When soldiers were taken prisoners, all of their usable weapons would definitely be taken away as well. In other words, the Pyro Company soldiers were truly unarmed.
Meanwhile, the enemy they were facing was the expeditionary army who might not be defeatable even if they were armed.
At the beginning, these soldiers did not entirely resist capture. In the Pyro Company, there was nothing shameful about being held captive by the enemy. What they should do was to preserve their strength and wait for an opportunity to strike back.
Although their goal was to keep humanity’s flame alive in the Central Plains, it did not mean they had to fearlessly charge at the enemy and sacrifice themselves. If the expeditionary army used them for hard labor later, they would still have a good chance of making themselves useful again.
But after the Wang Consortium’s people told them what the expeditionary army intended to do, the Pyro Company soldiers realized they had no chance of fighting back anymore. If they remained alive, they would only cause trouble and casualties for their friendly forces. Furthermore, a large amount of ammo would be expended if their Central Plains compatriots had to kill the 3,000-odd of them when they got to Mt. Zuoyun.
Rather than becoming a burden, they might as well fight to their deaths.
Therefore, these 3,000-odd soldiers found an opportunity to fight back that very night. No one attempted to escape. If they had fled separately, they would only get caught by the expeditionary army and be killed effortlessly.
They came together to carry out an operation under the lead of a 3rd Division battalion commander acting as their highest-ranking officer. All they hoped was to have the best chance of killing some barbarians.
When one soldier could not defeat a barbarian in a one-on-one battle, they fought them with four to five people.
Although they did not have any firearms, they still tried to grab some weapons from the barbarians. Those who did not manage to do so even resorted to biting them with their teeth.
There was barely any hint of tragedy in Wang Run’s brief description of the battle. He only described it with a simple sentence. “All of them died on the battlefield.”
But everyone could feel how impactful those words were.
In war, there were always people who sought to emerge as heroes. However, these people never thought of wanting to be heroes themselves. They just wanted to do their part before they died.
After a long silence, P5092 asked, “What are their serial numbers?”
Wang Run shook his head and said, “There’s too many of them. It’s impossible to remember all of their serial numbers.”
P5092’s expression turned a little gloomy. Yes, those people died just like that without anyone remembering their serial numbers.
At this moment, Wang Run said, “But we know the battalion commander’s serial number was P31831. He seemed to be aware that you’ve joined the Northwestern troops, so he wanted our people to pass a message to you.”
“What did he say?” P5092 asked.
“He said that although he won’t have a chance to serve under you anymore, he didn’t disgrace you,” Wang Run said.
“I still remember when P31831 first joined the 3rd Division.” P5092 smiled and said, “At that time, he had just graduated from cadet school and directly became a platoon commander after he was posted over. However, as he was the youngest in the platoon, his soldiers always used to tease him by calling him ‘Little Platoon Commander.’”
“He gradually matured as a commander. I asked him why he joined the Pyro Company, and he told me he wanted to become a commander like me to fight for the survival of mankind in the Central Plains.” P5092 continued, “At that time, I even patted him on the shoulder and said laughingly that he was still young and the world was not that simple. Now it seems he’s fulfilled his dream after all.”
Even though P5092 was smiling, everyone could sense the bitterness within his smile.
P5092 said, “Regardless, this is definitely great news. It means we’ll be facing 3,000 fewer refugees at Mt. Zuoyun, so we’ll be able to save a lot of ammo.”
“It’s not only that,” Wang Run said. “When they attacked the expeditionary army, they created an opportunity for the other refugees to escape. From the intel supplied by our field agent, more than 3,000 refugees fled off into the wilderness tonight. The expeditionary army has already sent out their troops to capture them, but they definitely won’t be able to catch all of them.”
“So when the expeditionary army arrives at Mt. Zuoyun, we might only need to face about 3,000 to 4,000 refugees.” P5092 asked, “How about your guy? Has he escaped?”
Wang Yun shook his head. “He doesn’t intend to flee. He’s staying with the group so he can still relay back more information. We’ve also told him to retreat, but he insisted on staying behind.”
Everyone in the command post fell silent. If the field agent stayed in that group, it meant he would be driven to the battlefield at Mt. Zuoyun with the rest of the refugees by the expeditionary army. At that time, the 6th Combat Brigade would not recognize him at all. He would surely die under their gunfire.
If he wanted to escape, tonight was his last chance. If he did not escape tonight, he would definitely die.
This agent should also know the outcome, but he still chose to stay behind so he could relay information back at any time.
P5092 said, “It’s admirable that the Wang Consortium has such martyrs too.”
Wang Run said with a serious look, “Although our Wang Consortium walks a different path from your Pyro Company, and we might also be a little unscrupulous in the way we do things, you all should not underestimate us. The Central Plains will eventually be unified under our Wang Consortium, and everyone will understand the importance of it at that time.”
“I’ve always understood the importance of unification, but I just disagree with the way you all are doing it.” P5092 shook his head. “Alright, let’s stop discussing such things in the face of a great war. Whether the Wang Consortium can unify the Central Plains or not, we will debate that after this war. What we need to do now is not let down those who have died. Now that the situation has taken a turn, we can plan better countermeasures.”
“Explain?” Ren Xiaosu asked.
“Previously, I thought of planting explosives in advance to blow up those 10,000 refugees, but that would actually be a waste of explosives. After all, the bullets of our automatic rifles might not pose a threat to the expeditionary army, but buried explosives can. Therefore, I had wanted to prioritize using bullets against the refugees instead and leave the explosives for dealing with the barbarians.”
“But it’s different now. Under the circumstances where the number of refugees is not that many, burying a small amount of explosives is our best option. This way, the soldiers will not be left with a guilty conscience. I’m more inclined to maintain morale among the troops.” P5092 said, “And they won’t have to feel bad for the rest of their lives when they make it out of this war.”
This way, only the person who pressed the detonator would have to bear the guilt.
From the look of it, P5092 wanted to be that person.
Ren Xiaosu chuckled and said, “Since I’m already well-versed in detonating bombs, I’ll do it.”
P5092 looked seriously at Ren Xiaosu. “Future Commander, are you sure?”
Ren Xiaosu took a deep breath and continued saying with a laugh, “I’ve probably killed more people than you’ve commanded soldiers. Don’t worry, I’ll be fine.”
That night, Ren Xiaosu stood on the edge of the defensive position and looked up at the starry sky. Actually, if such a decision was only mentioned as empty talk or read as an anecdote of someone in the newspapers, one would not be able to personally experience the struggle of taking thousands of innocent lives.
All of a sudden, Zero came to Ren Xiaosu and asked, “Senior, there’s something I don’t quite understand tonight. Why did those soldiers suddenly launch a suicide attack against the expeditionary army?”
Ren Xiaosu turned to Zero and said with a smile, “Because they no longer had any chance of surviving, so they wanted to entrust their hopes to others.”
