Half an hour later, 50 "elite" core members of the ELN, each with a small stool and a folding table, sat in the empty space of a school camp like elementary students, staring at the maps and assignment papers in front of them, scratching their heads in confusion.
Song Heping's requirement was indeed just one.
That was for each person to use the map and tools to devise a simple combat plan on the assignment paper.
Using the school's location as the starting position, the target was a valley randomly marked by Song Heping on the map, approximately thirty kilometers away from the school.
Each trainee had to use tools to measure coordinates on the map and draw out the assault routes, from the starting position, attack location, attack route, attack plan, troop segmentation, to firepower grouping, all had to be completed.
In the eyes of people like Song Heping and Jiang Feng, such a simple map-based assignment was quite easy to complete.
But for most of these ELN grassroots members who had never received formal military training, it was almost killing them.
What was even more fatal was not the map assignment and combat plan formulation.
Right next to the outdoor exam area, several large bonfires had been lit, and whole lambs roasting above them sizzled and oozed fat, the aroma wafting everywhere.
The ELN trainees, who had been hungry for several days and surviving in the jungle by catching small animals and eating wild vegetables, had their stomachs caved in. How could they resist the tantalizing smell? Their souls were already hovering by the bonfire.
But they couldn't eat the lamb meat if they didn't complete the task.
This was emphasized by the instructor, Song Heping.
"Reporting to Instructor! I really don't understand!"
A trainee threw down his pencil and stood up.
"We haven't even learned the basic knowledge, it is up to you to teach us, not to test us now! We came here to learn!"
After speaking, he couldn't help but cast a glance towards the side of the field, landing on the roasted lamb.
One person took the lead, and others immediately followed suit.
"Yeah, we haven't learned any of this."
"They are intentionally making it hard for us!"
"Let's learn it tomorrow, we've already been traveling for four days."
"We want to eat meat! We want to eat!"
The scene suddenly began to lose control.
"Don't understand?" Song Heping had anticipated that someone would say this, "Why did it take you four days to cover just a hundred kilometers? During these four days, haven't you had any profound experiences? If you fight like this, how can you expect to fight? No wonder you ELN have been established for so many years and still have not defeated the AUC. Have you never thought about the reason?"
Mentioning this touched on the dignity issues of these ELN trainees.
After all, it was a pain they couldn't bear to mention.
Especially recently, as the ELN forces faced consecutive defeats and their territory was shrinking, the AUC forces were fighting more valiantly, seemingly intent on swallowing ELN's territory.
Morins was willing to spend a lot of money sending people to learn and even paid Song Heping tens of millions of US dollars to help him counterattack the AUC forces.
"Instructor, you're insulting us!"
Anthony voiced his dissatisfaction, "The AUC forces took advantage of the time when our previous leader was missing to launch an attack on us, catching us off guard. That's why we lost ground, not because they are much better than us."
Song Heping said, "The initial ten days of the attack can be explained that way, but I have seen all your combat records for the past three months and conducted a thorough analysis. However, I do not think it was the surprise attacks by AUC that caused your continuous failures, but rather that you completely lost the confidence to win. To describe it as collapsing like a crumbling mountain is not an exaggeration."
After saying that, he pointed to a thickly bound volume beside him.
"This binder contains all the records of your battles for the past two months, sent directly to me by your leader. I have analyzed every battle example and many battles were lost due to your own chaotic command, improper coordination, and disorganized cooperation. Using AUC's surprise attacks as an excuse can't cover up your incompetence."
"We are not incompetent, Instructor!" Anthony's face immediately turned red, feeling the blood rushing to his head, and he appeared extremely angry, "The AUC had the support of the government army. They had advisors from the government army for everything from arms and equipment to commander training. That's a fact. Since you've analyzed all the battles from these two months, then let me ask you, in the battle in Mani Town on January 7, if it wasn't for the government army suddenly dispatching two platoons to ambush our troops from the flank, we wouldn't have been forced to give up Mani Town and retreat. We were doing very well on the front line at that time."
Song Heping picked up the binder, flipped through it, found the battle record from January 7, and then started drawing on the blackboard in smooth, flowing movements.
Anthony and the other students watched as Song Heping seamlessly illustrated on the blackboard, gradually realizing that he was drawing the tactical map of the battle in Mani Town.
Moreover, what surprised everyone most was that Song Heping could draw the battlefield situation so accurately without even holding a map of Colombia.
About fifteen minutes later, a simplified map and the offensive and defensive tactics were all marked on the blackboard.
At this moment, the ELN students were stunned.
They realized the instructor in front of them truly wasn't just all talk but had genuine skills.
Merely with this solid demonstration of map work, he had won the complete approval of everyone present.
Song Heping switched to a red chalk and circled Mani Town on the map, marking the position of an ELN battalion's troop deployment and defensive line.
Then he used blue chalk to indicate the route and troop distribution of the AUC attacking forces, and finally, with yellow chalk, marked the government army's advancing route and troop strength on the right rear flank of the ELN troops.
"You held out for three days in Mani Town and indeed withstood the frontal attack, but the problem is, you didn't deploy a single soldier on your right flank."
He drew a circle on the government army's route with yellow chalk.
"The government army troops came from the direction of Bogota and consisted of two Army platoons. They had to pass through Sirra Valley to reach your side and rear. Why didn't your commander deploy even a small force there to block them? Was it unexpected that the government army would ambush you? How was your battlefield intelligence handled? With your rear so utterly undefended, an open door, and you didn't even set up a warning group?"
Anthony said, "Because within two hundred kilometers of our right flank, there were no military forces. Those two platoons were pulled from Bogota! We simply didn't anticipate they would travel that far to ambush our rear."
"That's foolish."
Song Heping said, "Mani Town direction didn't need a whole battalion's force. The AUC forces attacking you also only had a battalion. Two platoons would have been enough to hold Mani Town. If you had stationed a warning group in the Bogota direction and deployed a platoon in Sirra Valley, when their government army passed by there, relying on a platoon's strength would have been enough to inflict heavy casualties on the enemy approaching from the rear. Do you understand the military term 'cutting off reinforcements'?"
Anthony, unfamiliar with these military terms, could only shake his head.
"Don't push your own faults onto the enemy. If you can't even see from a map that someone is cutting off your retreat route, how can you be a commander? We teach you topography and map work here, and yet you all resist? What do you think your leader sent you here to learn?"
Song Heping threw the chalk on the table and snorted coldly, "So don't come complaining to me about being hungry and needing to eat something. When you're fighting, do you think the enemy will wait for you to eat before they begin the attack? Hungry or not, you still need to plan your military strategy, don't you? If you go back and lead soldiers, even just leading a platoon, that's the lives of over a hundred people in your hands. With your current level, do you even deserve to be commanders?"
His gaze swept over every ELN student present.
"If you can't finish your map work tonight, you'll all go to sleep hungry!"