OR1-EP3: The Bloody Coat of Arms (19)

The tank crashed unstoppably through the glass wall, plunging headlong into the concrete wall with a thick cloud of smoke and an ear-splitting scraping sound, and skidding a few more meters before barely coming to a stop on the street at the other end of the pierced building. The three occupants of the vehicle were shaken by the tank, and McNeil, who was sitting in the captain's seat, peered at his surroundings through his equipment to make sure that no enemies had appeared before he boldly opened the hatch, panting and looking out over the mess.

"Didn't you say you know how to drive a tank?" Wang Shuang said without a trace of humor, "This is how you drive a tank?"

"I haven't had a chance to practice for a long time, so I've almost forgotten everything." McNeil said reasonably, "More than that, I think we should determine our current position first."

What prompted them to panic and crash the tanks into the auto store was the melee that had taken place just moments before. Shortly after leaving Bismarck Waldstein's command, the improvised force had encountered and fought with the rebels, and McNeil knew that citizens armed on the strength of momentary courage couldn't fight a sustained battle, and that he needed to keep the morale of these men high, at least as far as the vicinity of the palace. At first, the anger of being oppressed by the nobles drove the citizens to attack the rebels, who were unable to cope with this chaotic attack and were forced to retreat backward. Relying on the fortifications built in advance and fire support, the rebels launched a counterattack on the citizens by virtue of the danger. At this point, the steep increase in casualties dispersed the frenzy within the citizens, who saw their neighbors one by one being shattered by bullets, and some being blown to pieces by artillery fire. The difference in strength eventually developed into fear, and many citizens chose to drop their weapons and run away in the face of the bloody battlefield - they at least didn't take the weapons that McNeil had decided to issue to them as well.

"No retreating!" McNeil raised his light machine gun and swept the ground, "If you lose, you and your children and grandchildren will be enslaved by them. Today is your only chance to squarely chop off the heads of these noble lords as a ball! Keep fighting for yourself, no retreating!"

Another defensive zone heavily guarded by the rebels on the road leading to the palace is the line centered on the post office. The rebels constructed a large number of fortifications last night and secretly transported tanks and artillery to the city. In the absence of artillery, the armed citizens and the house slaves of the royalist aristocracy suffered heavy losses, and the three charges organized were repulsed. Seeing the failure of the forced attack, McNeil ordered the soldiers sent by the Breisgau family to infiltrate the nearby buildings, bypass the enemy blockade with the help of ropes and other devices, and attack the enemy from behind. However, the rebels, who had prepared for this, had already arranged snipers on all the nearby high points, and McNeil's raid plan ended before it even started. He only had to make the casualty-ridden commandos stand down, and he himself went to carry out the assault in that line.

"What next?" Wang Shuang, who had put on his body armor with McNeil, asked.

"The northeastern position is farthest from the enemy lines; we'll go there and grab their tanks." McNeil gestured, "Then turn the guns around and blow them up so the frontal forces can continue their attack."

"Why hasn't the air support arrived yet?" Wang Shuang frowned, "Those losers, they can't actually snatch the airbase back from the rebels."

"The royalist nobles are just speculating; they are just hoping to gain greater benefits from the emperor." McNeil sighed, "We need to get there as soon as possible, in case the Emperor is killed, all other plans will be null and void."

McNeil advanced along the ventilation ducts of the shopping mall, he hung the hook and rope on the window of the opposite building and then slid towards the other side. Almost at the same time, Wang Shuang made his way up the half-destroyed staircase to the top floor, where he encountered the waiting rebels in the parking lot at the top of the building. He cautiously estimated the speed at which the rebel soldiers would rescue each other, and then killed two of them with a quick eye. As the third soldier poured fire towards Wang Shuang's location, a grenade thrown at the bottom of his feet pronounced his death sentence. A few minutes later, Wang Shuang pushed the body of the sniper whose throat had been slit off the rooftop, when McNeil, who was hanging in mid-air, was trudging toward the restaurant across from the post office.

"It's too slow, isn't it!?"

"You do it!" Wang Shuang shouted, half-exasperated.

The two men trudged through the blockade the rebels had placed inside the nearby buildings, then jumped toward the tank from the second floor of the clothing store closest to their position. McNeil chiseled the driver's head off with a fire axe, and Wang Shuang, who was right beside him, swung a shovel and clipped the head of the machine gunner. The rebel soldiers rushed to counterattack, but they were too close to the two melee specialists, and within less than a minute, they had been cut down. McNeil and Wang Shuang climbed into the tank and began to execute the next step. However, the only problem they hadn't considered was that McNeil wasn't very good at driving a tank, and Wang Shuang wasn't good at it either. Even though they later brought in a friendly soldier who claimed to have driven a tank, the tank was still out of commission. In the end, after firing five shots at the post office building and managing to cause panic among the rebels, the tank headed straight for another road that had absolutely nothing to do with the intended battle plan. Eventually, the three men had to climb out of the tank in disarray and consider how to get it out.

At this moment, a truck carrying a dozen soldiers passed by, and the soldiers on board unanimously raised the weapons in their hands and aimed them at these unidentified and mysterious people.

"Which troops are you from?"

"We are subordinates of Duke Bradow von Breisgau." McNeil immediately mentioned the Duke, "Now that we have received orders from General Bismarck Waldstein, we intend to open up the road to the Imperial Palace. I wonder which nobles you are loyal to?"

"So, you're from the Breisgau family, looks like we're allies." Several soldiers said in a chorus, "We are the squires of the Zevon family."

"Oops, then we are acquaintances." McNeil said in a hurry, "What mission are you guys planning to carry out now?"

"We intend to protect Grand Duke of Velaines from leaving, it's too chaotic here." The soldier said, "In front of us is the control area of the Shaing family, we can't free the Emperor without defeating them-"

Wang Shuang and McNeil looked at each other and seemed to think of some new idea. They decided to leave the tanks to the soldiers of the Zevon family, while they themselves got on the trucks and rushed to the front line. If the rebels' commander here was a member of the Shaing family, then McNeil had a more effective way to weaken them. The nobles of the European faction were more interested in reclaiming their ancestral lands in Europe, and in this they had to rely actively on the heads of the nobility who favored external assertiveness, or else a fragmented group of them could not stand up to those who wished only to hold on to their homelands.

There were many different conflicts among the nobility, and both the European and the American factions were split, with allegiance to different leaders. Taking advantage of their position, the Shaings blockaded the palace in the middle of the night and put it under siege, making it impossible for any loyalists to reach the Emperor, who had to rely on a handful of guards to confront those rebels. As soon as the rebels in this neighborhood were eliminated or convinced to lay down their arms, McNeil was able to inform Bismarck to launch a general attack.

Soon, the rebels surrounding the outside of the palace saw a surprising sight. A tank with a white flag appeared in front, seemingly to negotiate. The young nobleman at its head, believing the royalists to be at the end of their rope, magnanimously ordered it to be released. However, emerging from the tank, McNeil, carrying a child who appeared to be in his teens, stood on the turret of the tank and raised a pistol to the boy's head. The rebels in front of him, spurred on by this sudden change, raised their weapons and aimed them at McNeil.

"I've heard that the Britannians value loyalty highly, so I hope you recognize your place." McNeil hung the boy in mid-air like a ragdoll, "Brigadier General Eduard Shaing, if you don't want to see your sovereign's head smashed in front of you personally, have your men lower their weapons."

This threat enraged not only the rebels, but likewise the royalists in the rear. They did not expect that McNeil intended to use this method to threaten the Shaing family to lay down their arms, and for a moment both sides unexpectedly and unanimously focused their hatred on McNeil. Oiagros looked worriedly at McNeil, who was making a long speech to the rebels, and he began to suspect that his sister had made a wrong decision.

"This is too risky." Wang Shuang looked at McNeil in the distance, "Even if he succeeds, he won't be welcome in Britannia in the future."

"Mr. McNeil, please put down the Grand Duke." Edward Shaing didn't want to get a bad reputation after all, "This war is a battle for the throne between members of the royal family, it has nothing to do with Grand Duke of Velaines."

"Is it?" McNeil used his left arm to forcefully lift Augusta Henry Highland, raising him to a position level with his head, "Your Highness, you are a subject of the Emperor of Britannia, and the Shaing family is responding to the rebels' call to overthrow the Emperor, it would be the same crime for you to sit idly by and do nothing about it!" Speaking here, McNeil raised his head and angrily stared at the rebels in front of him who also had an unfavorable expression, "Besides ... you have no reason to say that this matter has nothing to do with anyone. Why didn't you think when you bombed the civilians that they also had nothing to do with this farce?"

Grand Duke of Velaines, who was only thirteen after all, shouted in a panic at Shaing:

"Withdraw the troops!"

Edward Shaing wasn't going to pay any attention. It was a big gamble, and each family made their own choices, and the Shaing family's choice was to pursue the steady path. With no hope of restoration, how many percent of them still intended to reclaim their ancestral land? If Emperor Charles continued to rule, this first cut would inevitably be directed at the nominate Europeanist nobles, and although it seemed that the Emperor would go to war with the EU in order to support their request, that kind of promise was nothing compared to the direct deprivation of privileges.

"Ugh, stupid." McNeil placed Grand Duke of Velaines on the tank turret with a sense of disinterest, "I knew that tactic wouldn't work on a guy like you who's made up your mind to betray your feudal ruler. However, I can remind you of one thing, that Grand Duke Louis, in case he seizes the throne, he will only strengthen the privileges of the native nobles in order to repay his allies, and your family's situation will be even more difficult at that time ... Oops, I almost forgot, your family will cease to exist after today."

When Edward Shaing saw those captives led out by Wang Shuang, the gun in his hand dropped to the ground. The young nobleman angrily roared towards McNeil:

"What are you doing!?"

"Edward Shaing, for every minute that passes, I will kill one of your relatives until I kill them all - you can try to stop me, but in case you are unfortunate enough to kill Grand Duke of Velaines, even if you win the victory, you will not have any status among your fellow nobles. " McNeil reared up the Grand Duke who had no idea what was happening, "It's a good thing that Zevons captured your family's stronghold or I wouldn't have had the chance to do so."

Olivia gave McNeil a disgruntled look, and she realized that McNeil had already put House Zevon in opposition to House Shaing. It seemed that when the war was over, she would have to find a way to exclude the influence of the Shaing family.

Oiagros Zevon looked at his watch and dragged a young blonde girl in a noblewoman's long dress out of the crowd until she was in front of McNeil's eyes, then raised his pistol. Ignoring the young girl's screams, he turned to Edward Shaing:

"We abide by the rules and will not kill your parents first. Edward Shaing, you have half a minute left to save the life of your wife Maria."

"Think about it, what good is power when the family is gone?" McNeil said conspiratorially, "If you fall back and come to surrender, the Emperor will surely keep your title and family, and will never make a killing."

Edward Shaing broke down. His entire gamble had been for his family, for which he had even decided to defect to the Grand Duke Louis without his parents' knowledge. If the family was gone, his gamble would have no meaning, and he would be no more than an opportunist in the eyes of outsiders who had gotten his entire family killed for a small profit. The young noble unconsciously fell to his knees, he turned his head trembling and said in a weak voice:

"We surrender."

"Your Excellency!" The surrounding soldiers were shocked, "This-"

Only a few crunching sounds were heard, and the dozen or so soldiers beside Shaing fell to the ground dead without exception.

"I can't hear you." McNeil shook the boy in his hand, "Louder."

"You win, a bunch of cowards who only hold people hostage." Edward Shaing staggered to his feet, "We surrender! Don't embarrass my family, they have no idea about that."

Michael McNeil clapped his hands in satisfaction.

"Smart choice."

Looking at Edward Shaing, who had flung himself at the young girl's side to comfort her, McNeil suddenly had a delusion. If it was him who was put in Shaing's place today, would he decide to surrender for the sake of his lover or loved ones? He believes there are nobler beliefs in the world than these emotions, but pain sometimes overcomes all.

TBC

Chapter Notes:

Augusta is not a male name at all. In fact, Augusta Henry Highland probably wanted to call himself Emperor of All Russia in this way.

The history of the Zevon family is probably the oldest of the Britannian nobility, the family has followed around since the birth of the Kingship of the House of Britannia, meaning that its history dates back to BC.