The First Order

Chapter 444 The Zong Consortium’s plans

“Why do I feel like our attack on Stronghold 144 seems way too easy?” Ren Xiaosu asked puzzledly, “Could something go wrong? We had better be careful.”

More than half the granary was burning, but the armored brigade was still only making its way back from the north at this moment. By the time the armored brigade arrived back at the stronghold, the Razor Sharp Company would probably have already scooted off somewhere.

The Razor Sharp Company met with almost no resistance from the stronghold. Although it was quite chaotic inside the stronghold, that was mainly due to the residents panicking. Next to him, the deputy commander was at a loss for words when he heard what Ren Xiaosu said. ‘You call this easy? You’ve already killed three regimental commanders, while I, the second-in-command, have also fallen into your hands. So what do you mean by easy? Is that even something a human would say?’

As the granary burned, Ren Xiaosu realized that one-third of it was actually empty. He asked the deputy commander, “Have the grains been transported to the front line already?”

“No,” The deputy commander shook his head. “The generals bought most of it up before the war began using a number of different identities.”

“You mean they have to buy their own food when they go to war?” Ren Xiaosu was stunned. “No, they were planning to sell the grains to the residents once the war started. The higher-ups don’t actually know about this. The generals said that if the grains were sold to them first, they would make up for the reserves once the grain prices dropped back down, and no one would discover it. After all, the original battle plan did not require too much food.” The deputy regiment said, “At least, it wouldn’t all be used up.”

Oh well. It seemed that this time, Ren Xiaosu had inadvertently helped to cover up for the Zong Consortium’s generals who had secretly stashed away the grain reserves. With everything burned down, no one would know that a third of reserves here had gone missing.

However, Ren Xiaosu was unhappy that even though their attack on the granary had a huge impact on the war, it was definitely not enough to deal a fatal blow to the Zong Consortium. As their food reserves had already been spread out, the Zong Consortium would surely have a way to get back all those missing grains.

At this moment, all of the generals in the Zong Consortium’s headquarters looked very solemn. Zong Ying suddenly slammed his fountain pen onto the table. “What the hell is with that Zong Wu? We’ve already allowed him to lead his 131st Brigade to hunt down the enemy, and even sent two supernatural beings to back him up, so how did he allow the enemy to set fire to Stronghold 144 right under their noses? And what are the garrison troops at Stronghold 144 doing? Can’t they even organize a defense? How could they let the enemy burn down the granary just like that!” Zong Ying was about to explode. “I want their regimental commander executed—”

Before he could finish speaking, Zong Ying suddenly remembered the 1237th Regiment did not currently have a commander, and even the second-in-command had run away too. He did not even have someone to pin the blame on to blow off steam!

A general said, “Commander, since things have come to this point, we have to think of a countermeasure.”

“Gather all the grain reserves from the various strongholds, and the grains that you people are holding, I want them handed over as well. This matter determines the success or downfall of the consortium, so stop with your selfish little schemes! Did you think I didn’t know what you’ve done?” Zong Ying sneered.

He meant to gather all of the grain reserves of the entire Zong Consortium to send to the front line, including whatever grains he could collect from the residents of the various strongholds.

There were also a lot of grainstuffs that were in the possession of the generals.

When they learned that a war was imminent, many of the generals had wantonly started purchasing an increased amount of grains and hoarded them. They knew that when war broke out, food prices would increase.

As half a kilogram of rice was only worth about a yuan or so, most people wondered how something like that could make anyone any money. But during a war, the price of rice could go up to five, or even ten yuan.

At that time, the stronghold residents would not want to starve to death, right? Therefore, whatever money they had would eventually fall into the hands of the generals who hoarded the grains.

Who wouldn’t want to earn ten times the profits? They were looking to rip off the strongholds’ residents!

Suddenly, one of the generals said, “What should we do with the troops from Fortress 178? We can’t just let them continue to make trouble in our rear, right?” Zong Ying also felt very helpless about this. He knew that if the Razor Sharp Company were allowed to continue making trouble as they wished, he would most likely end up with no time to focus on fighting the war. But now that they knew what the Razor Sharp Company was capable of, they felt there was almost nothing they could do about them. The blitzkrieg was the coordinated use of aircraft, tanks, artillery, armored and mechanized infantry, and other types of armed forces to create an overwhelming local superiority in combat power to break through the enemy’s defenses. This allowed the forces to quickly get past any tactical maneuvering to encircle the enemy in order to eliminate them.

Now that there were no longer aircraft, they could only rely on their tanks for such tactics.

If a tank moving at 60 kilometers per hour on the battlefield could be called a blitzkrieg, what would the opponent who could travel at 120 kilometers per hour be? Comparing the speed of their tanks to the steam locomotive, it was just as good as a tractor. How could they possibly chase it! “We’ll implement our contingency plans in advance.” Zong Ying said coldly, “If Fortress 178 thinks they can win the war just like that, they’re underestimating our Zong Consortium! I’m gonna massacre Fortress 178!” On that night, multiple pontoon bridges in Blackstone River remained still in its choppy waters. This was the supply line Fortress 178 relied on for their march to the front line, and it was also a lifeline for them. Hence, these structures were bound to be built very sturdily. Every day, the Engineering Battalion repaired and maintenanced them.

But in the dark of night, more than a 100 speedboats started approaching the pontoon bridges on Blackstone River in a frenzy. At first, these speedboats were being rowed with oars by the soldiers in them. This way, they were able to quietly approach the bridges until they were about ten kilometers away.

But once they got to within ten kilometers of the pontoon bridges, the engines of the speedboats roared to life as they flew towards them. On these speedboats were also large quantities of TNT!

When Fortress 178’s defending troops near Blackstone River discovered this, it was already too late.They fired their heavy machine guns and tried to intercept the speedboats, but there were too many of them. Furthermore, it seemed like all of the enemy troops were determined to fight to the death and did not mind sacrificing themselves.

Explosions could be heard everywhere. Before the speedboats crashed into the pontoon bridges, the Zong Consortium soldiers on the speedboats activated the detonators attached to the TNT.

The instant the detonators ignited, the TNT went off and broke all the pontoon bridges in half.

As the Zong Consortium soldiers recklessly crashed into the pontoon bridges and detonated the explosives, the bridge Fortress 178 relied on to cross the river broke apart and drifted downstream.

In an instant, Fortress 178’s troops were split between both sides of the river again. The Fortress 178 troops on the northern shore could no longer retreat, while their supply lines had been cut off.

The commanders on the northern shore all turned to Zhang Jinglin. “Commander, what should we do? We’re—”

Zhang Jinglin, who was at the military base, frowned as he looked into the distance at the inferno on the river. “Get ready for a last stand!”

However, the plans of the Zong Consortium were still not finished. A group of the Zong Consortium’s elite troops had already set off from the Alxa League behind them, plunging into the Gobi Desert like a sharp knife, as they headed straight for Fortress 178 in the Northwest!