Through his binoculars, Hu Hao confirmed the highest-ranking officer was indeed a Major General. Scanning the entourage, he quickly spotted three Full Colonels following closely behind. He instantly deduced the tactical reality: there was an entire Allied Division garrisoned in Santong County.
Hu Hao immediately pulled out his satellite phone and dialed Ye Zifeng.
“Hao-ge?” The call connected almost instantly.
“Order your forces into deep concealment immediately. There is a full Allied Division garrisoned in Santong County. We don’t know their operational objectives yet, so you absolutely must remain hidden! They will undoubtedly be running recon patrols of their own.
Pull the Recon Platoons from your individual battalions, disguise them in civilian clothing, and deploy them to observe the highway intersections and the approaches to your position. The Allied forces will be probing outward. And make absolutely sure your vehicles are heavily camouflaged from the air; keep an eye out for their helicopters!
Lastly, call Liu Shuyi. Tell him I’ve confirmed a full Division is here. Tell him to stay hidden and hold his position!” Hu Hao ordered rapidly.
“Understood, Hao-ge! Wait, you aren’t with Liu Shuyi?” Ye Zifeng asked, alarmed.
“No. Maintain radio silence,” Hu Hao replied, hanging up the phone. He slipped the device back into his pocket and returned his attention to the window.
“Motherfucker… an entire Division. This complicates things,” Hu Hao muttered, genuine concern etching lines into his face.
He tracked the Major General’s entourage as they strolled down the street and eventually turned into a massive, walled compound. Through the binoculars, Hu Hao zoomed in on the plaque mounted beside the heavy iron gates: Santong County Administrative Center.
Hu Hao thought for a moment, then quietly descended the stairs. He exited the apartment building, took a long, circuitous route through the back alleys, and eventually arrived at the rear wall of the Administrative Center.
He spotted sentries posted along the perimeter. Having confirmed the location of the enemy’s likely command post, Hu Hao slipped away again. His next objective was to locate the main body of the Allied infantry.
As he moved through the city, he suddenly heard a massive commotion coming from the western districts. The voices were loud and chaotic, and distinctly foreign; it wasn’t the Eastern Spirit language.
Hu Hao immediately moved toward the noise, skillfully evading several Allied patrols along the way. He scaled a tall building overlooking the western sector and peered over the edge of the roof.
Below him lay a massive public plaza. It was packed end-to-end with rows of parked tanks and armored personnel carriers. Thousands of military tents had been hastily pitched across the concrete.
Hu Hao realized that this Allied Division wasn’t just passing through; they were establishing a permanent garrison here. While he didn’t know how long they intended to stay, he knew with absolute certainty that they would be sleeping in this plaza tonight.
Having mapped out the general distribution of the Allied forces, Hu Hao retraced his steps and returned to Liu Shuyi’s observation post.
“Hao-ge! You’re back!” Liu Shuyi exhaled a massive sigh of relief when Hu Hao slipped through the door.
“Mmh. Any updates from the other recon elements?” Hu Hao asked immediately.
“Yes, Hao-ge. The detachment scouting the Imperial military base confirmed an Allied presence. They estimate it’s roughly a single Regiment. However, the detachments deployed toward Daman City haven’t reported back yet. They haven’t seen any signs of Allied reinforcements moving toward our sector,” Liu Shuyi reported.
“Mmh. Contact the Daman City detachment. Tell them to aggressively probe and ascertain exactly how many Allied troops are garrisoned inside Daman,” Hu Hao ordered after a moment’s thought.
“Understood!” Liu Shuyi nodded, instantly pulling out his satellite phone to relay the order.
After hanging up, Liu Shuyi turned back to Hu Hao. “Hao-ge… you said there’s an entire Division here. How do we fight them?”
“Fight them? We wait. I need to know exactly how many Allied troops are operating in this entire sector before I commit to an assault,” Hu Hao replied evenly.
“But Hao-ge, they are actively slaughtering the civilians out there! If we don’t attack now, more innocent people are going to die! These Allied bastards have absolutely no restraint!” Liu Shuyi argued, his face flushed with anger and desperation.
“I know! But we must wait! Honestly, I didn’t expect the Allied forces to push this far forward so quickly. They must have a specific operational objective; they aren’t just here to blindly occupy territory. It’s highly likely they tracked our movement to Bopa City, and this Division might be specifically tasked with hunting us down!” Hu Hao explained his strategic concern.
“Then… what do we do next?” Liu Shuyi asked, feeling overwhelmed.
“We wait for the intelligence from Daman City. I spotted three Full Colonels here in Santong County, confirming a Division. The force holding the military base is estimated at a Regiment, meaning another Colonel.
If the intelligence confirms there is another full Division garrisoned in Daman City, it proves the Allied coalition is massing forces specifically to annihilate us. If that’s the case, we have no choice but to break contact and retreat immediately.
However, if the intelligence confirms there is only a single Regiment garrisoned in Daman City, it means this Division in Santong isn’t here specifically for us; they are just a forward occupation force!” Hu Hao analyzed.
“Oh… and if it is just a Regiment in Daman? What then?” Liu Shuyi asked eagerly.
“Then we bypass this Division entirely and launch a full-scale assault on Daman City! We use the attack to draw this Division out of Santong!” Hu Hao declared with a cold smile.
“What?! We haven’t even neutralized the enemy here, and you want to attack Daman City?! What if this Division maneuvers to cut off our retreat?!” Liu Shuyi gasped, stunned by the audacity of the plan.
“Cut off our retreat? Do you honestly think they have the capability to trap us? If we decide to leave, there isn’t a force on this continent that can stop us!
Our primary weakness right now is a severe lack of intelligence. We don’t have enough recon elements, and we are operating completely blind in this region. That is what makes us vulnerable,” Hu Hao explained, shaking his head slightly.
“Here, Hao-ge. I scavenged some bread and bottled water from a bakery downstairs,” a radioman offered.
Hu Hao nodded his thanks, took the food, and ate in silence.
After finishing his meager meal, Hu Hao sat back and waited. Occasionally, when the sounds of screaming or gunfire grew particularly loud, he would creep to the window and peer out. He knew the Allied forces were busy burning, looting, and massacring the populace.
It tore at his conscience, but he was powerless to stop it right now. Launching a frontal assault against a fully entrenched Division with a single armored regiment would be absolute suicide.
Roughly an hour later, Liu Shuyi’s satellite phone buzzed. It was the Recon Platoon Leader stationed near Daman City.
“Hao-ge! They’ve confirmed it! The Allied garrison inside Daman City is only a single Regiment!” Liu Shuyi reported excitedly.
“Excellent. Absolutely excellent,” Hu Hao nodded, a vicious gleam entering his eyes. He sat quietly for a moment, finalizing his tactical calculation.
He picked up his own satellite phone and dialed Ye Zifeng.
“The operation commences tonight at 21:00 hours. You will completely bypass Santong County. You will march your armored column directly toward Daman City! Remember, take a wide detour to avoid detection! I will handle my business here and rendezvous with you en route to Daman!” Hu Hao ordered.
“We’re attacking Daman City?!” Ye Zifeng asked, shocked.
“Yes. The garrison there is only a single Regiment. Once I finish my work here, I will immediately move to link up with your advance!” Hu Hao confirmed.
“Understood!” Ye Zifeng acknowledged the order.
Having set the gears in motion, Hu Hao found a quiet corner and closed his eyes to rest. He ordered the radiomen to maintain observation and wake him if anything significant occurred.
Before he knew it, night had fallen.
Hu Hao woke up, checked his gear, and ordered Liu Shuyi and his men to immediately exfiltrate the city and head toward the rendezvous point near Daman.
Once they were gone, Hu Hao grabbed the scavenged Allied assault rifle and slipped out into the darkness, making his way back toward the Administrative Center where the Allied Major General was headquartered.
Arriving at the rear of the compound, he quickly located the sentries. Their discipline was abysmal; they were leaning against the wall, chatting lazily in the dark. Hu Hao slipped out of the shadows, dispatched them with lethal, silent efficiency, and quickly stripped one of the corpses.
He pulled the Allied uniform over his own clothes, pulled the cap down low over his eyes, and picked up the rifle. Boldly stepping out into the open, he walked directly toward the rear entrance of the Administrative Center.
In the darkness, the Allied patrols couldn’t distinguish his features, assuming he was just another soldier returning to the barracks.
Hu Hao bypassed the main building and made his way toward a smaller, detached villa situated in the rear courtyard. He slipped around to the back of the villa, where he encountered another pair of sentries.
The sentries immediately spotted him and called out in their native language, undoubtedly asking for a password or demanding to know what he was doing there.
Hu Hao didn’t say a word.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
He raised his rifle and fired a rapid burst, dropping both sentries instantly. The sudden gunfire shattered the silence of the compound.
“Damn it! We’re under attack!” The Allied soldiers camp out in the nearby barracks instantly woke up and poured out of their tents, grabbing their weapons and frantically trying to locate the source of the gunfire.
“What is going on?!” Inside the villa, the Allied General officers heard the shots and instantly drew their sidearms in panic.
CRASH!
Hu Hao didn’t hesitate. He leveled his rifle at the ground-floor window and fired a sustained burst, shattering the glass completely. He immediately pulled the pins on his two fragmentation grenades and hurled them through the broken window.
BOOM! BOOM!
The twin explosions violently rocked the villa, blowing out the remaining windows and sending plumes of smoke and dust into the night air. The Allied guards swarming the compound realized their command post was under direct attack and began sprinting toward the rear courtyard.
Hu Hao didn’t wait to admire his handiwork. He instantly sprinted around to the front of the villa.
Through the billowing smoke, he saw a group of surviving officers stumbling out the front door, desperately trying to flee the burning building under the escort of their personal guards.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
Hu Hao raised his rifle and fired with surgical precision. His first bullet punched directly through the Major General’s skull. His second and third bullets dropped the two Brigadier Generals.
“He’s over there!”
The surviving guards finally spotted his muzzle flashes and immediately opened fire, a hail of bullets tearing into the masonry around him.
Hu Hao dove behind the corner of the wall. He quickly unhooked several grenades he had looted from the sentries he killed earlier, pulled the pins, and hurled them blindly around the corner.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The rolling explosions ripped through the clustered guards. Hu Hao didn’t bother checking to see how many he had killed; he turned and sprinted toward the rear perimeter wall of the Administrative Center. He hit the wall at a dead sprint, vaulted over the top, and vanished into the darkness.
By the time the massive swarm of Allied soldiers finally converged on the rear courtyard, Hu Hao was long gone.
“Damn it! What happened here?!” an Allied Major yelled, sprinting up to the shattered entrance of the villa.
He froze in absolute horror.
Scattered across the bloody concrete were the bodies of their Division Commander, their Chief of Staff, their Deputy Division Commander, a Regimental Colonel, and several field-grade staff officers. The entire command structure of the Division had been decapitated in less than thirty seconds.
“He went that way! He went over the back wall!” a surviving guard yelled, pointing frantically toward the rear perimeter.
“Pursue him! Find that bastard!” the Major roared, his voice cracking with panic. He stared at the corpses of his Generals, completely at a loss. Their command post had been utterly annihilated.
Meanwhile, Hu Hao had already crossed the street behind the compound and disappeared into the dense commercial district. He continued his rapid retreat, weaving through the labyrinthine alleys.
He could hear sporadic gunfire echoing behind him, but it was growing increasingly distant. The Allied forces were shooting blindly into the dark, completely incapable of tracking his movements.
By the time the main body of Allied troops mobilized from the western plaza and arrived to lock down the Administrative Center, Hu Hao was already over a kilometer away, melting seamlessly into the night.