Commander Ye felt like he might not have fully woken up.
Or maybe he was sleepwalking and hearing things?
Otherwise, how could he hear something so ridiculous?
How could it be possible to take back an entire city overnight?
The key point was, only three people took it back, and none of them were hurt.
"Officer Fang, go wake up the other commanders and call for an emergency meeting," Commander Ye snapped out of it after a brief moment of shock.
This kind of big news had to be acted on immediately.
Right now, they were short on manpower, but they could first send a small group to take over control, then ask for more reinforcements from above.
He couldn't make all the decisions alone, so he had to gather everyone to discuss it.
"Commander Ye, what's so urgent that you can't even wait for sunrise?" Commander Feng asked, yawning.
"The PN soldiers in Jiang City have all been wiped out," Commander Ye said directly.
"Jiang City? Is that a town or a village nearby?
We've taken back so many towns lately. Just send someone to check for any survivors and clean up the bodies.
This is something you can order on your own. Why bother waking us up in the middle of the night?" Commander Feng said.
"No, I mean the real Jiang City," Commander Yi looked at Commander Ye and asked.
Commander Ye nodded. "Yes, the Jiang City you're thinking about."
"Ah," Commander Yi gasped. "She did it?"
Even though he didn't say her name, everyone knew who he meant.
Commander Ye nodded.
"Wait, what are you two talking about?" Commander Feng looked at them confused.
Then he suddenly realized something.
His eyes widened as he looked at the other two. "It's not what I'm thinking, is it?"
The two of them nodded.
"So, it's been taken back? When did this happen?
Where did you get the people to send out? Weren't you afraid they'd launch a surprise attack?" Commander Feng asked in shock.
"Where would I get the people from? She's only been training those three," Commander Ye replied.
Today they said they were going to take those two people out for some practical training.
I thought they meant taking them to the forest, so I didn't pay much attention.
Who would've thought I'd just get a call saying that all the PN Soldiers in Jiang City are gone, and they want me to send someone to take over?
Goodness, they actually went to the neighboring city for their training.
The most shocking thing is, they won. Commander Ye still couldn't believe it.
The others also found it hard to believe, but the facts were right in front of them, so they had no choice but to accept it.
The group started discussing how to handle the situation.
By dawn, the team had gathered and set off toward the neighboring city.
People in that city who woke up early saw the streets full of PN Soldier corpses. Scared of getting involved, they all ran back inside their homes.
All the shops shut their doors and windows. No one dared to be the first to step forward.
Very soon, the army arrived in the city.
Though surprised by the scene in front of them, they were experienced soldiers.
They immediately started gathering able-bodied young people to help clean up the streets.
The important places were all handled by the army themselves.
When they got to the government building, they unexpectedly found many classified documents.
The team leader immediately took the useful files back to report to the commander.
The commander was also reporting to the higher-ups. At the same time, they sent more people to guard Jiang City.
If they wanted to attack South City, they had to take control of Jiang City first.
That meant they had now pushed their defensive line much farther out.
Paige had no idea that one phone call from her had caused the entire city to become busy.
She was currently taking Winn and Uziel to the next city.
She wanted them to apply the knowledge they learned here to the next place.
Find problems, solve problems. That's how progress is made.
If each city could improve a little, she believed that soon, she would have the most powerful team.
In her previous life, those team members had been out fighting mutant beasts since they were young to gain experience.
While everyone was still busy and the PN Soldiers hadn't reacted yet, Paige and the other two had already reached the outskirts of the next city.
Paige stopped the two who wanted to keep going and led them to the side.
She had seen four PN Soldiers standing at the city gate.
Everyone entering the city had to bow to them. If they didn't, they'd get slapped or hit with a gunstock.
It was absolutely impossible for her to bow to them.
Because it was winter and the sun rose late, the sky was still dim.
There were many rivers outside the city that led inside.
Paige found an empty wooden boat and used her mental power to observe. She found a hidden river path to avoid the crowd and entered the city.
The three of them were shocked by what they saw in the city. Was this still a city? It looked more like an endless field of rubble.
They followed the river forward.
All around were broken walls, charred beams, and collapsed buildings, stretching endlessly.
The houses that had been hit by bombs had their roofs completely destroyed, leaving only walls and ruins.
On South Street, only four or five small houses remained. On North Street, only a lonely clock tower stood.
On County Main Street, only the Detaiheng Hotel was left standing.
The once prosperous thousand-year-old ancient city had become a field of ashes.
What was even more horrifying was that after all this time, there were still bodies lying in many of the burned houses, giving off a terrible stench.
In the river, dead bodies kept floating by.
Paige grew more and more silent as she watched.
These acts were truly outrageous.
Even though the sky wasn't fully bright yet, Paige could clearly see everything in the city.
"Mom, I'm so hungry." In a broken house by the river, a little girl snuggled into her mother's arms and quietly told her need.
Her mother gently stroked the little girl's head and softly said, "Good girl, go to sleep. Once you're asleep, you won't feel hungry."
The little girl nodded obediently and tightly closed her eyes.
But her stomach kept growling. Even so, she didn't speak again.
The girl's mother secretly wiped away her tears.
When the PN Soldiers entered the city, the mother and daughter were hidden by the husband.
They survived the attack, but the husband was killed by the PN Soldiers.
All the food in the house had been stolen.
What the husband left for them wasn't much.
That food had to last through the whole winter.
The woman wiped her tears and kept thinking about their situation.
Her husband was gone, and she couldn't even collect his body.
Thinking of the hard days ahead, the woman could only cry silently.
For her daughter's sake, she had to stay strong.
But now, in the middle of winter, there was no work.
Even if there were jobs, most were hard labor, which she couldn't do.
In the future, how would she survive with her daughter alone?
She wondered how her parents were doing in the countryside and if they would accept her and her daughter if they went back.
The girl was very hungry and couldn't fall asleep.
Even though she tightly shut her eyes and tried to sleep, her stomach kept growling.
The woman heard it and got up to pour the girl a glass of water. "Baby, drink some water to help fill your stomach. When you wake up, Mama will cook you some rice porridge."
This area produced a lot of rice, and her husband had left her some high-quality rice before he passed.
There was also some rice husks and a small amount of coarse grain that the PN Soldiers didn't want.
But she didn't dare go outside yet. She still wanted to stay hidden for a while longer.
Even though she didn't see the horrors outside, she could still hear the screams of men and women.
Especially the screams of the women. As a woman, she understood what those screams meant.
Thinking about it made her tremble again as she held her daughter tightly.
Her husband was gone, and now it was just the two of them. Even if she wanted to go to her parents' house, stepping outside was nearly impossible.
In another house, a five- or six-year-old boy sat blankly inside.
Around him were his family members, whose bodies had already started to smell.
They were lying on the bed, on the floor, and even in the living room. There was also a baby still in a swaddling cloth.
His parents had hidden him in a haystack.
They told him they were playing hide-and-seek, and that no matter what he heard, he couldn't come out unless someone came to find him.
He stayed quietly in the haystack, just like they said, and then he heard a lot of people breaking into the house.
Then he heard his parents talking, begging.
Then came the cries of his siblings and his mother's screaming.
After a long time, everything became quiet.
But his parents and grandparents never came to find him, and he didn't dare come out.
The sky turned dark, then light again. He hid there and eventually fell asleep.
Later, when he was too hungry to endure, he carefully poked his head out to look for someone.
He saw his parents and grandparents lying on the floor, surrounded by blood.
His sister and three-month-old brother were also lying nearby.
His baby brother made no sound. His sister didn't respond either.
He called them for a long time, but no one answered.
The boy had no choice but to go to the kitchen and look for food.
Most of the food had been taken, but luckily, there were still some sweet potatoes.
He washed a sweet potato and ate it raw.
Thankfully, he was small, so one sweet potato was enough to make him full.
Since then, whenever he got hungry, he ate a sweet potato. When he was tired, he slept. The rest of the time, he stayed near his family.
Sometimes he talked to his sister. Sometimes he tried to play with his baby brother. Sometimes he played near his grandparents.
But they were all asleep. No one ever got up to play with him.
They had been sleeping a long time and hadn't taken a bath. Their bodies had started to smell.
The boy didn't mind, because he hadn't bathed either and noticed he smelled too.
What made him sad was that no matter what food he brought them, they wouldn't eat.
Tragic scenes like this were happening everywhere.