Chapter 463: Foreign Mercenaries Earn Their Money the Hard Way Too

"Boss, I need a car."

After Yu Dazhang came back to his senses, he immediately put in a request to Li Mingzhao:

"The modified jeep you were driving before will do."

He had to admit, that jeep was genuinely comfortable to sit in.

Not only was the space generous, but the suspension was excellent — driving it on the mountain felt no different from flat ground.

"Where are you going?"

Li Mingzhao took one look at his expression and knew the kid had another idea.

"Up the mountain to look for clues," Yu Dazhang replied:

"Rather than waiting here for them to come to us, I'd rather take the offensive."

What kind of talk was that? Every team member present frowned in unison.

What do you mean, waiting for them to come to us — isn't the whole problem that we can't find them?

If you can't talk properly, then don't talk — makes it sound like we've been slacking off.

Yu Dazhang, however, hadn't noticed these details; his mind was entirely occupied with how to break the deadlock.

"Before you arrived, the Armed Police had already organized people to search the mountain."

Li Mingzhao didn't want him wasting his effort, so he reminded him:

"On the mountains all around here, there are no places like caves that would suit hiding a person, and even the trees are sparse — the only way they could conceal themselves is through camouflage and lying low."

This was also what troubled him most.

The State Security side naturally knew the other party would have to come over the surrounding mountains.

But the mountain area was simply too vast — trying to set up a defensive perimeter across such a wide region was utterly unrealistic.

Not only would it consume enormous manpower and resources, the effect would be minimal.

Once the other side spotted Armed Police deployed on the mountain, they certainly wouldn't risk blundering in — they'd find another way.

They might even change their attack strategy.

And expanding our defensive ring would only expose more gaps.

"So we have to anticipate."

Yu Dazhang didn't elaborate further, but urged:

"Get me a car as soon as possible — in another little while, it's going to be dark."

He only had good eyesight; that didn't mean he came with built-in night vision — once it got dark, he was just as unable to see his surroundings clearly.

"I'll drive you there."

After speaking, Li Mingzhao waved at the team members present, signaling them to come along.

On the road.

"How did that Wang Ze get here?" Yu Dazhang asked.

This was a classified area, so there would certainly be checkpoints on the road — yet Wang Ze had been able to pass through, which was indeed a little strange.

Therefore, he had to know how the other party had infiltrated the target area.

"He first took a taxi from his staging point to a stretch of road two kilometers from the checkpoint."

Li Mingzhao replied:

"Then he walked to the foot of the mountain, camouflaged himself, bypassed the checkpoint into the mountains, climbed to the summit, and then crawled to the halfway point — the exact spot where you spotted him."

After a pause, he added:

"He reached the designated position three days ago; according to the plan, he would spend a week on the mountain conducting observation."

"Every night, he would change his position based on circumstances."

"After one week he would withdraw automatically, with no need to hand over to the next person."

Pretty professional… Yu Dazhang couldn't help sighing inwardly.

This kind of arrangement both ensured continuity of the mission and minimized the chance of being discovered.

Since there was no handover, it meant the person coming to relieve him had already been on the mountain for some time, so there would be no gap.

Just how far in advance was unclear.

"Then how do they contact the leader?" Yu Dazhang asked again.

There was no signal here — making a phone call was out of the question.

Using a satellite phone would certainly be detected; this kind of classified unit was extremely sensitive to signal sources — even more so than to people.

"If they spot any unusual activity in the test area, the observers here will withdraw immediately."

Li Mingzhao said as he drove:

"Only after reaching a safe area will they report the situation."

Foreign mercenaries don't have it easy either… Yu Dazhang suddenly felt those hired cannon fodder were pretty hard-working too.

Anxiously trekking over hill and dale to get here, then lying flat for a whole week.

During that time, every meal, every need, every bit of sleep had to be dealt with while lying flat.

If caught, they'd never see the light of day again. Arriving at the mountainside.

Because the slope above was steep, even the specially modified vehicle couldn't pass — Li Mingzhao had no choice but to stop the car.

"From here on up, we'll have to go on foot."

Li Mingzhao turned and said to Yu Dazhang:

"In another two hours it'll be dark — if we're going to keep climbing, we need to set off right now."

Can someone carry me up the mountain… Yu Dazhang nearly blurted that out.

He looked up at the steep slope before him and drew a deep breath:

"Alright, let's head up the mountain."

Half an hour later.

Yu Dazhang, drenched in sweat, sat on the ground gasping for breath:

"No more, no more, let's stop here."

During that half hour, everyone—including Li Mingzhao—had stayed by his side, climbing the mountain together with him.

A few of them had even let out soft chuckles along the way.

Seeing Yu Dazhang now slumped on the ground, even Li Mingzhao couldn't help but laugh out loud.

"You're really useless. We've only walked a few steps."

He pointed at the mountaintop and said:

"Get up, we're not far from the summit."

Seeing him about to come pull him up, Yu Dazhang waved his hands vigorously:

"Let me rest a bit. I can't compare with you guys—mountain climbing is my weak spot."

Actually, in that half hour they had already nearly reached the summit.

Surrounded by this group of people, Yu Dazhang didn't feel right walking too slowly, so his stamina drained rapidly; now his legs were weak and even standing up was a struggle.

Looking at the Guo An group, on the other hand—not a single one of them was even sweating, let alone gasping for breath.

Not a flushed face or a racing heart among them; they looked as if they'd just come here for a stroll.

How could he even play together with them? They were on completely different levels.

Back in the meeting room, he had already noticed one thing: not a single one of these people smoked.

On that point alone, criminal cops couldn't compare with them.

He rested for a while.

Yu Dazhang felt his stamina had recovered somewhat and his breathing had steadied considerably, so he stood up and looked down the mountain.

"Why are there so few trees on the mountains around here?"

Standing at the high ground, he noticed the entire terrain looked like a bowl, with the bottom of the bowl being the location of the test zone.

By all rights, mountains in the north should have lush, dense forests.

The black soil is also more fertile than in the south, yet here it was different—the trees on the mountain were pitifully few, and it didn't look like they'd been cut down by humans.

As a child, Yu Dazhang had seen lumberjacks felling trees at a logging camp.

No matter what kind of tree, after being cut down it would always leave a stump on the ground.

But here it was clean—no trace at all on the ground.

Li Mingzhao didn't answer the question, but asked back:

"Why do you think this research institute is located far from the city?"

The hint was already obvious; Yu Dazhang immediately nodded and replied:

"I get it."

What else could it be? The projects studied here must possess a certain danger.

This danger didn't come from the direct harm of explosions, but rather because the project's research direction was itself in the field of weapons and equipment.

During the long-term experimental process, the trees on the surrounding mountains had inevitably been affected.

No wonder the grove of trees at the foot of the mountain was entirely artificially planted.

Back when our country researched the atomic bomb, the experimental base was built in a desert region—the main reasons being safety and secrecy.

Surrounded by mountains on all sides and far from the city, this place possessed those same two characteristics.

After resting a while longer, Yu Dazhang gritted his teeth and made it to the summit.

Standing at the peak, he looked toward the other side of the mountain.

Sure enough, compared with the front, the back of the mountain presented a completely different scene.

Trees grew in wild disorder across the slope, extremely dense.

"Leader, I have an idea."

Yu Dazhang gazed at the dense trees on the slope, a smile spreading across his face:

"Let's dig a pit and let them walk right into our trap."

(End of this chapter)