Chapter 0287 – Collapse
[Book 2: The Sea of Zombies]
Luo Tianyi considered a while, before a resolute gleam flashed in his eyes and he nodded in agreement: “Fine!!”
If one does not fend for himself, the sky will come falling down*. Luo Tianyi was not willing to lose his capital here. Without his troops, his post as Commander Luo would be a joke,
After coming to a decision, Luo Tianyi and Su Dongming quickly boarded their vehicles and left the command centre, under the protection of their own experts, they went to the positions of their troops.
Soon, the entire battalions of Luo Tianyi and Su Dongming had left their posts, leaving behind some weapons, and were escaping directly towards SY County.
“Division Commander!! Luo Tianyi’s troops and Su Dongming’s troops had deserted!!!”
Shen Hongyang, the other 2 heads and Yue Zhong had just come back to the command centre when one of the officers ran up to Shen Hongyang and reported the news gravely.
“What!!!” Hearing the news, Shen Hongyang, Liu Huifeng, Qian Weimin and Yue Zhong all turned pale.
Luo Tianyi and Su Dongming had left without a word at this critical juncture, this caused their defence earlier agreed upon to have 2 large holes. The horde could easily breach the defence through the holes and surround the other troops from behind.
Even the strategic point of Tiger’s Mouth Gorge that Yue Zhong was controlling would lose its effectiveness. The zombies could go through the gaps left by Luo Tianyi and Su Dongming to cut around the gorge and attack Yue Zhong’s troops.
“I curse your entire families, Luo Tianyi and Su Dongming!!” The usually calm Liu Huifeng was currently so agitated that he cursed out loud. He was beyond infuriated as the deserting actions from the other 2 heads would definitely cause the loss of the war.
Qian Weimin’s eyes were currently bloodshot as well, and he scolded out loud: “Fuck!! Div. Commander Shen, I recommend that we announce that Luo Tianyi and Su Dongming as traitors, and to activate the assault helicopters to wipe the deserters out!!”
The remaining 7 assault helicopters were under the command of Shen Hongyang, if they were deployed, they could easily annihilate Luo Tianyi and Su Dongming.
Yue Zhong also walked forward furiously and said, “Commander Shen!! Please send out your helicopters to make an example of the deserters!! Also, make the announcement that Luo Tianyi and Su Dongming are traitors!!!”
This was absolute treason!! At the most critical point of the battle, Luo Tianyi and Su Dongming had backstabbed them ruthlessly. Yue Zhong could not help but feel infuriated as well.
Shen Hongyang lowered his head in thought before replying: “No!! Luo Tianyi and Su Dongming have deserted, that’s true, but their subordinates are innocent! They are all good soldiers, and have done SY County a lot of merit. I can’t give this order!!”
Hearing Shen Hongyang’s words, Yue Zhong felt extremely disappointed! Shen Hongyang was caring for the soldiers under the 2 traitors, and weren’t willing to label them as traitors and deserters, nor did he want to punish them. While his intentions were good, under these circumstances, it was basically cowardice and indecisiveness.
“Division Commander!!! The horde is attacking!!!” One of the officers called out.
Those zombies had retreated earlier to regroup, and await more of the their comrades to join in, once they were gathered, they launched their assault again.
Yue Zhong glanced coldly at Shen Hongyang: “Commander Shen, since you’re not willing to give the command, I can’t force you. Goodbye.”
After that, Yue Zhong immediately strided out. He did not want to stay here any longer to be buried with Shen Hongyang. The moment Luo Tianyi and Su Dongming deserted their posts, the battle was lost. He could only retreat at the fastest speed, bringing his troops along with me. Talking anymore words with Shen Hongyang was wasting time.
Shen Hongyang’s face changed, as he called out agitatedly, “Yue Zhong!! Come back!! Yue Zhong, come back this instant!!!”
If Yue Zhong were to leave, the situation will become more dire.
Yue Zhong ignored Shen Hongyang, and in a few breaths he got on top of Greenie, flying towards his troops.
“Heed my command! All battalions are to retreat immediately and make your way back to SY County! Special Combat Forces maintain your resistance from where you guys are! Xu Zhengang, you organize the retreat!” Sitting aboard Greenie, Yue Zhong talked through the walkie-talkie, giving a slew of orders to his subordinates.
“Commander! What happened?” Xu Zhengang who was in the midst of commanding, immediately asked Yue Zhong. He could detect that there was something wrong from the urgent tone of Yue Zhong.
Yue Zhong gritted his teeth and said, “Those bastards Luo Tianyi and Su Dongming have deserted!! We can’t hold the horde back anymore!”
“I understand! I will complete your orders!” Xu Zhengang replied and immediately started organizing the retreat!!
The 1st Battalion which had the least equipment to worry about were the first to retreat. They started making their way back towards SY County in huge steps, everyone of them holding a can of Type 2 Mutant Meat. They ate while walking, and the precious Type 2 Mutant Meat helped recover their vitality.
The various equipments and setups on the hills were torn down and packed into the vehicles, and the 2nd, 3rd and 4th Battalions started making their way back. Only the Special Combat Forces remained behind to defend the Gorge, buying some time for the rest of the battalions.
Yue Zhong transmitted an order to Guo Quan: “Guo Quan! Take all the troops now and conquer the riverbank bridge!! Transfer all the survivors to the other side. That is the only path of retreat for our troops, you must definitely protect it!!”
Guo Quan replied loudly: “Yes! Commander Yue!!”
After Yue Zhong left, Liu Huifeng and Qian Weimin both stared coldly at Shen Hongyang, not even bothering about him anymore, before they both left the command centre and gave the urgent commands to their subordinates to abandon their posts and prepare to evacuate. As long as there were people remaining, there would be a chance back at SY County.
The moment the troops of Liu Huifeng and Qian Weimin left their posts, the entire defence line collapsed, and the zombies made their advance through the various posts.
Shen Hongyang had immediately deployed the tanks and IFVs to fire crazily at the zombies in an attempt to kill them.
However, the moment the soldiers on the ground received news of the retreat of the other 5 powers, Shen Hongyang’s troops all felt despair. Some of the companies started to lose their will to fight, and ran for their lives.
Zombies had routed around from the gap left by Luo Tianyi and were attacking Shen Hongyang’s soldiers, surrounding them on both sides.
With their retreat cut off, the troops started to lose composure, and a huge number of the soldiers abandoned their positions, throwing their equipment and running into the night.
The S1s and S2s amongst the horde were the most terrifying killers, they chased down those soldiers who tried to run, killing them effortlessly.
There were many deaths happening every single second. The defence line collapsed and the soldiers lost all composure and will to fight, throwing down their equipment. All sorts of ammo belts, heavy machine guns, mortars, rocket launchers, were all left behind. They only had the thought of lightening their weights so as to escape faster.
One officer ran up to Shen Hongyang’s side and pleaded bitterly, “Division Commander!! Please evacuate!! We can’t hold on any longer!! If we don’t, the zombies will reach here soon!!”
Shen Hongyang looked at the chaos and death on the screen, and looked crestfallen: “Was I wrong? Where was I wrong? How did it become like this??”
Shen Hongyang looked at his elite soldiers being bitten to death, and felt pain in his heart. These were the hope for mankind.
Due to Liu Huifeng and Qian Weimin pulling their troops at the first moment, Shen Hongyang’s troops were encircled by the zombies, and a huge number of them were dying out, in fact, only Shen Xue’s elite First Battalion was left fending for themselves.
The officer could not care less about ranks and hierarchy anymore as he shouted at Shen Hongyang, “Division Commander!! If you still don’t act, Miss Shen Xue’s unit is gonna be annihilated!!”
“Let the First Battalion retreat!! Send the armored vehicles to cover them!!” Shen Hongyang seemed to have been jolted to his senses after that shout and quickly issued the orders.
Upon Shen Hongyang’s activation, the tanks and IFVS formed an assault line, and charged into the horde, crushing any zombies in their paths.
The 7 assault helicopters were also activated by Shen Hongyang, and followed the armored vehicles to rescue the First Battalion that was surrounded by zombies.
Facing the sea of zombies, other than Shen Xue’s unit, the other troops had abandoned their equipment, and ran like crazy back towards SY County.
Defeat!! It was a complete and utter defeat!!
On the road, there were many soldiers running back, having thrown their armor and equipment. The moment they were caught by the S-Type zombies, they would die.
Those S2s had speed that vastly outstripped the ordinary zombies, very soon, they had caught up with the retreating troops of Liu Huifeng and Qian Weimin, launching a ruthless assault upon them.
The troops of Qian Weimin and Liu Huifeng had their Enhancers step out to take care of the S2s that were chasing up, however, under the relentless assault, numerous soldiers from the different battalions were all defeated and killed.
Yue Zhong had rushed to Tiger’s Mouth Gorge at the first moment. He wanted to join his Special Forces in fighting back the zombies, buying more time for his own subordinates to retreat farther.
Without the support from the other positions, Tiger’s Mouth Gorge would definitely be overrun, they could at most withstand for a little longer, which in turn meant that the advance of the zombie horde would be slowed down as well.
By the time Yue Zhong arrived at Tiger’s Mouth Gorge, the battle had reached an extreme intensity. The endless waves of zombies were constantly advancing towards the gorge.
At the Tiger’s Mouth Gorge, there were a few heavy machine guns being fired rapidly, and with the hail of bullets, the zombies were being slayed by the numbers as well.
With the continuous advance and death of the countless number of zombies, a 4m high mountain of corpses soon piled up at the mouth of the valley.