The conference room and break room of Linggang Tuo 001 has now become the Joint Command Center for the transport fleet.

Li Mingsheng and the sea militia from four districts continuously called through the radio to each transport squadron navigating within a five-nautical-mile radius, requesting each squadron report the positions and speeds of their ships, and further instructing them to adjust course and speed per Han Yu's orders for the entire transport fleet's formation during navigation.

Though plain language was used for calling, the conversation was in dialect and even used coded language. The Binjiang dialects were so varied that even Han Yu could only understand conversations from his fellow townspeople of Linghai.

Chirping noisily, it sounded like they were speaking Japanese. Lieutenant Chen felt like he was abroad and couldn't understand a word.

Chief of Staff Zhang couldn't understand either and had to wait for translations from Li Mingsheng and others to mark the positions of each ship on the sand table.

After an hour and a half of adjustments, it finally seemed to take some shape.

Han Yu looked at the sand table arranged by Chief of Staff Zhang, and then said: "Village Chief Li, Chief of Staff Zhang, maintain the current formation before it gets dark. Order Jiangyu 109, 211, 280, 301, and 488 to increase vigilance, and strengthen aerial and maritime lookout. Report any situation promptly."

"Yes!"

"Order 001 and Bin Xun's air defense group to pay attention to air defense."

"Yes."

After issuing the orders, Han Yu opened the cabin door and went out, raising binoculars to observe the sea surface.

Lieutenant Chen and Commander Ding roughly understood that fifty-seven ships from the Binjiang Branch were spread over a five-nautical-mile sea area. They seemed sparse and disorganized, with the farthest ships out of sight even with binoculars, but they were indeed logically arranged.

Five fishing boats responsible for transporting supplies were one in front of the main force, three on the east side, and one at the rear of the main force, maintaining a distance of three nautical miles to secure the main force.

The training ship armed with anti-aircraft guns and Linggang Tuo 001 were positioned between the security fleet and the main force as the second layer of defense, along with the guiding, rear-guard, and five perimeter security fishing boats, escorting fifty transport personnel fishing boats.

Considering sailing safety and ease of command, the whole transport fleet's formation would contract at night, as visibility is limited at night and civilian radar lacks friend or foe identification. Without contraction, they might truly drift apart.

Notably, although the current formation seemed dispersed, the entire transport fleet could assemble within thirty minutes at a single order.

To break into pieces and integrate them back seamlessly, not everyone can manage this.

More surprisingly for Lieutenant Chen, they even had contingency plans for air raids and artillery attacks.

If encountering an air or artillery raid and being hit, the crew of each ship would immediately organize the soldiers to abandon ship and evacuate. Including Linggang Tuo 001's power boats, all small boats and lifeboats would be launched into the sea at the first moment to organize rescue operations.

If encountering an enemy ship, the transport fleet's fishing boats would release smoke bombs and retreat towards the coastline as planned while the five security fishing boats would fearlessly rush to collide with the enemy ship, buying time for the transport fleet's retreat.

The anti-aircraft guns on the training ship and Linggang Tuo 001 would adjust angles to fire flat. Although relying on two anti-aircraft guns might not defeat the enemy ship, it would buy time for the transport fleet.

In summary, they were practicing truly close to real battle conditions, unlike those who were merely executing transport missions.

Lieutenant Chen witnessed this with discomfort, unable to bear telling them that the actual exercise hadn't started yet.

Such a large-scale joint military exercise, crossing military regions, fleets, and services, wasn't limited to transporting participating forces to the designated sea domain for an organized beach landing.

With so many participating forces, they were previously unfamiliar and lacked coordination. They needed to gather first, familiarize with the terrain, clarify their respective tasks and launch timings, understand how to coordinate, and so on, finely down to each minute and second, specific to each platoon and even each squad.

Han Yu had never been in the military and didn't know or understand these aspects.

Xiao Yu was even more clueless.

Ma Jintao, although having served, was an enlisted man and didn't understand either.

Traveling by boat was dull and tedious, and with ships spaced too far apart, they had no opportunity to interact with their Army brothers. Out of boredom, they spontaneously transformed into artillerymen, as they had done two days ago, inviting the Civilian Soldiers' Old Brother as their mentor to teach them how to operate anti-aircraft guns.

As for anti-aircraft guns, the camp had one, but that was scrapped by the Meteorological Bureau, abandoned and nowhere near as fun as actual operational guns.

Xiao Yu grinned, "Brother Yang, since we're idling, give the order."

Ma Jintao couldn't help but laugh, "Old Yang, now we're all soldiers, under your command."

Platoon Leader Yang from the Chonggang District Civilian Corps had no choice with these flood-fighting heroes but to gesture for his men to make way. Clearing his throat, he ordered, "Rally to the cannon!"

Xiao Yu, Ma Jintao, Chen Jian, and Gao Jichun thus became artillerists. Simultaneously, they shouted, "1526 ready!"

"In position!"

"1 is ready!"

"5 is ready!"

"2 is ready!" 𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺

"Ready the cannon in the due east direction!"

Following Platoon Leader Yang's command, Xiao Yu quickly turned the direction mechanism.

Ma Jintao and Civilian Corps squad leader Old Zhu removed the limiter and quickly lowered the cannon barrel to a flat position.

Chen Jian and Gao Jichun opened the cover per the operation procedure and took a look, pulled back the handle, removed the breechblock pin, and checked for any foreign objects inside the barrel.

Soon after, Ma Jintao elevated the barrel to 45 degrees, Old Zhu immediately secured the limiter, while Chen Jian and Gao Jichun simultaneously opened the safety.

Ma Jintao fired the round, while Chen Jian and Gao Jichun locked the breech and engaged the safety, promptly reporting, "Cannon inspection complete!"

Operating an anti-aircraft gun is truly straightforward, otherwise, these rascals wouldn't have become so adept after just two days of learning; however, achieving accuracy isn't so easy.

Platoon Leader Yang smiled and ordered, "Load the shells!"

Chen Jian and Gao Jichun immediately pulled open the breech and loaded the shell, pulling back the handle after loading, all reporting "Shell loaded," though the shells were duds for training.

"Disengage the safety!"

"Search for targets in the due east direction!"

…

Just when they were having a blast, the roar of an airplane came from the sky.

Just when they were worried about not finding a target, the target appeared!

How could Xiao Yu miss this opportunity? He immediately swiveled the cannon and adjusted the firing angle.

Ma Jintao was delighted, looking up at the silver-gray transport plane flying in from the south and reporting the shooting data.

The barrel kept moving in sync with the transport plane's direction, and Qian Shiming could clearly see everything from the training ship's bridge, instinctively raising his binoculars.

As expected, a military transport plane was flying in their direction at a low altitude, and the "Ba Yi" insignia was clearly visible.

Qian Shiming was startled and hastily grabbed the loudspeaker: "Xiao Yu, Ma Jintao, what are you doing?"

The temporary gun position had a communication system installed from the ship. Xiao Yu didn't have time to reply; Squad Leader Zhang quickly went in and picked up the communicator: "Reporting to the Chief of Staff, the anti-aircraft battery is conducting training, currently searching for targets!"

"Searching for what targets? That's a friendly!"

"Friendly?"

"Look closely, there's 'Ba Yi' on the fuselage!"

Xiao Yu grabbed the communicator with a grin and said, "Chief of Staff, we're just aiming a little."

Qian Shiming didn't want the friends on the plane to misunderstand and shouted, "No aiming at all!"

"'Ba Yi' on the fuselage means friendly, but what if it's not? Chief of Staff, we're on an escort mission; escorting includes air defense. Don't worry; we're using training rounds, not live ammunition."

"Stop messing around. Look, they've noticed us and are preparing to circle."

"Then we need to be more vigilant."

These brats were getting out of hand.

Qian Shiming realized his words weren't effective and, given that it was a transport plane and not a fighter, and his ship was flying so many Red Flags, the friendly forces shouldn't misunderstand. So, he simply put down the communicator and let them aim.

The Navy Aviation pilot on air patrol was shocked, adjusted his course, and looped around to carefully observe, discovering that there was indeed an anti-aircraft gun on the foredeck of the cargo ship below and it was aimed at them.

"Big Commander, what do we do?"

"What do you mean what to do?"

"They're aiming at us; what if they accidentally fire?"

"Change course, stay away from them."

"Which unit does this cargo ship belong to, and why do they have an anti-aircraft gun onboard?"

"It doesn't look like a transport fleet." The flight commander pondered and then spoke into the radio, adjusting the communication frequency, addressing the training ship navigating the sea: "Attention cargo ship below, attention cargo ship below, this is the Chinese Navy Aviation, please report your ship's name and registration, report immediately."

What you fear is exactly what happens.

Qian Shiming saw Teacher Xia looking over with an awkward smile and could only brace himself to respond: "We are the Chinese cargo ship Bin Xun, we are the Chinese cargo ship Bin Xun, we... we are organizing student sea training, over."

"Why is your ship equipped with an anti-aircraft gun?"

"Our crew are both sailors and Navy Reserve Soldiers; our ship is conducting maritime air defense training."

"You're part of the Navy Reserve Force?"

"Yes."

"Even if you're part of the Navy Reserve Force, even if organizing air defense training, you can't just aim randomly!"

"Understood, our ship will rectify immediately."

After clarifying the identity of the cargo ship below, the flight commander finally breathed a sigh of relief, ending the communication, and turned back to say: "Xiao Liu, go report to the Commander."

"Yes!" A young pilot unbuckled his seatbelt, opened the door, and walked into the cabin, reporting to a Lieutenant General who was observing the sea through the porthole: "Reporting to the Commander, the ship below is our Chinese cargo ship Jiang Xun, claiming to be part of our Navy Reserve Force, and is organizing student sea training."

A Lieutenant sitting behind the Commander opened a folder and quickly checked the list of cargo ships participating in the exercise.

There were many fishing boats participating in the exercise, but not many cargo ships.

The Lieutenant quickly found it, leaned down, and said: "Commander, Jiang Xun belongs to the Binjiang Naval Reserve Rescue Ship Brigade, it's our ship, and it's participating in the exercise."

"According to the exercise plan, where is this cargo ship supposed to be?"

"According to the plan, it should be incorporated into the Binjiang Civilian Transport Team, transporting personnel to Dongshan Island."

"So all the fishing boats below belong to the Binjiang Civilian Transport Team?"

The Lieutenant instinctively leaned against the porthole to look at the sea, watching the fishing boats sailing in threes and twos, hesitated, and said: "They should be."

The Commander intently watched the sea, deliberating: "Have they deviated from the course?"

"The large fleet is to the west; if those below are indeed the Binjiang Civilian Transport Team, they are nearly fifteen nautical miles off course."

"The formation is so scattered, deviating far from the main force, and they even brought an anti-aircraft gun on board to aim at us, interesting."

"Commander, are you saying..."

"See over there, there are two more fishing boats; those must be in charge of outer perimeter patrol."

"They're doing it on purpose!"

"Xiao Yang, fly northwest and count the number of boats in total." The Commander grew more intrigued and then turned back: "Xiao Li, keep an eye on the sea and clarify their formation."