Chapter 144: Chapter 130, Personal Desires_4
In Sanchi Town, during hard times, it was common for people to starve to death. Those who survived would divide and consume the dead, in an effort to endure the lean years.
Under such circumstances, if what the officers from the New Alliance were saying was true, as long as you worked, basic food and warmth were guaranteed; then what harm was there in becoming a farmer, a worker, or even a soldier?
For the lower-class plunderers, it was indeed so, but it was different for those present.
No matter how hard the days were, could they ever really become unbearable for their leaders?
After all, they were the rulers. They received offerings; they commanded thousands of plunderers, roaming freely through the wastelands, whistling past, living with satisfaction.
Having joined the New Alliance, those middle and lower-class looters could perhaps conceal their pasts and live peaceful lives.
But what about these leaders?
Could they still dictate and act recklessly?
I’m afraid not.
It was nearly impossible to expect a group of plunderer leaders to think of the greater good, considering the welfare of all their subordinates, and giving up their privileges.
However, their minds weren’t completely controlled by selfish desires, forgetting the reality of the situation.
They were well aware that, in their current state, even though they had a few thousand guns, it was still unrealistic to confront directly the troops led by Major Perbov. Numerous men and guns they had, but they were seriously lacking in heavy firepower. With only twenty light mountain cannons and some individual rocket launchers, they could threaten the heavy armored vehicles, but the risk was too high; deploying all their forces might not guarantee the destruction of even a few tanks.
A single anti-tank group encountering an armored vehicle or tank definitely had the potential to cause damage, but the requirements were too stringent. It wasn’t impossible for them to stealthily approach within a few dozen meters and then hit the vehicle’s side armor with two or three armor-piercing rockets. But it was more likely they’d be discovered before getting close, and then a barrage from the enemy would wipe them all out.
It was precisely for this reason that they had never considered a head-on collision with the New Alliance’s military forces.
Otherwise, there would have been no need to play the part of compliant citizens when Major Perbov first arrived with his troops.
In fact, they were prepared to give up on Sanchi Town altogether.
They weren’t any sort of legitimate settlement; whether it was the industry Mesh had built, those three broken ponds, or the decrepit tavern, if they decided not to cling to these, they would simply depart. Once the word was out, why couldn’t they sleep anywhere out in the wilderness?
Guerrilla warfare was nothing remarkable for a gang of bandits who lived off plunder.
There weren’t many mountains here, a few small woods but not many, yet most crucially, there were plenty of extensive urban ruins!
These were even better suited for guerrilla warfare than any other kind of terrain.
Take part in whatever business is available, strike when there’s an opportunity for an ambush, and retreat into the city whenever a powerful enemy force approaches. I have no lair, no foundation, are your armored forces going to come into the urban ruins to fight me? In the ruins, do armored forces have the agility, the speed of a person?
However, before actually moving into the ruins or the forest, they still had to launch an ambush.
After those officers from the New Alliance had fled, Terrell realized that Major Perbov’s forces would surely come.
Far from telling his troops to hurry and escape, he decided instead to stage an ambush along the way.
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This chapter is 6k words; I’ll try to push out a larger chapter tomorrow.