87: Chapter 87 The Enemy at the Gates! Wan Hong's Nightmare and the Massacre Before Dawn

The early morning of the seventh day, outside Wan Hong.

Four o'clock in the morning, the time when people are in their deepest sleep and vigilance is at its lowest.

As the capital of South Wa, Wan Hong was usually bustling with nightlife, but ever since the main force was dispatched to the front lines by the river, the city had seemed somewhat empty.

In an outer guard post, two Wa State recruits were wrapped in military greatcoats, huddled in a sheltered corner, dozing off.

To them, the fighting was happening hundreds of kilometers away at the river; this was the rear, and it was absolutely safe.

"Hey, do you think the front line can hold? I heard from the wounded soldiers who came back that the enemy's artillery fire is like rain." one soldier asked groggily, yawning continuously.

"They have to hold, we have American missiles, what's there to be afraid of." The other muttered, turning over and tightening his coat. "Go to sleep. If the sky falls, the tall guys will hold it up. We're just here to watch the gate."

Suddenly, a strange sound reached their ears.

"Rustle, rustle, rustle..."

It sounded like wind blowing through leaves, or perhaps the sound of countless feet stepping on grass—dense yet faint, appearing exceptionally eerie in the silence before dawn.

The soldier rubbed his eyes and peered out suspiciously: "What's that sound? Rats? Or are those wild dogs back to dig through the trash again?"

The next second, a large hand wearing a black tactical glove suddenly reached out from the darkness and clamped over his mouth. The cold touch made him instantly sober, but it was already too late. A sharp combat knife silently sliced across his throat, severing his vocal cords and trachea.

"Gurgle..."

The soldier's eyes widened, staring in terror at the mud-covered, wild-looking soldier in black before him. The opponent's eyes were as cold as stone, devoid of any emotional fluctuation.

Almost at the same time, more than a dozen guard posts on the outskirts of Wan Hong suffered the same fate. The Death Soldiers of the Special Operations Squadron used the most primitive and efficient methods to clear away all eyes and ears.

Following that, the mountain forest trembled.

Twelve thousand Death Soldiers, who had been holding back and enduring in the jungle for seven days and seven nights, finally erupted like a long-accumulated volcano! They poured down from the mountains like a black flood that had breached a dam, rushing toward the completely unsuspecting city!

"Attack begins!" Old K stood on the mountaintop and coldly issued the order for the massacre.

"Whoosh—whoosh—whoosh—!"

Several individual thermobaric missiles dragged tails of flame as they precisely drilled into the substation and communication center outside Wan Hong.

"Boom! Boom!"

The violent explosions instantly tore through the silence of dawn. Huge fireballs soared into the sky; the substation was reduced to ruins, and the lights of the entire city of Wan Hong flickered a few times before being completely extinguished. Half of the communication center building was also blown down, and all telephone lines and network signals were instantly cut off.

The city plunged into dead silence and darkness, with only the fires caused by the explosions flickering, illuminating countless terrified faces.

"Enemy attack! Enemy attack!"

The shrill alarm finally sounded, but it seemed so weak and powerless amidst the explosions and shouts.

The garrison inside the city was completely bewildered. Most of them were newly recruited soldiers or second-line troops who had been weeded out. They rushed out of their barracks in their underwear, and before they could even touch their guns, they saw the streets filled with dark masses of figures.

"This... where did this army come from? Did they fall from the sky?!" A regimental commander of the garrison screamed in terror, but before he could organize a defense, he was blown to pieces by an RPG rocket.

Answering him was a dense rain of bullets.

The mountain infantry of the Death God Legion were like tigers descending from the mountains, moving in groups of three, providing covering fire for each other, and advancing rapidly through the streets using skilled tactical maneuvers. They didn't bother entangling with the garrison; if they encountered an obstacle, they simply blasted it with a rocket and continued their charge over the ruins.

Their goal was clear—occupy the government building, control the armory, and blockade the main traffic arteries!

"Ta-ta-ta-ta—"

The tongues of fire from the machine guns wove into a net in the darkness, harvesting the garrison troops who were running around like headless flies. This was an unequal massacre, a dimensionality-reduction strike by a group of professional killers against a mob.

Inside the "Little Palace" at the Wan Hong General Headquarters.

Bao Youxiang was jolted awake by the massive explosions. He didn't even have time to put on his shoes; he rushed to the window barefoot and tore open the curtains.

What met his eyes was the entire city filled with fire and smoke, along with the earth-shaking sounds of battle.

"What's going on?! Is there a mutiny?!" He roared hysterically, his voice trembling.

The door was kicked open, and Xiao Mingliang stumbled in, his face covered in dust and blood, one lens of his glasses shattered, looking utterly disheveled: "Com... Commander! It's over! It's all over! Zhang Cheng... Zhang Cheng's troops have entered the city!"

"Bullshit!" Bao Youxiang slapped him, sending Xiao Mingliang staggering. "Zhang Cheng's main force is on the other side of the river! Can they fly?! Where did these ghost soldiers pop out from?!"

"From the east! They came down from the mountains in the east!" Xiao Mingliang said with a miserable face, his voice filled with despair. "We were deceived! The river was just a feint! Their main force crossed the Shan State Plateau! They've already reached the outskirts of the headquarters!"

"What?!" Bao Youxiang felt the world go black, and he nearly fainted.

Crossed the Shan State Plateau? That's hundreds of kilometers of no-man's-land! Cliffs, precipices, poisonous snakes, and wild beasts—even the locals wouldn't dare to walk there! Are these people made of iron?! How did they bring over ten thousand people?!

"Quick! Mobilize troops! Get the river defense forces to return for reinforcements! Hurry!" Bao Youxiang grabbed Xiao Mingliang by the collar and shook him frantically, as if clinging to the last straw.

"The phone lines are cut! The radio is being jammed! I can't reach them! And even if we could, help from afar can't save us from the immediate fire!" Xiao Mingliang shouted in despair.

Just then, a mortar shell landed in the courtyard. With a "boom," it blew away the carved mahogany gate, and the blast wave shattered all the window glass.

"For the Sovereign! Charge!"

Earth-shattering battle cries came from outside; it was the unique charging slogan of the Death God Legion. By the sound of it, they had already charged to the floor below.

Bao Youxiang slumped to the floor, watching the firelight getting closer and closer outside the window. He knew his nightmare had truly arrived. The lair he had spent his entire life building had been gutted before dawn.

"Run! Run quickly!"

Bao Youxiang suddenly jumped up, a glimmer of desperate survival madness flashing in his eyes.

"To the basement! There's a secret passage there! It leads straight out of the city! As long as the green hills remain, there's no need to worry about firewood!"