A Shame to Burn It to Ashes

The governor's forceful stance left Hodgson silent.

He knew it was rude to stay silent at a time like this, but he truly felt caught in a difficult position.

What explanation could he give the governor?

Still, he knew he couldn't stay silent forever.

"I'll do my best to find out who was behind this..."

"No." Gu Hang interrupted him. "If you're just going to throw some mercenary group or a band of raiders under the bus, there's no need. I want only one thing from you: we agreed on eight days, so by tomorrow I expect to see everything I asked for. Not one item missing. Otherwise, Revival City can send over a new shipment. If it sets out now, it'll still make it in time. Or I can go get it myself."

Hodgson felt his throat go dry.

Sending a new shipment was absurd. A hundred tons of grain and ten thousand pieces of clothing weren't something you could just conjure up. Even in Revival City, not everyone had enough to eat.

So the crux of the governor's words lay in that last part: he could go get it himself.

Where would he go to get it?

That seemed to depend on Hodgson's answer.

If he could give a satisfactory answer, perhaps the governor would go after the people who had stolen the goods. Hodgson would only need to provide a name.

If he couldn't, then the governor would probably come to Revival City to get them.

No matter where he went, the process was unlikely to be gentle.

And who would have to bear the brunt of that force?

At this point, Hodgson knew he had no choice.

He gave Gu Hang a name, then said, "Give me another two or three hours, and I'll send you the exact address as well, Governor."

"Fine. I'll give you three final hours."

After ending the call, Hodgson pressed another button to summon his attendant. He wanted to say something, but before he could get the words out, an unbearable itch seized him, and he broke into a loud coughing fit.

The coughing was violent and relentless.

On the other end, his attendant's voice sounded panicked too. "Council Speaker? Council Speaker? Are you all right?"

Hodgson couldn't speak.

"I'm coming right away! Hang on!"

A few minutes later, two people burst into Hodgson's office.

One was his attendant. The other was Lambert Hodgson, his grandson, whom the attendant had called over.

By then, Hodgson had stopped coughing. Half-slumped in his chair, he gasped for breath.

Seeing that his grandfather hadn't suffered a serious attack, Lambert finally felt a little relieved.

"You..."

"Not now." Hodgson raised a hand to stop his grandson's questions. "Go to the Vaughan Company immediately. We have to confirm where the mercenaries he hired took the goods meant for the governor."

Lambert froze. "He really went through with it?"

"Yes."

"But..."

"Enough with the buts. We have only three hours."

"The governor is angry?" Lambert guessed.

"Yes." Hodgson sighed. "Our governor is even more decisive and ruthless than I imagined..."

Gu Hang didn't think he was being ruthless.

He simply knew what approach to take, and stuck to it: he couldn't let things with these people descend into mind games and political maneuvering.

It wasn't a question of whether he could win at playing dirty. The main point was, what would winning get him? It would be inefficient and take too long. Gu Hang didn't have time to play that game with them.

He preferred to be direct and decisive.

He called for his men, had them bring the radio, and set out with a hundred troops, leaving another hundred behind.

Gu Hang planned to catch up with the force that Yan Fangxu had taken ahead, inspect the scene, and see if they could find anything useful. They would try to track the enemy. If they found something, all the better. If not, they would wait to see what news Hodgson brought him in three hours.

At worst, he'd have to take more than two hundred men to Revival City and demand the supplies he needed.

His current forces alone wouldn't be enough. He might need to ask Brigadier General Yelicia for a little help.

Yelicia wouldn't refuse, he was sure. By then, she should have earned quite a few merits.

Gu Hang hoped things wouldn't come to that, but if they did, there'd be no avoiding it. And he would respond with the most decisive, thunderous force at his disposal.

What good was a sword-bearer without a fearsome reputation?

If anyone thought the governor wasn't intimidating enough, he didn't mind making an example of someone.

The only question was whether Revival City would be willing to be the chicken.

Two hours later, Gu Hang and his troops arrived at the scene and met up with Yan Fangxu.

The naval captain had found a few clues.

"We found some traces. The raiders tried to cover them up as they withdrew, but they weren't very good at it. I've already sent a squad to follow the trail. We should have more information soon."

After hearing Yan Fangxu's report, Gu Hang nodded. "At last, some good news. Now we wait. Let's see whether Revival City responds first, or your squad finds the raiders first."

"Revival City?" Yan Fangxu asked, puzzled. "Weren't we talking about raiders? Do you suspect this was done by people from those so-called Alliance factions in Revival City?"

"Is it really that hard to guess?"

"Uh..." Yan Fangxu scratched his head. "Right. It's easy to guess."

I didn't guess it, but I'm not going to admit that.

Gu Hang looked at Yan Fangxu, somewhat exasperated.

He was a fine soldier, so how could he be so dense about this sort of thing?

Gu Hang said no more. He looked around. The signs of the raid were actually quite faint.

There had been almost no fighting, no deaths, and therefore no bodies. There was hardly any blood, either. All the transport vehicles had been taken, and almost nothing remained at the scene.

From that perspective, tracing the raiders back to a crime committed hours earlier, from a scene with so few clues—and after they'd taken countermeasures against being tracked—showed that Yan Fangxu was no fool.

Thinking of this, Gu Hang felt a little more satisfied.

As long as his military skills were up to par, Gu Hang didn't expect him to be good at everything.

All that remained was to wait patiently.

And almost at the same time, news came in from both sides.

The elite Marines he'd sent out radioed back. They had found a trail they could continue following and worked out several possible escape routes and destinations for the raiders.

Meanwhile, the council speaker of Revival City contacted Gu Hang by radio and gave him three specific locations, ranked by likelihood.

The two separate intelligence sources corroborated each other, with some overlap.

In the end, Gu Hang had a fairly good idea of the target: Mantan Valley Manor.

It was a private estate belonging to an Alliance councilor named Vaughan. Mantan Valley Manor was his property and the place where he'd made his fortune. It was one of the few areas around Revival City with good farmland suitable for growing grain.

After building up his initial capital, Vaughan expanded beyond grain production into the grain trade, making a considerable amount of money and eventually becoming an Alliance councilor.

These days, Vaughan's main business was grain trading. The manor's grain production made up only a small portion of his earnings, but he still cared deeply about the place. He treated it as both a vacation retreat and a stronghold.

"Sounds like a lovely place. It'd be a shame to burn it to ashes."