Chapter 510 - Horrifying Combat Capability (1/2)

“Dong, dong, dong…”

There was a knock at the door.

“Who is it?” Fang Qiu asked.

“Commander asked me to come and get you over.”

A soldier’s voice came from outside the door.

Fang Qiu got up and opened the door.

Looking at the soldier at the door, he asked, “What does he want with me?”

The soldier shook his head and replied, “I don’t know.”

At this point, Fang Qiu saw several bonfires in the base, with lots of people around each one.

“Who are those people?” he inquired, pointing to the people around the bonfires.

“They’re members of the second squadron,” the soldier replied.

“They just came back from a mission.”

“Oh?”

Fang Qiu nodded his head with understanding.

Then, led by the soldier, he walked all the way to a bonfire not far away.

“Here you are,” the commander greeted him with a smile as soon as he saw Fang Qiu.

“You lit bonfires in the forest?”

Fang Qiu pointed at the bonfires and said, “Even if there’s no danger, it’s easy to get others’ attention. Wouldn’t that give away the base?”

“This is the border.”

The commander shook his head and said, “You really don’t know the border.”

“What do you mean?” Fang Qiu asked curiously.

“The forest is very dense on both sides of the border. Normally, the smoke doesn’t rise as high as people can see. Only people within a kilometer can notice it.”

Then, the commander smiled and added, “Besides, there are many ‘ghosts’ hidden in the deep mountains and wild forests; some of them hide for more than 10 days at a time. They usually don’t have enough food, so they have to hunt animals and cook them on fire. Over time, a bonfire in the forest, though alerting the criminals, is not much of a deterrent.

“Last but not least, the second squadron has just returned from a mission, so there are absolutely no others within 10 kilometers of this place tonight.”

Hearing his words, Fang Qiu nodded his head.

He understood.

“Of course, it’s a big risk to start a fire here, but this is only a temporary training base for us and we will leave in a few days. So to celebrate the success of the second squadron, we made an exception and lit the fire,” the commander explained.

“I see.”

Fang Qiu nodded again.

“What’s so terrible about lighting bonfires?”

Li Ji came over and said, “Our Huaxia’s soldiers are upstanding. Why should we be afraid of others?”

“That’s a good point.”

The commander laughed while nodding.

Fang Qiu burst into laughter, too.

It felt good to be with these soldiers.

“By the way,” Fang Qiu asked the commander, “what did you want to see me about?”

The commander grinned and said, “The second squadron is back, and they’ve done a great job. Not a single man is hurt. It will inevitably lead to a rise in their pride. I’m afraid…”

“Well?”

Fang Qiu paused.

The commander clearly wanted him to take the edge off the second squadron’s spirit.

“Look, why don’t you do it again?” the commander said with a smirk.

“No need.”

Fang Qiu shook his head and said, “It’s not appropriate for me to do it. After all, they have just won. Of course, it is better to let their comrades crush their spirit.”

At his words, the commander and Li Ji laughed at the same time.

“That’s what we thought. In fact, we asked you to come here just to hear your opinion, and to have a look,” Li Ji said.

“Then let them get started.”

Fang Qiu smiled, walked over to the bonfire next to them, and sat down.

“Yeah, get started,” Li Ji said, sitting down next to Fang Qiu.

“Good.”

The commander let out a laugh and went straight over.

“Stand up!”

With a deep voice, the throng of people around the bonfires immediately rose to their feet.

There were 200 people around the 10 bonfires.

The moment everyone stood up, the flames danced.

“First of all, I want to commend the second squadron for their successful completion of the superior’s instructions and objectives.”

With that, the commander clapped his hands.

Everyone clapped, too.

A moment later, the commander raised his hand to stop everyone from applauding.

“Next, in order to raise everyone’s enthusiasm and create a good atmosphere, I decided to choose a team respectively from the first and the second squadron to compete with each other.”

His words caused everyone present to shout excitedly at once.

This kind of team competition was common in the base.

After all, they could improve in competitions.

In each match, the members of both teams would try their best to give full play to their strengths.

“The vice-captains of the first and second squadron,” the commander called.

“Yes.”

Two men ran out.

“It’s up to the two of you to decide which squads to take part in the match,” the commander said with a smile, and then backed away.

Suddenly, the two vice-captains became the hosts.

“Okay, which squad are you going to pick?”