area51novel #437 - Strong response
#437 - Strong response
Zhou Lei and his team acted swiftly and cleanly, wiping out the kidnappers with the ease of a gentle breeze.
However, upon their return home, they stirred up a storm both domestically and internationally.
Lusaka.
Captain Cobus, who had participated in the entire operation, was summoned before Sir Llewellyn.
"Captain Cobus, these two are from MI6. They have come all the way from London to ask you to recount all the details of the Eastern Garrison rescue squad truthfully," Sir Llewellyn explained, waiting for him in the conference room with four unfamiliar guests.
However, Sir Llewellyn only explained the identities of two of them to Captain Cobus, remaining silent about the other two.
Captain Cobus, however, had no curiosity. He simply and cautiously recounted everything he had seen.
Without exaggeration or any embellishments, he used the most straightforward narrative possible.
After he finished speaking, the entire room remained silent for quite a while.
"Captain Cobus, you said they flew directly from Dongda to Harare on a transport plane, traversing over ten thousand kilometers of unfamiliar territory, and the entire rescue team reached Harare in just a day and a night, correct?" a handsome agent with a high nose and blue eyes, identified as being from MI6, asked.
"Yes, after they arrived in Harare, the leader of the rescue squad spent about 30 minutes with me understanding the general area of operation of the Karibu tribe. After looking at a map, they launched their operation. A small team went ahead on a light aerial vehicle, and the rest traveled by a cross-country vehicle with strong off-road capabilities, capable of traveling at 30 to 40 kilometers per hour in the roadless wilderness," Captain Cobus explained.
"I rode in one of them with their leader. Honestly, the ride was quite bumpy, but in our wilderness, there seemed to be no place it couldn't go."
"They launched the operation during the day?" another agent asked.
"How did their aerial flight avoid the observation of the tribal members during the day?"
This was a question. In fact, Captain Cobus had not figured it out yet. The two tribal armed personnel who had noticed the aerial tricycle were killed, and no one alive had ever discovered anything in the air.
"Oh, we're not sure about that either. We asked the Karibu tribe prisoners, and they don't know what happened either," Captain Cobus shook his head and said.
"Wait, one more detail, Sir Llewellyn, according to your statement, from the time they proposed coordinating and sending people to rescue, to the time your Rhodesian local authorities agreed to their deployment, to the end of the entire hostage rescue operation, the entire time was less than 48 hours. I haven't miscalculated, have I?" the handsome agent asked, somewhat incredulously, looking at the time he had recorded.
"Yes, sir, you haven't miscalculated. In fact, that's exactly the case. Our report also highlighted this point," Sir Llewellyn replied politely. "In fact, I believe that their rescue squad had no preparation time at all, but set off directly upon receiving orders. In Dongda, they should have a special unit dedicated to handling such incidents, otherwise, they wouldn't be so fast and professional."
"Are we guessing correctly that they are like our SAS?"
Sir Llewellyn's idea seemed very reliable to the four agents.
Because if it weren't a special force on standby, it wouldn't be able to react so quickly and have such strong combat power.
Although the Karibu tribe's armed forces were not considered strong, they were locals, roaming freely in the mountains and forests. Even if the SAS came, it would probably take some effort to take them down, definitely not as easily as Captain Cobus said.
First of all, accurately finding the tribe's camp was not an easy task. According to the location of the Karibu tribe's camp, the SAS would probably have to spend several days walking to find the camp.
Then, confirming the location of the hostages would probably take a lot of time.
They did not have the small-scale aerial reconnaissance vehicle that Captain Cobus mentioned. If they were not mistaken, it should be the small aerial equipment called the "aerial tricycle" in the Dongda army.
In retrospect, everyone felt even more mysterious about this mysterious Dongda detachment.
This was the only time in recent years that the Dongda military had appeared internationally. Originally, the British military had not paid attention to this matter. In their view, there were too many such incidents in Black Africa, and they couldn't pay attention to all of them. Although the Rhodesian incident had international repercussions, the impact of a farm incident on them was just that, not worth it at all.
Who knew that the strength displayed by a small detachment sent by Dongda completely exceeded their imagination. Therefore, after receiving the report from the local authorities led by Sir Llewellyn, they sent agents to conduct a comprehensive review of the entire battle.
Captain Cobus, as a witness who participated throughout the process, was naturally their most important source of information.
Not only was this the case in Britain, but the United States also came sniffing around. Their relationship with Britain was different. They were also very interested in observing Dongda's military power at close range.
Now, after a thorough understanding, they only had one impression: this Dongda rescue detachment was terrifyingly strong and mysterious!
Not only were their individual combat capabilities strong, but the entire unit's ability to move in the wilderness was also very strong. Whether it was the special vehicle that could travel in the Black African wilderness or the small aerial equipment that had appeared a few years ago, they showed great power in such small-scale battles.
The more they assessed, the more frightened they felt!
In Dongda, the triumphant Zhou Lei rescue detachment received a grand commendation.
The entire detachment collectively received a first-class merit.
But this was still drizzle. Immediately afterward, the 16th Army was commended by the entire army once.
Li Yunlong went to receive the award with glee.
"Li Yunlong, you did a great job with this rapid reaction force! The headquarters has ordered that the scale of the 16th Army's rapid reaction force be expanded to a brigade level. You must come up with a new construction plan. In the future, the rapid reaction force must have the spirit of 'Use me first, and I will surely win,' and continue to strive for new glory for the 16th Army!"
"Yes! Commander, the 16th Army guarantees to complete the mission!" Li Yunlong happily accepted the commendation order and the new troop formation order.
With Ren Zhong's care, the 16th Army always gets the first of everything. This time, the rapid reaction force seized the opportunity to show its face greatly not long after its formation, and Li Yunlong was of course very happy.
He turned around and found Ren Zhong again.
"The brigade-level rapid reaction force was approved so quickly?" Ren Zhong knew that he had no good intentions when he saw Li Yunlong come to him about this matter.
"Hehe, the commander takes care of us. Isn't it because we pay attention to doing things? Even if it's ten thousand miles away, we can still chop the enemy under our horses!" Li Yunlong said with a smile, "Now our new opportunity has come. I want to build this brigade into a new type of force that can be deployed globally and whose combat effectiveness is no less than that of a combined arms brigade."
"In terms of weapons, we can't bring tanks, so we need better new weapons to counter tanks, especially anti-tank weapons that are stronger than RPG rocket launchers and have a longer range! But they must be similar to rocket launchers in terms of portability and can be directly taken away by transport planes in one wave."
Li Yunlong's request is very difficult to achieve at the current time node in the world of Bright Sword.
In this space-time, because the main research force has been invested in the research of medium and long-range missiles, air-to-air missiles, air-to-ground missiles, air-to-ship missiles, anti-ship missiles, surface-to-surface missiles, and strategic missiles are urgently needed. Almost all the power of the missile research center is on these big guys.
As for things for infantry to fight tanks, there has been no more action except for constantly optimizing rocket launchers.
Now that Li Yunlong has made such a request, Ren Zhong is also very embarrassed.
"Old Li, don't worry about this. Our current research and development power is not rich enough to develop a weapon specifically for you."
Ren Zhong is actually very clear about Old Li's needs. In the future, anti-tank missiles will be specially born for such needs.
The famous Red Arrow series will become the nemesis of tanks in the future.
With the advent of anti-tank missiles, the tank's position as the king of ground combat is in jeopardy.
After all, with anti-tank missiles, infantry can fight tanks, all-terrain vehicle-mounted anti-tank missiles can fight tanks, armed helicopters can fight tanks, and even future drones can fight tanks!
Tanks have simply become the target of everyone's beating.
They are becoming more and more dangerous on the battlefield, and it is becoming more and more difficult to become the core of infantry combat effectiveness.
Looking at the Gulf War in the main world, tanks were almost beaten like targets!
In the recent conflict between Russia and Ukraine in the main world, tanks have not had a good time either. Thousands of tanks have become the prey of drones and eventually become ruins all over the ground!
But at this stage, Ren Zhong has not seen that Dongda urgently needs to face such a demand.
The current battles are more like the low-intensity, small-scale battles of Zhou Lei's rescue team, and there are very few opportunities for weapons and equipment like tanks to appear.
"Old Li, you should first set up the framework of the rapid reaction force according to the previous one. Just practice according to the previous one. In terms of individual soldier quality, you should move closer to the direction of special forces. Then, at this stage, it is enough for you to wander around the world. You must figure out that the rapid reaction force is not going to fight big battles or hard battles, nor is it used by us to be deployed on a large-scale battlefield, but to clean up small armed forces like Black Africa," Ren Zhong said to Li Yunlong.
"At this stage, RPG rocket launchers, mortars, and improved vehicle-mounted rocket launchers and high-level dual-purpose machine guns mounted on Cheetah all-terrain vehicles are powerful enough. It can be said responsibly that no tribal armed force in the current world can compete with such equipment."
"Hehe, we think that if we can deal with tanks like the T34, then our rapid reaction force will be confident in dealing with the remaining armed forces other than the great powers," Li Yunlong said embarrassedly, "Most of these armed forces in the Black Continent do not have air forces, and tanks are their most powerful force."
Ren Zhong shook his head. Old Li's thoughts are not good. He dares to say such words that are not conducive to unity.
What we are talking about is peaceful coexistence, not like the rogue eagle who is like a rogue and causes trouble everywhere.
"Don't think about these things that are there or not. Go back and think about how to improve individual soldier quality. Not only must you be able to fight, but the most important thing is to achieve international adaptability. Now I hear that more than 90% of the rapid reaction force cannot use a foreign language to talk to people outside. This is not good. Speaking of which, improving language ability is much more useful than you getting anti-tank weapons. Old Li, I will first give you a small goal. All personnel of the rapid reaction force will be able to conduct daily English conversations within the next year, half will be able to communicate effectively with locals in English, and each squad will have at least one member proficient in the world's major languages such as German/French and the Portuguese-Spanish language family."
"Our rapid reaction force is facing the world, so the language problem must be solved first. In this regard, I suggest that the rapid reaction force recruit a group of soldiers from the current language majors in universities, and also solve it by training a group themselves."
Although he did not get what he wanted, Li Yunlong did not return empty-handed.
Here at Ren Zhong, he received a promise to provide them with a new type of anti-tank weapon within three years. According to the current situation, Li Yunlong can completely afford to wait. After all, if soldiers are to be recruited from students into the rapid reaction force, then training will take time to train them into all-round warriors.
The current members of the rapid reaction force are selected from the existing troops, and the squad leader level are specially recruited university student soldiers. The team structure is very fragile. In the worst case, when the squad leader has an accident, the channel for external communication will collapse.
Therefore, Ren Zhong's language requirements for the members of this unit are very timely. This is an elite force destined to perform tasks outside the territory, and it is like this now, and it will be even more so in the future.
This time, Rhodesia's excellent performance proved the necessity of the rapid reaction force, but after expanding to the brigade level, Ren Zhong also felt that it was enough, even if it participated in peacekeeping missions in the future, it would be competent.