Hu Hao watched the Allied relief division desperately fighting to retreat. They were frantic, throwing away their lives just to escape the city limits.
If it weren't for the sheer volume of Special Operations operatives and their supernatural marksmanship, the sheer mass of the Allied division might have actually punched through the ambush lines.
Seeing this absolute desperation, a sense of unease settled over Hu Hao.
If this division is this terrified, the High Command must be as well. They might not just order a retreat here; they might order a general withdrawal across all the neighboring cities! Hu Hao deduced.
"Get Wu Kexiao on the line. I need to update his orders," Hu Hao commanded the communications officer standing nearby and tell his deduction to Dong Qingpeng.
"Ah? A general withdrawal?! Impossible! They fought tooth and nail to conquer this territory! They've been living like kings, looting and murdering with impunity! Why would they just abandon it all?!" Dong Qipeng argued, finding the concept absurd.
"There's nothing impossible about it. What's more important, wealth or survival? For the Allied commanders, preserving their combat-effective strength is far more critical than holding a few cities. They can simply hand the territory over to us for now, wait out the rainy season, and launch a massive counter-offensive to take it all back later!" Hu Hao explained the brutal logic of strategic withdrawal.
"Hao-ge, the connection is established!" the comms officer reported, handing Hu Hao the receiver.
"Did I wake you?" Hu Hao asked.
"No, Hao-ge. I'm awake. What are your orders?" Wu Kexiao replied instantly.
"The Allied High Command is likely preparing to order a general withdrawal across this entire sector. That includes Tianjing City, Nanli City, Jifeng City, and others.
"However, we cannot allow the garrisons in Tianjing City and Nanli City to escape! They might attempt to break out as early as tomorrow morning. Do you have the forces in position to block them?!" Hu Hao demanded.
"Ah? They're really going to retreat?!" Wu Kexiao was equally stunned.
"There is nothing impossible in war. Answer the question: can your currently deployed forces hold the line?!" Hu Hao pressed.
"I... I'll need to deploy reinforcements immediately! I currently only have one division stationed outside each of those cities! The Allied garrisons in Tianjing and Nanli are two divisions strong! My men are mostly raw recruits; if two veteran divisions attempt a desperate breakout, we might not be able to hold them!" Wu Kexiao admitted honestly.
"Then reinforce them immediately! The Special Operations Regiment will redeploy to assist you tomorrow morning. We cannot let those four divisions escape!" Hu Hao ordered.
"Yes, sir! I will issue the deployment orders immediately!" Wu Kexiao confirmed.
"Good. Issue the orders and go back to sleep. I'll handle things here," Hu Hao concluded. He knew Wu Kexiao had senior duty officers managing the overnight shifts; a Corps Commander couldn't stay awake 24/7.
"Yes, Hao-ge. How is the situation on your end?" Wu Kexiao asked before hanging up.
"We are currently in the process of annihilating the relief division. My concern is that once the Allied High Command realizes we possess this level of combat power, they'll fear we intend to systematically dismantle all their isolated garrisons. Their logical counter-measure is to abandon the exposed cities and consolidate their forces into massive defensive hubs. If they do that, digging them out will be a nightmare," Hu Hao explained his strategic concern.
"Wait... you... you're annihilating two full Allied divisions with just 3,000 men?! And it's only been six or seven hours?!" Wu Kexiao gasped, the sheer magnitude of the slaughter finally hitting him.
"Why else do you think I spent so much time and resources training them?" Hu Hao chuckled softly.
"Understood, Hao-ge! If they're truly that devastating, then every ounce of effort was worth it! I'm initiating the deployments now!" Wu Kexiao said, his confidence surging.
"Go," Hu Hao nodded and handed the receiver back to the comms officer.
"Damn it... I don't have enough men!" Hu Hao cursed suddenly, staring out at the burning city.
He acutely felt the manpower shortage. He had secured a massive operational area, and he intended to capture even more territory. But once the dry season arrived, the Allied High Command would undoubtedly hurl overwhelming force at him.
He currently commanded roughly 580,000 men. That sounded like a massive army, but he had to defend an incredibly long, porous perimeter spanning multiple provinces. When spread across hundreds of kilometers of frontline, 580,000 men was dangerously thin.
"Hao-ge, getting more men is easy! We just keep recruiting!" Dong Qipeng pointed out the obvious solution.
"Easy for you to say! Do you think I don't know that?! Finding recruits is simple; finding competent commanders is the bottleneck!
"Furthermore, His Majesty is watching my every move like a hawk! If I ignore his establishment caps, he'll brand me a traitor. If I obey his caps, we don't have enough men to survive the dry season! Damn it all!" Hu Hao grumbled, glaring at Dong Qipeng.
"Then just ignore him! Every soldier in this army is loyal to you! What are you afraid of?!" Dong Qipeng argued recklessly.
"I'm afraid of going down in history as the traitor who fractured the Empire's defense! If the Eastern Spirit Empire falls and the Royal Family blames me for inciting a civil war, I couldn't wash that stain off even if I jumped into the Long River!" Hu Hao retorted.
"But if you blindly follow the Emperor's orders, can you actually hold the line?!" Dong Qipeng challenged him.
"Barely. We'll just be delaying the inevitable. Eking out an existence day by day. Sigh. Holding the line against the full Allied coalition... it's nearly impossible. The reality is, we have a very high probability of being completely annihilated regardless," Hu Hao admitted with a bitter smile.
"Then ignore him! We recruit, we expand, and we fight on our own terms! What good does listening to the Emperor do?! He just restricts us at every turn!
"Logically, you should be the Grand Marshal! If you commanded the entire national army, the Empire might actually have a chance! But will he ever grant you that position? Never! The only troops you can reliably command are the ones you raise yourself!
"The Emperor is blind! You used a single corps to annihilate several elite Allied corps, yet he still treats you with suspicion!
"Look at what we've accomplished with the remnants of the 87th Division! In just a few months, we've annihilated one Allied corps and crippled two others! And we're still expanding! That's undeniable competence! If he refuses to utilize a commander like you, who the hell is he going to use?!
"Luo Xin?! He's an Air Force General! The Army is collapsing, and he puts an Air Force guy in charge?! It's a joke! I say, Hao-ge, just ignore the Imperial Capital entirely!" Dong Qipeng urged passionately.
"I can't just ignore them. You're thinking too simply. If we openly defy the Emperor, he will declare me a rebel!
"Set aside the fact that my family is currently living in the capital as hostages... what about the civilians here? Do you think they'll continue to support us if we're officially branded traitors? Do you think they'll eagerly enlist in a rebel army?
"They might turn against us! The prestige of the Royal Family is still deeply ingrained in the common people! People rarely regret their loyalty until they are staring into the abyss! So, we wait!" Hu Hao explained the delicate political reality.
"So we just stop expanding? You just said we don't have enough men!" Dong Qipeng asked, frustrated.
"We will continue to expand, but we must be creative. We will heavily utilize the 'reservist' loophole! When there's no active fighting, they are simply civilians. The moment the front lines buckle, we instantly conscript them to plug the gaps!
"Furthermore, I'm transferring all local civil administration and municipal security duties to the reservist units. Our active-duty combat troops will focus exclusively on combat!" Hu Hao outlined his workaround.
He was desperately searching for ways to circumvent the Emperor's establishment caps while still rapidly expanding his combat-effective strength. He knew the dry season offensives would be apocalyptic.
He had the weapons, the ammunition, and the heavy equipment. The true bottleneck was the officer corps. As long as he could train enough junior officers, he could field an infinite number of soldiers.
Therefore, he decided to aggressively expand the reservist program. He would detach experienced combat veterans to serve as drill instructors for the reservists. When the active-duty divisions took casualties, they would draw fully trained replacements directly from the reserve pool. This system avoided triggering the Emperor's official establishment quotas while ensuring Hu Hao had a massive, hidden army ready to deploy.
Hu Hao turned his attention back to the raging battle below. The Allied relief division was still desperately trying to punch through the ambushes, suffering horrific casualties with every attempt. The Special Operations operatives, utilizing their superior marksmanship and hundreds of heavy sniper rifles, engaged them from extreme ranges, punishing every movement.
As the Allied column attempted to retreat, the operatives aggressively pursued them, constantly harassing their rearguard. The Allied commander was forced to continuously detach sacrificial rearguard units just to keep the main column moving.
The Allied Commander soon realized his division was rapidly disintegrating. The surviving elements were fractured and isolated along several parallel streets.
To his absolute horror, he realized these isolated elements couldn't even coordinate or link up! The cross-streets connecting the avenues were entirely locked down by heavy sniper fire. Any Allied unit attempting to cross an intersection was instantly slaughtered by the massive 12.7mm rounds that punched straight through their cover and often tore through multiple men at once.
The psychological toll on the Allied soldiers was catastrophic. They had been fighting for nearly an hour, expending thousands of rounds of ammunition, yet they still hadn't seen a single enemy soldier. They had no idea what the enemy looked like or where they were hiding.
"Commander! We're less than a kilometer from the city limits! But... but we barely have any men left!" a staff officer shouted, taking cover behind a ruined APC near the Commander.
"I know! Push forward! We must break out! This is a meticulously planned death trap! Damn it! What kind of phantom unit are we fighting?! Have we even killed a single one of them yet?!" the Commander screamed in fury and despair.
To his knowledge, they hadn't confirmed a single enemy kill because they hadn't seen a single enemy corpse!
"I... I don't know! It's a disaster! The men we have left are all right here; the units on the adjacent streets are completely pinned down!
"And we can't utilize the high-rises! We're trapped on the ground floors! The enemy has completely booby-trapped the stairwells! Every time we try to push up, they drop grenades on us! We have no tactical options left!" the staff officer yelled back, slapping a fresh magazine into his rifle.
(End of Chapter)