Chapter 636: Firelight

That night, the Starry River overhead and the Sand Sea at their backs, the eighty Pioneer Team members huddled on the South Asian Savage Coast slept without any real peace.

Third Lord, commanding from the center of the defensive line, was even more sleepless. After scanning the surroundings with his binoculars once again, he rose to his feet under the brilliant starlight and reached into his coat. The next moment, with a soft click, Third Lord flipped open the cover of his pocket watch.

This was already the eighteenth time a certain someone had checked his watch since nightfall.

The copper-cased pocket watch was standard issue the Military provided to Mid-Rank Officers. This "domestic product" was bulky and crudely made, lacking even a second hand, its entire body exuding the rough character of early industrial goods.

But as a certain philosopher once said: a plaster that draws out the pus is a good plaster.

The Domestic Copper Pocket Watch was big, dumb, black, and crude — which, from another angle, meant it was tough and durable, and in a pinch could even serve as a heart-protecting mirror. For Third Lord, it was truly an excellent piece of military kit.

Opening the case, he didn't need the fluorescent glow on the hands; the brilliant stars overhead brightly illuminated the watch face.

"The beginning of the Chou Hour already!"

Ever since first detecting enemy activity that morning, Third Lord had, for some reason, harbored a premonition: the enemy in the Dense Forest would not appear in large numbers during daylight. So after dark, he ordered a halt to all construction activity and commanded his men to stand guard.

Yet after several hours of tension, until past ten at night, the shore remained utterly calm and uneventful.

Human attention has its limits; it is impossible to maintain a state of high alert indefinitely. At this point, Third Lord had no choice but to arrange for the night: he ordered two-thirds of the manpower to lie down and rest on the spot.

The South Asia Equatorial Belt is hot year-round, so sleeping was the one problem they didn't have: warm sand and sea wind, the waves gently rocking the warship, the young sailors pillowing their heads on the sand, their sleeping faces showing expressions of terror.

Considering the capacity of the hastily completed positions and the insufficient total amount of supplies temporarily ferried ashore, only eighty personnel ultimately remained on the beach to keep watch that night.

These eighty were all veteran members of the Pioneer Army. Yet precisely because they were veterans, they were especially aware of what they would be facing tonight.

Waiting for the unknown is the most terrifying thing, so most of those ordered to sleep actually did not sleep well.

In the final analysis, this was still a sign of lacking real combat experience.

Since its establishment, the Pioneer Army had enjoyed the pervasive benefits of industrialization in every respect. An accumulation of various unremarkable advantages had transformed the Pioneer Army into an armed force with seemingly formidable combat power.

Yet from beginning to end, apart from steamrolling Bandit Suppression Campaigns, the longest battle the Pioneer Army had ever experienced was merely playing a bit-part in a few skirmishes after the North-South Vietnam War. Even that was a walkover with ample logistics and strong intelligence support, involving no real pressure whatsoever.

So tonight, this bunch was falling apart, utterly incapable of executing the tactical maneuver of sleeping on command.

Thus, to some extent, Wang Bo's earlier insight was correct: troops must always be tempered in some harsh environments, otherwise, when truly difficult times arrive, those you count on will fail you, and that will ruin everything.

"Ah, the midnight hours are hard to endure!"

To this day, Third Lord still wasn't quite used to Arabic Numerals. The moment he glanced at the watch face, he automatically converted the time into the familiar Chinese Hour system.

Beginning of the Chou Hour: one in the morning.

Calculating by a six-in-the-morning dawn, the Chou Hour meant a full five hours until daybreak. At this moment, Wu Meng felt the weight of time especially keenly.

Looking down at the pile of people feigning sleep lying at his feet, Wu Meng irritably lit another cigarette and sat on a sandbag, puffing fiercely. Even so, his eyes dared not leave the pitch-black Dense Forest opposite for a single moment.

Time slipped quietly by, and before he knew it, a long while had passed again. When Third Lord pulled out his pocket watch for the umpteenth time, he discovered it was already the middle of the Yin Hour.

The middle of the Yin Hour was four in the morning.

At this time, less than one Chinese Hour remained until dawn. By the "damned Arabic" counting on the watch face, less than two hours.

Surveying the surroundings once more, confirming the gentle breeze on the beach, the bright moon and clear stars all around, and not the slightest hint of anything amiss, even an old hand like Wu Sanye felt a trace of doubt creeping in: "Could it be a false alarm? The Natives have no intention of coming here?"

Matters having reached this stage, Third Lord had to consider another possibility: that daytime casualty incident was merely an accidental clash; the Savages had no large tribe nearby and bore no hostile intent; perhaps the encounter between the two sides was just a chance stress reaction.

"If that is truly the case..."

Thinking this, Third Lord's mood instantly improved considerably, and the high-strung vigilance of the entire night suddenly relaxed quite a bit.

In better spirits, Third Lord silently smoked another cigarette. When another half hour had passed, Third Lord glanced at his watch, nudged with his toe the subordinate half-crouched behind the sandbags on duty with a Firearm, and said quietly: "Dongguan Zai, time's up. Call the shift change."

The subordinate turned his head, revealing a young and handsome face: "Got it, Third Lord!"

Having received the order, Dongguan Zai bent down and scrambled on all fours through the crowd, rousing some people to take over the watch.

Those who had been on watch before, meanwhile, didn't bother picking a spot; they just found a patch of ground, lay down, and slept.

The young man was quick and efficient; Dongguan Zai bustled about for only a few minutes, and in the five small sandbag emplacements, all the sentry posts had been rotated with fresh manpower.

Looking at Dongguan Zai, who had run back panting to report, Third Lord smiled for the first time that night. Patting the young man on the shoulder, Third Lord said quietly: "Kid, diligence is a real skill. Stick with your Third Lord and work hard, and someday you'll be the boss."

To have wormed his way into Third Lord's core sandbag emplacement, Dongguan Zai was naturally a sharp one. Coming from a street-hustler background, he grinned and thumped his chest at his boss: "Third Lord, with our dozens of men and guns, there's no need to fear those dirt-ghosts."

At this, Dongguan Zai put on a cocky face and patted the Firearm resting on the sandbags: "Just watch, with these two Quick-Slow Guns of mine, when those dirt-ghosts come, I'll take 'em out one by one!"

"Mm-hmm, young fella."

Third Lord glanced sidelong at the two Firearms on the sandbags. Both were standard-issue Great Yan Firearms. One was a Smoothbore Gun issued to the Pioneer Army, currently loaded with shot. The other, specially transferred from the main force before departure for this expedition, was a Breech-Loading Minie Gun, its single Bullet already loaded and ready to fire at any moment.

Because of their different loading methods, these two guns were called "Quick-Slow Guns" by the Soldiers.

"Kid, your old man's gonna teach you a lesson today."

Looking at the young man's proud face, Third Lord pulled out a cigarette and said: "In any terrain with dense trees like this, a Knife is handier than a gun! You gotta know, storms come without warning!"

As if Heaven itself had heard Third Lord's words, the next moment, the match Dongguan Zai had cupped in his hands to light Third Lord's cigarette suddenly went out.

"Huh?!"

After a few seconds, touching the water droplet on his cheek, Wu Meng finally reacted: it was raining?

Yes, it had suddenly started raining.

For a tropical island located in the equatorial belt, rain was a very reasonable and logical occurrence. This sudden rain not only came, but it came as raindrops falling from a clear night sky filled with stars.

This kind of climate phenomenon, utterly different from the north, was actually very common in tropical ocean regions.

Tilting his head to look at the sky, Third Lord reached out a hand to gauge the rain's intensity. Fortunately, the falling drops were not large — just a common drizzle, more like a mist of rain blown in by the Sea Wind.

The sudden rain also woke most of the people lying on the ground, who sat up, cursing.

At this moment, Third Lord was calm. He reacted immediately: "Dongguan Zai, go, take some men and add firewood. Stoke those fires high for me!"

On the short stretch of beach, just a few dozen meters between the outer edge of the beachhead position and the Dense Forest, bonfires had been burning since nightfall.

These bonfires were scattered in a staggered pattern, illuminating all fields of fire between the beachhead position and the Dense Forest.

Seeing the rain, Third Lord immediately thought of the bonfire problem. Sure enough, by the time Dongguan Zai rushed out carrying a large green iron pot, the flames had already been dampened considerably by the rain.

The fire-lighting team ran out, and the two in the lead quickly picked up firewood beside the bonfire and piled it onto the flames.

These logs were all fresh-cut firewood from the earlier clearing of the rainforest, wet and very hard to burn.

This situation would have been very difficult for the ancients to handle, but Dongguan Zai possessed a cross-dimensional divine artifact: the Oil Pot.

The oil pot was filled with Military High-Grade No. 65 Gasoline.

Gasoline from a county-level chemical plant was still gasoline. With a light flick of Dongguan Zai's hand, the oil pot instantly made the fire blaze bright, while a vast cloud of white smoke billowed out.

In the darkness of night, shadows flickered. To the onlookers' eyes, Dongguan Zai, weaving through the smoke, appeared and disappeared in flashes, as if performing a grand vanishing act.

Just as a murmur of confusion spread across the beach, cold sweat trickled down Wu Meng, Wu Sanye's forehead.

Years of surviving various crises had given Wu Meng a beast-like intuition for danger. Though he had no time to reason out the connection between the rain and the enemy, in this moment his hair stood on end, and the familiar feeling of impending doom coursed through his body like an electric current.

Wu Sanye, who believed in his own intuition, did not hesitate. He swung his fist and smashed it into a person beside him. At the same time, he barked sharply: "Enemy attack! All hands to alert!"

The one he smashed was He Biandan. He and several other tall, burly members of the Melee Group had been leaning against sandbags, sleeping.

Jolted awake by Third Lord's punch, He Biandan sat up in a conditioned reflex. His eyes still closed, he opened his mouth and started shouting: "Get my armor on me, armor on!"

Their past training proved its worth in this moment. As the others around them woke up, regardless of what was happening outside, their first moment was to scramble and help the Melee Group don their armor.

Third Lord's premonition was correct.

At the same moment he barked his command, many in the fortification witnessed a strange scene: a short spear whistled out from the Dense Forest, flashing through the flickering firelight.

The short spear, flashing past, pierced through Dongguan Zai, who happened to be ducking low, and plunged straight into the chest of a Fire-Tending Group member behind him.

The member whose chest was pierced by the wooden spear let out a brief, half-formed scream before the sound stopped abruptly. The corpse fell backward onto the fire, sending up a spray of sparks.

Immediately after, a huge, continuous, strange howl came from the forest. Accompanied by beast-like roars, dense, countless figures surged out from the woods.

In the hazy rain and mist, the crowd passing the fire was reflected in bizarre, myriad forms, like devils.

The next moment, a huge electric current of a voice drowned out the devils' roars. Third Lord's steady voice came through the loudspeaker: "All units, quick guns rapid fire, slow guns hold!"