Chapter 498 Operation Night Owl, Royal Tent Turns to Ashes

The night was as dark as ink, with neither stars nor moon.

The shelling during the day had destroyed the main force of the Western Regions Allied Forces and, more importantly, shattered their morale.

The remnants of their troops were scattered everywhere, and their entire command structure had fallen into complete paralysis.

Inside the golden royal tent of the Dayuezhi Kingdom, the atmosphere was oppressively heavy.

The generals, who had been full of spirit during the day, now sat dejected, like defeated roosters.

The King himself was ashen-faced, slumped on his throne, his eyes vacant.

Several Consultants of the Sun Never Sets were gathered around a map, arguing fiercely.

"We must retreat immediately."

The lead consultant spoke with an anxious tone.

"The Han Army's artillery is too terrifying; we have no way to counter it. We must retreat deep into the desert and use our familiarity with the terrain to maneuver around them."

"Retreat? Where else can we retreat to?"

A Western Regions general shouted in despair.

"The lives of tens of thousands of warriors are gone just like that. What do we have left to maneuver against the Han Army?"

Arguments, cries, and curses mingled together.

The leaderless leadership of the Allied Forces had dissolved into total chaos.

They were completely unaware that a far more lethal strike was descending from the heavens.

Dozens of miles away at the Han Army's field airfield, three bombers painted entirely black were preparing for takeoff.

They were the siblings of the "Desert Storm" — the "Night Owl" Type I bombers.

For this night raid, they had been specially modified, with several fifty-kilogram aerial bombs mounted under their bellies.

Shi Potian led the team personally; he sat in the front cabin of the lead bomber, carefully checking the map and coordinates.

Emperor Liu Sheng personally saw him off.

"I do not want captives; I want results."

Emperor Liu Sheng's voice was calm.

"I want everyone to know that being an enemy of the Great Han, whether you are a king or a noble, leads only to a dead end."

"Rest assured, Your Majesty."

Shi Potian looked at the darkness in the distance.

"Before dawn, the Dayuezhi Kingdom will have no more king."

The roar of engines broke the silence of the night.

The three "Night Owls" took off one after another, without turning on any navigation lights, blending into the night like three giant bats, silent and unseen.

To avoid potential observation and attacks from the ground, the formation adopted ultra-low-altitude flight.

The planes flew almost skimming the undulating sand dunes and the Gobi Desert, at a height of less than a hundred meters.

This was an immense test of the pilots' skill and courage.

Outside the cabin, the wind howled, and beneath them, the dark earth flashed by.

The pilots had to remain fully focused, relying on low-light instruments and their memory of the terrain to maintain their flight attitude.

Shi Potian kept his eyes fixed on the compass and timer in his hand, constantly calculating their heading and distance.

This operation had no second chance.

It had to succeed on the first attempt.

Near the Dayuezhi Kingdom's royal tent, although there was chaos, the outer guards still dared not relax.

Patrolling cavalry moved back and forth, vigilantly observing their surroundings.

But their eyes remained fixed on the ground.

They could never have dreamed that the danger would come from the pitch-black night sky above them.

The roar of the engines was masked by the wind over the Gobi.

It was only when those three huge black shadows appeared over the camp like ghosts that a sentry finally realized something was wrong.

"What is that?"

He pointed at the sky, his voice trembling.

But it was too late.

Shi Potian's aircraft had already flown directly over the royal tent.

Through the glass observation window beneath the nose, that golden royal tent, which stood out conspicuously among the many other tents, appeared clearly in the center of the crosshairs.

"Drop bombs."

Shi Potian gave the order calmly.

The bombardier pulled the release lever.

Several black bombs detached from the belly racks and, with a faint whistling sound, plummeted vertically.

Immediately after, the other two bombers dropped their "cargo" in succession.

The people arguing inside the royal tent heard only a strange, increasingly loud whistling sound.

They looked up blankly, not knowing what was happening.

The next second, a violent explosion occurred.

The first bomb hit the top of the golden royal tent with precision.

The power of the fifty-kilogram high-explosive charge was released instantly.

The ornate tent, along with the King, the generals, the Consultants of the Sun Never Sets, and all their arguments and despair, were torn to shreds.

A massive fireball surged into the sky, illuminating the area for a hundred meters around as if it were daylight.

Following this, more bombs fell around the royal tent, engulfing the entire core area in a sea of fire and explosions.

The shockwave, mixed with shrapnel and debris, spread outward, blowing away nearby tents and crowds.

The entire camp was plunged into hell.

The sounds of explosions, burning, and terrified screams filled the night sky.

The surviving soldiers ran around like headless flies, not knowing where the enemy was or how to fight back.

They only knew that their King, along with their entire command center, had vanished from this world in an instant.

Having completed their bombing mission, the three "Night Owls" did not linger for a second; they pulled up their noses and quickly disappeared into the distant night.

Leaving behind only the burning camp and the completely collapsed Western Regions Allied Forces.

When the news that "the King was burned to death by heavenly fire" spread like a plague among the retreating troops, the last shred of their will to resist vanished into thin air.

The defeat was like a collapsing mountain.

This rebellion in the Western Regions, meticulously planned by the Sun Never Sets Empire, met its farcical and tragic end in a way they had never imagined.

With the royal tent destroyed and the commander-in-chief dead, the Western Regions Allied Forces completely disintegrated.

The remnants threw away their weapons and flags and fled in all directions, wishing only that their parents had given them more legs.

For them, the war was over.

But for the Han Army, this was merely the beginning.

Emperor Liu Sheng's goal was never just to defeat an army, but to completely eradicate all forces in the Western Regions that dared to resist and bring the entire Western Regions back into the Empire's territory.

His cold order was issued from the headquarters at Yumen Pass.

"General Huo Qi, General Su Meng."

The two young generals stepped out with long strides.

They were among the first graduates of the Royal Military Academy and were the new generation of generals personally promoted by Emperor Liu Sheng.

They did not have the glorious battle records of the old generals, but their minds were filled with entirely new tactical concepts.

"At your command."

"I am giving each of you a combined arms brigade, equipped with the latest 'Iron Ox' transport vehicles and 'Bensxiao' armored vehicles."

Emperor Liu Sheng pointed at the vast map of the Western Regions on the sand table.

"I want you to split into two routes and conduct an indiscriminate sweep of all countries that participated in this rebellion. Yarkand, Kucha, Dayuezhi Kingdom, Wusun... not a single one must be spared. For any who resist, once the city is broken, the royal family is to be executed, and the nobles are to be enslaved. I will use their blood to tell everyone in this land the consequences of betraying the Great Han."

"Understood."