Jiang Kai urged Hu Hao to return the Crown Prince's call, but Hu Hao adamantly refused. He was exhausted. He spent every waking moment trying to build his forces, ensure his own survival, and fight a brutal war, only to be constantly second-guessed and interrogated by the people he was fighting to protect.
Hearing Hu Hao's absolute refusal, Jiang Kai sighed heavily. "Hu Hao... think about the bigger picture. The entire nation needs to stand united against the Allied coalition. If you refuse to call them back, they might genuinely accuse you of treason! What will you do then?!"
"What am I afraid of?! Treason?! Hmph! Let them say whatever they want! I started with absolutely nothing! I'm out here fighting tooth and nail to expand our strategic depth, and does anyone in the capital ever consider my operational needs?!
"They tossed me a General's star and an official designation, expecting those scraps to bind me in absolute obedience! Am I supposed to blindly follow their every whim?!
"Fine, I'll listen to them—if they actually have a coherent strategy! Did a single one of them critically analyze the video I just posted?! The battle hasn't even begun, and they're already cowering in fear of the Allied coalition! What is there to fear?! This is a war of annihilation! Are we supposed to beg for mercy?! Will cowering make them stop invading?!
"Hmph! Commander, don't waste your breath. I will not contact them. They can do whatever they want. Just tell them not to provoke me!" Hu Hao declared firmly.
"Hu Hao..." Jiang Kai tried to reason with him again, but Hu Hao cut him off.
"Commander, I know you are looking out for me, but please, do not try to persuade me on this. If you were in my position, you would feel exactly the same way!
"I built an entire Group Army from the shattered remnants of a single division! Has anyone in the capital ever asked how I accomplished that?! Has anyone ever asked if I have enough officers?! Has anyone asked how I manage deployments or how I conduct training?! Has anyone ever asked anything other than 'are you going to rebel'?!
"Commander, please, drop the subject. I need to coordinate tonight's offensive."
"Alright. Take some time to cool off," Jiang Kai conceded, realizing Hu Hao was beyond reasoning with at the moment.
He hung up the phone and stood by his desk, his hands clasped behind his back, shaking his head with a heavy sigh.
"How did it go? Is Hu Hao still refusing to call the Crown Prince? I heard His Majesty is personally waiting in the Ministry of Defense for his call!" Chief of Staff Sun Qinxue asked, having overheard the one-sided conversation.
"Call them back?! My ass! Damn it!" Jiang Kai swore viciously.
"What's wrong?" Sun Qinxue was startled by Jiang Kai's sudden outburst.
"Damn it all! Hu Hao is completely surrounded in the enemy rear. He posts a single video, and does anyone in the capital actually stop to analyze the strategic implications behind his words?! Does anyone use their damn brain?!
"Hu Hao is a brilliant tactician! I told His Majesty that! Has anyone actually valued his input?! They gave him an army designation and absolutely zero material support! Now he's methodically expanding his territory, and does anyone bother to ask why he's striking those specific targets?! No!
"He posts one video, and they immediately call to interrogate him! Interrogate him for what?! Because they're terrified he might rebel?! If he wanted to rebel, he wouldn't do it while completely surrounded by the Allied coalition! Do they think he's an idiot?!" Jiang Kai vented his own profound frustration on Hu Hao's behalf.
"True. But... what about His Majesty?" Sun Qinxue asked tentatively.
"Sigh. Give me a few minutes to calm down, and then I'll call the capital," Jiang Kai replied, rubbing his temples.
He felt deeply for Hu Hao. To be so young, to start with absolutely nothing, and to forge an entire Group Army through sheer willpower and tactical brilliance while entirely surrounded by the enemy... and then to have the audacity to publicly mock the Allied Supreme Commander? That was undeniable genius and courage. Yet the Emperor completely failed to recognize or value it.
After sitting in silence for five minutes, Jiang Kai finally picked up the secure phone and dialed the Imperial Court.
Meanwhile, the Emperor was still sitting in the Ministry of Defense joint conference room. They were ostensibly discussing training schedules for the other combat zones, but everyone knew they were simply waiting for Hu Hao's call.
Since Hu Hao had hung up on him, the Emperor's expression had remained dark as thunder. As the minutes ticked by, his mood only worsened.
A Royal Guard gently pushed open the conference room doors.
"Your Majesty, Commander Jiang Kai of the Southwestern Combat Zone is on the secure line," the guard reported.
"Hmph," the Emperor scoffed, his displeasure evident. He knew exactly why Jiang Kai was calling: to plead for leniency on Hu Hao's behalf.
"Put it on speaker. I want to hear exactly how Jiang Kai intends to excuse Hu Hao's treasonous insolence!" the Emperor ordered, his face a mask of cold fury.
"Yes, Your Majesty," the guard immediately activated the speakerphone.
Sitting across from the Emperor, Tang Long smirked inwardly. He despised both Hu Hao and Jiang Kai. If it weren't for those two, he would still be the Grand Marshal. In his petty vindictiveness, he conveniently ignored the fact that if it weren't for those two, the Eastern Spirit Empire would have already fallen, rendering the title of Grand Marshal entirely meaningless.
"Jiang Kai. Speak," the Emperor commanded coldly once the connection was secure.
"Greetings, Your Majesty!" Jiang Kai replied respectfully.
"Mm. I am not well. Your former subordinate has decided that he no longer needs to respect his Sovereign. He dared to refer to himself as 'Laozi' in my presence, and he possessed the unparalleled audacity to hang up on me! Tell me, Jiang Kai: does Hu Hao hold any reverence for me, or for this Empire?!" the Emperor launched into a furious reprimand.
"Your Majesty, you misunderstand. Hu Hao truly did not mean any disrespect..." Jiang Kai began, attempting to de-escalate.
The Emperor immediately cut him off. "I misunderstand nothing! It has been nearly an hour, and Hu Hao still hasn't called back! The Crown Prince personally instructed his subordinates to have him call! Is he still cowering in his conference room?! Does Hu Hao acknowledge the Royal Family at all?!"
"Yes, yes, Your Majesty, Hu Hao's behavior was completely out of line. But... regarding this specific incident... Hu Hao is feeling incredibly... how should I put it... aggrieved. Deeply aggrieved!" Jiang Kai argued carefully.
"Aggrieved?! He feels aggrieved?! I am the one who was insulted! He hung up on his Emperor and called himself 'Laozi'! Does he think his insolence is justified?!" the Emperor mocked bitterly.
"Your Majesty... he is justified!" Jiang Kai stated firmly.
"What did you just say?! He is justified?! Jiang Kai, have you lost your mind?!" The Emperor violently pushed his chair back and stood up, shouting at the speakerphone, his voice cracking with rage.
"He truly is, Your Majesty. Hu Hao is profoundly disappointed. Utterly disillusioned!" Jiang Kai maintained his composure.
"He's disappointed?! Fine! Tell me exactly why he is so disappointed! Speak, Jiang Kai! If you cannot justify his treasonous behavior right now, you will be stripped of your command of the Southwestern Combat Zone! You have lost all sense of propriety!" the Emperor roared, pointing a trembling finger at the phone.
The other generals in the room held their breath, staring at the speakerphone.
"Your Majesty... did anyone in that room actually analyze the content of Hu Hao's video broadcast? If you had watched it carefully, you would have heard Hu Hao explicitly state his next objective: Tonglong City!" Jiang Kai challenged the Emperor directly.
"We saw it. Yes. Keep talking!" the Emperor snapped impatiently.
"What is the strategic significance of Tonglong City? It is the primary logistical nexus supplying the Allied offensives on the central and western fronts, and even partially supplies the eastern front! Your Majesty, have you considered the implications?
"If Hu Hao successfully captures or severs the supply lines running through Tonglong City... what will the Allied armies on the central front eat? What will they drink? What ammunition will they use to fight?!" Jiang Kai laid out the grand strategy.
"Mm?!" The Emperor's heart skipped a beat as the strategic reality suddenly hit him.
"Your Majesty, Hu Hao released that video expecting the Ministry of Defense to immediately contact him. He assumed you would ask if he had the combat capability to genuinely threaten Tonglong City! He assumed you would then coordinate a massive national counter-offensive based on his success!
"If he severs their logistics, and our central front launches a massive offensive against their starving, unsupplied 600,000 troops... we could instantly turn the tide of the war! We could crush their central army, reclaim massive swaths of territory, and potentially even link up with Hu Hao's forces!
"But instead of recognizing his strategic brilliance or discussing a coordinated offensive, he was immediately interrogated, misunderstood, and accused of treasonous provocation! He was given no chance to explain his grand strategy before he was condemned! That is why he is so furiously aggrieved!" Jiang Kai explained Hu Hao's intense frustration.
"Play... play the video again! Now!" the Emperor ordered the staff officers, his voice suddenly lacking its previous fury.
The officers quickly queued up the video. Indeed, plain as day, Hu Hao explicitly stated his intention to assault Tonglong City and sever the transportation hub.
The Emperor watched it, his mood souring further, but this time not because of Hu Hao's insolence. He was furious because he had lost face, and the humiliation was entirely self-inflicted by his own paranoia and the incompetence of his senior generals.
"I bear the responsibility for this oversight. As Grand Marshal, I failed to recognize the strategic implications of his deployment. I am unfamiliar with ground combat operations. I request Your Majesty's punishment," Luo Xin immediately stepped forward, providing the Emperor a political out. He recognized that the Emperor was currently seething with embarrassment.
"Jiang Kai, you claim Hu Hao can capture Tonglong City. That is absurd! Tonglong City is a heavily fortified logistical hub; the Allied coalition undoubtedly has massive garrisons stationed there! Do you think Hu Hao can conquer it simply by boasting on the internet?! What a joke!
"If the Allied forces were that easy to defeat, the Empire would have driven them out months ago!" Tang Long interjected, desperately trying to salvage his narrative.
"General Tang?" Jiang Kai asked, recognizing the voice.
"Correct. It is I, Tang Long!" Tang Long confirmed haughtily.
"Hmph. Hu Hao is boasting?! You just claimed that if the Allied forces were easy to defeat, we would have driven them out. Let me tell you a harsh truth, General Tang: if Hu Hao had been sitting in your chair when the war began, the Allied coalition would never have dared to cross our borders!
"Do not assume that because you are incompetent, everyone else is equally useless! Which of you... which single general in that room... could use a single corps to annihilate multiple elite Allied corps?! Which of you has reclaimed a single inch of Imperial territory?! Tell me! Who?!" Jiang Kai roared into the phone, his voice dripping with absolute contempt for Tang Long.
"You sit in the capital every day, scheming against Hu Hao! Paralyzed by the fear that he might rebel! Terrified that he might become uncontrollable! Look at the state of the Empire! Who in their right mind would want to rebel right now?! The Empire is on the verge of total annihilation! Who wants to give the Emperor a graveyard?!
"Our absolute, singular focus must be the survival of this nation! Yet you waste your time worrying about Hu Hao's political ambitions?! Has anyone stopped to consider how much territory he has liberated?! How many hundreds of thousands of Allied soldiers he has slaughtered?! How many enemy corps he is currently tying down in the rear echelon?! Has anyone considered that?!
"If it weren't for Hu Hao's brilliant strategy at Nanlin City that annihilated the Allied vanguard on the central front, this Empire would have fallen months ago!
"Your Majesty... honorable Generals... I ask you to look deep within yourselves. If you were Hu Hao, completely surrounded in the enemy rear, starting with nothing... could a single one of you have done better?!" Jiang Kai eviscerated Tang Long, his impassioned defense of Hu Hao echoing through the silent command center.
Having delivered his blistering reprimand, Jiang Kai took a deep breath, consciously softening his tone before speaking again.
(End of Chapter)