After hanging up with Ketonli, Vostok felt a cold knot form in his stomach. He knew Ketonli's deduction was likely correct. Hu Hao was using the Allied forces to train his army. That perfectly explained why he hadn't completely annihilated the Mara 1st Corps in Yonghe City when he had the chance, instead allowing their reinforcements to arrive!
"Sending more reinforcements... if we send too few, Hu Hao just uses them as more whetstones. Sending a massive, overwhelming force is simply impossible right now. We cannot pull every single unit from the surrounding fronts and mass them at Late City. It's logistically impossible during the rainy season!" Vostok muttered, pacing his office.
He realized he needed to discuss this critical development with Chief of Staff Vitali. Although Vitali served under him, he was a General of the Mara Empire. The Mara Empire fielded the largest contingent within the Eastern Spirit Empire, and it was their 1st and 14th Corps currently bleeding in Yonghe City.
"Have the Chief of Staff report to my office immediately," Vostok ordered his secretary over the intercom.
He sat back down, his mind racing. Across all other fronts in the Central Region, offensive operations had largely ceased. The arrival of the rainy season necessitated a halt. It wasn't that fighting was physically impossible, but launching massive, corps-level offensives in the mud meant logistical support would inevitably collapse.
Meanwhile, Hu Hao sat in his command center, his eyes glued to the tactical feeds from Jinhe City.
"This is troublesome," Hu Hao muttered.
The staff officers nearby exchanged confused glances, unsure of what had prompted his concern.
"I truly didn't expect to encounter an opponent like this. Sigh," Hu Hao stood up and began pacing the room, his brow furrowed.
He sensed that the situation in Jinhe City was spiraling out of his control. The commander of the 7th Corps wasn't playing by the script. After their disastrous retreat was halted and they were forced into the city, they hadn't launched a desperate, chaotic counter-attack as Hu Hao had anticipated.
Instead, they immediately began organizing a rigid, static defense within their small foothold. Yes, the creeping barrage had inflicted massive casualties, but Hu Hao's goal wasn't to train his artillerymen; he needed to train his infantry! If the Allied forces refused to attack, his live-fire training plan was ruined.
Hu Hao paced with his hands clasped behind his back. The command staff watched him in tense silence.
"Order the artillery! Commence a rolling barrage on the urban sectors currently occupied by the Allied forces! Level every structure they are using for cover! I want those buildings reduced to rubble!" Hu Hao suddenly stopped and barked the order.
"Hao-ge? I thought you transferred tactical command of Jinhe City to Corps Commander Xiao Quan?" a staff officer asked, hesitant to bypass the established chain of command.
"I know I did. That was the plan. But the situation has changed drastically. Contact Xiao Quan immediately. Tell him the plan has changed: we are going to annihilate the 7th Corps!
"Order the artillery to bombard their positions continuously for thirty minutes. Pound them into the dust! Simultaneously, mobilize the tank division and coordinate a combined-arms infantry assault! We are going on the offensive!" Hu Hao commanded.
"Ah?! Hao-ge, if we launch a general offensive now, our casualties will be massive! The men haven't fully adapted to urban combat yet!" a senior staff officer protested, alarmed by the sudden shift in strategy.
"We don't have time! Annihilate them immediately! Execute the order!" Hu Hao snapped, leaving no room for argument.
"Yes, sir!" Though the staff officers didn't understand why Hu Hao was suddenly willing to accept heavy casualties to wipe out the 7th Corps, they immediately scrambled to relay the orders.
Within moments, Xiao Quan was demanding a direct line to Hu Hao.
"Hao-ge, what happened?! Why the sudden order for a general offensive?!" Xiao Quan asked urgently as soon as the connection was established.
"Our true objective has likely been exposed. If we don't act decisively, the Allied High Command will mobilize overwhelming force to crush us!" Hu Hao explained grimly.
"Exposed? Right now?" Xiao Quan asked, stunned.
"Right now," Hu Hao confirmed.
"But... but our troops aren't ready! The training—"
"I know!" Hu Hao interrupted. "But I have to annihilate the 7th Corps now to force the Allied High Command into a miscalculation!
"The 7th Corps Commander is incredibly sharp. I suspect he has deduced my true intent. Look at his deployment: he is organizing a static defense. Any other commander, trapped in a hostile city with dwindling forces, would launch a desperate breakout assault to survive until reinforcements arrive. But he isn't.
"He's gambling. He's gambling that I won't launch a massive infantry assault because my true goal is simply to use him for training. He believes I want to keep him alive as a sparring partner.
"Therefore, I must annihilate him. I must show him—and High Command—that I am absolutely ruthless and fully capable of offensive action. I need them to believe that my previous hesitation to attack wasn't because I wanted to train raw recruits, but because my forces weren't fully staged yet!
"I must send a clear message: I have a massive, fully operational army here, and I am highly aggressive. If I can convince them of that, they will believe my forces are permanently tied down defending Late City and pose no immediate threat to their offensives on other fronts!
"If I don't change their perception immediately, the Allied High Command will realize the existential threat we pose once fully trained. They will overcome the logistical nightmares of the rainy season and mass overwhelming force to crush us before we become unstoppable! They might simply surround the city, choke off our supplies, and wait for the dry season to annihilate us!
"We cannot let them realize we are essentially an army of raw recruits. And we cannot let them realize we are using them for training!
"If we don't act now, not only will the 7th Corps refuse to attack, but the Mara 1st and 14th Corps in Yonghe City will likely adopt the same static defensive posture, stalling us and waiting for overwhelming reinforcements!" Hu Hao rapidly laid out his complex strategic reasoning.
"Ah... Hao-ge, you mean we are launching this bloody offensive specifically to manipulate their strategic assessment of our capabilities?" Xiao Quan realized the sheer depth of Hu Hao's psychological warfare.
"Exactly. We must change their perception. If we fail, they will gladly pay a horrific price to destroy us now, because they will realize that an Eastern Spirit army forged in this crucible will eventually destroy them!" Hu Hao affirmed.
"Understood, Hao-ge! What are your specific tactical directives?" Xiao Quan asked, his resolve hardening.
"Let the artillery level the high-rises. Then, deploy the tank and armored regiments to spearhead the infantry assault. Maintain continuous artillery support, striking targets both inside and outside the city perimeter as needed.
"We must maintain absolute offensive momentum. Even if our casualties are high, we must annihilate them! We need time, Old Xiao. We need to buy time from the Allied High Command, and we're paying for it in blood!" Hu Hao commanded.
"Understood!" Xiao Quan hung up, his face grim.
The officers in Hu Hao's command center, having listened to the entire exchange, finally understood the dire necessity of the offensive. It was a desperate gambit to maintain the illusion of strength and secure the time they needed to actually become strong.
"We are still too weak. If we were truly powerful... if you commanders and our seven planned corps were fully trained and hardened... hmph! I wouldn't care if they sent three corps, or ten, or twenty! I'd devour them all! But we aren't ready. We desperately need time!" Hu Hao said softly, looking at his staff officers.
The officers bowed their heads in silent agreement, feeling the weight of their own inadequacies.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Over in Jinhe City, the Eastern Spirit artillery suddenly shifted its fire, raining high-explosive shells directly onto the urban sectors occupied by the Holy Ancient 7th Corps.
Massive concrete structures shuddered and collapsed under the relentless bombardment, sending lethal shrapnel and crushing debris flying in all directions.
"Damn it! Why is he bombing the city now?!" Ketonli screamed over the roar of collapsing buildings, his mind reeling. His previous, horrifying deduction—that Hu Hao wanted to preserve them for infantry training—was instantly shattered.
"What's happening?! I thought you said he wanted to fight us in close-quarters urban combat! I thought he needed us to train his infantry!" Janlis shouted, equally terrified and confused.
"Damn it all! Where did I miscalculate?! Where is the flaw in my logic?!" Ketonli clutched his head, his brilliant tactical mind collapsing into chaos. Every assumption he had made about Hu Hao seemed to be violently contradicted by the reality on the ground.
"Commander! Enemy forces are massing for a general offensive! Their tank divisions are mobilizing and advancing toward our perimeter! Furthermore, a portion of their artillery has shifted focus and is systematically obliterating our remaining artillery positions!" a staff officer sprinted into the bunker, covered in dust.
"Damn it! What is going on?!" Ketonli stared at Janlis in absolute shock.
"Could it be... could it be that his main forces only just arrived?! Perhaps he truly didn't have four infantry divisions here initially! He only had his artillery deployed in advance! The troops we fought earlier were just a delaying force, and his main reinforcements have finally arrived to launch the counter-offensive!" Janlis proposed a desperate, alternate theory.
"Impossible!" Ketonli shook his head vehemently.
"No, wait! Remember the intelligence flash from the Air Force right as we arrived?! They reported several independent tank regiments racing toward Jinhe City! He was waiting for his heavy armor to arrive! He only had infantry and artillery in the city; he held back until his tanks were in position to spearhead the assault!" Janlis grabbed Ketonli's arm, his eyes wide.
"What?!" Ketonli stared at him, the horrifying possibility taking root.
"We... we missed our window! When we first breached the perimeter, we should have pressed the attack relentlessly! We should have used our own artillery to suppress his guns, and sent our armor smashing through the city! They couldn't hold the first line because they didn't have the manpower! Our entire strategic assessment was wrong!" Janlis yelled, the realization crushing him.
"Impossible... how could I be so completely wrong?!" Ketonli whispered, refusing to accept that his brilliance had led them to ruin.
"Commander, it... it must be true. We misjudged everything. And now we are going to pay the price," Janlis slumped against the wall, utterly defeated.
(End of Chapter)