Translator: Legge
It was very bad news that the Pyro Company might get defeated on the battlefield. When P5092 found out about this, he did not feel sad at all. Instead, he started making adjustments to the 6th Combat Brigade’s tactics.
Ren Xiaosu said curiously, “You’ve been with the Pyro Company for ten years at least. Once the Pyro Company gets defeated, I’m afraid many people will die. The Pyro Company can’t survive either, since the Wang Consortium will definitely find a way to annex them after the war.”
The Kong Consortium had already ceased to exist. If the Pyro Company disappeared as well, the entire region north of Luoyang City would fall into the hands of the Wang Consortium, leaving only the Zhou Consortium to the south.
Initially, Ren Xiaosu thought the Wang Consortium would take a long time to unify the Central Plains. After all, the various organizations were not to be trifled with. But now that the expeditionary army had come down to attack the South, they had helped the Wang Consortium greatly.
P5092 looked at Ren Xiaosu and said, “I have ten years of memories with the Pyro Company. I joined the military when I was 19 before leaving at the age of 29, so I do have feelings for them. But like I said before, feelings won’t change anything. What we need to do now is to survive this war and drive the expeditionary army back to the North!”
Then P5092 called over all the officers of the 6th Combat Brigade for a war meeting.
In the wee hours of the next day, a group of soldiers entered Mt. Zuoyun from another direction. Wang Yun’s subordinates informed the command post the moment the other party entered Mt. Zuoyun.
Ren Xiaosu, P5092, and the others were already waiting at the defensive position. When the other party arrived outside the defensive position, P5092 ordered a platoon to carry out an inspection.
The inspection was conducted very thoroughly this time. All of the Wang Consortium’s people had to turn in their weapons, and every box containing supplies was opened up for examination.
Ren Xiaosu asked, “Are you worried that the Wang Consortium will stab us in the back?”
“I’m not particularly worried about that.” P5092 said, “If anything were to happen to Mt. Zuoyun and the Pyro Company at the front, the Wang Consortium would be left in a difficult position by themselves. The Northwest Army losing a brigade would do nothing to affect the big picture, so the Wang Consortium has no reason to do that. I just don’t want to add such a huge security risk to our troops. If I knew you were so strong in combat when I let you read the newspaper back then, I would definitely have thought of a way to arrest you.”
Ren Xiaosu chuckled and said, “Then I wouldn’t have helped you out so much, and you wouldn’t have joined the Prosperous Northwest.”
“Yes, that’s right.” P5092 said, “But strategically, it’s not wrong to adopt a cautious attitude.”
“Why do you think the Wang Consortium suddenly changed their attitude? They even took the initiative to contact us and deliver the supplies,” Ren Xiaosu wondered. “I thought they didn’t care about the 6th Combat Brigade?”
“It’s because we’re at Mt. Zuoyun, and they’ve realized the importance of this position.” P5092 said, “You said the Wang Consortium’s AI assessed the Pyro Company as having a 71.13% chance of failure?”
“Yes, it was the AI’s assessment,” Ren Xiaosu said.
“Then they must have their eyes trained on this place from above.” P5092 said, “How else could they know our exact movements and assess the Pyro Company’s situation so accurately? But from what I know, the Wang Consortium doesn’t have any satellites of their own.”
However, the word “satellite” reminded Ren Xiaosu of something. Didn’t the Wang Consortium try to seize satellites during the Battle of Luoyang City?
Wait a minute, could the Wang Consortium have succeeded that time?
After the Battle of Luoyang City, Ren Xiaosu continued to pay attention to the developments there. However, he did not see any mention of the satellites being seized in Hope Media’s newspaper.
Ren Xiaosu looked up at the vast starry sky and suddenly felt like he had returned to Stronghold 61. He felt like he was constantly being watched.
He suddenly saw a huge silhouette flit across the sky. When Ren Xiaosu took a closer look, he realized it was a large hawk.
For some reason, Ren Xiaosu felt the hawk had just been observing the defensive position intently. However, he did not think too much of it. Perhaps it was the scent of blood here at Mt. Zuoyun that had attracted the birds in the sky.
P5092 said, “Since their AI can assess the situation, they must’ve judged there to be a change in the chances of winning after we moved to Mt. Zuoyun. When we were at Mt. Youyu, they probably concluded we were useless to them.”
When Zhang Xiaoman heard this, he said in embarrassment, “I was just waiting for Future Commander, wasn’t I?”
The Wang Consortium’s troops transporting the supplies had no intention of entering the defensive position. Most of them left quickly after unloading the supplies, leaving only seven of them behind.
P5092 ordered the soldiers to bring all the supplies into the defensive position. After those seven people entered the defensive position, one of them took a document out. “This is the list of supplies. The main items are the heavy machine guns and bullets, which we determined to be most helpful to you all. The rest of it are TNT and RPGs.”
Ren Xiaosu read the supply list and was surprised to find that the TNT accounted for half of the supplies. He thought to himself, ‘Could Lingling really have gained control of the Qinghe Group’s seven satellites?‘ Were they sent so much TNT because Lingling had seen that his most lethal attacks were ambushes involving planted TNT?
This was very possible.
But if Lingling had really gained control of those seven satellites, with its capabilities now, there would be no troops left on the land that could conceal their movements from it.
In the past, Ren Xiaosu had asked Qin Sheng, one of the Riders, about this. “Can the satellites in orbit take clear pictures of the ground?”
However, Qin Sheng said they definitely couldn’t take clear pictures of a person, although they could see their outlines.
“What about the food?” P5092 asked.
“The food supplies will be delivered tomorrow.” The person leading the other party was someone Ren Xiaosu knew. It was Wang Run, who went to Stronghold 31 with Ren Xiaosu. He looked at Ren Xiaosu. “It’s been a while.”
“What are y’all doing here at Mt. Zuoyun?” Ren Xiaosu asked, “Are you from the Wang Consortium’s intelligence agency?”
“Yes,” Wang Run said, “we came to Mt. Zuoyun as the Wang Consortium’s liaison to ensure that both sides can work more closely together. If there’s anything you need here at Mt. Zuoyun, you can request it from the Wang Consortium through me.”
“Alright, you’ve all been busy working the entire night, so hurry up and get some rest.” P5092 said with a smile, “Thank you for the supplies. I’ve already asked our men to prepare some tents and hot food for you.”
“Thank you.” Wang Run left with his men.
But when these people left, Ren Xiaosu realized a young soldier kept looking at him.
P5092 said, “Actually, they came here with a purpose. The Wang Consortium wants to guard against us.”
“Why are they guarding against us?” Ren Xiaosu asked.
“Because the Wang Consortium sabotaged a lot of people. They’re a little worried that others might do the same to them.” P5092 said, “If Mt. Zuoyun suddenly chooses to play a passive role in the battle and the Pyro Company gets defeated, the Wang Consortium will also be put in danger. So with Wang Run and his men hanging around, they’ll immediately know if we make any unusual moves.”
Ren Xiaosu lamented, “All y’all scheme too much, coming up with all these tricks rather than standing united to deal with the barbarians.”
