Chapter 1336 The Counterattack Begins
The next day, after Iron Ax returned to the Congshan command post on the Seagull, he immediately walked into the staff office.
"How was the trip?" Edith was sitting at the mahogany table, drinking black tea in her leisure time.
Obviously everyone is extremely busy these days, and it is common for her to work until the early hours of the morning, but she still maintains a refined image, as if she is born with more energy and time than others. This ability is admired even by Iron Ax. .
"Morale is available." He replied briefly.
"Then we can make the next plan." Northland Pearl smiled slightly, "By the way, just last night, the defenders of Xisha City also withdrew from the defensive area."
"Then only Shenchi Bay is left..." Tie Ax looked at the big map on the wall.
"I suggest that they evacuate as soon as possible and send a force to respond. We don't have to wait for a breach in the defense line to act."
Iron Ax nodded, and he agreed with this judgment. The number of devils gathered from west to east is now likely to exceed 50,000. This number can easily surround Shenchi Bay. Once the armies converge, it may be difficult for the First Army to find a suitable opportunity to retreat.
Since their strategic goal was not to focus on one city or one land from the beginning, it was naturally a natural decision to abandon Shenchi Bay early in order to preserve the army.
Ever since the enemy launched a massive attack, the evacuation operations have never stopped. The residents and businessmen who originally maintained the city's operations were first transferred out of the city, followed by the aristocratic families and nobles who surrendered to Roland. The city at this moment is just a huge empty shell. As long as an order is given, the defenders can move immediately.
"I... don't quite understand..." Agatha, who was flipping through the latest war reports, suddenly murmured.
"What's wrong?" Tie Ax walked to her side.
"The statistical gap between the number of casualties and the number of enemy annihilations...is thirty times greater. How was this achieved?" Since all four cities had faced enemies in the past week, and the reports were sent in batches, Therefore manual aggregation is required. In order to prevent miscalculation, she checked the arithmetic formula in her hand several times, but the answer she got remained unchanged.
According to statistics, there have been more than 1,500 casualties in the four cities since the battle, but the number of enemies wiped out is as high as 50,000. This can be described as incredible.
If she were in the Federation era, Agatha would have no hesitation in thinking that this was intentional fraud and false claims of military merit. However, she had fought many times with the First Army, so it was unlikely that such a problem would arise under the multi-party verification system. Even if the error of 10% or 20% is discarded, its essence will not change.
You must know that when the First Army was in the Northern Expedition to the Fertile Plains, the demon army they faced was only 20,000! At that time, they relied on hundreds of kilometers of railways to build fortresses one after another. It took them nearly a year to win the Battle of Taqila.
And this time the general staff's strategy was just to keep retreating, and in eight days they achieved twice the results of the fertile plains?
Although she has full confidence in today's human beings, this result still shocked her.
Agatha originally thought that this battle would be a tense one.
"So that's it," Edith chuckled after reading the ice witch's statistics. "To be honest, the effect of this plan slightly exceeded my expectations. But this is not all the credit of the First Army, the devil's cooperation is also It’s very important. The ambush probably injured Hykezord so badly that he no longer has the energy to control the details on the front line.”
"Is this the only reason?" Agatha said in disbelief.
"I know what you are wondering about," Edith waved her hand. "It seems that we only used a few retreats to achieve such results. The combat plan is so simple that it can be summarized in one sentence, but in fact it is not like that. That's the truth. You often stayed at the rear during the Federation, so it's normal that you don't understand - to put it simply, only the current First Army can implement this tactic."
"Not even the First Army during the expedition to the ruins of Taquila?"
"At least it won't be better than it is now." Northland Pearl explained, "There is often only a thin line between retreat and defeat. It is extremely difficult to maintain order under tremendous pressure, let alone The order was evacuated. For those noble troops, dispersing in a hurry would have been the best performance. If the First Army had not withstood the test of the Taqila night attack battle, and the order execution strength shown by the previous evacuation team, I simply cannot risk putting this plan into action.”
"In addition, the role of the new weapons is also obvious - at least in urban streets and alleys, they can rely on the firepower of general-purpose machine guns and field artillery to compete with the enemy without the support of fortress artillery. The biggest advantage of firearms is distance. Once the entire army can be mobilized and the advantage is always in hand, it will be a matter of course to achieve this result."
At this point, Edith paused, "But it's true that we lost the outer defense line, so the next step is the key to the entire plan. Once the devil takes the four cities, he will definitely start planning the next round of attack, and the cage The mountain is both a barrier and a source of raw materials for the Glory of the Sun, so the strategy of exchanging land for people cannot be used forever. We must further reduce the enemy's power before they can recover."
"Red Mist..." Agatha whispered.
"Yes, these four cities are outside the red mist zone. The devil's dependence on the supply line will definitely increase significantly, and the reappearance of the blood line is also very possible. And the current battle line almost spans the entire Wolf Heart. I don't think so. I think they can take care of everything.”
"Before the mist storage tower was built, all the devils could rely on were fortress-shaped monsters equivalent to small obelisks and human transportation." Iron Ax added, "Previously, all their attacks from the flanks were from monsters. At first, according to Lightning and Maisie's observations, after destroying a large number of mad demons, their protection against the monsters was no longer as good as before. In addition, when attacking four cities, the main supply lines of the devil's front were all hidden in the red mist area. But then it will be exposed to the eyes of the First Army."
"The problem is that this means we need to take the initiative." Agatha said hesitantly. "The fortress-shaped monsters can move independently, and they are not afraid of the sky knights' strafing. If we want to destroy them, we can only send ground troops. But we can If we see the enemy, the enemy can also see us. Even if the protection against the monsters is reduced, they can send temporary reinforcements - counting the journey back and forth, we are likely to lose the distance advantage. If we are attacked If the devil catches up..."
In an unconcealed encounter, even if the First Army could repel the devil, it would inevitably suffer heavy losses.
"So speed is everything," Edith raised her lips, "As long as the counterattack is completed before the enemy reacts."
But how can this be achieved? Agatha turned her attention to the map, trying to find a shortcut from Cage Mountain to the Four Cities. There are quite a few roads between the two places, including former commercial roads and hard roads later built to speed up evacuation. They are scattered throughout the four cities and Congshan Mountain, like a spider web.
However, these roads do not have the ability to shorten distances. Not to mention that the First Army had no cavalry troops at all. Even if it had a large number of horses, it was still unclear whether it could catch up with the fortress-shaped monster. What's more, the firepower that Qingqi can carry is limited, and it is not suitable for dealing with those huge monsters.
"Of course not now," Beidi Pearl seemed to notice her confusion, "This plan is still missing a key factor. Once it is in place, all the conditions will be met. But according to the plan, you will be able to see it soon Time for it.”
( = )