What is meant to come will eventually come, and what is not meant to come is useless to think about. The Blaze garrison remained as tranquil as always, so quiet that not even a Ghost Shadow could be seen. After a day of rigorous training, the soldiers were obviously dead asleep, with only the many military staff in the intelligence room in a complete flurry... As he pushed the door open, Feng Yi barely avoided being knocked over by the panicked confidential secretary.

"General, I..."

"What's the panic? I know you have some documents for me." As Feng Yi spoke, he casually took the telegraph from the secretary's hand and scanned it, immediately comprehending the situation, "Haha, I said the imperial army would definitely launch a surprise attack, and it turned out just as I expected."

Feng Yi's voice, along with his air of confident anticipation, instantly calmed the frantic officers... In that moment, the imperial night raid seemed to no longer be a cause for concern. In the span of a breath, everyone returned to their routine tasks with due diligence.

Indeed, such was his magic. As the commander of the Blaze Legion, Feng Yi was a high-ranking officer, leading his brothers through fierce battles from Mardis, across the twist and turns to the City in the Sky, and then to Alpha. Although they hadn't fought many battles, each ended with glorious victory — now, the most widespread rumor was that the commander was the real identity of the Revenge Shadow Rider, and although the evidence was insufficient, did that really matter? His brothers admired Feng Yi himself, this commander who rallied the resistance and pulled space pirates with no way out from the Abyss; he was their true pillar.

That assured and confident gaze naturally settled the hearts of everyone like a rock coming to rest. A true commander needs to have the presence of calm and strategy, despite battle urgency. Even though Feng Yi preferred charging to the front lines in battle, special times called for special measures.

Gazing at the electronic map and the rapidly increasing light points in the desert region, Feng Yi's eyes flickered non-stop. Those were imperial troops, and each light point signified a mobile soldier machine, and their numbers were still increasing...

Fortunately, the enemy almost certainly believed their movements had gone undetected by our forces. Indeed, Saudi's intentions weren't wrong, but one can never wake a person who is pretending to sleep. In other words, if the Blaze Legion was prepared, they could detect the enemy from a hundred kilometers away. Rather than saying the Blaze had no reaction, it would be more accurate to say that Saudi saw only what they were meant to see. And since the enemy believed their movements were unnoticed, it indicated that they would not attack immediately, giving us the chance to use their strategy against them, utilizing a trap of inviting the enemy into our pot.

And the next action should be... of course, time to get to work. The vast camp was instantly alerted by the short, sharp blasts of the horns, toot, toot-toot-toot-toot-toot...

At 1 a.m., soldiers were shocked awake from their sleep by the emergency assembly... A light emergency muster required no backpack, so the first thing the soldiers did upon getting up was to hardly bother about dressing properly, slinging on clothing and trousers with an armed belt as they hurriedly rushed outside, some even hopping on one leg while pulling up their socks.

A light emergency assembly meant that the cook unit didn't need to bring pots and pans, they only needed to carry basic compressed biscuits and water sources to be ready to depart. The all-female medical logistics team was also simultaneously grabbing medical bags in their rush to the drill ground...

Truly befitting an ironclad force that fights on the front lines, it took the Blaze Legion only 6 minutes and 32 seconds for all the soldiers and officers to assemble completely. It should be noted that the emergency assembly time limit is 3 minutes for a company, 5 minutes for a battalion, 10 minutes for a regiment, and 15 minutes for a division unit; the Blaze Legion, with its three thousand strong, is already a fully formed division force, and it took them only 6 minutes and 32 seconds.

Yet, in Feng Yi's eyes, it was only a matter of nodding his head in tacit approval. With the situation urgent, there was no time for roll calls or head counts, but Feng Yi knew how important this battle would be, important enough to have a revolutionary impact on both the Blaze Legion and Mardis. Therefore, he had to make a speech before the stand, as the morale plays a leading role in an ace force. Although the Blaze Legion was not yet a genuine ace like God's Thorn, Feng Yi believed that one day they would surpass it. He had never had any doubts about these brothers with whom he fought side by side.

At this moment, with his hands behind his back, Feng Yi surveyed back and forth, casting a cold glance over the soldiers and officers of the legion and spoke sternly, "Soldiers, the time to test you has arrived. Intelligence has located imperial troops rapidly approaching our garrison location at the X-coordinate. Your mission is to follow the higher-ups' commands and make the most accurate judgment on the spot. Commanders can't always remind everyone what to do, so you need to gather your wits, strength, and the professional military knowledge you've learned to adapt accordingly and strike a powerful blow against the imperial troops — today's enemy is different from any we've faced before, so please remember the importance of life. But I have full confidence in you all, because you are Blaze soldiers."

Feng Yi's voice was powerful and resonant. He paused, and then his tone shifted, the following words acting like a shot of adrenaline, jolting everyone's spirits, "Ahem, right, don't we still have Mardis to reclaim? Don't we still need to buy cars, buy houses, and get married? I forgot to mention, this is our first battle in Mardis, and it should also be the only battle. After that..." He pointed to the ground with one hand, "This will be our future home, where we will rebuild our homeland and restore commerce. As the first to contribute, you all will have free housing, and you'll also have free hover cars."

The soldiers listened intently, enjoying Feng Yi's rare joke, as he claimed the housing would be ordinary apartments, not villas, and the hover cars would be ordinary, not Time Seconds. Ultimately, everything will have to be earned through their own efforts. But before that, expelling the approaching enemy was the priority. The tense pre-battle atmosphere immediately eased considerably after Feng Yi's speech...

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