A military vehicle wobbled to a stop at the roadside; an officer d in a greyish-green coat jumped out of the car, took out a cigarette case from his pocket, pulled out a cigarette, and ced it in his mouth.


    Another officer in the car rubbed his eyes, then stretchedzily, his hands hitting the roof of the car. He instinctively shrank back and askednguidly, "Where are we now?"


    "About 10 kilometers ahead, Zheng Country''s King City," the officer who had gotten out struck a match, lit his cigarette, and replied as he released a puff of smoke.


    He hadn''t slept for two days and had been pushing on continuously; it was almost his limit, as well as that of his unit. Explore stories at My Virtual Library Empire


    "The first battalion''s firstpany should be about 4 kilometers ahead, and the secondpany is right behind us... Has the thirdpany reached its designated position?" The officer inside the car took out a map from his bag, spread it on his knees to have a look, and continued with a hint of irritation.


    The map in his hand had just been recently updated. Although it was more urate, it was still quite crude. On this map, there were only rough indications of the surrounding terrain, at most serving as a reference formand.


    Therefore, afterparing his surroundings with the map, he finally managed to identify a distant mountain. After ncing at the deserted vige ahead, where not a soul could be seen, he scratched his head inint, "This damned map..."


    The vige by the roadside where they had stopped appeared deserted due to the war, with only a few disorderly, dpidated houses remaining.


    Signs of troop encampments could still be seen around these long-neglected homes, likely left by Zheng Country''s military, because Great Tang Group''s camps would never be in such disarray.


    Finally seizing the chance to smoke, the officer leaned against the car door,fortably exhaled another lungful of smoke, and chuckled, "Be content, we''re working with newly surveyed ones. If we were using the old maps, we''d probably be lost by now."


    "Might as well be lost now..." sighed the officer in the car again dejectedly. His troops were scattered in disarray as they hurried to encircle Zheng Country''s King City at the fastest speed—a formidable 210 kilometers in just two days!


    As the first motorized infantry division created by Great Tang Group, his unit had the highest number of vehicles, including cars and new motorcycles, thus they were considered the most fuel-consuming front-linebat unit.


    However, the investment was ultimately worth it. His motorized infantry division maneuvered from the north, taking a roundabout route and finally encircled Zheng Country''s King City ahead of the scheduled time, drawing a huge circle of containment on the map.


    With this enclosure in ce, the neighboring Dahua Empire had no means to rescue Zheng Country, thereby eliminating any chance for Zheng Country''sst-ditch struggle.


    It was because of their bold nking maneuver that Zheng Country was caughtpletely by surprise, unable to react before it was trapped.


    As they spoke, a truck loaded with soldiers wobbled as it caught up and then paused beside the small car.


    The passenger door of the truck was pushed open; painted on the wooden door was a dragon emblem, next to which was an internal code for the unit it belonged to.


    A sergeant jumped down from the truck, ran up to the stopped car, and saluted, "Sir! The road conditions are very poor! Please be careful and do not leave the protective range of the security troops!"


    "Alright! Alright! I got it! I got it!" The smoking officer smiled, waved his hand, and said, "Do you see that small vige over there? Set up division headquarters there!"


    "Yes! Understood!" Following the smoking officer''s pointing finger, the securitypany''s sergeant promptly saluted.


    Behind him, soldiers were already hopping down from the truck one by one, starting to set up a perimeter watch in the surrounding area.


    For ease of production and to save on materials, many parts of Great Tang Group''s military trucks were made of wood.


    The doors of the trucks were wooden, and so were the rearpartments, which saved arge amount of steel and allowed the maximum utilization of different materials.@@novelbin@@


    Of course, this also had its disadvantages, as it affected the service life of the vehicles. Metal doors, roofs, andpartments were of course more durable and could provide better protection under certain circumstances.


    But in order to equip the troops with more trucks in a short time, engineers from Great Tang Group decided to manufacture many parts of their trucks out of wood.


    Soon, more vehicles arrived at the location, including trucksden with petrol generators, others transporting wireless telegraph equipment, and then more security troops came.


    Soldiers began to build defensive instations for guard duty around them. Some were digging trenches, while others were setting up machine gun posts behind them for cover.


    Themander of the security battalion finally caught up and then went off toin to his superiors in the division. His unit was responsible for the security of the division headquarters, but as they moved, the seniormanders of the division were all too easily lost.


    On the way here, at many times, only a single security squad would be following the divisionmander''s car. Should they encounter enemy stragglers, the consequences were unimaginable.