Chapter 2657 - 2719: Fall
Li Yifei hurriedly went out; he was there to conduct an investigation, not for anything else. The sudden lack of interest in investigating at the organizational and upper levels was very irregular. Li Yifei considered a possible reason—it was the upper-level struggle. The Flying Hawk Squad, though being China’s First Battle Team, was essentially just a pawn. It could play a critical role when necessary, but it could also be discarded like an abandoned pawn when not needed; it would be tossed aside.
So now the upper levels suddenly acquiesced, and even for two years they didn’t focus much on this squad. Moreover, with Snow Falcon leading misdeeds, deliberately steering the entire squad off course, the upper levels still haven’t come to check. Could it be said that... this was intentional?
Li Yifei needed to ascertain; for a country, especially a military powerhouse like Huaxia, having a symbolic battle squad like the Flying Hawk Squad was essential. With the absence of the Flying Hawk Squad, would other squads emerge instead?
There is mutual competition among the major military districts; simply put, everyone has to rely on achievements and strength to allocate military funds. If I get more here, you’ll get less there; after all, the total military budget is limited.
Therefore, this matter... could the upper-level competition have led to the decline of the Flying Hawk Squad’s status, or does someone want to start anew and replace it? Li Yifei thought of this possibility, his heart trembled; survival of the fittest and natural selection are common among various troops and districts. Competing through legitimate means is absolutely supported by Li Yifei. Just like during the domestic military contests or other events, everyone aims to compete for the top, learning from one another, which sparks brilliance among different battle teams. Those are normal, healthy competitions, very good ones, whereas now...
It seems this has entered a bad situation. Li Yifei did a simple search and found out that starting last year, two military districts have gone all out to prepare new special operations teams. Not only were the personnel neat, but their strength was also exceptionally strong. These two teams’ names were ones Li Yifei had never heard of.
He’d been busy these past two years, truly not paying attention to such matters. Upon checking now, Li Yifei felt somewhat chilled in his heart. The Flying Hawk Squad was his root, his lifelong pride. No matter how far it develops in the future, the Flying Hawk Squad was his first step to soaring, a lifelong honor, and now under Snow Falcon’s leadership, it has not only turned into what it is today but also taken a downhill path, a very wrong path. Meanwhile, other teams are advancing and progressing, training hard and imposing discipline; they are not much weaker than the Flying Hawk Squad now.
At a glance at the achievements of these two teams, it is not just that they are not much weaker, but in certain aspects, they’ve already surpassed the Flying Hawk Squad.
Criminals! Snow Falcon is a criminal, Wild Wolf and others are accomplices—they’re criminals! As Li Yifei looked at these materials, he suddenly felt a surge of impulse to flog Snow Falcon’s corpse. You’re lagging, others are surpassing, leading to these series of changes, resulting in these deficiencies.
Of course, Li Yifei wasn’t narrow-minded enough to resent other units’ emergence of elite teams. It would be great if all major districts simultaneously create such elite teams; that would prove Huaxia’s overall military strength is continuously strengthening, beneficial for the entire nation. That is also one of Flying Hawk Squad’s leading roles’ significance, but now the leader has fallen to such a level, which is what’s heartbreaking.
Sigh! After viewing this information, Li Yifei understood some things; perhaps, the earlier speculation was correct. The upper-level personnel’s mutual exclusion is perplexing, abandoning the Flying Hawk Squad is bewildering, and a mysterious person deliberately grooming Snow Falcon, this scum, making him the leader of the Flying Hawk Squad ended up leading the squad to its current state.
If Li Yifei’s speculation is correct, then the mysterious person behind it is even more shameful and hateful, with the spearhead directly pointing at several commanders, among whom the one most suspicious is the commander related to Sunx Mingdong’s family or to say, Sunx Family’s backing.
Upon thinking about this, Li Yifei felt a sense of powerlessness indeed. The opponent’s identity is too high, high enough that even Su Mengxin’s grandfather, Elder Su, faces them on equal ground, unable to overpower them. Indeed, perhaps his qualifications and seniority can be older than them, but now the status is similar, and such an identity is not something the Li Family Head from a small Ning Province Camp City can shake, even with sufficient evidence in hand.
Especially since the Flying Hawk Squad has become like this, it adds a sense of powerlessness to shake them. Li Yifei blinked his eyes several times, sighed heartily, and rubbed his eyebrows.
Apparently, this matter can only be handed over to Big Brother to handle. Although he might not have a better solution, Li Yifei wants to face the challenge. He can ensure he stays safe, but the Li Family might not survive. Elder Su and Murong Yuanqing may not be able to protect the Li family.
Of course, just because Li Yifei thought like this, it doesn’t mean things are necessarily this way. These are just speculations, a direction for judgment; the specifics are yet to depend on subsequent investigations.
Li Yifei is a fighter; he rarely harbors withdrawal intentions. When confronting foreign forces, he can even stand alone against a country, like when pursuing the Yamaguchi Group, or chasing down the Japanese Martial God. However, domestic conditions are different, and Li Yifei has more to consider.
Big Brother is worried about military district exercises, hence suggests retaining a significant portion of Flying Hawk Squad members, and now Li Yifei sees two other rising teams. Those two teams have reached a point where they can challenge the Flying Hawk Squad’s domestic number one status, and even in some aspects have surpassed them.
Such an overtaking would have been impossible during Li Yifei’s service; at most it could be said the two teams improved significantly, but to the First Battle Team Flying Hawk Squad, they were still distant. Yet now it’s different.
Li Yifei only wilted for a moment, then quickly accepted reality. This lag is man-made and can be changed, but first, one must understand the upper-level intention in letting the Flying Hawk Squad drift, which is ultimately not a normal phenomenon.
Li Yifei relayed information to Big Brother, who merely said he’s aware, advising Li Yifei to properly rectify the Flying Hawk Squad while leaving other matters to him.
As the situation took twists and turns, Li Yifei provided new clues. He couldn’t pursue them further, and after some thought, Li Yifei threw himself into restructuring the Flying Hawk Squad, a matter equally important. As man-made factors led to the Flying Hawk Squad’s overall backwardness and lagging, quick restructuring is essential for catching up—not to continue lagging.
The Flying Hawk Squad must be the number one in Huaxia—this is Li Yifei’s belief. But if taking a step back, if it isn’t the first in Huaxia anymore, it mustn’t become weak; the Flying Hawk Squad’s strength can’t fall back.
This is imperative; Li Yifei, along with his brothers and Lone Wolf and others, began restructuring. Sunx Mingdong had wholly submitted. Now that he yielded, he retracted his Second-Generation Heir posture, also assisting with the investigation.
Although he mentally prepared himself, when after a few days the majority of Flying Hawk Squad members were investigated, Li Yifei still felt a murderous impulse. This bunch’s sons were even worse than expected, more wicked, excessive. Li Yifei faced a list of formal members of the Flying Hawk Squad, totaling 107, not counting four who had died—there were still 103 remaining; Lone Wolf sheltered 23, and among the remaining 80, 40 couldn’t stay, and these 40 could all be court-martialed.
Had it not been a fact laid out before him, Li Yifei wouldn’t dare believe this could happen in the Flying Hawk Squad—what nonsense is this?
Perhaps Li Yifei’s demands were a bit harsh, but what this bunch did absolutely deserved punishment, and severe punishment, heavy punishment! It’s too rotten—rotten to the core, disregarding regulations, lacking military rules, lacking backbone, wholly under Snow Falcon’s dictatorship. Initially, there was resistance below, yet later they could only comply and corrupt.
However, what made Li Yifei even angrier was... the Flying Hawk Squad’s talent reserve system also malfunctioned. Upon retrieval and review of the records, he found the previous backup ladder showed interruption. Although not wholly cut, previously the Flying Hawk Squad could access all troop districts, mobilizing the most outstanding soldiers to join its reserve team. After a period of training, they would choose the finest for supplementation. Now the situation was... over the past few years, Flying Hawk Squad’s substitutes have dwindled. Why? Partly due to Flying Hawk Squad’s own cause; they hadn’t paid much attention to these backup talents, coupled with insufficient support from above.
Major districts and troops want to achieve their results and good results, so these elites, kings of soldiers, are pivotal targets of contention. They didn’t want to give them away. As a result, not putting in effort and lacking earnest training meant they withheld them, directly leading the Flying Hawk Squad into its full rotten state.
Those outstanding talents either got recruited into teams by major districts or kept by their respective troops. Now, if Flying Hawk Squad loses its title as number one, it further loses allure; even now recruiting new soldiers, it’s likely they’ll have the right to refuse.
It’s no longer possible to deploy people with a mere command; the units of the other side possess the right to decline, different from Li Yifei’s era where the Flying Hawk Squad reigned supreme, luring infinitely. From individuals to troops, all hoped to nurture a Flying Hawk Squad member. Even former squad members returned to their previous troops to continue leadership.
Dumb Guy returned to his original troop under such circumstances, continuing life in the military camp.
Hence, Li Yifei faced a tough choice now—whether to keep sending these people to court or... gritting his teeth and enduring, preserving Flying Hawk Squad’s combat effectiveness somewhat.