Shadow Empire

Chapter 1038 Unifying Thought and the Fear of the Dominator's All-Encompassing Rule
The battlefield inside the Reef Bridge was like a giant human meat grinder, shredding all the soldiers who poured in into pieces.

Whether it's the government forces or the anti-government armed groups they call themselves, they are all falling one after another on this land.

At this moment, life becomes the most meaningless thing; people simply don't have time to think about or cope with what is happening here.

They didn't have time to think about who they were, why they were there, what they were supposed to do there, and where they would eventually go.

When the commander, the captain of the army, brandishes his sword and points it toward the battlefield, shouting "Kill those enemies!" the soldiers rush out with a mix of tension and excitement, only to die on the battlefield.

Gunfire rose and fell like the tide, and when the "tide" was at its highest, it was the bloodiest moment on the battlefield!
Both sides seemed to have completely abandoned their fear of life and death; they now shared only one belief—to destroy the land.

A large number of wild animals that had been lurking around were waiting, overcoming their fear of the gunshots and watching from a distance.

Whenever the gunfire stops, or most of it stops, these wild animals rush into the battlefield to enjoy nature's bounty!

Their tiny minds could never understand why, in such a cruel natural world, there would be such a large-scale buffet for them to enjoy.

Animals at different levels of the food chain lost all distinction of status and class; they gathered together and silently observed the largest-scale infighting among their own kind in Lapa's recorded history.

"We simply can't hold on like this!"

A frontline officer, a cigarette dangling from his lips and binoculars in his hand, gazed at the distant battlefield, his brows furrowed in deep thought.

The situation in the command post was still good; at least it hadn't been affected by the fighting yet. The officer put down his binoculars and turned back to the center of the room.

There is a table here, on which is laid a defense map of Zhuolan and the surrounding area, showing their layered control over the entire battlefield.

Although they have now completed the encirclement of the Reef Bridge exit as Diego requested, and have indeed eliminated a considerable number of enemies, their losses are equally enormous.

This is the backward and impoverished city of Lapa, where nearly 99 percent of the soldiers have received little to no education before enlisting, and even after enlisting, they receive little to no target practice.

Because bullets are too expensive, the costs of their target practice might be enough to hire another person to participate in the battle, so there is no reason or need to waste these people.

Not to mention that bullets aren't something you can just get whenever you want; they cost money, and Diego's biggest problem right now is that he doesn't have any.

The current battle casualties are more severe than those of the government forces, while the losses of the anti-government forces are better.

Several officers looked at the highest-ranking officer present, who was also a member of the Lavila family. Diego had placed great trust in the Lavila family members in recent months, entrusting them with important responsibilities.

In this critical moment, the dictatorial and volatile president finally remembered his family, but the members of the Lavila family were not so willing to be remembered by him.

If this were put together, a few years ago, or even a decade ago, when Diego remembered them and entrusted them with important tasks, everyone would jump for joy.

At that time, as long as they became military officers or government officials, they could quickly achieve financial freedom in Lapa.

Power, wealth, anything.

But now, if Diego remembers her, he'll only send her to the battlefield.

It could be said that Diego ignored them when they most longed for his approval, but remembered them when they least wanted to be remembered.

The officer who spoke was a subordinate of the Lavira family officer, a trusted confidant, and he had a worried look on his face.

I initially thought that being suddenly promoted to a military officer was a good thing, but now it seems that it's not a good thing at all.

The man, who was technically Diego's younger cousin, had a somewhat gloomy expression. "How many men do we have left?"

"Thirty or forty thousand people, no more than that, at most another three or five thousand."

"We've taken down a lot of people during this period. I don't know much about the situation on other sides, but it should be similar to ours."

Apart from 20,000 who were guarding Zhuolan, the rest of the 400,000 people were brought out. In fact, Diego and the Lavila family were well aware that once the war broke out near Zhuolan, it would mean that the countdown to the demise of the Lavila family had begun.

As powerful families who have ruled this country for a very long time, they will inevitably be at the top of the list of those to be eliminated once the regime changes.

This is why they reluctantly accepted the job even though they knew it wasn't a good one.

As long as Diego is alive, the Lavila family's rule is not over, and they will continue to have good days.

Diego is dead, or the Lavila family's rule has ended; they will all be dragged down to hell along with this corrupt regime.

"With 30,000 to 40,000 people, how long can this last at the current rate of consumption?"

Another officer said in a low voice, "It's been about a month, and I'm very worried lately that there might be deserters, which could trigger a chain reaction."

The battlefield is too brutal. People may not realize this during the day when they are fighting. A certain sense of fighting spirit hides their fear. But as the battle ends, they will begin to feel fear in the darkness of night.

In fact, desertion has always existed, but now it is happening more and more frequently.

The officer pursed his lips, his expression somewhat grave. "Deal with it if necessary, and hold out for another half month."

"If we really can't fight back after half a month, then we'll withdraw."

The other officers looked surprised. One of them lowered his voice and said, "If we retreat, we will give them the opportunity to break through the blockade completely, and other army groups may be counter-encircled."

The officer's face remained expressionless, yet he also appeared somewhat cold and ruthless. "It's better than us all being wiped out."

The officers said nothing more, remaining silent and accepting the outcome.

Meanwhile, Pedro was also discussing how intense the battle was.

"How about... we take a break?" A rebel leader said with a reluctant expression. "My troops have been completely decimated. Let's arrange for someone else to take over tomorrow."

"My men and I will not be going to take up the position again."

He spoke with great determination. He had brought about 15,000 men to "hunt down Zhuolan," thinking he would be like those nobles in some stories, galloping across Zhuolan. But when he actually got there, he realized that things were not so easy.

He used to think that watching other people fight was nothing special; after all, war is bound to have casualties.

It wasn't until he took the lead himself that he realized he couldn't handle it. A force of over ten thousand men was wiped out in just three days, and they didn't gain much in the battle either.

In addition, the controlled area has been expanded by several tens of meters.

But this actually makes no sense.

He didn't want to fight anymore. These troops were his old forces. As the leader of an anti-government armed group, he was one of the most influential figures on the Lapa stage during this period.

He can wave the banner that marks his own name not because he has great personal strength or can lift hundreds of pounds to wave.

It wasn't that he had any special skills to wave the flag so beautifully.

It was simply because he controlled an army, an army that gave him the confidence to stand before these "warlords" and be on equal footing with them.

If this war wipes out all his men, then he will no longer be a warlord.

What warlord doesn't have soldiers under his command?

And recently, something else happened: those international friends who were very supportive of their overthrow of Diego's rule began to reduce their aid to them.

These international friends claimed that they had supported these resistance groups for two years, but the resistance groups only operated near their areas of operation and never considered advancing into Zoran to overthrow Diego's rule.

They began to suspect that these resistance groups were merely using the guise of "overthrowing Diego's tyranny" to defraud them of financial aid.

So now, basically all financial and material aid to the resistance organizations has been cut off.

This is why Pedro was able to gather them together so quickly. A resistance organization is still an organization, and it needs a lot of funds and resources to maintain itself. There are indeed idealists, and quite a few of them, but idealists still need to eat, and their families still need to eat.

In the past, with the help of international friends, they could avoid production and simply train, fight, and cause destruction.

But now, without this aid, they face a very bad situation.

If they want to maintain their current scale, they need to find a sustainable way to provide funding and resources.

As anti-government forces, they only engage in destruction, not production. Relying on the autonomy and output within their controlled areas, they may not even be able to feed themselves.

If people can't even get enough to eat, what's the point of talking about ideals or ideologies?
Therefore, these international friends gave them a request: to overthrow Diego's rule as soon as possible to prove that they were not relying on a pretext to defraud financial aid.

This move effectively strangled almost all the resistance groups, including Pedro, who was no exception.

Pedro's strength was relatively strong among these people who considered themselves warlords, but he also faced a shortage of funds and the possibility that supplies would not keep up.

As a teacher with a slightly higher level of education, he knew very well that once he could no longer provide money or supplies, the team would soon fall apart.

This is a federal conspiracy, a blatant conspiracy.

They first allowed him and his men to be completely off-duty, to become accustomed to and heavily reliant on this off-duty lifestyle, and to focus all their energy on fighting.

Thus, they lacked their own blood supply environment; food, weapons, ammunition, and funds all came from abroad.

They will collapse quickly once foreign aid stops.

This was both a conspiracy and an open scheme; he had no choice but to comply.

Having come this far, he couldn't bring himself to give up everything and go back to being a high school teacher.

He believed that neither Diego nor the future leader of the resistance organization that overthrew Diego could keep a "former rebel leader" with considerable prestige and influence alive; they would find a way to kill him!

Sometimes it's not that people can't see the future path; they can actually see it very clearly, and they can see it through at a glance.

There was no fog, no forks in the road, and you could see the whole thing at a glance.

But it is precisely because you can see the end from the beginning that it can cause despair!
On the way to Zhuolan, Pedro's emotions were complicated, and his heart was cold.

He had thought that with such a powerful force, with tens of thousands of men under his command, he had a solid foundation to seize power and fight back against the federal invaders.

It was only at this moment that he realized he had never truly possessed these things; he had always been a pawn on the chessboard, not the player he thought he was.

He was startled awake by the sound of someone slamming their hand on the table. He looked at the rebel leader who was blushing and demanding to leave the area.

He stuck out his neck and said, "No matter what you say, I'm not going to continue fighting!"

Pedro's gaze gradually focused on him, and he pursed his lips. "You can leave, but have you considered what you'll face after you leave here?"

The leader paused for a moment, "What can we face?"

The room fell completely silent as everyone looked at Pedro, deeply admiring his talent.

Pedro leaned back in his chair, lit a cigarette, took a drag, and slowly exhaled.

The movements were slow, not fast, but these guys, who didn't seem to have much patience, were all patiently waiting for him.

His gaze swept across the faces of these people. "Actually, we are all subconsciously avoiding one issue, which is that we are not stable at all right now."

"I know that there are only two reasons why all of us, including myself, are focusing our attacks on Zhuolan this time."

"First, we are threatened, or rather controlled, by the funding groups behind us."

"If we don't attack Zhuolan, we'll soon lose our financial and material support, and our soldiers will immediately collapse..."

Everyone's expression changed.

As if he couldn't see the expressions on these people's faces, he continued, "Secondly, once we enter the Zhuolan region, as the richest place in Lapa, it is home to the country's wealthy people."

“We can plunder their wealth to break free from the control of those international friends.”

"Or to put it more bluntly, break free from the Federalists' control over us and become a true rebel force for freedom."

"This is our only way out now."

He looked at the guy who was yelling about quitting and asked, "Have you thought about what you're going to do next, even if we agree to let you leave?"

"Where do you get the funds to pay your soldiers' salaries? Although their income isn't high, it's probably still tens of thousands of federal sols a month. Where do you get that money to give them?"

"Stealing? Robbery?"

"You can't get that much money. Even if your occupied territory has abundant resources, can you turn those resources into money?"

"You can't do it, you don't know magic, you can't do it."

“Your people will scatter when you’re no longer a…” A mocking expression appeared on his face, “…when you’re no longer a warlord, do you think those people you hurt before will let you go?”

The man's face turned ashen. He knew, of course, what he had done in the occupied territory. Once those soldiers were gone, the people in the occupied territory would tear him apart and swallow him alive!

Seeing his pale face and unfocused eyes, everyone's attention was once again focused on Pedro, and they admired this intelligent and wise high school teacher even more.

"Therefore, the more critical the moment, the less we should retreat, because once we retreat, it is as if we have cut off our own escape route."

"Without the funding and weapons that the Federals provide, we would be back to who we were overnight."

“I will become a teacher, Ross, and you will become a worker again... You will go back to the roadside and start selling things.”

"And all of you, you will all become your past selves, and then be crushed by the Lapa government and the Lavila family like a tiny insect!"

"We seem to have many choices, and we seem to have a lot of power, but in reality, we have nothing and have never had any real power."

"For us now, if we want to survive, and if we want to live better, there is only one way."

He took a deep drag on his cigarette, exhaling a thick cloud of smoke. "Then we must keep moving forward, crush these people, and conquer Zhuolan."

“Zhuolan has enough wealth to free us from the control of the Federation. Only in this way can we achieve independence and autonomy and give Lapa a new life.”

"You can run away, but if you do, we will never take you back!"

The man's expression was extremely unpleasant. He hesitated for a long time, and finally gave up those unrealistic ideas with a sigh.

"Since this matter concerns everyone's fate, I can't be the only one at the forefront."

“Pedro, I respect you, and I believe everyone else does too, but that is not a reason for you and your people to be placed last.”

"It's not right for you to take over the country that our people fought with their lives."

All eyes turned to Pedro again. After thinking for a moment, Pedro offered a solution.

"To prove that I am not biased, I suggest that we each send out some people in each battle. I know this will not be absolutely fair, but relatively speaking, it will be fine."

(End of this chapter)