Hu Hao and his convoy drove relentlessly, covering over two hundred kilometers until they reached Qicheng, a small city in Dingkang Province. Qicheng housed a massive military base with expansive training grounds. Hu Hao’s convoy pulled directly onto one of the base’s firing ranges to rest.
They parked the vehicles, found a patch of grass, and collapsed.
They were beyond exhausted. They had been driving for over a day, combined with an intense, high-stakes combat operation the previous night. By the time they arrived at the base, it was nearly 3:00 AM. The men didn’t care about food or setting up tents; they simply hit the dirt and slept.
By 8:00 AM the next morning, the sun was blazing high in the sky, but even the intense heat couldn’t wake the exhausted veterans.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Suddenly, the roar of explosions echoed from an unknown distance.
Hu Hao and the soldiers jolted awake instantly, flattening themselves against the grass and blindly reaching for their weapons.
“What’s happening?!” the soldiers yelled, completely disoriented.
“The sky!” Hu Hao roared.
The men looked up. The sky was filled with fighters locked in a massive dogfight. Several planes had already been blown apart, while others plummeted toward the earth trailing thick plumes of black smoke.
“Holy shit! RUN!” Hu Hao screamed, spotting an Allied fighter careening out of the sky, smoking heavily and heading directly for their position.
The soldiers scrambled to their feet and sprinted wildly. Fortunately, the crippled plane roared over their heads and crashed into a distant treeline. A massive explosion rocked the ground, followed by billowing clouds of black smoke.
“FUCK! It’s over!” Hu Hao cursed, dropping back down onto the grass in utter frustration.
“Hao-ge, should we keep running? It’s not safe here!” Sima Xuankong shouted.
“Run my ass! Where exactly are we going to run to? We can’t run!” Hu Hao replied bitterly.
“Ah? Why can’t we run? We still have plenty of gas left! Let’s go, Hao-ge!” Sima Xuankong urged.
“You idiot, it’s not about the gas! Oh, my god!” Hu Hao groaned, lying flat on his back and staring up at the dogfights raging above them.
“Hao-ge, let’s go! What are you waiting for? It’s not safe!” Huan Xingtao grabbed Hu Hao by the arm, trying to pull him up.
“I said we can’t run! We’re being sent back to the front! Motherfucker, why is my luck so damn terrible?!” Hu Hao complained as Huan Xingtao hauled him into a sitting position.
“Hurry! Brothers, hurry up and draw ammunition! Anyone who knows how to drive an APC or a tank, get to the motor pool immediately! Move!” Li Jingsong yelled, jumping out of an open-top jeep that had just sped onto the firing range.
The soldiers just stared at him.
“Hao-ge! Where is Hao-ge?!” Li Jingsong yelled, running toward the group.
“Right here! What the hell is going on now?!” Hu Hao shouted back from the grass.
“Sigh, don’t even ask! The Allied forces chased us all the way from Tianyu Province with three full corps. And just now, five more Allied corps—the ones that previously occupied Nanshan and Dingli Provinces—converged and are marching directly on this position!
We only have three corps here to hold the line, and one of them is already crippled! We can’t hold them! High Command ordered all retreating units to halt immediately and form a defensive line! Every single unit in the Southwest Combat Zone is being deployed back to the front!” Li Jingsong panted, rushing over.
“FUCK! We have to fight again?!” The veterans stared at Li Jingsong, utterly depressed.
“Let me make this clear, brothers! It’s not me ordering you to fight, and it’s not the Zone Commander! It’s a direct order from High Command! I heard it even came down from the Emperor himself! Brothers, don’t just stand there! Go draw your ammo! We can’t run from this!” Li Jingsong shouted desperately.
“Dammit! Let’s go!” Hu Hao snapped. He stood up and sprinted toward the vehicles.
The soldiers hesitated, looking at Hu Hao.
“What are you standing around for?! Waiting to die?! Look at the planes in the sky! We barely have any ammo left! Even if we were going to run, we’d still need bullets to survive!” Hu Hao yelled, seeing them frozen in place.
“He’s right!” The soldiers snapped out of it and rushed to their scavenged vehicles.
Sima Xuankong fired up the bus, while Li Jingsong sprinted back to his jeep.
“Follow me! Follow me! I’ll lead the way! Fuck, I’m exhausted! Why the hell couldn’t I get through to Hu Hao’s phone?!” Li Jingsong cursed as he jumped into the jeep. He had tried calling Hu Hao repeatedly earlier, but to no avail. He didn’t know Hu Hao had left the satellite phone in the bus while he slept on the grass.
Following Li Jingsong, Hu Hao’s convoy quickly arrived at the base’s massive armory.
“Hurry up! Tankers, get to the tanks! They’re already fueled and loaded! Non-tankers, grab APCs! Load whatever ammo you need into the vehicles! Move!” Li Jingsong shouted as he hopped out of his jeep.
The soldiers who had previously served in armored units sprinted toward the rows of parked tanks. Hu Hao and his men were infantry, so they headed straight for the armored personnel carriers.
“Huan Xingtao, check the APC! Fuel, engine, tracks—everything! Sima Xuankong, He Jizhong, Zhao Haibin, you guys come with me to grab ammo! Brothers, don’t forget the rocket launchers and armor-piercing rounds!” Hu Hao shouted, issuing orders to his squad while simultaneously yelling instructions to the surrounding infantrymen.
“Right! Grab the launchers!” The infantrymen nodded vigorously, realizing the necessity of heavy weapons against an armored assault.
Hu Hao and his team rushed to the armory gates. Massive crates of weapons and ammunition were stacked haphazardly outside, the contents stenciled clearly on the wooden sides.
Hu Hao rapidly selected the crates they needed, ordering his men to haul the heavy ammunition back to their designated APC. He also made sure to grab several rocket launchers and a stockpile of anti-tank rounds.
Once the APC was loaded, they ran back to the civilian bus, grabbed their personal rucksacks, and tossed them into the armored vehicle.
“Hao-ge! Hao-ge, where are you?!” Li Jingsong yelled, searching frantically. He had just seen Hu Hao a minute ago, but the Major seemed to have vanished into the chaos.
“What is it?!” Hu Hao shouted, popping his head out of the top hatch of the APC.
“Hao-ge, you have to take the brothers up to the line! The fighting at the front is incredibly brutal right now! We need to reinforce them immediately! My old man just called me—the 28th Army is already engaged!” Li Jingsong yelled. During the chaotic retreat the night before, Hu Hao’s unit and the 28th Army had separated, ending up at different resting points.
“Are we really doing this?” Hu Hao asked, looking down at Li Jingsong.
“We have to! There’s no other choice! The Zone Commander is personally commanding the vanguard! If the enemy breaks our line here, there’s absolutely nothing stopping them from marching five hundred kilometers straight to the Imperial Capital!
The Allied commanders are insane! High Command assumed they wouldn’t assault our new defensive line this quickly, but the moment our retreating forces arrived, the enemy vanguard slammed into us! They aren’t giving us a single second to rest or reorganize!” Li Jingsong explained frantically.
Hu Hao stared at him, utterly speechless. The soldiers around him paused, looking up at Hu Hao.
“Brothers, we really have to go!” Li Jingsong pleaded with the men. “Every single unit is being thrown in! Even the fresh reservists who just arrived at this base—men who haven’t even finished basic training—are being handed rifles and shoved to the front! Do you know how many Allied troops are out there?!
Eight corps! Over half a million men! And we have less than two hundred thousand combined! Brothers, please! Let’s go! There’s no way out!”
“Motherfucker! I guess this life belongs to the Empire sooner or later,” a veteran spat bitterly.
“Let’s just go. What else can we do? Hao-ge, are we going or not?” a soldier from a neighboring APC shouted over the din.
“If we die, we die! Better to get it over with quickly than keep running like dogs! Fuck, we didn’t even get to eat breakfast!” Several other soldiers grumbled loudly.
“Division Commander, phone!” a guard suddenly interrupted, handing a satellite phone to Li Jingsong.
“Yes? Yes, Commander! My troops just secured their weapons!” Li Jingsong shouted into the receiver.
“…”
“Ah… yes! We’re moving up right now!”
“…”
“One hour! Yes, sir! We will be there in one hour!” Li Jingsong affirmed loudly.
“Brothers, the Commander just called! We have to get there fast; the line is about to break!” Li Jingsong said, looking at the veterans, looking as though he might cry.
“Go, go, go!” Hu Hao waved his hand in exhausted defeat.
“Let’s go!”
“Move out!”
The veterans knew there was no escaping this. They had genuinely hoped that reaching Dingkang Province meant safety, but the reality was just another meat grinder.
Hu Hao’s APCs fell in behind the rumbling columns of Imperial tanks, speeding toward the front lines. The closer they got, the louder and more violent the explosions became.
Inside the APC, Hu Hao and his men sat in total silence, mechanically chewing on dry field rations. No one had expected this. One desperate battle rolling seamlessly into the next, without a single moment to catch their breath.
A little over an hour later, Hu Hao’s unit arrived at the front. The defensive line was, once again, established along a riverbank. Because the Eastern Spirit Empire was primarily composed of flat plains, the only natural barriers capable of slowing an armored invasion were the rivers. Thus, the Imperial defenders had no choice but to dig in along the embankments to halt the enemy advance.
“Dismount! Dismount! We’re moving up on foot! We are on defense!” Li Jingsong roared as he jumped out of his jeep. The Zone Commander had ordered them to proceed to the line on foot. They were currently about two and a half kilometers from the river.
“Holy shit!” Hu Hao cursed the moment he stepped out of the APC.
The entire riverbank was an absolute inferno of exploding artillery shells and blinding tracer fire.
“Hao-ge?!” Huan Xingtao and the others stared in horror at the scene unfolding ahead. Across the river, massive formations of Allied troops were actively preparing for an amphibious assault, supported by a relentless, punishing artillery barrage.
But on the Imperial side, there were absolutely no defensive fortifications. The soldiers were simply lying flat on the exposed dirt embankment, firing blindly. A single artillery shell landing on that slope would wipe out dozens of men instantly.
“Brothers, let’s go! Look at those soldiers over there—the ones still wearing civilian clothes! Those are the reservists! They’ve already been thrown into the line! We have no choice!” Li Jingsong yelled, pointing toward the carnage as he urged Hu Hao and the veterans forward.