Huan Xingtao floored the accelerator and smashed the APC straight through the glass storefront, coming to a halt inside the shop. Hu Hao kicked open the rear doors and looked out at the street; dozens of vehicles from their disorganized column were idling on the pavement, the drivers paralyzed with indecision.
“Drive into the buildings! Smash the doors! If the bombers catch you in the street, you’re dead!” Hu Hao roared from a crouched position.
“Move it! Into the houses!” the soldiers outside began to scream, finally snapping out of their daze.
“Hao-ge, we can patch into the local comms for the other vehicles!” Huan Xingtao shouted over his shoulder.
“Then do it! Tell them to find cover inside the structures. If the air wing spots them, it’s over!” Hu Hao barked as he climbed back into his seat.
Huan Xingtao grabbed the radio headset and began broadcasting the warning while the rest of the squad checked their gear.
“That son of a bitch…” one soldier muttered, his face red with fury. “The General… how could he? Men are dying for him on the beach, and he doesn’t even give a fall-back order? He just leaves us to rot?” The betrayal hung heavy in the air. Every man in the APC was cursing Li Jingsong. To retreat was one thing; to vanish without a word was an execution sentence for his subordinates.
Hu Hao remained silent. He pulled out a pack of cigarettes, lit one, and passed the pack around. The men took them with trembling hands.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The ground shook. The rhythmic thrum of heavy engines filled the sky as bombers began their run on the nearby bridge.
“Those poor bastards,” He Jizhong whispered, sitting against the interior wall. “The ones who didn’t listen to you, Hao-ge… they’re getting torn apart out there.”
Hu Hao didn’t answer. He was staring at the ceiling, calculating. The bombers were prioritizing the bridge to cut off the escape route and trap the retreating remnants.
“The bridge is gone. Are there any other ways across the river in this city?” Hu Hao asked.
“I don’t know, sir. We’re not from this province,” one soldier replied.
“No maps, dammit,” Hu Hao cursed, exhaling a cloud of smoke.
The bombardment lasted ten minutes. When the engines faded, Hu Hao climbed out of the APC and walked to the edge of the store. Looking down the street toward the river, he saw massive pillars of black smoke rising into the sky. The air was filled with a chorus of screams and wails drifting from the wreckage.
“Let’s go, boys. We’re going to save whoever’s left,” Hu Hao said, turning back to the squad.
“We’re going back there?” Huan Xingtao asked, eyes wide.
“You’re going to leave them?” Hu Hao looked at him, his gaze piercing.
“But Hao-ge… we should worry about ourselves! We’re trapped on this side now!” Sima Xuankong protested.
“He’s right, Hao-ge. What do we do?” The other soldiers looked at him with eyes full of fear. They were looking for a leader, and Hu Hao was the only one they found.
“We save them,” Hu Hao said firmly. “We can’t get across alone. We need numbers. If we’re going to fight a house-to-house battle here, we need every rifle we can find. Without a force, we’re just targets.”
“He’s right. Let’s move!”
“Leave the APCs here—too slow and too loud. Hotwire some civilian cars, we’re taking those. Faster!” Hu Hao ordered.
Within minutes, the 400 or so soldiers who had followed Hu Hao into the city—mostly veterans who had seen his heroics in the trench—were organized into a makeshift motor pool of civilian sedans and trucks. They raced back toward the smoke-choked bridge.
The scene at the bridge was a nightmare. Dozens of Imperial APCs had been caught in the open and shredded.
“Help! Over here! Brother, help me!” A wounded soldier lay in the middle of the road, clutching a blood-soaked leg.
“Tourniquet! Get him stabilized!” Hu Hao shouted as he jumped out of a sedan. Nearly half of the retreating column had been caught in the blast.
As he directed the rescue efforts, Hu Hao spotted a figure sitting on a jagged piece of rubble. It was Li Jingsong. The Division Commander was staring into space, completely catatonic.
“Hao-ge, look,” Huan Xingtao spat. “There’s the coward who left us.”
“Ignore him. Keep moving the wounded,” Hu Hao said, not even glancing at the General.
“Hu Hao? Hu Hao!” Li Jingsong suddenly recognized him and called out. Hu Hao stopped. The surrounding soldiers glared at the General.
“Don’t even look at him, Hao-ge! He’s a bastard!” a soldier from the distance screamed. “You abandoned your men! If the court-martial doesn’t get you, we will!”
“You left us in the dirt while we were fighting for your life!” a Colonel joined in, his voice cracking with rage.
Hu Hao sighed and turned toward Li Jingsong. “Commander… I told you this line wouldn’t hold for four days. I told you it might fall today. But I never imagined it wouldn’t even last half a morning because you ran away!”
“The 86th and 85th were overrun,” Li Jingsong stammered. “If we didn’t leave, we would have been encircled!”
“Then you give an order to fall back! You don’t just slip away in the middle of the night!” another Major roared. Li Jingsong lowered his head, unable to meet their eyes.
“Listen up!” Hu Hao shouted, his voice carrying over the wreckage. “Clear the wounded and get into the city! Do not stay in the open or you’ll be target practice for the next air wing. We gather in the urban center and figure out a way across that river!”
“Into the city? Isn’t that a trap?” a Regimental Commander asked.
“You see a way across that bridge?” Hu Hao pointed to the twisted metal hanging over the water. “The Allied armor will be here within the hour. There’s no cover here. In the city, we can hide, we can rest, and we can plan. Now move!”
“We’re with Hao-ge!” the soldiers shouted. “He called it right before—we’d be dead in the street if we hadn’t listened. Follow him!”
As the survivors began loading the wounded into cars, Hu Hao walked to the edge of the bridge and looked down at the river. It was mid-summer, and the water was low. The river was 200 meters wide, but the actual deep water was less than 100 meters across, flanked by wide sandbars.
“Hao-ge, come on! What are you doing?” Sima Xuankong yelled.
“We can cross,” Hu Hao muttered. “The deep channel is only ten meters or so. Anyone who can swim can make it.”
“Hao-ge, let’s go!”
“Coming!” Hu Hao turned to leave, but saw Li Jingsong still sitting in the dirt. He hesitated for a heartbeat, then walked over and hauled the General up by his collar.
“Hao-ge, what are you doing? Let him rot!” Huan Xingtao shouted.
“Let me go!” Li Jingsong struggled feebly. “I’m not going anywhere. It’s over.”
“Shut up,” Hu Hao growled, dragging him toward a car. “I don’t care about your life, but your father was the one who kept me from being handed over to Zhang He. I’m paying back the debt. You’re coming with us.”