Hu Hao was still feeling smug when Mo Qin suddenly rebuked him. Completely caught off guard, he froze in astonishment.
However, Sun Bin, a senior staff officer who had fought his way out of Tianyu Province alongside Hu Hao, wasn’t going to let it slide.
He immediately charged forward, grabbed Mo Qin by the collar, and slammed him against the wall next to the observation port.
Seeing this, Wang Yao and the others were about to rush over too. Hearing the commotion, the other staff officers in the command center also ran out!
“Let go, Sun Bin, let him go! Let him speak!” Hu Hao shouted, seeing everyone’s emotions suddenly spiraling out of control.
“Let go, did you hear me?! I’ll fucking kill you!” Wang Yao yelled.
“Kill me? Fine!” Sun Bin released Mo Qin, pulled out his own pistol, and handed it to Wang Yao! “Take it! Shoot me right here! Come on, pull the trigger if you have the guts, you son of a bitch!”
Sun Bin roared at Wang Yao. Wang Yao instantly froze. Hu Hao walked over and snatched the gun from Sun Bin’s hand!
“What are you all doing?! You, speak!” Hu Hao yelled at the staff officers, then pointed at Mo Qin.
“Fine, Hao-ge, I’ll speak! I know we’re at war right now, but do you really have to laugh so happily while watching the Allied forces being slaughtered like that?
Where is your humanity? What about all those years of education you received? We are educated, civilized people. I know they deserve to die, but you can’t just laugh while they’re being killed, can you?” Mo Qin shouted back, looking at Hu Hao.
“Yeah, and why did you bring us here? What do you take us brothers for? You call us over, just to leave us hanging. What’s the meaning of this?!” Wang Yao also yelled at Hu Hao.
“Exactly! We thought coming here meant we’d live a good life with you. Who would have thought that we’d be treated worse than these people who have only followed you for a little over a month? What does that make us? Are five years of classmates not worth anything?” Dong Qipeng chimed in.
“You don’t know shit!” Hearing this, Xiao Quan couldn’t hold back anymore and was about to curse them out!
“Shut up! Let them speak!” Hu Hao shouted, glaring at his classmates.
Hearing this, Xiao Quan held his tongue, turning his head in anger to watch the battlefield.
“Hao-ge, Hao-ge! Come here, I got some good stuff for you!” At that moment, Huan Xingtao came running over to Hu Hao, carrying a crate of drinks!
“What are you doing?” Huan Xingtao finally noticed the tense atmosphere and immediately asked!
“What’s that?” Hu Hao managed a laugh.
“Cold drinks! Haha, the logistics brothers just brought them over, so I brought them to you. Here, Hao-ge, carbonated soda, ice cold. Sipping on a cold drink while watching the Allied forces get trashed—isn’t that refreshing?” Huan Xingtao set the crate down and handed a large bottle to Hu Hao.
“Haha, you even managed to get your hands on this!” Hu Hao laughed, handing his bottle to Xiao Quan and taking another one that Huan Xingtao offered.
“Hehe, the logistics brothers specifically asked me to deliver this to you, Hao-ge. They said you lead the brothers to victory and keep us alive, so they wanted to thank you!” Huan Xingtao said with a smile.
“Alright, I’ll remember this favor!” Hu Hao smiled, twisting off the cap and taking a swig.
“Hao-ge, look at those bastards, we’ve beaten them so badly they wish they could crawl on all fours!” Huan Xingtao laughed.
“Alright, but tell me, Company Commander, shouldn’t you be managing your troops? You have over 400 men in your company. Is it okay for you to be here?” Hu Hao asked, looking at Huan Xingtao.
“Nonsense, those platoon leaders are from our division. If they can’t manage well, I’ll deal with them. They know how to fight, and we’re not charging right now, so it’s fine whether I’m there or not!” Huan Xingtao laughed.
“Fair enough!” Hu Hao nodded. He pulled out an unopened pack of cigarettes and tossed it to Huan Xingtao. “Give these to the brothers to smoke. I can’t be with you guys every day.”
“I know. The brothers just hope you’ll keep leading us to victory. Hao-ge, these are good cigarettes! Who gave them to you? These cost over 50 bucks a pack!” Huan Xingtao said happily, looking at the pack.
“I stole them!” Hu Hao laughed.
“Got it. I’m heading out, Hao-ge! Old Regimental Commander!” Huan Xingtao said to Hu Hao and Xiao Quan.
“Alright, go get busy!” Xiao Quan nodded with a smile.
“Wait, what’s going on here? You guys… this isn’t right. Hao-ge, what happened?” Huan Xingtao finally noticed that everyone else was silent and looking extremely serious, so he immediately asked.
“Huan Xingtao, why don’t you listen to this? Just listen!” Sun Bin said.
“Hao-ge, what’s wrong?” Huan Xingtao asked, looking at him in confusion.
“Go back!” Hu Hao ordered Huan Xingtao.
“Oh!” Huan Xingtao nodded.
“Hao-ge, let him hear it! Let them speak! Go on, say it! ‘Civilized people’? ‘We can’t laugh when we see the Allied forces being killed’? You even said Hao-ge doesn’t care about your brotherhood! Come on, say it!” Xiao Quan pointed at Wang Yao.
“What? Who’s badmouthing Hao-ge?” Hearing this, Huan Xingtao’s face darkened instantly, and he glared at Wang Yao and his group.
“Sigh!” Hu Hao let out a heavy sigh.
“Was it you?” Huan Xingtao asked, pointing at Wang Yao.
“What if it was?” Wang Yao retorted.
“Was it you?!” Huan Xingtao pointed right at him.
“So what if it was? Our business with Hu Hao has nothing to do with you!” Wang Yao cursed at Huan Xingtao; he had never liked him anyway.
“Fuck me! Did you just call him Hu Hao?! Ah?! Have you forgotten all discipline? You son of a bitch!” Huan Xingtao cursed, pointing a finger at Wang Yao.
“Calling him Hu Hao is the least of it. They even call Hao-ge ‘Haozi’ right inside the command center!” Sun Bin added.
“Fuck. You’ve got guts. You’ve got guts!” Huan Xingtao sneered, pointing at Wang Yao.
“You want to fight?” Mo Qin asked, looking at Hu Hao.
“Hao-ge, wait for me!” Huan Xingtao said, turning to run outside.
“Come back here!” Hu Hao rushed forward and grabbed Huan Xingtao.
“Hao-ge, I’m going to get the brothers from my squad. I’m going to beat them to death today. You actually dare to ask for a fight? Who the hell do you think you are?! My men crawled out from piles of corpses! Who have we ever been afraid of?! Come on, how about this? All of you together, against just me! Hao-ge, hold my guns. I’m going to teach them a lesson!” Huan Xingtao said, unholstering his pistol and unhitching his rifle, trying to hand them to Hu Hao.
“What is wrong with all of you?! Have you all eaten gunpowder?!” Hu Hao roared, standing his ground. Everyone immediately looked at him.
“Motherfuckers, are you trying to mutiny?!” Hu Hao yelled at them, then shoved the guns back into Huan Xingtao’s hands. Huan Xingtao caught them instinctively!
“You all, report to the frontline units tomorrow. Once you’re on the battlefield, you’ll understand. If there’s a chance, I’ll take you to the enemy-occupied zones. Once you see how they slaughter our civilians, you’ll understand why we kill the Allied forces the way we do. Explaining it to you is useless. Also, don’t ever say things like this again. I might tolerate it, but the other officers and soldiers won’t. Watch yourselves!” Hu Hao pointed at Mo Qin and the others. But Mo Qin and his group still looked unconvinced!
“You’re unconvinced? Who the hell do you think you are? You talk to us about being ‘civilized people’ here? Go ask the Allied forces across the river! Ask them if they are civilized people! When you see children being slaughtered by Allied soldiers, and women being violated by them, then come back and lecture us about what civilization is!
Furthermore, this is a battlefield! We are fighting a war! Do you even know what war is?! War means either you die or I die! Especially this war—our Empire isn’t just facing the destruction of our nation, but the extermination of our people! Do you understand?! Extermination!” By the end, Xiao Quan was screaming at them passionately.
Hearing this, Wang Yao and the others merely stood there in silence. Hu Hao knew that words were useless right now.
Until they truly experienced it, they would never understand. In war, it was a fight to the death. In war, you had to use whatever means necessary to kill the enemy so you could survive!
“Go inside. If you don’t want to watch, then don’t. I still need to observe the Allied forces’ reaction,” Hu Hao told them.
“Hao-ge, just send them to the frontline units right now. Keeping them here not only ruins the mood, but they also don’t understand anything. Look, when you issue orders or conduct analysis, do they ever come over to listen? They have no idea how crucial these analyses are! Many of our officers don’t even know how to command in this war. They think they know everything just because they just graduated. That won’t work.
I say, sending them to the front lines now is actually the best way to train them. I know you don’t want to see them die, but we’re at war. Anyone could die. You can protect them for a moment, but can you protect them for a lifetime? Besides, they don’t even appreciate it!” Xiao Quan advised Hu Hao.
“If we go, we go! You think I’m scared?” Wang Yao retorted, looking at Xiao Quan.
“Hmph, people like you going to the front line… just try not to get the brothers killed. It’ll be hilarious if the soldiers end up shooting you in the back!” Huan Xingtao sneered.
“And you know how to command a battle?” Wang Yao challenged Huan Xingtao.
“I don’t! That’s why I’m trying to learn!” Huan Xingtao shot back.
“Alright, assign them to the front lines!” Hearing this, Hu Hao turned around to watch the opposite bank. He didn’t want to talk about it anymore.
“Yes, sir!” Xiao Quan replied, then immediately entered the command center. The front lines were still short on junior officers. Xiao Quan would assign them to units. They were all First Lieutenants; Xiao Quan planned to make them Deputy Company Commanders. That wouldn’t be mistreating them, considering a company currently had over 400 men.
Seeing Hu Hao turn his back on them, Wang Yao and the others scoffed and walked into the command center.
“Sigh, these people… they’re really just hot-headed kids!” Sun Bin sighed as he stood there. Hu Hao didn’t respond, keeping his eyes fixed ahead.
“It looks like all the Allied forces have come out of the trenches. Have our infantry guns extend their fire. Bombard every area our infantry guns can reach!” Hu Hao ordered the staff officers beside him.
“Yes, sir!” The staff officers immediately returned to the command center to issue the orders.
(End of Chapter)