Sure enough, Zhuang Rui brought up Ouyang Lei again. Anyway, that brother had indeed extorted a lot of pre-made liquor from him, so he hadn't wronged him.
Hu Rong clapped his hands. He was genuinely worried that Zhuang Rui would recklessly venture into the Savage Mountain, but now he was finally relieved. He said, "Alright, let's go back to Hpakant then. Zhuang Rui, pick out the rough stones you need, and I'll have someone send them back to China in a while..."
"Wait, Brother Hu..."
Just as Hu Rong was about to call for the two armored vehicles to come over, Li Zhen suddenly stepped forward.
"Hmm? What's wrong?"
Zhuang Rui frowned. Ever since Zhang Guojun mentioned the Kachin people, he had noticed that Li Zhen and Peng Fei were acting strangely.
Li Zhen stepped forward, his face resolute, and said, "Brother Zhuang, Brother Hu, Brother Dajun, if the Kachin Duwa is really in the Savage Mountain, we brothers cannot leave..."
"Stop fooling around, you're not soldiers anymore, those things aren't your concern..."
Zhuang Rui knew that both of them had dealt with drug traffickers in Myanmar before, and they must have formed a grudge in their past encounters. Li Zhen's words on the spot must mean that he wanted to take revenge.
However, the disparity in strength was simply too great. The opposing side had at least forty or fifty skilled jungle warriors. Even if Peng Fei and Li Zhen were incredibly powerful, they were still no match for four opponents.
Zhuang Rui had thought of this just now, which is why he decisively decided to return to Hpakant and no longer insist on going to the Savage Mountain.
Li Zhen shook his head and said, "Brother Zhuang, a direct assault is definitely not going to work, but for jungle warfare, the two of us are enough..."
"You brat... no way, I won't let you go..."
Zhuang Rui hadn't expected that releasing his spiritual energy would cause such a thing, and he couldn't help but tighten his face. Since he had brought these two people out, he had to bring them back intact.
"Peng Fei, pack up and head back to Hpakant immediately..."
Zhuang Rui and Li Zhen hadn't known each other for long, so he turned his attention to Peng Fei, believing that Peng Fei would still listen to him.
"Brother, I'm not leaving. Duwa skinned my old platoon leader alive and ate him raw back then. I must avenge this..."
Peng Fei stepped forward and stood next to Li Zhen, his eyes already full of tears, but Zhuang Rui could see the determination in Peng Fei's eyes.
Zhuang Rui was shocked by Peng Fei's words, but he quickly recovered and said loudly, "It's true that you should take revenge, but... what can the two of you do?"
Chapter 995 Agreement
Peng Fei and Li Zhen were selected into that unit in the same year. At that time, they were both seventeen or eighteen years old and in the prime of their lives. They were full of longing for this mysterious unit, had inexhaustible energy, and mastered military technology very quickly.
In this unit, everyone who joins is given an officer's rank, the lowest being a second lieutenant. However, administrative ranks are not assigned according to military rank, because the highest-ranking officer in this special forces unit is only called a battalion commander, but he holds the rank of major general.
At that time, Peng Fei and Li Zhen's instructor was a captain platoon leader in his mid-thirties with extensive combat experience.
Under the platoon leader's guidance, Peng Fei and Li Zhen made rapid progress and achieved excellent results in all assessments. As a result, they were soon assigned to a real combat mission, with the instructor platoon leader serving as their captain, to carry out a mission in Myanmar.
As it turns out, soldiers who haven't been through the baptism of fire cannot be considered true soldiers. The two men were given a vivid lesson by reality when they first participated in a cross-border operation to hunt down drug traffickers.
Because of a leak from an informant, a special forces team of seven men, led by Platoon Leader Peng Fei, was ambushed by drug traffickers who were already prepared shortly after entering Myanmar.
The bullets that suddenly shot out from the jungle stunned the new recruits Peng Fei and Li Zhen. Although their usual training had made them instinctively dodge, they forgot to fight back and hid behind a tree, trembling with fear.
Although there were five veterans with Peng Fei and the others, two of them were unlucky and were hit at the beginning. Only three of them were able to fight back, and they were unable to suppress the enemy's firepower at all.
Then Peng Fei's platoon leader distracted the drug dealers, allowing two other veterans to lead Peng Fei and Li Zhen out. After contacting the troops and receiving reinforcements, they returned to the scene of the battle, where only three bodies remained.
The two men who were shot directly to death did not suffer any real pain, but the platoon leader who covered Peng Fei and the others' retreat died a very tragic death. His entire lower body was ripped off with a knife, revealing his bare bones.
The platoon leader's lips were bitten raw and bloody by his own teeth; anyone could tell that he had been tortured to death.
The scene enraged everyone, which directly spurred the emergence of two elite soldiers, Peng Fei and Li Zhen, allowing them to grow rapidly.
Through internal intelligence, Peng Fei and others later learned the identity of the drug traffickers who ambushed them. They were the army of Duwa, the Kachin chieftain at the time. Moreover, a rumor spread that Duwa had once eaten flesh cut from the platoon leader's body in a fit of madness.
This news nearly drove Peng Fei and Li Zhen mad. In subsequent anti-drug operations, whenever they had the chance to kill prisoners, they rarely left any alive. This is how they earned the nickname "Shura" (a derogatory term for a powerful figure).
However, the Kachin people's roots are in the Golden Triangle, a place that is extremely difficult to enter. Although they retaliated by destroying several Kachin hideouts, they were unable to enter the Kachin people's home base in the Golden Triangle. Therefore, this long-standing feud has been bottled up in the hearts of Peng Fei and Li Zhen.
So now, upon hearing that Duwa had fled to Hpakant, Peng Fei and Li Zhen could no longer remain calm. Years of grudges surged into their hearts, their eyes turning red, wishing they could immediately storm into the Savage Mountain and kill Duwa. ...
"Damn it, these drug dealers are inhuman..."
After listening to Li Zhen's account, Zhuang Rui couldn't help but swear. When the two sides are hostile, it is not unreasonable to fight to the death, but eating human flesh is something only a beast would do.
“Brother, I’ll go with you, but… forget about my brothers, they’re too young, they’ve never had blood on their hands…”
Zhang Guojun was also filled with righteous indignation. This man, whose ancestral home was in Northeast China, became agitated. However, he still had some sense of reason and knew that sending his men would only be a pointless death.
"You...you guys, sigh, this matter...we still need to consider it carefully..."
Hu Rong wanted to say a few words of advice, but when the words reached his lips, he didn't know what to say. This kind of hatred could only be resolved with an eye for an eye and blood for blood; there was no other way to resolve it.
"Brother Dajun, this is a matter between the two of us. You just need to provide us with some weapons. With thirty or forty men, the two of us are confident we can escape unscathed..."
Peng Fei shook his head and declined Zhang Guojun's offer. He and Li Zhen had excellent teamwork on the battlefield, and if an outsider joined them, it would probably hold them back.
Furthermore, given that Duwa could not have imagined that the Chinese would be hunting him down, and with the enemy caught off guard, Peng Fei was quite confident in killing Duwa and his men.
Zhang Guojun was very dissatisfied with Peng Fei's words. He glared at him and said, "What, you look down on me, Old Zhang? Back when I led the team transporting jadeite rough, I fought with these guys quite a bit..."
Seeing that Zhang Guojun was angry, Li Zhen quickly explained, "Brother Zhang, that's not what I meant. We're going to scout out their location first, and we won't confront them head-on. Having too many people would be counterproductive..."
Although the enemy's individual combat ability was much weaker than Peng Fei and Li Zhen's, the two brothers were not so arrogant as to think that they could kill dozens of enemy soldiers on their own. They wanted to use assassination and ambush to defeat this group of armed drug traffickers.
“Peng Fei, Li Zhen, I understand how you feel, but I’m still worried about you two going alone…”
Zhuang Rui interrupted Li Zhen and Zhang Guojun's argument and continued, "How about this, I'll inform the country that Duwa is hiding in the Savage Mountain and request some reinforcements. Then you can go there. Is that alright?"
Zhuang Rui believed that if he made a request to Ouyang Lei, Ouyang Lei would definitely send support, so that Peng Fei and the other two would not have to risk their lives.
Zhuang Rui thought the story of American soldier Rambo taking on a hundred enemies in the movie was a bit far-fetched. They were all flesh and blood, born of parents, and Peng Fei and Li Zhen would have lost their lives if they had been shot.
"Brother Zhuang, you don't understand. It's not that simple. If they could send troops to Myanmar, Duwa wouldn't be alive today..."
Peng Fei shook his head and rejected Zhuang Rui's suggestion. Minor frictions between countries at the border, or even some fighting between agents from both sides, are all within tolerable limits.
Of course, this only applies to special agents, not the military.
However, Hpakant is located deep in the heart of Myanmar, with many eyes and ears from various countries. If China were to actually send troops, not only would the Myanmar government protest, but even the United States, which has been advocating the China threat theory, would probably take the opportunity to stir up trouble.
So even if the country sends support, it will only be three to five people at most. In Peng Fei's opinion, that's not as good as the tacit understanding between him and Li Zhen.
Seeing that he couldn't persuade the two, Zhuang Rui said, "If you insist on going, I'll go with you..."
Zhuang Rui said this not because he was so fearless, but because the spiritual energy in his eyes could sense the whereabouts of drug dealers over a considerable range.
It should be noted that although Zhuang Rui's spiritual energy cannot directly see the other party, he can determine the existence of a human body by observing the form enveloped by the spiritual energy.
Although doing so would expose some of Zhuang Rui's secrets to some extent, Zhuang Rui couldn't care less about that at the moment. His involvement could at least serve as a radar warning, preventing the two of them from wandering aimlessly in the Savage Mountain searching for enemy traces.
"Zhuang... Brother Zhuang, no, you absolutely can't go. You haven't received any systematic military training. Wouldn't you just be causing trouble if you went?"
Peng Fei originally wanted to say that Zhuang Rui was going to his death, but he felt it was an ominous word and quickly changed his mind. However, his attitude was firm. This was a feud between the two brothers and Duwa, and there was no reason to involve unrelated people like Zhuang Rui or Zhang Guojun.
"Fine, if you won't let me go, neither of you will leave here. Brother Hu, don't give them a single weapon. I don't believe they can fight the drug dealers bare-handed."
Zhuang Rui's words immediately stunned Peng Fei and Li Zhen. Although their military skills were quite formidable, they were not so arrogant as to think they could deal with a group of fully armed drug dealers empty-handed.
"Or we could send a larger group, pretending they're hunting and exploring the edge of the Savage Mountain, while the two of you scout out Duwa's hiding place. Once you're back, we can decide how to eliminate them..."
Zhuang Rui knew that his previous suggestion would not be adopted. Not only would Peng Fei and Li Zhen not agree, but Hu Rong would definitely not agree either. So after pondering for a while, he made another suggestion.
"That would work. We can send two or three hundred brothers. As long as we don't get close to where those drug dealers are hiding, they probably won't dare to provoke us into an attack..."
Hu Rong nodded repeatedly. As long as his men weren't allowed to join the battle, going to lend a hand wouldn't be a problem. Although those drug dealers were ruthless, they were already like frightened birds. If they encountered a large force, they would only flee into the depths of the Savage Mountain. If Peng Fei and his companion couldn't find Duwa, they would have no choice but to return to Hpakant with him.
Seeing that Zhuang Rui, Peng Fei, and the others had no objections, Hu Rong continued, "Also, I'll contact Black Scar again to see where they are now and whether they know where the Kachin people are hiding..."
"Alright, but that means we'll have to stay at the mine for a while longer..."
Peng Fei looked at Zhuang Rui and said apologetically, "Brother Zhuang, I'm sorry..."
Originally, his and Li Zhen's duty was to protect Zhuang Rui's safety, but Peng Fei never expected to get Duwa's news here.
You must understand that over the years, Peng Fei had been thinking about killing Duwa every single moment. That hatred tormented him like a venomous snake consuming his heart, and he really didn't want to let this opportunity slip by.
Chapter 996 Spiritual Energy Reconnaissance
"Alright, stop with the nonsense. This grudge wasn't formed overnight, and don't expect to get revenge right away. We need to be well-prepared to have a better chance of success..."
Zhuang Rui waved his hand. Over the years, he and Peng Fei had become like brothers. Even knowing there was danger, Zhuang Rui would never let the two of them go alone.
Now that the action plan had been agreed upon, everyone got busy.
Zhang Guojun blew his whistle, summoning all the members of the mine protection team. There are now more than 600 mine protection team members in the mine, and Zhang Guojun wants to select 300 people from them.
Hu Rong personally led Peng Fei and the others to their temporary armory, allowing them to choose the weapons that suited them best. To ensure the absolute safety of this jade mine, Hu Rong moved almost half of the Hu family's arsenal here.
"Damn, if this mine protection team were brought back to China, they'd be the best ever..."
Zhuang Rui was a little worried about Peng Fei and Li Zhen, so he followed behind them. After entering the temporary armory that had been carved out inside the mountain, Zhuang Rui was immediately overwhelmed by what he saw.
This is a stone chamber that was forcibly blasted open with explosives. The interior is very large, more than 200 square meters, and about four meters high. The huge space is filled with all kinds of weapons.
From Soviet AK47s to Chinese Type 81 automatic rifles and automatic weapons from Britain and the United States, there was something for everyone, including five portable grenade launchers. All kinds of firearms and ammunition filled the entire stone chamber.
Even more outrageous is that it also contains a recoilless small artillery piece. Except for the lack of tanks and missiles, it is equipped with almost all modern weapons. With these weapons alone, it is enough to support a local war.
When Zhuang Rui was in China, he often saw reports about illegal coal mine protection teams running rampant. Compared to Hu Rong's protection team, those domestic protection teams were like children playing house.
"Hehe, Zhuang Rui, the two city gates of my Chinese city are actually two hidden bunkers, and they even have missile defense systems. They're far more advanced than the weapons here..."
Upon hearing Zhuang Rui's words, Hu Rong couldn't help but reveal a smug smile. The local forces in Myanmar are complex, and the so-called right to speak often requires the support of force. The reason why the Hu family has been able to stand firm in this barbaric land of Myanmar for a hundred years is not because of the so-called benevolence and morality of their ancestors, but because they have subdued these local natives by using a combination of force and reward.
Especially after Hu Rong took over as head of the Hu family, he imported a lot of advanced weapons from abroad through various channels, making the Chinese city as solid as a war fortress.
"Brother Zhuang, Brother Hu, you two can chat for a bit, just don't pull the trigger and start a fire. We two brothers have something to do..."
Peng Fei and Li Zhen's eyes lit up when they entered the armory. They ignored Zhuang Rui and Hu Rong and started searching.
"You two little brats, don't you dare empty my armory..."
Hu Rong chuckled and cursed, then turned to Zhuang Rui and said, "Brother, I'll go with you guys later..."
"Brother Hu, you can skip this. With Brother Dajun by your side, it'll be fine..."
Zhuang Rui shook his head. In Zhuang Rui's opinion, with Hu Rong's thin build, he probably wouldn't even be able to carry a gun.
"Hey kid, you're looking down on your older brother, aren't you?"