I can upgrade the shelter-Chapter 807 - 705: Preparing to Plant Mushrooms

In the underground tunnel of Dongting Lake, the troops originally fighting bravely and steadily advancing received orders from their superiors to begin an orderly retreat from the tunnel.

"Squad leader, what does this mean from above? We’ve finally captured the position, just to abandon and retreat?" A soldier operating a heavy mecha asked, while changing the empty rocket launcher.

As soldiers of Flame Country, they have a very honorable tradition. Even if faced with grave dangers, they would not flinch. Even tasks that are known to be deadly, they complete them without hesitation.

But for this army, the most difficult order to accept is to abandon the position and retreat.

For Flame Country soldiers, heads may roll, blood may flow, but positions cannot be abandoned! Even if the enemy bombs the position flat by several meters, even if only one soldier of the company remains, or the army suffers 500% casualties, they will never abandon their post.

Therefore, the soldiers undoubtedly have emotions toward the sudden order to abandon the positions hard-won over time and retreat altogether.

The soldier in front is merely a representative among thousands of such soldiers.

Confronted with the soldier’s question, the squad leader didn’t explain and simply said, "Don’t ask questions you’re not supposed to ask. A soldier’s duty is to obey orders! Orders must be executed to the letter! Whether understood or not, they must still be executed!"

"I know! But I can’t understand!" the soldier wasn’t convinced by the squad leader’s words and continued arguing defiantly: "How much sacrifice have we made all along this route? Old Li, Dunzi, and little Zhao, we’ve lost seven people in our squad alone!

And so many comrades are injured and may never return to the battlefield! Abandoning the captured position, and retreating like this, I can’t face them!"

"Obey the orders!" The squad leader, like the soldier in front, didn’t understand why they had to retreat. But as the task was assigned by their superiors, all a soldier can do is obey.

The military has never been a place for sentimentality or negotiation.

Just as he said, orders must be executed whether understood or not understood.

The army will never specifically explain an order because you don’t understand it, nor abandon executing it due to a soldier’s lack of understanding.

So even the squad leader didn’t understand why they received the order for a complete retreat, he still firmly executed the command, organizing his squad to complete the retreat and blew up their tunnel as required, preventing enemy pursuit through it.

And as they followed the tunnel to retreat underground, the soldier who had seemed wronged suddenly keenly noticed that the shield machine originally placed at the tunnel exit had been lifted, and a large missile lay in its place surrounded by soldiers in exoskeletons busily working around it.

"Squad leader, could that be a mushroom bomb?" Seeing the missile, the soldier’s previous grievance vanished, and his eyes shone brightly.

"Don’t ask about things you shouldn’t. If it’s really a mushroom bomb, it’s a military secret! Did you forget confidentiality discipline? Go back and copy the confidentiality regulations twenty times!" The squad leader quickly stopped the soldier from asking further.

Although upon seeing the missile, he also guessed it might be a nuclear warhead and immediately understood why they received the complete retreat order, his military ethics quickly reminded him that the use of nuclear weapons was always a high military secret, not something regular soldiers should inquire about or know.

Even if seen, they must act as if they haven’t seen!

With this thought, the squad leader quickly restrained his soldiers, swiftly departing the tunnel, with everyone acting as if clueless, returning to their camp.

Besides this squad, more returning soldiers noticed the large missile and even identified its model and bunker-busting warhead.

But everyone chose the same action as the squad leader, acting like they didn’t know, holding back excitement, returning to camp awaiting further orders.

Previously, Flame Country had already used a nuclear bomb in the Dongting Lake region, so these soldiers never doubted that the military would use one again. If they planned to employ it, they certainly wouldn’t leave them in the camp, but rather would make nuclear protection preparations.

Sure enough, soon all troops received further orders, starting to retreat from the temporary camp constructed on Dongting Lake’s surface back to semi-permanent camps before the counterattack.

And they prepared as required to respond to nuclear and biochemical weapons.

After everyone completed preparations, the DF missile equipped with bunker-busting warheads, upgraded and modified by Chen Xin, was loaded onto a flatbed truck and then pushed into the tunnel.

After pushing the missile into the tunnel, the last batch of personnel responsible for launching this special missile also evacuated by helicopter.

The entire Dongting Lake region seemingly became vacated, not a single person left.

Not only had the troops previously attacking the tunnels withdrawn, but even those entering from other directions and those defending had also retreated.

After all, this time the military used a megaton-class strategic nuclear bomb, which wasn’t comparable in power to the previous tactical nuclear weapon. And though the military’s sole purpose was to destroy the alien creatures’ underground nest with the nuclear bomb, cutting off their troop replenishment, they may continue their initial plan using nuclear weapons to collapse Dongting Lake’s underground tunnels for a permanent solution.

In fact, the military indeed consulted geology experts for calculations, concurrent with previous geological surveys for tunnel advancement plans throughout Dongting Lake.

On receiving Dongting Lake’s geological survey report and the underground tunnel distribution, the military handed these materials to related geology experts for comprehensive and detailed calculations and simulation.

However, everyone believed the advancement plan would proceed smoothly, where using nuclear weapons was only the final backup plan.

The military only designed the tunnels in one hand to be suitable for nuclear weapon use, leaving some contingencies in tunnel construction, so if nuclear weapons needed to be deployed, they could be functional.

And now, the time has come for these contingencies to take effect.