Just after breakfast, without any warning, the Luhua Army urgently summoned its troops. What happened in the Rose Empire had already reached his ears.
This is an unprecedented opportunity.
Especially the Second East Army. When they saw that the towering city wall that the Rose Empire was building suddenly had a huge crack, they decided to launch an attack in advance.
By December, the winter was already cold enough that the soldiers of the Rose Empire, who were not acclimated to the severe cold, had already put on plush coats, and their overall mobility had dropped significantly.
In the past, it often took a lot of manpower to climb over or destroy the city walls, but this time it doesn't seem to be that necessary.
As for whether the wall of the Rose Empire collapsed because of shoddy construction or because someone was sabotaging it, it doesn’t matter at all.
Due to changes in the tactics of the recapture war, the original plan of the Western Fifth Army where Yang Yu and his colleagues were located was also disrupted.
As a centurion, Yang Yu also knew the battle plan of the Western Fifth Army.
The Luhua Army sent troops to attack the Long Boots area, first recaptured a few small areas that were relatively easy to recapture, set up temporary strongholds, and then tried to launch a tentative attack on several important areas occupied by the Rose Empire to find out the preparation status of the basic defensive fortifications of each city. At the same time, they also carried out a certain degree of harassment.
It sounds simple, but it is difficult to implement in practice.
If you are not careful, trying to figure out your opponent's attack will become a pure act of giving yourself away.
After obtaining certain intelligence, the troops that attack first will hand over the real attack mission to General Luhua Army and other generals.
In addition, sending the deputy general to conduct a reconnaissance attack is also to buy time for the new recruits to get familiar with the barracks.
According to Lu Huajun's observation, as long as the recruits stay in the army for one month and are given appropriate pressure, the losses of the recruits in the winter offensive will be reduced from 50% to 60% to 30%. If the recruits can stay for more than three months, the losses will be further reduced and controlled within 20%.
Unfortunately, things change rapidly on the battlefield, and plans often cannot keep up with the changes.
In actual combat, there is not enough time for new recruits to adapt.
This is the situation now.
The recruits were a little lacking in both their ability to resist pressure and their ability to coordinate operations, but they had no time to continue adapting.
Lu Huajun took away his pipe, pinched out the burning tobacco with his fingers, and looked at the assembled army from the city gate.
After the generals reported the situation of their respective troops, Lu Huajun stood in front of the stage and gave a speech.
He had already discussed the specific combat matters with other generals and dozens of his subordinates overnight.
The Western Fifth Army has a total of about 110,000 people including new recruits. This time they will be divided into three armies and launch attacks in three directions in the Long Boots area, directly attacking the weak points of the Rose Empire's defense.
Basically, they sent scouts to scout every location they wanted to attack in advance.
If there are military maneuvers on the road in those lightly guarded urban strongholds, they will be able to detect it at the first moment and immediately change their targets.
The battle plan of the Fifth Western Army was simple: first capture small cities, block the heavily defended large cities, make them isolated and helpless, and then slowly digest these large cities.
Such a battle plan certainly has its drawbacks.
Simply put, if your appetite is too big and you swallow too many difficult-to-handle fortified cities at once, you will easily die of overeating.
This situation has occurred frequently during the winter offensives in recent years.
But, for now, this is the tactic with the highest success rate in the winter offensive.
After all, it is difficult to do something on the plains by utilizing the terrain or various materials.
The Rose Empire is also very aware of this. The key plain cities are heavily guarded and have abundant supplies, enough to support the Rose Empire's offensive in the spring and summer.
It takes a lot of time to capture those cities, and if we are not careful we will be dragged through the winter which is favorable to the orcs.
Therefore, many cities are excluded from the list of cities that must be fought for from the beginning, even though they are located in strategic locations.
Of course, if there is an opportunity, the Fifth Western Army will still give priority to taking those cities, reduce the game on the battlefield, ensure that there are no worries, and advance steadily.
In the Luhua Army's impression, their Western Fifth Army had only once completely recaptured the Long Boots area and invaded the Fengmang area.
That time, there seemed to be some problems within the Rose Empire, and His Majesty the Wanzhang Lion personally supervised the battle.
Without these two things, to be honest, Luhua Army doesn’t know how the battle situation will be this year.
The situation in the country is getting worse and worse. There are probably not many chances left to retake the plains. Every time they use it, they have one less chance. What's more terrifying is that they don't know how many chances they have left. Perhaps, there is only this one chance left.
The Luhua Army, who was standing on the city gate to mobilize the troops, was giving a speech while observing the troops.
As they spent every day together, almost all the soldiers felt the importance of this war. The depressing atmosphere within the Fifth Western Army was much more severe than in all previous winter offensives.
Now the Luhua Army does not ask for anyone to perform exceptionally well, they just hope that they can perform normally and not have too many deaths.
“Speaking of which, the recruits who are under the most pressure are the ones most likely to produce people with potential.
Unfortunately, it seems that there is no longer any chance for these newcomers to grow.”
Without showing any emotion on his face, Lu Huajun finished his speech. Then the officers at all levels issued tasks to their subordinates, lined up and prepared to set off.
A new task also appeared on Yang Yu's panel:
War Mission
Faction: Wansheng Kingdom
Mission requirements: Cooperate to capture Jinju City in area 213.
Rewards: Experience???, Gold???, Number of draws???, Favorability and trust of certain characters (based on the contributions made by you and your troops)]
Although it is not mentioned in the mission, the favor and trust of certain characters are undoubtedly the key to helping complete the promotion mission. The big shots will never really hand over the troops to untrustworthy people.
After closing the panel and receiving instructions from his superiors, Yang Yu adjusted the team and marched with the main force to the front line.
On the same day, on the eastern front battlefield, the Second Front Army of the Recapture War had already assembled. In front of them was an icy river with countless thin ice floating on it, and a broken city wall with its gates wide open.
A young man with lion ears was riding on a huge bear-shaped monster in the middle of the team, staring at the city wall that suddenly collapsed for unknown reasons, leaving a huge gap, the workers who were busy repairing it, and the magicians of the Rose Empire who were guarding the broken wall.
The general leading the Second Front Army gave final instructions on the battle, but the young man with lion ears was unable to hear a word he said.
He now wanted to cross the river as soon as possible, break into the Fengmang area, and end the war.
Then, using his own achievements as a bargaining chip, he begged the king of Wansheng to ignore his family's pedantic rules and grant him a marriage.
The speech finally ended, and the generals leading the Second East Army issued orders, and the entire army took the lead in launching an attack towards the gap that had just appeared not long ago.
(End of this chapter)