Chapter 48: Fighting, you need to use your brain!

After returning to the barracks, Liu Xiaotian instantly became a 'hero'.

The moment Wang Yanbing stepped into the barracks gate, he grabbed Liu Xiaotian from behind and hugged him; the usually steady He Chen Guang also turned and grabbed his ankle, and the two lifted him up directly.

Except for Li Erniu, whose head was swollen all around, the remaining twenty-one all swarmed over, and together they tossed Liu Xiaotian up repeatedly, over a dozen times.

Not to mention the cheers, even Chen Shanming, who had been preparing to go to He Zhijun's office to report and had braced himself for a scolding, heard it loud and clear.

Regarding this, he merely shook his head and gave a bitter smile.

Even he felt that today, these youngsters were indeed worthy of celebration.

Even, he felt that Liu Xiaotian's beating of Tang Chengfeng was really… well done!

As an old acquaintance, he had at least more than ten urges to rush over and give him a beating.

But reason told him that would be asking for trouble.

Tang Chengfeng's ability is beyond doubt, it's just his temperament…

Tang Xinyi's temperament already explains everything.

Don't believe me? Look at their fathers—damn, planting eggplants, could they possibly grow sweet potatoes?

If these siblings have such opposite personalities, their father ought to check the color of his hat.

The next morning, Liu Xiaotian got up an hour earlier than usual and did a round of warm-up training on the playground by himself.

When the reveille sounded, he had already taken a cold shower and was whistling while ironing his clothes.

Today's evaluation was still the first time these trainees participated without wearing training uniforms, instead wearing their regular uniforms.

The night before, Liu Xiaotian had just asked He Chen Guang for a brand-new set of regular uniform, with the trouser creases ironed as sharp as a blade— the straighter, the better.

Seeing this, Wang Yanbing's eyes widened like a bull's; he yawned as he walked up to Liu Xiaotian, and as soon as he opened his mouth, drool flowed out.

He 'slurped' half of it back, then, wiping his mouth, asked, 'You kid, aren't you tired? Your energy is through the roof!'

He wasn't surprised that Liu Xiaotian had ironed his regular uniform so neatly; rather, he wondered what this guy actually did for a living.

This physique… could he be a robot?

"Get lost, cut the crap." Liu Xiaotian said without turning back, laughing and scolding.

Indeed, his mood right now was exceptionally good.

He could even foresee the look of astonishment, unwillingness, and disbelief on Tang Xinyi's annoying face, and how satisfying that would be!

At 8 a. m., in the electronic information command room, twenty-four trainees stood in formation like spears, each standing ramrod straight.

Led by He Zhijun, all the leaders and instructors of the Wolf Fang Special Forces Brigade had arrived.

For such a scene, ordinary people would think the leaders valued the information warfare model that would occupy an important or even dominant position on future battlefields; only those who truly know the 'inside story' would realize the reason everyone showed up in full force was simply to see a new recruit named Liu Xiaotian.

Tang Xinyi stood before the control panel, her face as cold as frost.

After Fan Tianlei gave a brief speech and announced the start, Tang Xinyi immediately called out a soldier's name, and the evaluation began.

As for electronic information, the basic content is nothing more than: C language, higher mathematics, signal systems, circuit analysis, microcomputer principles, communication principles, digital circuits and analog circuits, etc.; and these trainees need to, after mastering these basic theories, further master parts of information warfare.

The basic categories of information warfare are seven, namely:

information war, network-centric war and network war, electronic war, intelligence war, space war, precision war, and psychological war.

What these trainees are being evaluated on today are precisely two of these categories: electronic warfare and precision warfare.

Electronic warfare refers to the military struggle between opposing sides for the use and control of the electromagnetic spectrum, including electronic reconnaissance and counter-reconnaissance, electronic jamming and anti-jamming, electronic deception and counter-deception, electronic stealth and counter-stealth, electronic destruction and counter-destruction, etc.

Precision warfare is even more advanced; mainly, as the army's intelligence reconnaissance, battlefield surveillance, identification and positioning, and information network system capabilities improve, weapon range and accuracy, penetration and mobility, launch rate and speed continually increase, and command and control effectiveness greatly improves, the army's rapid and precise strike capability is greatly enhanced.

After yesterday's incident, Tang Xinyi had obviously transferred all her anger and resentment onto Liu Xiaotian alone, even ignoring the 'instigators'—He Chen Guang and Wang Yanbing.

In short, the evaluations of the first twenty-three trainees went very smoothly; regardless of pass or fail, Tang Xinyi said nothing more than 'qualified' or 'unqualified'.

At 4 p. m., Tang Xinyi finally spoke Liu Xiaotian's name. Liu Xiaotian responded loudly as required, then strode to the electronic control board used for the evaluation and reported that he was ready.

Everyone's evaluation process up to now had basically been the same, mainly focusing on electronic warfare with precision warfare as a supplement, and the key to the evaluation standard was the proficiency of operation.

For a whole half day, Tang Xinyi, standing before the chief examiner's control board, hardly touched the electronic control board at all.

However, before the soldier who was evaluated before Liu Xiaotian finished, she quickly tapped a few times on the electronic control board.

"Begin!" Tang Xinyi coldly uttered the two words, then clicked to confirm the start of the simulated electronic warfare.

Various images began to flash on the screen, and at breakneck speed.

The others saw that Liu Xiaotian's evaluation difficulty was more than three times that of the others, yet Liu Xiaotian showed no reaction whatsoever.

"Jiaweis, prepare to start!" Liu Xiaotian said calmly and loudly; the next second, his ten fingers began to jump across the electronic control board.

To be objective, his operation was highly entertaining to watch.

Although those ten fingers were thick and rough, their dexterity was not inferior to that of piano masters striking the keys, and even surpassed them.

Liu Xiaotian's evaluation involved obtaining a close-up image of a region via a satellite.

But as he operated, Tang Xinyi first used one hand, then after two minutes began using both hands to fly across the electronic control board before her, obviously setting up 'obstacles'.

At that moment, the faces of He Zhijun and Fan Tianlei instantly turned somewhat grim.

They never expected Tang Xinyi to so blatantly disregard the evaluation rules at such a time!

Among everyone present, probably the only one with no dissatisfaction about this was Liu Xiaotian, who was still performing the operation.

Five minutes, ten minutes, twenty minutes…

The flashing images on the screen made everyone dizzy, and Liu Xiaotian also failed to obtain the satellite image of the designated area he needed.

But he seemed not at all anxious.

When the time reached twenty-eight minutes, Liu Xiaotian's face suddenly showed a hint of a smile; his ten fingers paused simultaneously, then he raised his right hand, extended his little finger toward Tang Xinyi opposite him, and gave a bright smile.

Then he lightly tapped the electronic control board with that little finger.

Tang Xinyi's face changed; her ten fingers tapped the control board in succession dozens of times, and her expression gradually turned to shock.

On the screen, a patch of green first appeared, then rapidly enlarged, revealing a jungle.

Then it quickly split into dozens of football‑sized images, displayed in sections.

By this point, there was no longer any need for Tang Xinyi to announce Liu Xiaotian's assessment results.

Although those present were not her equal in professional expertise, the outcome was so obvious that anyone could see it.

Just as Fan Tianlei, whose complexion was not looking good, was about to rise and announce the end of the assessment, He Zhijun, who had been staring at a corner of the screen, suddenly grabbed him hard, pointed at the upper‑right corner of the large screen whose total area exceeded fifteen square meters, and ordered in a low voice:

"Liu Xiaotian! Can you still zoom in?! Do you see that human figure in the third sub‑area image above? Zoom in as much as possible and capture it!"

Liu Xiaotian replied loudly, and at the same time his hands began rapid operation again; soon the screen started flashing one captured image after another.

They were rapidly enlarged in succession on the large screen, but because they were not clear enough, each was immediately replaced by the next.

Two minutes later, as a picture with relatively clear facial features was frozen, Fan Tianlei suddenly sprang to his feet, veins bulging on his forehead! Everyone else, including He Chen Guang, did not know whose face that was.

But Liu Xiaotian knew that the owner of that face was called Xiezi!

He Zhijun again grabbed Fan Tianlei and shoved him back into his chair, snatched the list from the table in front of him, quickly read out the names of the thirteen trainees marked with a check, then turned to Chen Shanming, who stood among the instructors, and shouted: "Chen Shanming! Immediately notify Gong Jian to get into position; the thirteen soldiers whose names I just read, plus Song Kaifei and Xu Tianlong, are members of the Red Blood Cell Group; you must immediately lead the team to collect weapons and equipment, depart within fifteen minutes, proceed to the designated area to meet with Gong Jian, and prepare to carry out the Red Blood Cell Group's first mission."

"The operation code name is: The Count of Monte Cristo!"

Cough cough, this chapter is nearly three thousand characters; whoever says I'm weak and feeble, I'll bite them! Haha!

It will go live tomorrow at noon; I eagerly await all readers to come and show their support, endlessly grateful, endlessly grateful!

(End of chapter)