About a kilometer from the woods, the cruiser, playing the role of the attacking side, hovered at low altitude and lowered 6 servicemen with hanging baskets.

These six men, wearing fur hats, leather jackets, and leather boots, are the standard attire of the crew.

The leader was armed with a pistol, and the remaining five carried rifles.

When the group came out of the woods, the leader shouted into the woods, the content of which was nothing more than saying, according to the rules of the exercise, you have been killed in the shelling of the flying battleship, you can come out and disarm, and return to the rear on their flying battleship, eat a hot meal comfortably, take a hot bath, and lie down on a warm and comfortable bed for a good night's sleep.

No one in the woods responded.

After several attempts, the captain of the crew entered the woods with 3 companions, and the other 2 stayed outside the woods to respond.

After entering the woods, they quickly found a temporary resting place for the "enemy". There were more than a dozen tents for individual soldiers, five or six portable stoves, two of which were still boiling hot tea, but there was not a single figure in sight.

"Ran away?" With a contemptuous smile on the lead crew's face, he looked around and then commanded his companions, "John, Cullens, look around, and don't go too far. ”

Two crew members walked deep into the woods with rifles in hand.

The lead crew member and another companion stayed behind to inspect the objects left by the "enemy", but after looking through several tents, there were no weapons, ammunition, or marching knapsacks.

What was left in the tent was something insignificant.

Judging by this detail, the "enemy" should not have fled in a hurry, but left in an organized and orderly manner.

"John! Cullens! The lead crew shouted loudly, trying to call back the two companions, but he shouted twice to no avail.

He felt bad and was about to exit the woods with the rest of the crew, but as soon as he turned around, he saw the muzzle of a black hole......

……

"What's going on? There are enemies in the woods! Pull the alarm! An enemy has come out of the woods! ”

In front of the bridge porthole of the Ulster Free Federation Army's second-class cruiser "Ales", the crew of the ship holding binoculars for alert coldly sounded the alarm, startling the others to crowd to the observation position.

In sight, the four crew members who had entered the woods to investigate the enemy's situation were actually disarmed and escorted out of the woods by a group of soldiers wearing camouflage uniforms and blue armbands. The two crew members waiting outside the woods raised their guns and faced each other, but the situation was obvious, and their two guns could not be suppressed at all!

On the ground, outside the woods, a young man with an unremarkable figure and appearance, and a lot of mud on his military uniform, strode up to the two crew members with very nervous expressions.

The two crew members were holding rifles, the muzzles of which were almost pressed against the young man's face.

"Relax, gentlemen, I'm going to talk to your chief!" The young man said calmly.

"What did you say?" One of the crew members asked in surprise.

Under such circumstances, the young man actually smiled slightly: "I said...... I'm going to talk to your chief. Don't you see that your companions have been captured by us? If you force it, you two will surely be 'killed.'" ”

The two crew members apparently did not expect such a situation to happen on a simple patrol mission, they looked at each other, one continued to aim his gun at each other, and the other returned to the bottom of the cruiser, motioned for the hanging basket to be lowered, and then used the telephone inside to report to the ship what was happening on the ground.

After a while, an officer came to the surface alone in a hanging basket, spoke a few words with the crew who had returned to report, and then walked to Weiss with him.

Weiss put his hands behind his back and waited for the officer to come to him.

Judging from the logo of the collar epaulettes, the officer wearing a military hat crookedly is a flying second lieutenant.

In the Ulster Free Federation, the commander of a second-class cruiser is usually a captain, a first-class cruiser corresponds to a major, and a fast cruiser and armored cruiser correspond to a lieutenant colonel and a colonel respectively, and those who can become battleship commanders are at least senior colonels or commodore generals.

The officer, wearing the red armband, asked in the first sentence: "What are your identities?" ”

Weiss saluted: "Basston Student Corps, Provisional Third Battalion, Cadet Long Clumber Haisen. ”

The officer returned the military salute with a calm face: "First Fleet, Marlon King." ”

Such a simple self-introduction seems to be the consistent style of the aviation forces, and their arrogant posture is as cold and unreserved as the air at an altitude of several thousand meters.

Weiss got straight to the point and said: "Mr. officer, I take the liberty of inviting you here because your soldiers have been captured by us, and we want to ......"

The officer sneered and interrupted him: "You young people are always full of unrealistic whims. Do you think we'll easily send people down for you to ambush if it's a real battle? We'll clear this woods with artillery fire first, and none of you will survive, so who is standing here to bargain with me? ”

"If it's a cruiser, I'll believe that, but the cruiser ......," Weiss shook his head, "Sir, I have no disrespect, but to be realistic—your battleship is equipped with 18 Pierre caliber guns, and if we have done a good job of dispersing and concealing in advance, you will not be able to kill us at all." If you leave directly after the bombardment, we have nothing to say, but in order to determine the outcome of the battle, you sent a small crew of ships, and it was like a fish biting the hook. Now that the fish is in my hands, am I not qualified to talk to you? ”

The officer looked Weiss up and down and threatened: "Even if we lose a few crews, our battleship can still operate normally, but what about you?" Annihilated! ”

Weiss replied unhurriedly: "Our whole army is annihilated, and that is also a common advance and retreat!" If you abandon your fellow men in this way, are you not afraid of damaging your reputation? ”

The flying officer was stunned for a moment, and then changed his tone: "Interesting! Tell me, what do you want? ”

Weiss said: "We want 40 men for six days' supply, and your promise not to pursue it for three days." ”

The officer looked behind Weiss, and there were only a dozen "enemy soldiers" escorting the three crew out of the woods, and according to the amount of supplies requested by the other side, there should be more than two dozen people hiding in the woods.

He frowned, "What do we get if we agree to your request?" ”

"These crew members were not judged out, and ...... An absolutely beneficial lesson. Weiss replied without hesitation.

The officer did not say no, but bowed his head in thought.

The other party is hesitating, indicating that they have no intention of fighting to the death, after all, this is just a drill.

So, Weiss further said: "Sir, to you flying troops who are high above, we are a group of inconspicuous small fish and shrimp, and whether we are eliminated or not will have little impact on the score of the exercise. However, for those of us who have just started our military careers, if we can get out of the predicament, it will have a very big impact on our exercise scores and our future path. That's why we've come up with this last resort, and we hope you'll understand! ”

Hearing this, the officer stretched his brows: "Okay, I understand what you mean, but I have no right to reply to you, I need to go back and report the situation to the commander." Whether or not we can make this particular deal depends on how he decides. ”

Weiss smiled, "Thank you, Mr. Kim. Regardless of the outcome, we will remember the understanding you gave us. ”

At this point, the officer did not leave immediately, but went on to ask Weiss a few questions: how they had ended up here, what they planned to do next, whether they needed help outside the rules of the exercise, such as bringing the wounded and sick cadets back to the rear, and so on.

Weiss answers these questions vaguely but logically. In such a confrontation exercise, apart from the fact that the drill headquarters has information about the deployment of troops and the lines of action of the two sides, neither side will know the opponent's deployment in advance, and they can only use various reconnaissance means to continuously obtain and piece together military intelligence about the opponent, analyze, screen, calculate, and deduce, so as to judge the situation on the other side of the battlefield, and then adjust their own deployment in a targeted manner. Therefore, whether the "Baseton Student Corps" was incorporated into the first or second wave of reserves, and when it was put into the battlefield, the flying officer in front of him must not have a lot of money in his heart, as long as Weiss's acting skills are good enough, he can completely mislead the other party, making him think that the intention of this group of stragglers is only to withdraw to his own control area.

On a front where more than a dozen corps and dozens of divisions are confronting each other, just 40 student soldiers throwing themselves into it is tantamount to throwing a small stone into the sea, and it can't set off a wave at all.

Having asked all the questions asked, the young officer gave Weiss a military salute and turned to leave.

The crew member who had just returned to report continued to follow him until he was seated in the gondola.

Weiss turned his head and said to the crew member who remained beside him, "He...... It's your captain, right? ”

The crew member did not immediately deny it, but hesitated: "Why do you ask like that?" ”

Weiss smiled: "Feeling." ”

He still didn't answer directly: "Yes and no, does it make any difference to you?" ”

"To be honest, it doesn't make a difference, it's just a drill after all." Weiss replied, "I talk to him, and I feel like he is a battleship commander rather than a junior officer who obeys the command of a battleship, so I want to confirm my judgment." ”

He glanced back at the flying battleship and whispered, "I have to say, your vision is very accurate. ”

Weiss tilted his head and stared at the flying battleship still hovering in mid-air. Marlon King...... He secretly wrote down the name.

At the same time, in the bridge of the "Ales", Captain Marlon King, who had just returned, put on his own military uniform again. After consulting with his two lieutenants, he decided to exchange 240 military rations for the captured crew. During the exercise, such a second-class frigate with a crew of more than 60 sailors was dispatched to carry out a vigilant patrol mission, carrying in addition to food and fresh water for the crew to live for half a month, and also carrying an additional 4,000 military rations to provide ground troops in trouble and urgently need assistance -- including the enemy side in the exercise who gave up resistance.

Dialing out 240 out of it is not a big deal at all.

After arranging for his sergeant major to deal with the specific matters of exchanging goods for people, Marlon King stood in front of the porthole with hot tea in his hand and looked at the people on the ground, raised the corners of his mouth, and said to himself: "This kid is bold and has a good brain, and he can get things done!" ”