Chapter 221: In Position
“It will be up to you to show your divine power then,” Zhang Yingchen said, testing the earpiece.
Ye Mengyan grinned. “I guarantee your power will be boundless. Your Five Thunder Art is awesome. If you toss a grenade then, won’t everyone immediately kowtow and submit?”
“I hope so,” Zhang Yingchen nodded. “This matter is complicated, and achieving complete success won’t be easy.” He sighed, “I never thought the situation in Shandong would be a hundred times more complex than I imagined!”
The strength and influence of the folk religious sects far exceeded his estimations. The followers’ devotion to their sects and the sects’ control over their followers also surpassed his expectations.
Now, he had finally forced the main altar’s forces to mobilize. Zhang Yingchen was confident that if he could shatter the myth of the main altar this time, although it was hard to predict if it would trigger a chain reaction, he would at least secure his territory in Yizhou.
On the map, Ye Mengyan assigned tasks to his squad leaders. All members were divided into several independent combat teams, each consisting of 3 to 5 people.
Due to a lack of sufficient radio equipment, a “secondary mission” like today’s couldn’t provide communication devices for every team. Besides him and Zhang Yingchen, only three sniper teams were equipped with walkie-talkies. Therefore, Ye Mengyan could only meticulously divide the mission by timetable—at least watches were not too rare for them, and the possibility of manufacturing them in this time period was relatively high.
“Your mission is to control all entrances and exits of the Ma Family Village, and not let anyone out,” Ye Mengyan pointed on the map. “The Ma Family Village has only two gates, which are easy to control, but we must be wary of them trying to escape over the walls with ropes.”
All team members nodded in unison.
“Our mission is not annihilation, but control,” Ye Mengyan emphasized the nature of the mission again. “No one is to leave the Ma Family Village without my order. Anyone attempting to leave will be sniped.”
“Understood!”
“All teams, move out!” Ye Mengyan looked at his watch. “It is now 6:50. Each team will depart in batches. Be in your designated positions before 9:00!”
The Ma Family Village was only 30 li away, so there was more than enough time to reach the preset positions by 9:00. According to the schedule Zhang Yingchen had given him, the main show would probably start around 11:00. Time was ample.
After all the teams had departed, Ye Mengyan’s team left last. He put on his tropical version BDU—this was a genuine US military issue, not the domestic civilian version worn by the team members. Chen Sigen had brought several sets himself and had given one to each of the Elder squad leaders.
He put on his boots and shouldered his gear. He tucked a Tokarev T-33 into the holster on his waist. Although Ye Mengyan was only a high school student in his past life, he was very particular about his weapons. He considered pistols like the Glock 17 too “girly”—what was the point of a plastic gun? But his most coveted M1911 was a rarity among the Elders, and no one was willing to give him one, unless he was willing to try Li Yiyuan’s homemade guns. In the end, he managed to get a “manly” pistol from Qian Shuiting.
Next, he took out the rifle he had brought for this mission from behind his bed. The rifle was in a brown waterproof gun case. He took the gun out and inspected it carefully. It was a Swiss-made K31 straight-pull rifle, contributed to the Special Forces Command by the North American branch. With a scope, this high-precision rifle was capable of sniping tasks within 1000 meters.
He put the gun back in its case and zipped it up securely. The importance of a firearm, especially a high-precision rifle, was self-evident. The Council of Elders had very few high-performance rifles, and their service life had to be extended as much as possible.
Then he took out a leather-wrapped, iron-reinforced wooden box. It was a “sniper kit” pieced together by Xue Ziliang and others from their existing equipment, including items brought by the North American branch and the various private collections of the Elders.
Ye Mengyan put on his gloves and carefully opened the wooden box. Inside were an anemometer, a small calculator, an electronic thermometer and hygrometer, a universal bipod, and a US military standard high-precision rifle scope. Finally, there was a silencer for the rifle.
This was an unimaginably luxurious set of equipment. So far, the sniper kit had only been used a few times, and those were just for practice, like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut. As Bei Wei once joked, this kit was more suitable for assassinating an emperor or a khan.
“If we don’t kill people, are we just going to look at it?” Ye Mengyan muttered. He took all the equipment except the silencer—it wouldn’t fit on the K31’s muzzle and would affect the effective range. He decided not to use it and would find other ways to mask the sound of the gunshot.
The sniper kit and the K31 rifle had not yet been given to the naturalized members—they usually used a cheaper version: the Mosin-Nagant rifle and a Soviet-made 4x optical scope. They had a large stock of both.
Finally, he picked up his binoculars and put them in his bag. He checked his ammunition belt and grenades. Then he walked out the door and waved to the two team members waiting for him. The three of them quietly slipped out of the Yunsheng Temple and disappeared into the small woods on the hill.
The three of them quickly ran towards the bushes and crossed the adjacent fields—the green sorghum was so dense that it was almost impossible to tell the direction. Using a map and a compass, they quickly found the correct direction and headed towards the Ma Family Village.
The green sorghum seemed endless. Occasionally, they would cross a narrow country road or a small ditch between the fields. The team moved quickly, without a word. Occasionally, Ye Mengyan would stop to check their direction.
They carefully passed by a deserted village. No smoke rose from the chimneys—the spring floods had killed or driven away most of the villagers. The sound of chickens and dogs could no longer be heard. The wood from the doors and windows had been torn off for firewood, leaving dark, gaping holes. White bones, whether human or animal, lay on the ground.
Ye Mengyan’s team arrived at a small hill about 200 meters from the Ma Family Village. The hill was not high, but it was roughly level with the village walls. It was covered with tall pine trees and various other trees.
The sun was already high in the sky when the team climbed the hill and entered the woods, but it was very dark inside. Black pine trees stood rigidly, their branches and leaves sheltering the clearings. The sun found a small gap in the canopy, and sunlight streamed through the cracks in the branches and leaves into the woods. The outer slopes of the pine forest were covered with dense miscellaneous trees, providing excellent concealment and an easy escape route if needed. During his reconnaissance a few days ago, Ye Mengyan had identified this as a suitable sniper position to control the entire village.
Ye Mengyan observed for a while and chose a tall, sturdy tree on the edge of the woods, near the Ma Family Village wall. The trunk was smooth, but there were some burls and thick branches at a low height. He made a “watch carefully” gesture, had one team member stand guard at the base of the tree, and he and the other team member carefully climbed the pine tree.
Ye Mengyan nimbly climbed among the large branches, constantly observing the situation outside. Finally, he chose a suitable platform near the top of the tree. He lowered a rope, and the team member on the ground tied the rifle, binoculars, and sniper kit to it for him to pull up.
After a short rest, Ye Mengyan skillfully moved aside some branches that were blocking his view, breaking some and twisting others together. Soon, he had a fairly comfortable and concealed hiding spot.
After getting used to the height, he began to observe the outline of the Ma Family Village in front of him. With the binoculars, he could clearly see the entire layout of this rural, earthen-walled village.
The Ma Family Village was different from villages like Dadian Village. It was actually just a large estate belonging to Ma Weisan, with no other homes or shops, so it covered a small area. He raised his binoculars and slowly adjusted the focus.
The entire village was surprisingly magnified, and the houses seemed to be right in front of the woods. The appearance of the houses was so striking and clear that he could almost count the tiles on the roofs. He could even clearly see the people walking in the courtyards, the hens pecking for food, and a dog lying under the eaves, panting from the heat.
He patiently turned the binoculars and soon saw the large courtyard where the incense hall ceremony was being held. There were many mat-sheds in the courtyard, under which were large square tables already laden with large plates and bowls, looking like a rural celebratory banquet. The main hall was also set up with a banquet, and an opera stage was decorated with colorful silk. It looked festive. Many servants were bustling about.
The mat-sheds in the courtyard slightly obstructed his view, but his position was very advantageous. Except for a few blind spots, he could clearly observe most corners of the courtyard.
If I can see it, I can hit it. Ye Mengyan took out his rifle and carefully adjusted the muzzle through the scope.
There were already many people in the courtyard. Besides the servants busy with the arrangements, most were followers who had come to attend the ceremony. They were of all shapes and sizes, and from their clothing, they were both rich and poor. Some were dressed in silk and sat arrogantly in chairs, drinking tea, while others wore ill-fitting cotton clothes and stood timidly in the corners.
“I wonder who has to die,” Ye Mengyan observed through the scope. According to the plan, the Daoist would decide who to shoot. However, he also had the authority to act at any time.
Besides himself, there were three other sniper teams outside the Ma Family Village, ready to be deployed as needed.
Time ticked by, approaching 11:00. Ye Mengyan finally saw the Daoist’s sedan chair in his line of sight.