Chapter Ninety-Eight: The Special Forces Have Arrived

Very quickly, Wudu led twenty thousand troops in a rapid assault on the central camp where Feng Yucai was stationed. Feng Yucai, who had been examining the situation in the central camp and racking his brains for a response, immediately rushed to the front lines himself after receiving word of the enemy raid.

From what he could see, however, the enemy seemed to number only twenty thousand, which struck him as odd. Yet he could not at once discern their purpose, so he could only first order his troops to defend, not to pursue; once he had determined the enemy’s intent, he would decide the next move.

But the right camp, which lay closer to the main camp, saw the main camp come under attack, and its commander immediately issued the order:

"The main camp is in danger. All troops, move out at once to reinforce it!"

Thus the right camp commander led the ten thousand soldiers of the right camp straight toward the Liao-Gu forces assaulting the main camp. But when he had gone only halfway, drums suddenly thundered all around them, and a Liao-Gu commander led out forty thousand ambushed reinforcements. The reason there were only forty thousand here was that the other forty thousand had gone to the left camp.

The Liao-Gu commander looked at the ten thousand soldiers of the Great Prosperity right camp and said:

"You really know how to cooperate. You have not kept us waiting long at all. I, Wangu, will give you a quick death."

Wangu then ordered:

"Charge!"

At once, under Wangu’s leadership, the forty thousand Liao-Gu troops rushed toward the ten thousand right camp defenders trapped in their encirclement.

The right camp army, filled with grief and rage, resisted with all their might, but still could not turn the tide. After half an hour of desperate fighting, all ten thousand Great Prosperity soldiers of the right camp were annihilated, none surrendering.

Wangu was overjoyed at his victory. He personally severed the head of the right camp commander, wrapped it in cloth, and handed it to a guard, saying:

"Take this and report our victory to the supreme commander. Say that the right camp has been taken."

"Yes!"

The guard departed with the order.

Wangu then led the remaining twenty-seven thousand troops to the central camp. Yes, in the battle just now, Wangu had also lost more than ten thousand men. But since he had won, he did not care much, for the ten thousand he had just wiped out were the Imperial Guard of the Great Prosperity Kingdom, and thus considerably formidable in battle. He did not consider himself to have been at a disadvantage.

Yet Feng Yucai, personally directing the fighting in the central camp, could do nothing but watch the right camp, composed of Imperial Guards, be wiped out without being able to send aid. His heart ached as if bleeding, but there was nothing he could do. At that moment, he could only send couriers to order the left camp to hold its position and not come out for reinforcement.

As for Wangu, he no longer wished to wait. He sent a messenger to order the troops that had originally been assigned to ambush the left camp to attack it directly instead of lying in wait. Then, he personally led the more than twenty thousand men under his command, together with the twenty thousand who had already been attacking the central camp, in a full assault on the central camp.

Although Feng Yucai and his men resisted desperately, the disparity in strength was simply too great. He had led the thirty thousand troops of the central camp in battle until now, but fewer than twenty thousand remained.

At this point, however, the rain lessened somewhat, and the already incomplete obstruction to vision grew clearer still.

Just then, Zhang Desen and his special operations team finally reached a mountain near the battlefield and saw the fierce struggle taking place below.

Seeing the current situation, Li Longfang exclaimed:

"This is bad. The situation is very unfavorable for us!"

Zhang Desen said:

"They have already broken through the right camp, and it seems they have not yet used their full strength. Right now, it looks as though more of the enemy are merely resting and have not joined the fighting."

Zhao Chengming said angrily:

"They think they can get away with this? The Great Prosperity Kingdom is not so easy to bully. I will make that Wanlu Wudi pay the price."

Zhang Desen said:

"That will happen. But Zhao Chengming, your mission is to lead the second special operations squad to attack the enemy grain depot west of Wukang. After destroying it, immediately return here and await a full regrouping. Understood?"

"Yes!"

After Zhao Chengming accepted the mission, Zhang Desen turned to Zhou Yongli and said:

"Squad Three Commander Zhou Yongli."

Zhou Yongli answered:

"Here!"

Zhang Desen continued:

"Your mission is to lead the third special operations squad in carrying out sabotage everywhere except in Wukang and at the enemy grain depot. Make the enemy uneasy and suspicious. Once you see the battle at Wukang and the grain depot has ended, return here and regroup. Do you understand?"

"Yes!"

Then Zhang Desen turned to Li Longfang and said:

"Squad One Commander Li Longfang."

"Here!"

"Your mission is to follow me to Wukang, find Wanlu Wudi, and take his head. Understood?"

"Yes!"

At last, Zhang Desen said:

"Good. Move out!"

"Yes!"

Very quickly, the Flying Dragon Special Operations Team dispersed and began carrying out their respective missions. Zhang Desen, with Li Longfang and the rest of the first squad, advanced swiftly and covertly toward Wukang, the location of the Liao-Gu supreme commander’s tent.

While the special operations squads were obeying their orders and carrying out their tasks, inside the Liao-Gu command tent in Wukang, Wanlu Wudi, the grand marshal of the Liao-Gu Kingdom, was hosting a grand banquet with the other Liao-Gu generals who had come on campaign with him. Amid the music of strings and pipes, they ate and drank to excess while watching the dancers as though they had already won the war.

This was because not long before, a guard had just brought the severed head of a Great Prosperity Imperial Guard general on Wangu’s orders. It surprised and delighted Wanlu Wudi, for he had never imagined that Wangu, using only the forces at hand, could actually succeed in destroying one of the enemy’s right camps. Among the Liao-Gu generals, congratulations rang out to him:

"Congratulations, Marshal, on your swift success."

"Congratulations, Marshal, on another battlefield merit."

"Congratulations, Marshal, on crushing Great Prosperity and helping our Liao-Gu secure the southern frontier once more."

And so on.

Wanlu Wudi replied:

"How could this be my achievement alone? It is entirely thanks to the efforts of all the generals that we have come to this success."

The generals naturally continued to offer one congratulation after another. In the end, Wanlu Wudi said:

"There is no need to be so formal. Tonight is our early celebration banquet. Tomorrow, once everyone enters the Western Capital, you may burn, plunder, and slaughter to your hearts' content for three days. You must know, the Western Capital is a very prosperous place. When all of this is over, I will certainly speak well of you before His Majesty and ensure that everyone receives a reward."

"Thank you, Marshal!"

The generals answered excitedly.

Wanlu Wudi then added:

"However, gentlemen, I have heard that the Strange-Garbed Hero of the Great Prosperity Kingdom, the one who once defeated our Liao-Gu’s foremost warrior, Xiaoliba, has returned to the Western Capital today. So no matter where he is now, if you see him, you must capture him alive. I want to have a good talk with him once more."

The generals gladly agreed.

What they did not expect was that at that very moment, Zhang Desen had already brought Li Longfang and the first special operations squad to the west of Wukang, for according to the reconnaissance intelligence already in hand, the defenses on the western side were the thinnest.

They lay concealed behind some wild grass and observed, finding only three Liao-Gu soldiers on watch. Zhang Desen immediately signaled with his hand for three special operations members to creep forward and attack before those three sentries could react. The three sentries were dead before they even had time to understand what was happening.

Then Zhang Desen led the other special operations members forward, seized the entrance, and quickly occupied several houses in preparation for any unexpected developments.

After that, the special operations troops cleared out the sentries while occupying advantageous firing positions such as rooftops, ready to engage the enemy at any moment. Although Wukang was not as large as the one in Zhang Desen’s original universe, it still had some scale to it and was not difficult to control.

Soon, Zhang Desen and the others reached the entrance to the banquet hall where Wanlu Wudi had invited the generals, and upon seeing the several guards outside, Zhang Desen ordered his men to produce the special operations’ exclusive throwing needles. The guards were taken out, collapsing before they could even cry out.

Afterward, Zhang Desen ordered the special forces soldiers to fit their rifles with silencers and take up favorable firing positions. Just as they were about to rush in, an area of hillside on the right suddenly erupted in a massive explosion, followed by a great blaze. In no time, the fire devoured an entire military camp.

At the same time, the Liao-Gu grain depot west of Wukang also suddenly exploded and burst into flames. The fire swiftly swallowed the whole supply camp.

Seeing this, Zhang Desen understood that the second and third squads had already acted. Without hesitation, he ordered a rapid assault into the place where the Liao-Gu generals were feasting and drinking.

The Liao-Gu generals, who had been drinking in celebration, heard the explosions from afar and all sprang to their feet in alarm. At the same time, Wanlu Wudi immediately demanded:

"What happened? What is wrong with the grain camp on the right?"

Yet all the Liao-Gu generals looked at one another, none of them understanding what had occurred.

Before they could even grasp what was going on, a group of people burst into the banquet hall and opened fire on them with weapons they had never seen before.

What was more, these weapons were devastatingly powerful. Their armor and shields offered no protection at all, and when the weapons fired, there was scarcely any sound apart from objects dropping continuously to the floor.

Those people, of course, were Zhang Desen and his men. The Liao-Gu Kingdom’s hastily prepared celebration banquet instantly turned into a slaughterhouse, for none of the Liao-Gu people had ever seen such weapons and equipment, and having believed victory was already near, they had made no preparations. The situation immediately descended into utter chaos.

Some of the Liao-Gu generals drew their sabers and tried to rush forward in a fight to the death, but how could they possibly be a match for special forces troops? They were instantly shot through the head by Zhang Desen and the other special operations members.

At the same time, Zhang Desen and the others recognized Wanlu Wudi seated at the head of the hall, for before Zhang Desen’s expedition to the Southern Dian Kingdom, when he had killed Xiaoliba, the Liao-Gu Kingdom’s greatest warrior, it was this very Wanlu Wudi who had come to visit with Xiaoliba and the others.

Of course, Wanlu Wudi also recognized Zhang Desen, because although Zhang Desen and the special operations soldiers now had camouflage paint on their faces, the clothes Zhang Desen had worn when he defeated Xiaoliba were much like the modern camouflage uniforms of the special forces, even if they had been nighttime camo, and there were still many similarities.

Seeing his own generals falling one after another, Wanlu Wudi was consumed by rage. He immediately drew his saber and shouted at Zhang Desen:

"Zhang Desen, I know you. Since you have delivered yourself to my doorstep, do not expect to leave alive. Generals, seize this number-one warrior of the Great Prosperity Kingdom and you shall be richly rewarded!"

Seeing Wanlu Wudi draw his saber and prepare to command the others to resist, Zhang Desen could not help but let out a cold laugh. He said to Wanlu Wudi:

"Sorry, I have no time to play with you. Farewell, you fool, Wanlu Wudi!"

With that, he immediately raised his Type 95 assault rifle and shot Wanlu Wudi in the head. Before Wanlu Wudi could even react, he collapsed at once.

When the others saw Wanlu Wudi fall, their hearts shattered into even greater disorder. To save time, Zhang Desen and the others took out thermobaric grenades, pulled the pins, and hurled them toward the places where the remaining enemies were concentrated.

The tremendous force instantly wiped out even more of the enemy. After that, the remaining foes, including the singing and dancing women, were all eliminated as well. War was indeed merciless; Zhang Desen could not leave too many clues behind for the enemy to learn the extent of his strength, so he had to eliminate as many witnesses as possible.