Revolution, revolution (4)
Chapter Summary: Who says student soldiers can't fight? They should take a look at who their commander is! (×)
It was almost time for the government soldiers' usual shift change. I glanced at the sun's position to determine the approximate time; the first wave of soldiers should be going for lunch. The children, carrying their guns, rushed off to their respective destinations. I walked to the left side of the water intake gate. The branches and leaves of the trees rustled. I stepped on the fallen, withered leaves. The dried leaves always made a crisp snapping sound as they crumbled. I slowed my pace, lengthening the intervals between the snapping sounds to avoid attracting attention.
It was a long way. Thankfully, I wasn't spotted by the Allied soldiers. At the entrance, the bright sunlight shone down, and across the scorching concrete road, the golden edges of the "Haiyingsen City Natural History Museum" sign gleamed blindingly. I saw a group of soldiers greeting a newly arrived group. The newcomers opened two cans of beer and handed them to a few members of the previous group, but no one drank them; the soldiers looked preoccupied.
“That kid named Gratian is a real wild horse…no amount of beating or scolding works. Just now, the boss lost his temper and beat him until his teeth bled, and the blood splattered into his eyes. He just stared at our boss with those cold, unblinking eyes. That look, it’s like a fucking monster!”
I carefully climbed the barbed wire fence that had been temporarily erected by government troops around the water intake, using both hands and feet. The high temperature gave me a slight feeling of heatstroke, and climbing up in the sun was very uncomfortable; my physical strength wasn't very good, and I was already feeling tired. My lips felt bitter and numb. I ordered Caligula to cut the high-voltage line of the electric fence for half a minute. I checked my stopwatch and clung to a high concrete post, a non-conductive insulator. The black high-voltage electric fence swayed gently in the wind. A bird collided with it, bursting into a bright flash, and with a "crack," the bird instantly turned into a lump of black coal, tumbling down from the sky.
"What is that?" the soldier exclaimed, chewing his lunch.
"Haha, what a poor bird," someone nearby chimed in.
I was drenched in cold sweat. I painfully realized how strenuous this exercise was for me. I took deep breaths and silently repeated to myself:
9, 8, 7...
When I read "one," I opened my eyes, and a blinding wave of heat rushed into them. I quickly closed them again, followed by a series of violent explosions.
The soldiers stood guard, guns raised high. The streets were quiet, bathed in bright white sunlight. Large flocks of birds were startled into flight; most escaped electrocution and avoided the high-voltage power lines. Dust settled. The scorching smell of the concrete pavement returned lazily.
A dense mass of black lines appeared at the end of the gray-white cement road, which was wide and seemed to stretch endlessly.
The tremors spread. The small grains of sand and pebbles by the roadside trembled. Gradually, a large rock jumped away, leaping three feet high.
A massive herd of ostriches, elephants, kangaroos, camels, chickens, ducks, cats, dogs, leopards, cougars, Bengal tigers, and chimpanzees charged forward, howling. Having been confined for over six months, they attacked anyone they saw. A starving kangaroo punched a soldier in the first rank, knocking his rifle flying. The second and third ranks of soldiers yelled as they cocked their guns. A leopard pounced on a soldier in the second rank, its paw landing on his chest. Beside it, a Bengal tiger wagged its tail, circling, its tongue lolling out, its whiskers twitching with delight like a kitten's, its innocent, bright green eyes carefully observing the fallen soldiers. The barricades were swept away by the elephant caravan, red and white fragments flying everywhere, whistling through the air like ribbons from a festive cannon salute.
"Support! Report to Alpha Group, we need support! This is Beta, we need support!"
"We need...do you have any food? Ah, no, not food for me! It's the kind of food you feed wild animals...Help, help! They're attacking! They're attacking! What are the people in front doing?!"
The soldiers screamed and retreated. I seized the opportunity to descent from the sky and, amidst the chaos, tightly embraced the neck of an ostrich. The ostrich let out a "caw," its two large black wings flapping wildly. I shouted, raising my right hand, "Comrades, charge—!" The lions roared at my call, the roosters crowed, and the elephant herds took off running. I saw the heavily fortified road ahead gradually being cleared away.
At that moment, I felt like Moses in the Bible, parting the sea. Holding the scepter high, the sacred path lay ahead.
“Gradius.” I looked down. Down at the ground.
“Caesar.” The boy looked up at me. His icy blue eyes were very clear.
This scene must resemble the legendary tale of a divine messenger descending to earth to bless a chosen child. Clear, holy, ancient, and eternal… except that I am currently riding on the back of a large, vacant ostrich. The ostrich squawked.
"You—" he hesitated, "Caesar, you... why are you so dark?"
"This is from ostrich feathers!"
"Ugh, I'm going back to take a shower! Get up here right now!"
But then the ostrich went on strike; it refused to carry both of us at the same time. With its deadpan expression, the ostrich quacked and ran off.
We gazed at the back of the giant ostrich.
"Do you have a backup plan?" Gratian asked me tentatively after a long pause.
"...No."
"So how do we escape?"
"I don't know."
Gratian's silence lasted so long that I briefly thought he had lost the ability to speak. "The government forces should realize the gate has fallen very quickly," he said.
"So we need to leave now."
“No. We’ll stay here.” He suddenly smiled, a malicious smile. A flock of swans circled overhead, having lost many feathers in the fierce fight; they looked somewhat like bald crows.
I wanted to find somewhere to hide first. Just then, the alarm blared. The sound was piercing, and red lights shone down from above.
A large group of government soldiers poured into the hall from the narrow doorway. I was leading Gratian, who had just been freed from his shackles, up the stairs to the hall. Gratian stretched his wrists and looked up to see the soldiers yelling, "The two on the stairs! Don't move! You're surrounded!"
After a brief moment of calm, Gelati reached out and grabbed me, pulling me behind her. She said, "Really? I think you're the ones who are surrounded."
The soldier's face was hidden behind a thick black gas mask. A cougar pounced down from a beam in the dome, blood and flesh splattering as the lion's sharp teeth tore open the soldier's soft throat. His bulletproof vest was ripped askew, and he was covered in dust from the struggle. Wolves slowly approached from all sides, their eyes a deep green. Large packs of wolves surrounded him, the alpha wolf leaping forward, and the rest charging fiercely. A large, greasy, grayish-black pelt covered the human body lying below.
Gratian pressed down hard on a handle on his right. Inside the hall, the slope of the floor gradually changed, and the water inlet opened outwards.
"Your current location is in the Red Sea, 12 degrees North latitude, 65 degrees East longitude, at an altitude of 3000 meters. You are descending... descending..."
A smart female voice echoed in the hall, accompanied by the sticky, wet sounds of animals tearing at flesh. At that moment, directly below the floating city of Haiyingsen, a gaping hole appeared, and a gust of wind howled in. A soldier with a broken leg screamed as he crawled to the vicinity of the hole. His hand touched the edge of the hole; his only remaining leg had been bitten, and a wolf's teeth were embedded in his carotid artery. Blood spread from below his body, dripping down his outstretched arm. His fingertips twitched slightly, and red blood gushed from the hole like a mountain spring.
"Descending, 100 meters, 50 meters, 30 meters. 10, 9, 8, ... 1. Stop." The air fortress Haiyingsen came to a sudden halt.
I saw the deep blue ocean below the gust of wind. It was daytime. The light was bright, and the sea looked like a sparkling sapphire. The soldiers' blood flowed into the sea, briefly turning the surface a deep red, which then gradually spread. I saw large groups of black, triangular dorsal fins rise from the sea. Sharks, smelling the blood, gathered around. A few soldiers were still alive, and several wolf cubs chased after them, their bodies covered in large and small gashes. The mother wolf, having eaten her fill, sat lazily to one side, watching her cubs play and frolic.
"Let us go! Let us go!"
Another group of people were surrounded by lions. The male lion used these dying humans as an example to teach the cubs hunting skills.
Gratian ignored them.
I found the scene a bit disgusting, so I said, "This is probably none of my business. I... I'm going to the restroom..."
No sooner had he finished speaking than a loud bang was heard, and the Allied soldiers trapped in Zone α finally arrived at the hall.
"How are you all? We've come to save you! Gra... Gratian! Gratian, it's Gratian! Grab him!" The voice was filled with extreme fear.
Gratian looked up, and the glass curtain wall above the Heyson Dome emitted a blue light that was more dazzling than ever before.
"Water intake activated. Water intake begins, water intake begins. Please prepare to move away from the water intake; please prepare to move away from the water intake..." the intelligent female voice said.
A colossal column plunged into the Red Sea; the entire Red Sea surged, white columns of waves shooting skyward, revealing the deep blue of the water at its highest point. The wind tunnel filled, water rushing into the hall of Haiyingsen. Land animals, alert, pricked up their ears, leaping to higher ground with half-eaten pieces of meat in their mouths. A she-wolf howled, and her cubs huddled beside her legs, clinging tightly to her body. A male lion and his cubs grumbled in discontent and ran away from the group of humans surrounded. The humans were swept away by the flood, screaming in agony. The hall walls were slippery, offering nothing for them to cling to. The sea drowned out their cries; sharks tore human bodies apart. Some had already drowned, others struggled in the water. A white sperm whale surfaced, revealing its aged, wrinkled face, two dark, lifeless eyes adorning either side of its head. It watched silently.
Gratian's blue eyes were cold, and a bloodthirsty smile played on his lips.
I really need to go to the bathroom. I can't hold it in anymore.
As soon as I opened the door, I saw a large group of student soldiers climbing in through the ventilation shaft.
“Gratian! You’re alright, that’s right…”
The student's eyes were sparkling. I thought he was going to say, "That's wonderful," and then there would be a heartwarming reunion of comrades, but instead, the kid punched Gratian and roared:
"You bastard! You're a heartless traitor! You'd rather have a lover than your brothers!"
Gratian winced in pain. "This, this is a tactic! A tactic!" he protested. "Besides, everyone's alright, aren't they?"
"I'm doing this to infiltrate behind enemy lines and gather intelligence on the enemy!" he shouted.
The student soldiers stared at him without saying a word.
Grattan felt guilty.
"Alright, alright, everyone, let's forget about this time. Next time, for sure. Next time, for sure. I definitely won't leave you all behind again."
The student soldier glanced at him sideways. Turning his head, he looked down at the large pool below and was horrified. The hall at the water intake had transformed into a wild marine zoo—no, a group of leopards were elegantly licking their bloodied paws, watching him from higher ground. So it wasn't entirely a marine zoo. White waves surged, and human limbs swirled and floated in the reddish water. He looked closely and realized it was a severed hand, a human hand. The palm prints were still clear, and the cut was fresh. Drifting to a giant python, the python casually dipped its head into the water and swallowed the hand.
The student soldier felt a chill run down his spine and coughed dryly, "Chairman, you...you're quite capable."
"Yes, yes, as expected of the Chairman! As expected of the Chairman! He took care of the entire Allied Forces in just a couple of moves!" Another student who had just participated in the beating of Gratian immediately chimed in.
"We were so unaware of Chairman Mao's brilliant strategic and tactical intentions! We apologize to Chairman Mao! We are sorry, Chairman Mao!"
"Alright, alright. Stop flattering the horse. Aren't you tired of it?" Gratian said, hands on his hips, looking quite pleased with himself.
"By the way, how many people infiltrated?"
"Reporting to the Chairman! There are three teams in total. The first team is blocking the main gate, and the other two teams are following behind us."
As they spoke, some student soldiers opened the side door next to the ventilation shaft in the hall, and more and more people came out. They greeted Gratian. A few children saw Gratian holding my hand and refusing to let go, and chuckled twice.
Caligula was among the students and was quite enthusiastic. He carefully applied medicine to Gratian's wound and then smiled at me.
"Thank you, Mr. Ganymede. You saved Gratian."
"That's too formal." I mean it. Caligula, that kid, I practically raised him. But he's not close to me at all. To be precise, he's not close to anyone except Gratian.
Gratian asked Caligula how they got in. Caligula told him, "It was Mr. Ganymede. He came up with a plan. He used the animals in the Natural History Museum to launch a sneak attack. He said those animals had been starving for a long time and were extremely ferocious. First, he blew out the locks and let them out. The others blocked the front and left doors, while he guarded the right door and slipped in to rescue you."
"Okay... So what's the situation with your casualties?"
“Casualties? No casualties, Gratian. No one is injured.”
"So you're saying that you, with only a group of less than a hundred student soldiers under the command of this man Caesar Ganimede, defeated a government regular army that outnumbered you tenfold and whose equipment was a level above your civilization level?"
“That’s right.” Caligula was a little confused by his meaning. “Mr. Ganymede is an excellent commander. No, although he has never studied related things or received formal military training, his operational thinking is outstanding and ingenious. He can always think of things that no one else would think of. He is the only true ‘genius’ I have ever seen.”
I saw that Gratian's expression had clearly soured. "A genius," he said sourly, "am I not as good as him?"
“Gratian, I did not mean to compare you to him.”
“But I want to! I want to compete against him!” Gratian suddenly turned to look at me, shaking off my hand. He said, “Caesar! Let’s compete!”
"What are we comparing?"
"It's about who pays the lowest price and achieves the greatest victory!"
This comparison principle is quite abstract.
Gratian had Caligula report on the remaining government forces. There was a small mobile squad still near the left gate, which Gratian immediately led his men to wipe them out. After a gunfight, the two remaining government soldiers were so terrified they wet themselves and surrendered, dropping their weapons. Only the two of them survived; the other allied soldiers were killed on the spot. Gratian checked the student soldiers' injuries; aside from being a little dirty, they seemed to be mostly unharmed.
Suddenly, the chairman stopped in front of a trembling student council member. The poor boy had a large bruise on his elbow, and the skin was broken. He was covering the blood-stained gauze, his lips pursed, and he had a look of unbearable pain on his face.
"--you!"
The boy flinched. He straightened his legs and said, "Yes, Chairman!"
How did you get hurt?
"It was...it was the Chairman who ordered us to surround them and attack. We got too close, and one of our comrades' guns went off accidentally."
"It wasn't the enemy who fired it?"
"No, it's because the encirclement was too narrow at the time. The bullets ricocheted off the metal walls and ended up hitting our own men..."
"You mean my misjudgment caused your injury?"
"No, no, no, I wouldn't dare! I really wouldn't dare! Chairman, how could you be wrong? You are forever great, glorious, and correct..." the boy said cautiously.
Gratian's face darkened further as he stared at the record of "10 wounded." He snorted. Several other unfortunate student soldiers, wounded in the carotid artery by bullets straying through the confined space, lay panting on stretchers. Caligula had said they were not in mortal danger, and he had originally intended not to report it.
Gratian didn't even glance at them.
"Good. None of you were injured while following Caesar! Except for that one who got scared by the cannon and twisted his ankle while running!" He was furious. "When you were fighting with me, you were all like this and that, weren't you? And you even got injured by your own people? That's ridiculous!"
Actually, he didn't need to be so angry. Later, the people at the Earth Republican Alliance War History Research Center (in fact, this center, along with the philosophy, history, and literature departments, was abolished by the Alliance government at the beginning of the war between the Alliance and the Empire because it was "not conducive to the progress of science and technology and military industry," but the subsequent disastrous defeats of the Alliance army made officials eager to learn from historical experience to save the country, especially materials on war history, which received attention), comprehensively analyzed Emperor Gratian's temperament, talent, and command style, and concluded:
"Few military geniuses in human history have been able to record every victory as 'annihilating the enemy,' and even fewer would rather give up an easy 'skillful victory' in order to maintain the magnificence, classicism, and consistency of their layout and formation. Emperor Gratian possessed both of these qualities, and it is difficult for us to learn from the past how to defeat him; because from the perspective of war history alone, this man existed to break all existing records of war."
Gratian was finally satisfied with the breakout from the water intake. The children told me that the roaming animals had blocked the main gate, so we could only get out through the right gate. "But there were enemies there too. About 20 of them."
I slapped my forehead and said, "That's easy. The right-side door is narrower, right? We'll split into four groups, one group at a time, with the ones in the back providing cover for the ones in the front. Even if there are a lot of enemies, it's okay, we can herd a few more Bengal tigers through..."
"Why do we need to divide into four groups? Last time we had three groups."
"What are Bengal tigers used for? Wouldn't it be better to use elephants? Why not use elephants?"
"How will those in the back provide cover for those in the front? Should they just open fire as soon as they see the enemy? How many enemies are there? Is 20 a lot?"
"Ah, well, well, firstly, if we divide into four groups, it's easier to monitor all four directions while moving through the tunnel." I scratched my head. "As for the elephants, actually, elephants are prone to stampedes in very dark places..."
Won't the Bengal tiger trample it?
"Exactly! They even bite!"
"Well, a well-fed tiger usually won't..."
"But you're talking about the general situation. What if, Mr. Ganimede, look at all these people. What if someone gets bitten?"
"And another thing! And another thing, I...I have a question. How do we monitor from four directions? Does it mean one person watches the front, and the others watch the remaining directions?"
"Mr. Garniermeed! Mr. Garniermeed!"
I was completely disoriented. Gratian shoved me straight off the command platform.
"Divide into four groups. Take submachine guns. The first group goes first, the second, third, and fourth groups provide cover. The second and third groups watch the flanks, and the last group watches for ambushes from behind. Bring tigers too, the kind that are clearly not full. Okay, any questions?"
The audience was completely silent.
The student soldiers stood ramrod straight, their lips pressed tightly together. Their eyes blinked as they looked up at the stage.
"Very good. Line up, about-face! Move out!"
Follow the main force towards the right gate. Sure enough, true to Gratian's style, another massacre ensued. The released beasts had probably never eaten so well since birth.
Gratian watched the charging student soldiers, a bloodthirsty smile playing on his lips.
I weakly argued with Gratian, "That's not my plan."
Originally, releasing a few tigers to scare away the government soldiers would have been enough. I dared not look directly at the ground; even the corners of my eyes were stained with crimson. The student soldiers also treated killing as a war simulation game; it wasn't like this when they fought alongside me before. Emerging from the water source and retreating towards the city hall, they were still flushed, excitedly discussing tactics and strategies, closely following Gratian.
——tbc——
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