Chapter 198: The Fat Sheep Right in Front of Us

Returning to the defensive line’s command center, Hu Hao felt absolutely fantastic. It was so comfortable! Outside, it had been so blistering hot that there was nowhere to hide. Now, suddenly blasted with air conditioning, Hu Hao sat back, sipping ice water with his feet propped up on the table, finally taking a moment to enjoy himself.

“You’ve got it easy! You only had to deal with the heat today. I’ve been getting eaten alive by mosquitoes in that forest for days! Look at my face! In the past, how could I ever show my face to pick up girls looking like this?!” Li Jingsong complained, pointing at his face.

“You’re already the father of a teenager! Have some shame!” Hearing this, Hu Hao immediately sat up and scolded him.

“What does having a teenager have to do with anything? What man isn’t a bit of a romantic?!” Li Jingsong retorted, taking a seat across from Hu Hao.

“Alright, that’s enough from both of you! You just stood out in the sun for a day! I didn’t even have time to eat! I’ve been busy organizing the soldiers to collect weapons, ammunition, and loot money from the corpses!

“I have to say, these Allied soldiers are loaded! Every single one of them had tens of thousands in cash or jewelry on them! Motherfucker, this is all money they stole from our civilians!” Xiao Quan grumbled as he sat down with a lunchbox and began eating.

“You have the nerve to complain?! We two haven’t eaten either!” Li Jingsong glared at Xiao Quan.

“Find someone to get you some! I don’t have time to look after you! This is my first meal of the day!” Xiao Quan mumbled around a mouthful of food, wolfing it down.

“Someone get us some food! We’re starving to death here!” Li Jingsong yelled toward the door.

“Sigh, Hao-ge, have you made all the troop arrangements? They still haven’t returned,” Xiao Quan asked Hu Hao between bites.

“Why would they return? I sent Lu Guangsheng to Nage City, Ye Zifeng to Xike City, and Wu Kexiao is heading to Gunan City. Their troops will garrison those locations.

“As for our artillery and armored units, they’ll stay here to receive the tanks and cannons the Commander promised us. I’m worried the High Command might come for an inspection, so we’ll keep the heavy equipment here.

“Of course, we can’t just sit by the river indefinitely. Once the equipment arrives, the main force will move to Daman City. It’s positioned perfectly in the center of those three cities, forming a defensive triangle. They’ll be able to support each other at a moment’s notice!” Hu Hao explained his deployment strategy.

“Mm, that’s a good plan. However, Hao-ge, we still need to be careful. If the High Command finds out, we’ll be in massive trouble. Our current forces aren’t that large, and building up combat effectiveness takes time. I suggest we keep our troops dispersed!” Xiao Quan advised while eating.

“Mm, I’ve already thought of that. Their subordinate regiments will all be garrisoned in different locations; they cannot be concentrated in a single area. That would make them too easy to spot. Additionally, I plan to recruit some veterans and train them personally.

“Furthermore, we need to establish our training regiment. We must personally cultivate our officers. We’ll use our recent battles as case studies to teach them, capitalizing on the combat experience they’ve just gained.

“So, we’ll use this period to train them, focusing primarily on Company and Battalion-level commanders. We won’t train Regimental Commanders for now; we simply don’t have enough officers. If we pull them back for training, we won’t have any Regimental Commanders left to lead, and the troops won’t be able to develop properly!” Hu Hao detailed his plans.

“Mm, but Hao-ge, isn’t cultivating Regimental Commanders even more important?” Li Jingsong asked.

“Of course it’s more important! But if we pull them out now, who’s going to manage the troops? My plan is to train the Battalion and Company-level commanders first. We have to take it one step at a time. Furthermore, I’m going to select 500 veterans from the various units. I will personally train them in reconnaissance and special operations capabilities!” Hu Hao announced.

“What are special operations?” Li Jingsong looked at Hu Hao, thoroughly confused.

In this world, the concept of special operations didn’t even exist! Because peace had lasted for so long, many countries’ military development—both in terms of weapon technology and tactical/strategic research—had completely stagnated!

“Mm, I’ll explain it to you later. I want to train these 500 veterans so they can provide us with intelligence immediately! I will train them personally over a period of six months. After that, they will recruit their own teams and assist in intelligence gathering!” Hu Hao explained.

“Ah, alright! That’s a fantastic idea! Our intelligence gathering is indeed incredibly backwards. We still have to rely entirely on the Commander’s intelligence network,” Xiao Quan nodded in agreement.

“How many weapons did you gather?” Hu Hao asked Xiao Quan.

“How many? Roughly 110,000 rifles, though many are severely damaged. About 1,200 heavy machine guns. Barely any armored vehicles; our soldiers blew them all up. Tanks and artillery are also scarce, and the ones we did get will be difficult to repair.

“I plan to hand over the damaged rifles so they can give us some sort of subsidy in return. Although our unit currently has a decent amount of funds, our forces will grow massive in the future, and our expenses will skyrocket. We need to save wherever we can!” Xiao Quan replied after a moment’s thought.

“Mm, 110,000 rifles. Combined with the ones from the Kabuguo 32nd Corps earlier, we have plenty of rifles. However, we’re going to face a massive ammunition shortage. What do we do? There’s an ammunition factory right in Late City! It’s so close, yet I can’t get my hands on it! It pisses me off!” Hu Hao stood up, pacing anxiously.

He had always kept his eyes on the industrial facilities in Late City. If he had that industrial base to support him, he could easily arm a force of 1,000,000 men, complete with an Air Force! But right now, capturing that place was too difficult! After all, the High Command held shares in many of those military-industrial enterprises; they heavily controlled them!

“Let’s not even think about that right now. We can only try to see if we can buy some on the black market. However, with the massive quantities we need, buying on the black market will definitely attract a lot of attention. My advice is not to sell the weapons. It’s called the ‘black market,’ but in reality, it has deep ties to the Grand Marshal and the Left General’s families!” Li Jingsong warned Hu Hao.

“We’ll just have to think about it slowly. Relying solely on captured Allied supplies to replenish our ammunition definitely won’t work. And relying on the Commander? Tell me, supplying ammunition for 60,000 men… how could that possibly be enough for our massive forces?! This is a massive problem!” Xiao Quan sighed. He truly had no solution for this.

It wasn’t just ammunition; fuel and uniforms were also major issues for Hu Hao’s rapidly expanding forces. The higher-ups would only distribute supplies matching their official troop numbers. Trying to get more was incredibly difficult.

“There’s definitely a way! What are you afraid of?! Don’t force me to think of a way! Because once I do, I’ll just take over Late City!” Hu Hao declared.

“Holy shit, that idea absolutely won’t work! Late City holds an incredibly high position in our Empire’s industrial hierarchy! Taking complete control of it is impossible! Absolutely impossible!” Li Jingsong immediately stood up, looking at Hu Hao nervously.

Late City was a critical heavy industry production base for the Empire, boasting numerous arsenals. It was a location heavily monitored by the state!

“Hmph, high position? If its position is so high, why did they only leave a single division here to defend it?! Even the Allied forces knew to send several corps to secure it, yet we only had one division?! If the Allied forces didn’t want to capture the city intact, they would have bombed it to rubble long ago! Still dreaming about those enterprises? I really don’t know what those people in the High Command are doing all day!” Hu Hao sneered, then sat back down angrily.

“Look, don’t rush things. Focus on building the troops first. If it really comes down to it, I’ll get some ammunition from my old man! I’m sure his forces have plenty of ammo; we’ll just get some from them!” Li Jingsong offered.

“Sigh. I actually considered having my troops disguise themselves as Allied forces, ‘invade’ Late City, and take control of the enterprises there! But Late City is within our defensive sector; everywhere else is fine right now. So, if something goes wrong there, we’ll still be the ones taking the blame! Let’s wait. Wait for the right opportunity!” Hu Hao hadn’t entirely dismissed the idea of using his own men to masquerade as Allied troops and seize Late City.

However, since his unit was responsible for defending this sector, any problems would inevitably fall on him. Furthermore, if the city was ‘occupied,’ his troops would be forced to retreat. And Jiang Kai would likely dispatch forces to retake the city, which would easily expose their ruse.

“Hao-ge, call from the Commander!” a staff officer walked over and reported to Hu Hao.

“Oh, give it here!” Hu Hao immediately took the phone.

“Hello, Commander!” Hu Hao greeted.

“Hu Hao, His Highness the Crown Prince visited again just now. As expected, he mentioned wanting to see you. I didn’t agree, simply telling him you were very busy right now. He said that if you have the time, you should visit the headquarters!” Jiang Kai relayed.

“He actually wants to see me?” Hu Hao asked.

“Mm. However, he acted a bit strangely today. Logically, he is supported by the Grand Marshal; the Grand Marshal can be considered one of his primary backers. And the Grand Marshal fiercely opposes opening the promotion channels.

“Yet, today he declared that he supports opening the promotion channels! Furthermore, his attitude toward Sun Qinxue and me today was noticeably much warmer, even showing signs of goodwill! This completely baffles me!” Jiang Kai continued.

“Showing goodwill toward you? Isn’t that normal? You might become the next Grand Marshal! If the Crown Prince doesn’t show you goodwill, how is he going to secure the military’s support in the future? Without the military’s support, how can he remain Crown Prince?” Hu Hao chuckled.

“Bullshit! Are you an idiot? He already has a ready-made Grand Marshal in his father-in-law! The Crown Prince should be helping the Grand Marshal consolidate his power, not trying to win me over! He knows full well that I am at odds with his Grand Marshal father-in-law! Even if his goodwill is genuine, do you think I’d actually dare to accept it?!” Jiang Kai laughed and scolded Hu Hao.

(End of Chapter)