Chapter 126: Provocation

How clever was Lian Ruixue? How could she not know that Zha Zheming was provoking her?

But what could be done? Clearly, Team X was now like a ripe fruit, and naturally, people would jump out to fight for it when it was mature. She had expected this, but she did not expect it to come so soon, and that the opponent would be so power ful, vaguely overpowering her grandfather.

Now the country was still in danger, only relatively calm, but some people could no longer hold back and had begun to fight for power.

For the weapon experiment in November, why did so many Frontline cities not be chosen, and instead Xiang A City was chosen? Lian Ruixue could already sense the deeper meaning at that time; it was nothing more than using the weapon experiment to challenge the Super Warriors. They could not let the Super Warriors occupy the dominant position; they needed more say.

Just from the weapon experiment, it could be seen that the struggle between factions had begun.

Sometimes Lian Ruixue really hated these so-called upper echelons of the country. Did they not know that the Earth was currently in the Fierce Beast Era, that more than half of the country was still in the hands of Fierce Beasts, that people were still living in misery, that food reserves could only last for half a year, and that the Fierce Beasts had been calm for too long?

At a time like this, they should have been working sincerely together to drive the Fierce Beasts out of this land, but instead, they started secret struggles for power.

If this continued, the whole country would sooner or later split. The arrival of the Fierce Beast Era had given too many people too much ambition. When their desires for profit were not satisfied, splitting was absolutely inevitable. Humans were originally in a weak position; once they split and the whole country fell into chaos, what would they use to resist the tide of Fierce Beasts?

At the same time, she also hated her grandfather a little; why was he still so attached to power?

At this moment, Lian Ruixue’s mind was in chaos. There were many things she could not figure out. Facing Zha Zheming’s provocation, she chose to ignore it. She just stood aside with a cold face, letting Zha Zheming explain the future development of machinery and weapons. In her opinion, what was there to fight for over the leadership of a mere Squadron? There were more than a hundred Squadrons in the whole country, and Team X was just one of them. Trying to change a situation with just one Squadron was too naive.

When Zha Zheming left, some members who could not read the atmosphere still offered applause, because what Zha Zheming had just said was indeed brilliant.

Lian Ruixue showed no expression and said nothing, then she also left the cafeteria.

After both of them had left, the people who were still clapping finally realized something was wrong, because everyone else was staring at them with anger in their eyes.

“What… what’s wrong?”

“What’s wrong? Can’t you tell that this Vice Captain Zhao came to seize our Captain’s power? You pig, still clapping. Clapping your damn head.”

Zhou Liming was not interested in managing these things. He had no good feelings toward Zha Zheming and always felt that this person was somewhat sinister. Do not doubt; this was intuition, intuition coming from the Fierce Beast Gene. On the surface, Zha Zheming appeared sunny, but in his bones, who knew what he was like? What did it mean to hide a dagger behind a smile, to hide killing intent in laughter?

Returning to his room and playing games for a while, Zhou Liming was now thinking about how much impact Zha Zheming’s arrival would have on Team X. Judging by the strength Zha Zheming showed upon his arrival, it seemed impossible for things to calm down. Super Warriors equipped with tanks? He actually thought of that.

In fact, no one in Team X took this seriously.

Early the next morning, the assembly bugle actually sounded in Huanghua Town. This surprised Team X, who had gradually become accustomed to waking up late. Then they all hurriedly got up, washed as fast as they could, and rushed out of their living quarters. The bugle came from the business school, so they had no choice but to run there.

On the playground of the business school, ten tanks were already lined up, and dozens of tank soldiers stood in front of their respective tanks.

Zha Zheming stood coldly on the stage of the playground, looking at his watch from time to time, with a hint of sarcasm on his face.

Soon, the people who heard the bugle and rushed over all stood in formation, lining up in a straight row.

But there were exceptions. In the entire Team X, including Lian Ruixue, only forty-seven people actually arrived, and four were absent.

Zha Zheming frowned, swept his eyes over the row of troops, and sneered. Lian Ruixue had not come, so he had no right to say anything, but the other three… as the Vice Captain, there was no need for him to be polite. He had long memorized the information of Team X in his mind, so just by looking briefly, he could confirm exactly who had not come.

Zhou Liming, Huang Dazhuang, and Qiao Bingsen did not appear here.

“Very good. They say a new official has three fires to set, but I didn’t expect you to fit this number so well.” Zha Zheming felt a slight anger in his heart and lost any good impression toward the other members who had rushed over. With an ugly expression, he tapped the watch on his wrist rhythmically and snorted coldly: “Worthy of being elites selected from hundreds of thousands of soldiers, your assembly was a full three minutes slower than others.”

The people below all changed their expressions; as elites, when had they ever been spoken to like this?

Zha Zheming laughed and said indifferently: “What, not convinced? Heh, from the sounding of the bugle until now, a total of five minutes passed before you finally appeared on the playground. Even the most undisciplined soldiers would have five minutes, right? Don’t forget, you are elites selected from hundreds of thousands of soldiers, yet it took you five minutes. Don’t you feel ashamed?”

“I don’t know how Captain Lian leads her soldiers, but under my command, laziness will not work. Training will be the main theme of our Squadron in the future. Only soldiers who can endure hardship are good soldiers and can survive on the battlefield. I don’t care about your Fierce Beast Gene modification or your powerful bodies; I only know that if you are soldiers, you must train.”

To be honest, what Zha Zheming said was not wrong; the foundation of soldiers was training, constant training.

Knowing that he was giving them a show of power, no one could say anything. After all, taking five minutes to assemble was definitely a disgrace to them.

Seeing that although the people below were angry, no one erupted, Zha Zheming appeared somewhat smug. He looked at his watch again and asked: “What is going on with the absent Huang Dazhuang, Qiao Bingsen, and Zhou Liming? Do not forget, this is the army, and there are army rules. Whoever can’t stand it can get lost; we don’t need such black sheep.”

“Heh, who said anyone can get lost if they can’t stand it?”

From a distance, Qiao Bingsen’s loud voice came over: “Damn it, can’t even get a good sleep. It’s early in the morning, so a bugle isn’t strange. What’s strange is why there’s a fly buzzing in my ear. I really want to slap it to death. What bad luck; it’s almost December, and there are still flies coming out.”

Beside Qiao Bingsen were Huang Dazhuang and Zhou Liming; they looked like they had just woken up, walking over with disheveled military uniforms.

Zha Zheming’s expression changed; he did not expect Qiao Bingsen to speak to him like this. Did he not know his identity?

Zhou Liming grinned and said: “Brother Qiao, did you receive a notification saying who is in charge of Team X now? How come I didn’t hear Captain Lian say anything about an assembly? Really, didn’t we say before? We are personnel with special privileges; we have the right not to participate in training and stuff. Tsk tsk, have the rules changed? How come Captain Lian didn’t notify us?”

Huang Dazhuang gave a silly smile: “I don’t know, I only know Captain Lian is still sleeping.”

The three of them playing off each other instantly made Zha Zheming’s face look even uglier. He laughed in anger and said: “Very well, let’s assume there was no notification this time. Starting tomorrow, you must get up at five in the morning for assembly training, training on how to coordinate with tanks to exert greater combat power.” He launched this surprise attack just to give them a show of power; now that it had served its purpose, there was no need to entangle with them on this matter.

Qiao Bingsen picked his ear and said: “Is this Vice Captain Zha’s decision, or a decision made after discussing with Captain Lian?” He stressed the three words ‘Vice Captain’ heavily, then looked at Zha Zheming with a smile. Of course, he knew Zha Zheming’s background, but so what? He was someone from the Yu faction, so they were completely incompatible, and there was no need to fear them.

Huang Dazhuang even less so; he was single-handedly cultivated by Lian Chengshu, otherwise he would not have been transferred under Lian Ruixue’s command.

As for Zhou Liming, his attitude was somewhat ambiguous; no one knew what he was thinking.

In the information Zha Zheming obtained, it seemed Zhou Liming had not pledged loyalty to the Lian Family. One of his purposes in coming this time was also to win over Zhou Liming. He didn’t understand it at first, but after his father, Zhao Haishan, showed him some information, he naturally understood what his father’s true intention was…

“Rest assured, I will naturally discuss this matter with Captain Lian. I believe that prioritizing the overall situation, she will agree.” Zha Zheming changed his expression from earlier and just stood there indifferently, saying: “As I said, mechanical power is the mainstream of the future. The risk of Super Warriors is something the country cannot promote on a large scale, so cooperation with mechanical power appears very important. If you are still a member of Team X, please return to the ranks.”

Seeing that Zha Zheming actually did not erupt, Qiao Bingsen was also stunned, then shook his head and jogged back to the ranks.

Actually, until now, Qiao Bingsen still did not know exactly what Zha Zheming meant. Saying he wanted to fight for the command of Team X seemed a bit unlike it. But if not, why did he constantly challenge the Captain’s prestige? It was as if he was acting willfully, doing whatever came to mind, acting chaotically.