Chapter 94: Revenge

When Liu Shuyi and his recon squad infiltrated Santong County, the first thing that hit them was the sound of weeping. Gut-wrenching, heart-tearing sobs echoed through the dark, quiet streets.

The Imperial soldiers fell completely silent. As they crept deeper into the county, they saw faint flickers of orange light illuminating the alleys. In front of almost every single house, surviving families were kneeling on the pavement, burning spirit money for their murdered relatives and weeping in the ash.

Liu Shuyi and his men didn’t dare approach or speak to the civilians. Their mission was strictly reconnaissance, and they didn’t want to disturb the grieving populace or draw unnecessary attention.

However, despite their caution, they were eventually spotted.

“Boys, run! Get out of here! Don’t come into the city!” an elderly man yelled, spotting Liu Shuyi’s squad creeping out of an alley. He assumed the young men in civilian clothes were refugees.

“Grandpa… we’re refugees,” Liu Shuyi quickly lied, stepping forward. “We’re just passing through. Has this county already been occupied by the Allied forces?”

“Occupied?! They’re animals! Absolute animals! And the Imperial Army… useless! Absolute garbage! Why couldn’t they stop them?! Why?! Look around you! Is there a single family in this entire city that hasn’t lost someone today?! Leave! Run while you still can!” the old man wept, angrily slamming his wooden cane against the pavement.

“Grandpa, we just wanted to buy some food. We’re starving. Are there still Allied troops inside the city?” Liu Shuyi gently pressed for intelligence, ignoring the harsh insults.

“No, they’re gone. The main force packed up and left a few hours ago,” the old man sighed bitterly. “But there are still some left in the northwest sector. They’re garrisoning the old Imperial military base.

You tell me… that military base has been sitting here for decades. We paid taxes to support those soldiers. But the moment we actually needed them, they ran away! The soldiers of the Empire are guilty! They abandoned us!” the old man cursed the military through his tears.

“Don’t expect anything from the Imperial Army! They’re all cowards! They abandoned us to be slaughtered by the coalition! Waaaaah!” a woman burning spirit money nearby cried out, hearing the exchange.

Liu Shuyi tuned out the bitter accusations. His only concern was confirming the enemy’s location. He had his intelligence: the city was empty, but the base was still garrisoned.

“Thank you, Grandpa,” Liu Shuyi nodded. The old man simply turned around and hobbled away, his cane tapping rhythmically against the stone.

“Split up. We need to confirm the plaza is empty,” Liu Shuyi ordered his men.

The squad dispersed, taking different routes toward the massive plaza in the city center where Hu Hao had previously spotted the Allied motor pool and encampment.

Twenty minutes later, they reconvened at the plaza. It was a mess of discarded trash and tank treads, but the old man was right: the Allied Division had completely vanished.

“Captain, no sign of the Allied main body,” several Platoon Leaders whispered as they linked up with Liu Shuyi.

“Order the men to fan out. Sweep every sector of the city just to be absolutely certain. I’m going to contact 2nd Platoon; they’re currently observing the military base. Let’s see exactly what we’re dealing with,” Liu Shuyi ordered.

He led his radioman into a ransacked storefront to establish a secure connection. The interior was completely trashed, shelves overturned and goods scattered everywhere. Lying in the center of the floor was the naked, brutalized corpse of a young woman.

“Find some clothes and cover her up,” Liu Shuyi ordered a soldier behind him, his jaw clenching. He pulled out his satellite phone and dialed the 2nd Platoon Leader.

“What’s your status? Any changes at the base?” Liu Shuyi asked the moment the call connected.

“About two hours ago, roughly several hundred Allied personnel arrived at the base from the city center. Based on their equipment and posture, they aren’t frontline combat infantry; they look like division staff officers, logisticians, and engineers. Other than that, the perimeter remains static,” the 2nd Platoon Leader whispered into the receiver.

“Understood. Maintain observation,” Liu Shuyi instructed.

He stepped back out onto the street and waited for his squads to report back. Ten minutes later, his Platoon Leaders confirmed that the urban center of Santong County was entirely clear of Allied troops. Liu Shuyi immediately dialed Hu Hao.

“Hao-ge, it’s Liu Shuyi. The urban center of Santong County is completely clear. The Allied main body has left. However, the garrison at the military base is still present,” Liu Shuyi reported.

“Good. Rally your men and move toward the military base. Our armored column will reach the Santong County limits in roughly ten minutes,” Hu Hao replied over the phone.

“Ah?! Ten minutes?! You’re already here?! But… what about the massive Allied relief column?!” Liu Shuyi asked, entirely shocked by the speed of their arrival.

“We devoured them,” Hu Hao stated simply.

“Yes, sir!” Liu Shuyi’s heart surged with a fierce, vindictive joy.

The bitter accusations hurled at them by the surviving civilians earlier had stung deeply. The recon soldiers couldn’t reveal their true identities to defend themselves. But knowing that Hao-ge had just annihilated the very animals who had slaughtered those families… it brought a profound sense of justice. Someday, they would be able to look those civilians in the eye and tell them that not every Imperial soldier was a coward who ran away. But that depended entirely on who was leading them.

Hu Hao sat inside the command APC, the viewing slit cracked open as the armored column rumbled into Santong County.

The city was pitch black. The terrified civilians didn’t dare turn on a single light, fearing it would draw the attention of the Allied monsters.

As the deep, rhythmic rumble of the tank treads echoed through the streets, surviving civilians cautiously peeked out from their ruined homes. When they saw the massive silhouettes of the tanks and APCs, and finally recognized the Eastern Spirit Imperial crest painted on the armor, they were stunned.

The Imperial garrison had abandoned the nearby military base days ago. No one expected to ever see the Imperial Army again.

The Imperial machine gunners manning the top hatches looked down at the streets as the column rolled past. Their eyes began to burn with unshed tears. Outside nearly every single house, a small pile of spirit money was burning. The tiny, flickering orange flames lined the streets for miles.

The soldiers knew exactly what those fires meant. Seeing an entire city lit only by funeral pyres meant the Allied coalition had executed a massive, systematic purge.

Overcome by a crushing sense of guilt, an Imperial machine gunner slowly raised his hand and offered a trembling, solemn salute to the grieving civilians below. Seeing this, the other gunners and tank commanders up and down the column raised their hands and saluted as well.

“Where were you?! Why are you only coming now?! If you had come yesterday, my husband would still be alive!” “Why did you abandon us?! My children are dead! Why did you leave us to die?!”

Seeing the soldiers saluting, the surviving civilians finally broke down. They rushed toward the slow-moving armored vehicles, weeping hysterically and hurling bitter, agonizing curses at the troops.

They weren’t cheering for their liberators; they were screaming at them for being too late. If the Imperial Army hadn’t retreated, their families wouldn’t have been slaughtered.

Hu Hao sat in the APC, returning the salute through the viewing slit. He kept his mouth tightly shut. He didn’t know what to say. Just like his soldiers, he had no defense against their accusations.

They were soldiers of the Empire. When the nation was invaded, the burden of defense fell entirely on their shoulders. Victory was their baseline duty. But when they suffered a defeat and surrendered territory, leaving the civilians to be massacred, they had absolutely no right to make excuses or demand sympathy when the survivors cursed them. This was the inescapable burden of wearing the uniform.

The agonizing screams and curses continued to wash over the armored column. Hu Hao slowly closed his eyes.

“Hao-ge… shouldn’t we tell them? Shouldn’t we tell them we just annihilated the Allied troops who murdered their families? We got revenge for them!” a radioman asked, tears streaming down his face as he listened to the wailing civilians outside.

“Anyone else can tell them, but we cannot. This is our burden to bear,” Hu Hao opened his eyes, his voice heavy.

“But… but we didn’t lose this province! We’ve been fighting and dying on the front lines too! Our Combat Zone took massive casualties! Why do we have to endure their hatred?! Why do we just have to sit here and take it?!” the radioman sobbed, the injustice of it breaking his composure.

“Listen to me. Even if they drag us out of these vehicles and beat us, we do not raise a hand to stop them. Do you understand? These people are our blood! They are our families! Every single soldier in this army came from a town just like this! We lost the war! We surrendered their homes! We left them to be slaughtered! Do they not have the absolute right to curse us?!” Hu Hao turned and glared at the young soldier.

“I know… I know…” the radioman nodded, biting his lip to stifle his sobs, turning his head away to hide his tears.

Hu Hao reached out and gently squeezed the young man’s shoulder.

“Our families don’t truly hate us,” Hu Hao said softly. “They curse us now because we failed them. They curse us because they are in agonizing pain. But they don’t truly hate us. When we finally stand our ground and fight back, when we truly need their support to win this war, they will give us everything they have. But right now? We deserve every single curse they throw at us.”

“Mmh. I understand, Hao-ge,” the radioman nodded, wiping his eyes.

“Hao-ge! The vanguard is approaching the northwest city limits! Once we clear the urban zone, do I have permission to fan out into an assault formation?!” Bo Gang’s voice crackled over the radio, tight with suppressed emotion.

“Deploy into assault formation the moment you clear the city limits! Push toward the military base at maximum speed!

The Allied garrison is likely still asleep. It will take them a few minutes to mobilize and reach the defensive perimeter once they hear our engines! The absolute second the base enters your maximum effective range, you open fire!

I don’t care if you only manage to kill a single Allied soldier with the opening volley! Just fire! Furthermore, patch me through to the general tank battalion frequency immediately!” Hu Hao ordered, grabbing his handset.

“Understood! Executing now!” Bo Gang replied sharply.

A minute later, the radioman turned to Hu Hao. “Hao-ge, you are live on the general armor net.”

“Good,” Hu Hao nodded, pressing the transmit button.

“Brothers, this is Division Commander Hu Hao. Directly ahead of us is the Imperial military base, currently occupied by a full Allied Regiment.

I demand that you push your engines to the absolute limit and annihilate them as quickly as possible!

Listen to me! Right now, our fathers, our mothers, and our families are standing in the streets behind us, watching us! You heard their curses! You heard their agony! We will not allow our families to curse us ever again!

Annihilate them! Get revenge for our families! Get revenge for our blood!” Hu Hao roared into the radio, his voice echoing with absolute, unwavering resolve.

“ANNIHILATE THEM! REVENGE!” the tank crews roared back from within their steel beasts, their voices perfectly synchronized across the entire armored column.