Chapter 193 War on the Sand Table
On the podium, Lu Jingyan's face remained expressionless as he calmly walked back to the blackboard.
Everyone thought he was going to write something to refute it, but he casually threw the piece of chalk into the chalk box.
The crisp "click" sounded especially loud in the quiet classroom.
He turned around, looked down at the audience, and said calmly.
"Two months ago, on the western front, at the Kara Pass, one of our border patrol platoons, sixteen men, encountered a reinforced enemy company of one hundred and twenty men, armed with two heavy machine guns and three mortars. We only had light weapons."
There was no impassioned tone, no angry rebuke; he was simply stating a fact.
But the moment the stark contrasting number "sixteen to one hundred and twenty" was uttered, the entire classroom fell into an eerie silence. Jiang Fan, who had just been all smiles and sneers, froze.
"The theory is finished, now let's start the practical application."
Lu Jingyan pointed to the desks and chairs in the classroom.
"With the podium as north and the classroom door as south. The three rows on the left are the red team. The three rows on the right are the blue team."
He glanced around the room, his gaze finally settling on that troublemaker.
"The red team is that sixteen-man patrol platoon. The blue team is a reinforced company of one hundred and twenty men."
"Now, you are them. The tables are bunkers, the chairs are fortifications, and the passageways are valleys. Red team, construct your defensive positions within thirty minutes. Blue team, annihilate the Red team within one hour."
"start."
Two words, as powerful as a military order.
The students in the entire classroom were stunned.
What... what's going on here? Are we playing a war game?
But looking into Lu Jingyan's emotionless eyes, no one dared to treat this as a game. An invisible pressure descended, and the students began to frantically whisper among themselves.
"What do we do? How can sixteen people fight against one hundred and twenty?"
"Given this terrain, how should we arrange the table?"
"Quickly, quickly, pile up the chairs to use as sandbags!"
Amid the chaos, Chu Yunfei saw another opportunity.
She took a deep breath and stood up. This time, she learned her lesson and didn't act on her own initiative. Instead, she looked at Lu Jingyan first, adopting a very humble posture.
"Professor Lu, I'm from the Red Team. I suggest we use these three lecterns as the core to build a triangular defensive fortification, with chairs on both flanks forming crossfire points. This way we can..."
She spoke fluently and eloquently, reciting the standard defensive tactics from the book in a flawless and highly professional manner.
Many classmates looked at her with admiration.
Lu Jingyan listened quietly to her finish speaking, then he raised his hand and pointed to a corner of the classroom ceiling.
"That ventilation shaft, on the battlefield, is just an easily overlooked rock protrusion."
He then pointed to the heating pipes near Chu Yunfei's feet.
"That was a drainage ditch that a person could crawl through."
Finally, his gaze fell on Chu Yunfei's face, his tone still icy.
"Your crossfire point is perfectly countered by the sniper on that rock. Your command post is just five meters from the drainage ditch outlet. One grenade and your command system is gone."
He paused for a moment, then delivered his final verdict.
"According to your plan, the position will fall in no more than an hour. Your casualties will exceed half."
Chu Yunfei's face turned deathly pale in an instant. Her lips trembled, and she couldn't utter a single word. She sat down in a disheveled state.
The classroom was deathly silent.
If people were initially just watching the spectacle, now everyone feels a chill run down their spines.
Lu Jingyan shifted his gaze from the distraught Chu Yunfei to Jiang Fan, who hadn't spoken a word since the beginning.
"You." He raised his chin. "Blue team commander. Your attack plan."
When his name was called, Jiang Fan seemed to be activated, and his cynical smile returned to his face.
"My plan?" He shrugged. "Simple. The main force will launch a feint attack from the front to draw their attention. I'll then send a small elite team of ten men from that..."
He imitated Lu Jingyan and pointed to the window on the other side of the classroom.
"We'll sneak up that cliff and take out their command post. A decapitation strike, understand?"
This plan is bold, unexpected, and full of brilliant imagination.
Many students' eyes lit up when they heard this.
"Great idea! It's a radical solution!"
"As expected of Jiang Fan, he's got a sharp mind!"
Lu Jingyan looked at him, a hint of "appreciation" appearing on his face for the first time, but his next words were even colder than before.
“Your squad carries three days’ worth of individual rations and water. From the location you mentioned, it will take five days to cross the cliff and then circle around to their rear. There is no water source along the way; it’s all weathered rock.”
He looked at Jiang Fan and asked a question that was both incredibly simple and incredibly fatal.
Where are your supply lines?
What do your soldiers eat and drink?
Jiang Fan's smile froze.
logistics?
His mind was filled with glorious victories such as surprise attacks, decapitation strikes, and victories against overwhelming odds; he never thought about any of the damned logistics!
He opened his mouth, wanting to say something, but couldn't utter a single word. His face, which had been so vivid because of his arrogance, gradually turned a deep liver color.
The entire classroom was completely silent.
Everyone was stumped by these two questions.
Yes, war isn't a dinner party; people need to eat, drink, and relieve themselves. Behind the few words about "surprise attacks" in textbooks, how many lives were sacrificed for logistical support?
Lu Jingyan didn't look at him again, but turned to face everyone again.
"In real battles, the Red Army commander made a judgment the moment he encountered the enemy."
"Instead of holding out for reinforcements, he ordered five soldiers to take all the explosives and blow up the enemy's only escape route—an ice bridge. Then, he led the rest of the men into a valley with only a narrow passage leading to it."
"They gathered their ammunition, built fortifications with stones and ice, and guarded that entrance."
"The Blue Team was cut off from its retreat and became isolated. They launched a frantic attack for three days and three nights, suffering more than sixty casualties, but still failed to break through that small entrance."
"On the fourth day, the Blue Force ran out of ammunition and food and began to collapse. Our main force arrived and annihilated the enemy."
"After the battle, while cleaning up the battlefield, all eleven soldiers who held the line of defense were killed. Each of them had an average of seven gunshot wounds, and they saved the last bullet for themselves."
"They sacrificed sixteen lives to save one hundred and twenty enemies and defended the border."
The story was over, and Lu Jingyan's tone remained completely flat from beginning to end.
But inside the classroom, some female students were already sobbing softly.
The male students clenched their fists, their eyes were red, and their chests heaved violently.
They seemed to see the snow-covered ground stained with blood, the eleven figures who did not fall until death, and the tragic sacrifices behind the words "Though far away, they will be punished" in the book.
"Ring ring—"
The bell rang abruptly, signaling the end of get out of class.
But in the huge classroom, not a single person moved.
Dead silence.
After a deathly silence lasting more than ten seconds.
"Smack."
A student, with trembling hands, clapped.
"Slap, slap."
"Clap clap clap clap clap—"
The next second, thunderous applause erupted!
Everyone stood up and clapped with all their might. They looked at the tall and upright figure on the podium, their eyes no longer filled with curiosity and doubt, but with the purest awe and worship.
Outside the door, Professor He Jianian, his face ashen, turned and strode away.
The crowd gradually dispersed.
Su Wantang took off her hat and sunglasses and walked step by step from the back of the classroom to the front of the podium.
She looked at him, her beautiful peach blossom eyes filled with undisguised pride and admiration.
As Lu Jingyan watched her approach, his gaze softened.
Su Wantang walked up to him naturally, took his arm, and walked out of the teaching building side by side like any ordinary couple.
The afternoon sun shone warmly on the two of them.
“Teacher Lu,” she turned her head, looked up at him, and smiled with her eyes crinkling, “you look really handsome today.”
Lu Jingyan's lips curled up slightly.
“However,” Su Wantang changed the subject, a brilliant light called “ambition” flashing in her eyes, “being handsome alone cannot fill an empty stomach.”
"It's time to lay the first cornerstone for our business empire."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com