Chapter 16: Crossing the River

Hu Hao and his group retreated from the bridge back into the city. Li Jingsong sat in a corner of the building they had commandeered for their vehicles, isolated and ignored. The soldiers wouldn’t even look at him, but he had followed Hu Hao anyway.

“Hao-ge, the Regimental Commanders want to see you,” a soldier reported.

Hu Hao turned to Huan Xingtao and the others. “Watch him. Make sure he doesn’t wander off, and make sure nobody touches him.”

“Why, Hao-ge?” Huan Xingtao asked, his brow furrowed. “The boys don’t get it. Why did you save that coward?”

“Because I owe his old man my life, alright?” Hu Hao said flatly before walking away.

“Oh… Hao-ge is just paying back a debt. Fine then, nobody touch the bastard,” Huan Xingtao relayed to the other soldiers, who nodded begrudgingly.

Li Jingsong was struck by the exchange. He understood why the men didn’t respect him, but he couldn’t fathom how Hu Hao—who had only been in the unit for a few days—had managed to command such absolute loyalty. He wanted to ask, but he knew he’d only receive a torrent of abuse in response.

Hu Hao reached the gathering of officers and found that all five of the division’s Regimental Commanders had survived the initial rout.

“Hu Hao, isn’t it? I never expected a new transfer to our regiment to perform like this,” Xiao Quan, Hu Hao’s Regimental Commander, said with a tired smile.

“Just luck. Have you eaten?” Hu Hao asked, tearing into a bar of chocolate.

“We ate. But what now? Staying here is a death sentence. I asked the men, and they said they’re following you. Wherever you go, they go. To be honest, they don’t trust us anymore. Dammit, what was Li Jingsong thinking? Abandoning us like that… it’s a disgrace. Even if the other two divisions broke, we were holding! We could have all withdrawn together. He screwed us.”

“Why did you even save him?” another Colonel spat. “If it were up to me, I’d find a quiet corner and put a bullet in him. Nobody would know, and he deserves it for the lives he wasted.”

“Are you all stupid?” Hu Hao looked at them with disbelief. “If we don’t save him, where do we go? Do you want to return to the army? His father is still the Army Commander. If Li Jingsong makes it back alive, he’s still a Division General. If he dies under mysterious circumstances while with us, every one of you is in deep trouble.”

“If he tries to lead this division again, I’ll kill him myself,” the Colonel countered. “Even if I don’t, you watch—the next time we’re on the line, someone will put a ‘black bullet’ in his back.”

“Quiet down,” Hu Hao warned. “We’re still part of the 27th Army. His father isn’t going anywhere. You kill the son, the father will erase you before you can blink.”

The Commanders went silent, nodding slowly. The reality of military politics was a bitter pill.

“Fine, forget him. What’s the plan? We have over 1,000 men here, and with the stragglers from the 85th and 86th, we’re pushing 2,000. Do we dig in for street fighting?” a Commander asked.

“With what ammo?” Hu Hao retorted. “Did you bring supply trucks with you? We’re down to the magazines on our belts. You want to fight a house-to-house war against tanks with that? You planning to block their barrels with your bodies?”

“Then what do you suggest? The men listen to you. They don’t give a damn about our orders. I still don’t get how you did it,” another officer noted.

“I have no idea,” Hu Hao lied with a shrug. “But we have to cross the river. I looked at the water from the bridge; most of it is shallow. The deep channel is only about 10 meters deep. Every man here should know how to swim. Those who can’t can use wooden planks or plastic bags stuffed with grass for buoyancy. Once we’re on the other side, we have a chance.”

“Are you sure? Is it really that shallow?” the Commanders asked, their eyes lighting up.

“Did none of you actually look at the river?” Hu Hao rolled his eyes. “Now move. What about the wounded?”

“We’ll have the men carry them on planks,” Hu Hao instructed. “Once we have a few men across, we’ll string long ropes. The wounded and their porters can use the ropes for stability. We need to move fast. Very fast.”

“Understood. Let’s move. This city isn’t safe—the Allies could be here any minute.”

“Once we’re across, scavenge every vehicle you can find. Don’t stop until we’ve put some distance between us and the front. And listen,” Hu Hao looked each Commander in the eye, “do not abandon the wounded. We’re all brothers. If you were the one on that plank, you’d want someone to pull you across, wouldn’t you?”

“We get it. You’re a good man, Hu Hao. No wonder they follow you,” Xiao Quan said.

“Fine. Get to it,” Hu Hao said, waving them off as if he were their superior.

Hu Hao returned to his APC, explained the plan, and led his squad—along with several wounded and a silent Li Jingsong—to the riverbank.

The crossing began. Those with rucksacks stuffed them with dry grass; those without, like Hu Hao’s group, used plastic bags and scavenged wooden doors. When the first wave reached the far bank, a ragged cheer went up.

“Don’t just stand there! Move inland and find transport!” Hu Hao shouted to the celebrating soldiers. “Don’t leave the wounded behind! Remember, if it was you, you’d want to be saved too!”

“We hear you, Hao-ge!” several soldiers yelled back.

“Hao-ge, I won’t forget this!”

“Thank you, brother,” a wounded soldier said as he was pulled onto the sand.

“Don’t worry about it,” Hu Hao replied, smiling. “Move! Find cars!”

The survivors began to scramble up the bank. Li Jingsong stood by the water, watching Hu Hao with a look of deep contemplation.

The city on the far side was largely abandoned, but the Eastern Spirit Empire was a wealthy nation. Even the poorest households owned a car, and fuel was cheap and plentiful. Hu Hao’s group commandeered a public bus, packing it to the gills. Other soldiers found sedans and trucks, hotwiring them and joining the growing convoy.

“Hao-ge, where are we heading?” the soldier driving the bus asked.

“Just drive,” Hu Hao sighed, leaning back in his seat. “We head inland until we hit our own lines.”

“Go to Langcheng,” Li Jingsong said suddenly from the back. “Our main force is regrouping there. Reinforcements are arriving by air and rail this afternoon—the 25th Army from Tianxiang Province.”

He continued, his voice gainly a bit of strength: “Tomorrow, more will arrive. The 26th Army from Tianhe, and the other three armies from the Southwest Combat Zone. They’re all being surged to our sector.”

“Heh. Now they send help,” Hu Hao muttered bitterly. “Where was all this when we were on the beach?”

“This failure wasn’t the 27th Army’s fault! It was a failure of High Command!” Li Jingsong snapped, his frustration boiling over. “They underestimated the landing speed. The 26th Army had their orders for three days and only entered the province this morning. They only picked up the pace once the shooting started! We were a single army of pure ground troops with no heavy artillery. How were we supposed to stop them? Our Air Force took massive losses; they couldn’t give us the cover we needed!”

“You should shut your mouth,” a soldier nearby growled. “You’re just trying to talk your way out of the fact that you ran. The boys were dying on the front—where were you? You could have sent a runner. You could have waited until the lull. But you just vanished.”

Li Jingsong looked away, falling silent again.

“Go to Langcheng,” Hu Hao agreed. “But he’s not entirely wrong. High Command is full of idiots. On our sector alone today, I spotted the Allied 21st Division, the 28th, the 35th, and at least two separate armored divisions from different corps. We saw the vanguard of five separate enemy corps while we had three infantry divisions holding the line. It was a suicide mission.”

“Five corps?” Li Jingsong looked at Hu Hao, stunned. “You identified all of them?”

“You didn’t?” Hu Hao’s expression was one of genuine shock. “How exactly did you become a General?”

“I… I was focused on the line,” Li Jingsong stammered, embarrassed.

“Give me a break. You were ‘focused on the line’ and didn’t notice the massive naval barrage was meant to concuss, not just kill? Half your men died in the bunkers because they were lying flat or standing up. No one told them to sit and brace their knees to their chests. Did you even issue a basic shell-shock advisory? Did you?” Hu Hao stared him down.