The Ultimate War Of The Apocalypse
Chapter 267 - 261: Chilled to the Bone

Chapter 267: Chapter 261: Chilled to the Bone

A blaze consumed all of the enemy’s courage.

But when you have a gun in hand and not many people in front of you, when deciding whether to surrender or resist, most people won’t have time to weigh the pros and cons, they will simply react instinctively.

Brave ones might instinctively open fire, while cowards might instinctively surrender.

If Liu Chunxiao were facing just one person, or a few people, the situation would be simpler; but Liu Chunxiao and Gao Yuan were blocking a command post, which was packed with at least a hundred people, including commanders and staff officers from a large group of rout soldiers.

So there would always be people who, out of instinct rather than bravery, would open fire.

After shouting "Surrender and you won’t be killed", Liu Chunxiao couldn’t actually wait for all the enemies to lay down their arms, as he saw someone already raising their gun towards him.

He had no choice but to pull the trigger again.

Another burst of flames shot out, instantly engulfing the enemies crowded in the narrow alley.

There were more chilling screams, and more people ablaze running chaotically.

Liu Chunxiao was reluctant to kill captives, but the problem was the people in front of him were not prisoners of war at all.

The flamethrower’s area of effect was too large, and the lethality it caused was too horrifying, but Liu Chunxiao had no choice but to keep pulling the trigger.

Finally, someone bellowed, "We surrender! We surrender!"

Gao Yuan didn’t understand, but Liu Chunxiao did, so he bellowed, "Drop your guns and come out!"

As Liu Chunxiao yelled in English, Gao Yuan finally realized one thing, which was that only a few in this unit couldn’t speak English.

Some emerged from the burning alley empty-handed, then desperately patted out the flames on their bodies.

Those lightly touched by stray sparks still had a chance to extinguish them, but those completely enveloped in flames had no chance of putting the fire out.

Li Jingang and his men arrived from the back, and after a few more gunshots, there were a series of shouts again.

Liu Chunxiao didn’t look back, he simply said calmly, "The enemy has surrendered. Mr. Jian and the others are coming from behind. I’ll watch them here. You go over right now!"

Gao Yuan sprinted into the alley.

Everyone had a look of terror; they had all thrown down their guns, or were kneeling with their guns raised above their heads in a standard surrender posture.

Gao Yuan saw Panxin waving a red flag.

They had finally joined up again. Panxin handed the flag to Gao Yuan, and as Gao Yuan took the flag, he noticed an elderly man in a general’s uniform staring intently at him.

Finally, the man in the general’s uniform pointed at Gao Yuan, and then he said something fraught with anger and grief.

"What did he say?"

Panxin looked at Gao Yuan and said, "He said this is a shameless ambush, the Sanitation Worker will ultimately prevail, and victory belongs to the great Sanitation Worker."

Gao Yuan was stunned; he didn’t know how to respond.

Of course, there was no need to respond; speaking even a single word to such a person felt demeaning.

"There are too many of them! We can’t handle so many prisoners. If they realize there are only six of us, it’ll be hard to maintain control of the situation!"

Panxin quickly whispered a couple of sentences to Gao Yuan, and of course, Gao Yuan was also aware of the current situation, so he whispered back, "What do we do, kill them all?"

Panxin replied somewhat bitterly, "We can’t kill them, are you kidding? With so many people, we can’t afford to kill captives!"

Indeed, not to mention whether or not it’s appropriate to kill captives, you also need to have the ability to do so.

Now, Gao Yuan and his men were only six in number, and the prisoners of war were roughly estimated to be around two hundred. Even though they had laid down their arms, picking them back up wouldn’t be difficult.

Unless there were many men who could fully control all the prisoners, only then would killing captives be possible. Currently, Gao Yuan and his team couldn’t even manage a simple search of the captives.

There were still many, many enemies outside, and these captives were only a small part. Not to mention the overall situation was unsettled; even the outcome itself was still uncertain.

Panxin glanced again, then said urgently, "First, pick out the officers and Sanitation Worker people, quickly! Quick!"

"You, you, come here! Officers, come out! Gather here, we treat prisoners well, hurry up!"

Officers, and even generals, were picked out from the crowd and then escorted behind Liu Chunxiao.

In this command post, it was clear the officers were well-supplied, because a division-level combat unit would never have a major general in command under normal circumstances.

But if we consider that Indian had bet all its remaining combat strength on this one battle, an overly generous command structure for a combat unit far exceeding a division makes sense.

A major general, a lieutenant general, and four colonels, along with a dozen of lieutenant colonels and majors, were all escorted to the back.

Three people watching over nearly two hundred prisoners of war, and three more watching over more than twenty, yet the fight wasn’t over.

Gao Yuan and Panxin moved aside once again.

"What should we do? Kill all these people? And then we continue the fight?"

Panxin licked his lips and said, "We can’t kill them. How would we continue the fight if we did?"

They still had too few people, far too few. If only they had sixty people instead of six, the fight would be much easier.

"What now? Control these officers, take out the backbone of the Sanitation Worker, and force the rest to surrender?"

Gao Yuan made a statement, then suddenly said, "Strange, why is it so quiet?"

Panxin was stunned for a moment, then said, "They should have attacked by now..."

After a glance at each other, they both exclaimed, "The enemy has fled!"

"I’ll go take a look!"

Gao Yuan immediately dashed off, running past the group of prisoners of war again, and reached the area from where the enemy had been attacking.

Indeed, the enemy had run away, scattering all over the mountains, but the vast majority of them were desperately running along the road.

Gao Yuan ran back again and, excitedly said, "They’ve run away, really run away!"

Miracles either don’t happen, or when they do, they come one after another.

Panxin blinked in surprise, then suddenly said, "This is a good opportunity!"

Gao Yuan urged, "Yes! It’s an excellent opportunity. The enemy’s courage has been shattered, and they think a large force has come, so they have started to flee to the frontline positions, where there are more of their comrades, armored units, and it’s not even a few kilometers away."

In a low voice, Panxin said, "The explosions here must have been heard, so the enemy ahead definitely knows something has happened here. And the enemy must have communication equipment, otherwise how would they call for artillery fire? So, the enemy will think a large force has attacked their rear, and that force can only come from... us!"

"If we don’t break through their defenses in one go before the enemy figures out what’s happening, we’ll never get past them! Even if the enemy sends a single company to establish a defensive position and focuses on defending this direction, we won’t get through. But now, if we can break through in the chaos, we’ll go straight through!"

"Just us alone is not enough, and the wounded can’t be reorganized, so we still need a large force, and that’s up to Pakistan."

Gao Yuan nodded and said, "Correct, so tonight we’ll give it our all to break through, completely disrupt their defense line, and then have the Pakistani Army from Gilgit take advantage of the chaos to wipe out the troops controlled by the Sanitation Worker!"

Gao Yuan and his team had taken the enemy by surprise, but they could only create chaos at most. Though their achievements were unexpectedly great, they could not completely annihilate the enemy.

There was no need for discussion. They had to keep fighting.

But looking at the prisoners of war, Gao Yuan worried once more.

"We can’t let these people go; our vehicle is still behind. It’s not right to release them, nor is it appropriate to kill them..."

"We can only guard them for the time being, then we follow behind those fleeing troops, drive them to the enemy’s defense line, and attack again in the confusion. If we succeed, we continue to push forward. If not, the combined forces of Pakistan from Gilgit can also break through the eastern encirclement. The Sanitation Worker’s headquarters has been taken down, and they can’t hold against Pakistan’s assault."

This strategy was thus set: to give it their all and completely break the enemy’s defenses.

Gao Yuan looked at Liu Chunxiao, then, gritting his molars, said, "Split up again! These prisoners are our best bargaining chip. If nothing else works, we can still use them to negotiate. We must keep a close watch on them."

Panxin said, with a touch of helplessness, "Six people, and still needing to split up... well, alright. Wang Xuance did everything on his own back then, and after all, we have more people."

Compared to one man bringing down a nation and capturing its ruler to parade in Chang’an, Gao Yuan and his team didn’t seem so impressive. Thinking this way, splitting up again didn’t seem so unreasonable.

"Liu Chunxiao!"

Gao Yuan pointed at Liu Chunxiao and loudly said, "This is up to you. Keep an eye on these captives. Doggie, Er Long, you two follow Chun Er’s command. We’ll continue with the infiltration!"

Yu Shunzhou was taken aback, wanting to say something, but now was not the time for idle talk.

"Yes!"

Gao Yuan waved his hand and said, "Those fleeing troops cannot run too fast. Fast Gang, help me collect hand grenades, and look for any usable vehicles. Also, I need to drink some water and eat something..."

Gao Yuan now had superhuman stamina, but his appetite was also superhuman. The intense fighting and running had left him feeling both thirsty and hungry.

Others reloaded ammunition, while Gao Yuan needed to replenish energy, all the same for continuing the fight.

Panxin and Li Jingang said, "Twenty minutes should be enough, no, if we have a vehicle, even half an hour will do. According to psychology, half an hour isn’t enough for the enemy to calm down and try to figure out what happened and build defenses. Find something to eat and drink yourself; we’ll start disarming the prisoners."

"Alright."

Gao Yuan immediately entered a nearby house to find food and drink; of course, he had to go into someone’s home for that.

With the enemy thoroughly routed, no one fired flares anymore, and the entire town was plunged into darkness again, but this certainly wouldn’t trouble Gao Yuan.

This was a small town, which must have been full of people before, but when Gao Yuan entered several houses, he only found traces of civilian life, without seeing any civilians.

Gao Yuan found some cooled flatbreads, like puris, a staple of Indians, salty and spicy with a curry flavor. He also surprisingly found some field rations, but to his great astonishment, Indian field rations were still bread and curry, just packed in plastic with curry.

As for the meat Gao Yuan needed, there was no sign of it, not even in the field rations.