Following Xiao Quan's order, every single artillery piece dedicated to the defense of Jinhe City opened fire simultaneously. The massive barrage began at maximum range and began a devastating rolling advance toward the city limits.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The sudden, apocalyptic bombardment caught the Allied forces completely off guard. Why were the defending forces unleashing such a massive barrage now, after the fighting had already stopped and night was falling?
"Damn it! Move! Everyone into the city! Run!" Ketonli roared, watching the wall of explosions advancing rapidly toward his position.
"Order all units outside the perimeter to fall back into the city immediately! Run for your lives!" Ketonli screamed.
"Yes, sir!" his staff officers yelled back over the deafening roar of the approaching artillery.
"Transmit the orders and let's go! Get into the city! Damn you, Hu Hao!" Ketonli cursed furiously.
The moment the Eastern Spirit artillery opened fire, he understood exactly what was happening. Hu Hao knew they were preparing to retreat! This bombardment was designed to cut off their escape routes. If his troops didn't seek shelter within the city's concrete ruins immediately, they would be annihilated in the open fields.
Ketonli knew that fighting in the city would also result in horrific casualties, but it was their only chance at survival. It all depended on whether his men could outrun the creeping barrage.
"Commander, get in the vehicle! Hurry!" the commander of Ketonli's personal guard detachment shouted, pulling the armored command vehicle up.
"Transmit the final orders and run!" Ketonli yelled to the staff officers still furiously working the radios.
They had established their temporary command post in a small, unfortified village just outside Jinhe City. There were no subterranean bunkers or fortified shelters here; they were sitting ducks.
Ketonli and several senior staff officers piled into the command vehicle, which immediately tore off toward the city limits.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The rolling barrage was advancing incredibly fast. Hu Hao's intent was clear: he was going to systematically obliterate every square inch of the staging area outside the city.
"Commander, what is going on?! How do they have so much artillery?! This looks like the firepower of at least two full artillery divisions!" a terrified senior staff officer yelled over the roar of the engine.
"What do you think is going on?! He wants to annihilate us! He's trapping us here! Damn it, we walked right into a massive trap! Hu Hao has a terrifying amount of artillery! Where the hell did he get so many guns?!
"Kelly's reports indicated he faced two artillery divisions in Yonghe City! Now we're facing at least two divisions here! Just how massive is his artillery corps?!" Ketonli cursed, his face pale.
He constantly glanced back through the armored viewport. Illuminated by the brilliant flashes of high-explosive shells, he saw soldiers and vehicles being hurled into the air. Dozens of supply trucks had taken direct hits and were either burning fiercely or exploding in massive secondary detonations. Witnessing the carnage, Ketonli knew his corps was in critical danger.
But he couldn't understand why Hu Hao had waited until now to launch the bombardment. If Hu Hao had unleashed this barrage the moment the 7th Corps arrived and began digging trenches, their casualties would have been absolute. Why wait?
"Commander, our casualties are going to be catastrophic! The troops staged outside the city are primarily infantry, and the torrential rain has turned the dry fields into impassable mud swamps! The trucks are bogged down, and the men can't run fast enough in this sludge! What do we do?!" another staff officer screamed, staring out the viewport in horror.
Before the rain, staging the vehicles in the dry fields hadn't been an issue; the hard-packed earth was as solid as asphalt. But the torrential downpour had instantly transformed the fields into a quagmire. Vehicles trying to maneuver off-road were hopelessly stuck.
There was only one paved highway leading from their staging area into Jinhe City, and every surviving vehicle and soldier was desperately trying to funnel onto it.
"Commander! The Chief of Staff is on the line!" an officer shouted, shoving a radio handset toward Ketonli.
"What is it?! Has your vehicle caught up?!" Ketonli demanded.
"I'm not far behind you! What the hell is happening?! Weren't we retreating?! Why are we charging back into the city?! And how does Hu Hao have so much artillery?! Why are they firing now?!" Janlis screamed over the radio, panic thick in his voice.
"Why do you think?! He saw right through us! A clean retreat is impossible now! Hu Hao intends to annihilate us here! With a barrage like this, running into the open plains is suicide! Our casualties will be horrific regardless, damn it! Only the gods know where he got so many guns!" Ketonli roared back, his heart bleeding for his dying men.
"Our artillery is attempting counter-battery fire, but it's useless! They're focusing entirely on our exposed infantry! Our men can't outrun the shells in this mud! Damn it, think of something!" Janlis pleaded desperately. He realized with mounting horror that there was absolutely nothing he could do but run.
"Think of something?! What is there to think about?! We have to survive long enough to get inside the city first! If we don't make it to the concrete, we're all dead anyway!" Ketonli screamed, slamming the receiver down.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The relentless thunder of the creeping barrage chased them down the highway.
Out in the mud-choked fields and along the congested road, countless soldiers had abandoned their bogged-down vehicles and were sprinting toward the city on foot. Those who couldn't keep up simply dove into the mud and prayed to whatever gods they believed in. Their lives were no longer in their own hands; they belonged to the artillerymen of the Eastern Spirit Empire. The apocalyptic bombardment continued without pause.
Hu Hao sat calmly in his command center, watching the slaughter unfold on the monitors.
"Hao-ge, based on the flashes from the explosions, the 7th Corps is fleeing directly into our occupied sectors! They've abandoned the retreat!" a staff officer reported.
"With a barrage like that, how could they possibly retreat? Do they want to die in the mud?" Hu Hao replied evenly.
"Once the bombardment ends, will they attempt to retreat again?" another officer asked.
"Look at those burning wrecks. Those are their ammunition and supply trucks. Without sufficient ammunition, even if they miraculously managed to escape into the plains, what good would it do? How would they survive?
"Furthermore, their commander wouldn't dare try it again. This bombardment, combined with their earlier assault, has undoubtedly inflicted massive casualties. A shattered remnant of a corps retreating to another city serves no strategic purpose.
"Their only viable option now is to dig in and survive. They have two hopes: survive until the rainy season ends, or pray for reinforcements. And reinforcements will come. The 7th Corps is the Imperial Guard of the Holy Ancient Empire; High Command won't dare let them be completely annihilated without attempting a rescue! Whether that rescue force can actually save them is another matter entirely!" Hu Hao smiled confidently.
"Mm. Hao-ge, this makes our job defending Jinhe City much easier!" a staff officer noted happily.
"It does, yes. It's a pity, really. They are a highly capable, elite force. If they hadn't tried to retreat, I wouldn't have resorted to such a blunt-force tactic; they would have been excellent live-fire training for our infantry. But since they tried to run, I had to pin them down here.
"The 7th Corps has been ravaging our lands for nearly two months. Every single soldier in that corps has the blood of our civilians on their hands. How could I possibly let them escape? If I let them run, how could I face the ghosts of our murdered people?" Hu Hao's voice hardened, a flicker of genuine regret in his eyes.
If the 7th Corps had stayed and fought, he wouldn't have subjected them to this indiscriminate slaughter.
"Damn it! Hurry! Get in here! We have bunkers! Move!"
Eastern Spirit officers within Jinhe City watched the apocalyptic bombardment illuminating the horizon. Seeing the desperate Allied soldiers sprinting toward their lines seeking shelter from the shells, they immediately began organizing the reception. They stood at the entrances of subterranean bunkers, waving the terrified enemy soldiers inside.
The Allied troops didn't hesitate. They threw down their weapons and dove into the bunkers, collapsing onto the concrete floors, gasping for air. They had been running for their lives; the creeping barrage had been mere meters behind them. Those who were too slow had been vaporized.
"Has anyone seen the Commander?! Has anyone seen General Ketonli?!" an Allied regimental commander shouted frantically. He had received orders from his Division Commander to secure the Corps Commander's vehicle and guide him to a fortified bunker immediately upon his arrival.
"No, sir! The Commander's vehicle is likely still behind us!" a soldier replied between gasps.
"Damn it all! What is happening?!" the Allied officers cursed in despair.
Night had fallen, the torrential rain was blinding, and the sudden, devastating Eastern Spirit bombardment had plunged their entire corps into absolute chaos.
Less than ten minutes later, Ketonli's armored command vehicle finally roared into the city limits, closely pursued by the creeping barrage. Eastern Spirit officers immediately flagged the vehicle down and guided Ketonli and his staff into a massive subterranean bunker.
The Eastern Spirit artillery, however, did not follow them into the city. Once the barrage reached the urban perimeter, the guns elevated and began a second sweep, rolling back over the devastated staging areas to obliterate any survivors.
"It's over... the troops we left outside... none of them will survive that," Ketonli whispered, leaning heavily against the damp concrete wall of the bunker, his eyes fixed on the distant, flashing horizon. All the strength seemed to drain from his body.
"Commander... what do we do now?" Janlis arrived shortly after, looking equally broken.
"What else can we do? We fight to the death here. We have no other choice. Hu Hao...
"...Hu Hao, what exactly are you playing at?
"Why didn't he unleash this barrage when we first arrived?! Why wait until we tried to retreat?! Does he want to fight us, or doesn't he?!" Ketonli screamed in frustration, his mind unable to process the seeming contradiction.
If Hu Hao's true objective had been the total annihilation of the 7th Corps, he should have launched this massive bombardment the moment they began digging trenches, followed immediately by an armored charge.
If he had done that, the 7th Corps would have been wiped out before they even fired a shot. There wouldn't have been any urban combat in Jinhe City at all!
"Order all surviving units to consolidate their defensive positions within the sectors we currently hold. Get the men rested and reorganized! Since Hu Hao wants a fight, I'll give him one! I refuse to believe my 7th Corps can't tear a chunk of flesh out of him before we go down!" Ketonli snarled, gritting his teeth in desperate defiance.
"Commander, please, calm down! We can still organize a tactical withdrawal! We can still escape!" Janlis pleaded, terrified by Ketonli's suicidal resolve.
"Retreat?! In your dreams! Hu Hao never intended to let us retreat! He intends to annihilate us right here! Have you seen his tank division deploy yet?! Have you seen his air cavalry?! He's playing a game of cat and mouse! And do you know what we are?! We are the damn mouse!" Ketonli roared, staring at Janlis with bloodshot eyes.
"What?! We... we truly can't retreat anymore?!" Janlis gasped, staring at his commander in absolute shock and horror.
(End of Chapter)