Chapter 109: I’ll Take the Blame

Having delegated the final cleanup operations to Ye Zifeng and Bo Gang, Hu Hao drove straight back to the 87th Division Headquarters in Bopa City. It was nearly 22:00 hours when his vehicle finally pulled through the main gates.

“Hao-ge is back!” a passing staff officer yelled enthusiastically, spotting Hu Hao stepping out of the car.

“Hao-ge!”

“Hao-ge!” The perimeter guards and passing soldiers all smiled warmly and called out greetings.

“Oh! You actually made it back tonight?” Li Jingsong heard the commotion and quickly walked out of the command building, a massive smile on his face.

“I’m back,” Hu Hao smiled, nodding to the soldiers around him as he walked toward the entrance.

“Hao-ge, you haven’t eaten yet, right?” a young staff officer asked considerately.

“Not yet. Have the mess hall send something to the war room,” Hu Hao nodded gratefully. He and Li Jingsong stepped inside the building.

“Where’s Xiao Quan?” Hu Hao asked, noticing the Deputy Commander was missing from the war room.

“He’s down at the logistics depots. With the sheer volume of weapons, munitions, and grain you’re sending back, we’re completely overwhelmed. We have to meticulously inventory and securely cache all of it. Furthermore, we had to find massive hangars and deep-cover locations to conceal all those attack helicopters you sent back!

And on top of all that, we’re still processing the massive influx of conscripts! Since I’m the duty officer tonight, I couldn’t leave the war room, so Xiao Quan had to go supervise it all personally,” Li Jingsong explained, handing Hu Hao a cigarette.

“Mmh. Things are going to be chaotic for a while. But we should have a few days of peace to consolidate our gains before the fighting resumes,” Hu Hao accepted the cigarette, lit it, and collapsed into his command chair.

“Listen, you guys seriously went completely insane out there tonight. The rumors are already flying around the base… I heard from the logistics drivers and some of the returning scouts that you actually annihilated an entire Allied Division in Santong County?! The Limaguo’s 7th Corps?!” Li Jingsong sat down across from him, leaning in with wide eyes.

“Mmh. If I didn’t annihilate them, how was I supposed to safely extract all those munitions and the grain? By the way, the sheer volume of grain we secured is astronomical. We’ve filled hundreds of transport trucks. That should be more than enough to feed our conscripts, right? A standard transport truck carries roughly ten tons… I estimate we hauled back over two hundred truckloads of grain today alone!” Hu Hao asked, shifting the topic to logistics.

“We have more than enough grain now,” Li Jingsong nodded enthusiastically.

“Good. Tomorrow morning, you need to head over to the 1st Regiment’s staging area. They recovered a massive amount of physical cash while scavenging the battlefield. It’s all money the Allied soldiers looted from our civilians. I haven’t seen the final tally yet, but based on the volume, I’d estimate we secured at least one to two hundred million credits!” Hu Hao informed him casually.

“That much?!” Li Jingsong gasped, his jaw dropping.

“Yeah. And frankly… we didn’t just annihilate a single Division out there. We annihilated three,” Hu Hao smirked, blowing a cloud of smoke. “Tonight was an absolute windfall. We want money? We have money. We want grain? We have grain. We want guns? We have enough guns to arm an entire Corps. We want men? We have tens of thousands of men.”

“Holy shit… you solved literally every single one of our logistical and manpower crises in a mere two days?!” Li Jingsong stared at him in disbelief.

“Exactly. Now, we must utilize this brief window of peace to intensely drill our new recruits. That is the only way we are going to survive the war that is coming. We have to survive, and we have to slaughter more of the coalition to avenge our people,” Hu Hao stated, his tone turning serious.

“Say… Hao-ge… shouldn’t we formally report all of this to Zone Command? Keeping a massive surplus of undocumented weaponry and tens of thousands of unsanctioned conscripts hidden from High Command is incredibly dangerous. If they find out, we’ll be court-martialed!” Li Jingsong lowered his voice, looking around nervously.

“What are you terrified of? Report it to who? Your father in the Capital? Can your father actually protect us if the High Command demands we surrender our assets?!

If we report it to Commander Jiang Kai, what is he supposed to do? If he acknowledges the conscripts, he has to officially deploy them and provide logistical support he doesn’t have. If he orders us to disband them, he cripples our defensive capability!

We conscripted these men for a single purpose: to kill the Allied coalition! These men are refugees who fled the purges; they joined us specifically to get revenge!” Hu Hao argued fiercely.

“But if High Command launches an audit, running an unsanctioned private army is a massive crime! It’s treason!” Li Jingsong pressed, deeply anxious about military law.

“I said, what are you afraid of?! What crime?! Do you have any idea how much merit I’ve accumulated on the front lines?! Just today, I killed three Major Generals, half a dozen Brigadier Generals, and tens of thousands of enemy soldiers! Based on standard military protocol, shouldn’t I be promoted to General right now?!

But will they promote me? Will those aristocratic cowards actually give me a star?! No! So I don’t even bother reporting my achievements anymore! I don’t care about their hollow merit, and I don’t care about their laws! I conscripted these men, and I will lead them!

I am the Division Commander. If High Command comes looking for blood, I will take full responsibility! You and Xiao Quan will simply claim ignorance. But until that day comes, we do things my way!” Hu Hao declared with unshakeable authority.

“That’s easy for you to say, Hao-ge. But I still feel like we’re sitting on a powder keg,” Li Jingsong sighed, still uneasy.

“I don’t give a damn about their politics. Motherfucker, the entire nation is on the verge of total collapse, and those aristocratic families in the Capital are still solely obsessed with protecting their own personal power and wealth!

Honestly, if I hadn’t witnessed the Allied forces slaughtering our civilians with my own eyes, and if I didn’t know that our brothers would die pointlessly on the battlefield without proper leadership, I would have deserted a long time ago.

But since I’ve decided to fight, I am going to fight my way! Look at Commander Jiang Kai. Does he know how to wage war? A little bit. Is he actually a brilliant tactician? Not really. And most importantly, unless he is pushed into a corner, he will never dare to disobey an order from High Command! Therefore, we cannot rely on him! We can only rely on ourselves!” Hu Hao stated his absolute disillusionment with the Imperial hierarchy.

Li Jingsong listened silently and slowly nodded, realizing the brutal truth of Hu Hao’s words.

“Hao-ge, your dinner is ready!” a staff officer interrupted, carrying a tray of hot food into the war room.

Hu Hao immediately began eating at the strategy table. Just then, Xiao Quan returned from the logistics depots, looking utterly exhausted but incredibly happy.

“Incredible, Hao-ge! We go out for one night, and we return richer than kings!” Xiao Quan laughed, walking over to the table.

“Heh heh. If we aren’t getting rich, what’s the point of fighting? Did we secure enough depot space for everything? The munitions and the grain?” Hu Hao asked between bites.

“We have more than enough space. I’ve already distributed a massive portion of the grain and munitions directly to our frontline units to alleviate the immediate pressure on the central warehouses. We’re keeping the strategic reserves cached here.

However, Hao-ge… we have a critical problem. Between the refugees from Daman City and the reservists from Bopa City, we’ve conscripted nearly 30,000 men. With the captured assets, we have enough material to equip two full Infantry Divisions, a dedicated Air Cavalry Brigade, and a massive Armored Division. We have the manpower and the weapons.

But we don’t have the officers. How the hell are we going to command them?” Xiao Quan sat down and posed the most pressing administrative crisis.

Hu Hao paused, his chopsticks freezing halfway to his mouth. Xiao Quan was right. Hu Hao hadn’t fully considered the massive command deficit.

“We are desperately short on junior and mid-level officers, Hao-ge! Yes, High Command just sent us a batch of newly commissioned academy graduates, but it’s nowhere near enough! A force of 30,000 men requires thousands of competent officers! How do we solve this?” Xiao Quan pressed.

“Wait… High Command actually sent the replacement officers? They’re here?!” Hu Hao’s eyes lit up, ignoring the broader question for a moment.

“They arrived a few hours ago! They’re currently waiting in the holding room next door! Oh, right, one of them claims to be your classmate from the academy!” Li Jingsong interjected.

“Oho! They actually made it! I’m going to go see them right now!” Hu Hao laughed, immediately putting his chopsticks down and standing up.

“Hold on! Hold on! They aren’t going anywhere! We are trying to solve a massive strategic crisis here! And you haven’t even finished your dinner!” Xiao Quan grabbed Hu Hao’s arm, forcing him to stay.

“It’s simple. We just aggressively expand our existing unit structures. For example, instead of a standard Platoon consisting of three Squads, we assign ten Squads to a single Platoon Leader! Problem solved,” Hu Hao offered a rapid, improvised solution.

“But… if a Platoon Leader is commanding ten Squads… is he still a Platoon Leader, or is he effectively a Company Commander?!” Xiao Quan stared at him, bewildered by the logistical nightmare that would create.

“He’s technically a Platoon Leader on paper, but we’ll be actively training him to handle the responsibilities of a Company Commander in reality!” Hu Hao reasoned.

“Hao-ge, that’s a terrible idea. What happens when the Corps Commander or Zone Commander Jiang Kai conducts a surprise inspection?! How do we possibly explain why a single Platoon has a hundred men in it?!” Xiao Quan argued against the chaotic structure.

“Mmh. I suppose you’re right. Okay, how about this? Since we’ve conscripted roughly 30,000 men, we formally establish a ‘Shadow Command Structure’.

We will organize the men into five distinct, off-the-books units: two Mechanized Infantry Divisions, one Armored Division, one Air Cavalry Brigade, and one Anti-Air Artillery Brigade.

As for the command staff… the three of us will simultaneously serve as the Division Commanders, Chiefs of Staff, and Deputy Commanders for these ‘Shadow Divisions’. We will order our current Regimental Commanders to simultaneously command the shadow Regiments, and our current Company Commanders will command the shadow Companies!

We will use our existing veteran units to rapidly train the new conscripts within this shadow structure. Once the conscripts are adequately trained and we’ve managed to cultivate enough competent junior officers from within their ranks, we will officially detach them and promote the new officers to command them!

Furthermore, I have a secondary plan for cultivating our own officer corps. Tell me what you think,” Hu Hao proposed, pacing the room as he formulated the grand strategy.

“Let’s hear it. Our most critical bottleneck right now is a lack of grassroots officers,” Xiao Quan nodded eagerly, and Li Jingsong leaned in to listen.

“We establish a dedicated ‘Officer Training Battalion’. We take the newly arrived academy graduates, combine them with the most distinguished, combat-proven enlisted veterans from Ye Zifeng’s 1st Regiment and Bo Gang’s Tank Battalion, and we put them through a brutal, accelerated tactical command course.

The Training Battalion will be fully equipped with our captured tanks and APCs to ensure they master combined-arms warfare.

Any soldier who successfully graduates from the Training Battalion will be instantly promoted one full rank! However, there are two conditions: first, I must personally certify their tactical competence before they graduate. Second, they must survive a live-fire combat deployment before they are officially granted a command billet! What do you think?” Hu Hao laid out his plan for a meritocratic officer academy.

“That’s a fantastic idea! It solves the immediate crisis and ensures quality control! But Hao-ge… a single Battalion is only 600 men. Even if they all graduate, we need way more officers than that!” Li Jingsong pointed out the numerical flaw.

“Then we establish an ‘Officer Training Regiment’!” Hu Hao suggested immediately.

“Agreed! A Training Regiment it is!” Xiao Quan confirmed.

“Are we done here? Can I go see my classmates now?” Hu Hao asked, looking between the two of them.

“You aren’t going to finish your food?” Li Jingsong pointed at the half-eaten meal.

“I’ll eat it when I get back!” Hu Hao waved them off and practically jogged out of the war room, his guards and radiomen trailing closely behind.

He quickly walked over to the adjacent holding room. Inside, a small television was playing quietly. Several of the exhausted young officers had already fallen asleep on the floor mats, while others were sitting around, smoking and chatting in hushed voices.

“Greetings, Commander!” a junior officer sitting near the door immediately jumped to his feet and saluted as Hu Hao strode into the room, his uniform still dusty from the battlefield.