Having taken the "enemy's" bridge with zero casualties, Weiss confidently led his 1st squad into ambush positions on either side of the bridgehead. Two cadets, dressed in "enemy" uniforms and wearing red armbands, stood at the head of the bridge in a wooden manner, waiting for the convoy to enter the encirclement.

According to the operational plan originally agreed upon at the battalion headquarters, in order to ensure that not a single big fish was missed in the ambush, the timing of the attack was selected as "attacking halfway through," that is, when half of the transport convoy crossed the stone bridge, the method of cutting off the head, blocking the tail, and cutting off the waist was adopted to outflank the attack along the entire line, so that the escort personnel in the transport convoy did not care about each other.

The task of the 1st squad is to "cut the waist", and they are responsible for dealing with the 4-5 vehicles in the middle of the transport convoy, both to prevent the "enemy" from forcibly seizing the stone bridge and relying on the bridge deck vehicles to resist stubbornly, and to prevent the "enemy" from escaping into the valley and scattering from the valley.

The roar of the car engine is getting closer and closer, and both the second-year novices and the third-year advanced rookies are secretly excited by the victory.

This time, the whole battalion acted collectively, Weiss did not have to worry about the third-graders of the squad deliberately making a mistake, so he organized everyone into 6 groups, each group of 5 people, the 1st to 5th groups were responsible for attacking the "enemy" a truck in turn according to the order of the group, and he personally led the 6th group to be responsible for mobile support.

The "enemy" convoy gradually came into the ambush range of Team 2 and was unhurriedly heading towards the stone bridge, and everything seemed to be normal - there was nothing unusual about the combat values measured by the vehicles and the people on board in Weiss's identification system of friend or foe.

Two "sentinels" on the bridge deck stood by the railings on both sides of the bridge and gave way to the vehicles that were about to enter the bridge.

Just when everything was going according to plan, the car at the head of the transport convoy suddenly stopped three meters from the bridge.

The trucks behind also stopped one after the other.

Weiss's heart immediately sank: Oh no, there is a situation!

He subconsciously narrowed his eyes, but the imaginary frames in his field of vision were all green.

The Identification of Friend or Foe system is not able to distinguish between the "friend or foe" side of the exercise ground pretending to be an adversary.

I saw that the soldier in the co-pilot position of the car opened the door and walked down, shouting a password from afar.

For a whole day, the convoy of transports passing by the stone bridge did not stop to ask for the password, could it be that they saw the clue? It doesn't make sense! Dusk had passed, night was approaching, and their vision was blurry, how could they possibly detect a problem in the details?

A series of questions flashed in Weiss's mind, but the situation in front of him did not allow him to hesitate - the soldier who shouted the order saw that the sentry on the bridge did not answer immediately, and suddenly shouted "Alert", Weiss immediately made a decision, and shouted in a louder voice: "Attack!" ”

Two diametrically opposed shouts followed, followed by the crisp and crisp sound of the revolver, followed by the dull and powerful roar of the "Grumman Burning Stick", which shattered the attempt of the Barston cadets to settle the battle without firing a single shot.

Although the chambers of both sides were filled with empty cartridges (the live-fire exercise did not mean that everyone used real bullets, and usually carried out live firing in the designated area, and the normal confrontation was still empty-packed), the sudden gunfire still made people feel the fierceness of the battle. The soldiers accompanying the carmen were outnumbered and naturally separated, unable to gather and difficult to coordinate with each other, and the first few vehicles were quickly seized by the attacking attackers.

As the 3rd Squadron, deployed on the south side of the stone bridge, quickly crossed the bridge to support the battle, the situation was even more one-sided.

Just as victory was approaching, someone at the back of the convoy suddenly shouted: "Hey, brothers, don't get excited, look who this is!" ”

The gunfire quickly subsided, and Weiss stepped forward quickly to see a burly officer, dragging a small young man in one hand and waving a revolver in the other.

Weiss fixed his eyes and saw that the young man who was taken hostage was actually Nikolai!

If it was on a real battlefield, the muzzle of his revolver would have been on Nikolai's temple at the moment!

Seeing Weiss appear in front of him, Nikolai Lebold smiled bitterly.

"Surrender! Mr. Officer! Your people have been wiped out by us, even if you have one of our companions in your hands? Weiss said loudly.

"Don't be a fool, little brother!" The second lieutenant officer with a star and a bar on his collar epaulette grinned, "You are the cadets of the Badston Military Academy, the famous Bathton Student Corps, and the future backbone of the Free Federal Army, and this one is a very special member of you, because of his surname...... It's Leybold! ”

Weiss looked at Nikolai with some surprise, the rules of the exercise do not allow either side to interrogate and extract confessions from "prisoners of war", if you want to pry out useful information from the other party's mouth, you must either use words or exchange conditions, with Nikolai's character, you should not be the other party to reveal your true identity, right...... This second lieutenant happens to know him?

"I'm sorry, Dragon." Nikolai said, "I've known this Ensign Florence since the Flyers Club, so ......."

Weiss nodded at him, stretched out his hand and said to the second lieutenant officer, "All right! Tell me what you're going to do! ”

The second lieutenant grinned: "My request is simple, you release my companion, I release your companion." ”

Weiss, of course, understood what he meant, but deliberately pretended not to know: "Generally speaking, on the battlefield, one person for another. Today's situation is a bit special, how about I let you exchange one for three? ”

The second lieutenant smiled: "One for three? No, no, no, this gentleman whose name I don't know, I'm afraid you don't understand what I mean...... I let go of your companions, you let go of my companions—all my companions! ”

"It's not fair!" Wei Si said, "We've caught more than two dozen of you here, and you're going to trade one person for these twenty?" ”

"I said, he's not an ordinary person, his name is Nikolai Leboy!" Do you think it's unfair? I think that's fair! It's just like the Sutton kings who exchanged 3,000 prisoners of war for their princes captured by the Rollins Empire more than 600 years ago! ”

Weiss, who had always been decisive, hesitated at this moment, and asked, "Since you are friends, why do you want to make things difficult for each other?" ”

The second lieutenant officer responded: "Yes, we are indeed friends, but once we are on the battlefield and unfortunately stand on the opposite side of the war, of course we put our loyalty to the country first." Although this is just an exercise, we should still be clear about the logic of the camp's position. ”

Weiss's gaze swept around. There were five or six remnants of the second lieutenant officers gathered around them, all of them holding their guns slightly upward, while among the young soldiers of the Bathton Student Corps, only some of the third-year students raised their guns, and the rest of them held their guns with their guns in a serious manner, aiming at each other.

The exercise is not a real battle, but it must be treated with a real combat mentality. How to grasp the degree is a knowledge.

Weiss thought for a moment: "Well, since you proposed the exchange, then let's talk about the terms of the exchange, including the matters after the exchange...... You don't deny that we have an absolute advantage in the current situation, right? ”

The second lieutenant looked left and right, nodded, and said, "You guys did a good job." ”

"We are honored to receive your appreciation! Now, you want to rescue your companions, and we don't want the only one of us who can modify and fly the aircraft out of the exercise sequence, so such an exchange is acceptable, but I have a few pros - one, all the cars here are our trophies, and we have the right to take them away or destroy them; Second, we have to destroy the communication facilities here, but in order to avoid unnecessary waste, we just take the telephones away. ”

The second lieutenant pondered for a moment: "My soldiers must all be 'alive', and our weapons must all be left behind." ”

By observing the other person's expressions and reactions, Weiss speculated on his bottom line: "Our third proviso is...... I want a copy of your battle map. ”

"This can't be done!" Like a cat whose tail had been stepped on, the lieutenant jumped up and resolutely rejected Dio's request.

Weiss threatened: "If we exchange fire, you will be 'all killed', and we will still be able to get the battle map from your 'corpses'." ”

"Not necessarily!" The second lieutenant retorted, "I'm confident that my soldiers will give me their lives to buy me time to destroy the map, and besides, we'll detonate all the cars loaded with ammunition, and you'll suffer casualties!" ”

"Hmm...... It seems that this is where the disagreement lies in our exchange. ”

The second lieutenant reiterated in a resolute tone: "Any condition can be considered, but this one, no!" ”

Weiss touched his chin: "So it seems that you are indeed planning a big operation. Yes, a big operation. ”

The second lieutenant was noncommittal.

At this moment, Dio took two third-graders from the battalion headquarters and hurriedly came to the scene of the confrontation between the two sides.

"We've already made a successful raid, why don't we decisively annihilate these enemies?" He asked.

Before Weiss could answer, the second lieutenant officer sneered: "The raid was successful? Hey, man, do you understand the rules of the exercise? We're prepared, and you're not a successful raid at all. ”

"Prepared?" Dio asked rhetorically, "If you had been prepared, how could you have entered our ambush circle?" ”

The lieutenant argued, "We didn't quite get into your ambush, did we? In fact, we happened to find your scout, Mr. Nicolas Leboyd, and although we were unable to extract any useful information from him, from his identity and what happened to him, we can surmise that there is an attacking force like yours operating in the vicinity, so we are on guard and ready for battle. ”

Dio seemed to notice Nikolai, who was dragging the second lieutenant officer by the arm, but he reacted quickly and quickly changed the subject: "Okay! Even if you were prepared, you were still surrounded by us. We're blocking your way, we just need to kill the car at the back of your line, and you won't be able to run away. ”

The second lieutenant officer snorted coldly: "Do you have to lose both? ”

Weiss reported to Dio what they had just discussed, in as concise language as possible.

After listening, Dio frowned and said nothing.

Weiss looked at Nikolai opposite, and then at Dio beside him, expecting that this guy couldn't make up his mind after hesitating for a long time, so he said: "The lesser of two evils, exchanging hostages is undoubtedly a better choice." In the future, if something goes wrong, this pot ...... I'm back! ”

Dio sighed and turned away from speaking.

Weiss then said to the second lieutenant officer, "Well, let's take a step back, and let me see the map, how about it?" ”

The second lieutenant's attitude was still resolute: "This map, even if our entire team is sentenced to death, we must not show you even a glance!" ”

Weiss calculated in his heart that the attacker would open up this transportation line, with fifty or sixty vehicles going back and forth every day, and transporting seventy or eighty tons of supplies, which should be enough to maintain the logistical supply of 2-3 divisions based on the consumption of ground units, and even if the consumption of ammunition is taken into account, such a transportation volume can still maintain the normal combat needs of 1-1.5 divisions.

At the stage of the stalemate of the battle, the attacker, whose total strength on the ground was no more than 20 divisions, had quietly assembled combat troops of this size on the flank, and there must have been some plan. If we continue to follow the "line of self-preservation" put forward by Nikolai and emphasize self-protection over action in the coming period, although we will have the opportunity to achieve more ideal results in the exercise in a more stable way, and it will also conform to the "small soldier rule" of giving priority to survival on the battlefield and waiting for the enemy, it will not be done by a person who has the overall situation in mind.