So far, the Wagner Group Gao Fei had seen couldn’t exactly be called a pack of stragglers, but they had little to do with the word elite, either. He had no idea whether Wagner’s reputation was all bluster, or whether Russians were simply this rough in the way they did things.
Before Vateliev even said to hurry up and get in, Samir had already started running. And Samir ran pretty damn fast. He wasn’t carrying any less than anyone else, yet he sprinted ahead of them all.
Samir ran to the rear of the first BMP-2 armored vehicle. He simply dropped the machine-gun ammunition in his right hand, opened the rear door of the armored vehicle with one hand, and after discovering that it was empty inside, immediately tossed the belt box in his left hand into the vehicle.
He didn’t rush to climb into the armored vehicle. Samir looked as if he were picking up the belt box he had dropped on the ground, but in reality, he was guarding the vehicle door, stopping others from getting on as they pleased.
Waving one hand, Samir made a gesture directing them to board and shouted, “Get in, get in! Fast, fast!”
Samir had been watching Gao Fei’s position the entire time. After the fifth man climbed into the armored vehicle, he immediately stretched out his hand, blocking the soldier who was about to follow them in, and shouted, “Full! Get in the one behind!”
Gao Fei was running at the very back. He wanted badly to sprint faster, but this was where the gap between a military enthusiast and a real soldier showed itself.
Running with dozens of jin of equipment on his back—Gao Fei had truly never trained for that before, not even once. So even though he was young and strong, if he couldn’t outrun them, he simply couldn’t outrun them.
If having a bit of military knowledge in your head were enough to outrun soldiers who had trained for years, then that would really be seeing a ghost.
When Gao Fei finally ran up last, Samir shoved him, then followed him into the armored vehicle.
A BMP-2 infantry fighting vehicle had three crew members and could carry another seven infantrymen. And armored vehicles in every country followed the same rule: those who got in first sat farther inside, leaving space for those behind.
Fortunately, there were three armored vehicles. If only one had come, then the thirteen of them wouldn’t have fit. In that case, the rest would either have to walk on their own two legs or sit on top of the armored vehicle.
If an armored vehicle took a shell, everyone inside was finished. But if you sat on top, a burst of bullets coming over could take your life. That was the difference.
In short, moving fast definitely had its advantages.
Gao Fei wanted to thank Samir, but everyone in the vehicle could speak English, so after thinking it over, he kept quiet.
The armored vehicle started up quickly. The space inside was already small, and with all seven people fully loaded with gear, now that seven had squeezed in, it was truly difficult even to turn around.
The air was foul, the ride violently bumpy, and he couldn’t see outside. Add to that the stink of diesel, and before long Gao Fei actually began to feel carsick.
Control it. Hold it in. If he threw up, losing face was a small matter; being looked down on would be the real trouble.
Enduring the torment of motion sickness, the armored vehicle drove for a good half hour before finally stopping. Immediately, someone outside shouted, “Dismount! Move fast!”
Gao Fei jumped down from the armored vehicle after Samir.
Had they finally reached the front line?
It was already light outside, but the sun had not fully risen. Farmland surrounded them on all sides. Ahead were lines of trenches. It was quite calm, with no gunfire. Occasionally an explosion sounded in the distance, but it didn’t feel particularly threatening.
“Follow me, move fast!”
Vateliev called out, then ran quickly toward the trench entrance.
The trench entrance was a ramp, fairly wide, about two meters across, and the depth was roughly two meters as well. The armored vehicles had basically stopped facing the trench entrance.
A dozen or so men followed the deputy company commander in a scattered rush inside.
They had to get into the trench quickly. Staying outside was dangerous. Once everyone had dismounted, the armored vehicles immediately left, not daring to linger in the slightest.
After walking less than a hundred meters along the trench, there was a crossroads ahead. Vateliev turned, walked another dozen meters, then turned again and entered a section of trench covered overhead with camouflage netting. Not much farther on, a section appeared that was covered with round logs, the logs covered with earth, though both ends were left open.
It couldn’t be called a bunker; at most, it was a section of trench with a roof over it. But this was the company headquarters.
“Company commander, I’ve brought the new recruits back.”
There had to be a dozen or so people in the company headquarters. The roofed trench was over ten meters long and about three meters wide. Along both sides by the earthen walls were many ammunition crates, while in the middle, ammo boxes had also been stacked up to serve as tables.
A middle-aged man in his forties looked over Gao Fei and the others, then said, “Only this many? All right. You’ve worked hard.”
Gao Fei and the others all flooded into the company headquarters, instantly making the already cramped trench crowded.
“Soldiers, from now on, you are members of Company E, Fourth Assault Detachment. I am your company commander. You can call me Chip. Time is tight, so I won’t say much. There are body armor vests here. Put down what you’re holding, put on the armor, and load your magazines.”
Against the wall, besides ammunition crates, were stacks of body armor.
No wonder they hadn’t issued body armor earlier. So it turned out they only handed it out at company headquarters. But when Gao Fei looked closely, he found that these vests were all secondhand—and there were more bloodstained ones than clean ones.
To put on body armor, there was no way around taking off the things on his body. Gao Fei had to take everything down and pile it on the ground before going to get a vest. But Samir merely tossed aside what was in his hands and went straight over, even squeezing past the company commander to get there first and grab two vests.
Samir had run over to snatch body armor. He even rummaged through them to pick and choose. Only when the company commander looked at him in astonishment did he pull out two vests and squeeze back.
There were plenty of vests. Was there any need to snatch them?
And besides, snatching was one thing, but the vests Samir brought back actually had bullet holes in them. Both of them!
Yet Gao Fei had clearly seen that some vests were intact, and some were even clean.
With a grave expression, Samir handed a vest to Gao Fei, then said in an extremely low voice, “Two shells won’t land in the same crater, and a body armor vest that already has holes in it won’t get new bullet holes!”
Gao Fei looked at his own vest. There was a bullet hole on the right side of the chest. It had gone clean through—both layers of the vest had been penetrated.
This body armor had a soul ring on it. It definitely did!
The body armor with a soul ring even had a bit of a stink to it. The bloodstains on it had all turned dark brown. But if it stank, then it stank. If it had a soul ring, then so be it. Hopefully the vest’s former wearer could protect him. In that case, apart from providing physical defense, this vest might perhaps provide a bit of magical defense as well.
Since Samir had deliberately snatched this body armor for him, he definitely had to wear it.
Gao Fei finished putting it on, then began pressing loose rounds into his magazines one by one.
They had been in such a hurry the whole way that there hadn’t even been time to load ammunition. They actually had to wait until they reached the frontline position before putting bullets into empty guns.
Taking advantage of the time while the group of new recruits changed into body armor, the company commander said loudly, “I’ll give you a brief introduction to the situation. Less than five kilometers ahead is the urban area of Bakhmut. We are advancing step by step, and progress has been very smooth. The position we are in now was the Ukrainians’ forward position just a few days ago, while our current forward position is two kilometers ahead.”
When he heard this, Gao Fei knew the situation was bad.
They were only five kilometers from the urban area of Bakhmut, and the forward position was only three kilometers from the city. In other words, for an urban assault, the battle had already entered its most critical moment, as well as its bloodiest stage.
This was a frontline position fiercely fought over, and fiercely fought over meant repeatedly contested—the kind where this side fought its way over today, and the other side fought back tomorrow.
Pretending to be a veteran had been for the sake of not becoming cannon fodder. But on a battlefield like this, where positions were fought over again and again, everyone was cannon fodder.
“Don’t worry. You will be deployed to the main position arranged farther back. Behind us, there is also the reserve position of the Thirty-Second Airborne Brigade. In addition, you will receive fire support from company mortars at any time. Farther behind are two heavy artillery regiments and one heavy rocket artillery battalion. All of them can provide heavy fire support at any time, so our firepower is strong. Extremely strong.”
The company commander gave the newcomers a shot in the arm, lest these recruits be scared out of their wits before even going onto the battlefield.
For Gao Fei, this was indeed good news. They wouldn’t be placed at the forward position, but assigned to the main position instead. For this point alone, Gao Fei’s pretending to be a veteran had proven its worth.
“There is also another piece of good news. If you achieve significant results in battle, rewards will be issued immediately—cash, euros and US dollars. You won’t have to wait for them to be paid together with your monthly salary.”
Not everyone who joined the Wagner Group to fight had come for money, but those who had come for money were definitely not few. After the company commander said this, Samir asked without the slightest hesitation, “Company commander, how are the rewards calculated?”
“When you reach the position, your squad leaders will explain it to you in detail.”
Glancing at his watch, the company commander continued, “Now, Second Lieutenant Vateliev will take you to the forward position. Gentlemen, good luck!”
Vateliev clapped his hands and said, “Everyone, follow me. Pay attention, spread out, keep up with the comrade in front of you. We’re moving out.”
They passed through the company command post, first going through a section of trench covered with camouflage netting. After turning a corner, they arrived in an uncovered communication trench.
The line of thirteen men stretched out fairly long. Samir slowed his steps a little. After waiting for Gao Fei to come closer, he said in a low voice, “We definitely have to stay in the same place. We need to be assigned to the same combat team.”
Gao Fei looked up at the sky, then lowered his voice and said, “We’ll talk about that when the time comes. Right now, stay farther away from me. Keep more than five meters between us and hang back a little.”
Samir raised his eyebrows, his eyes asking a question.
Gao Fei said, “Didn’t you see it online? There are lots of drones now. Who knows where we might run into one. If you were a drone pilot, would you bomb a cluster of people, or a place with fewer people?”
“Ah, makes sense.”
Samir said no more. He slowed his pace, and after Gao Fei walked ahead, he maintained a distance of roughly ten meters from him.
If you were going to do something, you might as well do it thoroughly. Samir’s habit in that regard was pretty good.