166: Chapter 166 Shadow Blade Locks the Throat, The All-Out Offensive Under the Crimson Dawn

"Master, what about public opinion..."

"Public opinion?" Zhang Cheng sneered. "Only the victors have the right to define public opinion. Once we take Naypyidaw and capture Min Aung Hlaing alive, we'll expose all his dirty tactics—then, the whole world will know who the real criminal is."

He stood up, walked to the window, and looked at the city in the south, its lights sparse in the night.

"As for the insults now... let them talk."

"Once my tanks roll into the Presidential Palace, they will change their tune."

At 3:00 AM, the Shadow Blade special forces began their operation. Twelve teams, six members each, infiltrated the urban area of Naypyidaw from different directions. Their mission was clear: decapitate the Myanmar Army's high-ranking officers, disrupt the command system, and rescue the held civilians.

At 4:00 AM, the eastern and western flanking forces set out quietly. They were to bypass the front of the city, cut off all roads and railways, and turn Naypyidaw into an isolated city.

At 5:00 AM, the artillery positions began their final ammunition preparations. At dawn, the final assault was about to begin.

Yet Min Aung Hlaing still did not know that his little tricks had not only failed to stop Zhang Cheng but had instead enraged this tiger.

The blood-red dawn of Naypyidaw was about to arrive.

This time, there would be no more pauses.

Until one side completely collapsed.

At 5:30 AM, in Naypyidaw, the sky was between dark and light.

In the industrial zone in the north of the city, on the third floor of a partially collapsed garment factory, Night Owl, commander of the Shadow Blade unit, lay prone by the window like a statue. Through the pale green field of view of his AN/PVS-31 night vision goggles, the entire street was in full view.

Three hundred meters away, the remnants of the Myanmar Army's 77th Division were frantically constructing barricades—sandbags, old cars, and even furniture were piled haphazardly at the intersection, behind which were two old-fashioned PKM general-purpose machine guns and dozens of panicked soldiers.

"Team A in position. Target: intersection machine gun position, two men, equipped with one RPG-7."

"Team B in position. There is a sniper on the roof of the three-story building on the left, one heat signature."

"Team C has infiltrated the underground pipe network, 80 meters from the target building."

Calm reports from the various teams came through the earpiece. Night Owl adjusted his throat mic: "Attention all, the final assault begins in five minutes. Team A is responsible for clearing the intersection, Team B will suppress the high ground, and Team C will storm the target building. Remember, we need the communications hub intact. If equipment can be moved, take it; if it cannot, destroy the storage units."

"Understood."

The target building was the Myanmar Army's core communications station in the northern district of Naypyidaw—an inconspicuous six-story office building, but with three levels of reinforced fortifications underground. Inside, there were not only switches and servers, but more importantly, a complete battlefield command data link terminal. Taking this place was equivalent to gouging out the eyes and ears of Min Aung Hlaing in the northern city defense zone.

Night Owl glanced at his luminous watch: 5:33 AM.

Almost simultaneously, dull explosions came from the east and west of the city—that was the Lightning and Hurricane brigades cutting off the roads and railway lines. Immediately after, deafening artillery fire erupted from the due north; the Titan division's final assault had begun.

"Move out."

As the order was given, the twelve Shadow Blade teams acted like twelve scalpels, simultaneously cutting into the key nodes of Naypyidaw's defense system.

At the intersection, two members of Team A fired simultaneously from the third-floor windows of buildings on both sides. With two soft "pfft" sounds from suppressed sniper rifles, two bloody flowers burst on the helmets of the Myanmar Army machine gunners. Before the assistant gunner could react, a 40mm grenade flew from the street corner and landed precisely behind the sandbags—"Boom!"

Severed limbs flew into the air, and the barricade fell silent instantly.

On the roof, the crosshairs of the Team B sniper's scope were locked steadily on the head of the Myanmar Army sniper. But he did not fire; instead, he pressed a remote control—a palm-sized micro-drone flew silently behind the target, extended two electrodes, and with a soft "zzzt" sound, a high-voltage shock caused the target to collapse, convulsing all over. Capturing alive was more valuable than killing; interrogation could dig out more intelligence.

Underground, Team C encountered trouble.

"There are booby traps in the pipe, tripwire-activated, at least three," the point man reported in a low voice after scanning with a mine detector.

"Detour or clear the mines?"

"No time." The captain checked his watch. "Use the 'Scavenger'."

A fist-sized tracked robot was placed into the pipe. It crawled under the booby trap, extended its robotic arm to cut the tripwire, and then used its body to pin down the firing mechanism—this was a standard sacrifice tactic: one robot for one mine.

"Bang! Bang! Bang!"

Three muffled sounds, and the robots were blown into fragments, but the path was opened.

The six members of Team C passed through quickly, pushed open a rusted iron gate, and entered the second underground level of the communications station. It was brightly lit, but empty—the Myanmar Army garrison was all upstairs; they hadn't expected anyone to crawl in from the sewer.

"The server room is in Zone B-3, this way."

The six advanced in a tactical formation, blowing up doors directly when encountered and using EMP guns to disable cameras. Thirty seconds later, they stormed into the core server room.

Inside, there were three Myanmar Army technicians, scrambling to destroy data. Seeing fully armed special forces rush in, one of them instinctively reached for their gun—

"Bang! Bang!"

Non-lethal electric shock rounds hit their chests, and the three collapsed to the ground, convulsing.

"Secure the scene. Number 1 and 2, copy the data. Number 3 and 4, keep watch. Number 5, come with me to cut the backup power."

Professional, calm, efficient. Two minutes later, all server data had been completely copied, the backup power was destroyed, and all communication equipment in the building was offline.

When Night Owl received the report, his mouth curled into a rare smile: "Well done. Retreat according to plan; we will rendezvous at Assembly Point 7."

Almost at the same time, the other eleven key nodes also fell one after another—artillery command posts, division-level headquarters, ammunition depots, fuel storage points... The Shadow Blade unit roamed the city like ghosts, specifically targeting the nerve centers of the Myanmar Army.

And all of this was still unknown to Min Aung Hlaing in the underground command center of the Presidential Palace.

At 6:00 AM, the sky was just beginning to brighten.

To the due north of Naypyidaw, on the outskirts of National Unity Square, Zhao Yuxun, commander of the Titan division, stood in the command vehicle, looking at the final reconnaissance footage sent back by the drone. The ruins of those twelve buildings around the square were still smoking, but after a night of clearing by the engineers, the main passages had been opened.

"All regiments, report status."

"1st Regiment in position, forty M1A2s, fully loaded with ammunition."

"2nd Regiment in position, thirty-five strykers, infantry have completed boarding."

"3rd Regiment in position, artillery battalion's twenty-four self-propelled howitzers, target coordinates set."

"4th Regiment (Engineers) report: main roads have been cleared, armored forces can pass."

Zhao Yuxun nodded and pressed the division-wide communication key: "Brothers, ahead is the Presidential Palace. Min Aung Hlaing and his last troops are there. If we break in, Myanmar is ours. If we don't..."