chsdbacks Chapter 19: Capture Fan Tianlei Alive!
Chapter 19: Capture Fan Tianlei Alive!
Chen Shanming listened with a mixture of excitement and worry: "Number Five, this is too risky. What if Li Erniu doesn't fall for it, or what if he sees through it..."
"He will definitely come!"
Fan Tianlei sneered, "Young man, achieving such an incredible feat, it's impossible for your ego not to inflate. Moreover, this is the fastest way he can think of to end this battle and maximize his gains. More importantly..."
Fan Tianlei's lips curled into a complex smile: "I understand the pride of such a genius. Since he dared to play me for a fool, he will absolutely not let go of the opportunity to 'capture' the commander of the Southeast Military Region's Wolf Fang Special Forces! This is the greatest proof of his strength! Therefore, this is a poisoned bait specially designed for his personality; he has no choice but to swallow it!"
"Shanming, your mission of pursuit is also very important. You need to make it convincing, put pressure on him, and make him feel that the command post is empty because they have no choice but to send troops to encircle and annihilate him. At the same time, you also need to be careful. He Chenguang and Wang Yanbing are not to be underestimated. Li Erniu may very well send them to restrain or even ambush you."
Chen Shanming stood at attention, his eyes blazing with fighting spirit: "Understood! Number Five, I guarantee I'll put on a great show and keep Li Erniu's attention firmly in my grasp!"
"Let's move out! Remember, at any cost, lure this 'Ghost of the Iron Fist' to the command post! I want to personally put the 'Death' armband on him!"
"yes!"
Chen Shanming turned around and strode out of the command post. Soon, the urgent assembly whistles and the roar of vehicle engines sounded outside.
A pursuit team of more than twenty elite members of the Wolf Fang Special Forces drove aggressively away from the command post, speeding off in the direction where Li Erniu had disappeared, kicking up clouds of dust.
The command post suddenly felt much emptier.
Only a few communications soldiers and guards remained, along with some "civilian" staff. The atmosphere seemed to have truly "relaxed."
"Li Erniu... I've set up the chessboard and scattered the bait, just waiting for you, the big fish, to walk right into my trap."
……
A secluded mountain stream about 15 kilometers away from the Wolf Fang Command Post.
Li Erniu, He Chenguang, and Wang Yanbing were gathered around the hood of the stolen off-road vehicle, on which lay the captured tactical map and the makeshift communication monitoring equipment they had taken from the Blue Army.
"Brother Niu, it's quite lively on the monitoring channel," Wang Yanbing said while listening through his headphones. "The Blue Army's command system seems to have just been restored, and they're frantically deploying troops, with a chorus of curses. Especially their 'wanted' notice for us, it's been raised to the highest priority."
He Chenguang used binoculars to observe the movements on the distant highway: "Just now, there was a convoy, quite large, coming out from the direction of the command post and heading towards our approximate location. Judging from the vehicles and equipment, they are the elite of the Wolf Fang, and the leader has a very imposing presence, like the Captain Chen Shanming you mentioned."
Li Erniu chewed on a blade of grass, his eyes narrowed as he stared at the conspicuous red X on the map that read "Wolf Fang Forward Finger," his fingers rhythmically tapping on the hood of the car.
"Captain Chen personally led the entire team out?" Li Erniu chuckled. "Old Fan is desperate. At this critical juncture, he actually sent him out again."
"Brother Niu, this is an opportunity!" Wang Yanbing exclaimed excitedly. "The command post must be empty! Let's bypass the pursuers and go straight to Fan Tianlei's lair! If we capture him alive, we'll definitely win this exercise! The Iron Fist Regiment can also be resurrected!"
He Chenguang frowned: "It went too smoothly. Fan Tianlei is no ordinary person. Could Chen Shanming's blatant large-scale pursuit be a deliberate show for us? To lure us into attacking the command post, while he's setting up an ambush inside?"
Li Erniu nodded slightly: "Chenguang is right. Old Fan, that old fox, will definitely try to get back at you after suffering a loss. His trick is called 'luring the enemy into a trap,' or 'entrapment.'"
"Then what do we do? Aren't we going to the command post?" Wang Yanbing asked, somewhat discouraged.
"Go! Why not go?" A sly glint flashed in Li Erniu's eyes.
"Old Fan set up a trap for me. If I don't go, wouldn't I be letting him down? But we can't follow his script."
He pointed to the map: "Chen Shanming led his men out to chase us. The command post looks empty, but there are definitely traps inside. Old Fan might be sitting here with tea, waiting for us to walk right into his trap."
"So what's your plan?" He Chenguang asked.
Li Erniu spat out the grass stalks from his mouth: "He's playing along, so I'll give him a 'feint to the east while attacking in the west' followed by a 'sunrise attack in the center'!"
"Yanbing, Chenguang, your mission has arrived, and it's crucial."
The two immediately focused their attention.
"Isn't Chen Shanming leading a large group to chase after us? You two, go and meet him. But don't fight him head-on, harass him, distract him, stick to him like glue! Use the terrain, take sniper shots, set traps, create chaos, make him think that the three of us are dealing with him, so that he has no time to look elsewhere and no time to suspect our true intentions."
Wang Yanbing's eyes lit up: "I'm an expert at this! I guarantee it'll give Chen Shanming a major headache!"
He Chenguang nodded: "No problem. I can find a high vantage point to conduct long-range deterrence and slow down their advance."
"That's right!" Li Erniu continued, "The more you make a fuss, the more convinced Chen Shanming becomes that our goal is to shake off the pursuers or ambush them. The more at ease Lao Fan is in the command post, feeling that his trap is secure."
"And what about you, Brother Niu?" Wang Yanbing asked.
Li Erniu grinned: "Me? Of course I'm going to Lao Fan's 'Feast at Hongmen'. However, I'm not a 'guest' entering through the main gate."
He pointed to a steep cliff and densely packed minefield marked on the map behind and to the side of the command post: "Old Fan's ambush was definitely concentrated on the conventional infiltration routes and inside the command post. But he would never have imagined that someone could climb up this almost vertical cliff, which is also full of simulated mines, and parachute directly onto the top of his command tent!"
He Chenguang and Wang Yanbing stared in shock at the terrain markers.
"That place... is it even possible to get up there? And there are minefields..." Wang Yanbing clicked his tongue in disbelief.
"It's impossible for most people, but for me, a chef..."
Li Erniu blinked. "That's my specialty!"
He glanced at the sky: "It's getting late. Chenguang, Yanbing, the task of holding Chen Shanming back is yours. Remember, survival first, harassment second, stall them for at least two hours!"
"Understood!" He Chenguang and Wang Yanbing replied in unison.
"Alright! Let's split up! Wait for my good news!"
Li Erniu slung the pot over his shoulder, checked his equipment, stuffed a few specially made "little gadgets" into his pocket, waved to the two men, and then, like a nimble lynx, silently slipped into the dense forest on the side, meandering towards the cliff behind the Wolf Fang Command Post.
Inside the Wolf Fang command tent, Fan Tianlei was seemingly leisurely brewing a pot of tea.
The tea leaves unfurled in the transparent glass pot, releasing a fragrant aroma.
"Number Five, this is Shanming. We've encountered harassment from a small Red Force unit, led by He Chenguang and Wang Yanbing! They're using the terrain in Canyon Three to launch a series of attacks, their tactics are very tricky, and our advance is being slowed down... However, it seems there are only two of them; Li Erniu is nowhere to be seen!"
Chen Shanming's voice was panting, and there were sporadic gunshots and explosions in the background.
Fan Tianlei: "Continue the pursuit and apply pressure! Make sure to keep them pinned down. Li Erniu might be lurking nearby, waiting for an opportunity to strike. Don't give them a chance to breathe!"
"clear!"
After putting down the microphone, Fan Tianlei took a sip of tea, the bitterness of the tea leaves melting on his tongue.
The tension in his heart tightened even more.
He Chenguang and Wang Yanbing were keeping Chen Shanming occupied, which was in line with his expectations and also indicated that Li Erniu was very likely acting alone, with his target being this place.
But why aren't the sensors reacting yet? Can that kid really fly or disappear into the ground?
He couldn't help but glance at the panoramic map of the war zone hanging in the corner of the tent, his finger unconsciously tracing the area marked with a thick red line behind the command post as a "cliff + minefield".
That place was considered an absolute safety barrier, and even he himself subconsciously ignored the possibility of that direction when setting up the ambush.
"Impossible... Even monkeys can't get up there, and there are dense minefields..." Fan Tianlei shook his head, shaking the absurd thought out of his mind.
Behind the command post, in the middle of a steep cliff with an angle of almost ninety degrees.
Li Erniu clung tightly to the slippery, cold rock face like a giant gecko. His fingers and toes seemed to have suction cups, precisely wedging themselves into the tiny crevices and protrusions of the rock.
With his God-level Climbing Technique fully activated, he maintained a steady and slow ascent on this sheer cliff that even birds couldn't cross.
Even more astonishingly, he kept his "individual soldier radar scan" running in his mind as he climbed.
On the edge of the cliff, the carefully placed simulated landmines were as clearly visible as fireflies in the night in his 3D mental projection, with even their trigger range and sensitivity differences clearly marked.
"Three meters to the upper left, a jump-activated mine with a detection radius of 0.5 meters... Two meters to the right, a tripwire mine with a wire height of 15 centimeters..."
Li Erniu silently recited the instructions, and his body made extremely subtle adjustments, precisely avoiding all the deadly traps.
Finally, his fingers touched the soil at the edge of the cliff top.
Li Erniu took a deep breath, exerted force with both arms, and did a light pull-up. Then, he tightened his core and, like a carp leaping out of its shell, silently flipped up to the top of the cliff and rolled into a dense thicket without making a sound.
He lay prone in the grass, slightly out of breath, and quickly surveyed his surroundings.
This is already the edge of the core area of the Wolf Fang Command Post, less than 80 meters away from the largest command tent in a straight line!
There were several auxiliary tents and some equipment storage areas in between.
[Individual Radar Scan] Power up to maximum!
Instantly, all the heat sources and metallic reactions of all living beings within a 300-meter radius centered on him appeared in his mind like a high-definition 3D image.
"As expected, there was an ambush..." Li Erniu's lips curled into a cold smile. He "saw" the five men in the foxhole, the sniper disguised on the high ground, and the approximate locations of the sensors on the perimeter.
He even "saw" the relatively still, clear heat source outline representing Fan Tianlei sitting at the table inside the command tent.
"Four sentries in the open, five in the shadows, a sniper team... Old Fan, you really think highly of me." Li Erniu muttered to himself, while quickly planning the famous route.
Conventional infiltration routes are definitely under close surveillance.
But he doesn't need to take the conventional route.
His gaze fell on the dark green canvas stretched between several tents for camouflage and shade, and the crisscrossing support ropes.
[God-level Camouflage] not only allows him to change his appearance color, but also allows him to simulate thermal radiation signals that are almost identical to the surrounding environment. Although it cannot completely fool high-precision individual radar, it is enough to blend into the background clutter if the opponent does not actively scan.
Li Erniu emerged from the bushes like a ghost.
The Wolf Fang ambush team members only felt a slight breeze, and out of the corner of their eyes they seemed to catch a glimpse of a canvas shadow swaying, but upon closer inspection, everything seemed normal, and they simply assumed it was the mountain breeze.
Li Erniu kept jumping, getting closer and closer to the command tent. Fifty meters, thirty meters, twenty meters...
The two guards standing watch at the tent entrance scanned the open area ahead warily, completely unaware that a figure was silently sliding down from the top of the tent canvas behind them, landing precisely in the shadows behind the command tent, close to the tent's canvas wall.
Inside the tent, Fan Tianlei had just finished refilling his cup of tea, but his unease grew stronger.
The sounds of battle from Chen Shanming's side seemed to have thinned out somewhat; He Chenguang and Wang Yanbing's resilience was beyond imagination.
The sensors... still didn't issue any warnings.
"Could it be that he's really not coming? Or has he seen through it?" This thought resurfaced, making Fan Tianlei somewhat irritable.
He stood up, preparing to walk to the monitoring terminal and check it himself.
Just as he turned around—
"Sizzle!"
A soft sound of a canvas being sliced open by a sharp blade came from behind him!
Fan Tianlei felt a chill run down his spine. His fighting instincts made him instantly lunge forward, reaching for the pistol at his waist.
However, he was still a step too slow.
A burly figure, reeking of gunpowder and earth, burst through the crack in the tent!
The figure moved faster than Fan Tianlei could visually perceive!
Fan Tianlei felt a numbness in his wrist, and the pistol he had just touched had already changed hands.
Immediately afterwards, a large, iron-like hand gripped his neck from behind, while another hand covered his mouth.
"Ugh...!" Fan Tianlei's eyes widened as he struggled desperately, catching a glimpse of that familiar, honest-looking black face that made him grit his teeth.
Li Erniu! He really came! And in such an unexpected way, he appeared in his most central command tent!
The ambush outside was completely ineffective!
"Shh—Old Fan, don't get excited, be careful not to twist your back."
Li Erniu leaned close to Fan Tianlei's ear and chuckled softly, "You invited me over for tea, making such a big fuss, how formal! Well, here I am, let's have a good chat, you and I."
Fan Tianlei was so angry that his vision blurred and his lungs felt like they were about to explode, but he couldn't utter a single word.
He could feel that Li Erniu's hand, which was covering his mouth, seemed to have some spicy powder on it, probably that rip-off "chili powder" again.
Li Erniu skillfully used a cable tie he had taken from the Blue Army warehouse to tie Fan Tianlei's hands behind his back, and then tore off a piece of tape to stick to his mouth.
The entire process was smooth and quick, taking no more than five seconds.
Then, Li Erniu dragged the renowned special operations commander of the Southeast Military Region like a sack of potatoes to a corner of the tent in the shadows, while he himself swaggered to the spot where Fan Tianlei had just been sitting and picked up the still-warm cup of tea.
"Hmm, Longjing tea? Not bad, but it's a bit overcooked and a little bitter." Li Erniu took a sip and smacked his lips.