The Jiepeng Soldiers in charge of escorting them wore cold sneers; for once, they couldn’t even be bothered to interfere.

In their eyes, these two thousand prisoners of war were already a pile of corpses. Pigs that have entered the slaughterhouse can squeal as impassioned as they like— in the butcher’s eyes, it’s nothing but a ridiculous performance in their death throes. One stroke of the knife, and all that’s left is leg-twitching struggle.

Through the Mecha’s long-range viewer, staring at the slowly moving column of prisoners on the wide valley plain, Zhongshan Yi’s face remained expressionless.

An unidentified unit had, in less than three hours, completely wiped out three full-strength Armored Camps under his command, and he not only had no idea where this unit was moving, he didn’t even know who they were! Right when Admiral Magi was ordering him that if he lost another company or even a platoon he’d face field execution on the spot, 2nd Regiment 1st Battalion had just been slaughtered to the last man!

Thirteen years in the army, step by step from a Corporal to his current position, into the elite training program, only one step away from Major General. This pursuit had originally been nothing more than a sheep-herding kind of pastime, but who could have thought that in the end it would become the greatest failure of his entire life! Thinking about it, it was laughable!

The corner of Zhongshan Yi’s mouth curled into a faint smile. He reached out and pushed the control stick; the Mecha switched to combat mode and suddenly sprang to its feet.

As his Mecha moved, on the flattened hilltop, the three hundred silent Spirit Cats encircling the area all stood up at the same time. Their movements were neat and uniform, as if they were all a single entity.

Zhongshan Yi didn’t need to look back to know exactly how his men were moving.

This was the 172nd Armored Division’s most elite Special Forces Camp, personally shaped by Zhongshan Yi himself! The 172nd wasn’t a trump-card division like the 59th, but this Special Forces company was absolutely not inferior to the best Mech Knights of the 59th! Every single person here was a Level 7 Mech Knight or higher! Among them were thirty Level 8s and two Level 9s!

Down below, the prisoners of war crawled forward like a long snake, slowly shifting.

A cold gleam flashed in Zhongshan Yi’s eyes.

This was his only chance. To set this trap, he had already ordered the remaining three battalions of 1st and 2nd Regiments to slow their pace. At the same time, of the three battalions of 3rd Group, aside from one battalion holding the front-line defense of Height 415, the other two had split by company and dispersed across the five-hundred–square–kilometer mountain area.

The two thousand prisoners, and that mouthwatering gap in the defenses, were the bait.

If that Ghost Troop didn’t show, fine; the moment they did, these three hundred Mecha together with the 3rd Group 3rd Battalion left in place would lock them down. He needed only half an hour, and the surrounding units would close in at high speed and bury them here for good!

Pulling up the battle plan from the computer, Zhongshan Yi once again scrutinized this final strand of life-saving straw.

The six Armored Camps still remaining in the 172nd Division were already in position. The two regiments of the 59th Division were also converging on this area. For the enemy to devour his Armored Camps so quickly, their strength should be at least two battalions but not more than a regiment, and they wouldn’t be operating in one mass; otherwise, they’d have been discovered long ago.

Calculated on the basis of a full regiment, his two battalions were enough to pin them down for more than half an hour. The other battalions were also in positions where they could mutually support one another. Even if this Ghost Troop didn’t come to rescue the prisoners and tried instead to mount an outer-ring raid, they’d still fall into the trap!

"Division commander, sir, what if the enemy doesn’t come?" On the private channel, his adjutant’s voice sounded. He was Zhongshan Yi’s adjutant and also a retainer of the Zhongshan Family. His future and his life were already bound to Zhongshan Yi’s.

The corner of Zhongshan Yi’s mouth tugged into a cold smile. "They might indeed not come here... If I were them, I’d choose to hit 1st Battalion of 1st Regiment at the farthest outer edge first. With their ambush methods, that’s a delicious dessert. If they can finish that fight in under half an hour, then we’ll just have to watch it happen."

The adjutant fell silent.

He knew that, besides the two thousand prisoners being bait, 1st Battalion of 1st Regiment forty kilometers to the rear was also bait.

Zhongshan Yi didn’t care how many men he sacrificed. As long as he could lure that Ghost Troop out, it was worth it. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞

While the enemy was attacking 1st Battalion, the other battalions of the 172nd would rapidly close in on that position and, together with the 59th Division behind 1st Battalion, form a pocket. Even if 1st Battalion was eaten, the enemy themselves wouldn’t get away!

So what exactly would the enemy choose to do?!

"Division commander!" On the area channel, the voice of the electronic-warfare squad leader came through: "We’ve detected a jamming signal, range three kilometers... They’re out, they’re out!"

With the squad leader’s urgent shout, a moment later a small hill not far from the prisoner column erupted as an armored force pounced down toward the escorting Mecha like a tiger charging out of the mountains. Beams from Energy Cannons poured down the hillside like water, the violent explosions so dense it was like a hundred thousand heavy lasers firing at once.

The prisoner column instantly fell into chaos. The soldiers and Mecha guarding them had no time to herd the captives; they could only frantically pull inward, forming a defensive cluster. In that single instant, two or three escort Mecha had already been blown apart.

"Spirit Cats... why are those our Mecha?!" the adjutant shouted in shock.

"Those are 2nd Battalion’s Mecha from 1st Regiment," Zhongshan Yi said calmly, eyes bright as he watched the dozens of Spirit Cats charging out from the hilltop. He stayed where he was, with no intention of making a move.

"Division commander, we..." the adjutant couldn’t help reminding him.

"Boom!" With a thunderous bang, under the escort unit’s feeble counterfire, a Spirit Cat that had stumbled and rolled its way down the hill exploded into a roaring fireball. The violent blast, wrapped in dust, rose into a small, pitch-black mushroom cloud.

"Do you actually believe these Mecha are the enemy’s main force?" Zhongshan Yi’s voice was hard and cold as iron.

The adjutant understood at once.

Charging down from the hill were only a few dozen Mecha. And they were all Jiepeng Mecha. Clearly, this was bait the enemy had thrown out! Even if this one company managed to free the prisoners, there was no way they’d break through the encirclement. But if Zhongshan Yi activated his deployment now, the enemy might smell danger— or perhaps they had other plans!

Down in the valley the fighting was fierce; on the hilltop, it remained deathly still.

"Division commander!" the electronic-warfare squad leader reported, "1st Battalion of 1st Regiment reports they are under heavy electronic attack."

Zhongshan Yi smiled. At last, he’d heard the news he’d been waiting for.

He turned his Mecha and walked toward the other side of the hill, pointing at a platoon leader in the Special Forces Camp as he moved. "You get a hundred men. You have ten minutes. Clean up everyone down there and then regroup with us."

"Yes, division commander, sir!" the platoon leader shouted.

Zhongshan Yi strode off. "Remember, including the prisoners—leave no one, not even a dog or a chicken!"

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. Yesterday was my wife’s birthday, heh, went out to have some fun last night.

.(To be continued. To find out what happens next, please log on to www.qidian.com. There are more Chapters there—support the author, support legitimate reading!)