Chapter 1279: Chapter 44: Morning Light (5)
"Keep up, keep up!"
The officer, drenched in sweat, stood by the roadside, shouting loudly to urge them on.
It was already dusk, the sunset had sunk behind the hills in the distance, leaving only a strip of red at the horizon. The slanting afterglow illuminated the long clouds of the sky. In the increasingly dim twilight, the semi-gold and semi-black hilly terrain stretched endlessly to the horizon. The long line of troops was winding their way through these boundless small hills.
Vision was beginning to blur; the soldiers lowered the multifunctional goggles on their tactical helmets, and the soft lamps at their waists lit up. Under the officer’s urging, rows of warriors pressed on with heads down, while the spotlights of the speeding mecha shook as they passed by, and all that could be heard were rapid breathing and footsteps.
The road was long gone. As the troop moved forward, they could only follow the path cut by those in front. The surrounding hills, though not high, were covered by dense, towering trees, narrowing their field of view. Aside from the dirt underfoot and the sweat-soaked backs of comrades in front, nothing else could be seen. Only occasionally, when reaching a high point, could they see beyond the hills ahead to the piece of sky lit up red by the explosions of artillery.
Deafening sounds of artillery and explosions continued to echo from the front. The battle had already begun!
Fatty sat in the Command Mecha with a sullen face.
The reports from the front indicated that the 3rd echelon had completely pinned down the enemy, and the vanguard of the second echelon had reached the battlefield ten kilometers away, beginning contact with the enemy. Two Armored Camps and five Mechanical God mechas including Hagrove had already rushed to the forefront. Yet, he could only sit, dazed, in this Command Mecha.
"Why won’t you let me go?!" Fatty stared at Li Cunxin.
"This is where a Commander should be." The old man ignored Fatty’s anger, focusing on pulling up the simulation programs on the computer.
Fatty blinked, unable to understand the old man’s logic. Having fought for years, he was always on the front lines and behind enemy lines. Even when Mezrich commanded the Freedom Front against two bandit army corps, and fought fiercely with Mars and the Northern Commerce Alliance, he never stayed in the command post playing strategies.
He always bullied the weak and feared the strong, fleeing when things got tough, but when he bullied the weak, he always led from the front.
The most important thing was, only when he was in the Mecha did he feel safe. Piloting the Twelfth Generation Mecha, with hand speed of seventy-three moves per second and unparalleled Mecha Martial Arts, on this planet, there really was no one who could threaten him. As long as there was no life-threatening danger, Master Fatty would never willingly hide at the back when there was an advantage to gain.
Can’t afford to lose face!
"Who says the Commander must stay here? The commanders here are you guys, what’s it got to do with me?!"
"I say so!" Li Cunxin turned to Fatty with a cold expression: "The plan was formulated by you, the simulation executed by you, the orders given by you, you tell me how it doesn’t concern you?! You like fighting so much, when there’s time, I’ll call ten Armored Divisions to join you for a thrilling match. Not now! Don’t give me any nonsense. Not only you, even if Russell, Mihailovich, and Bernadotte were here, they’d still have to listen to what I say!"
Fatty shut his mouth with a grievance on his face.
The old man was too overbearing. He was a friend of Boswell and also Marshal Chuckna. Now, almost everyone in the Chuckna Military Department were his followers, and Admiral Li Hongwu was simply this old man’s biological son. To mobilize ten Armored Divisions to deal with a single fatty was definitely not empty talk. Now this old fellow’s fist was big.
Seeing Fatty’s aggrieved expression, Pei Litong quickly turned his face away.
Can this idiot truly be Major General of Leray? How come just looking at him makes me want to punch that chubby face of his fiercely! Let’s give him a black and blue face first to make him unrecognizable.
"While we have a little time now, let’s do a simulation exercise." Li Cunxin selected a simulation exercise session and said to Fatty.
"No way!" Fatty crossed his legs with a crisp crack, determinedly.
"That’s an order," Li Cunxin pointed to the Marshal insignia on his uniform’s shoulder, raising an eyebrow at Fatty.
"Old man, are you certain you want to be humiliated?!" Fatty sat angrily at the simulation computer, casting a sideways glance at Li Cunxin. In his heart, he decided to vent his fury fiercely in this simulation exercise and make the old man lose track of north and south!
Li Cunxin was amused, no one had ever dared to talk to him like that in his whole life, this Fatty was the first. He sneered, tapping the keyboard hard, and the confrontation began.
Li Cunxin chose a plain showdown for frontal confrontation. Both commanders were to command four Armored Divisions and six Infantry Divisions in a head-to-head encounter.
This was completely different from the confrontations Fatty used to play.
When confronting Fang Xiang, most choices were interstellar battles, with ground battles accounting for only a small part. And with Margaret’s confrontations, they mostly involved small-scale troop attacks and defenses. To date, Fatty hadn’t played a scenario involving more than a single division. But Li Cunxin, being accustomed to warfare and long serving as a Marshal, naturally chose a confrontation involving ten divisions.
This was no longer tactical command but a strategic confrontation. With ten divisions, to annihilate an enemy of equal scale and equivalent combat strength, one must strive to achieve strategic superiority, accumulate every local victory, and ultimately break the opponent’s critical line, annihilating them with overwhelming odds.
