93: NATO was silenced!

October 1st, noon.

The railway hub of Yanjiao Military Base had transformed into an ocean of armored steel.

99A Main Battle Tanks of the Heavy Combined Arms Brigade were neatly arranged on heavy flatbed trains, the 55-ton behemoths securely fastened with steel straps, their sloped composite armor glinting coldly under the sun.

Concurrently, hundreds of assault vehicles and Lynx all-terrain vehicles from the Fierce Warrior Light Combined Arms Brigade had also boarded trains, ready for departure.

Further away, the WZ-10 helicopter gunship fleet of the Army Aviation Brigade had already taken to the skies, the air currents stirred by their rotors swirling the weeds beside the runway into spirals, constantly drifting across the ground.

On the station platform, 12,000 soldiers stood in neat formation, ready to march out at any moment.

Marshal Xu Yong'an stood on the platform, his gaze fixed on Peng Lin with piercing intensity.

He clasped Peng Lin's hands tightly, his voice deep and powerful:

"Comrade Peng Lin, this journey to Siberia is not merely a military exercise; it is a battle for the nation's destiny!"

His eyes held both solemnity and determination, "The Bear Country's million-strong steel torrent is pressing down, but we absolutely cannot retreat. What you are taking is not just the Heavy Combined Arms Brigade, but the backbone of Dragon Country's rise!"

A cold wind swept by, and the military flags flapped loudly, Marshal Xu Yong'an's voice trembling slightly:

"The dignity and future of Dragon Country are entrusted to all of you!"

As his words fell, Marshal Xu Yong'an adjusted his uniform, then stood at attention and rendered a perfectly standard military salute with utmost solemnity to the 12,000 soldiers about to depart!

As a founding marshal and Minister of Defense, he solemnly stood at attention and saluted ordinary soldiers. At this moment, the soldiers on the platform stood rigidly, as if even the air had solidified!

"First into battle, I will be there, and I will win!"

Peng Lin stood at attention and returned Marshal Xu Yong'an's salute!

"First into battle, I will be there, and I will win!"

12,000 soldiers saluted in unison and shouted loudly.

Peng Lin and the departing soldiers did not say much, using only eight characters to express their conviction of victory in this battle!

"Board the train, depart!"

Seeing that the time was nearly up, Peng Lin gave the order.

The soldiers boarded the trains in squad units, stepping onto the metal gangways, the sound of their combat boots striking the steel plates like the beating of war drums.

Suddenly, a thunderous whirring sound came from the sky.

48 WZ-10s, in a three-aircraft wedge formation, swept over the platform, the air currents churned by their rotor blades making the camouflage netting flap loudly.

The lead aircraft pulled up its nose, and the entire Army Aviation Brigade fleet immediately followed suit, climbing and carving 120 white vortices across the azure sky.

They were the first to depart!

Immediately following, the fully loaded military trains let out a long whistle, and the locomotive spewed out hot steam.

As the steel dragon slowly started, thousands of wheels simultaneously rolled over the rail joints, creating a deafening, rhythmic clangor.

"Attention, all!"

"Salute!"

Marshal Xu Yong'an shouted again.

He and a host of other high-ranking military officials stood side by side, all saluting in military posture, bidding farewell to the departing soldiers!

The destiny of 9.6 million square kilometers of territory and a billion people was placed upon 12,000 young soldiers, with an average age of merely twenty years old. This burden was enough to suffocate anyone!

But now, these soldiers were shouldering this heavy responsibility and forging ahead bravely!

Therefore, Marshal Xu Yong'an and the high-ranking officials of the military department were all expressing their utmost respect through a military salute!

The dazzling sunlight gilded the distant aircraft formation, like a drawn sword piercing the sky.

The signal light at the end of the railway track turned from red to green, reflecting the lingering gunpowder smoke on the track spikes.

Only when the last flatbed train disappeared over the northern horizon did they slowly lower their saluting arms!

But everyone continued to silently gaze into the distance!

...Meanwhile.

In the Siberian region of the Bear Country Empire, the Kremlin's deterrence operations against Dragon Country and the West were now unfolding in the form of the most magnificent military exercise in human warfare history.

The Bear Country Empire had divided this "Vostok-Dark Action" into two parts.

The red-blue live-fire confrontation exercise with Dragon Country would take place precisely at noon on October 3rd.

Before that, the Bear Country military would use the form of a regular military exercise to demonstrate its powerful military strength to NATO and the world, deterring the globe!

To achieve a global deterrent effect, the Kremlin and the Bear Country General Staff even invited military attachés and military observers from countries worldwide to participate in this exercise!

To showcase its military might to the entire world, the Bear Country military arranged observers from various countries in command centers, frontline headquarters, or designated observation points.

They directly observed troop movements, tactical coordination, and firepower demonstrations!

Additionally, the Bear Country military also set up viewing stands in the exercise area for observers to watch the live-fire drills up close!

Especially to demonstrate the performance of advanced equipment such as T-72 tanks, T-80 tanks, and BM-21 rocket launchers!

This was not just a military exercise, but also a Soviet-style weapons and equipment exhibition aimed at major countries worldwide!

The Bear Country Empire wanted to snatch global arms markets and major clients right in front of Western countries and the Beautiful Country!

Furthermore, the Bear Country would also use radio communication and data transmission systems to compile the positions and progress of various units to the command center!

Military observers from around the world could understand the overall situation through large screen maps, sand table simulations, and real-time reports!

The Kremlin aimed to use such a "transparent" global military exercise to warn the world that the Bear Country Empire possessed overwhelming military superiority against any nation!

In the Siberian wilderness of October, frost had long since permeated every inch of soil.

At the command center on the Ob River, three red signal flares suddenly tore through the sky!

Instantly, the roar of over 2,000 diesel engines bellowed across the land, shaking the accumulated snow for a hundred-mile radius down in a flurry!

T-80 main battle tank formations, in a wedge array, rumbled over the frozen ground, their latest gas turbine engines spewing ghostly blue afterburners, and their 125mm smoothbore cannon barrels gleamed coldly under the sun!

These most advanced war machines of the Bear Country formed a forty-kilometer-wide front, their steel tracks continuously crushing birch trees the size of a bowl at their base as they advanced, the entire Siberian primeval forest making way for the armored steel torrent!

On the distant horizon, the golden lightning emblem of the 2nd Guards Tank Army was faintly visible in the mist!

Their T-72B tank clusters were conducting a "carousel" tactical drill!

The tank clusters formed circular attack formations of thirty tanks each, their turrets always maintaining an outward combat posture!

When an orange smoke grenade simulating a nuclear explosion suddenly detonated in the center of the formation, all tanks instantly switched to NBC mode, and milky white pressurized gas sprayed from the vehicle seams as they continued to charge through the nuclear blast!

In the evening, a formation of Tu-22 "Backfire" bombers swept over the exercise area at an ultra-low altitude of 200 meters in a surprise attack posture.

24 strategic bombers flew in an arrowhead formation, their massive missiles carried on their underbellies reflecting dangerous light in the sun.

When they conducted dive-bombing drills, their supersonic dive speed of Mach 2.3 even made their wings cut through the air!

At an altitude of ten thousand meters, a mixed formation of Su-27 "Flankers" and MiG-29 "Fulcrums" was performing high-altitude maneuvers!

These warplanes, worth their weight in gold, continuously performed "Cobra maneuvers" and "Hammerhead turns," their contrails sketching various curves across the sky, demonstrating their powerful close-range dogfighting capabilities!

Under the cover of nightfall, twelve Il-76 transport aircraft opened their rear ramps, and hundreds of paratroopers poured out like a swarm of bees!

Amidst the magnificent formation of parachutes, BMD-1 airborne combat vehicles, with the flames of their braking rockets, crashed to the ground, creating craters three meters in diameter!

Subsequently, the Bear Country paratroopers landed, quickly entered their combat vehicles, and immediately engaged in battle!

Armored airborne assault, this was the "lightning sowing" tactic that the Bear Country Empire's ace airborne troops were most proud of!

This military power shocked the entire world!

After witnessing such a spectacle firsthand, representatives from NATO countries and military observers from the Beautiful Country had solemn expressions, and the exchanged glances among them barely concealed their shock.

On the Siberian wilderness, T-80 tank clusters in wedge formation crushed the frozen ground, 2S7 "Pion" 203mm self-propelled howitzers fired in volleys, and T-55AM2 tanks from East Germany and Polish MiG-23MF fighters advanced in coordination!

Such a scene caused the military attaché from the Empire on which the Sun Never Sets to clench his fingers on his binoculars until they turned white.

The coordinated capabilities of the Warsaw Pact war machine shocked NATO!

The Bear Country proved through live-fire exercises that it could project an entire division's strength to any global hotspot within a single day!

Meanwhile, at a secret base in the Krasnoyarsk Krai, the silo cover of an SS-20 "Saber" intermediate-range missile slowly opened, revealing the 15-meter-long missile body!

When the simulated launch order was given, three hundred launch units simultaneously entered their final countdown, and the hydraulic systems supporting the launch platforms made the entire taiga forest tremble!

These devastating weapons, each carrying three MIRV nuclear warheads, could theoretically turn all major cities in Western Europe into radioactive wastelands within twenty minutes!

Even more chilling were the forward-deployed SS-21 "Tochka" tactical missile units!

These mobile launchers were hidden in abandoned mining tunnels, and when purple signal flares simulating a "nuclear strike" rose into the sky!

Twenty vehicles carrying AZ-543 trucks simultaneously burst out from their camouflage nets, taking only 83 seconds from parking to launch completion!

When the missiles ascended, their tail flames instantly vaporized the snow for a hundred-meter radius, forming white mushroom clouds that mirrored the smoke plumes of actual nuclear test explosions in the distance!

This exercise, having reached this stage, was no longer a mere deterrence, but a naked declaration of military might!

At this point, even the usually unyieldingly tough NATO Secretary-General fell silent!

Once the war machine of the Bear Country Empire started, it was capable of crushing the military balance of the Eurasian continent into dust!

They were immensely grateful at this moment for having pushed Dragon Country to the forefront of confronting the Kremlin, rather than foolishly charging forward themselves!

At the same time, they had already begun to silently mourn for Dragon Country's choice to independently confront the Bear Country Empire!