Homo Sapiens

Xiba, to the west of Tianzhu.

As old rivals who had been locked in a love-hate relationship with Tianzhu for decades, Xiba’s intelligence forces within Tianzhu learned of some of the details less than half an hour after Operation Mountain Torrent was initiated.

Now, twenty-four hours later, they had a basic grasp of what was happening inside Tianzhu.

Xiba.

Inside an underground facility in the capital, Yibao.

A square-faced man sat at the head of the table. After hearing the report from the head of the intelligence department, he shot to his feet, ecstatic.

”The Lord is still on our side! HAHAHA...”

”Great Khan, what are our next steps?” a general asked urgently.

Great Khan Xie gazed at a map of South Asia, his eyes sweeping from Assam to the Tianzhu mainland, then to Dongba, south of Assam. A ruthless glint appeared on his face.

”Mobilize our forces immediately. Prepare to enter the Ke District.”

”Isn’t that a bit inappropriate?” another man, an old fellow with glasses and a Big Beard, was hesitant.

But Great Khan Xie gritted his teeth and said, ”Of course I know that if we act now, we’ll have difficulty controlling the eastern Ke District. But we can draw Tianzhu’s main forces, preventing them from sending troops to Assam to suppress the rebellion.”

Evidently, this was an act of cutting off one’s nose to spite one’s face.

From a strategic perspective, however, Great Khan Xie’s behavior was understandable. Though he himself would not profit, Tianzhu would certainly be weakened.

The loss of the Seven States of Assam, combined with the emergence of an enemy on Tianzhu’s eastern flank, would effectively relieve the pressure on Xiba.

If they didn’t stir up trouble now, it would be too late once Tianzhu crushed the Assam rebellion.

The Xiba high command debated for over half an hour before finally agreeing to Great Khan Xie’s strategy.

That same day at noon.

Xiba deployed four Field Divisions, which entered the western Ke District directly, advancing on the eastern part of the district controlled by Tianzhu.

Meanwhile, along other parts of the border, Xiba’s troops were also making frequent movements, and fighter jets were being concentrated at border airfields.

...

”Bastards!” Dharma slammed his fist on the table in fury.

Evidently, Xiba’s blatant moves were quickly detected by Tianzhu’s intelligence agencies.

The hook-nosed old man in charge of military affairs was so furious he was practically steaming, but all he could do now was rage impotently.

After calming down, Dharma had no choice but to compromise. ”Have the troops in the Northern State and Central Province stand by. We’ll mobilize forces from the south.”

The hook-nosed old man looked like he wanted to say something but held his tongue. In the end, he just nodded. ”I understand.”

It wasn’t that Dharma didn’t know the consequences of this decision.

But right now, they couldn’t afford to gamble.

Having lost the vast majority of their air force, they had no choice but to redeploy all remaining fighter jets from their sole surviving southern airbase to the west to cope with the defensive pressure.

At the same time, the navy was ordered to station its carrier fleet in the key West Coast city of Mumbai.

Dharma had originally planned to quickly mobilize the army from the Northern State and other regions, send them to the Siliguri Corridor and Assam, and swiftly annihilate the rebels.

Now, however, he was forced to halt that plan and instead mobilize troops from the more distant south to head north as reinforcements.

Even traveling by train, it would take over a week at the very least.

What’s more, during the previous attack aimed at crippling Tianzhu, the Foreign Affairs Division had borrowed numerous technicians from the Hongsawaddy Branch. They had converted a portion of their captured MiG-21 and MiG-25 fighter jets into kamikaze drones.

They then used these kamikaze drones to launch surprise attacks on many of Tianzhu’s critical railway and highway bridges at major transportation hubs.

Mobilizing a modern army isn’t like the old days of relying on iron feet and iron shoulders.

With all the armored vehicles, tanks, self-propelled artillery, anti-aircraft guns, and various fuel and ammunition trucks, the mobilization speed was bound to be even slower. Tianzhu’s road conditions were poor to begin with, and now many important highway and railway bridges had been destroyed.

Under the current circumstances, transferring four Field Divisions from the south to the north would be impossible in less than half a month; it might even take a full month.

...

Fang Xinwu looked at the text message on his phone.

[Xinwu, I heard there’s fighting in Assam near Hongsawaddy and I’m a little worried about your safety. Call home when you’re free. By the way, your Second Uncle wants to ask you to buy a piece of jade for his daughter’s jewelry. If you find something suitable, send me a photo. Be careful.]

He put away his phone.

He glanced at a middle-aged man who was examining some jade, then looked out at the street. This was Homalin Town, one of Hongsawaddy’s jade mining areas and a border city.

The border was about 24 kilometers to the west. Across it lay Manipur State, one of the Seven States of Assam.

This was also one of the five highways connecting Hongsawaddy and the Seven States of Assam. Though they were all unimpressive rural roads, they were roads nonetheless.

As for whether there were other routes, Fang Xinwu certainly knew there were.

However, Hongsawaddy and the Seven States of Assam were separated by a mountain range and hilly terrain, coupled with dense tropical jungles and high-altitude deciduous forests. Many of these areas were uninhabited.

Perhaps there were some small trails in these mountains and forests, but they would be utterly impassable for cars, and even motorcycles would likely struggle.

Fang Xinwu had viewed a special-issue version of a ”navigation map.” On this high-definition map with a resolution of about 0.2 meters, he hadn’t found any other new roads.

Therefore, his mission this time was to observe three nearby port-of-entry towns: Li Xi Town, Homalin Town, and Xidang Town.

The other two port-of-entry towns, Warivago Town in northern Shwebo Province and Kyaukpyu Town in Qin State, were assigned to others.

That noon, to facilitate his observations, Fang Xinwu specifically chose a restaurant by the main road and had lunch with several jewelers from Xiangjiang.

From the fifth floor of the restaurant, he could see the small highway leading to the Seven States of Assam.

The highway was the same as ever, seemingly forgotten in a corner, looking out of place compared to Hongsawaddy’s new modern roads.

Just then, a fully-armed field unit hurried past on the road at the edge of town.

A portion of the soldiers and armored vehicles remained behind on an empty plot of land on the west side of town.

Fang Xinwu took one look and knew they were setting up anti-aircraft positions and constructing defensive emplacements.

Suddenly, there was a knock on the door of their private room.

The restaurant manager appeared, a look of apology on his face. ”My sincerest apologies, but due to potential risks on the border recently, Homalin Town will be implementing a temporary curfew and blackout starting today. If you gentlemen plan to stay in Homalin Town, please be aware of this notice.”

”Thank you for letting us know. We’ll be careful,” Fang Xinwu said with a smile and a nod.

Upon hearing this news, the jewelers also felt that it was too close to the border. They immediately made a decision: they would leave for Mandalay today.

To this, Fang Xinwu could only go with the flow.

After all, insisting on staying would draw too much attention.

Meanwhile, back in Fang Xinwu’s home country, they also re-analyzed the border region between Hongsawaddy and the Seven States of Assam using archived satellite imagery, but they found no useful information.

In truth, they only had suspicions; they hadn’t confirmed what role Hongsawaddy was playing in the matter.

After all, if such a massive fleet of drones and weapons had truly been funneled from Hongsawaddy into the Seven States of Assam, it surely would have left some trace.

But as of now, they had found nothing.

In fact, it wasn’t just them searching for the supply lines. Tianzhu and America were also looking for the transport routes into the Seven States of Assam.

But so far, their investigations had also come up empty.

Evidently, they were barking up the wrong tree, a fact that doomed their investigation to yield no valuable intelligence.

After all, Assam was fighting ”on its own.”