Huai happened to take over as commander with just over two years of experience.
No action of the Dark Arrow is easy or simple, not even for Meng Huai, a commander with seven years of experience and battle-hardened.
Alright, the Xuanjia Team is assigned to this southwest rotational warfare task, but Comrade Meng Huai, you cannot inject the anti-blood infiltration immunity serum now; you can only be responsible for guiding Comrade Tao Qiaoer. This is also the most meaningful task during your last shift!
Seeing that Wang Hongjun had no objections, Zhen Guangquan directly announced the final decision.
Interestingly, Han Xiao, who usually was fiery and competitive, at this moment, showed no resistance at all, just silently sat down with red eyes, lost in thought.
For the other auxiliary personnel, Meng Huai, please help Tao Qiaoer finalize the personnel for this southwest rotational warfare. The five inspection zones will deploy a total of eight mixed reinforcement squads, with an overall troop strength of over fifteen hundred people. We hope the Xuanjia Team can achieve good results this time.
As soon as Zhen Guangquan’s voice fell, Tao Qiaoer behind Meng Huai immediately stood up excitedly and saluted.
It’s the last time fighting alongside Commander Meng, taking over for him. This is the motivation that has kept Tao Qiaoer going during the months of frustration and lack of confidence.
The meeting concluded efficiently, and dozens of young male and female officers exited one after another, many of them quietly observing the still seated Meng Huai.
Hey, have you noticed? Commander Meng seems to have lost weight, and he looks a bit different from before, has he been using some drugs excessively?
Hmm, he seems more handsome now that he’s slimmer, but there’s a bit of a gloomy air about him, not as masculine as before…
Headquarters is really trying hard; it’s been bad for a while now, and they managed to save his life from the Grim Reaper…
Stop talking! Being alive is the only hard truth. How many first-class merits are still alive in the whole army now!
Regardless of gender, various whispers floated in the corridors outside the meeting room, gradually fading away.
Han Xiao was the last to leave the meeting room. At the moment she opened the door, she turned back to look at the tall young man scribbling on a piece of paper.
There was no trace of anger, even more suffocating than when she had heard about his closed-off rescue a month ago, and it made her heart race.
…
Time passed without her noticing, and Meng Huai isolated himself, walking alone in the garden downstairs of the headquarters.
In the distance, a lieutenant officer arrived as expected. Meng Huai nodded lightly and sat on a garden bench, removing his military cap and beginning to rest.
Brother Meng, I’ve taken care of everything here.
Han Jie took a briefcase, hurried to Meng Huai’s side, looked around, and sat down.
The special covert operations team’s work at headquarters has formally begun; your escape plan has been arranged by me and Sanbo, including the deployment of all task route nodes.
Saying this, Han Jie took out a document from the briefcase and handed it to Meng Huai. “Take a careful look, then recite it back to me twice before burning it.”
Opening his eyes, Meng Huai took the document, focusing intently on every word, rereading it multiple times, and finally nodded lightly, stuffing the document back into Han Jie’s hands.
Complete the final step of blood infiltration during the operation, exit the frontline, and head to Yuankang Town to meet with you… Proceed to Yueguan Town south of City B in Province Y, posing as a rogue blood clan of Chinese descent from Myanmar, to contact a rogue blood clan broker named Yang Jiu, to change domestic identity, through Yang Jiu to recommend yourself to the legitimate blood clan Luo family in Province Y… Using the Luo family as a cover, infiltrate the Wang family for intelligence.”
Meng Huai recited the content of the document almost word for word. Han Jie nodded and pulled out a lighter to burn the document.
“Brother Meng, the Luo family is a vassal of the Wang family, and the head is only a mid-level viscount. As long as you can be promoted to knight within five years, you will surely be valued by the Luo family. It’s been calculated that even if you’re only a low-level servant post blood infiltration, the chance to become a knight within five years is over 50%. If you’re lucky and become a mid or even high-level servant post blood infiltration, promoting to knight within three years should be no problem.”
“I will place the necessary materials for the mission in several batches at the task route nodes, including the final dose of blood infiltration reagent and a means of transportation for the exit, along with supplies, etc.”
“You must arrive at Yuankang Town by December 25 at the latest; otherwise, I will consider it an accident during your exit, and you will have failed… Once you arrive at Yuankang Town, I will provide you with the final batch of resources, including the bargaining chips for the transaction with Yang Jiu. You’ll have to negotiate the price yourself; remember, you must negotiate; otherwise, it will raise Yang Jiu’s suspicions.”
“Yang Jiu is a broker developed by the southern inspection zone. He is a mid-level knight among the rogue blood clan, closely connected with the cross-border rogue blood clans, black blood clans, and the Luo family in the southwest. He also provides Dark Arrow with information on border smuggling, and his identity is absolutely confidential.”
But you should also be cautious; these rogue blood clans involved with black blood clans tend to be treacherous at times, and they may indeed do something without any bottom line once there’s profit at stake.
Han Jie kept narrating a series of task information, insisting that Meng Huai recite the key points back.
The amount of information was indeed vast, and the two sat in the winter garden for over two hours, repeatedly checking and confirming until Han Jie’s stomach let out a loud growl.
“Brother Meng, don’t think that just repeating this once is easy; Sanbo forced me to memorize it from top to bottom more than a dozen times.”
Han Jie laughed, stretching out his arms and leaning against the bench with a wry smile. “From now on, brother Meng, you’ll only be able to contact me. My future achievements depend largely on you… Scarecrow, haha, what a silly nickname.”
After over two hours of secret conversation, Meng Huai listened more than he spoke, mostly fiddling with his military cap or quietly observing the youthful, unruly face of Han Jie.
“Is that all?”
Meng Huai put on his military cap and finally fixed his gaze on Han Jie’s eyes, a cold smirk emerging at the corners of his mouth.
“Huh? That’s it, I’ve said everything.”
Han Jie was taken aback, shaking his head lightly.
Meng Huai lowered his voice and asked each word carefully, “Why join the Luo family? Is it just for gathering intelligence on the Wang family? What exactly is my mission?”
“According to confidentiality procedures, you must complete the final blood infiltration and successfully exit. Only after you arrive at Yuankang Town can I tell you.”
Han Jie stood up, glanced at his watch, his expression suddenly serious. “Brother Meng, I suggest you think more about what supplies you personally need so that I can prepare in advance.”
Seeing the other party’s firm principles, Meng Huai smiled, stood up, and said no more, turning to leave.
In the afternoon, in a budget hotel deeply embedded in a residential area of City C, two stylishly dressed sisters walked in. Both were wearing form-fitting lace-sleeved dresses paired with black shoes with red soles. They had on warm overcoats with fur collars, long hair cascading down their shoulders, trendy baseball caps pushed low over their heads, and each wheeling a large suitcase.
The front desk staff just glanced up, then returned to their work, as if the newcomers were not worth special attention, allowing them to stride confidently toward the elevator.
This sort of discreet service for hotel guests had become commonplace in the eyes of the hotel staff. Even the little slips of paper inserted into guest rooms were often done by them.
Baseball caps are excellent concealers, and masks are crucial, having effectively blocked any surveillance cameras from capturing their faces along the way. Jiang Yan moved gracefully, while Jiang Yao appeared unusually nervous, struggling with the discomfort of her high heels, her expression reflecting that unease.
They went straight to the sixth floor, finally stopping at the end of the hallway in front of a room.
“Sir, your requested technician service has arrived.”
Taking out a mobile phone, Jiang Yan swallowed a few times before dialing the number, her voice causing Jiang Yao, beside her, to gawk, feeling her skin crawl.
Oh my god, how can my sister’s voice be so sultry? It’s simply mesmerizing; she must be doing it on purpose… Jiang Yao couldn’t help but rub her arms, trying to shake off the goosebumps.
The door opened, and a middle-aged man with a buzz cut appeared, a lascivious grin on his face as he appraised the sisters, glancing up and down at Jiang Yan.
The baseball cap and mask concealed her appearance, but even just her exposed eyes revealed she was stunning, and her figure was top-notch.
“Come in; my brother will be back soon… By the way, which of you is the younger sister? Serve me first.”
In the room, the middle-aged man’s desire grew stronger as he looked at the beautiful girls before him, unconsciously swallowing.
What? Serve you first? I’d rather kill you… Jiang Yao, standing just a step behind Jiang Yan, was on the verge of an explosion, keeping her head down.
If it weren’t for the powerful effect of the internal and external hormone suppressants, the lapdog of the black blood clan in front of them, with the level of a lowly servant, might have sensed Jiang Yao’s discomfort.
Just as the hand of the black blood clan servant was about to touch Jiang Yan, it suddenly halted. In his feeble breath sensing, he finally detected an unusual fluctuation; the lust in his eyes froze, replaced by a hint of fear.
Jiang Yan’s smile also turned icy in an instant as she leaned forward, grabbing the man’s collar.
“You are from the Wang family…”
The middle-aged man didn’t have time to activate his blood boiling before he caught sight of a syringe raised high, and before he could utter his last words, he felt a sharp pain in his neck, a strange tingling sensation spreading throughout his body, and soon everything before his eyes began to blur.
The powerful blood-soluble anesthetic provided by the Wang family for Dark Arrow had an incredible effect on blood clans below knight rank who could not activate their blood boiling in time, causing them to lose control over their bodies and fall into a semi-comatose state.
The middle-aged man collapsed onto the bed like a dead pig, his confused and weak pheromone aura still emanating from his body, a typical sight of being half-dead.
Another daytime raid, sister, have you become addicted!
From knocking on the door to the man being subdued took less than half a minute, but throughout the process, Jiang Yao, who had been observing Jiang Yan’s performance, still bore the flush of shame and anger on her face.
Black blood clan members become very alert at night, and being in a bustling area means trouble if they decide to retaliate.
Gradually walking toward the cloakroom, Jiang Yan rummaged around and produced a large leather trunk. Upon opening it, it was filled to the brim with neatly stacked Fuzhilan.
“Wow, so much Fuzhilan! It must be worth over a million, right?”
Jiang Yao was also taken aback, immediately squatting in front of the large trunk, carefully touching the rows of medicine boxes emblazoned with foreign labels, her eyes shining.
“Yeah, I checked online; one box costs more than two thousand dollars for eight vials, with the exchange rate at least fifteen thousand or more. There are at least hundreds of boxes here. If we let Lao Jin’s Shengci Hospital recover them, Su Xiaomeng would be so happy she’d wake up from her dreams.”
Jiang Yan lowered her voice, counting the quantity in the box quickly, also feeling emotional. “Our country has not formally introduced this medicine yet; it’s all smuggled by the black blood clans as a performance enhancer for blood clans.”
“According to the intel from the Wang family, this place is just a hidden safe house; I never expected it to be a stash point… Hey, where did you run off to again?”
Raising her head, Jiang Yan saw that someone was missing once more.
“Sister, look what I found! Blood boiling agents and external hormone suppressants!”
Seemingly inspired, Jiang Yao also started rummaging through the drawers. Sure enough, she soon uncovered several boxes from the bedside cabinet of another bed. Each box she opened elicited exclamations of surprise.
“Hehe, that guy earlier said his brother hasn’t returned yet; why don’t we wait for the rabbit to come back?”
Jiang Yao immediately opened her own suitcase and started packing the loot while casually suggesting her idea.
“The intel discrepancy is quite significant, and we don’t know when that person will return or their strength; what if they are a baron? No way, we can’t engage in a battle without certainty.”
Jiang Yan thought for a moment, quickly shaking her head, then took out her phone.
A few minutes later, a young woman disguised as a housekeeping staff member pushed a cleaning trolley to the room’s entrance.
“Hehe, you two look great in those outfits, so sexy…”
As soon as she entered, Su Xiaomeng mischievously winked at the Jiang sisters, eliciting simultaneous eye rolls from both.
“Wait, these are… If I had known this was a stash point, I would have done it alone! Ahhhh!”
She thought she had succeeded in toying with them, but mere seconds later, seeing the Jiang sisters transferring their loot into their cases, Su Xiaomeng was consumed by jealousy.
“Do you accept these?”
Jiang Yan pointed her chin toward the Fuzhilan in front of her, and then gestured toward the black blood clan member still unconscious on the bed. She struggled to suppress her laughter. “There’s still a live black dragon’s lower servant here, the Wang family should need this tongue, right? Alive, its value should be higher.”
“What can a lower servant do? Just kill him. The Shengci Hospital wants all this Fuzhilan; many patients in our country are buying them through marked-up prices from abroad, so it’s not a hassle to sell them, but I can only offer seventy percent of the market price.”
The bargaining process between Jiang Yan and Su Xiaomeng was quite pleasant, while on the other side, hearing the intent to kill the lascivious servant, Jiang Yao jumped up eagerly, hastily injecting another syringe into the body of the black blood clan member on the bed, and in just ten seconds, the unfortunate half-comatose fellow breathed his last.
Su Xiaomeng shared Jiang Yan’s viewpoint; when it came to uncertainty about the enemy’s strength or movement times, the best choice was to cut losses. This raid could only be considered half successful, yet the gains exceeded expectations.
The corpse of the black blood clan servant was shoved beneath the cleaning trolley by Su Xiaomeng, while all the loot was packed up by the Jiang sisters, marking the end of a brazen daytime raid.
When night fell, a boy who resembled a high school student sauntered into the guest room, taking a quick glance around before hurrying out.
