Chapter 757: Soldiers’ food is broken! What? You’re not flawless? Well, then.

Chapter 755: 754. soldiers and food! What? You’re not infallible? Then you’re screwed.

“Operation Hungry Bird mission report!”

At nine o’clock in the morning of the next day, in the command center of the Phantom Shadow Valley, the Qing Dynasty veteran who was still covered in smoke came to Old Qin, the old man’s spirit was a bit tired, which was normal, he hadn’t rested for a day and a night.

Even with the game helmet’s sleep access program, sleep alone was still not enough to relieve the stress and exhaustion on the mental level.

Old Qin was sitting on a chair, holding a cup of hot tea in his hand, with his favorite chain saw sword at his feet, and from the dried blood on the blade, this old man with an aging heart must have taken advantage of the commanding interval to go to the battlefield outside the valley last night to “have a good time”.

Last night’s battle in Shadow Valley was short and intense, but after the Hunting God’s Choice accidentally lost, the jackals actually did not do too much entanglement and withdrew from the pre-determined battlefield, and the guards of Shadow Valley did not continue to pursue, and after winning the first contact battle, they left some of their men in the periphery of the defense, and the rest of the men retreated back into the valley.

Old Qin just rushed to collect two heads at the end of the battle, in his words, this is called to move their hands and feet to avoid Alzheimer’s disease.

“Speak.”

He took a sip of tea and rubbed the corner of his forehead to look at his adjutant.

The Qing Dynasty veteran opened the adventure assistant on his arm, pulled up the stats to summarize the data, and said:

“The target ration carriers were destroyed, the three surrounding Jackal strongholds were leveled, minefields were re-established before we left, and four ambushes utilizing pits were conducted last night, all of which were successful!

However, in the case of seizing the favorable terrain, player losses still exceeded one sixth, proving that the quality of the Jackal elites this time around was a bit more potent than during the Black Flame Pass, analyzing the reason was mainly due to the Blood Scar Clan joining in, resulting in the number of opposing Hunt Priests rapidly expanding enough to affect the localized battles.

Jackals with or without Bloodlust enchantments are a completely different concept, and the Hunt Priests don’t just add status, they also have healing spells, allowing the effective kills we can inflict to be further reduced.

In one of the four battles last night, the Jackals withdrew of their own accord, I didn’t order a pursuit to avoid losses, but it was clear that the Jackals’ military literacy was improving.

So far, an operation of this size is well within the player’s range of acceptance, though there were instances of poor command halfway through.

I think that operations on a larger scale than this should not be carried out for the time being.

The military literacy of the players needs to be developed bit by bit, many times they know what to do but they’ll just brute force it.”

“Well, it’s already a very good result.”

Old Qin looked to his other adjutant, “Five to the Wheel”, and waited for the other party’s report, the latter glanced at the data summary on the Expert Adventure Assistant and said:
“Last night’s attack in the other direction on the jackal camp at the water source of the Huuma River was also successful, and Happy Stick’s side performed a bit better than this side, probably because his guild often rehearses similar group actions.

But the attack on the Jackalese camp failed, to be precise, the command canceled the operation on balance.

Through the summary of information from the Phantom Intelligence Bureau, we confirmed that the protection there was tighter than we thought, as well as the psychic surveillance maintained by the Jackal priests, and there was no way to guarantee the success rate of the raid even if we took the pitched battle approach.

The cancellation of the mission upset the team of players responsible for executing it, and they called us wimps on the forums, thinking they would be able to accomplish the mission for sure
But it’s not possible to scratch it!

Players aren’t afraid of death, however the three days of down time is also an attrition that must be taken into account.”

“Let’s forget about that for now and do a recap! Last night’s operation was a big success, and the Jackals’ line of communication being temporarily cut off was enough to make them realize that our battle pattern has changed.”

Old Qin nodded, not commenting on the results of last night’s operation as he said:

“The pits will soon be discovered, we have to rush our warriors to adapt to this type of interlacing combat as soon as possible before they are swept by the Jackals, and most importantly, get the NPCs involved as well!
We can’t just let the players engage in blocking battles, with the scale of the Jackals, the players can’t even make a splash with such a small number of people smashing down, if we want to achieve the purpose of disrupting the other side’s combat system, we must rely on the pit to launch larger scale, multi-point blossom style frequent attacks in the near future.

Only the number of frequent to let them mess up, only then we have the possibility to fish in troubled waters.

I suggest that from today onwards, NPCs and players will be paired up for operations, and all the tactics we discussed before can be put into practice.

There’s also the linkage with Fort Courage, connecting the Valley of Shadows, Desolate Mountain and Black Flame Pass with Fort Courage.”

“You are in too much of a hurry.”

The Qing Dynasty veteran spat:
“I simply don’t dare to think about what kind of consequences you’re letting the players teach the NPCs what they can teach, it’s better to play it safe.”

“Steady? Where is the time to play it safe?”

Five Pairs of Wheels retorted:

“Our actions here are not to win, they are to stall for time! With that purpose in mind, a steady, passive fight will only cause our advantage to be further eroded. The difference in numbers between the two sides is too great, and there is no generational difference in weapons, so if we want to fight more with less in exchange for the initiative of the war we can only risk a surprise attack.

The fact that the leader of the other side was wounded by our leader was an excellent opportunity in itself.

I collected the data from yesterday’s battle, and the casualty ratios of both sides show that the jackals are not real barbarians, and they have their own way of fighting.

By following their rhythm we will only be dragged to death, we must make them move to our rhythm!
Operations like ‘Hungry Birds’ should be done more often, at least once every three days, to introduce a portion of their military strength into the pits and eliminate them, making them run like hounds chasing rabbits, and maximizing the dispersion of their numerical advantage.

Even so, once the Jackals figure out the door and start making forced marches towards the Filthy Swamp, we don’t have a good way to stop them.”

“I admit you’re right, I’m just a frontline commander, I’m in charge of tactics, you guys decide the strategy.”

The Qing Dynasty veteran raised his hands, signaling that he wasn’t interested in arguing with the Five Pairs of Wheels on this kind of issue, but he actually had his own thoughts in his heart.

He knew where Five Pairs of Wheels came from.

This guy was doing too much theoretical work, listen to what he did, canceling missions because they were too risky?
Ch, no wonder he was scolded by the players, aren’t you just slapping that team’s face?
This guy may know how to fight, but he doesn’t know the players.

And as he said the jackals are not stupid, wanting to make the other side follow their own way of war This is a problem that has plagued the military theorists of another world for hundreds or even thousands of years.

“Keep hitting their lines of transportation!”

Old Qin finished his tea and decided to go according to the predetermined plan, he said to his two adjutants:
“With such a large number of Jackals, Barren Mountain doesn’t have that many resources for them to resupply on the spot, cut off the foodways and block the water sources, forcing them to put in more forces on the transportation lines, once they spill out their people, our purpose will be accomplished.

As of now, Lord Murphy’s ‘attraction’ to the jackals is still sufficient, as long as he shines a light from time to time, the jackals most likely won’t be evacuating this place anytime soon.

The only question is, can the Winter Wolf Legion vanguard in Baffent Gorge cut off the Jackals’ path to the Filthy Swamp?
I don’t want to underestimate them, but I’m guessing they’d have a really hard time doing it with the available manpower and that terrible terrain.

So, be conservative strategically, aggressive tactically, and get the brothers moving! Now that we’ve held the first day, we’re nineteen days away from the base target of twenty.
Thirty days at least!

That’s the bottom line!

No matter what we do, we must hold it!”

Old Qin’s confidence was very high, but the problem was that this plan of action had a very different impact in the eyes of the players.

“What? You want to send NPCs over to act with us? You guys aren’t kidding, right?”

This would still be at the resting place at point A of the pit waiting for new orders Brother Woo Meow received a communication from the Qing Dynasty veteran, who was eating jerky immediately stood up as he said:

“Don’t be ridiculous, old brother, NPCs get tired and scared and impulsive, they’re all living, breathing human beings, they’ll cry out in pain when they’re hit, they’ll weaken when they bleed, they’ll crumble when they suffer a blow, they’re not like us cold-blooded maniacs who blow themselves up at the drop of a hat.

To put it bluntly, if we were in a desperate situation, we’d be dead in three days, but now that we’ve got them here, we’ll have to think about their evacuation while we’re in action.
What’s wrong with Command?
Isn’t this giving us nothing to worry about?”

“It’s not like you’re the only ones who’ve been allotted Servants, all the players who’ve been organized into the combat sequence have been given NPC Servants, so stop complaining.”

The Qing Dynasty veteran explained:
“These NPCs are handpicked elites that won’t slow you guys down in normal operations, they already had the mental construction of dying in battle when they were selected to join the blockade, but it’s a part of Transylvania’s military cultivation so you’d better not really use them as cannon fodder either.

The squad of thirty assigned to you has departed and will meet you in roughly four hours. Listen up, your next mission is going to be a little difficult.

After the rendezvous, bring enough supplies and take Trench 2 along Point A into the complex underground structure of Black Flame Pass, where you will be met by scouts from the Fort Courage garrison.

There is no specific objective for the next mission, but there is a KPI pressed down on us, Master Qin has asked us to cut off the maximum number of food lanes for the Jackals of the Barren Mountains, so you will be roaming there next, attacking all Jackal food carriers.

You guys pick the targets, do the actions yourselves.

If you need air support, say hello in advance, there are also Blood Vulture Clan bombardiers over at Fort Courage, but it’s best to plan for that before the battle starts.

Also there are five other squads in that area besides you guys that are also active, all under my chain of command, so remember to call me when you want to execute a difficult interdiction and I’ll coordinate and communicate.”

“Shit! There are KPIs in this war, it’s really not allowing players like me to be free.”

Brother Woo Meow spat:

“Then how are the spoils of war counted? The command can’t just let people work without giving them food, right?”

“The results of last night’s attack are being tallied, what’s your hurry? The booty from this kind of operation will be discounted for you, and all the supplies consumed during the operation will be paid for by the command.”

The Qing Dynasty veteran explained:
“The logistical system has to be established slowly as well, doesn’t it? It can’t be that every battle requires the players to be self-financed. Like this next free action, all the captures belong to you, you can sell them yourselves or find the logistics office to discount them.”

“Hey, this is good, at last the command has done a favor.”

Brother Woo Meow finally came down satisfied.

He received the map of the defense area he was responsible for from the veterans, and then led his brothers to scavenge ruthlessly in the supply warehouse at point A. Even the gold-burning sniper rounds used by Old Qu took twenty boxes, filling everyone’s psychic energy packs to overflowing before giving up.

Four hours later, the thirty-member squad that moved along the tunnels finally arrived at Point A. The team was able to reach Point A.

At the head of the group was a Witch Hunter veteran who had been recruited by the People’s Army, and he dryly gave a military salute to Brother Woo Meow, and Brother Woo Meow returned the salute.

Since both men were followers of Boss Avalon, conversation came naturally, and the veteran reported back to Brother Whoop Meow:
“We brought fifteen assault soldiers, five engineers and two medics, the last three are hunters, just enough to be able to form different combat groups with your squad members, we’ve left a suicide note before we left, and we know about your overly wild fighting style, but don’t be psychologically pressured, Brother Whoop Meow.

We won’t hold you back.”

“Let’s hope so.”

Brother Woo Meow sighed and glanced at the combination of the two male and one female hunters, he could tell at a glance that they were new recruits although they may have had rigorous training, the youthfulness of the new recruits could not be hidden.

“Old Qu, Smoke Sang, the three of them go to you two.”

Woo Meow said to the hunter duo in his guild:
“We’ll set out in a bit, you guys go ahead and lead them along the pits to scout in passing, the veterans told me that the pits will be exposed soon so you guys have to be careful of the dogheads that are coming out of nowhere.”

“Don’t worry, we’re pros.”

Smoke Sang hemmed and hawed, glancing at the female hunter with the gun on her back, he whispered:

“What’s Miss Sister’s name?”

“Swish.”

The somewhat nervous female soldier reflexively tensed her body under the inquiry of the “war hero of Transylvania”, and she said loudly:

“Corporal Mia Folgosson of the Kademan People’s Army Hunters salutes you! Ensign Smokey Sang, your feat on Blood Flag Heights has become a legend that inspires us to keep fighting.”

“Tsk, that’s very eloquent, I like it.”

Smokey Sang was more than satisfied.

He crossed his arms and said to the three hunters in front of him:
“I will be your big brother from now on, I will cover you, what you don’t understand can ask me, but pay attention to everything listen to the command don’t mess around, our brother Qu is a very cold sniper master, really annoyed with him there are your good fruit to eat.

Also, you have to be energetic at all times! Only when you have enough spirit can you win every battle!”

“You’re the one who talks too much, let’s go.”

Qu, who was carrying a sweet root grass to pretend to be an expert, skimmed his mouth and carried his anti-tank gun behind his back, just a few steps out he rolled his eyes and handed his gun to the tallest hunter corporal, saying:
“You carry it for me, by the way, familiarize yourself with the construction and usage of this special firearm, since you have become a hunter you should have a sniper’s heart. We don’t care to slaughter weak enemies, only those who are truly strong deserve to be greeted with bullets!
Without further ado, I’ll teach you all in the next operation.”
—
“Our grain carriers were raided last night, in more than one trip, and two food convoys that were scheduled to pass through the Black Flame Pass last night were wiped out. All the grain was burned in a single fire, and the elite sent there to defend the lines of communication died in the Transylvanian attack.

Those bastards also ambushed our squad that went to occupy the water source, and the soldiers who escaped and came back reported that the Transylvanians were like ghosts.”

In the Jackalese camp that was in a siege position on the outskirts of the Valley of the Shadow, Priest Manson said to Hügesen, who was bathing in blood water for quick recovery:

“Apparently, the Transylvanians used a way beyond our expectations to complete the penetration of the battle line, they appeared both behind and in front of us at the same time, and the Dogheads sent out say that complex pit structures have appeared underground.

Your earlier prediction was accurate, Huegson.

The Transians have no intention of fighting us in a positional battle, they have taken a more effective and cunning approach, they are fighting in the manner of the Dogheads, yet are far more vicious and powerful.”

“Expected.”

Hügesen buried most of his body in the bloody water of this large bath, the divine power from the Lord of the Hunt was dispelling the power belonging to the feathered serpent sun god Kurkan, allowing its charred fur and wounds to slowly heal with every breath.

It endured the pain and said in a mute voice:

“They want to cut off our supplies, they know very well that we can’t find more supplies in this barren region of the Barren Mountains, we can’t open up the food routes, and we will become weak and confused on our own just by time consumption.

Send the Dogheads into the underground!

Destroy their pits and fight them underground, get our soldiers outside of Barren Hills moving as well, and defend the food convoys to reorganize the lines of communication as quickly as possible.”

“Are you going to continue the siege plan here?”

Manson said with a frown:
“You know it’s pointless anymore, Murphy obviously has a strange way of dispelling divine power and there’s no way you can kill him now.”

“I can at least trap him! The leader of the Transians being trapped in the Valley of Shadows will add pressure to their defenses as well, and the situation will only get more troublesome once Murphy, who is the leader of the camp, is allowed to move freely throughout the battlefield range to boost the enemy’s morale.”

Xu Gerson soaked most of his body in blood as he pondered, then said in an aggravated tone:

“Send the Hunting Chosen to command the Dogheads, and have them enter the pit to hunt the undead, isn’t that what I brought them here for?
The Transylvanians are very good prey and opponents!
If they want to perform devotions for the Lord of the Hunt, then this is the perfect time to do so!
They have targets and enemies here, and all they need to do is keep fighting until death comes.

Lord Manson, Inspector Haas has already led a breakthrough towards the Filthy Swamp, and as soon as it breaks through the Nords’ defenses in Baffent Canyon, the Transylvanian’s ruse will be defeated.

There is no need for a spell-casting power like yours to stay here with me and waste time, go to the battlefield and utilize your destructive power as you should.

The Lord of the Hunt hisses in my mind, He longs to see more killing and bloodshed, and as we both serve this noble goal, I am in no position to ask you to stop your dedication to the gods because of me.”

“What a noble realization.”

Manson marveled:
“Then I won’t hide anything from you, Hügesen, I have a way to destroy the Valley of the Shadow. In fact, I’m already secretly preparing for it, and we don’t even need to make many modifications, we just need to repeat what the Transylvanians did at the Black Flame Pass!”

(End of chapter)