Chapter 180- Lightning Operation
Translator: TeamTWO
Editor: Nora
Gaia first year, 6th month, 24th day, Shanhai city's second raider operation had finally reached an end.
Compared to the first time, the region of the raider operation had expanded by three times and would obviously yield better rewards. They had netted 5400 gold and 5500 prisoners and gained large amounts of grain and equipment.
Most importantly, he had obtained a technical manual in this raider operation.
: after use, user automatically grasps the technique to craft ladders.
In the last raider city attack, Ouyang Shuo witnessed the strength of the ladder. He yearned and desired such a siege weapon. He passed over the manual to the combat logistics division for the artisans to analyse and create as soon as possible.
Ouyang Shuo didn’t forget that there were still a group of mountain bandits waiting for him to settle at the Zhennan Pass. The appearance of the ladder was a godsend. If not, he wouldn't have a good idea of how to attack that pass.
Based on Shi Wanshui's report, they faced a tough opponent in this raider operation. It was a advanced raider camp with 3000 raiders, among them were 500 elites and 1500 basic raiders.
Luckily, the mixed regiment had experience with raider camps and were able to coordinate well between the units. In addition to this, they had the trump card of the first unit of the regiment—four squadrons equipped with Buren Armor—their defence was shocking and they took down the raiders without much danger.
In just that battle alone, the mixed regiment had lost 100 men. One must know that in the two large scale operations, the mixed regiment had only lost 300 men, so one could imagine the intensity of the raider operation.
In truth, upon reaching the city grade, raiders could practically threaten the territory. This was because of their limited scale and an advanced raider camp was already the maximum. In the wilderness, the people they could rob and track were rare, so a large number of raiders gathered together could only starve.
When faced with such a well-equipped, proper army like the mixed regiment, the raiders had no way to fight back. Hence, Ouyang Shuo didn't personally join the raider operation after Shanhai City’s upgrade and just left it to Shi Wanshui.
The 5500 prisoners, apart from the 1000 to join the reserve forces, the remaining 4500 were all sent to Friendship village to help it upgrade to grade 1 city. Out of the three affiliate territories, friendship town was the slowest. Ouyang Shuo could bear to let it live on it's on and not help it.
Ouyang Shuo appointing Zhou Haichen as the city magistrate of friendship town touched him. However, out of the 3 affiliate territories, only he didn't achieve anything. His lack of results made him feel guilty, and he felt that he was letting Ouyang Shuo down.
Ouyang Shuo didn't say anything and just asked him to work harder to make up for the difference.
At the same time, Ouyang Shuo ordered Leixun, who was collecting information on the nomadic tribes, to quicken his pace. He also wrote a letter to the new 2nd vanguard unit major Sun Tenjiao. Ouyang Shuo asked him to increase their training to ensure that they could be put to use at anytime.
In the raider operation that had just ended, Ouyang Shuo especially asked him to bring the unit to join in. He allowed Leixun to train them and form some combat ability as soon as possible.
Normally speaking, a normal soldier in a unit must be rank 5 to be considered passable. If not, that unit would be considered a new unit.
After a month of inspection, Ouyang Shuo named the second leader of the raiders during the city attack—Heiqi—as the deputy major. Ouyand Shuo did this to strengthen the ability of the second vanguard unit.
He was now just a deputy major, which looked like a downgrade of two ranks. After all, he was leading one thousand cavalry during the city Attack. But to a spared General, this chance could already be considered a great treatment.
Ouyang Shuo definitely did this because of Sun Tengfei's ability, which were equal to Heiqi. In addition to his experience, Ouyang Shuo would naturally choose to promote Sun Tengfei first.
Furthermore, based on the speed that Shanhai city was expanding, as long as Heiqi performed well and stayed loyal, he was bound to be appointed as major.
The 5400 gold earned from the raiders and the 7600 in profits from the mine and saltpans added up to 13,000 gold. Out of this, he gave 2500 to the affiliate territories, 2000 to buy basic building blueprints, 1250 for building the 3rd unit of the Beihai naval fleet and the class change course for the second cavalry unit, and 250 gold as compensation for soldiers of the mixed regiment that had died. Finally, he was left with 7000 gold.
Ouyang Shuo didn't deal with the remaining gold immediately. He was prepared to wait for two days. At that time, the latter half of the month's profit was tabulated. Then, he would make decide how to allocate the remaining funds.
In the afternoon, Shanhai city meeting hall.
After the raider operation had ended, Ouyang Shuo was about to start acting on the neighboring territories.
Based on the plans of the Internal Affairs department, the operation would be codenamed lighting— they would remove the 8 player territories with lightning quick speed.
Hence, Shanhai city had no choice but to make use of all their forces.
The operation was split into east and west, entering together and starting at the same time.
On the east there were only three territories. The units in charge were the Shanhai city city protection unit, Qiushui city city protection unit, Friendship city city protection unit, and the second vanguard unit. They were under the leadership of director Ge Hongliang.
The four majors weren’t any pricks, so it would be easy for him to take charge of them. Apart from that, Ouyang Shuo wanted to use this chance to train the battle strength of the various protection units and also their ability to work across long distances.
Based on Shanhai city's situation of being in the middle, defending on the back foot wasn't his goal and attacking was more of his style. Hence, he didn't want the city protection units to be cooped up in the city and lose their fighting ability. They needed to be pulled out time after time for battle to maintain their morale and killer instinct.
On the west, there were five player territories and Shuo Wanshui was the one guiding the mixed regiment.
As the Military Intelligence Division reported that these territories didn't have any decent city walls, the god machine unit wasn't activated.
This operation used up more men than attacking the raider camps, but their opponents were Grade 3 villages that couldn't even compare to advanced raider camps.
Speed, this was the core of the operation.
They aimed to take down all eight territories at the same time and not give them a chance to react.
Before he left, Ouyang Shuo ordered them to not hesitate when they reached the village. They were to attack immediately and take down the lord's manor and complete the mission.
After a player's territory had been occupied, all the players in it would be teleported to the system imperial capital. Lianzhou Basin players would naturally be sent to Dali.
If the player died during the process, he would be revived at the imperial capital's reincarnation hall.
Hence, to cleanly end the battles, the east and west troops would set out early in the morning and set up camp near the territories. In the morning of the next day, they would initiate their attack and not give their opponents the chance to react. At that time, many players probably hadn't even logged in, and did not know who the enemy was.
This was the effect that Ouyang Shuo wanted.
If these eight territories knew that Shanhai city had destroyed them, they would spread it on the forums and cause all the other territories in the Lianzhou Basin to work together.
Only if they kept their identities a secret would they be able to keep the opponent guessing, preventing them from pointing their fingers at Shanhai city. Ouyang Shuo was raising poisonous insects, but he didn't want them to group together.
He raised the insects to fight each other, which would leave the strongest one standing.
After he settled the strategy, the majors returned to their barracks to prepare for tomorrow.
6th month, 25th day, the troops set out.
The mixed regiment moved out from the west city barracks and went toward the most western area of the territory. The three city protection units and the vanguard unit went from their own barracks to Qiushui city to meet up. Then, they would head toward the most eastern region.
6th month, 26th day, five in the morning.
For the east army, Ge Hongliang's plan was for the three city protection units to each attack one and the vanguard unit to act as a mobile unit to adapt when needed.
As for the west, Shi Wanshui didn't have any plans or tactics.
The various units of the mixed regiment were all specialized soldiers, hence Shi Wanshui split up the five units and reorganized them. He formed five units that were similar to city protection units. They two squadrons of sword and shield soldiers, one cavalry squadron, one spear squadron, and one archer squadron.
The protection squad of the grade 3 villages were only 100 people. At most, they would have 200. When they faced a unit, it was impossible to defend. Moreover, it was a sneak attack, so there was no way they could succeed.
At 5:30 a.m., The eight units of 4000 soldiers were like five surgical knives. Under the direction of the military intelligence division, they precisely stabbed into the enemy.
A grade 3 village had arrow towers and stone sentries. The attacking troops didn't bother to hide. It was still dark and they didn't find a need to hide their tracks.
The wooden gates of the village were burst open by the mountain barbarian sword and shield soldiers. The troops behind them followed and successfully took down the lord's manor.
At that time, the territories that could react fast enough had rushed out to prepare to intercept. However, the protection squads were weak and couldn't match up, so the army smashed them into bits.
When the residents saw their fellow villagers being defeated so easily, they didn't dare to go up. Instead, they only watched on as the invaders took over the lord's manor.
After the invaders occupied the territory, the NPCs naturally became prisoners.