"The training here was nothing like what Anthony and his team had imagined beforehand.
They thought they were here to learn combat skills.
Unexpectedly, for nearly two months, aside from physical training every morning and evening, Song Heping spent the rest of the ti on lectures and tactical training.
The curriculum ranged from joint operation command to offensive and defensive tactics, also covering logistics support and tactical coordination at the squad and platoon levels.
Many ELN students privately discussed feeling as though they were not at a Special Soldier School but rather at a school for reading.
Moreover, many were worried whether the two months of learning would be of any use when they returned.
These concerns were not unreasonable.
After all, the ELN ard forces were constantly engaged in real combat without any systematic concept or much in the way of theoretical tactical foundations.
Their guerrilla warfare was judged solely by actual combat effectiveness—victorious ant aweso, defeat ant failure.
Nevertheless, now everyone had made significant progress in tactical command. At least when Song Heping set a combat intention, these 50 people could quickly develop a fairly reasonable combat plan and manually draw a rough map with military deploynts using a pencil on their papers.
Most importantly, they could now easily take a compass and a map, and quickly determine their positions without relying on GPS.
As a month quickly passed,
the coursework beca gradually less intense than at the beginning.
The ELN students saw that recently their instructor, Song Heping, seed less attentive, leaving training matters directly to an instructor nad Jiang Feng. Every day, he led the team out for squad and platoon tactical training or continued with command tasks. After physical training in the evening and a shower, they would recite theoretical material under outdoor incandescent lights, studying as diligently as if preparing for university entrance exams.
During this month, the school also underwent significant changes.
First, the construction of the runway was nearly complete.
Recently, so Russian pilots had arrived, and the two SU-24s in the hangars had been assembled and were undergoing daily test flights.
Then, a large number of instructors began to arrive; these instructors were all Chinese and reportedly retired NCOs and officers from the PLA.
Since the new instructors arrived, the ELN students suddenly beca busy.
Previously, it was Song Heping and Jiang Feng, along with a translator, leading everyone in training. In the last half-month, twenty or thirty instructors surrounded these 50 students, intensifying both lessons and training.
From then on, the good days for the ELN students were a thing of the past.
Every morning at 5:30, a bugle call rang out on ti in the camp.
Upon hearing the call, they had to get out of bed, dressed, and assembled within five minutes, followed by a series of physical exercises that left them as drenched as if they had been pulled from water.
After breakfast and rest until eight, classes began punctually.
Mornings were usually for military theory lessons, and afternoons were for fieldwork classes."
After two hours of physical training in the evening, they began the theoretical examination to test the military theory they had learned.
At nine-thirty they showered, lights out at ten, and sotis in the night, there would be one or two ergency assemblies that made these ELN ard guerrilla mbers as tense as raw recruits.
Two months quickly slipped through the fingers.
That night, the ergency assembly whistle suddenly sounded.
The students, who had just finished bathing, heard the whistle and rushed back to the dormitories, packed their backpacks at top speed, donned their camouflage uniforms, put on their individual carry equipnt, grabbed ammunition, rushed out of the tents, and assembled on the open ground.
Then, everyone realized that the person blowing the ergency assembly whistle tonight was not another newly arrived instructor but the principal, Song Heping, who had been recently staying near the airport.
"Two months have already passed, and I want to ask everyone, do you feel like you have learned sothing?"
Song Heping's eyes swept over each student, finally landing on Anthony.
"Anthony, share your feelings. Do you think what you learned here is useful?"
Anthony thought for a mont and said, "I learned a lot; I find it very useful. For example, I think the managent and training thods are quite good. I might use them in the forces I manage when I go back."
"Managent and training are one thing, but I'm talking about combat," Song Heping said. "Do you feel like you have learned how to fight and command here?"
"I have," Anthony said. "Principal and instructors, the tactical and command knowledge you taught us, I will apply it in future combat."
Song Heping's gaze turned towards Godwin. "Godwin, what do you think? Have you learned anything?"
Godwin said, "Of course, when I first ca, I led the way, and everyone got lost, but now I've learned to work with maps. Even if you throw into the jungle in another country, I won't get lost."
Song Heping nodded with a smile, "It's good that everyone says they've learned sothing. I hope it's not just talk. Since you are about to graduate and soon return to Colombia, I need to make sure you've truly learned skills. Otherwise, I'd feel embarrassed taking such high tuition fees from your leader. Therefore, we will be conducting an assessnt, and the mode of this assessnt is very simple and direct. Take all your equipnt, including the mortars and RPGs you brought. Bring everything, leave nothing behind, and tonight we will cross the river and return to Colombia."
"Return to Colombia?"
Anthony couldn't help exclaiming.
"Are you graduating us and sending us back?"
Song Heping shook his head. "It's not that simple. We are going back to Colombia to conduct the assessnt."
"An assessnt?!"
All the mbers present looked at each other.
How would they be assessed by returning to Colombia?
Song Heping said, "The topic of this assessnt is very simple. Return to Colombia, enter Lamo Town near Inirida Port, and attack a camp of an AUC battalion stationed there. According to reliable information, they have just picked up a shipnt of arms from the port, provided by the governnt army. Recently, the AUC ard forces have been constantly supported by the governnt army's arms supply. I suspect they may be planning a new major offensive against your ELN ard forces. If you can successfully attack their camp and destroy the batch of arms they have just received and not yet distributed, it will assess whether your learning over the past two months has been effective and also relieve so pressure on your organization."
He paused and added, "As for maps and such, I will have them distributed to you later. Anthony, you are the highest-ranking student here. How these fifty people are organized, how you divide them, and how you plan your operations is up to you. Instructor Jiang and I will follow you across the river, but we won't interfere. How you fight, win or lose, I won't care, but I will record your performance and include it in the graduation evaluation sent to your leader Morins. This relates to your future appointnts within the organization, so perform well; I can see who is doing well."
Upon hearing that graduation ant real combat, and moreover returning to Colombia for real combat against AUC, all the students beca excited.
"Go, bring all the arms; the school will provide vehicles to take everyone to the riverbank. Be prepared; this is real combat. It's best everyone survives."
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