“If they hadn’t marched into our cities and slaughtered our civilians like animals… I would never have resorted to a tactic this demonic. It is a profound violation of the natural order,” Hu Hao stated quietly, his eyes cold as he watched the enemy die on the screens.
“Hao-ge, what’s the ‘natural order’?” Bo Gang asked, entirely unfamiliar with the concept.
“It’s nothing. Forget I said it,” Hu Hao shook his head, realizing the phrase from his past life didn’t exist in the Eastern Spirit Empire.
“Hao-ge, I think your tactics are absolutely brilliant! Motherfucker, when those Allied bastards slaughtered our civilians, they didn’t care about being cruel! When fighting animals like that, you have to be even more ruthless! If you aren’t ruthless, they won’t fear you!” Ye Zifeng argued fiercely.
Hearing this, Hu Hao finally cracked a smile.
“Hao-ge, what are you smiling at? Was I wrong?” Ye Zifeng asked.
“No. You’re absolutely right. It’s a very good mindset to have,” Hu Hao chuckled, shaking his head.
He was genuinely pleased that his commanders grasped this brutal reality. Against an invading force that actively pursued genocide, any and all methods of extermination were justified. If the Allied forces had fought a clean, conventional war without massacring non-combatants, Hu Hao might have hesitated to use such indiscriminate tactics. But they hadn’t.
“Hao-ge, let’s go in! Look at the screens, there are barely any survivors left! We can’t let them live! We have to execute every single one of them!” Ye Zifeng urged, pointing at the monitors.
“Mmh?” Hu Hao turned to look at Ye Zifeng, noticing the raw, unbridled hatred in his voice.
“Hao-ge… Regiment Commander Ye’s family is originally from Tianyu Province. His family likely didn’t manage to evacuate before the Allied coalition overran it. So…” Bo Gang whispered quietly to Hu Hao.
Ye Zifeng lowered his head, his hands clenched into tight fists.
Hu Hao paused for a moment, his expression softening. He reached out and firmly grasped Ye Zifeng’s shoulder.
“Hao-ge, I have no other ambitions left,” Ye Zifeng looked up, his eyes burning with absolute resolve. “If my family is truly gone, then my only purpose for breathing is to slaughter the Allied coalition.
Please, give me command of the mop-up operation inside the city. I will lead the brothers in and finish them off. Hao-ge, look at them; they’re completely broken. If we push in now, we can completely annihilate them. Do not let them survive the night! Every single day they continue to draw breath is an insult to me!”
“Mmh. Alright. Take your men into the city and devour the survivors. Ensure you thoroughly strip the corpses; I want every weapon, every document, and every single credit they looted from our people.
Furthermore, I want you to prepare a massive white banner. Paint these words on it: This is the consequence of slaughtering our civilians! Hang it where the Allied reinforcements will see it.
Bo Gang!” Hu Hao barked, turning to the Tank Commander.
“Here!” Bo Gang snapped to attention.
“Deploy your armored detachment to the small town on the highway just outside the city! The Allied Corps in Daman City will undoubtedly dispatch a medical extraction force and a security detail to investigate this explosion. Given the shock, they likely won’t send more than a single Regiment. When they arrive, devour them!
Furthermore, coordinate the final extraction logistics! Can we finish transporting the remaining grain and munitions before dawn?” Hu Hao asked them both.
“Absolutely! We will extract everything before sunrise!” Ye Zifeng promised firmly.
“Good. Execute my orders. Radioman! Contact Liu Shuyi! Tell him to keep his eyes glued to Daman City! If a single Allied ant marches out of that perimeter, I want to know about it!” Hu Hao ordered.
“Yes, sir!” the radioman acknowledged.
Ye Zifeng and Bo Gang immediately saluted and sprinted off to coordinate their respective operations.
Hu Hao stepped away from the comms vehicle. The surrounding soldiers, sensing the decisive victory, enthusiastically called out “Hao-ge!” as he walked past. Hu Hao smiled and nodded to them. He pulled out a cigarette, lit it, and stared toward the smoking ruins of Santong County in the distance.
Meanwhile, in Daman City, Lieutenant General Ren Kefu had just received the confirmation: two entire Divisions under his command had been obliterated in Santong County. The casualties were massive.
“Damn it all!” Ren Kefu roared, pacing furiously across the command center. The sheer scale and suddenness of the disaster in Santong County were entirely beyond his comprehension.
“Do we know what caused the explosion?! What ignited it?!” Ren Kefu demanded, glaring at his staff.
“Report! We still don’t know, General! The surviving soldiers are completely incoherent! The highest-ranking officer we managed to contact was a Regimental Colonel, but he only managed to gasp a few words before the line went dead. The next contact was a mere Company Commander, but he had no idea what happened either; he just said the ground suddenly erupted!” the Chief of Staff reported anxiously.
“I need to know exactly what happened! How does an entire two-Division deployment simply vanish in a spontaneous explosion?! And right on the eve of our renewed offensive!
Damn it! We are now operating with only two Divisions, and we still have zero intelligence regarding the Imperial troop strength in Late City! How are we supposed to conduct an offensive campaign blind and crippled?!
Have the medical extraction teams and the security reinforcements deployed yet?!” Ren Kefu ran a hand over his face, feeling completely overwhelmed. Losing two full Divisions wasn’t just a localized defeat; it fundamentally compromised the Joint Command’s entire strategic timetable for the northern offensive.
“They have deployed, General! However… I did not authorize a massive force. I dispatched a single Tank Regiment to escort the medical convoys.
I deeply fear that if we dispatch a massive relief column, the Imperial commander will simply separate them and devour them exactly like he did last night!
Our three-Regiment relief column was annihilated less than five kilometers from this very city; the Imperial forces successfully ambushed them on the highway! I am afraid that the Imperial commander triggered this massive explosion in Santong specifically to lure our remaining forces out of Daman City! If he successfully baits our main body into another ambush, our Corps will cease to exist!
I am anxious that the Imperial Army might launch a direct assault on Daman City! After all… we still have no idea how many troops they have operating in this sector!” the Chief of Staff confessed his deepest fears.
Ren Kefu paused, nodding slowly. He turned to the Chief of Staff. “Do you truly believe the Imperial forces have prepared another ambush along the highway?”
“It’s highly probable. We notice that the explosion in Santong County did not involve any visible Imperial troop movements. This implies the Imperial forces that ambushed our column last night have not revealed their current positions. We don’t know where they went!
Furthermore, our aerial reconnaissance clearly indicated that the Eastern Spirit Empire has massed significant forces on the opposite bank of the river, ostensibly to defend Late City!” the Chief of Staff analyzed.
“Exactly. They are prepared. Contact military intelligence immediately! I need to know the exact Imperial unit designations deployed to this defensive sector!” Ren Kefu ordered sharply.
“Yes, sir!” the Chief of Staff nodded.
“Damn it!” Ren Kefu cursed again, slamming his fist against the table. He was furious and deeply humiliated. In less than twenty-four hours, he had inexplicably lost three entire Divisions, and he still didn’t even know the name of the Imperial commander responsible for the slaughter. It was a strategic nightmare.
While the Allied Corps Commander panicked, a completely different scene was unfolding outside the 87th Division Headquarters in Bopa City.
Wang Yao, Mo Qin, Dong Qipeng, and roughly forty other newly commissioned junior officers had been sitting in a holding room adjacent to the main command building for over an hour, waiting for someone to officially process their transfer orders.
“Why is this taking so long?” several young officers grumbled impatiently.
“Should we go ask someone? I literally just saw the Division Commander—that Major General—walking around outside! He looked busy, but surely they have a staff officer available to assign us to our units?” Wang Yao asked, looking around at his classmates.
“Don’t bother them right now. I think the 87th Division is currently running a massive combat operation. Listen to the radio chatter… I keep hearing the staff officers talking about someone named ‘Hao-ge’. Do you think ‘Hao-ge’ is Hu Hao? Is Haozi currently leading an operation?!” Mo Qin asked, connecting the dots.
“Yeah, now that you mention it, I noticed that too! I heard a Full Colonel calling someone ‘Hao-ge’ on the phone! Haozi is already that legendary?! A Full Colonel is calling him ‘Hao-ge’?! If that’s really Haozi, does that mean we have to call him ‘Hao-ge’ now too?!” Dong Qipeng asked, his eyes wide.
“Call him ‘Hao-ge’?! My ass! He’s just Haozi!” Wang Yao laughed dismissively.
Just then, Deputy Division Commander Xiao Quan strode into the holding room.
“Greetings, Commander!” The young officers instantly snapped to attention and saluted as Xiao Quan entered.
“At ease. My apologies for keeping you all waiting. It’s not that we don’t value your arrival; we are simply in the middle of a highly complex operation and our staff is completely overwhelmed.
The Division Commander is currently commanding operations in the field and hasn’t returned yet. You will have to wait a while longer. I will have the logistics staff arrange temporary barracks for you tonight.
Once the Division Commander returns, he will personally review your files and assign you to your specific combat units. Only the Division Commander has the authority to finalize unit placements,” Xiao Quan explained, returning their salute.
“Yes, sir!” the officers replied in unison.
“I just wanted to drop in and brief you quickly. I must return to my duties immediately. If you need anything, ask the perimeter guards or the junior staff officers. Oh, right—it’s dinner time. You are authorized to use the Division HQ mess hall; a guard will escort you shortly,” Xiao Quan added.
“Thank you, sir!”
Xiao Quan nodded, turned on his heel, and briskly exited the room. The young officers crowded around the doorway, watching him jump into a jeep and speed off.
Xiao Quan was rushing to the logistics depots. Hu Hao was sending back an astronomical amount of looted weapons, munitions, and grain; Xiao Quan had to ensure it was all securely stored and heavily camouflaged to prevent Allied bombers from spotting the massive stockpiles.
“Wait a minute… didn’t he just say the Division Commander is out in the field?!” one of the officers asked, pointing out the window. “But I literally just saw the Major General—the Division Commander—standing right outside the main gate smoking a cigarette and reading a report!”
Through the window, they could clearly see Chief of Staff Li Jingsong standing by the gate, handing a folder to a junior officer.
“Maybe he’s just about to leave for the front?” another officer guessed. Since the Full Colonel had explicitly stated the Division Commander was away, the junior officers didn’t dare approach Li Jingsong to ask questions.
“Motherfucker… what kind of chaotic unit is this? We show up for duty, and they don’t even have time to process our paperwork?” an officer complained.
“Hey, look over there! Look at those transport trucks arriving! They’re packed with wounded soldiers!” one of the officers suddenly pointed toward a massive underground bunker entrance a short distance from the HQ. Medics were frantically unloading bloodied soldiers from the arriving convoys.
“Holy shit… they really are fighting a massive battle right now,” the young officers murmured, the reality of their frontline assignment finally sinking in.