The Ultimate War Of The Apocalypse
Chapter 288 - 282 Empire Graveyard

Chapter 288: Chapter 282 Empire Graveyard

The resting house was on the right side of the highway, an abandoned but still intact earthen structure, and about one kilometer due south of the highway’s left side was a small hill.

While eating, Li Jingang also kept an eye on the surroundings. Apart from the small hill, approximately three hundred meters in height, the rest of the terrain was flat, making it possible to spot a person from a far distance.

At that moment, Li Jingang was peering through binoculars at the small hill, but all Gao Yuan saw when he looked was his eyes being stung by the noon sunlight; he didn’t see anything else.

"Where are the people?"

Panxin also raised his binoculars, and Li Jingang raised his hand, saying, "At the most inconspicuous spot just below the top of the hill, on the left side, there are two people watching us."

After carefully observing for a moment through the binoculars, Panxin whispered, "There’s no one. Are you sure you saw clearly? You didn’t use binoculars earlier."

"I’m certain. If no one had moved, I would have had a hard time noticing them, but I did see someone moving. When I raised the binoculars, they were gone."

Panxin put down the binoculars and whispered, "Based on their chosen position, it’s not something an amateur could manage. Whether friend or foe, we’ll leave first and be careful."

After speaking, Panxin took the gun from his back into his hand and said to everyone, "Stop eating, we need to get in the vehicle and leave immediately."

Yu Shunzhou stood up, and as he was about to toss the remaining rice porridge from his meal tin onto the ground, Cao Zhenjiang quickly grabbed hold of Yu Shunzhou’s meal tin.

A bit of rice porridge spilled onto Cao Zhenjiang’s hand, but with his left hand holding Yu Shunzhou’s meal tin and his right hand, he scraped the rice porridge that had spilled onto his hand back into Yu Shunzhou’s tin.

Yu Shunzhou was dumbfounded, exclaiming, "Fuck, that’s disgusting!"

With a serious face, Cao Zhenjiang said, "Put the lid on the meal tin. Nobody dump out the remaining food. Pick up the pot and let’s move."

Yu Shunzhou continued to grumble, "That’s just too gross, it’s just a little bit of porridge. If we weren’t in a rush to leave, I would have finished it."

"It’s not about wasting food!"

Cao Zhenjiang glared at Yu Shunzhou and said, "Hold on to it, let’s go. If you’re going to dump it out, do it somewhere else."

Li Jingang and Panxin continued to scan the small hill with their binoculars, and Cao Zhenjiang waved to the others, saying, "Hurry up, get the stuff on the vehicle, and let’s get out of here fast!"

Yu Shunzhou was still confused, and Gao Yuan didn’t understand Cao Zhenjiang’s actions either; in his view, since they were in a hurry to leave and weren’t even finishing their meal, pouring out a little bit of leftover rice porridge didn’t seem like a big deal.

Li Jingang put down his binoculars and said, "Get in the vehicle! Let’s go!"

Yu Shunzhou whispered, "Is it that serious? They’re still at a distance, and besides, in this impoverished Afghan land where not even birds would shit, what’s there to fear?"

Li Jingang whispered back, "Yes, it’s poor, but you won’t find tougher fighters than those here. Cut the chatter and get in the vehicle."

Even though Yu Shunzhou didn’t understand, by then Li Yang had already urged Xinghe into the only off-road vehicle, and then once everyone was aboard, Gao Yuan followed Yu Shunzhou and Cao Zhenjiang onto the last truck.

The three vehicles swiftly drove off, and once they were moving, Yu Shunzhou finally turned to Cao Zhenjiang and asked, "Did I do something wrong just now?"

Cao Zhenjiang, who had been looking out the back, replied quietly after Yu Shunzhou’s question, "Do you know how poor this place is? Haven’t you thought that the people here might already be starving mad? If you’d dumped out half a tin of porridge, and later someone came to inspect our spot, they’d know we definitely aren’t short on food. If they learn we have food, mightn’t they be tempted to take risks?"

Yu Shunzhou thought about it and realized that made sense.

"I understand now; this is the principle of not flaunting wealth. But do we really need to be that afraid of the Afghans?"

After some thought, Cao Zhenjiang said, "Let me put it this way; I don’t know just how formidable the Afghans truly are, but since this place is known as the Empire Graveyard, and the Afghans fought first the Soviet Union and then America, it shows they’re clearly no pushovers. Haven’t you noticed how nervous Mr. Jian and King Kong are? They must know what they’re dealing with; otherwise, they wouldn’t be like this. You’ve never seen them get this tense facing the Indians."

If Gao Yuan hadn’t wanted to hear Cao Zhenjiang’s explanation, he wouldn’t have been in this vehicle. Now, he too felt there was reason in those words.

So Gao Yuan said into the walkie-talkie, "Mr. Jian, have you ever clashed with the Afghans? Over."

Panxin waited a while before responding over the walkie-talkie, "We haven’t clashed, but we’ve heard stories."

"Are they that tough?"

"Can’t say they’re particularly tough, but they really aren’t easy to handle."

"What do you mean by that?"

Panxin was silent again for a while before saying, "The people here understand what fighting a war means. Those who have survived multiple wars and been naturally selected are all skilled. Therefore, be careful when in Afghan."

Though Panxin didn’t say the Afghans were particularly tough, he did underline a simple truth: if a country has endured decades of continuous warfare, then both its soldiers and civilians understand what war is all about.

Such opponents aren’t easy to handle, so if you can avoid them, it’s best to steer well clear. Regardless of who was observing them from the hill, as long as they couldn’t be followed, there would be no problem.

The road conditions were poor; ever since entering Afghan territory, even continuous stretches of paved roads had become a rarity, but the dirt road was still relatively smooth, as it was one of the two main supply routes from Pakistan to Afghan used by America, before the alien invasion, and trucks were a common sight here.