Rebirth in the Dragon Kingdom: The Strongest Blade

Chapter 10 Gunfire on the Border

At 11 p.m., Lin Zhe was arranging the duty roster for the second half of the night. The mountain wind howled outside the window, bringing the chill of late autumn.

"Squad One, led by Lao Zhou, is responsible for patrolling the three kilometers to the east. Squad Two..." Lin Zhe's words were interrupted by a burst of gunfire.

"Bang!"

The gunshots came from the northwest, about five kilometers away, and were exceptionally clear in the quiet mountain night. They weren't blanks used in training; they were the sounds of live ammunition being fired.

The outpost fell silent instantly; everyone stopped what they were doing and looked at Lin Zhe.

Lin Zhe's expression remained unchanged. He quickly walked to the wall and unfolded a military map: "The gunshots are from the northwest, about five to six kilometers away, approximately three kilometers inside the border."

"Deputy Company Commander, maybe he's a poacher?" Duty officer Xiao Li guessed.

"Poachers don't use standard weapons." Lin Zhe shook his head. "Judging from the sound, it's an AK series rifle. Immediately notify company headquarters, and have all personnel at the outpost go on combat alert."

The order was given swiftly. Within thirty seconds, all sixteen soldiers at the outpost were fully armed and assembled on the training ground. Lin Zhe had already changed into his combat uniform and checked his weapons and equipment.

"The situation is unclear, but the gunshots came from our territory. We must investigate immediately." Lin Zhe's voice was calm and clear. "Old Zhou, you take five men and stay at the outpost to keep communications open. The rest of you come with me."

"Deputy Company Commander, should we wait for instructions from the company headquarters?" asked Old Zhou, the squad leader of the first squad.

"No time. It'll take forty minutes for the company headquarters to get here, and anything can happen in that time." Lin Zhe slung his equipment over his shoulder. "Execute orders."

"yes!"

The twelve-man squad set off under the cover of night. Lin Zhe led the way, deviating from the usual patrol route and choosing a secluded ridgeline. His movements were light and agile, like a cheetah in the darkness, requiring the soldiers behind him to concentrate fully to keep up.

An hour later, the team reached the approximate area where the gunfire had occurred. It was a dense coniferous forest with complex terrain and obstructed visibility.

Lin Zhe raised his hand to signal the group to stop. He crouched down and carefully observed his surroundings. Moonlight filtered through the treetops, casting dappled shadows, and the forest was eerily quiet—too quiet, not even the chirping of insects.

"Something's not right," Lin Zhe said in a low voice. "It's too quiet. At this time of year, there should be sounds of nocturnal animals in the forest."

Veteran Liu nodded: "The deputy company commander is right. And look, those bushes over there have fresh broken marks."

Lin Zhe looked in the direction Da Liu pointed and saw that the branches of several low shrubs had indeed been broken off, and the cuts were still fresh. He signaled the team to spread out and maintain a guard post, while he himself crouched down and carefully examined the ground.

"At least twenty men, carrying a heavy load." Lin Zhe pointed to the footprints on the ground. "Judging from the shoe print, they're not standard military boots. And... donkey and horse hoof prints?"

"Smuggled?" Xiao Zhao asked in a low voice.

"It's not just smuggling." Lin Zhe's expression was grave. "Ordinary smugglers wouldn't operate in such large groups, and..." He pointed to the marks under a tree in the distance, "There are signs of a long stay here; someone ambushed us here."

The situation was becoming increasingly complicated. Lin Zhe quickly made a decision: "Everyone, take cover and establish a defensive formation. Da Liu, you take three men to be responsible for rear guard. Xiao Zhao, establish communications, report the situation to the company headquarters, and request support."

"Deputy Company Commander, then you..." Xiao Zhao hesitated.

"I'll sneak over and scout." Lin Zhe removed some of his equipment, carrying only a pistol, a dagger, and a thermal imaging camera.

"No way!" Old Zhou was the first to object. "It's too dangerous! We don't know how many of them there are, or what their firepower is. You're going alone..."

"It's precisely because it's dangerous that we can't bring too many people," Lin Zhe interrupted him. "I've received professional covert training, and I'm more concealed on my own. This is an order: you establish a defensive line here, and no one is allowed to move without my signal."

The soldiers exchanged bewildered glances. They knew Lin Zhe was highly skilled, but real combat was different from training. The enemy might number in the dozens, and they were all armed...

"Deputy Company Commander, let me go with you," said Da Liu. "I've been a reconnaissance soldier, I have experience."

Looking into Da Liu's determined eyes, Lin Zhe finally nodded: "Okay, you come with me. The rest of you, carry out the orders."

The two disappeared into the darkness like ghosts. Lin Zhe was in front, and Da Liu was behind, maintaining a distance of five meters as they moved silently through the trees.

The further Lin Zhe went, the stronger his sense of danger became. This was an intuition formed by long-term training and Chen Qingshan's teachings—there was a faint smell of tobacco in the air, and... the smell of blood?

After rounding a rocky outcrop, Lin Zhe suddenly stopped and grabbed Da Liu behind him. Fifty meters ahead, there were faint flickering lights and the sound of people talking in hushed tones.

Lin Zhe took out a thermal imaging camera—personal equipment he had brought from military academy, which the outpost hadn't yet been equipped with. The screen showed at least twenty heat sources clustered in a semi-circle in the woods ahead. Further away, there were heat sources from several donkeys and horses.

"Twenty-three men, heavily armed." Lin Zhe lowered his voice. "Judging from their formation, it's a combat formation, not ordinary smugglers."

Da Liu leaned closer to observe: "What are they saying? I can't quite hear them..."

"It's not Mandarin, nor is it the language of the nearby ethnic minorities." Lin Zhe frowned. "It sounds like... a dialect from a border region of a neighboring country."

Just then, a suppressed scream came from the woods, followed by arguing. Although the language was unintelligible, the tension and panic in their voices were obvious.

"They seem to be fighting amongst themselves," Da Liu whispered.

Lin Zhe's mind raced. The other side was clearly not ordinary border crossers, but an organized armed group. The gunshots earlier were likely accidental; now they knew they were exposed and were debating whether to continue or retreat.

However, we're already three kilometers inside the country, and retreating would mean crossing the border again, which is very risky. The most likely option is... to hide where we are and wait for things to calm down before taking further action.

"We can't let them hide," Lin Zhe concluded. "Once they disperse and hide, the search will become much more difficult. We must stall them while they are still gathering and wait for reinforcements."

"But there are only two of us..." Da Liu swallowed.

"Two people are enough." Lin Zhe's eyes were firm. "We don't need to annihilate them all, we just need to create chaos so they won't dare to move easily."

The two retreated to a safe distance. Lin Zhe briefly briefed the team behind him via radio, and then began making arrangements.

"Da Liu, go back to the defensive line and take two men to launch a feint attack from the west to draw enemy fire. Remember, hit and run, don't linger."

"And what about you?"

"I'll infiltrate from the east and create chaos." Lin Zhe checked his pistol. "Start the operation in five minutes."

"Deputy Company Commander, it's too dangerous! There are more than twenty of them..."

"Execute the order." Lin Zhe's tone left no room for argument.

Five minutes later, gunfire erupted from the west. Da Liu's group launched a feint attack, drawing the militants' main firepower. Gunfire then intensified in the woods.

Taking advantage of the chaos, Lin Zhe sneaked in from the east. His movements were as fast as a ghost, weaving through the trees and rocks, and he quickly closed to within thirty meters of the enemy's flank.

The thermal imager showed that most of the enemies were drawn to the feint attack from the west, but five remained in place on guard. Lin Zhe held his breath and drew his dagger—this was the first time he might have to kill someone in actual combat. His palms were slightly sweaty, but his eyes were unusually calm.

One of the armed men seemed to sense something and turned to walk towards the direction where Lin Zhe was hiding. Lin Zhe lay prone behind the bushes, his heart beating steadily, waiting for the best opportunity.

Five meters, three meters, one meter... The armed men walked past the bushes. Lin Zhe suddenly sprang up, covering the man's mouth and nose with his left hand, while his right hand plunged a dagger precisely into the carotid artery. The man didn't even have time to make a sound before his body went limp.

Warm blood splattered onto Lin Zhe's hands. It was the first time he had killed someone with his own hands, and his stomach churned, but Lin Zhe forced it down—on the battlefield, it was either you die or I die.

He gently laid the body down and continued forward. For the next ten minutes, Lin Zhe, like the Grim Reaper, dispatched three sentries in the darkness. Each strike was silent and fatal.

But on the fourth attempt, an unexpected incident occurred. Just as Lin Zhe finished off the fourth sentry, a cry of alarm came from afar—an armed man had just witnessed his comrade fall.

"Enemy attack! Enemy on the east side!"

In an instant, at least seven or eight gun barrels turned to the east, and bullets rained down. Lin Zhe rolled behind a rock, the bullets hitting the rock and sending shards of stone flying.

"Damn it, we've been exposed." Lin Zhe gritted his teeth and drew his pistol to return fire.

In the midst of the gunfight, time seemed to slow down. Lin Zhe could clearly see the muzzle flashes, hear the whistling of bullets, and smell the mixture of gunpowder and blood. His mind was exceptionally calm; the training he had accumulated in this life was perfectly integrated at this moment—every peek, every shot, every movement was as precise as a machine.

"Bang!" A shot hit an armed man who was peeking out.

"Bang!" The second shot hit another person's arm.

But the enemy outnumbered them and, under their suppressive fire, Lin Zhe was completely trapped behind the rocks. To make matters worse, he discovered he was running low on ammunition.

Just then, the gunfire from the west side suddenly intensified—Da Liu and his men, seeing that Lin Zhe had been exposed, had intensified their attack in an attempt to disperse the enemy's firepower.

An opportunity! Lin Zhe seized the moment when the enemy's firepower was scattered, and suddenly rushed out of his cover, firing as he moved towards another, larger rock. Bullets grazed his body, one even piercing the cuff of his combat uniform.

"Deputy Company Commander!" came Da Liu's shout from afar.

"I'm fine! Keep the pressure on!" Lin Zhe shouted back, having successfully moved to a new cover.

By this time, the militants were in disarray. They didn't know how many enemies were coming, and they were attacked from both sides, causing their formation to crumble. Some tried to break out towards the border, but were stopped by Da Liu's group; others wanted to disperse and hide, but Lin Zhe's accurate shooting kept them from showing themselves.

After a stalemate of about fifteen minutes, shouts from afar came from afar—reinforcements from the company headquarters had arrived!

"Surrender and you will not be killed!" Wang Dashan's roar echoed through the mountains and forests.

The militants' last will to resist collapsed. Some tried to fight back but were shot dead on the spot; others threw down their weapons and surrendered.

The battle ended completely twenty minutes later. A headcount was taken: 18 militants killed, 2 captured, 300 kilograms of drugs seized, and 23 firearms of various types confiscated. Three of our soldiers sustained minor injuries; no one was killed.

When the last enemy was subdued, Lin Zhe leaned against the rock and slowly sat down. The gun in his hand was still slightly hot, and his body was covered in mud, sweat, and...blood.

He could no longer suppress the churning in his stomach. He turned abruptly, leaned against the rock, and vomited violently, bringing up his entire dinner. Even after his stomach was empty, he was still dry heaving.

A large hand patted him on the back. It was Wang Dashan.

"It's always like this the first time." The company commander's voice was unusually gentle. "When I killed someone for the first time, I vomited even more than you."

Lin Zhe wiped his mouth, wanting to say something, but no sound came out. His hands were trembling slightly—not from fear, but from the physiological reaction of the adrenaline receding.

"You did a great job." Wang Dashan squatted down and looked at Lin Zhe seriously. "Facing more than twenty armed men, you calmly commanded, acted decisively, and even personally took down four of them. Lin Zhe, you are a born soldier."

Soldiers began clearing the battlefield. As they passed Lin Zhe, everyone cast admiring glances their way. No one mocked his vomiting—in the border troops, every veteran remembers their reaction after their first real battle.

Da Liu walked over and handed over a water bottle: "Deputy Company Commander, have some water."

Lin Zhe took it, rinsed his mouth, and drank a few more sips. The cool water slid down his throat, slightly relieving his stomach discomfort.

"What about casualties?" he asked, his voice a little hoarse.

"Three minor injuries, all abrasions, have been treated," Da Liu reported. "The other side had eighteen dead and two captured. They seized a lot of stuff; it seems to be a large gang."

Wang Dashan sneered: "The 'Black Scorpion' gang from the neighboring country, an old rival. This time they've fallen into our hands, they'll be in for a good while."

The follow-up work continued until the early hours of the morning. The regimental headquarters sent more personnel to conduct on-site investigations, secure evidence, and transfer the wounded. Lin Zhe forced himself to stay alert and participated in directing various tasks.

The work wasn't finished until dawn. On the way back to the outpost, Lin Zhe sat in the back of the off-road vehicle, watching the mountain scenery flash by outside the window. The bloodstains on his hands had been washed away, but the warm, sticky feeling seemed to linger on his skin.

"Deputy Company Commander, why don't you take a nap?" said Xiao Zhao, the driver. "I'll wake you when we get there."

Lin Zhe shook his head and closed his eyes. The scene of the battle kept replaying in his mind—the sensation of the dagger piercing his neck, the temperature of the spurting blood, the sound of bullets whistling... Every time he recalled it, his stomach would clench.

But he knew this was a mandatory course for soldiers. Defending the country was not just a slogan, but a vow to be fulfilled with blood and lives.

It was already six in the morning when they returned to the company headquarters. Political Commissar Zhou Wenbin was waiting at the door. Seeing Lin Zhe get out of the car, he quickly stepped forward and shook his hand: "Comrade Lin Zhe, you've worked hard! The regiment has received reports that you fought a brilliant battle!"

"Political Commissar, this is what I should do." Lin Zhe saluted.

"Don't say that," Zhou Wenbin said solemnly. "You not only protected border security, but you also made a great contribution. We've been watching the 'Black Scorpion' gang for a long time, and this time we finally took them down. The regiment will recommend you for commendation!"

After a brief report, Lin Zhe was finally able to rest. He returned to his dormitory, took off his combat uniform, which was covered in sweat and dust, and went into the makeshift shower room.

Hot water washed over his body, but it couldn't wash away the heaviness in his heart. Lin Zhe looked down at his hands—the same hands that had ended four lives just hours ago.

"I killed someone..." he muttered to himself.

But soon, he looked up at his young yet resolute face in the mirror. A flicker of pain crossed his eyes, quickly replaced by determination.

"I killed the enemy. They were armed militants who threatened the security of our country's borders. If I didn't kill them, they would have harmed our people and our comrades."

This is a soldier's responsibility, and also a soldier's destiny.

After washing himself and changing into a clean military uniform, Lin Zhe stepped out of the dormitory. The sun had already risen, and golden sunlight bathed the camp area. On the training ground, the soldiers had already begun their morning exercises, their slogans ringing out loud and powerfully.

Wang Dashan walked over: "Don't you want to rest a little longer?"

"No need, Company Commander." Lin Zhe took a deep breath of the morning air. "There's still a lot to do."

"Okay." Wang Dashan patted him on the shoulder. "But Lin Zhe, remember how you felt today. The feeling of killing for the first time will stay with you for a long time, but don't let it crush you. We are soldiers, and protecting others is our duty."

"I understand, Company Commander."

Lin Zhe walked towards the training ground. When the soldiers saw him, they all stopped training and looked at him with respect.

"Deputy Company Commander!" "Good morning, Deputy Company Commander!"

Lin Zhe nodded in response and walked to the front of the team: "Continue training! Today we'll have extra jungle tactics practice, starting with... how to deal with sudden encounters."

"yes!"

Under the sunlight, the young deputy company commander stood tall and straight, his eyes resolute. Overnight, he had undergone a baptism of blood and fire, completing his transformation from a cadet to a true soldier.

This was just the beginning of his military career.