Homo Sapiens

Bandar, the commander of the Tianzhu Army’s 30th Division, put down the encrypted radio directive in his hand. A grim and uncertain expression appeared on his face.

The division’s chief of staff, Bill Hall, also recognized their perilous situation. ”Commander, we need to rendezvous with the 26th Division as soon as possible, then fall back to Siliguri City together.”

”Order your men to prepare for tomorrow’s offensive.”

”What?”

Bandar narrowed his eyes. ”Don’t tell the lower ranks about the logistics base and Bournia Airport. Otherwise, we’ll descend into chaos on our own before the rebels even make a move.”

Realizing the plan, Bill Hall nodded. ”I understand.”

Both men knew the Tianzhu Army’s characteristics all too well. The soldiers were fine when they had the upper hand, but as soon as the tide turned against them, they would never follow orders obediently.

Bandar’s strategy was now very simple: feign an attack while actually retreating to Siliguri City.

The next day, early in the morning.

Before the sky had fully brightened, the 30th Division set out, following the same route they had used for their advance, but in reverse.

Of course, the rank-and-file soldiers only knew that they were ”pursuing” another unit of the rebel army.

However, after marching just three kilometers, the 30th Division ran into big trouble.

The three armored vehicles at the vanguard were blown up, billowing thick smoke.

Bandar’s face changed when he heard the news. ”Didn’t we sweep for mines before? How can there still be so many?”

”It was probably enemy guerrilla squads. I’ll have the combat engineer battalion sweep for them now.” Bill Hall’s expression was just as grim.

About 14 kilometers to their south lay the middle course of the Brahmaputra River. The river there was extremely wide, averaging between 5.7 and 14 kilometers across.

Two Large Thunder Dragon Ground Effect Ships, which had been hidden beneath the river’s surface, suddenly emerged and deployed their 16-tube 240mm rocket launchers.

In an instant, 32 rockets soared into the air.

After firing the rockets, the Large Thunder Dragon Ground Effect Ships quickly submerged and cruised away underwater.

Inside the 30th Division’s radar-equipped armored vehicle, the radar operator saw the dense cluster of signals and immediately sounded the air raid alarm. Interceptor missiles were launched at the same time.

However, for rockets traveling at twice the speed of sound, a distance of 14 kilometers was a matter of just over twenty seconds.

The interceptor missiles only managed to take down three rockets. The remaining 29 slammed directly into the 30th Division’s vehicle convoy.

Fierce explosions left behind massive craters and scattered debris.

Bandar, desperately protected by his guards, managed to escape harm. But as he gazed upon the devastated convoy, his face was a mask of despair, beyond tears.

It was a complete catastrophe.

However, before he could even recover, swarms of drones appeared in the sky.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!…

The anti-aircraft battalion fought with all its might, but facing over a thousand small drones, they were still overwhelmed by despair and helplessness.

Under the relentless assault of the Assam armed forces, the four Tianzhu Field Divisions couldn’t even hold out for an hour before surrendering one after another.

News of the four Field Divisions surrendering to the Assam forces was quickly posted online.

Tianzhu and the rest of the world were instantly in an uproar.

Although the major world powers had already discovered Assam’s ”inland submarines” through satellite surveillance, the Tianzhu Army’s performance still left everyone deeply disappointed.

In the command center in Bournia City, Vichy was now pale as a sheet, sitting motionlessly in front of the sand table.

He had lost.

Tianzhu had lost.

The consequence of losing these four Field Divisions was that Tianzhu’s heartland, the Ganges Plain, would now be under severe threat from the Assam Rebel Army.

Their only way to turn defeat into victory now was to use nuclear weapons.

But Vichy knew very well that nuclear weapons had very little deterrent effect on the Assam Rebel Army. The enemy had built numerous underground facilities, all of which were extremely well-hidden.

Once nuclear weapons were used, it would mean there was no longer any possibility of de-escalation between the two sides.

And the unspoken agreement the Assam Rebel Army had to not attack civilians would be shattered in an instant.

Vichy sighed, then gave an order to Shah Abad: ”Have the front-line troops withdraw from the West Gate Defense Line. Fall back to the previous defensive line and hold it. All we can do now is defend.”

Shah Abad nodded dejectedly. ”I’ll have men start constructing the defensive line immediately.”

The tables had turned, and now they were the ones on the defensive.

「At the same time.」

Inside the underground nuclear bunker in Delhi.

Dharma listened to his subordinate’s report, his body trembling slightly. He roared in a low, furious voice:

”This is the army of Great Tianzhu? You worthless scum... Is screwing around all you’re good for? I’m going to die of anger!”

CRACK! Dharma furiously slammed his pen onto the map, pure rage coursing through his body.

”HUFF... HUFF... Tens of billions of US Dollars in funding every year, and where did it all go? You can’t even defeat a single rebel army! What’s the use of any of you?”

Everyone’s faces were flushed red with humiliation, but no one dared to speak up and refute him.

This disastrous defeat was simply too great a blow for Tianzhu.

After roaring for over ten minutes, Dharma was finally exhausted and mentally drained. He sat down and looked at everyone present.

”Give me your opinions. How should we respond to this?”

The officials looked at each other for a few minutes, at a loss for words.

A high-ranking official in charge of the economy stepped forward. ”If we continue to maintain this level of expenditure, our national treasury can only hold out for four months. Furthermore, there are signs of mass civilian exodus in the states near the Siliguri Corridor.”

The man was very clever in his speech. He didn’t offer a single opinion, merely stating the facts for everyone to hear, leaving it to Dharma and the various hawks to decide what to do.

An old man with a hooked nose, responsible for military affairs, had an uncertain expression. He truly wanted to fight to the death, but faced with the prospect of an empty treasury, he was at a loss.

In the past few days, Dharma had already sought loans from the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, the Asian Development Bank, and powers in Europe and America. However, the answers he received were all ambiguous evasions.

Evidently, many powers were happy to see Assam and Tianzhu split apart.

Whether it was a certain great power to the east or America, they all hoped to weaken Tianzhu and would naturally not lend it money to overcome this crisis.

As for Tianzhu’s good buddy Lucia, the little bit of money Lucia made from selling resources and arms wasn’t even enough to feed itself, so where would it find the money to lend to Tianzhu?

Dharma was caught in a dilemma.

If they agreed to a ceasefire now, the consequence was that they might never be able to take back Assam, which was absolutely unacceptable to Dharma.

But if they didn’t stop the war and kept fighting, it was highly likely that Xiba would turn its feint into a real attack.

At that point, it wouldn’t just be about Assam anymore; they might lose the Ke District in the northwest as well.

Once the topic was broached, the high-ranking Tianzhu officials present began to argue.

Overall, however, the vast majority were in favor of a ceasefire.

Seeing this, Dharma finally made a decision in his heart. ”We can have a ceasefire, and we can negotiate, but we absolutely cannot allow the negotiations to succeed.”

Hearing Dharma’s words, everyone immediately understood.

Dharma was clearly planning to stall for time, allowing Tianzhu to recover first before finding a way to deal with the Assam Rebel Army.

No one had any objections to this; after all, none of them wanted to lose Assam.

Soon after, once Tianzhu had reinforced its defenses, it put out feelers about holding ceasefire negotiations.

The whole world was somewhat surprised by Tianzhu’s capitulation.

But the Homo Sapiens Company was the one party that understood the situation perfectly. After all, thanks to the omnipresent ”Little Strong,” a word-for-word transcript of the conversation between Dharma and the others appeared in Chen Jianxiong’s hands.

Since Tianzhu wanted to play for time, the Homo Sapiens Company was happy to play along.

After all, as time went on, the Homo Sapiens Company’s power would advance by leaps and bounds, while it would be very difficult for Tianzhu to make any similar breakthroughs.

Time was on the Homo Sapiens Company’s side.