After hanging up the phone, Jiang Kai wiped the tears from his weathered face and turned to Chief of Staff Sun Qinxue with a broad smile.
“What did His Majesty say?” Sun Qinxue asked eagerly.
“His Majesty supports the counter-offensive! He said it doesn’t matter if we lose; he will personally ensure we are resupplied with fresh troops to fight again!” Jiang Kai beamed.
“Really?!” Sun Qinxue and the surrounding staff officers stared at Jiang Kai in absolute shock.
“It’s true! However… His Majesty also explicitly stated that the promotion channels cannot be opened yet. He said the timing isn’t right. What ‘timing’ is he talking about? Chief of Staff, help me analyze this!” Jiang Kai asked, genuinely puzzled by that specific refusal.
Sun Qinxue glanced around the bustling command bunker. He grabbed Jiang Kai by the arm and pulled him into a quiet corner.
“What is it? Is it something we can’t discuss openly?” Jiang Kai asked, lowering his voice.
“I’ve harbored this suspicion for a while, but I haven’t dared to speak it aloud. But hearing that His Majesty claims ‘the timing isn’t right’… I believe I know what he’s doing,” Sun Qinxue whispered, checking his surroundings again before leaning in close. “I believe His Majesty is borrowing a knife to kill a rival!”
“What?” Jiang Kai stared at him, bewildered. “What do you mean?”
“Think about it,” Sun Qinxue whispered urgently. “The aristocratic military families have almost absolute control over the Imperial Armed Forces. Over the last century, the top-tier families—the ones capable of securing promotions to Lieutenant General and above—have steadily accumulated more and more direct control over the military.
Meanwhile, the mid-tier and lower-tier aristocratic families—the Major General and Brigadier General clans—have been slowly marginalized or absorbed. Why? Because the top families have been systematically planting their own loyalists in every key position to consolidate their power.
Commander, look at us. Your Jiang family directly controls two full corps. My Sun family controls one. The other corps in this Zone are divided among a handful of other allied families. The situation is exactly the same across every other Combat Zone in the Empire!
Aside from the Imperial Guard, His Majesty exercises almost zero direct control over his own military! Take the Grand Marshal’s family, for example. They completely control two major naval bases and an entire fleet. They control seven Air Force divisions, and four Army corps! Furthermore, the current Grand Marshal inherited the position directly from his father!
This level of entrenched aristocratic power is incredibly dangerous for His Majesty, and by extension, it is dangerous for the stability of the Empire itself.
Therefore… it is highly likely that His Majesty is deliberately using this massive Allied invasion to purge a significant portion of the aristocratic military families! If they are wiped out in the meat grinder, the Emperor can finally reclaim control of his own military!
It is an insanely dangerous gamble, of course. If we fail to halt the Allied coalition, the Empire falls. I believe His Majesty is betting it all: either the aristocratic families bleed themselves dry defending the Empire, or they are permanently eradicated from the military structure. I am almost certain this is his true objective!” Sun Qinxue concluded, his voice barely audible.
Jiang Kai stood frozen, his mind racing as the pieces clicked into place. He nodded slowly.
“No wonder… no wonder it’s like this. And have you noticed something else? The military assets directly controlled by the Grand Marshal’s family haven’t been committed to the fight yet! Not their Air Force, not their Army corps, not their Navy—none of them have moved!” Jiang Kai realized, a sudden chill running down his spine.
“You must never speak of this! If you ever discuss this, you only speak of it directly to His Majesty in absolute secrecy! If the Grand Marshal catches wind of this theory, he will have you assassinated!” Sun Qinxue warned him fiercely.
“I know. But honestly, I’m not afraid of him anymore! By the way, how many Generals has your Sun family lost in this campaign so far? And how many capable family members do you have ready to step up and replace them?” Jiang Kai asked.
“Sigh. We’ve lost four Generals. Realistically, we can only field two replacements. The rest of the men in our family are simply too young. Promoting them to General rank this early would be far too arrogant and blatant; High Command wouldn’t allow it,” Sun Qinxue admitted.
“So… you’re saying His Majesty is using this war to purge our families as well?” Jiang Kai asked quietly.
“What about your family?” Sun Qinxue deflected.
“My family is bleeding even worse. We’ve lost one Lieutenant General, three Major Generals, and four Brigadier Generals. If we try to fill the vacancies, we can barely promote one Lieutenant General, two Major Generals, and two Brigadiers,” Jiang Kai sighed heavily.
“Mmh. Then His Majesty’s intent is clear. He is forcing the sons of the aristocracy to march to the front lines. He knows they will die in droves.
We both know exactly what the young masters of our families are like. They don’t know the first thing about fighting a war! You and I only have a basic grasp of strategy because we actually run a Combat Zone and participate in the annual wargames! Those pampered kids? Throwing them into command on an active battlefield is literally sending them to their deaths!” Sun Qinxue stated bluntly.
“I know. I’ve been agonizing over whether I should even submit their names for promotion! Promoting them to General right now is basically signing their death warrants, and it will only get more of our soldiers killed! But if we don’t promote them to fill the vacancies, our family’s control over the military will slip away even faster. Sigh,” Jiang Kai rubbed his temples, torn by the dilemma.
“My advice is to hold back,” Sun Qinxue said decisively. “I am planning to voluntarily forfeit one of our vacant General slots. I refuse to send a family member to the front if they lack the tactical ability to survive. It will only get them killed. Our family has already bled enough; the elders will understand my decision.”
“Mmh. Your reasoning is sound. It is exactly as you say: if they don’t have the skill, promoting them is murder. Rather than throwing their lives away, we might as well use this opportunity to show loyalty and submission to His Majesty! That will earn us his favor!
Furthermore, the war is currently in a desperate state. But as long as you and I survive and remain in the military, our families still have a future. As long as His Majesty is willing to promote you further, your family will recover. And as long as I retain my command as Zone Commander, my family still has a chance!” Jiang Kai nodded, his political instincts sharpening.
“That is exactly what I was thinking. As long as the two of us remain in the military, don’t face demotion, and avoid His Majesty’s wrath, we still have a chance to rebuild!” Sun Qinxue agreed enthusiastically.
“Alright. Let’s proceed like this. When High Command officially requests the promotion lists to fill the vacancies, we will coordinate our submissions. Since we are partners in this Combat Zone, we must present a unified front!” Jiang Kai declared.
“Agreed!” Sun Qinxue nodded firmly.
“Enough politics. The frontline offensive is about to begin. Order the drone operators to patch the live visual feeds directly to the main screen!” Jiang Kai commanded, stepping back into the center of the bunker.
“Yes, sir!” Sun Qinxue immediately relayed the order.
…
Out on the battlefield, Hu Hao’s armored column had already reached the outskirts of Nanlin City. The Allied forces had begun firing on them, but their heavy weapons fire was incredibly sparse. Coordinating with the ground advance, the Imperial Air Cavalry swooped in, launching surgical rocket strikes to neutralize the few remaining Allied heavy weapon emplacements.
“Dismount! All infantry, dismount immediately!”
Seeing the city limits fast approaching, Hu Hao grabbed the radio handset and barked the order to the entire Division.
He kicked open the hatch and vaulted over the side of the APC. Up and down the column, thousands of Imperial soldiers poured out of the armored vehicles, raising their rifles and falling in behind the tanks as they pushed into the urban sprawl.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Hu Hao snapped his rifle to his shoulder, firing several rounds at a distant window where an Allied heavy machine gun had briefly flickered. He didn’t even check to see if he hit the target.
“Machine gunners, lay down suppressive fire! Pin them down! Do not let them maneuver! Infantry, push into the buildings!” Hu Hao roared.
The Allied forces had dragged massive barricades of debris and wrecked vehicles across the main avenues, severely restricting the movement of the Imperial tanks. Hu Hao knew the infantry had to clear the buildings flanking the streets to protect the armor as it slowly bulldozed through the obstacles.
Hu Hao led a squad of veterans straight toward the nearest block of residential buildings. Across the street, the Allied forces had set up several fortified machine gun nests in the ground-floor windows.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Hu Hao fired rapidly on the move, his pinpoint accuracy instantly dropping an Allied gunner and his assistant before they could fully track him.
“Move up! Breach the houses! Clear them room by room!” Hu Hao yelled. His regiment was responsible for this specific avenue; the other regiments were simultaneously pushing down parallel streets.
BOOM!
A veteran lobbed a fragmentation grenade through a shattered window. He waited three seconds, heard no return fire, and instantly breached the front door, his rifle raised. The rest of the squad poured in behind him.
They quickly swept the ground floor. It was clear of enemy combatants. As the soldiers turned to exit, they barely spared a glance at the bloated corpse of a civilian man lying on the living room floor. He had clearly been dead for days.
In a war zone, civilian casualties were a tragic, unavoidable reality. The soldiers didn’t think much of it and quickly moved to breach the next house.
Hu Hao led the brutal, methodical advance. Whenever they met fierce resistance, they used underbarrel grenade launchers to blow out the windows; for close-quarters fighting, they relied heavily on hand grenades.
The push was steady. However, as Hu Hao breached house after house, a sickening dread began to pool in his stomach.
In every single house, he found the bodies of the civilian owners in the living rooms. And in the bedrooms… he found the bodies of the women and young girls. They were entirely naked, their bodies bruised and mutilated.
When he breached the fifth house and found the exact same horrifying scene, the dread instantly morphed into absolute, blinding rage.
“Brothers! KILL THEM ALL! I DO NOT WANT A SINGLE PRISONER! SLAUGHTER EVERY LAST ONE OF THESE ALLIED BASTARDS!” Hu Hao roared as he kicked open the front door and stepped back out into the street.
The soldiers around him jumped, startled by the sheer venom and fury in his voice.
“Brothers! They massacred the civilians! They slaughtered everyone in this city! MOTHERFUCKERS! TAKE NO PRISONERS! WE GET REVENGE FOR OUR PEOPLE!” Hu Hao screamed, raising his rifle and firing wildly at the Allied positions.
“What?!” The Imperial soldiers froze, the horrific reality suddenly washing over them.
“It’s true! Every house I breached… everyone inside was murdered!” a veteran yelled, his face pale with horror.
“SON OF A BITCH!”
The surrounding soldiers erupted in uncontrollable fury. Their eyes went bloodshot as they turned their weapons toward the Allied troops, their fire instantly becoming more vicious and desperate.
“KILL THEM!” Hu Hao roared, charging to the absolute front of the formation, firing his rifle until the barrel smoked.
The Imperial tanks, seeing Allied sniper fire erupting from the upper floors of the apartment blocks, immediately elevated their main guns and fired high-explosive shells directly into the buildings, obliterating entire floors to silence the shooters.
The APCs rolled forward, their heavy machine guns laying down a terrifying wall of suppressive fire, forcing the Allied soldiers to cower behind their barricades, too terrified to even return fire.
Driven by sheer, unadulterated rage, Hu Hao’s regiment pushed deeper into the city. The other Imperial regiments weren’t advancing quite as fast, but because the Allied forces were critically short on ammunition, the overall resistance was relatively light. The Imperial Army was steadily taking ground.
Rat-tat-tat! Bang! Bang! Bang! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The entire city of Nanlin was consumed by the deafening roar of urban warfare.
But as they pushed deeper block by block, the expression on Hu Hao’s face grew increasingly dark and horrifyingly grim.
They had been fighting through the residential districts for over an hour, and they hadn’t found a single living civilian. Not one.