The Ultimate War Of The Apocalypse
Chapter 278 - 272: Fight without Declaration

Chapter 278: Chapter 272: Fight without Declaration

Gao Yuan and his team had spent a night that was far from stable.

The Pakistani Army was seriously short on heavy weapons; they had only a few mountain cannons, some mortars, and about a dozen tanks and twenty armored vehicles. As for large-caliber artillery, they didn’t have a single one.

However, being able to relocate soldiers from the defensive eastern frontline to the western front had overall raised the defense capabilities of Gilgit; after all, the pressure and feeling of fighting on two fronts were entirely different from those on a single front. But for the time being, Gilgit still had to endure the Sanitation Worker’s artillery fire, with no way to retaliate.

Gilgit was crowded, and those refugees whose homes had been destroyed by the war couldn’t leave. They had been surrounded and confined within this small city before, and although the enemy forces on the eastern front had been completely annihilated, they still couldn’t leave.

Leaving Gilgit was one thing, finding somewhere else to live was manageable, but the key issue was what to eat, as tens of thousands of people couldn’t be expected to leave the city and fend for themselves.

Modern warfare is all about logistics, which is why insiders talk about logistics, while outsiders talk about strategy.

The Sanitation Worker’s logistics also had problems; their ammunition wasn’t endless. Gilgit had been under siege for a long time, and the Sanitation Worker was also running low on shells, so they would only fire a shell intermittently.

Although the shelling wasn’t intense, the randomness of not knowing where the next shell would hit and the sudden explosions that sounded from time to time kept Gao Yuan extremely tense with every occurrence.

Finally, daylight came.

Gao Yuan and his team wouldn’t participate in the negotiations. The Pakistani side had already engaged in urgent talks with the Sanitation Worker the day before, and both parties decided that at ten in the morning, Pakistani negotiators would enter the Sanitation Worker’s territory to negotiate.

Pakistan had hoped to negotiate in the area between the two armies, but the Sanitation Worker immediately rejected this proposal. After a night of discussions, Pakistan eventually gave in, agreeing to enter the controlled area of the Sanitation Worker for negotiations.

The negotiations were to start at ten o’clock and end at twelve o’clock. Even if no results came out of it, they would have to wait for the negotiating delegates to return first and set up another time and place to negotiate. So, theoretically, the negotiations would end at twelve o’clock, and counting the return time, the delegates should be back by half-past twelve, but it was already forty minutes past twelve, and the Pakistani negotiating delegates still hadn’t returned.

Gao Yuan was starting to worry. Of course, he cared about the outcome of the negotiations between Pakistan and the Sanitation Worker, because that would determine whether they could continue traveling west.

He wanted to ask about how the negotiations with Pakistan were going, but Chen Wei and Yao Yi were with Mahari, waiting for the negotiating delegates to return, which meant Gao Yuan couldn’t get a clear answer either.

Just when Gao Yuan thought that the negotiations might have failed, Wang Ning suddenly ran out of the medical room and said to a few people who were still anxiously waiting, "Li Yang is awake! Come over, everyone."

The fact that Li Yang had woken up was definitely great news. Gao Yuan and the others immediately ran to the medical room where Li Yang was.

Li Yang had already opened his eyes. He looked at Gao Yuan, blinked a few times with his lackluster eyes, and then still managed to show a relieved smile.

Li Yang tried to speak but triggered the wound on his neck, which immediately contorted his face in pain. Wang Ning then hurriedly said, "Don’t talk, we just want you to see everyone and know we are all okay. See, not one of us is missing."

Gao Yuan spoke loudly, "Brother Yang, we’re all fine, really fine!"

Yu Shunzhou poked his head out from the back and said, "It’s said that those who survive a great disaster are destined for good luck! You’re awesome, Brother Yang!"

Li Yang struggled to smile, then Wang Ning hurriedly said, "Alright, enough, you’ve all been seen. Now get out, leave the room for now."

Gao Yuan and the rest were pushed out of the medical room by Wang Ning.

Wang Ning followed them out, closed the door behind him, and immediately stepped up to Gao Yuan, saying, "Li Yang has passed the most critical period, but he couldn’t believe you were all unharmed, so I called you here to let him see for himself. But..."

Wang Ning lowered his voice, pulling Gao Yuan aside, and whispered, "We’re running low on medical supplies. We’re using the medicines we brought with us; Pakistani local supplies are extremely scarce, they don’t even have saline solution. When I give Li Yang an infusion, I can only use distilled water."

"Is it enough?"

"We brought a lot of medical supplies, but we had to prepare for various scenarios, so we only could bring a portion of each type of medicine. Right now, Li Yang has enough essential medicine to last four more days. Given his condition, four days is far from enough to stop medication. And once the medication runs out, we need to replenish it, otherwise..."

Otherwise, if someone else got injured, there would be no medicines available at all.

Gao Yuan exhaled deeply and said, "I’ll look through the captured spoils of war for any required medicine, and then consider other solutions."

Panxin, with an expression of helplessness, said, "I didn’t expect Gilgit not to have even the most basic medicine, this is really..."

"It has been under siege for three months, with severely injured people appearing every day. Any supplies they had would have run out long ago. There are still four days left; it should be enough time."

Doctors were there to save lives and heal the wounded, finding the medicine was a task for others. Now, Gao Yuan felt that even managing a small team as the team lead was becoming difficult.

At that moment, Chen Wei finally appeared with an anxious look on his face.

Seeing Chen Wei’s expression, Gao Yuan knew that something was seriously wrong.

Gao Yuan approached directly, Chen Wei took a deep breath and tried to suppress his anger before he whispered, "The Pakistani negotiation delegation has been captured by the Sanitation Workers!"

"What?"

The thing he feared most had indeed become reality.

Chen Wei took another deep breath and then, clenching his molars, said, "The Sanitation Workers aren’t a nation, so they don’t act by the standards of a nation. The Indians would definitely not do this, but the Sanitation Workers are capable of such actions. Now they have completely lost their minds."

Chen Wei was swearing, which showed just how angry he was, but Gao Yuan anxiously asked, "What happened exactly?"

"When the Pakistani negotiation delegate arrived, he brought a list of prisoners and video materials, to prove they had actually captured all the people of the Sanitation Workers’ eastern frontier forces. But after the Sanitation Workers saw the evidence, first, the delegate left the scene, and after more than an hour, the Sanitation Workers’ Guards detained the Pakistani negotiation delegate. The Sanitation Workers don’t care about the lives of those prisoners because they are not the Indians!"

Gao Yuan urgently asked, "How did the news get out?"

"The Sanitation Workers released a translator and made a demand. They want all the Sanitation Worker captives in exchange for the return of the Pakistani negotiation delegate."

Gao Yuan was dumbfounded. He knew that the Sanitation Workers were bizarre, but he hadn’t anticipated that they would go to such an extent.

With a grim expression, Chen Wei turned to Panxin, who said in shock,"This is, this is the negotiation delegate representing a country of Pakistan! How could a delegate still be detained?"

Chen Wei, annoyed, waved his hand, but said nothing.

With the Sanitation Workers having done what they did, there was nothing left to say.

In warfare, envoys were not to be harmed, a principle that was even understood in ancient times. But this no longer applied with the Sanitation Workers, because they weren’t a nation, they had merely seized command of an army.

Even if two countries were at war, at most they would expel each other’s diplomats. Even if the battlefield was in total chaos, a slightly normal country wouldn’t detain the negotiation delegate from the other side as a hostage, let alone use a negotiating delegate as a bargaining chip for prisoner exchanges.

After all, Yao Yi’s visit was only to deliver an ultimatum, and war had not even been declared yet.

Gao Yuan stood frozen for a long time before he finally asked, "What should we do?"

Chen Wei shook his head and said, "I don’t know. Pakistan and the Sanitation Workers have already started fighting. The worst outcome is that they continue to fight. Yet Pakistan can’t defeat the Sanitation Workers."

Gao Yuan struggled to say, "We can’t really trade hostages, can we?"

Chen Wei shook his finger and said, "Impossible! That’s absolutely impossible! Pakistan would never agree to a trade, and besides, the Sanitation Workers have been captured by Pakistan while the Pakistani negotiation delegate has been shamelessly taken hostage by the Sanitation Workers. These are two completely different things."

Gao Yuan thought for a moment and then said, "Alright, then let’s consider how we can continue moving west."

Chen Wei looked at Gao Yuan and said, "The road is blocked. Unless we drive out the Sanitation Workers, we will have to take a detour, but that would mean thousands of extra kilometers."

Gao Yuan thought about it and then, looking at Panxin, said, "Mr. Jian, detouring is out of the question. What do we do in this situation?"

Without hesitation, Panxin said, "Immediately send someone to stabilize the Sanitation Workers, pretending to agree to the hostage exchange, and stall at least until the night."

"You mean a night operation?"

"Yes, a night raid. Since you could completely disrupt the enemy on the eastern front, you can certainly do the same on the western front."

Chen Wei was initially astonished, then he shook his head repeatedly, saying, "This is... impossible. The enemy’s western force numbers at least ten thousand. You can’t even break through their defense line."

Feeling he might have spoken too absolutely, as Gao Yuan and his team had just created a miracle the previous night, Chen Wei softened his tone, "You did create a big miracle yesterday; of course, I know that. But that was when the enemy was unprepared, whereas now, the western line of the enemy is obviously prepared. The situation is different."

Gao Yuan confidently and seriously said, "Commander, miracles are called miracles if they happen only once. If we can replicate the same miracle every time, then it’s no longer a miracle."

Panxin nodded sincerely and then whispered, "Commander, we know what we’re doing. Just trust our team leader."

Chen Wei looked at Gao Yuan, frowning as he said, "Of course, I’m willing to trust you, but... but this is just too unbelievable."

Without self-praise, Li Jingang couldn’t help but say, "Commander, it’s different with us. Things that ordinary people can’t do, our team leader can. Some things that are miracles for normal people are just normal for our team leader. Think about it, how did we fight our way here yesterday? It’s just a matter of replicating it once more."

After pondering for a moment, Chen Wei spoke firmly, "Alright! Then I’ll believe you! I’ll go and talk to General Mahari, and if you really manage to completely disrupt the enemy on the western front, then Pakistan will be able to break through the Sanitation Workers’ encirclement and defeat them thoroughly."