Just as Hu Hao ordered his men to take over the thermal power plant, Mu Zhifu received word that his youngest son had been successfully recovered.
“Damn it, send him to the capital immediately! Do not let him stay anywhere near Late City!” Mu Zhifu shouted to an aide beside him.
“Yes, sir! I will contact them right away!” the aide nodded.
Mu Zhifu’s troops were originally supposed to defend the southeastern sector, but they had been routed and forced to retreat several hundred li. Having just arrived in a new city, Mu Zhifu was frantically trying to establish a new defensive line!
“Commander, isn’t that Hu Hao a bit too arrogant? He’s blatantly using the Young Master to threaten you!” a senior staff officer remarked.
“What choice do we have? He captured the boy. Could we just refuse to pay? Besides, we’re in the middle of a war. That power plant wasn’t going to last much longer anyway; the Allied air force would have bombed it eventually. Keeping it wouldn’t have done us much good, so giving it away is fine!
“The critical issue right now is our troops. We don’t have enough veterans, and we don’t have anyone who actually knows how to command in battle. We’ve suffered defeat after defeat. If this continues, His Majesty will strip me of my command, and all our Mu family’s assets will be immediately carved up by the others! Using these assets to save Qian-er now at least serves some purpose!” Mu Zhifu said in sheer frustration.
“His Majesty will strip you of your command?!” Hearing this, the staff officer, who was also a member of the Mu family, grew incredibly anxious.
“What do you think? Right now, out of all the Commanders, Jiang Kai’s position is the most secure! He led his troops in a counter-offensive and successfully annihilated ten Allied corps. And now, his defensive line is still holding strong!
“I heard His Majesty has already authorized him to expand his forces to 600,000 men. If he truly reaches that number, Jiang Kai will command the largest force in our entire Empire. As for us… if we keep losing, we might be disbanded entirely!” Mu Zhifu said, his brow furrowed with worry.
“How is that possible? Our Mu family has made massive sacrifices for the Empire!” a young officer interjected.
“What good are sacrifices?! We occupy the positions of Generals, yet we haven’t done the job of Generals! The civilians of the Empire harbor immense grievances against us, and His Majesty is incredibly dissatisfied with us as well!
“That is exactly why I didn’t dare offend Jiang Kai any further right now. Hu Hao is Jiang Kai’s subordinate. If I really tried to kill Hu Hao, Jiang Kai would definitely come after us.
“We were careless this time. I originally thought Hu Hao had no backing, but I never expected Jiang Kai to be his backer. Tell me, why does Jiang Kai trust Hu Hao so much? Why does he value him so highly?” Mu Zhifu asked.
Previously, he had called Jiang Kai, hoping to pressure Hu Hao into releasing his son through him. Instead, Jiang Kai had rebuffed him with a single sentence: You bully my men, and you expect me to wipe your ass for you?
And then Jiang Kai had hung up. Mu Zhifu had to call several more times before Jiang Kai finally answered again.
“Say, why do you think Jiang Kai would offend me for the sake of a mere Colonel?” Mu Zhifu turned to the staff officer beside him.
“I don’t know. Perhaps Hu Hao is a relative of his?” the staff officer guessed.
“Impossible. Even if he were his nephew, he wouldn’t offend me for a nephew’s sake. Besides, we already checked. Hu Hao has no relation to Jiang Kai whatsoever. Hu Hao just graduated from the military academy; he comes from a family of commoners!” Mu Zhifu shook his head firmly.
“Then that is truly strange!” The staff officer also shook his head in confusion.
“Alright, enough of that. Right now, we need to focus on our own affairs. The Allied forces are pursuing us relentlessly. If we can’t hold this defensive line, we’re in massive trouble. His Majesty definitely won’t let us off the hook!” Seeing that the staff officer couldn’t figure it out either, Mu Zhifu decided to drop it.
The issue with Hu Hao was resolved for now. Although he had been extorted, there would be opportunities for revenge later. Right now, he needed to resolve his own immediate crisis before he could even think about revenge. If he couldn’t hold this defensive line, let alone seek revenge, Hu Hao would probably be the one to seize the opportunity and finish him off.
Meanwhile, on Hu Hao’s end, things were calm for the moment. Hu Hao knew the Allied forces would definitely attack tonight, but likely not until after dark. Now that dusk had fallen, the soldiers were eating dinner. After finishing his own meal, Hu Hao walked around the trenches, lost in thought. He had been walking for nearly an hour when Xiao Quan approached him.
“Hao-ge, you’ve been out here a long time. What’s on your mind?” Xiao Quan asked, walking up to him.
“Tonight is going to be tough. Motherfucker, I reckon our remaining veterans are going to suffer casualties!” Hu Hao stopped and turned to Xiao Quan.
“Can we hold them?” Xiao Quan asked nervously.
“Holding them definitely won’t be a problem. Breaking through my positions will be quite difficult for them. Our soldiers fight with their lives on the line, and we still have our artillery and Li Jingsong’s troops in reserve. So, remaining undefeated is achievable.
“However, we can’t just deploy our artillery and armored units all at once, can we? If we do, how are we supposed to fight later? The Allied forces might still send another corps our way! Sigh, this is the worst part about defensive warfare—you can only sit and wait. I hate fighting like this!” Hu Hao sighed.
“What else can we do? Given this weather, our overall passive situation, and our lack of troops, just being able to hold the line is already a massive achievement!” Xiao Quan advised.
“No. If we get the chance to wipe out the Allied forces in front of us, we must fight our way out. We cannot remain this passive. I hate being passive in war. The moment you become passive, you’re forced to follow the Allied forces’ battle rhythm. We’ll suffer heavy losses that way. The veteran brothers we painstakingly preserved will all be consumed if we fight like this!” Hu Hao shook his head firmly.
Xiao Quan nodded. He didn’t know how they should fight, but he trusted Hu Hao. If Hu Hao said they should attack, they would attack!
“Let’s go back to the command center. It’s almost 7:30 PM. I bet the Allied forces want to finish us off quickly, so they should be mobilizing soon!” Hu Hao checked his watch and said to Xiao Quan. The two men then headed back inside.
Upon entering the command center, Hu Hao walked over to the observation port to check for movement on the opposite bank.
“Hao-ge, vehicle headlights!” A staff officer spotted the lights first and immediately reported. Hearing this, Hu Hao quickly stepped up to the periscope and peered intently in the direction the staff officer pointed.
“Motherfucker, here they come. They’ve finally made up their minds!” One look was enough for Hu Hao to recognize the massed headlights of tank and armored vehicle columns.
“Order our troops to enter the air-raid shelters immediately! The Allied forces are about to attack!” Hu Hao turned his head and shouted into the room.
“Yes, sir!” the staff officers replied loudly.
Xiao Quan also rushed over. “They’re here?”
“They’re here. Attacking this early means they want to take our positions in one fell swoop. Tonight will be our hardest night yet!” Hu Hao said, his expression grave.
“We have no choice. We just have to hold!” Xiao Quan sighed.
“Whoosh—” Soon after, the shrieking sound of incoming artillery shells pierced the air. The Allied bombardment had begun.
“Boom!” Massive explosions erupted. Hu Hao stood there, watching the enemy tanks on the opposite bank begin moving toward them.
“Motherfucker, so many?!” Seeing the sheer number of tanks, Hu Hao knew the Allied forces had committed a massive force—likely their largest deployment yet.
“Hao-ge, let’s head inside!” Xiao Quan urged.
“Mm, let’s go in!” Hu Hao nodded and walked deeper into the command center.
“Boom! Boom! Boom!” The massive Allied bombardment commenced, shaking the entire defensive line.
Over in Bopa City, many civilians heard the artillery fire and immediately looked toward the distant positions, watching the continuous flashes of explosions light up the horizon. In the hospital, the wounded who could still walk moved to the windows or hallways, watching the distant lights.
“The bombardment is incredibly fierce. This might be their heaviest one yet!” A Battalion Commander holding the rank of Major leaned on a crutch, his voice filled with worry.
“Battalion Commander, can our troops hold?” a soldier asked him anxiously.
“They can. As long as Hao-ge is there, they definitely can!” the Major nodded firmly.
“Mm. As long as Hao-ge is there, we’ll be fine!” The other soldiers nodded in agreement.
“Hurry back inside, it’s time to change your dressings!” A girl carrying a medical tray walked over and called out to the wounded. Hearing this, the soldiers had no choice but to head back to their beds.
Soon, the nurse reached the Major and began changing the dressing on his thigh.
“Sir, can our troops win this battle?” the girl asked softly.
“We definitely will. Thank you!” the Major smiled at her.
“Mm, I hope we win. We’ve fled for thousands of li already; we don’t want to run anymore. If this place holds, we’ll stay right here!” the girl smiled and nodded.
“We will. Hao-ge won’t let the Allied forces cross!” the Major said comfortingly.
“I hope so. I hear you soldiers talking about your Hao-ge all the time. Who is Hao-ge? Is he really that amazing?” the nurse asked.
“Of course he’s amazing! Hao-ge is our Division Commander. He’s about the same age as you, but he’s incredible at fighting! All of us here fought our way out of enemy territory following Hao-ge.
“And now that we’re here, the fact that our single division can hold off three entire Allied corps is entirely thanks to him! Those other units? Hmph, even if you gave them three corps, they might not even be able to stop a single Allied corps! Motherfucker, those young master generals only know how to get people killed!” When speaking of Hu Hao, the Major was overflowing with pride. But when mentioning the young master generals, his voice was filled with furious resentment; they all utterly despised those incompetent nobles!
(End of Chapter)