Chapter 244: Crying Counts as Time, We Have No Time

Inside the Ground Radar Station, Li Mingyuan stared at the light dots on the screen and calmly issued instructions: "Prepare for the second round of launches; target the remaining Bombers."

"Yes! Missiles five through eight, ready!"

Four new Feilong-2 Missiles were erected, aimed at the enemy aircraft in the sky.

"Launch!"

Once again, four white pillars of smoke pierced straight into the clouds.

The enemy aircraft formation at high altitude was already in complete disarray.

They had never seen such a terrifying weapon—ground-launched, supersonic flight, Semi-Active Radar Homing; once locked on, it was almost impossible to shake off.

"All units retreat! I repeat, all units retreat!" Major Smith shouted until his voice was hoarse, but his order was drowned out by the sounds of explosions and screams.

The second round of Missiles hit four more targets.

The enemy aircraft in the sky fell one after another like dumplings, the fire and black smoke staining half the sky red.

"This isn't a battle, it's a slaughter..." Li Mingyuan thought to himself, but thinking of Wang Wei's sacrifice, he felt this retaliation was just right.

In just a few short minutes, eight Feilong-2 Missiles had shot down eight enemy aircraft, including six B-29 Bombers and two F-86 Fighters.

The remaining enemy aircraft fled in panic, casting any bombing mission to the back of their minds.

But there was simply no running away; the Missiles kept launching, like the arrival of the Grim Reaper.

At the missile launch site, as the enemy aircraft were shot down one by one, the soldiers of the air defense unit began to cheer. But soon, the cheers turned into sobs.

"If... if only we had finished this damn missile sooner..." an old technician choked out, "Comrade Wang Wei wouldn't have sacrificed himself..."

"It's all my fault for being too slow," another engineer said with tears in his eyes, pounding his own chest, "If I had finished the circuit design earlier, Comrade Wang Wei might still be alive..."

Across the entire site, many people held their heads and wept. This should have been a perfect Victory, yet it was cast in a tragic light because of Wang Wei's sacrifice.

Li Mingyuan stood there quietly, watching the last enemy aircraft in the sky disappear from view.

His expression was surprisingly calm, but his eyes flashed with a cold light.

"Enough," he finally spoke, his voice not loud but enough to make everyone quiet down, "Crying counts as time, we don't have much time; finish crying and get back to work."

The crowd looked up in astonishment, seeing Li Mingyuan had already turned and walked toward the R&D tent.

"If the Di Guo people took photos of our Missiles, they will definitely develop countermeasures when they get back. We must get ahead of them and design more Advanced Missiles."

Lao Liu chased after him: "Chief Engineer, you need to rest too, you haven't closed your eyes in three days..."

Li Mingyuan stopped, silent for a moment, then suddenly turned his head, revealing a barely perceptible expression of pain:

"With every missile launched just now, I kept thinking, if we had finished even one day, or even just a few hours earlier... Wang Wei wouldn't have..."

He did not finish his sentence, only took a deep breath, his voice returning to calm: "So, I do not have the qualification to rest."

Lao Liu looked at Li Mingyuan's exhausted yet firm back, suddenly understood something, stopped trying to persuade him, and followed silently.

Inside the tent, Li Mingyuan had already spread out new blueprints and began conceiving the next generation of weapon systems. His pen moved rapidly across the paper, stopping occasionally to think, then writing furiously again.

At the Di Guo Frontline Command, the atmosphere was suffocatingly heavy.

"Still no response?" General Johnson asked the Communication Officer for the tenth time.

"Yes, General," the Communication Officer said, his face pale, "Other than the brief distress signals sent back by a few surviving F-86s, there has been no other response..."

"What did those distress signals say?"

The Communication Officer swallowed hard: "They... they said they encountered some kind of surface-to-air missile attack they had never seen before, the speed was extremely fast, impossible to evade... and then the communication cut off."

The conference room was deathly silent.

"Missiles?" the Intelligence Officer repeated in disbelief, "How could Long Country possess surface-to-air missiles? This kind of technology is still in the experimental stage even for us!"

General Johnson's face turned from deathly pale to livid: "First supersonic fighters, then air-to-air missiles, and now surface-to-air missiles? What kind of monster is Long Country exactly!"

He slammed the table and stood up: "I want a full report! Immediately! Right now! I want to know exactly what happened! Send reconnaissance planes to see!"

"General," a staff officer said cautiously, "with all due respect, we have already sent out three reconnaissance planes, and not one has returned..."

The atmosphere in the conference room instantly became even heavier.

"My God..." an Advanced officer muttered, "We have already sent out nearly a hundred of our most Advanced fighter jets, and yet we don't even know what weapons the other side used?"

General Johnson's eyes were filled with helplessness and fear: "This is impossible... absolutely impossible... Long Country cannot possess such technology..."

Just then, more bad news arrived.

"General!" the Communication Officer ran in frantically, "Frontline report, the Long Country army has launched a full-scale counterattack! Many of our positions have already fallen!"

"What?" General Johnson looked as if he had been struck by lightning, "How dare they... don't they know our air power..."

His voice stopped abruptly, realizing what he had just said. Their air power had already been depleted multiple times; of course Long Country dared to counterattack.

"How bad is the situation?" he forced himself to calm down.

"Very bad, General. Long Country has deployed a large number of tracked vehicles and broken through our defensive lines. The Third Division and Seventh Division have been forced to retreat. If this continues, our supply lines may be cut off."

General Johnson's face turned ashen; after a long silence, he finally issued the order: "Tell the frontline commanders to allow a strategic retreat to preserve our effective strength. We need to re-evaluate the war situation..."

In the conference room, the officers who had just been full of confidence discussing how to annihilate the Long Country army in one fell swoop were now all dejected, not daring to look each other in the eye.

"What exactly happened?" General Johnson muttered to himself, his eyes hollow, "Why does every unit we send out never return?"

No one could answer his question.

On the Sun Country front, the Long Country army rushed toward the enemy positions like a burst dam.

Li Yunlong stood on the command vehicle, observing the battle situation through binoculars, a long-lost smile appearing on his face: "Good! Well fought! The Di Guo fellows have really shot themselves in the foot this time!"

Zhao Gang analyzed from the side: "The enemy previously shrank their defensive lines to avoid our anti-aircraft fire, giving up a large number of positions. Now that we are counterattacking, we can take advantage of this and finish the battle quickly!"

Li Yunlong nodded: "Pass on my order, all units are to accelerate their advance; we must recapture as many positions as possible before the enemy reacts!"