Volume 13 Ancient Bronze City Ruins Chapter 615 Attack!
Eighty kilometers north of the White Ridge Mountains, the field corps assembly point.
The forces of fourteen divisions were assembled in just a few hours - in order to transport these troops, almost all the aircraft carriers and transport planes of the First, Second and Third Cruise Fleets were mobilized, and even some of the long-distance transport planes of the Zero Fleet were temporarily requisitioned.
Even so, there is still a huge gap in the air force's transport capacity... Even if every airship and every transport plane are filled with people, it can only meet less than one-third of the transport capacity.
Speed is of the essence in war. If the remaining troops are sent to the assembly point by land, it will take at least a week for all the troops to assemble... One hundred and eighty-six hours, there are too many variables that can occur during this time.
The longer the time drags on, the more fully prepared the heretical sects in the Ancient Bronze City ruins will be, and the greater the casualties in the siege will be.
From the very beginning this was not a battle of equal strength. Only by taking the opponent by surprise could Ark have a slight chance of winning.
After discovering that air transport alone could not complete the mission on time, the field corps' command even came up with a somewhat crazy solution: they stuffed the soldiers directly into large containers, then hung the containers under the transport planes, and sent the people to the assembly point like transporting cargo.
The price of doing so was that during the transportation process, two heavily overloaded transport planes lost control and collided, killing more than 600 people on the two planes and in the containers hanging below them.
In addition, a transport aircraft formation was attacked by the indigenous creature "Snake-headed Vulture" while crossing a dangerous airspace. Although the escorting fighter jets quickly shot and killed the Snake-headed Vultures, one Snake-headed Vulture broke the sling under a transport plane when it was on the verge of death. The container without any protection measures or buffer devices fell directly from a height of thousands of meters, and one can imagine what happened to the people inside.
Before the battle officially started, the Field Corps had already lost nearly a thousand soldiers.
"There's nothing we can do about this..."
In the temporary command center in the air, an old man with the rank of lieutenant general on his shoulders sighed and said to his colleagues around him.
"Once the attack begins, there will be hundreds of casualties every minute. Compared with that, this loss is nothing." Another middle-aged man who also has the rank of lieutenant general but looks less than 40 years old took over the conversation.
"As the saying goes, a kind man cannot command an army. It is indeed a good thing for young people to be aggressive... But when you reach my age, you will know..." said the lieutenant general who spoke at the beginning.
His temples were completely gray, deep crow's feet were piled up at the corners of his eyes, dark brown age spots were visible everywhere on his face that had been weathered by time, and the cloak-like general's windbreaker draped over his somewhat hunched torso looked a little empty.
"Know what?" The young lieutenant general turned his head with a hint of doubt in his eyes.
"When you lie in bed late at night and close your eyes to fall asleep, the souls of the soldiers you sent to the battlefield will appear before your eyes... A general's success is the result of the sacrifice of thousands of soldiers. As the person who decides their fate, you naturally need to bear their obsession and hatred." The old lieutenant general sighed, "These souls will haunt you for the rest of your life, until your body turns to ashes in the incinerator."
"Ghosts and the like are just superstitions." The young lieutenant general said with some disdain, "Besides, I seldom dream, and almost never have nightmares."
"That's why I envy you young people... To be honest, I voted against this operation... Not only me, but also most of the 'decision makers' in the United Parliament were against this operation. Only less than half of the young officers and the most radical minority of the hawks voted in favor. If it weren't for the people above insisting on fighting, this resolution would not have been passed at all... In fact, we all know that our vote is just a formality, just to express our opinions, and it has no practical significance."
The old lieutenant general was silent for a moment, then continued, "From our perspective, this battle is no different from the 'gamble on national destiny' in the old era... We have staked almost all our chips, so we simply cannot afford to lose."
"But if we allow heretical sects to occupy one Alpha civilization ruin after another, it will only lead to a slow death!" The young lieutenant general immediately retorted, "In my opinion, heretical sects are like a cancer attached to the bone. If we don't eradicate them as soon as we discover them, they will become incurable when they are terminally ill!"
"Then do you know why the Ark has not taken large-scale military action against the heretical sects even though they have existed for decades? The so-called heretical sects were just a small organization with no more than a hundred members at the beginning. Even if their prophets inherited some of the legacy of the Alpha civilization, and even if the seeds of corrosion have combat power far exceeding that of ordinary creatures, in front of the absolute power of the Ark, they are just a group of small bugs that can be crushed to death at any time." The old lieutenant general said, "Have you ever thought about why the people above didn't choose to 'crush' them at that time?"
"Is it because they are too good at hiding like bugs?" The young lieutenant general's eyes became more and more puzzled.
"No, it's just because the people above deliberately let them go." The old lieutenant general shook his head. "You just described the heretical sect as a thorn in the flesh. You should also know that the malignant tumors in cancer patients are not foreign invaders, but the body's own cells that have lost control due to mutation, right?"
The young lieutenant general couldn't help but hold his breath, his eyes slightly widened, and he stared in surprise at this colleague who was almost twice his age.
"In the early years, the institute once proposed a topic. I don't know if you have heard of it." The old lieutenant continued, "A researcher believes that if the proliferation rate of cancer cells can be successfully controlled, immortality will become possible. Human life span is limited to the number of times their own cells divide, while cancer cells divide almost infinitely, and can also transform and metastasize at will... The researcher believes that cancer cells may be the direction of future human evolution, but there are some deviations in this direction. The changes that were supposed to bring immortality to humans have instead led to human death."
Although what the old lieutenant general said seemed to have nothing to do with what the two had discussed before, the expression on the young lieutenant general's face changed from confusion to surprise, and then from surprise to astonishment.
He stood there in a daze for a while before asking with some difficulty: "So, the exile policy in the early years was also because..."
"That's enough." The old lieutenant general interrupted his question, "For some things, it's enough to have a rough idea in your mind, and you don't need to speak it out clearly."
"Okay, okay." The young lieutenant general took a few steps back in a daze and reached out to hold the back of the chair.
When he looked down at the dozens of square formations that were undergoing their final preparations before the battle , his eyes had clearly changed...
At this moment, a staff officer opened the hatch and walked in, reporting to the two men at a rapid speed: "Report to the commander! The infiltration team has arrived at the mining base!"
The old lieutenant general raised his head and glanced at the countdown on the screen. There were only sixteen minutes left before launching the attack.
"Got it." He nodded to the staff officer, "Let the troops below get ready. We will launch an attack on the target on time."
The staff officer saluted and quickly retreated.
There were only two of them left in the command room.
"Next, it's your turn." The old lieutenant general glanced at the young lieutenant general with a very complicated expression, "Lieutenant General Terenz."
Terenz Lind, the youngest graduate since the establishment of the Ark's First Military Academy, obtained his graduation certificate at the age of 19 with full marks in the written examination and 16 consecutive wins in the simulated sandbox. At that time, he was hailed as "a rising future star."
After graduation, Terenz lived up to everyone's expectations. Soon after joining the Field Corps, he commanded several successful small-scale battles as a regimental commander. Within half a year, he was promoted to the position of staff officer of the Field Corps Headquarters. Subsequently, his rank and position climbed at a rocket speed. At the age of 29, he was awarded the rank of brigadier general. Except for those colonel-level officers who were posthumously awarded the rank of general because of their sacrifice, he was the only one who had been awarded the title of general before the age of 30 since the Ark landed on Alpha.
He has a terrifying battlefield sense and analytical judgment ability. His command style is known for being bold and decisive, but he is also as precise as a "surgical operation" in handling some details. Some people reviewed the battles he commanded and found that at the key stages of those battles, his calculations of the battle situation were even accurate to the squad level... It's just like playing chess - "every soldier and every pawn is crucial."
What is most astonishing is that when Terenz is giving orders, he never needs a staff team... He is like an independent-thinking chess player, analyzing tens of millions of instant messages alone and manipulating the entire battle situation single-handedly.
"The staff will interfere with my thinking." This is what Terenz said when facing other people's doubts.
Of course, this way of command is also extremely exhausting for the commander himself. It is almost commonplace for him to command the battlefield while breathing oxygen. When the service soldiers clean the command room afterwards, they often find a lot of empty stimulant syringes on the ground.
But it is undeniable that Terenz has innate talent and ability. In a battle commanded by him, even if it is a losing battle, he can still keep his side's losses to the minimum.
…
"Nine minutes left ." Terenzi glanced at the countdown, "Let the gunboats of the first, second, and third cruise fleets advance to the preset coordinate A6, and cover the area from A19 to C2 with firepower."
The area from A19 to C2 mentioned by Terenz is a wasteland between the ruins of the Ancient Bronze City and the assembly point of the Field Corps. Although this area seems flat and there are no traps hidden in it, out of caution, he still decided to carpet bomb this area.
He did not have the arrogance that is inherent in most geniuses. On the contrary, he was a very cautious person - caution has never been a trait that conflicts with boldness and decisiveness.
When they coexist in the same person, the effect they exert is far greater than one plus one equals two.
"After the bombing, the 9th and 10th Armored Divisions' mechas and tanks moved to position B15, and the infantry remained on standby. The 115th Squadron of the 2nd Cruise Fleet attempted to airdrop an unmanned mecha target drone over the ruins of the Ancient Bronze City to test the opponent's reaction. The 20th and 27th Infantry Divisions followed the preset route to the left and right sides of the target, and began to build temporary fortifications after arriving at the designated location."
One order after another was issued by Terenz, and the assembly formation below began to move. Hundreds of tanks and mechas broke away from the formation and formed an arrow-shaped advancing formation right in front of the large force.
The armored forces had just been integrated when a dark shadow covered them. It was the gunboat unit that was ordered to advance. Soon, deafening artillery fire rang out over the heads of the ground troops, and the plain area directly in front of them was instantly covered by intensive explosions.
"Report to the commander, the first round of firepower coverage has ended. According to computer analysis, the enemy has planted about 2,000 old anti-infantry mines in the plains, which have been completely destroyed." The staff officer said on the other side of the screen. As veterans who have worked under Terenzi for several years, these staff officers also know their duties and only need to report the battle situation and computer analysis results to the general. As for how to judge the battle situation, what measures need to be taken, and what orders need to be issued, it is all done by Terenzi alone.
The staff didn't even have to give advice... Even they often complained about themselves in private, "Thirty stinky generals are no match for one Zhuge Liang."
It can be said that the staff team under Terenz is probably the staff team with the least workload in the entire Ark.
"Only two thousand old-style anti-personnel mines..."
Two thousand mines may sound like a large number, but they are actually very sparsely distributed in such a large area. If they were evenly distributed, each mine would be thousands of meters apart.
Even if this round of attacks had not been launched, these mines would hardly have caused any substantial damage to the armored forces that subsequently entered the battlefield. As for the infantry - by the time they entered this area, the mines would have already been triggered by the armored forces.
Exchanging one round of carpet bombing for two thousand old anti-personnel mines was not a very good deal - the cost of one 200mm caliber heavy howitzer shell was equivalent to hundreds of such mines, and at least thousands of such shells were fired in one round of bombing.
However, Terenzi did not show any sign of relaxation. Instead, he issued another order: "Add two more rounds of firepower coverage and use bunker-buster bombs. The armored forces will move in after the third round of bombing. The first, second and third fighter formations will be responsible for air support."
"What's wrong? Do you think there is something wrong with this plain?" The old lieutenant general turned his head and glanced at Terenz.
"Since the heretic sect was able to lay 2,000 mines without our noticing, I have every reason to believe that there are more things hidden under the ground of this plain." Terenzi said firmly, "These mines are not used to reduce our manpower, but to make us relax our vigilance."
