My wife is the stand-in.

Saeko Busujima's expression was also grim. She added, "What's worse, what if he takes control of that position and uses the automatic turrets to bombard other positions? What if he bombards the blockade line?"

"No way?" One of the swordsmen was stunned. "Automatic turrets are all remotely controlled."

The Emperor of the Sun Palace waved his sleeves, and flames danced, silencing the murmurs: "Better safe than sorry. We don't know your mission location yet, so go back to that position. If you lose the position, take it back. I will immediately report the news of outsiders infiltrating the army and have the entire headquarters investigate."

Everyone nodded, and before they could even catch their breath, the hundreds of people immediately set off and turned back.

"Amanosaki," the Emperor called out to him.

"I'm sending the deputy captain of this group with you to prevent any hidden evil spirits from causing trouble... Please make this quick and decisive!"

Seeing the Emperor's serious expression, Amanosaki nodded, "Don't worry, I'm here."

The Emperor smiled sweetly and waved:

"Vice Captain, would you please go with the expedition team?"

Amanosaki looked at the familiar face that flew out of the forest and sat on a chair made of hundreds of leaf-like feathers, and cried out in disbelief:

"Oriental Leaf!?"

"Eastern Leaf Knight! I am a knight-errant! Not a brand!"

The Leaf Knight from the East, who had intended to give Amanosaki a "surprise," was so angry that his nose was crooked.

Chapter 183: The Shame of the Branch Command

Oriental Leaf Hero, an old acquaintance.

While slacking off at the Yushan branch's training grounds, he was contemptuously referred to by Amber Gong as a man who could kill him as easily as killing a chicken.

At the branch-level, any being of equal stature can become a branch-level knight-errant... or a heretic.

The other heroes in the group looked at him with respect, but Amanosaki and Saeko Busujima's gazes were fixed on him.

It was filled with distrust and suspicion.

That look was enough to make the Eastern Leaf Knight go berserk.

The Empress did not understand the conflict between the two—the conflict between a slightly talented gangster and a gangster who was a disgrace to the branch level, which was not worth her diverting her attention to study scriptures in her spare time.

She continued, "Both Dongfang Shuye and I are heroes from other places who came to Hongdu branch to provide support. We may not be as familiar with the situation here as you are, so please don't be blindly confident just because there are branch-level heroes here. We should be cautious in everything we do. What we know so far is that this heretic has the ability to confuse people's minds and mislead their judgments, which makes them quite troublesome."

The Emperor's voice wasn't loud, but it inexplicably penetrated the roar of cannons and torrential rain, making it audible to everyone.

“I have a question.” Saeko Busujima raised her hand. “If it’s to divert the fish disaster, wouldn’t it be better to have the local branch-level heroes from the Hongdu branch carry out the task? Why are heroes from other branches assigned to the tributaries closer to the blockade line?”

Saeko Busujima's question was both tinged with suspicion and also on behalf of Amanosaki.

Having been deceived before, they have all become more vigilant.

"Because we don't have enough manpower," the Emperor replied frankly.

"There are millions of registered martial arts practitioners nationwide. Half of them spend their entire lives as apprentices, and the remaining half are mostly at the level of a branch. No matter how much they practice, they can never reach the standard of a sub-branch."

The Emperor's tone was full of helplessness: "And the number of chivalrous figures at the branch level is less than 30,000 at most."

“Thirty thousand people seems like a lot, but when spread across the country, in cities, transportation hubs, military areas, mining areas, overseas, and government offices, manpower is needed. It’s simply not enough.”

"And there are only about a hundred heroes at the headquarters level throughout the country. They are all in key areas... not to mention that one of them died a few days ago. For this extermination order, Qunxia Mountain only plans to send one of its headquarters heroes."

When the topic turned to the death of a branch-level swordsman, Amanosaki awkwardly scratched the back of his head.

"Now that the fish plague has invaded this area, the situation is certainly urgent. But it is precisely at times like these that the heroes stationed in the city must not leave. We need to give the people confidence that Hero Mountain can guarantee their safety."

"Therefore, of the 32 branch-level heroes in Hongdu Province, only 19 have come."

When Amanosaki heard the number 32, he recalled the length of the river that flowed through Hongdu, and his face immediately fell.

"No, 19 people coming is already a high proportion," he said sincerely. "The real problem is that we don't have enough heroes, right?"

Oriental Leaf Knight's lips twitched, and he said impatiently, "Nonsense, there's no such thing as a thousand days of guarding against thieves. The cost of defense is inherently high. Even the current extermination order was only finalized by scientists working overtime these past few days."

Zeng Aman raised her hand, looking as serious as a baby: "I want to ask that too. Why didn't the country make an extinction plan for the four-clawed scale fish before? Even if it was just for military technology reserves... Why are you looking at me like that? Is there anything wrong with what I said? That's how it's portrayed in movies."

Everyone looked helpless. This time, Li Junzi, who was often treated like a fool like Zeng Aman, sighed and patted him on the shoulder: "Buddy, I know the answer. The government has no money. In the past, organizing these kinds of activities required human lives. Now, they're throwing money at machines to replace manpower."

"Enough with the chit-chat! Let's hurry up! We've already wasted two minutes!" The Eastern Leaf Knight raised his finger, and the feathered chair pulled him into the air. Amanosaki Okinohi-no-miya bowed and turned to catch up with the main group that had resumed its movement.

However, the situation still exceeded everyone's expectations.

After safely passing the first artillery position, they were blocked a second time.

The soldiers on the watchtowers around the position opened fire the moment they spotted them, unleashing a barrage of fire from individual rocket launchers, heavy machine guns, sniper rifles, and grenades.

The enemy was so frightened that the position they passed through opened fire. It was only when the Eastern Leaf Knight rode the feathers into the position commander's tent that the misunderstanding was cleared up.

Now, everyone is sitting in the first position, looking at the second position 200 meters away, where all searchlights are on and the alarm is sounded, and they are at a loss.

“These people are all chivalrous heroes, not evil demons!” Xu Xiangqian, the commander of the No. 403 automatic artillery position, repeated once again into the military telephone.

A few seconds later, he hung up the phone, took off his military cap, scratched his head, and walked out of the tent.

Oriental Leaf Knight leaned closer: "How's the situation?"

Because of his arrival, command of the team was also taken away.

After all, he was a branch-level hero with the backing of the Heroes of the Mountain. Even though Amanosaki had killed the guard of the Fengdu branch and earned everyone's respect, Amanosaki still found it difficult to command the heroes on the other four ships under the strong demands of the Eastern Leaf Hero.

This matter is a bit troublesome now, but someone is willing to take the blame, so Amanosaki is happy to be free. He and Saeko Busujima are sitting together, cooking soup with everyone else.

"It's terrible!" Xu Xiangqian said with a worried look. He pulled out his cigarette case. His military uniform was already soaked through in the downpour. He reached into his pocket and found the cigarette case with the broken pipe inside. The case made a gurgling sound when he squeezed it.

"Damn it!" He threw down his cigarette pack, put his hands on his hips, and sulked. "The commanders of those three positions have been calling their superiors for reinforcements, constantly saying that they have been attacked by a large group of inexplicable evil forces, and they are very certain of it. It's hard for me to convince them on my own."

Oriental Leaf Knight was somewhat surprised: "The Emperor of the Sun Palace has already informed the headquarters of the Heroes Mountain Sect, and the news should have reached the military by now. You even led people to the 402 position for questioning, only to be driven back by a burst of bullets. Even with video evidence, you couldn't get the command to agree?"

Xu Xiangqian rubbed his face and sat down, his expression grim: "The people from the three positions have been shouting on the channel. They say that my position has been invaded by evil forces, and they are isolated and helpless. They are preparing to have the engineers deactivate the automatic gun signals and manually operate the bombardment to bomb us... Their emotions are very strange, and they sound very desperate. The command headquarters suspects that they are really capable of doing it."

When Amanosaki heard this, he almost dropped the hot soup in his hand.

"This is outrageous!?" he asked in surprise. "Shouldn't the command center have a plan to deal with the invasion of evil forces?"

“Yes, but all the preparations are for physical confrontation.” Xu Xiangqian pointed to his brain. “The task of identifying evil spirits and heretics is assigned to the knights. There are knights on guard in the forests several kilometers around the Yangtze River, but when the command called to inquire just now, the answer was that everything is normal, no one is missing, there are no signs of intrusion... and there are none in the sky either.”

"So theoretically, the situation I reported does not exist."

Saeko Busujima interrupted Xu Xiangqian: "No, there's still one flaw."

She pointed to the Yangtze River, where explosions were still occurring: "What if the enemy came from the water?"

"Impossible!" Xu Xiangqian stood up, excitedly saying, "This place is close to the blockade line, every inch of the river is covered by artillery fire, and the water is full of mindless monster fish. How could it be a place for evil spirits?"

Oriental Leaf Man glanced at Saeko Busujima, then met Amanosaki's eyes, as if asking for his opinion.

Amanosaki immediately recalled the Wudang swordsman he had accidentally discovered at the temporary aid station at the dock.

So he put down his cup, his gaze intense: "There is a place."

"The martial arts masters of Wudang Mountain are used to cross the river on a single reed. They pay attention to their footwork and will deliberately leave footholds when using their weapons."

"The last stretch of the blockade line, which is the responsibility of the Wudang branch, is used to intercept and kill Wang Yu. In that kind of place, if Wang Yu were to risk his life to break through, he might knock down one or two heroes and create a very brief opening."

"If a swordsman falls into the water, the one who is rescued may not be the real person."

"But...four-clawed scaled fish don't have brains." Xu Xiangqian still found it hard to believe. "Would they abandon the King Fish? Would they cooperate with other heretics?"

Oriental Leaf Knight confirmed Amanosaki's deduction: "Don't forget, when the King Fish is with the clan, she will turn into a demon. At that time, her intelligence is high enough."

Chapter 184: My Eldest Brother Came, He Killed Them All

The situation is somewhat grim.

If only three positions are to be suppressed, then five ships of knights will suffice. The knights of China have all received special operations training, and they are better at small-scale, elite special operations than large-scale human wave tactics.

Anyone with a modicum of common sense knows that since evil forces have joined together and attacked the established positions, and are still patiently refraining from killing, burning, torturing, and consuming negative emotions from humans, their intentions must be considerable.

If we act rashly now, with both sides being our own people, we'll lose two crucial resources to counter the evil schemes of the heretics.

But if we don't move, Wang Yu will eventually realize that the blocking force in this section of the river is weak, and he will definitely gather his forces to forcefully break through the blockade line!

The atmosphere in the military camp became heavy for a moment.

"Can't wait any longer!"

Seeing that no solutions or action plans had been provided by the higher-ups and that none of the other heroes could offer any advice, Dongfang Shuye Xia realized that when the time came, he would have to take matters into his own hands.

He said to Xu Xiangqian, the commander of the field, "Ordinary heretics could not possibly have the supernatural ability to distort the judgment of officers and soldiers in three positions, let alone that guy can also affect knights. This is not only a matter of quantity, but also a matter of scope."

"I suspect that either there are branch-level martial arts masters in those three positions, or that heretic has some kind of backing."

Xu Xiangqian frowned: "Without orders from above, I cannot send my men to support you. Our mission has always been to contain the fish plague; the rescue should be handled by other units."

“Things aren’t that simple,” Eastern Leaf Knight retorted. “The evil forces are working together, and their schemes are far-reaching. Perhaps it’s not just positions 400-402 that have been attacked, but other positions and even the heroes themselves. The command headquarters hasn’t come up with a solution yet; they’re probably busy dealing with other thorny issues.”

"In times of emergency, one must act expediently. Are you really going to just stand by and watch the defensive position become the breakthrough point?"

Xu Xiangqian was unsure of what to do after hearing the question from Dongfang Shuyexia.

He instinctively looked at Amanosaki, the leader of the team. Just a dozen minutes ago, when they passed by the 403 position, he was this handsome, dignified guy with a beautiful girl by his side, not the man in front of him who was covered in feathers and looked like a big bird.

But Amanosaki shrugged at him, indicating that he couldn't do anything about it.

Amanosaki's assessment of the Eastern Leaf Knight was spot-on; after all, he was a branch-level knight with extensive combat experience. His judgment of the situation largely aligned with the conclusions of Amanosaki and Saeko Busujima's secret discussions.

The evil forces and heretics must have some unknown schemes in the Yangtze River, which neither Xia Ke Mountain nor the government can discover in the short term.

According to Amanosaki's plan, there's no point in even thinking about it. No matter how many routes they take, I'll only go one way. These outsiders want to overturn the understanding of artillery positions and armies? Well, I won't let them have their way. I'll do everything in my power to thwart their schemes!

If every individual hero, as a local force, does this, the enemy's "grand plan" will collapse due to a series of small mistakes.

The only thing that displeased him was that the Eastern Leaf Knight wanted to send all the elite knights of the five ships to suppress the three positions as quickly as possible, leaving only a small number of knights as reserves.

This is an extremely risky move. According to Saeko Busujima's analysis, the best course of action at present is to send a small number of elites skilled in infiltration to locate the target's outlying path.

Subsequently, other scouts caused trouble on the battlefield to attract the attention of the confused soldiers, and the branch leader of the Eastern Leaf Swordsman descended from the sky again, beheading them with lightning speed.

The only advantage of the Eastern Leaf Hero's plan over the decapitation tactic is that it's... flashy enough.

Such a high-profile crackdown will inevitably attract inquiries from the capital afterward, at which point the name of the "Eastern Leaf Hero" will "reach the ears of the emperor."

Thinking of this, Amanosaki couldn't help but chuckle.

This guy, who gave up his cool reputation as a chivalrous hero for money and fame, is really... as always.