Li Xiang knew that the Intelligence Department must have found some evidence against him and somehow intercepted his relaying of information to their enemy. Otherwise, they would not arrest him right during the war. As such, he did not bother to explain himself.
Zhang Jinglin also did not say anything else. “Take him away. As of today, Zhou Yinglong will concurrently serve as the commander of the 103rd Infantry Brigade.”
Zhou Yinglong’s promotion had been fast-tracked because of the war. On one hand, it was due to the Razor Sharp Company’s contributions that the Forward Strike Battalion accomplished many great things. On the other hand, this war had so far been tragic. Fortress 178 had fought to the point where there was barely anyone left to deploy to the battlefield. Zhang Jinglin frowned as he watched Li Xiang get taken away. He was only worried about whether the intelligence leaked by Li Xiang would inconvenience Ren Xiaosu greatly.
Next to him, Wang Fengyuan lowered his head and said, “Commander, I wasn’t observant enough and allowed him to relay the intel. If I had discovered it earlier, Ren Xiaosu would not have to—”.
“It’s not your fault.” Zhang Jinglin shook his head. “There are too many tasks waiting to be done in intelligence gathering, so it’s great that you sniffed him out. When we were cleaning up and purging the Zong Consortium’s elements, Li Xiang was clearly on our side. It was inevitable that he confounded your judgment as even I find it hard to believe.”
“But for Ren Xiaosu to infiltrate into Stronghold 146 alone…”
Zhang Jinglin replied, “Don’t worry, he isn’t a reckless person and will only act if he is confident. All we need to do is wait for a miracle.”
Meanwhile, Ren Xiaosu was still trying to figure out Stronghold 146’s layout as quickly as possible so he could capture all the Zong Consortium higher-ups in one fell swoop.
But when he went out onto the streets again that day, he realized the garrison troops of Stronghold 146 were putting up wanted posters everywhere. All of the electrical poles in the stronghold had several posters pasted on them, and all of them were for the arrest of the same person: Ren Xiaosu!
Before anyone could gather around to have a look, Ren Xiaosu found an electrical pole with no one around it and went up to have a look. He was surprised to see a portrait of himself on it.
As the portrait was a sketch, there were some differences. But it was still really well-drawn. Although there were some differences, anyone who saw the wanted poster would definitely find him extremely familiar.
As described on the wanted poster, Ren Xiaosu was currently likely to be in the vicinity of the stronghold or might even have infiltrated into the stronghold alone. If any residents discovered the whereabouts of this person and reported it to the garrison brigade of Stronghold 146, they would receive 200,000 yuan as a reward for the tip. Ren Xiaosu pouted. Was he only worth 200,000 yuan?
While he felt unhappy about that, his thoughts turned to, ‘There must be a spy in Fortress 178 that told the Zong Consortium about my location.’
He did not know if the troops of Fortress 178 were aware of this spy, but if the spy were allowed to continue relaying intel to the enemy, it could be disastrous for Fortress 178.
Suddenly, a platoon walked in the direction of Ren Xiaosu. He immediately lowered his head so they would not notice him. But when the platoon walked past him, the platoon commander at the front of the group sensed something was wrong. He turned to look at Ren Xiaosu and said, “Hey, you, raise your head!”
In that instant, Ren Xiaosu took off in the opposite direction. With a leap, he jumped over a wall and landed inside a small yard.
Before the platoon could even raise their guns to shoot at him, Ren Xiaosu had already disappeared from their sights.
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This platoon immediately blew their whistles and shouted into their radio, “Suspicious personnel spotted! Suspicious personnel spotted! Requesting reinforcements!”
The search party in Stronghold 146 was a wide net. Once they received the intelligence report from the spy at Fortress 178, they got ready to cast it.
It was not that Ren Xiaosu was incapable of winning against a standard platoon, but if he did not manage to kill them all at once, they could get a chance to warn the other members of the search party. If Ren Xiaosu got held back in such a situation, it would probably be over for him.
At this moment, the benefits of acting alone could vividly be seen. If he was leading the Razor Sharp Company, he would probably have to look out for their safety. But since he was alone, he was extremely mobile and could shake off any pursuing troops whenever or just start an all-out fight with them.
When Ren Xiaosu landed inside the yard, he was startled by the sight of a woman collecting dried laundry. He did not stop and jumped over a wall into another yard.
As screams rang out one after another, the cries of the stronghold residents were a signal to help the search party track him down.
When he finally jumped out into an alleyway, he encountered two Zong Consortium soldiers who were trying to intercept him.
When the two soldiers saw Ren Xiaosu, they were about to raise their guns to shoot him down. But the moment Ren Xiaosu landed in front of them, he grabbed hold of their gun barrels, and a hint of his shadow could be seen darting out from behind him. Once the shadow disappeared from sight, blood started seeping from the slit in the necks of the two soldiers.
They were surprised, as they could not even make out what that shadow darting from behind Ren Xiaosu was.
A large-scale pursuit was launched in Stronghold 146, and that wide net gradually closed down on Ren Xiaosu.
When the pedestrians in the streets saw the Zong Consortium soldiers pursuing their target with so much urgency, they immediately hid in the buildings on the street, afraid they would get themselves entangled.
All of the Zong Consortium soldiers were listening in on the radio and could hear random shouting. “Target has crossed Fuxing Road. I repeat, target has crossed Fuxing Road. He is now moving eastwards on Zhangheng Road at a fast pace!”“The target has downed several of our soldiers again. He has jumped into the residents’ houses on Zhangheng Road and is still moving east!”
More than a 1,000 Zong Consortium soldiers were scattered all over the streets as residents living in the vicinity eavesdropped on the soldiers’ shouts from their windows. They were surprised when they realized that all of these elite members of the Zong Consortium’s garrison were actually pursuing just one person. Many of them had thought the big commotion was caused by a group of soldiers from Fortress 178 infiltrating into the stronghold.
The Zong Consortium soldiers realized the target they were pursuing was not human at all. Disregarding how fast it could move, any scattered troops who got separated from the main force would instantly be killed. Some of those who were slain did not even manage to finish their reports about the target’s whereabouts.
At this moment, Ren Xiaosu was using his rifle because he realized the enemy’s encirclement was gradually closing in on him. Even if he did not use the rifle, he could not hide his whereabouts. He could only resort to every means available to break through the encirclement so he could open up a path of escape for himself.
Ren Xiaosu’s firearms proficiency had been raised to master, so how could these normal soldiers compare with him? Even if he suddenly encountered the Zong Consortium platoons in the streets, Ren Xiaosu could still immediately suppress them with his rifle.
Some soldiers attempted to form a defensive line in front by hiding behind some walls. But before they could even react, a grenade suddenly appeared at their feet and the newly established defensive line was blown up into pieces.
Ren Xiaosu had already started his killing spree, and there was no way back from it!
Fighting to the death was something Ren Xiaosu long understood!