Chapter 261: The Final Madness

Takeda struggled, suddenly pulling a short sword from his arms, wanting to commit suicide.

But as soon as he raised his hand, the Yinglong's finger flicked gently.

The short sword flew dozens of meters away and stuck into the dirt.

"Want to die?" Li Yang sneered, "Not that easy."

He pulled up the public broadcast channel, translated into Japanese in real-time, and said to the whole field:

"All participants, lay down your weapons, release the hostages, and surrender immediately."

"Otherwise, this is the end."

In the scrap yard, more than three hundred right-wingers looked at Takeda being pinched in the mechanical hand, looked at the Ghost Samurai mech cut in two, looked at the dense drones in the sky...

Clang.

The first sword hit the ground.

Then the second, the third...

Five minutes later, everyone was squatting on the ground with their hands on their heads.

The kidnapped civilians were released, and Longguo military doctors stepped forward to check them and distribute blankets and hot water.

The whole process took nine minutes.

Fifty-one minutes ahead of schedule.

"Hokkaido resistance forces, cleared," Li Yang reported in the channel.

"Captured 1,200 enemy troops, rescued 207 civilians. Our side zero casualties."

"Beautifully done," Feng Yan's voice came, "Escort Takeda back, he will be the first batch of subjects for trial."

"Understood."

Li Yang manipulated the Yinglong to stuff Takeda into a special transport pod.

Takeda lay in the pod and suddenly asked: "Why... why didn't you just kill us?"

He was referring to the battle just now—Longguo clearly had the power to crush them but used the most troublesome non-lethal means.

The answer came from the mech loudspeaker, very calm:

"It's not that easy to let you die like this, we still have to put you on public trial."

"Let the whole world know the end of betraying peace."

"Let your names be nailed to the pillar of shame in history forever."

Takeda closed his eyes upon hearing this and said no more.

At 8:00 AM, the news of the end of the Hokkaido campaign was sent back to the country.

In the Longyin canteen, Wang Hao was eating breakfast while watching the news live broadcast.

"Old Li handled this cleanly!" he took a bite of a fried dough stick, "Ended the battle in nine minutes, faster than me clearing a game level!"

Chen Guang pushed up his glasses: "Mainly because the technological generation gap is too large. Their assembled mechs can't even beat our exoskeletons, let alone Yinglong."

"So I said, surrender early, why bother delaying things," Zhao Kaiyuan's holographic projection shook his head, "Now it's good, the war criminal list has added another batch."

"Speaking of war criminals..." Feng Yan walked into the canteen.

"Preparations for the public trial need to start. Chen Guang, you are responsible for evidence organization, Torch Dragon-3 should have collected it all, right?"

"Collected for three months," Chen Guang pulled up the database.

"From their planning of the attack to kidnapping civilians, all communication records, capital flows, personnel lists... all here."

"How many charges?"

"Takeda personally, thirty-seven. The entire organization, over two thousand," Chen paused, "Enough to sentence them to death a hundred times."

"Then sentence them," Feng Yan sat down, "This time, we must cut the weeds and dig up the roots."

As he was speaking, Li Yang's holographic projection came from the transport plane in Hokkaido.

He looked a bit tired, but his spirit was still good.

"President, have to report a situation."

"Speak."

"While cleaning up the scrap yard, we found some documents," Li Yang pulled up the scanned copies, "They are secret contact records between Takeda and the remaining forces of Eagle Country and White Elephant."

Feng Yan raised an eyebrow: "They actually dared to contact?"

"It's more than just contact," Li Yang zoomed in on one of the pages.

"They planned that if the Hokkaido operation failed, they would launch a full-scale jade-shatter plan in Tokyo, using explosives hidden all over the city to create large-scale terrorist attacks."

The canteen went silent instantly.

Wang Hao dropped his fried dough stick: "Damn... is this never going to end?!"

"Where are the explosives?" Feng Yan's voice turned cold.

"Torch Dragon-3 is already reverse-tracking," Chen marked the map.

"Initially located seventeen possible hiding points, mainly in subway stations, commercial areas, government buildings..."

"Clear them immediately," Feng Yan ordered, "Notify the Tokyo garrison, impose martial law on the whole city, search house by house."

"Already started," Li Yang said, "But we don't have enough manpower, need more bomb disposal mechs."

"Deploy," Feng Yan said decisively, "From the country, from the moon base, from anywhere. Absolutely cannot let them succeed."

After the order was given, the atmosphere in the canteen was a bit heavy.

Wang Hao muttered: "Why can't this bunch learn to behave..."

"Because the logic they believe in is wrong in itself," Zhao Kaiyuan suddenly spoke.

"Jade-shatter, Kamikaze... essentially, it's the cowardice of using self-destruction to escape reality. They dare not face the fact that they have fallen behind, so they can only use madness to cover up their fear."

"Then this public trial..." Chen Guang looked at Feng Yan.

"Must be broadcast globally," Feng Yan said.

"Let all Foot-Basin-Chicken people see what those 'leaders' who incited them to die look like in court."

"Also let the whole world see," Li Yang added, "This is the end of challenging Longguo's bottom line."

At 8:00 AM, Tokyo began a city-wide search.

Three thousand police mechs and bomb disposal robots walked the streets, cooperating with Torch Dragon-3's precise positioning, and suspicious packages were found one by one and safely detonated in the suburbs.

The sound of explosions rang from morning to afternoon, forty-seven times in total.

But not a single person was hurt.

Because before each detonation, Longguo soldiers used loudspeakers to warn repeatedly, clearing the area within a one-kilometer radius.

An old Tokyo woman looked at the explosive package being carried away—that thing was hidden in the trash can downstairs—and couldn't help but say to the interviewing reporter:

"Those right-wing lunatics... they wanted to blow us civilians to death!"

The reporter asked: "Then how do you view the Longguo garrison now?"

The old woman was silent for a few seconds, then said slowly: "At least... they are saving people."

This sentence was edited into that evening's news special.

And on the other side of the earth, Eagle Country White House.

President Carlson watched the footage of the Hokkaido campaign, the scene of Takeda being captured alive, the live broadcast of the Tokyo bomb disposal...

He turned off the screen and said to the Chief of Staff:

"Cancel all secret support for the remaining forces in Foot-Basin-Chicken."

"But President—"

"No buts," Carlson rubbed his temples tiredly, "We lost, lost thoroughly. The only thing we can do now is not become the next Takeda."

"What about White Elephant..."

"We can barely save ourselves, let them fend for themselves."

Evening, Longyin control room.

Feng Yan looked at the report of the end of the Tokyo bomb disposal and breathed a sigh of relief.

"The last explosive package has been handled."

"So..." Wang Hao blinked, "Is it completely safe now?"

"Temporarily," Chen pulled up the deep space monitoring interface, "The real threat is still on the way."

On the screen, Proxima Centauri's luminosity curve dropped by another percentage point.

The countdown numbers pulsed:

【Distance to Harvesters estimated arrival: 4 years and 3 months】

Shortened by another month.

"Internal trouble just calmed, external aggression is approaching again," Feng Yan said softly.

Li Yang's holographic projection nodded: "So the trial must be fast, integration must be fast, and then... turn all energy to deep space."

"Right," Feng Yan turned, facing everyone:

"Three days later, Tokyo Military Court, public trial." ===== CHAPTER 262 =====