# Chapter 64: Ambition
The bright moon hung high in the sky, its silver cold light spreading like a white curtain over the land of the border region. It was already early autumn, and the night air carried a chill.
Nearly 20,000 vassal soldiers marched through the night. Looking out, dense crowds of heads bobbed and moved.
They all wore light black combat uniforms. At first glance, these uniforms looked like thick fabric, but that was not the case. They were first woven from extremely fine metal fibers into a cloth-like material, then several layers were pressed together, mixed with thicker, more elastic silicon fiber threads, shaped into tops and trousers. Finally, depending on the combat uniform model, the specifications were determined.
Not only did this combat uniform have excellent defensive material properties, but the chest and back could each be fitted with up to 12 Type I to Type IX individual armor plates to enhance defense.
What strength of armor plates to install depended on whether the vassal soldiers could bear that weight. Type IX armor plates had the most astonishing defensive power, but that thing's weight was also particularly astonishing.
With a nighttime forced march of over 20,000 troops in a surprise attack force, remaining completely silent was impossible, unless it was a war race like the insect clan. But this vassal surprise attack force did not make excessive noise during the march, showing their combat discipline.
It was no wonder. The vassals had fought humanity for too many years. The battlefield was the most cruel and strict teacher. This surprise force consisted of fierce soldiers who had withdrawn from the front lines.
Many were unwilling to admit it, but killing was addictive. These vassal soldiers were the best hunting dogs in war. After peace came, many of them became irritable and prone to anger. Perhaps just a few words of argument with a neighbor could lead them to twist that neighbor's neck with their bare hands.
The force dispatched this time came from the "Vassal Alliance," one of the three major vassal powers. It was very reasonable for them to strike first. The three major vassal powers were not one big family. To put it simply, they were like triplet brothers who were not very close.
Although they were "blood relatives," they were clearly separated. The eldest brother, "Aurora Council," was the most stable, occupying a large territory in the west. It had the largest territory but also bordered humanity.
Its advantage was advanced biotechnology. Over 70% of the life factories in the vassal camp that cultivated pig-headed men were controlled by the "Aurora Council."
The second brother, "Vassal Alliance," was particularly aggressive. They had strongly opposed the previous ceasefire with humanity. Actually, it was no wonder they opposed it. The "Vassal Alliance" was best at forging standard weapons, combat uniforms, heavy artillery weapons, etc. When the war with humanity first started, the weapons of "Watchtower" and "Aurora Council" were all purchased from the "Vassal Alliance."
The longer the war lasted, the poorer humanity, Watchtower, and Aurora Council became, while the Vassal Alliance grew rich beyond measure. Of course, they disagreed with stopping the war.
Why did the war finally stop? The reason was that both Watchtower and Aurora Council implicitly indicated they couldn't take it anymore. The war was dragging down their economies. If the Vassal Alliance wanted to continue fighting, they could go fight humanity themselves.
If the Vassal Alliance went too far, causing the flames of war to spread to Watchtower and Aurora Council, these two sides wouldn't mind temporarily joining forces with humanity to beat the Vassal Alliance into submission.
Amid the Vassal Alliance's profanity-laced protests, the war finally stopped.
The "eldest brother" of the vassal camp, Aurora Council, had advanced biotechnology. The "second brother," Vassal Alliance, excelled at weapon manufacturing. The "third brother," Watchtower, could produce mobile fortresses, and the [Cataclysmic Solution] necessary for upgrading fortresses was monopolized by them.
Now, all three major vassal powers had received confirmed intelligence. Outside their territories in the border region, there was indeed a new force called "Sun Fortress."
Upon learning that Sun Fortress already had nearly 200,000 wild boar warriors, the vassal high command couldn't sleep. But after learning the combat information of the wild boar warriors, they all relaxed. Except for the heavy tanks being troublesome, in the vassal high command's view, the wild boar warriors were nothing to worry about.
After confirming this information, the Vassal Alliance widened their eyes and decisively ordered troops to assemble and rush to the border region.
They had two purposes this time. First, to test the enemy's combat strength. If the enemy's strength was unimpressive, they would destroy the enemy's fortress and garrison, eliminate over 80% of the enemy forces, and drive the remaining 20% of defeated soldiers into the territory under Watchtower's jurisdiction.
The reason the Vassal Alliance did this was not to deliberately annoy Watchtower. When a large number of wild boar warriors fled into Watchtower's territory, the Vassal Alliance's troops would have a reason to pursue, entering Watchtower's territory on a large scale.
After that, unless Watchtower placed a large batch of weapon orders with the Vassal Alliance, the Vassal Alliance would not withdraw their troops. Having troops temporarily stationed in Watchtower's territory, without causing conflict, would make Watchtower extremely uncomfortable.
This felt like the Vassal Alliance shamelessly saying, "Weapons are overstocked. Help us out."
The three major vassal powers didn't care much about the threat of Sun Fortress. Their purpose was to suppress it in the most bloody manner, making other powers tremble in fear. While maintaining their dignity, competition for interests was indispensable.
The technology to mutate pig-headed men into wild boar warriors was something all three major vassal powers craved. Aurora Council had perfected biochip technology. After implanting it into pig-headed men's brains, they could control them. Biochips hadn't been popularized due to cost issues and lack of necessity.
The appearance of wild boar warriors made all three major vassal powers see the value. If they mastered this technology, combined with biochips, they could create artificial warriors.
At that time, while ensuring enough of their own soldiers, the vassals would produce batches of 100,000 to 200,000 wild boar warriors, sending them to attack humanity. When one batch died, they would deploy another, until humanity was worn down.
After that, they would turn to the aberrant beasts, clean up both sides, and the vassals would become the absolute rulers of this world.
Because of this, Aurora Council's troops were also rushing over, but the distance was far.
Multiple factors combined to create a situation where, to the three major vassal powers, Sun Fortress was not just an enemy. If they could crush it, it would become a big cake.
Thus, the Vassal Alliance's 20,000-strong surprise attack force led the way, with follow-up troops in formation. The Vassal Alliance's goal was to use the surprise force's charging ability in the first battle to break through Sun Fortress's defenses, strike straight at the heart, attack inside Sun Fortress, and seize the technique that mutated pig-headed men into wild boar warriors.
The three major vassal powers weren't blindly confident. Before the battle, all trade related to pig-headed men was stopped. T5 to T3 level fortresses mining mineral veins in the border area were all ordered to withdraw, to prevent Sun Fortress from attacking these fortresses to replenish their pig-headed men.
At this time, at the western edge of the "border region," behind was vassal territory, ahead was enemy territory. It was a position where one could advance or retreat. Naturally, the Vassal Alliance set up their command post here.
A bunker only exposed a small part above ground, painted with camouflage colors, indistinguishable from the surrounding rubble. This command post had existed for many years, used during beast tides when vassal high-ranking officers commanded the battle situation here.
Inside the command post, various communication instruments were connected. The terrain of the border region was projected as a holographic image on the sand table. This world's technology was like this—backward in some aspects, but once it involved warfare, it was either very advanced or developed toward the biological side.
A vassal brigadier general sat before the sand table. His presence here was inevitable. First, the troops under his command were stationed near Freedom City, not far from the border region. Second, as an officer of the Vassal Alliance, he had a poor relationship with the Vassal Alliance's bureaucrats, even hostile.
In the view of the Alliance's bureaucrats, this battle was a sure victory. The subsequent task of leading troops into Watchtower's territory to extort a large weapon order to fill the treasury riddled with holes was what the Alliance bureaucrats cared about most. The holes they had dug—no one knew better than them how big those holes were.
Sending troops into Watchtower's territory was a very offensive matter. Within the Alliance, not to mention brigadier generals, even colonels were unwilling to accept this troublesome task. The brigadier general now in the command post had been transferred here by the Alliance bureaucrats, an inevitable result.
This brigadier general was none other than Brigadier General Rez. A few days ago, this Alliance general had sold Su Xiao and Kaisa 140,000 various vassal standard weapons.
Before the sand table, Brigadier General Rez's expression was calm, with an aura of immovable stability. In reality, his mood was not peaceful. He had already seen Su Xiao's photo and recognized him as the "big customer" who had bought 140,000 various vassal standard weapons from him.
Because the higher-ups had discovered that the enemy was using vassal-made standard weapons, an investigation into this matter had begun.
Thinking of this, Brigadier General Rez unscrewed a flat metal flask, took a drink of strong liquor to calm his nerves. He estimated that no one should investigate him. Selling weapons to the enemy, and the seller being the Hammer Troop currently fighting that enemy—even a stage play wouldn't dare write such a script. Thinking of this, Brigadier General Rez's head ached.
Brigadier General Rez's expression grew increasingly grave. In this battle, he absolutely had to secure victory, not only because of orders from above but also because it concerned whether his private weapon sales would be exposed.