Chapter 187: Waiting for Death

Hearing his Chief of Staff report that they had lost contact with the reinforcement troops, Hakes was profoundly shocked.

Ren Kefu chimed in, stating he had anticipated something like this might happen, but he never imagined the Eastern Spirit commander would actually dare to ambush an entire corps!

“Damn it! What’s the point of saying that now?! What do we do?! There are no other friendly forces nearby! Our only option is to have the Limaguo 11th Corps come over; they’re the closest to us right now!

“But if they move, the Eastern Spirit 27th Corps will also mobilize! What do we do then?!

“Furthermore, did our opponent anticipate the Limaguo 11th Corps as well?! Will they move to ambush them too?!” Abusai voiced his worries. They had originally believed they would truly be safe in just a few hours.

Who would have thought the reinforcements would be ambushed, and that they would lose all contact with them? They had absolutely no idea what the situation was like over there.

“Report! Telegram from the 32nd Corps’ tank division! The Division Commander states that the main force behind them was ambushed and suffered catastrophic casualties! He has lost all contact with their Corps Commander! The tank division was also attacked on the road and suffered heavy losses!

“Right now, they have less than 30 tanks and 80 armored vehicles left, along with their transport trucks. Their infantry casualties exceed fifty percent! They are asking us to figure something out and continue requesting reinforcements!” A senior staff officer rushed over and reported to Hakes.

“Damn it!” Hearing this, Abusai turned around in frustration, glaring outside and cursing. Ren Kefu was also at a loss for what to do. Contact his own nation’s 11th Corps?

Having them come over would likely just be inviting more trouble. Once they moved, who knew how this formidable opponent would react? Furthermore, even if they managed to arrive, they wouldn’t be able to launch an assault on Bopa City, because the 27th Corps would also reinforce Bopa City by then.

If that happened, they could forget about breaking through to Late City unless new reinforcements arrived. But right now, the other reinforcement corps weren’t heading in their direction at all. Waiting for them would mean holding out until tomorrow, or even the day after.

“What do we do now? We don’t have many troops left in the city, and our casualties are astronomical! We have to think of something!” the Chief of Staff looked at Hakes.

“Send a telegram to Allied Headquarters! Explain our situation clearly! Tell them we need immediate reinforcements, and that they need to dispatch troops to pin down this opponent of ours! If we give this unit a free hand, they will pose a catastrophic threat to our entire offensive line! This commander must be eliminated!” Hakes ordered his Chief of Staff.

“Where are these reinforcements supposed to come from right now?! It’ll take at least two days for any reinforcements to reach us! We have to figure something out ourselves! If I had known it would come to this, we should have attempted a breakout yesterday! Even if the chances were slim, it’s better than sitting here waiting to die!

“We barely have any troops left now! How are we supposed to break out?! Forget two days—whether we can even survive tonight is a massive question mark! You want the Limaguo 11th Corps to reinforce us?! Do you honestly think their troops can just march over here at a moment’s notice?!

“Meanwhile, the Eastern Spirit forces outside can attack us at any time! The moment they enter the city—and especially once the troops that ambushed the 32nd Corps return—they can launch a pincer attack against the Limaguo 11th Corps!

“Tell me, would the Limaguo 11th Corps even dare to come?!

“Right now, we don’t even know how many troops our opponent has! Tell me, would the Limaguo 11th Corps dare to come?! General Ren Kefu, tell him! Those are your nation’s troops! Call them and ask if they dare come reinforce us! An opponent capable of crippling four of our corps—is that someone an ordinary unit dares to engage?!” Abusai shouted furiously, pointing at Ren Kefu while yelling at Hakes.

He was enraged. If they had attempted a breakout earlier, they truly would have had a chance. Although the odds were low, it was vastly superior to just waiting for death here.

“Our Limaguo troops probably wouldn’t dare come. We don’t even know exactly who the opponent here is or how many troops they have! How could they dare come?

“Forget our Limaguo 11th Corps. Any corps in our Allied army that learns they’re being sent to reinforce us would be terrified! Is a force capable of crippling four of our corps an ordinary unit?! Coming here is just asking to die!” Ren Kefu shook his head. Right now, they truly didn’t know what to do.

“Right now, the number of soldiers we have in the city still capable of picking up a weapon and fighting back is less than 10,000! Tell me, how are we supposed to fight back?! How are we supposed to break out?! Right now, our only option is to wait for death! Wait for death!” Abusai sat down dejectedly. Waiting for death was truly their only remaining option.

“Can we surrender?” the Chief of Staff standing beside Hakes asked.

“Surrender? If we hadn’t slaughtered the Eastern Spirit civilians, we certainly could. Now? Hmph. Don’t even think about it. Do you think the Eastern Spirit forces will let us live?” Ren Kefu sneered.

“Arguing here won’t solve anything! I think we still need to figure out a plan. We can’t just sit here and wait, can we? That truly would be waiting for death! We need to deploy our remaining troops effectively and have them hold the defensive line! Even if they only manage to kill one Eastern Spirit soldier, it will create better conditions for our follow-up forces’ offensive!” Hakes had abandoned all thoughts of breaking out; he was now determined to fight to the death. Not fighting to the death wasn’t an option anyway.

“Ha! You actually want to gather our troops together?! Is that even possible?! The Eastern Spirit artillery has been bombarding us all day! The vast majority of our soldiers who died were killed by their artillery! The moment we gather together…

“…I guarantee the Eastern Spirit artillery will immediately shift its fire right onto us! Still thinking about gathering the troops? Right now, the only option is to let our troops fight independently within the city! There’s no other way. Gathering them is impossible! We can only hope this allows them to kill a few Eastern Spirit soldiers. We have no other options left!” Ren Kefu immediately shot down the idea.

Gathering the troops right now was a death sentence. Once gathered, they would become an easy target. As long as the soldiers remained scattered and hidden, they were relatively safe. The Eastern Spirit artillery would have a hard time hitting them directly.

Hearing this, Hakes could only sit down and let out a heavy sigh. He never expected things to develop like this. The situation had deteriorated far too rapidly. Just yesterday, they were dreaming of entering Late City today. Now, not only were they denied Late City, but they were on the verge of complete annihilation.

Meanwhile, the 32nd Corps’ tank division was frantically rushing back toward Santong County. The Division Commander knew full well that the Air Cavalry had let them go not out of mercy, but because they were out of ammunition. If they had ammo, his tank unit would definitely not have escaped.

“Report! We just received a warning from Santong County! They state an Eastern Spirit tank division has broken off from the encirclement and is heading to intercept us!” a staff officer reported to the Division Commander.

“What did you say?! They have another tank division over there?! Damn it! Why didn’t they tell us this earlier?! Didn’t they say the forces encircling them numbered roughly 20,000?! Why didn’t they mention an entire tank division?! With our Kabuguo tanks, can we even win a shootout against Eastern Spirit tanks?!” the Division Commander roared furiously. The staff officers behind him didn’t dare utter a word; they just sat there in silence.

“What do we do now? It seems we’re surrounded by Eastern Spirit forces too! We have the Eastern Spirit main force behind us, and an Eastern Spirit tank division blocking our path forward! How are we supposed to run? Escaping will be incredibly difficult!” another staff officer voiced his concerns.

“Bring the map! Let’s see if we can fall back to a city! The bigger the city, the better!” the Division Commander ordered after a moment’s thought.

“The biggest city nearby is Nage City, or Daman City. However, the Eastern Spirit forces are closer to those locations. We might run into the Eastern Spirit tank units before we even get there! As for the other cities, they’re either too small or too far away!” the senior staff officer reported.

“Damn it! Then we head for a small city! We must hold our ground! As long as we hold out for a few days, I’m confident our reinforcement troops will definitely come and save us!” the Division Commander said irritably.

“Report! We still cannot contact the Corps Commander!” a communications officer reported.

“Keep trying! Contact the other senior staff officers, the Chief of Staff, and the other Division Commanders! If you can’t reach the Division Commanders, contact the Regimental Commanders! You must get in touch with them!” the Division Commander ordered.

“Yes, sir!” The communications officer had no choice but to continue broadcasting.

What he didn’t know was that their Corps Commander had already been blown to pieces. Lu Guangsheng stood there, staring at a Lieutenant General who had just been pulled from a wrecked vehicle. Flipping over the man’s dog tags, he discovered it was the Commander of the Kabuguo 32nd Corps.

“He’s really dead? Talk about an unglamorous end! He actually got killed by the Air Cavalry!” Lu Guangsheng muttered, feeling a bit disappointed.

“Regimental Commander, don’t let the Air Cavalry boys hear you say that! Otherwise, if they refuse to give us air support later, we’ll be in trouble!

“The Air Cavalry fought phenomenally today! They wiped out a massive number of vehicles and soldiers using them for cover! They also gunned down a huge number of the soldiers who jumped into the river!” the Regimental Chief of Staff reminded Lu Guangsheng.

“I know that! Do you think I’d say this to outsiders? Motherfucker, the Air Cavalry’s merit is massive this time! I heard they’re heading out to finish off that tank division from earlier! Over a hundred helicopters… that tank division is in for a world of hurt!” Lu Guangsheng grumbled slightly.

His disappointment stemmed from the fact that this Corps Commander hadn’t been killed by his own troops, meaning his regiment couldn’t claim the merit.

(End of Chapter)