Chapter 1249: The Countdown Begins

Zhang Xiaoman has been a soldier for more than ten years in his life, but in essence, the highest position is only a company commander, although he later rocketed up to become the brigade commander of the Sixth Field Brigade, but in fact, he himself has always understood what is going on in his own heart: it is just a matter of arranging a familiar person for Ren Xiaosu.

He carefully counted his time as a battalion commander and regimental commander, which seemed to add up to less than half a year, and then he became a brigade commander again.

The Northwest Army was expanding its establishment too fast, and the barriers to control had doubled dozens of times, so much so that everyone was rushing to the top, and even the original commander of the forward battalion had already become the division commander of the third division.

Zhou Yinglong went to tell Zhang Jinglin several times that it was really a bit overwhelming for him to be the division commander.

But according to Zhang Jinglin’s words, no one is born to learn to be a division commander, you can only learn to be in that position.

This kind of rocket promotion will of course leave some hidden problems, compared to the kindling troops, Qing’s troops, Wang’s troops, the Northwest Army lacks some heritage, so when the big war is bound to have some problems.

However, Zhang Jinglin would like to play it safe, but this era will not wait for them.

In the past, what was Zhang Xiaoman like in the Pointed Sword Company?

Everyone ate together and lived together, and there were only 180 people in total, and everyone was a brother.

When the Company fought in the war, everyone’s slogan was “Don’t abandon, don’t give up, no one can be left behind”.

Although we all know that war will kill people, but everyone holds the original intention of not dying.

Not only was this true of the sharpshooter company, but also of the forward battalion, and even more so of the third division.

What did the Northwest used to rely on to fight a war to be known as a killing billet?

Was it because Fort 178 was well equipped? It had only been nearly 20 years since the development of the military industry, and even earlier when everyone was poor and feared the Wizards coming to invade every day.

Is it because the commanders of the 178th Fortress are exceptionally good? Zhang Jinglin came from nothing more than a medic, and there was even a fucking cooking class in that class of commanders.

It seemed that to convince the people in the Northwest, one never needed to be that strong, Ren Xiaosu was the alternative among the successive commander candidates.

Zhang Jinglin quite a few times admitted that his commanding ability has never been the best one, everyone is willing to let him be the commander, but also because he is fair and kind-hearted.

When Zhang Jinglin, a medic, saved more than a hundred comrades on the battlefield, but wherever there was a breath of life, he gave it back.

In that war, Zhang Jinglin’s hands were full of blood blisters and his feet were full of blisters.

When other medical personnel came to check his injuries, they were shocked.

This was Zhang Jinglin’s charisma, not his ability.

It was a hard time at Fort 178 back then, and there was only one fortress to guard, so every soldier was extraordinarily precious.

If someone killed someone from Fortress 178, they would retaliate like crazy, and in the battlefield, everyone would either live together or die together.

After so many years of coming together like this, the six words “don’t abandon and don’t give up” were like something in everyone’s bones.

Only by holding tightly together can we survive in this chaotic world.

Zhang Xiaoman did not really become a commander, and the sixth field division was not his turn to command, so when P5092 so calmly decided the life and death of his comrades, he was a bit unable to accept it.

Even Ren Xiaosu had told P5092 that the Northwest Army was actually different from the Firestarter Force.

But that was precisely why the place where the Northwest Army was located was more humane, and the Northwest Army was not a cold war machine.

It was a force that had guardianship as its belief.

Therefore, even if Zhang Xiaoman knew that P5092 this was for the sake of winning the war, it was hard for him to accept it emotionally.

However, it was hard to accept, and he had to obey.

Moreover, when he saw P5092’s tears he realized that this seemingly cold war machine actually had normal human emotions.

No wonder Ren Xiaosu would tell P5092 not to carry too much alone.

Every one of these cold decisions was an inner torture for P5092 itself.

Zhang Xiaoman looked at P5092 and said, “I was wrong for questioning those words of yours before, if this war ever requires me to die as well, you can just tell me.”

P5092 was silent for a moment and said, “You don’t have the value to send to your death, otherwise I might have sent you to your death a long time ago.”

Zhang Xiaoman: “……”

……

Five hundred kilometers west of Barrier 144, a huge defense line had been constructed.

The defense line stretched for hundreds of kilometers, with dozens of defensive support points stretched out to form a large net, waiting for the enemy to approach.

Hundreds of thousands of people were busy here, not only the soldiers of the Northwest Army, but also the young and strong males who supported the young and strong men involved in the construction of the defense line.

They were doing the very first jobs here, perhaps carrying bricks, perhaps digging mud, perhaps carrying sandbags.

Outside a defensive position south of the line, a steam train was rapidly approaching.

The defending generals of the Northwest Army cheered when they saw the steam train from afar: “Young Marshal, that’s Young Marshal’s steam train!”

When the steam train approached, many soldiers who had never seen this huge thing before looked at it curiously.

The back of this defense line was conveniently the Northwest Army’s general headquarters, so the guards here were relatively stricter, and all entering personnel had to receive electric shocks to ensure that they weren’t carrying nanobots on their bodies.

Of course, there were dozens of other defense positions that were also carrying out this kind of work, in case the commotion was too big and special, causing the AI to discover where the General Command Headquarters was.

When they entered the defense positions, the soldiers in charge of electroshock checking the nanobots were a bit embarrassed, because the identities of Xu Concealer, Qing Zhen, Luo Lan, and Zhou Qi were a bit special, so people didn’t know if they should electrocute them or not.

As a result, Qing Zhen took the initiative to ask, “Electrocute us, I’m just an ordinary person, and I can’t be sure if I’m carrying a nanobot myself. Although the three of them are Transcendents, there’s no evidence now that Transcendents won’t be hit.”

After saying that, Qing Zhen walked into the examination tent and took off his shirt, allowing the nurse to put conductive paste on his chest before receiving an electric shock.

Luo Lan and the others saw that even Qing Zhen had taken the initiative to accept the examination, so they had no choice but to follow along.

Zhou Qi muttered, “This identity of ours after coming to the Northwest should be set up ah, the result is now made to be electroshocked first, later when negotiating the voice of speech are small.”

Qing Zhen received an electric shock and recovered briefly, he said to Zhou Qi, “We didn’t come here to negotiate, negotiation is the premise that both parties have a basis of interest, discussing how to divide the interest, but we’re not trying to divide anything right now, but rather, we want to ensure that the human civilization will be able to survive.”

Zhou Qi suddenly asked, “But after this battle, even if we win the Qing Clan will be gone.”

“Then wouldn’t it be good to just plant flowers and raise grass in the northwest,” Qing Zhen smiled.

Xu Concealer and the others all froze for a moment, perhaps this was the end that Qing Zhen was seeking?

During this time, no one asked Ren Xiaosu to receive a little electric shock or something as well, Zhou Qi asked the inspector, “Why don’t you electrocute your Major for a moment, he might be controlled by the nanobots as well ah, are you guys so relieved to have him? These instruments are still sent to the Northwest by our Qing’s.”

Zhou Qi was right about this, Qing Clan was the first to discover the method to restrain the nanobots in the body, although this method could not be used on a large scale, but it was really efficient to use it in important defense locations, at least it could ensure that there were no AI eyes in the base.

At that time, Qing gave hundreds of sets of equipment to the Northwest in a row, and the conductive paste was calculated by the ton.

It had to be said that Qing Zhiwei had indeed taken the preparations to the front.

The nurse in charge of applying the conductive paste skimmed Zhou Qi and disliked him back, ”The commander said that if even the Major Marshal can be controlled, then it’s good to wait for destruction, no need to resist. What, do you have a problem with our Major General?”

Zhou Qi hurriedly shut up, even if he became a Demigod, he wouldn’t dare to have an opinion on Ren Xiaosu.

After all, Zhou Yingxue had long since become a demigod, and didn’t she honestly serve as a maid.

In the eyes of many people, Zhou Yingxue is like a standard of measurement, as long as you do not Zhou Yingxue powerful, you have to be honest in front of Ren Xiaosu …….

However, Ren Xiaosu also took the initiative to take off her blouse and said, “Give me a bit too, no need to be special.”

The nurse’s eyes straightened at once: “Er …… I don’t have enough conductive paste here, Major you wait a moment ah, I’ll go get it.”

Said the nurse quickly ran out, 2 minutes later only to hold a new conductive paste back, just behind her surprisingly followed by more than ten nurses.

What was said about taking the conductive paste was a lie, in fact, going to shout to the little ones to gather around the body of the Major together was the real thing.

Electroshock ended, Wang Feng Yuan was already waiting outside the tent: “Everyone follow me to the command tent, the senior generals of the Northwest Army are waiting there for the meeting.”

When he entered the command tent, he only saw Zhang Jinglin sitting at the end of a long table, while on the table was a telephone that was already in a state of conversation.

Zhang Jinglin got up and smiled at Qing Zhen, “I’m sorry, all of you senior generals of the Northwest Army can’t come to the meeting in person, so we can only conduct a rudimentary teleconference, this is to prevent the AI from knowing the location of the General Command Headquarters, and taking us down in one fell swoop. These phone lines are guarded by specialized personnel, all of them are paved with dedicated phone lines, there should be no way for the AI to eavesdrop.”

Qing Zhen nodded, “I can understand, in this situation now, being more careful is not a mistake.”

Seeing that Qing Zhen didn’t mind, Zhang Jinglin pointed to Ren Xiaosu and said, “Xiaosu, come sit next to me.”

At this time, the senior generals inside the phone who were scattered in various positions hurriedly vocalized one by one once they heard that Ren Xiaosu had also arrived, “Good day, Major Marshal!”

“Major, I’m Old Zhou, Zhou Yinglong, do you still remember me?”

“Are you in good health?”

“Have you eaten, Marshal?”

Luo Lan and Zhou Qi and the others were speechless for a while, this was simply a large rainbow fart scene ah, they did not expect that Ren Xiaosu’s reputation in the Northwest had already reached such a high level.

Zhang Jinglin was still there, so everyone started kissing the Major’s ass without hiding it.

Generally in a consortium, even if the heir to the next head of the family had already been determined, everyone would be slightly more restrained in front of the current head of the family, and those who stood in line early usually didn’t have a good end.

The heir apparent, it was possible that he would be replaced.

However, this did not seem to be the case in the Northwest, and the atmosphere seemed to be completely different.

Zhang Jinglin coughed twice: “Alright, it’s not too late for you guys to pat on the back for things like this when he takes over my position, now on to business.”

As soon as the words fell, someone on the phone suddenly pinched their throat and said, “Ya, the commander is jealous.”

There were too many phones on the table, and everyone actually couldn’t tell for a moment who actually said that just now ……

Immediately afterward, everyone roared with laughter.

Qing Zhen suddenly smiled at Luo Lan and said, “I rather like it here.”

“I think it’s quite nice too,” Luo Lan laughed.

Zhang Jinglin wasn’t angry either, “Alright, alright, let’s get down to business.”

Silence fell in the General Command Headquarters, all the combat staffs consciously walked out of the command tent, this kind of meeting was not for them to participate in.

Zhang Jinglin said to Ren Xiaosu, “Xiaosu you must have a lot of doubts in your heart, all the generals must have a lot of doubts in their hearts as well, they don’t even know what to do in order to win this war, the enemy seems to have become too powerful to fight against, tens of millions of them, and it will be even bigger after the other side has absorbed the population of the southwest. My Northwest Army has only expanded to more than 300,000, how are these 300,000 soldiers going to fight tens of millions of elite enemy troops? I think everyone will be puzzled.”

Ren Xiaosu nodded, “Yes.”

“But we still can’t talk about the final plan right now,” Qing Zhen said calmly, “This plan started a year ago, and although the situation has changed particularly drastically, the plan that Commander Zhang and I formulated at that time is still able to come in handy.”

Ren Xiaosu glanced at Qing Zhen, no wonder Zhang Jinglin asked him to fetch Qing Zhen back, it turned out that these two had a confidential plan a year ago.

Qing Zhen said, “Please don’t mind me hiding it, I have lived in deep simplicity for a year, and I have to restrain my desire to talk to the outside world every day, all just to hide this plan, and the reason why it can be useful is precisely because it is not known. Next, we will face a sea of casualties every day, and great grief every day, but this time, the only way to win is to die. Here I implore you all to buy me another 9 days, I need 178 Fortress still standing after 9 days.”

Qing Zhen still hadn’t said exactly what their plan was, but he had clearly informed the Northwest Army what to do.

The final 9 days.

The countdown had begun.