Chapter 21: Chapter 21: Departure, 4 Kilometers Outside the City!
Hearing the good news from the base camp permitting troop assembly.
Lin Li, who had furrowed his brow because of the suspicion of ’possible existence of prior Transmigrators’, finally relaxed somewhat.
He picked up a disposable plastic cup, filled it with water from the drinking fountain, and handed it to Lin Ziming:
"Here, Colonel Lin, have a sip of water.
Xiao Wang, please go to the regiment tent and ask Captain Yan to come over."
Wang Qiang responded and left.
Lin Ziming took the cup, politely expressed his thanks, and tilted his head back.
Gulp, gulp.
Draining the water in the plastic cup, he wiped the water stains off his beard and casually started a topic while waiting for Yan Shaohua: "Captain Lin, what were you discussing with Professor Ma? Is there any new situation?"
"Yes, there’s a very important discovery, but it’ll take some explanation to clarify, so we’ll wait for Captain Yan to come and discuss it together."
Lin Li gestured with his chin towards the armored infantry regiment headquarters and said: "Captain Yan’s headquarters is less than a hundred meters from here, just a few minutes wait."
Then he suddenly thought of something, and a hint of teasing appeared at the corner of his mouth:
"This matter is quite unusual, you might need to run an errand again, Colonel.
Speaking of which, you’ve almost become a full-time courier during this time."
Lin Ziming suppressed his curiosity and smiled wryly:
"No choice, among the two thousand or so people in our camp, my position is the most suitable for handling secret documents interchangeably. Each time I leave, I have to undergo tests and draw blood, to be honest, it’s quite troublesome."
Lin Li patted his shoulder and comforted:
"Just endure a little while longer, after the next batch of personnel and supplies arrive, there should be a specialist to take over your tasks."
As they chatted, Yan Shaohua arrived at the command center with Wang Qiang.
"Captain Yan, you’re here."
Lin Li greeted him and then said to Ma Ning and Dai Chaohong:
"Could you please repeat what you just said to Colonel Lin and the others."
Considering the creature horde is still a considerable distance from the city, the armored infantry regiment wouldn’t engage directly at the beginning.
Therefore, Lin Li wasn’t in a rush to inquire about specific arrangements from the base camp but had the experts introduce their latest discovery.
After all, Lin Ziming mentioned when he entered the tent that the base camp had approved the proposal from the command center.
So what he needed to handle would be nothing but details like battlefield arrangements.
These details are crucial, but compared to Ma Ning and Dai Chaohong’s discovery, their urgency is obviously higher.
Upon hearing Lin Li’s request, Ma Ning and Dai Chaohong didn’t dilly-dally, and directly led the two military officers to the command desk.
They swiftly recounted the information previously shared.
Possibly due to insufficient knowledge reserve, Lin Ziming and Yan Shaohua did not put forth many questions like Lin Li.
They mostly just nodded along with the experts and uttered marvels like ’no way’ and ’oh my’.
In less than a few minutes, Ma Ning and his partner thoroughly explained the situation suspected of Huaxia Transmigrators arriving in the otherworld long before.
Seeing the slack-jawed Lin Yan duo, Lin Li blinked in surprise: My reaction wasn’t that exaggerated just now, was it?
He then cleared his throat and said:
"Colonel Lin, later I’ll write a report asking you to take it along with the video back to Shencheng.
And by the way, please ask the base camp to investigate suspected transmigration cases after the nation was founded.
If possible, it would be best to copy the files back."
Lin Ziming readily agreed: "No problem."
Lin Li continued: "Alright, let’s discuss the siege operation next, Colonel Lin, is there any additional instruction from the base camp?"
Mentioning the base camp’s instructions, the atmosphere in the command center instantly became much more serious.
Lin Ziming took out a document from his confidential pouch and handed it to Lin Li:
"Here’s the approved and stamped assembly order from the base camp, they consented to our preparation application. In emergency situations, we can autonomously decide whether to engage, but pay attention to two points:
First, if the situation is advantageous to the city and hasn’t completely sided with the creatures, we must not prematurely expose ourselves. This measure must be kept in check.
Second, if during an encounter with otherworld humans, the worst-case scenario arises... retaliation is permitted, but under no circumstances should we be the ones to fire the first shot. This is a strict order."
Wang Qiang, eager and curious, blinked her eyes, wanting to blurt out ’but people in the otherworld have no guns; we’d surely be the first to fire’, sarcastically.
But considering that she could likely be kicked out and become the unlucky one ’shot first’, she regretfully swallowed back her words.
Lin Ziming then took out several military maps:
"These maps are the ones the base camp composed from military drone footage, restored through supercomputers, with a coverage of twenty kilometers and a scale error of no more than 0.2 meters."
He unfolded one map, filled with dense markings:
"Here’s the terrain map near our target city.
Everyone please look, this is the creature horde’s route... Here are the city’s coordinates... These few are main roads that can support vehicle passage....
Even though the creature horde is large, the city walls span nearly sixteen kilometers, and the number of creatures clearly can’t completely besiege it.
So the base camp estimated that the creature horde leader might split smaller groups to harass other areas, concentrating the main force to assault one or two sections of the walls.
In actuality... the base camp believes that two sections are more likely, even though I don’t know how this estimate was derived."
Yan Shaohua suddenly thought of something and raised an eyebrow in surprise:
"The base camp’s guess is likely correct; a few minutes ago, another dispatched helicopter sent back footage from afar of the creature horde.
The creature horde divided during their march into two groups separated by over a kilometer, each led by several commander-level creatures, clearly indicating a split force."
Lin Li glanced outside the tent and asked: "Regardless of whether the creature horde attacks one or two sides of the walls, how should our troops be arranged? Should we stand by outside the camp valley or...?"
"Waiting outside the valley is too far and prone to problems."
Lin Ziming shook his head, tracing a path on the map with his finger:
"The base camp hopes that we can exit the valley, first reach the mountain depression previously visited by Squad Leader Yu, then loop around the main road behind the depression to the west side of the city, and finally assemble here."
Lin Li glanced at the landmark pointed out by Lin Ziming, and an inexplicable sense of familiarity arose in his mind.
After pondering for a few seconds, he suddenly realized: "This is... the terrace mentioned by Professor Ma before?"
Lin Ziming nodded:
"Exactly, it’s the terrace previously mentioned by Professor Ma.
The terrace is approximately four kilometers from the city, with the shady back connecting directly to the depression’s main road, completely hiding the troops’ whereabouts.
More crucially, the terrace’s terrain is higher than the city.
There’s roughly a ten-degree slope between it and the city, which could provide great advantages for the armored regiment in defense and charge during special circumstances."
Lin Li quietly listened and gently picked up the assembly order on the table, carefully reading it.
Then, he solemnly handed the assembly order to Yan Shaohua:
"Captain Yan, accept the order!"