When Hu Hao heard Li Jingsong confirm that the enemy truly had launched an airborne assault the night before—and that Jiang Kai had successfully ambushed and annihilated two Allied airborne divisions—he wasn’t the least bit happy.
Last night, when the enemy hadn’t attacked, he had almost started to doubt his own judgment. He never expected that the only reason he didn’t know about the ambush was that Li Jingsong hadn’t bothered to contact Zone Command last night, only finding out about the massive victory this morning.
Deeply worried, Hu Hao hung up the phone and sat back, shaking his head in helpless frustration.
“Hao-ge, what’s wrong?” Zhao Haibin asked, noticing his dark expression.
“Ah? Nothing. Just thinking,” Hu Hao replied. He suddenly leaned forward and shouted at Sima Xuankong, who was driving the bus. “There aren’t many cars ahead! Floor it! Go as fast as this thing can move! Hurry!”
“We’re already hitting a hundred klicks! If I push it any faster, it’s going to get dangerous!” Sima Xuankong yelled back over the roar of the engine. Although the highway was relatively empty, there were still occasional vehicles and numerous intersections. Speeding a massive bus at over 100 kilometers per hour was incredibly risky.
“Mmh. Fine. But keep it as fast as you safely can!” Hu Hao ordered, nodding.
“You got it! Don’t worry, the enemy won’t chase us! They think we’re just civilian refugees!” Sima Xuankong laughed confidently.
Hu Hao nodded and checked his watch. It was almost 10:00 AM. He looked out the window, his irritation mounting. He was terrified that the Allied forces had actually executed a successful daytime airdrop while he was kept in the dark.
The Allied commanders knew exactly what they were doing. They could not afford to let these battle-hardened veterans escape back to the rear. If these remnant troops were allowed to rest, refit, and return to the front, they would be an absolute nightmare to fight. A veteran army returning for blood was fundamentally different from an army of green recruits; their combat effectiveness was incomparable. The Allied brass understood this perfectly: they would much rather fight an army of a million fresh recruits than face two hundred thousand bitter veterans.
Dammit, I hope they’re okay, Hu Hao cursed inwardly.
“Hao-ge, phone! It’s the Division Commander again!” Zhao Haibin said, handing him the satellite phone.
“Yeah?” Hu Hao answered.
“Hao-ge, I can’t reach them! I tried calling three different friends of mine—all Division Commanders in the main column—and I can’t get through to any of them! Hao-ge, did something actually happen?!” Li Jingsong’s voice was laced with panic.
“Mmh. It’s highly likely. Listen to me: stop trying to call them. Order the men to drive faster! We are not safe until we cross the border into Dingkang Province! Right now, we are sitting ducks.
Also, if the Zone Commander calls you, watch what you say! If he asks where we are, you tell him you don’t know! Tell him our forces got scattered during the retreat!” Hu Hao commanded sharply.
“Ah? Oh… understood,” Li Jingsong replied, sounding confused.
“And call the 28th Army. Tell them exactly what I just told you,” Hu Hao added.
“Wait, Hao-ge, why? Is there something else going on?” Li Jingsong pressed.
“If you don’t want to be thrown straight back into the meat grinder, do exactly as I say. If you agree to let the Zone Commander drag us back into a firefight, don’t say I didn’t warn you: the men will frag you sooner or later!” Hu Hao warned him coldly.
“Ah! I understand! I’m calling the 28th right now!”
Hearing that he might be forced back into combat—and the very real threat of being shot in the back by his own mutinous soldiers—Li Jingsong finally realized the absolute gravity of the situation.
After Hu Hao hung up, everyone in the bus stared at him.
“What?” Hu Hao asked.
“Hao-ge… are we going back into the fight?” Huan Xingtao asked nervously.
“I don’t know. Things are very bad. We just need to run as fast as we can. If we’re too slow, we might just get dragged back in,” Hu Hao replied.
“Dammit! Faster! Dead Horse, drive faster!” Huan Xingtao roared, using Sima Xuankong’s nickname.
“You’re calling me a ‘Dead Horse’ and you still expect me to go faster?!” Sima Xuankong, oblivious to the preceding conversation, yelled back from the driver’s seat.
“If you don’t speed up, we’re all going to be dead meat! Hao-ge says if we’re too slow, we might get sent back to the front!” He Jizhong screamed at him.
“Holy shit! Hold on tight!” Sima Xuankong yelled. He slammed the gearshift, and the bus surged forward, tearing down the highway at terrifying speed.
The soldiers driving the civilian vehicles behind the bus were startled by the sudden acceleration.
“What the hell is he doing?! Is he trying to get us killed?!” a soldier yelled from a trailing car.
“Speed the fuck up! The Division Commander just called—we have to run! Orders from Hao-ge!” a Second Lieutenant in the passenger seat roared back.
“Ah? Yes, sir!” The soldier immediately downshifted and floored the accelerator.
If anyone had been watching from the sky, they would have seen a bizarre sight: a convoy of over a thousand mismatched civilian vehicles suddenly transforming into a high-speed racing fleet, tearing down the highway in unison.
The convoy drove relentlessly until past 3:00 PM. So far, the skies above them were clear. Another soldier had taken over driving the bus to give Sima Xuankong a break.
“Hao-ge, I don’t see any enemy planes,” a soldier said, pulling his head back in after hanging out the window for several minutes.
“Why would planes be looking for us here?” Hu Hao retorted.
“Didn’t you say we might have to fight? There are no planes, and there are no Allied troops around here. How are we supposed to fight?” the soldier asked, looking confused.
“Who said we’d be fighting here? It would be somewhere else! Stop asking so many questions. We can’t relax until we reach a secure zone,” Hu Hao scolded him.
“Oh,” the soldier nodded meekly.
“Hao-ge, it’s the Division Commander again,” Zhao Haibin said, handing over the phone.
“The Zone Commander just called my old man,” Li Jingsong reported rapidly. “He asked where our forces were. My dad told him we didn’t know and that the units had been scattered. Hao-ge… the main retreating army is completely blocked!
Less than 150 kilometers from Dingkang Province, the enemy airdropped three airborne divisions! They’ve set up a fortified blockade along the river and won’t let our troops cross. And the Allied armored pursuit force could catch up to them by midnight!”
“Mmh. Ignore them. We keep retreating. We’ll deal with it when we reach safety. Dammit, they have hundreds of thousands of troops over there, and they’re asking where our tiny remnant force is? What a joke!” Hu Hao snapped. His worst fears had been realized.
“Hao-ge, I heard the Allied bombers have been relentlessly pounding our main forces all day. The troops are trapped out in the open plains with nowhere to hide; the casualties are catastrophic. Our air force can’t break through to help them because they’re being pinned down by Allied fighters. The army is getting slaughtered!” Li Jingsong said, his voice trembling.
“Sigh. Fine. Stop talking and just drive faster,” Hu Hao sighed, not wanting to discuss it further.
If they were back on Earth, Hu Hao might have tried to persuade his soldiers to turn around and launch a rescue mission. But here, he genuinely couldn’t find the motivation. The Empire’s military policies were so callous, showing absolute disregard for the lives and futures of grassroots soldiers, that no one had any desire to bleed for the country anymore. He had no justification to ask these men to drive back into the fire to save a Command that viewed them as expendable trash.
“Hao-ge, listen to me,” Li Jingsong continued urgently. “The Zone Commander ordered my dad to find you immediately. He demanded my dad give him your direct satellite number. My dad lied and said you didn’t have one and that we couldn’t reach you either.
Hao-ge, the Zone Commander knows your name now. He’s looking specifically for you. Do you think we should—”
“Should we what?! Should we go die?! If you want to die, go right ahead, but leave us out of it!” Hu Hao cut him off with a vicious curse, hung up the phone, and turned to stare out the window.
In Li Tianyuan’s command car, Li Jingsong lowered the phone and looked back at his father. “Dad, it’s a no-go. Hao-ge absolutely refuses to go back. And honestly, it’s not just him—none of the men want to go back. If Hao-ge somehow tried to force them to turn around, I think the two of us would be the first ones shot dead by our own troops.”
“Sigh… then we don’t go. I’ll just tell Command we couldn’t gather enough men, and that a few hundred stragglers won’t make a difference. I’ll maintain that we can’t reach Hu Hao,” Li Tianyuan sighed heavily.
“Dad… how is Hu Hao so godlike? How did he calculate all of this perfectly?” Li Jingsong asked, looking at his father in awe.
“Build a strong relationship with him. If this war drags on, a man like Hu Hao is destined to soar to the absolute top. Do him favors now; it might just save our entire family in the future!
I’m old. I don’t have any grand ambitions left. My only hope is that the Li family doesn’t end up like the 26th Corps—annihilated and erased, with no one left to rebuild the clan’s legacy!” Li Tianyuan said, looking earnestly at his son.
“Mmh. I understand,” Li Jingsong nodded solemnly.
Meanwhile, Zone Commander Jiang Kai was trapped, desperately waiting for the relief forces from Dingkang Province. It had been nearly six hours, and he still hadn’t heard a word.
“Why aren’t they here yet?! We’ve been bombed to hell for hours! Where is the relief force?!” Jiang Kai paced furiously around the farmhouse, his hands clasped behind his back.
“Keep trying to contact the 32nd Corps! Ask them exactly when they are launching their assault!” Jiang Kai stopped and roared at a busy staff officer.
“Yes, sir!” the officer replied, scrambling to the radio.
“Report!” Before the first officer could return, another staff officer sprinted into the room. “We just received a priority telegram from the 32nd Corps! Their relief force was intercepted and carpet-bombed by Allied bombers! They sustained catastrophic casualties and cannot deploy to our position! They are requesting that we find our own way to break through the blockade!”
“You said what?! They were bombed?!” Jiang Kai’s eyes bulged in sheer disbelief.
“Yes, sir. That is what the telegram states,” the officer nodded, handing the decoded message to him.
“How is this possible… how is this possible?! What do we do now?! If we had a way to break out on our own, we would have done it hours ago!” Jiang Kai read the telegram frantically. He finished it, closed his eyes, and spoke in a voice thick with despair.
“Commander! What do we do now?! If we remain pinned here until the enemy armor catches up from the rear, the entire Southwest Combat Zone army will be annihilated!” Chief of Staff Sun Qinxue shouted in panic.
“Find Hu Hao! Find him immediately!” Jiang Kai suddenly roared, his eyes snapping open. “Tell Li Tianyuan that if I am not speaking to Hu Hao on a direct line within twenty minutes, he is stripped of his command! I will personally request the Grand Marshal to have him executed!”