Hu Hao led the charge at the front with the soldiers trailing close behind. Whenever they spotted a large concentration of Allied troops, Hu Hao would immediately rain grenades down on them.
“Hurry up! Push forward!” Hu Hao roared to the men behind him after tossing another volley of grenades.
The soldiers, rifles at the ready, surged forward. Whenever they encountered Allied soldiers who hadn’t been killed outright, they opened fire immediately. This was war; it wasn’t enough to just finish a skirmish. If they saw someone still breathing, they shot them. Even if an enemy held up their hands in surrender, they didn’t leave survivors. They couldn’t afford to leave wounded enemies at their backs; if those men picked up a gun later, it would be their own brothers who died.
“Finish them off!” Hu Hao shouted. Seeing several Allied soldiers wailing on the ground, mangled by grenade shrapnel, he gave the order without hesitation.
Bang! Bang! Bang! The soldiers leveled their rifles and executed the wounded, clearing the path.
“Hao-ge, look at that building ahead—the one with the lights. Could that be the enemy headquarters?” a soldier asked, pointing toward a structure about a thousand meters away.
“Ignore it for now. We finish the sweep first! Keep pushing!” Hu Hao commanded. As he spoke, he glanced back and noticed gunfire still erupting from the flanks. The other friendly units hadn’t caught up to their position yet.
“Hao-ge, did we push too far ahead?” a Regimental Commander panted as he ran up to Hu Hao’s side.
“Dammit, this is dangerous,” Hu Hao muttered, looking back at the flashes of gunfire nearly a kilometer behind them.
“Give me a few dozen men! The rest of you, hold this position. If you see enemies, engage them. I’m going to check the other flanks. If we keep pushing forward and let the enemy cut off our rear, we’re finished!” Hu Hao said.
“Understood. I’ll hold the line here!” the Colonel nodded. Hu Hao gave a sharp nod in return and, leading about forty soldiers, sprinted toward a side street.
The Eastern Spirit Empire’s forces were currently in the middle of a massive counter-attack, forcing the Allied troops into a defensive posture, with each unit assigned to hold a specific sector.
Hu Hao and his men cut through an alleyway and emerged onto a parallel street. From his position, he could see enemy tanks and a large infantry perimeter in the distance. Dozens of Allied soldiers were prone, firing relentlessly at the Imperial troops attempting to push up the street.
“Rocket teams, take out those tanks and APCs! Give me your grenades! The rest of you, find cover and open fire!” Hu Hao ordered. He reached out and grabbed a bag; his men had scavenged a large sack specifically to keep him supplied with grenades.
Hu Hao sprinted forward, diving into a piece of cover. He tore open the bag and began hurling grenades. Wherever he saw a cluster of Allied uniforms, a grenade followed.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! Soon, the entire street and the surrounding apartment complexes were rocked by a continuous, thunderous barrage of grenade blasts.
“Hao-ge is here! Brothers, hit ’em!” Many soldiers from the stalled units heard the explosions and knew instantly it was Hu Hao. Their morale surged as they roared and renewed their attack.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Huan Xingtao and the others began firing as well, picking off the Allied soldiers pinned down by the blasts.
“The enemy is behind us! Dammit! Fast, retreat! Retreat!” Several Allied officers, seeing Hu Hao’s group suddenly appear on their flank and being hammered by so many grenades, panicked. They couldn’t tell where the assault was coming from until they spotted the soldiers firing from their rear.
Hu Hao didn’t understand a word they said, but seeing the Allies falling back with their weapons, he knew they were trying to reposition. He grabbed his bag of grenades and continued to give chase.
“Careful where you shoot, brothers! Aim for the Allies! Don’t hit Hao-ge!” a friendly officer screamed.
“We know! We’re covering him!” the soldiers replied.
BOOM! BOOM! The Allied units were in full retreat. Hu Hao stayed right on their heels, preventing them from falling back in good order. They were forced to scramble toward the sides where their other units were located.
“Charge through! Chase them down!” Hu Hao roared to Huan Xingtao and the others as the Allies veered off.
“GO!” Li Jingsong joined in, shouting at the top of his lungs as he sprinted toward Hu Hao with his rifle raised.
“Finish the wounded! Don’t give them a chance to fire again!” Hu Hao’s voice carried across the entire sector, ensuring every soldier heard the order.
“Understood!” several officers shouted back.
The Imperial troops who had been struggling to advance now swarmed forward, chasing the retreating Allies. Hu Hao was fast—even in the middle of the jagged rubble, his pace exceeded everyone else’s. Bag in hand and rifle slung over his back, he pursued the enemy. Whenever he was within throwing distance, a grenade would land right on their heads.
“Dammit, fall back!” The Allied units were being hammered into a disorganized rout.
Soon, the fleeing soldiers merged with another unit and attempted to establish a fresh defensive line among the ruins to block Hu Hao’s advance.
Hu Hao saw the heavy machine guns being set up. He performed a hard roll, darting into a nearby house and crawling toward the doorway.
Rat-tat-tat! Bullets chewed through the walls, sending splinters of wood and stone flying through the air.
Hu Hao crawled rapidly, moving into an inner room where the heavy machine gun rounds couldn’t penetrate. Once safe, he stood up and spotted the staircase to the second floor. Gripping his bag of explosives, he raced up.
Reaching the second floor, he found a window facing the enemy line and began hurling grenades into the distance.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
“Where is that grenade coming from?!”
“Dammit, get back!”
The Allied position, which had only just been established, was shredded by Hu Hao’s airbursts. They had no cover in the open ground; they were completely exposed to the shrapnel raining from above. It wasn’t just one grenade; it was a rhythmic, relentless barrage. Most frustratingly for them, it was night, and they couldn’t pin down Hu Hao’s exact location.
Throwing a grenade wasn’t like firing a rifle; there was no muzzle flash to give him away. The grenades simply appeared silently in the air before detonating. Unable to hold, the enemy was forced to retreat again.
“Brothers, keep the pressure on!” Hu Hao roared. He could hear his men catching up.
“Hao-ge, get down! It’s not safe up there!” a soldier yelled. If the Allies spotted someone in a high position, they would focus all their fire there.
“I know!” Hu Hao shouted, grabbing his ammo bag and heading back down.
Once he reached the street, he swapped his empty bag for a fresh one. He was burning through his supply.
“Brothers, pick up every grenade you see! Hao-ge is going through them fast, and we didn’t bring enough!” Huan Xingtao took the empty bag and shouted to the troops.
“Got it!” the soldiers replied, nodding.
“Move! Keep chasing! We need to bring the whole line up. We can’t let the rear get bogged down. We take this place tonight, or the fresh recruits tomorrow won’t stand a chance. That’s the order from Command!” Hu Hao gripped his bag and moved toward the flank.
The assault zone tonight was roughly four kilometers wide. After Hu Hao pushed the center forward, he had to keep shifting to different sectors to help the other units break through.
Throughout the night, Hu Hao himself lost track of how many grenades he had thrown. It wasn’t just the 27th Army anymore; the veterans of the 28th and the remnants of the 29th all realized that Hu Hao was their spearhead, and he needed grenades.
Hu Hao’s throwing arm was like a piece of artillery. Most of the time, the enemy was dead before they even realized they were being attacked. The soldiers learned a simple rule: follow Hu Hao and charge.
Hu Hao moved constantly along the front line, shifting positions and leading the advance. Under his relentless pressure, the Allied forces were driven back, block by block.
The Allies were bewildered. They had easily driven the Imperial forces out during the day; they couldn’t understand why they couldn’t hold their ground now that the sun was down.
Inside an underground bunker in Sector 9, Tie Xingtuo, Commander of the Allied 71st Division, and Mugeliqi, Commander of the 73rd Division, were studying the map.
“Report, General! The Eastern Spirit forces have pushed nearly two kilometers into our lines. They’re approaching this position. Our casualties are heavy; we need reinforcements immediately!” a Chief of Staff from the 71st reported to Tie Xingtuo.
“What? The Eastern Spirit troops actually know how to fight now? They broke through?” Tie Xingtuo asked, stunned.
“Sir, our front line units just called. The 2nd and 3rd Regiments have been decimated. They’ve retreated a significant distance and merged with the 4th Regiment. The enemy is attacking with incredible ferocity. Most notably, their grenades—somehow they are reaching our lines from impossible distances. Our men are being hit by airbursts before they even see the enemy. We checked the fragments; they aren’t grenade launchers. They’re standard hand grenades, but there are far too many of them!” the 73rd’s Chief of Staff added.
“The objective of this Eastern Spirit push is obvious: they want us out. Do we know which unit we’re facing?” Mugeliqi asked.
“It’s a mess, sir. We’re seeing patches from the 27th, 28th, and 29th Corps. It looks like a composite force of their stragglers,” the staff officer replied.
“Stragglers? They sent remnants to attack us? It seems the Empire is truly out of men. Most of their Generals are incompetent fools who only have their rank because of their fathers. You think men like that can lead a night assault? Haha!” Mugeliqi laughed.
“True,” Tie Xingtuo agreed with a smirk. “But we still need to clear them out. Tell the armor division to send the tanks back in. Let’s see how these stragglers handle cold steel.”
The Allied commanders shared a look of disdain. To them, the Eastern Spirit’s high command was a joke they had long ago stopped taking seriously.