Chapter 101: Chapter 100, Passive Response
Kodi died.
He blew up the last two sorcerers.
Tadeusz’s eyes were about to split with rage.
He felt it was his own inadequacy that forced Kodi and his squad to engage in a fight to the death, coming up to mop up the situation.
They coordinated a flanking maneuver and launched an attack as agreed, the enemy successfully completed their mission, while his own side was obstructed. All five sorcerers were dealt with by Kodi’s squad…
What am I really doing?
Objectively, Tadeusz certainly played a role in creating diversions and opportunities, and he killed many of the armed rioters protecting those sorcerers. It can’t be said that he was completely ineffective, in fact, quite the contrary.
However, looking over at Kodi’s situation, the contrast made the gap apparent.
He wished he could rush forward like Kodi did, even if it meant dying, just to take down a few more enemies. Only then could he quell the burning frustration in his heart.
But in the end, reason still prevailed in his mind.
He waved his hand and led his team to retreat.
He still had five warriors by his side, himself included, enough to form two combat units. When the frontal comrades launched their attack, his men would firmly block the enemy’s retreat path.
Tadeusz’s eyes shone with hatred as he glared at the enemies.
I want you all to die here!
…
Gu Hang heard about Kodi’s heroic deeds from Osenia.
He originally tried to mimic the military system in his memory to quickly integrate prisoners.
For military skills, he had the “Soldier Tag” feature, which allowed him to quickly train his men with a bit of grace, but cultivating loyalty took time.
Now, he was both gratified that his previous arrangements had been useful and pained by the loss of a loyal warrior.
But his sacrifice was valuable.
According to the information Gu Hang had received, all six food transport routes were attacked, but four were now secure. There was some loss of food, but it was not significant.
The Phoenixes had already rushed to the other two routes for which there was no news yet. After Osenia had asked for his help, he immediately turned to those interstellar soldiers and asked them to assist.
When it comes to fighting cult members, the fervor of the Phoenixes might not be any less intense than that of the Saintly Sisters of the Lily.
No matter how many enemies there were or how strong they were at those two locations, when six interstellar soldiers were divided into two teams and took their stand, the problem was definitely solved.
In terms of military force, they were not worth mentioning.
The army under Gu Hang, though not numerous, was elite enough to easily handle those cultists.
The battle at Norris Factory had already made this clear.
Gu Hang guessed that the cultists probably didn’t have too many forces left to mobilize. Their total investment in attacking the food transport routes might be around seven or eight hundred people, including about twenty sorcerers.
This force was much less than what they had deployed inside Norris Factory.
On one hand, the personnel and strength of this bunch of cultists are not infinite. These past few days, they’ve lost about sixty or seventy core members. Those who can wield Storm Sorcery are certainly not so easily cultivated.
Aside from their core sorcerers, they’ve stirred up nearly five thousand people in the factory and deployed seven to eight hundred in attacks on grain conveyance teams. No matter whether they control so many people through some form of insidious brainwashing or just converted many fervent followers through their usual preaching, this all undoubtedly comes at a cost.
Clearly, they must be nearly depleting the accumulated energy.
Otherwise, if they could double their invested forces this time around, of the six grain conveyance teams, at least four would be destroyed. Then, Gu Hang’s trouble would truly be great.
The most irritating aspect of those guys is that they’re hiding in a city with a population of a million, and where the grassroots control is particularly weak, making them very difficult to root out in a short time.
The failure at Norris Factory must have also taught these cultists a clear lesson that it is absolutely unacceptable to confront us head-on.
These guys are messing around covertly, while we can only passively respond.
This is not enough.
Gu Hang felt certain that these cultists definitely had a backup plan.
Furthermore, this plan must be centered around those fifty food distribution points.
The enemy lies in darkness while we stand in the light. Having experienced simultaneous attacks on six transport routes ending in failure, the cultists should sober up and realize that biting off more than they can chew isn’t realistic.
Despite their heavy losses in two consecutive failures, their remaining forces, if targeted at a few food distribution points, could cause significant trouble by launching attacks and stirring up the public while people are queuing for grain.
Gu Hang decided to assign to every food distribution point one military unit that had been equipped with a political commissar from the prisoner-of-war camp.
Come on! I want to see, after you concentrate your forces, whether you can destroy an entire unit before reinforcements can even arrive!
Of course, Gu Hang was also able to remain clear-headed. He didn’t expect all units appointed with political commissars to reach the level of Kodi’s unit.
In fact, whether Kodi or Tadeusz, according to Yan Fangxu’s assessment, who was responsible for the retraining of prisoners, they were the best-performing units among all.
Yan Fangxu was only able to pick out seven units of similar caliber.
Otherwise, how could a bunch of recently disarmed and detained prisoners distribute their forces and face the kind of fierce battle with significant casualties that Kodi’s unit had encountered and come out on top?
It would be quite good if they didn’t just skive off at work, and it was very likely they might collapse and run off with their guns at the critical moment, unlike now, where they can withstand casualties and fight to the death.
But even so, given the current dire shortage of personnel, Gu Hang still decided to mobilize them all.
Even if their performance didn’t match the bravery of Kodi’s unit, or was even far inferior, as long as they could reliably follow orders during battle and not too easily desert their posts, that would be enough.
They just needed to hold on for a while, and reinforcements would continuously arrive on the scene, including patrolling interstellar warriors.
With such arrangements, the security of the food distribution should receive a considerable guarantee.
What remained was specialized suppression.
Merely responding was too passive. In addition to defense, there must also be strong offensive strikes.
In this regard, the nuns of Saintly Lily had brought him good news.
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The content got deleted, I give up, what’s sensitive about this?