The First Order

Chapter 438 - The deputy commander makes a run for it

Chapter 438 The deputy commander makes a run for it

In the Zong Consortium’s headquarters, the general sitting at the end of the conference table had a grim expression on his face. However, this was not due to Zong Han’s death, but because Zong Wu actually disobeyed his orders and pulled his 131st Brigade out from Mt. Wuchuan!

The soldiers of the 131st Brigade were the trusted troops of Zong Wu. As they had undergone training in Stronghold 149 for several years, their allegiance lay with Zong Wu and not the consortium.

In the past, no one bothered about him over that. But after this time, the patriarch of the Zong Consortium would probably have to deal with him. However, that would have to wait until the war was over.

Although the Zong Consortium had not been united all along, they still maintained the same goals. At the very least, no one dared to break the status quo like now. Zong Wu was actually using the military influence that he had to openly defy his battle orders. Instead of guarding the front, he decided that he wanted to capture the troops from Fortress 178.

If it continued like this, the morale of the Zong Consortium would plummet!

Instantly, the generals in the headquarters fell silent. No one knew what the others were thinking

Actually, the matter of Zong Wu transferring his assets was initially kept secret. But there was no such thing as a perfect secret, so everyone already knew about it.

was

“We’ll now move on to discussing the situation affecting the stability of our rear lines.” Zong Ying, the commander of the frontline forces, said, “Does anyone have any

opinions?”

Everyone had assumed this was just a company of soldiers that likely consisted of a supernatural being and a sniper. Later on, it felt like there might have been more than one company involved. But up until then, no one felt that a single unit could be enough to affect the entire war.

But all of that had changed today. The appearance of that steam locomotive meant that this small group of soldiers had great mobility, and not even the reconnaissance battalion could catch up to them in the wilderness.

Thus, this small unit from Fortress 178 had suddenly become a huge threat because no one knew what exactly they would do next.

The main issue was that Ren Xiaosu and the Razor Sharp Company did not have any clear objectives of what they wanted to achieve. They would spontaneously start a battle if they felt confident of winning. If they did not think that they could win, they would just run away. No matter what actions they took, the results were all that mattered...

They operated by the motto: Even we don’t know what we want to achieve!

This unpredictability proved to be very fatal in the war. The Zong Consortium could no longer sit idly by as the enemy troops messed around in their territory!

Zong Ying, the commander of the frontline forces, wore a dark look. He never expected that he would have to worry over a small company when he was in charge of over a 100,000 troops!

Someone spoked up, “I also think that we have to get rid of this unit in the rear. However, hasn’t Zong Wu already taken his 131st Brigade to handle them? Isn’t a single brigade enough? He’s also leading a mechanized brigade that’s well-equipped, so just let him deal with them.... There’s no way we can call him back now anyway.”

“That’s not enough.” Zong Ying said, “Attach two supernatural beings to his brigade.”

Next to him, a general who was in charge of managing the supernatural beings nodded and said, “Alright, but we only have a total of five supernatural beings. If we lose any of them, that could affect our subsequent plans.”

Zong Ying looked at him coldly. “Now is not the time to consider the future. I want those troops from Fortress 178 to die in our Zong Consortium’s territory. Also, there’s no need to appoint a new commander for the 1237th Regiment anymore. Just have the deputy take over as the acting commander.”

Being appointed the acting commander was a good thing. If one did not make any mistakes in that duration, the appointment would likely be made permanent as a result.

But at this moment, a staff officer said, “I’ve just received news that the deputy commander has run away.”

Zong Ying ws confused.

The simple-minded Razor Sharp Company did not know how huge of a chain reaction they had set off. This series of events even managed to affect the main forces of Fortress 178.

At this moment, Zhang Jinglin was being briefed on the sitrep. The key point of the report was that the Zong Consortium’s 131st Brigade had suddenly retreated from the front line and abandoned their position entirely.

This was extremely odd. In fact, the Zong Consortium’s 131st Brigade was causing a lot of trouble for Fortress 178 on the front lines. That mechanized unit was extremely difficult to deal with.

Hu Xingzhi, who was the commander of Fortress 178’s armored brigade, frowned and said, “It’s very out of character for them to suddenly abandon their position entirely. They retreated just like that while we were still shelling them. In the end, we were only shelling an empty space. But the good thing is that we’ve already captured that position, so it’ll save us a lot of trouble.”

“Do y’all think that this might be a scheme by the Zong Consortium?” Zhou Yinglong mumbled. “They did blow up all of Shichuan Village, after all, so they had better not have buried something destructive in the position we just captured!”

Hu Xingzhi shook his head. “I thought the same as you at the beginning, so I ordered our troops to immediately carry out checks after seizing the position. We found no problems at

all.”

“That’s weird...”

“Not only that,” Wang Fengyuan, the director of the intelligence agency, said from beside them, “every one of you should know that our Fortress 178 was quite late to the intelligence gathering game. However, we’ve got a pretty good network spread through the Zong Consortium. I’ve received updates via radio that the Zong Consortium has also moved their recon battalion back to the rear. However, our intelligence agent is still quite low-ranking, so we don’t know exactly what is happening over there.”

“Also, the Zong Consortium’s supply lines have suddenly changed, so that could somehow be related to this. Originally, they were transporting their supplies from Stronghold 144, but they have temporarily switched to using the backup supplies at Stronghold 145.”

“It’s the Razor Sharp Company,” Zhang Jinglin said.

As soon as Zhang Jinglin spoke, the entire headquarters quieted. Zhang Jinglin said calmly, “I think the Razor Sharp Company might be causing quite a bit of trouble for the Zong Consortium in their rear. That’s why they had to deploy their recon battalion and 131st Brigade back, to deal with the Razor Sharp Company.”

Zhou Yinglong cautiously asked, “Commander, are you serious? There’s only a hundred-some men in the Razor Sharp Company. How could they possibly kick up such a huge fuss? I know those bastards very well. They’re not capable of something like that.”

“Ren Xiaosu’s in the Razor Sharp Company now.” Zhang Jinglin said, “With him around, there’s definitely such a possibility. Otherwise, it’d be very difficult to explain why the Zong Consortium is acting so strangely. Moreover, for a unit like the recon battalion to be moved back to the rear, they must be fighting a very targeted battle. Apart from the Razor Sharp Company, would the Zong Consortium have any other enemies at their rear?”

“I don’t think so,” Zhou Yinglong answered.

Everyone knew the Razor Sharp Company were the only Fortress 178 troops who were currently behind Zong Consortium lines. It was just that everyone had a feeling that they would not trouble the enemy so badly. As such, they found the idea a little unbelievable.

But after eliminating all of the possible scenarios, the Razor Sharp Company’s presence behind enemy lines was still something they could not deny.

“No matter how they did it, and no matter what they’re doing now,” Zhang Jinglin looked at the commanders around him and said, “we have to pressure the Zong Consortium even more on the front lines now. We can’t let them deploy more troops back to deal with the Razor Sharp Company any further, so we’ll have to press even harder in order to help the Razor Sharp Company in the rear. After this, we’re going to implement a more detailed battle plan.”

“Understood.” Everyone nodded.

But the commanders of Fortress 178 were all very curious as to what the Razor Sharp Company had done behind Zong Consortium lines.

The troops from both sides were still at the stage of testing each other’s capabilities at the front line of Mt. Wuchuan. But a series of dominoes that had been toppled by the Razor Sharp Company brought the tempo of the war to a more intense level.

Meanwhile, the Razor Sharp Company that was the cause of all these happenings was currently hiding in the mountains and eating roasted potatoes.