539: Paint the boundary markers with red ink.

Lu Jing watched Niannian and Military Doctor Shen treating the wounded nearby. He walked over to the radio and contacted the Commanders.

"Reporting, Commanders, the last two missing Comrades-in-arms have been found..."

On the other end of the phone, Captain Chen and Captain Li were incredibly excited after hearing the news.

The Commanders of the Military Region were also extremely happy after hearing the news.

"That's wonderful, Xiao Lu, you all worked hard this time..."

"That's wonderful."

"They found them."

Many people were so excited they nearly cried. Captain Chen was full of pride. Although the men under his command had executed countless missions, this mission was different from the previous ones. Lu Jing and his team not only found all the missing Comrades-in-arms, but every single one of them was alive.

After the Commanders praised them for a few moments, they spoke again.

"Comrade Lu Jing, although your rescue mission was successfully completed, the patrol mission still needs to continue..."

After Xiao Niannian treated Xiao Zhu's wound, she gave him a bowl of medicine.

Xiao Niannian looked at Lu Jing, who was not far away.

Before long, her Older Brother also rushed over.

"Old Lu."

"Old Gu, I just received orders from the Commanders telling us to continue patrolling. This time, over eighty enemies invaded the border. Counting those killed by our Comrades-in-arms and those we captured, there are only fifty-plus remaining. More than thirty people have not been accounted for..."

"The Commanders instructed us to find those people..."

Hearing Lu Jing's words, Gu Yuan nodded.

"I also just received the order."

Now, including the border defense Comrades-in-arms, they formed a team of eighty people.

Although these two Comrades-in-arms were injured, their condition was decent, and they had already been placed on stretchers.

Xiao Niannian listened to her Older Brother and Lu Jing, then looked toward Battalion Commander Wei and his men.

Battalion Commander Wei and the other border defense Comrades-in-arms also knew the route, so their continued patrol would pose no problem.

"Since that's the case, let's patrol together and cover all ten of these patrol points."

"If we find any more enemies, we'll capture them all alive."

Lu Jing and Gu Yuan exchanged smiles.

Xiao Niannian smiled too, watching their tacit understanding.

Gu Yuan thought of the boat he had just seen and couldn't help but ask about it.

"Old Lu, what was the deal with that boat we saw earlier?"

Hearing his future brother-in-law's words, Lu Jing's gaze fell upon Niannian's face before he withdrew his sight.

"It was a boat that drifted down from upstream, and we just happened to use it."

"That coincidental?"

Gu Yuan looked at Lu Jing with suspicion. How could that be possible?

There is no one living for dozens of miles around here. Who would create such a vessel and have it drift down from upstream to this spot?

Could it be that there is still a Military Unit factory within dozens of miles of this area?

That's impossible, too. The people of White Elephant frequently cross the border. If they discovered it, they would certainly attack our army's Arms Factory.

"It's true. We were extremely surprised when we saw it, too."

Military Doctor Shen didn't think much of it. He heard that this river was a tributary of the Yarlung Tsangpo River, and downstream was White Elephant.

The people of White Elephant have always wanted to seize parts of our border region and occupy more territory.

And this kind of conflict hasn't happened just once.

"If it didn't come from upstream, are you suggesting we could conjure up a boat?"

Gu Yuan heard Military Doctor Shen's words and felt that Military Doctor Shen was right. Even if they knew how to build a simple boat, it would take dozens of people several hours to construct one.

Furthermore, the boat looked over ten years old; it was indeed quite worn.

Even if a new boat was aged artificially, it wouldn't look like this.

After eating lunch, they turned around and continued walking toward Patrol Point Five.

The path here was easier to walk than the previous cliff. Although it rained yesterday, there wasn't much rainfall here, and the river water hadn't submerged the stones. Xiao Niannian stepped on these stones, hopping along.

Lu Jing followed behind, his eyes fixed on her.

Every time he thought she might slip, Niannian straightened herself again.

Lu Jing thought of the time Niannian ran forward, looking as if she were flying.

Niannian had mentioned this before, but because there was too much training and they had gone on several missions back to back, that parkour training hadn't been practiced yet.

It seems that when they return, they can let the Soldiers learn it; this skill can sometimes be useful.

Just like this rescue, rappelling was also used, and because everyone was extremely proficient, the effect was very different.

"When we return, please teach them that parkour technique, Niannian."

Hearing Lu Jing's words, Xiao Niannian nodded.

"Okay."

Regarding parkour, she had previously written a training manual, but there were too many training subjects, and this subject hadn't been scheduled yet.

When she ran to the edge of the cliff to save people before, many Team Members had asked about it, saying they wanted to learn.

Xiao Niannian noticed that these Team Members were becoming increasingly proactive.

They were proactive in everything they did.

The atmosphere in the team now was one of eagerness to learn, proactivity, and positivity... Soon, they arrived at Patrol Point Five, and when Xiao Niannian and Lu Jing saw the boundary marker, their expressions darkened.

"This was blown up using explosives."

The original boundary marker had been blasted into several pieces.

Xiao Niannian's gaze swept around, and she saw some large stone blocks not far away.

Lu Jing also looked around.

They spotted a few other decent blocks.

"This one is good."

"This one will also work."

Lu Jing called for men to use ropes and wooden sticks to move one of the stone blocks over.

"Use the tools to carve the characters..."

Xiao Niannian watched two Soldiers holding tools and carving characters onto the stone block.

After half an hour of carving, the characters on both sides were complete.

Lu Jing took a can of red paint from his backpack, held a brush, and prepared to paint the characters red.

He handed Niannian a brush.

"Here."

Xiao Niannian nodded.

She had practiced calligraphy for over ten years, but never had she felt such emotion as she did now.

Painting the boundary marker of the Motherland red was solemn and sacred, a symbol of the nation's territory and sovereignty, and a spiritual totem in the hearts of border defense Soldiers.

After Xiao Niannian wrote two characters, she looked at the other Comrades-in-arms watching.

"Who else wants to come forward?"

Hearing this, Fang Qiang spoke up.

"Reporting, Instructor Xiao, I request permission."

Xiao Niannian handed the brush to Fang Qiang.

And Lu Jing also gave brushes to the other Soldiers.

The Soldiers excitedly held the brushes to paint the boundary marker red; some Soldiers' hands were trembling slightly.

All the Soldiers knew the significance of this act for them.

After the boundary marker was painted red, everyone continued walking toward the next patrol point.

Lu Jing and Gu Yuan each dispatched a team and the border defense veterans to scout ahead.

Xiao Niannian smelled something and felt that something was wrong.

She looked around with binoculars and saw thick black smoke rising from a mountain not far away.

"Captain Lu."

Hearing Niannian's voice, Lu Jing looked forward.