The next day, after Iron Axe returned to the Cage Mountain Command Post on the Seagull, he walked into the staff office for the first time.
"How is this trip?" Edith was sitting at the mahogany table, drinking black tea in her leisure time.
Obviously, everyone is so busy these days, and it is common to work until the early hours of the morning, but she still maintains a delicate image, as if her energy and time are inherently more than others. .
"Morale is available," he answered briefly.
"Then we can plan the next step." Beidi Pearl smiled slightly, "By the way, just last night, the defenders of Xisha City also withdrew from the defensive area."
"Then only Shenchiwan is left..." Iron Axe looked at the large map on the wall.
"I would suggest that they be evacuated as soon as possible, and that a force should be sent to respond, instead of having to wait for a breach in the line of defense."
Iron Axe nodded, and he agreed with this judgment. Now the number of devils gathered from west to east is likely to exceed 50,000. This number will not be a problem to surround the entire Shenchi Bay. Once the army converges, it may be difficult for the first army to find a suitable time to retreat.
Since their strategic goals were not one city or one place from the beginning, it was a natural decision to give up Shenchiwan early in order to preserve the army.
Since the enemy launched a massive attack, the evacuation has never stopped. The residents and businessmen who originally maintained the operation of the city were first transferred out of the city, followed by Roland's aristocratic family and nobles. The city at the 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 looking at the latest war report, murmured suddenly.
"Is something wrong?" Iron Axe walked over to her.
"The gap between casualties and enemy annihilation statistics...is as much as 30 times. How can this be achieved?" Since all four cities met the enemy in the past week, and reports were sent in batches, so Manual aggregation is required. In order to prevent miscalculation, she repeatedly checked the arithmetic formula in her hand several times, and the answer she got still remained unchanged.
According to the statistics, the battle in the four cities has totaled more than 1,500 casualties, and the number of enemies killed is as high as 50,000. This can be described as incredible.
In the days of the Federation, Agatha would definitely think that this was deliberately falsifying and lying about military achievements, but she has fought with the First Army many times, so it is unlikely that such a problem will occur under the system of multi-party verification. Even if one or two percent of the error is thrown away, it will not change its essence.
You must know that when the First Army was in the northern expedition to the fertile plains, the devil army it faced was only 20,000! At that time, they built one fort after another relying on the railway that stretched for hundreds of kilometers. It took nearly a year before and after the victory of the Battle of Taquila.
And this time, the strategy of the staff was just to keep retreating, and in eight days, it achieved twice the result of the fertile plains
Despite her confidence in today's human beings, this result still shocked her.
Agatha originally thought that this battle would be inexorable.
"I see," Edith chuckled after reading the Ice Witch's statistics, "To be honest, the effect of this plan slightly exceeded my expectations. However, not all of this is due to the first army, and the cooperation of the devil also It is very important, probably that ambush caused Hykezord to be seriously injured, so that it did not have the energy to control the details of the front line."
"Just this reason?" Agatha said in disbelief.
"I know what you're wondering," Edith waved her hand, "It seems that we have achieved such a victory in just a few retreats. The battle plan can be summed up in one sentence, but in fact it is not so. What happened. You used to stay in the rear during the federation period, and it is normal if you don’t understand. Simply put, only the current First Army can execute this tactic.”
"Not even the First Army during the expedition to the ruins of Taquila?"
"At least it won't do better than it is now." Beidi Pearl explained, "Retreat and defeat are often only separated by a paper, and it is extremely difficult to maintain order under enormous pressure, let alone that. The orderly evacuation. If it were those noble armies, I am afraid it would be the best performance. If the First Army had not experienced the test of the Taquila night raid, and the previous evacuation team showed the strength of order execution, I wouldn't dare to take the risk of putting it into practice."
"In addition, the role of the new weapons is also obvious, at least in the city streets. They can rely on the firepower of general-purpose machine guns and field guns to compete with the enemy without the support of fortress artillery. The biggest advantage of firearms is distance. Let the entire army move, always hold the advantage in hand, and achieve this victory is also a matter of course."
Speaking of this, Edith paused, "But it's also true that we lost the outer defense line, so the next step is the key to the whole plan. Once the devil wins the four cities, he will definitely start planning the next round of offense, and the cage The mountain is both a barrier and a source of raw material for the sun's light, so the land-for-man play cannot be used forever. The enemy must be further reduced in strength before they can recover."
"Red fog..." Agatha whispered.
"That's right, these four cities are already outside the red fog area. The devil's reliance on supply lines will definitely increase significantly, and it is very possible for the blood line to reappear. The current battle line almost spans the entire wolf heart. I don't think so. Think they can take care of everything.”
"Before the fog storage tower was established, the devils could rely on fortress-type monsters and human transport equivalent to small obelisks." Iron Axe added, "their attacks from the flanks were all from monsters. At first, according to Lightning and Maisie's observations, after a large number of mad demons were damaged, their protection of the monsters was not as good as before. When the other four cities were attacked, the main supply lines of the demons' frontal forces were all hidden in the red fog area. But then it will be exposed to the eyes of the First Army."
"The problem is that this means that we need to take the initiative to attack." Agatha hesitated, "Fortress-type monsters can move autonomously, and they are not very afraid of the air knight's strafing. If you want to destroy them, you can only send ground troops. But we can When we see the enemy, the enemy can also see us. Even if the protection of the monsters is reduced, they can temporarily send reinforcements to count the journey back and forth, and we are likely to lose the advantage in distance. If we are chased by the devil If you go up…”
In an undisguised encounter, even if the First Army could repel the devil, it would inevitably suffer heavy losses.
"So speed is everything," Edith raised the corner of her mouth, "as long as the counterattack is completed before the enemy can react."
But how can this be done? Agatha turned her attention to the map, trying to find a shortcut from Cage Mountain to Sicheng. There are many roads between the two places, including the former commercial roads and the hard roads that were later built to speed up the evacuation. They are all over the four cities and the cage mountain, like a spider web.
But these roads do not have the ability to shorten the distance. Not to mention that the First Army has no cavalry units at all, even if there are a large number of horses, it is still a matter of whether they can catch up with the fortress-type monsters. What's more, the light cavalry can carry limited firepower, and it is not suitable for dealing with those huge monsters.
"Of course not now," Beidi Pearl seemed to see her puzzlement. "This plan still lacks a key element. After it is in place, all the conditions will be met. But according to the plan, you can see it soon. It's here."