The bus first dropped everyone off at a military airfield. There was no need to wait at the airport; they got off the bus and boarded an Il-76 transport plane directly.
The flight wasn't long—only a little over an hour before they landed.
After landing, they likewise had no idea what airfield it was. This time they waited at the airport for roughly two or three hours before over a dozen trucks arrived. Some trucks carried people, some carried cargo, and then they set out again in the early morning hours.
One truck was packed tight with over twenty people. There was no lying down. Those pressed against the cabin or the sideboards had something to lean on, while those sitting in the middle could only stuff their packs behind their lower backs for support.
He didn't know how long the truck had driven, nor did Gao Fei know when he had fallen asleep again. It wasn't until everyone in the entire truck was jolted awake by violent bumping that this long journey finally seemed to be reaching its end.
He faintly heard gunfire—very distant, yet very clear.
The person leaning against the sideboard lifted the canvas tarp, glanced outside through a gap, and then muttered something in Persian.
Most of the people on the truck were Russians, but mixed in were at least three who were likely Iranians. They spoke neither Russian nor English. Samir was well-traveled and quietly told Gao Fei that they were speaking Persian.
Although they would all be comrades-in-arms going forward, it was strange that the people sharing the truck had no interest in talking to one another. Though there were only twenty people, they had split into four clearly distinct small groups.
Four Central Asians—they were probably from one of the five Stans, though exactly which country was unknown. But they, too, spoke Russian.
The three Iranians were one group, and of course Gao Fei and Samir were another group.
Logically, Samir should have been more familiar with and closer to those three Iranians, yet Samir had no intention whatsoever of greeting them.
In any case, not sticking together was definitely not an option, so the reason Samir had approached Gao Fei from the very start was that besides Gao Fei, he had no one else to buddy up to.
Suddenly, continuous rumbles sounded. The noise didn't seem far, but it wasn't close enough to be dangerous.
Samir said in a low voice, "152mm artillery. Over five kilometers away. We're fine."
Gao Fei knew every model of 152mm artillery. It was no exaggeration—whether self-propelled howitzers or towed guns, if he saw one he could definitely state the exact model, and even tell you what year it was developed and what year it entered service.
But to distinguish that it was 152mm artillery just by hearing the explosions—that was something Gao Fei absolutely could not do.
A typical military geek.
The truck suddenly stopped. Very quickly, the soldier guarding the tailgate struggled to his feet and undid the ropes tying down the tarpaulin from the inside. Almost simultaneously, people outside began shouting.
The tarp at the rear was lifted. The soldier escorting the truck got out first. Outside it was still pitch-black, but dawn was already visible.
"Get out, get out, move it!"
The tailgate dropped, and the soldiers jumped out of the truck one after another.
Gao Fei couldn't help but glance around. They were now in a village with a road that wasn't very wide. Houses could be seen on both sides. The sky wasn't very bright yet; they couldn't see far. The houses within eyesight looked more or less intact.
After all the new recruits got out, they quickly gathered together. There was no formation to speak of—just a messy cluster standing about.
Gao Fei couldn't help thinking what would happen if a shell landed here right now, then he quickly shook his head, because he was standing in this messy group too.
Once the men were more or less gathered, a tall, thin man in camouflage without a hat, surrounded by over a dozen people, quickly walked to the front of the crowd.
"Hello. Welcome to the 4th Assault Detachment. I am your commander, Colonel Andrei Bogatov. From now on, you are members of this heroic unit, and I will lead you from one victory to new victories! Do good work!"
The Wagner assault detachments were regiment-sized units, numbering roughly 1,100 men. Subordinate formations were companies, platoons, squads, and teams, so the commander of the 4th Assault Detachment was equivalent to a regimental commander.
There was no opening speech, no loudspeaker. He simply stood before the crowd to welcome his new subordinates. No lecture, nothing else to relay.
Colonel Andrei saluted, and without waiting for his new recruits to return the salute, he turned and left.
Too curt. Did all Russians handle affairs this simply? Or was it only the Wagner Group that was this casual?
Before Gao Fei could even process it, he heard someone shout, "Anyone who only speaks English, close in on me! Everyone, come here! English speakers, over here!"
It was still chaotic, but having someone call out in English was good enough. Gao Fei and Samir exchanged a glance. Nothing needed to be said—they went over.
The crowd began dispersing. Most of the new recruits were Russians; they had their own methods for dividing into groups. Those who only spoke English were far fewer, so they would definitely be grouped together.
A young officer. He wore camouflage, but on his shoulders were the epaulets of a lieutenant.
Wagner were mercenaries. Ordinary soldiers had no rank, but officers did, because they frequently had to coordinate with regular Russian army units. Without ranks, many matters would be inconvenient.
Seeing that no one else was approaching him, the lieutenant said loudly, "Hello. I am Lieutenant Vatliev, deputy company commander of E Company, 4th Assault Detachment. Our company is mainly composed of foreign personnel. From now on, you are joining E Company. I will lead you to our position. Now, raise your hands if you can only speak English."
Gao Fei raised his hand. Samir also decisively raised his. Gao Fei looked around and found no one else raising their hand.
Gao Fei looked again. A dozen or so people had actually gathered around him. Counting carefully, there were thirteen new recruits including him, plus the officer made fourteen.
Really not an auspicious number.
Among this batch, only two could speak only English. What surprised Gao Fei was that the three Iranians who had ridden in his truck were now also in this group.
"Alright. You need to learn Russian as quickly as possible. So who can speak both English and Russian?"
The remaining people all raised their hands.
If you couldn't speak either English or Russian, then you couldn't join the veterans' teams. Take Gao Fei for example—if he only spoke Chinese, then no matter how rich his combat experience was, he'd have to enter boot camp and start by learning the language first. On the battlefield, completely lacking language communication was too fatal.
Lieutenant Vatliev nodded. He looked reasonably satisfied. "Very well. Next, I will lead you to draw ammunition. If anyone wishes to exchange their weapon, submit your request to me immediately. Anyone want to exchange weapons?"
Someone immediately raised his hand and said loudly, "Sir, I want a sniper rifle. I'm a sniper."
"Sir, I'm a machine gunner."
They had been uniformly issued AK-74 rifles when they came; now they could exchange them here.
"I can requisition a sniper rifle for you. Machine guns aren't needed; there are plenty of machine guns on the position."
Vatliev looked at his watch and immediately said, "Follow me."
"Sir, are we going straight to the position? Then what place is this?"
Someone asked, but Vatliev said without hesitation, "You don't need to know."
"Sir, when do we eat?"
Vatliev, who was turning away, paused. He turned back, looked at the questioner, and said with a cold expression, "You can eat when you reach the position. No questions allowed now."
No one spoke again. The army was no place for fooling around. There were troublemakers everywhere, but troublemakers weren't fools; they would never provoke an officer who had authority over them at a time like this.
Although Vatliev looked quite young, an officer was an officer.
Samir didn't dare whisper to Gao Fei at this point either. The two honestly followed Vatliev to the front of a pile of munitions.
The ordnance unloaded from the trucks had been casually scattered over a large area.
"Load up on as much ammunition as possible. We will be riding armored vehicles to the position, so don't spare your strength. Carry however much you can."
Bullet cases were piled into small hills, and there were also many loaded machine-gun belts. Gao Fei and Samir exchanged a glance, then stepped forward to stuff boxed ammunition into their bags.
As much as they could fit, until the bags could hold no more.
Bullets were just the basics. Nearby there were RPG rockets, mortar shells, machine-gun belt boxes, and crates upon crates of grenades. Though it was all light-weapon ammunition, the quantity was truly massive.
"Carry as much as you can" meant that besides filling their backpacks, their hands couldn't be empty either.
"Take more machine-gun ammo. Take as much as you can. Wrap a few 12.7mm belts around your bodies. The front line is short on this. Move fast."
The logistics units would deliver ammunition to the positions, but as the saying went, don't trust any logistics unit. Once real fighting started, whether ammunition could actually be delivered to the positions was hard to say. Also, once the shooting started, one always felt there were never enough bullets; absolutely no one would complain about having too many.
Gao Fei wrapped two fifty-round belts of 12.7mm heavy machine-gun ammunition around his body. His rifle was slung around his neck, and both hands each had to hold a two-hundred-round box of 7.62mm linked ammunition.
It was busy and chaotic, but that couldn't be said to mean the Russians' organizational ability was lacking. Clearly this was a temporary command post, as well as a temporary distribution center and logistics transfer point.
Based on what Gao Fei had previously read online, regimental-level command posts were either deployed far to the rear, or if forwardly deployed, they had to change locations frequently. Otherwise, as soon as enemy drones spotted them, shells would arrive immediately.
The reason Colonel Andrei, the regimental commander, spoke a few words and left was because if he stayed even slightly longer he might get hit. It was very dangerous.
So it would also be very dangerous if Gao Fei and the others stayed here too long.
The time spent drawing ammunition wasn't long. Three armored personnel carriers approached from the front. When Vatliev saw them, he ran quickly to the front of the APCs, spread his arms, and shouted to force them to stop.
Samir said urgently, "Everything has to be fought for! We need to get in, otherwise we'll have to hike several kilometers. The APCs might not be empty. We absolutely have to get inside, and fast!"
Before the APCs even stopped, Vatliev said to the group, "Quick, get in the APCs!"
Samir broke into a run, getting ahead of everyone.