When Li Ao led the army into Cage City, there were already more than 7,000 soldiers left on the bloody road forever. In the end, on a distance of nearly 2,000 kilometers, the losses of the Knights exceeded the sum of the previous two battles. It's just that most of the soldiers damaged in the battle are recruits from the reserve service, and the number of casualties of veterans in the formal establishment is limited, which is a blessing in misfortune. However, nearly half of the chariots and mechs were destroyed, which made Leo and Yafidi heartbroken.
The value of this batch of war equipment is even higher than that of the soldiers who died in battle.
The only one who can still look indifferent is Frank. It can even be said that the activity of the zero class is exactly what Frank hoped for. As a result, the morale and strength of this group army dropped by more than half. As long as the Sea God Group is stronger, a war that will hurt both sides is already foreseeable.
After entering the city of Cage, the old mayor Alex personally received him. The old mayor and some officials withdrew from the city of Ketch ahead of time when the zero attack entered the city of Ketch last time. After hearing that Zero had left no soldiers behind, they turned back again. After Zero and his army left, the old mayor also performed his duties responsibly, allowing Cage City to quickly restore order.
This time Leo came with the Knights, and Alex personally went out of the city to greet him, led Leo, the other two legion commanders, and a group of non-commissioned officers to the municipal building, and told Leo in detail about the past few days in Cage City. Condition.
Li Ao was silent all the time, but the more he remained silent, the more nervous the old mayor became. After talking about it, Alex had to take out a square towel to wipe off the cold sweat that came out of his forehead from time to time. In the meeting room of the municipal building, Leo sat down, tapped the table with his fingers, and listened quietly to Alex's report. When he heard that Zero had snatched twenty paladin mechas, the sound of Li Ao's knocking on the table suddenly intensified.
His fingers tapped on the table to form a long high-pitched note, which shook the old mayor. Li Ao turned his head to look at Alex, and slowly said: "Mayor Alex, paladin mechas are an important war resource for the Pope Hall. Even if they are a generation of mechas that are about to be eliminated, this fact cannot be changed. I If you don’t want to be reminded, you should also know what it means to lose war resources, right?”
As the mayor of Cage City, how could Alex not know that according to the laws of the Pope's Hall, throwing away war resources is a felony.
The old mayor put his head to his chest and said in a trembling voice: "My lord, I didn't do it on purpose. At that time, Lord Mesa almost drained all the troops in Cage City and the surrounding towns, and the whole city was in a defenseless state. Those robbers The bees swarmed in, and we didn't even have the power to stop them, so we were snatched away by them."
Li Ao let out a heavy "hum" from his nostrils, but he also knew that Alex was telling the truth. Even if this matter is reported to the Pope's Hall, Alex will not be punished too much. Li Ao just wanted to scare him with this matter, so that the mayor would cooperate with them in their next work.
He continued to knock on the table, and after doing this three times, Li Ao said: "Leave this matter aside, the most urgent task is to wipe out the gangsters. It is for this purpose that we came here. Our food is in the On the way here, I have almost eaten, you see, soldiers can’t go to war hungry. So, Mayor Alex, please prepare some food and water.”
The old mayor raised his head and asked cautiously: "I don't know how many soldiers are there in the army brought by your lord this time?"
"About 18,000 people." Li Ao replied.
Alex showed a embarrassed expression and said, "My lord, because of the large amount of supplies that were robbed by those robbers last time, there may not be so much food available in Cage City now."
Leo said unhurriedly: "Then how many permanent residents are there in Cage City?"
"More than 20,000."
"And what about the two surrounding towns?"
Alex probably guessed something. He looked nervous, but he still replied: "That's about 30,000 people."
Li Ao looked at him and said heavily: "Then, it shouldn't be difficult for these 30,000 people to tighten their trousers and save some food for my army. Don't forget, we are here to suppress chaos The party protects you, isn’t it even willing to make this little sacrifice?”
Alex smiled wryly and said: "My lord, the common people don't have enough food, and what they have left can barely survive the winter. Prepare food reserves for nearly 20,000 people at one time. I am afraid that many people will starve to death this winter. "
"It's just civilians. If you die, you die." Frank interrupted suddenly: "Actually, there is an easier method. Mayor Alex, are you interested in hearing it?"
Alex smiled all over his face, nodded and said, "What does Lord Fubanke mean?"
Frank made a beheading gesture and said, "There are 30,000 civilians around here, how much food these pigs will consume. Otherwise, if we kill half of the civilians, the food saved will be enough to supply our army. Mayor Alex, what do you think of my proposal?"
Alex's face turned green, and he said in a trembling voice: "My lord is joking, I don't think there is any need to use this method. The citizens will definitely ask the army to provide food, so I will let people do it." After finishing speaking, he looked at Leo.
Leo closed his eyes and waved his hand to signal him to go down. As if being pardoned, Alex bowed his head and exited the conference room. After leaving, he immediately asked his assistant to issue the food requisition order. Although some civilians would starve or even starve to death in winter, it was better than letting Frank kill nearly half of the civilians at once. In Alex's eyes, that legion commander was no different from a devil.
In contrast, those robbers looked much cuter. At least they only robbed things after they invaded Keqi City, and they didn't hurt people.
In the conference room, Frank smiled lowly. Yafidi looked at him angrily, but the bald head didn't care. He knew why Yafidi was angry. This handsome captain believed in some kind of chivalry. His proposal just now obviously violated Yafidi's bottom line.
Leo finally opened his eyes. He glanced at Frank lightly and said, "Your proposal is getting bolder."
"There's nothing wrong with being bold. You can't do great things if you're afraid of your hands and feet. It's the same as the previous sentence, civilians, and you kill them. What's the difference between killing one civilian and dying ten thousand?" Frank's mouth curled up. smile.
Li Ao said in a deep voice: "That's right, we are the ones standing at the top of the pyramid. But don't forget that if there are no civilians, there will be no cornerstone of the pyramid. Killing a civilian is called Liwei. Killing one Tens of thousands of civilians, that's called cruelty. Among them, I think there is still a difference."
Frank looked at Leo with a smile, shook his head and said, "It's not enough, Leo. You should let go of yourself completely, then you will find how wide the world is without any constraints. At least, you can Look at the world from a higher dimension. At that time, you will find that the number of civilians killed is not the point. The point is how to achieve your goals faster and more efficiently."
The bald head stood up, patted Leo on the shoulder, and left the meeting room with a big laugh.
Yafidi glared at the frenzied Frank and wanted to stand up and accuse him. Leo gestured for him to sit down. After Frank left the meeting room, Leo said: "He will not understand, after letting go of all shackles and unlocking all shackles, what you get is not absolute freedom, but confusion and destruction. When a person looks at it from the perspective of God When it comes to things, you're either a genius or you're crazy. He, I guess, is the latter."
Yafidi finally smiled: "I guess so."
"Okay, forget about Frank, let's talk about suppressing the rebellion. Are the scouts out?"
"Before entering Keqi City, I have arranged for a group of people to go for reconnaissance. We will have news by tomorrow night at the latest."
"Very good, after we get the information, we can deploy the next action." Leo paused, and said in a voice he could only hear: "I hope it can be faster, my time... seems to be running out too much."
In the evening of the next day, the reconnaissance team sent by Yafidi returned with the exact news of Canon. To the surprise of Leo and Yafidi, the Poseidon group headed by Zero not only gave up the three towns of Tucson, but even the Canon Fortress. They assembled all supplies and troops, and all moved to the Eternal Mountains. If Leo's goal was just to take back the stronghold of Canon, they could do it now without breaking a sweat.
But are things really that simple
"What a formidable opponent." Li Ao sighed.
It is still in the meeting room of the municipal building, but this has changed. A large number of tables and chairs were removed and replaced with plasma tactical boards and several brains. Three staff officers and a group of operators form a think tank, they can deduce most of the conventional tactics for Leo, thus saving Leo's time and energy.
Hearing Leo's sigh, Yafidi frowned and said, "Teacher, what did you think of?"
Leo stood in front of the plasma tactical board, which contained maps of Fort Canon, the nearby Eternal Mountains, and the three towns of Tucson. Holding an electronic pen, the old regiment leader drew circles at the fortress Kanon and the Eternal Mountains, and then connected them with a straight line. He said thoughtfully: "Obviously, our opponent has chosen a favorable battlefield for himself. I have to say , He was able to abandon the fortress and move to the Eternal Mountains, and he indeed has an extraordinary strategic vision. After all, no matter how strong Canon is, it can't stop our army of nearly two people and the wild bombing of hundreds of tanks and mechs."
"But it will be different if the battlefield is moved to the Eternal Mountains. First of all, our chariots cannot drive up the mountains, and even the mechs are greatly restricted. Secondly, the restrictions on the mountain roads prevent us from being able to drive on a large scale like on the plains. Marching, so as to limit the number of our attacking personnel. This is the home field chosen by the enemy, and the hateful thing is that we cannot refuse." Li Ao said heavily.