Eagle Sauce: The 055 destroyer was launched into the sea just after the founding of the country?

Three hours later.

General MacArthur stood on a broken jeep and looked around at the troops who had finally escaped from the siege of the mechanical dogs that were swarming like a tide.

The once-proud NATO coalition's elite forces have now become a scattered wreckage of troops.

Exhausted soldiers shuffled forward, wounded lay groaning on makeshift stretchers, and the few surviving tanks and armored vehicles made dull engine noises, occasionally emitting an ominous metallic grinding sound.

Three days ago, they were a high-spirited offensive force with the ambition to quickly capture Stalingrad.

And now, they had retreated seventy kilometers in a panic, leaving behind more than three thousand bodies of their comrades and countless expensive military equipment.

As far as MacArthur could remember, the Eagle Army had never suffered such a heavy loss since its founding.

What he couldn't accept even more was that even after suffering such heavy casualties, he still didn't cause much damage to the other party...

"Are you sure we are out of the enemy's pursuit range?"

MacArthur asked, his voice hoarse and tired.

Forty-eight hours of continuous commanding operations and emergency retreats had left deep traces of fatigue on the face of the elderly general.

"Yes, General," Colonel Wilson replied, "Reconnaissance aircraft reported no large-scale enemy troop activity within 70 kilometers of Stalingrad. It seems that the Dragon Army has no intention of pursuing."

"Strange," MacArthur frowned. "Logically, they should have taken advantage of our confusion to launch a pursuit and completely wipe us out. Why would they give up this opportunity?"

Colonel Wilson shook his head: "Perhaps their combat goal is only to defend Stalingrad, and they have no further offensive plans. Or..."

"Or maybe they don't even need to chase us, they have a way to destroy us,"

MacArthur took over, a hint of uneasiness in his eyes.

"Those drones and robot dogs have proven they're far more capable than we thought. Who knows what other weapons they have in store for us?"

Just as he finished speaking, a military truck loaded with wounded soldiers drove past them.

The wounded in the car looked pale and had empty eyes. Some had bloodstained bandages wrapped around their arms or legs, while others were unconscious due to excessive blood loss.

These once high-spirited young soldiers now suffer from indelible psychological trauma and may never forget the cold red electronic eyes of the mechanical hunters.

“Look at them,” MacArthur whispered. “It’s not just their bodies that are hurt. Those damn machines have hurt their souls.”

Wilson nodded silently.

He knew well that when fighting a traditional enemy, soldiers at least understood what they were facing—fellow human beings with flesh and blood, who were afraid and tired and could be defeated.

But those mechanical dogs and drone swarms were completely beyond their cognition and destroyed their basic understanding of the battlefield.

The retreating troops continued to advance slowly.

Along the way, the soldiers hardly spoke, and looked back from time to time, as if they were worried that those terrifying mechanical hunters would appear again at any time.

Some people's hands were shaking unconsciously, while others fell into a trance, with their eyes blurred and no reaction to anything around them.

A young lieutenant sat on a rock by the roadside, his face buried in his hands, his shoulders trembling slightly.

MacArthur stopped the car, walked over and patted him on the shoulder.

“Lieutenant, are you okay?”

The young officer looked up, tears in his eyes: "General... I... my entire platoon is gone."

"Out of forty-two people, I'm the only one who survived."

“Those machines… they’re like demons crawling out of hell… there’s nothing we can do… nothing…”

MacArthur was silent for a moment, then said firmly, "Stand up, Lieutenant. Your comrades would not want to see you like this."

“We have suffered a defeat, but the war is not over.”

Looking at the confused look in the young officer's eyes, MacArthur realized that a few words of encouragement were far from enough.

The morale of the entire army has hit rock bottom. If no quick action is taken, panic and despair will spread, eventually leading to complete collapse.

"Wilson," he turned to the chief of staff, "have all able-bodied officers gather in the open space ahead. It's time to give the soldiers some hope."

Half an hour later, MacArthur stood on the turret of a tank, facing the surviving soldiers gathered around him - about 2,500 exhausted and depressed NATO officers and soldiers.

Many of them still bore the scars of battle, their uniforms tattered and stained with dirt and blood. Their eyes were filled with confusion, fear, and loss, but also with a faint expectation of their commander.

MacArthur looked around at the soldiers, took a deep breath, and began his speech.

"Soldiers," he said, his voice loud and firm, echoing across the empty wilderness, "today, we suffered a tragic setback. I will not use flowery words to cover up this fact. We suffered defeat, we lost brave comrades, and we were forced to retreat."

The scene was silent as everyone stared at the legendary general, waiting for his next words.

"But I want to tell you that the failure of this battle is not due to your lack of courage or your weakness of will. We are facing a brand new threat, an enemy we have never been prepared for."

"Those drones and mechanical dogs were weapons that Dragon Nation had been secretly developing for a long time. Our intelligence system completely failed, leaving us completely unprepared."

MacArthur paused, letting the words sink in among the soldiers, then continued.

"But now, we have seen what our enemy does. I promise you, we will learn, we will adapt, and we will evolve. This is just a temporary setback, not a final defeat!"

His voice became more and more excited: "I once said to Long Guo on the battlefield of the peninsula, 'I will come back'. Today, I say to them again: We will come back!"

"We will come back with better equipment, better training, and stronger resolve!"

"We will make Longguo pay tenfold for every bit of damage it inflicted on us today!"