Chapter 451: Then It

The soldiers' backs gradually straightened.

"This mission isn't to fight a war—at least not to initiate combat. We're going to erect a pillar, a pillar that tells the whole world 'this belongs to Lanfang.' We'll use tracks and wheels to roll a road through the desert. We'll use iron spades and cement to build a fortress in the wasteland. We'll use this—" he patted the machine gun on the jeep, "—to tell anyone who wants to raise a flag: consider the cost carefully."

Zhao Dengyu jumped down from the engine hood and walked to the jeep at the front of the formation. A neatly folded red‑background gold‑dragon flag was mounted on the vehicle.

"I have only one request: after reaching the destination, raise the flag, raise it high. Let those fifty kilometers away see it with a telescope. Let a Yingguo general a hundred kilometers away be forced to mark a new symbol on the battle map—not the Osman Diguo crescent, not the Yingguo cross, but our Lanfang dragon flag!"

He inhaled deeply: "Now—depart!"

The orders were relayed through the radio in layers. The engine roared suddenly louder, and the first jeep drove out of the base gate, its two front headlights piercing the darkness.

The convoy moved like a steel giant python, slowly slithering out of Dubai city. Along the streets, startled citizens, still in their clothes, stood at doorways, silently watching the troops set out. Some raised their hands, some held children, some whispered prayers for safety.

Inside the truck's cargo area, soldiers clutched their rifles, swaying with the jolts. No one spoke. Sand kicked up by the wheels seeped through the canvas seams, quickly coating everyone's faces with a dust‑colored hue.

Reconnaissance battalion commander Li Guosheng sat in the second jeep, spreading out the marching map. His flashlight beam fell on the point labeled "Huo'erdesa"—on the map just a small circle surrounded by vast blank, annotated 'wasteland, no water source.'

"Battalion commander," the driving second‑lieutenant couldn't help asking, "are we really going to be stationed there? I heard that place doesn't even grow grass."

Li Guosheng folded the map: "That's why we were sent. Does a good spot ever fall to us?"

"But… a division facing Yingguo's hundreds of thousands of troops…"

"The division commander said it's not to fight a war," Li Guosheng looked toward the boundless darkness outside the vehicle, "it's to stand guard. Like a sentinel at one's doorstep—not necessarily to engage, but to make passersby know—this house has occupants, not to be trifled with."

The second‑lieutenant seemed half‑understanding, half‑confused.

As dawn brightened, the convoy had already traveled 100 km from Dubai. The sun rose from the Persian Gulf surface, dyeing the desert gold. The long convoy snaked among the dunes, the dust raised by the tail resembling a massive yellow dragon in the sunrise.

Istanbul, the day after the signing.

General Fa Jinhan stood on the Deguo Embassy balcony, gazing at the Osman Diguo Navy Command Building across the Bosphorus. The Osman Diguo crescent flag on the roof hung limp in the morning breeze, its pole slightly crooked, yet unattended.

"General," the adjutant delivered a telegram, "urgent domestic dispatch. The Chief of Staff has, per your order, drawn 120 engineers to form a 'Special Vehicle Development Division,' headed by Dr. Feng Grot of Krupp Company. Additionally, Man Company reports the first thirty truck chassis have completed modification and can be armored at once."

Fa Jinhan did not take the telegram: "When will Lanfang's technical data ship arrive?"

"Twenty‑five days, if the weather is fine."

"Too slow," the Chief of Staff frowned, "send a dispatch to the Navy Department, dispatch two destroyers to rendezvous, escort to Hamburg. Tell the captain that the cargo on that ship is worth more than their lives."

"Understood!"

After the adjutant left, Fa Jinhan kept watching the strait. An old Osman Diguo cruiser drifted by slowly, its hull riddled with rust, the deck sparsely manned. It had once been a deterrent in the Black Sea, now it resembled moving scrap metal.

He recalled Chen Feng's private words after the signing: "General, tanks are merely tools. What truly shifts the battle is a new tactic for using those tools. Deguo's army needs a Thought Revolution—shifting from trench mindset to a Breakthrough mindset that combines mobility and firepower."

Thought Revolution. Fa Jinhan chewed on the phrase. How could he not know? Yet breaking the three‑year trench‑war pattern would mean overturning countless entrenched doctrines and offending many conservative generals.

But the Western Front lost two thousand men daily. The Verdun meat grinder had already devoured three hundred thousand Deguo youths. The Somme still ran red.

There was no choice.

He turned back to his office, spread out the operational map. With a pencil he drew a circle on the Western Front: "Between Alas and Combree, the terrain is relatively flat, suitable for armored assaults. If we had three hundred tanks… no, two hundred will suffice. Concentrate them to carve a ten‑kilometer‑wide Breakthrough, with cavalry and motorized infantry following…"

He became engrossed in feverish calculations, completely oblivious to the view outside, where the Osman Diguo Empire was slowly collapsing before his eyes.

At the same time, Dubai Port.

Captain Zhang Haitao of the cargo ship "Poyang Lake" stood on the bridge, watching dockworkers use a gantry crane to load the final batch of prefabricated cement components onto the vessel. Those are the walls and caps of a bunker, cast in the factory and ready to be assembled on site.

"Captain," the chief mate came over, "all cargo is loaded. Heavy artillery Shells eight hundred tons, engineering machinery three hundred tons, prefabricated structures five hundred tons, plus six months of rations, medicines, Fuel. The draft is 0.8 meters deeper than designed, but still within safe limits."

Zhang Haitao nodded: "Weather forecast?"

"The next five days in the Persian Gulf will be calm and flat. But after exiting the Hormuz Strait into the Oman Bay, we may encounter monsoon eddies, with wave heights of two to three meters."

"No impact on navigation," the captain glanced at his watch, "notify the engine room, set sail in an hour. The route as planned: Dubai—Hormuz Strait—Oman Bay—northwest coast of the Persian Gulf—Huo'erdesa anchorage. Maintain twelve knots, expected arrival in five days."

"Understood!"

The chief mate was about to leave when Zhang Haitao called him back: "Wait. The Navy Department specifically instructed—our ship may be targeted by Yingguo warships. Tell everyone to keep radio silence and enforce light control at night. If an Yingguo vessel queries us, say we are a civilian cargo ship carrying 'commercial exploration equipment.'"

"Understood."

An hour later, the "Poyang Lake" and the "Dongting Lake" slowly left Dubai Port. The two ten‑thousand‑ton cargo ships sounded their horns, the sound echoing across the bay.

On the dock, Liu Yongfu saw the ships off, then turned to the engineer beside him: "Are all the construction blueprints for the Huo'erdesa base brought?"

"All present, Minister. Including the deep‑water dock plan, freshwater purification plant design, power‑station layout, and… the preliminary oil‑well exploration plan."

Liu Yongfu looked toward the northwest, as if he could see that desert 1,200 kilometers away.

"There's oil underground there, the President is certain. Our mission is to dig it out, refine it into fuel, and load it into Lanfang warships' tanks," he paused, "and the army brothers' task is to ensure that when we drill, no one dares to sabotage us."

The engineer whispered: "Minister, will the Yingguo really watch us plant a flag right under their noses?"

Liu Yongfu smiled: "Then it's a matter of who has the bigger nerve and whose resolve is harder."