162: MSI Alliance

His biggest headache right now was the lack of main battle tanks; no matter how powerful an infantry fighting vehicle was, it was still just light armor, a vehicle that even heavy machine guns could damage.

His enemies might have few armored vehicles, but they possessed a massive number of heavy machine guns, enough to destroy Li Xiao's vehicles, which had tens of millions in durability, in just a few minutes.

Therefore, only heavy armor like a main battle tank could avoid damage from heavy machine guns, and in situations where the enemy had few anti-armor capabilities and numbers, he could achieve victory against superior numbers and secure a crushing win!

If he wanted to attack a first-tier city, he would need more troops and more vehicles.

Thus, unifying all third-tier cities under the jurisdiction of Weixing City and gathering all his strength was the first step he had to take.

So far, there were nine cities under the control of the Xiao Yao Army, and over fifty more remained uncontrolled.

It sounded like a lot, but the vast majority of these cities were in a state of fighting for themselves—to put it bluntly, they were just trying to scrape by and develop, unwilling to take risks.

At this point, all he had to do was eliminate the ones sticking their necks out, and under the military might of the Xiao Yao Army, these cities would quickly give up resistance.

Thinking of this, he decided to take advantage of the fact that the opposing forces within the territory had not yet formed a complete alliance, fight a decisive battle with them directly, and destroy them in one fell swoop!

"Dong Liu, gather some information about the south; we're about ready to make a move!"

Li Xiao sent a voice message to Yun Dongliu. Since the army's numbers were still small and the pressure to compete for second-tier cities was still low, he had to unify the entire territory of Weixing City as soon as possible and then expand outward.

Two days later, before Yun Dongliu had obtained the intelligence, good news came from Nangong Yan's side.

When Nangong Yan showed her cards to the Black Hawk Empire, the Imperial Ministry of Defense almost tore her apart on the spot, but unfortunately, they had no evidence to prove that Nangong Technology had abducted Mavis.

Nangong Yan insisted that the ink crystal technology was developed by herself. Given the increasingly severe situation of the mutants' counterattacks globally, the Black Hawk Empire urgently needed more lethal ink crystal weapons, so they had to compromise.

After two days of negotiations, the Black Hawk Empire agreed to open the ink crystal mines to the Nangong Technology Group, but on the condition that the produced weapons and equipment could not be exported and had to be purchased entirely by the Black Hawk Empire.

Nangong Yan naturally agreed immediately. She, being cunning, had always understood that once the agreement was signed and the raw materials were in stock, it would no longer be the Black Hawk Empire's business.

By the time Nangong Yan notified him, the ice-breaking cargo ship of the Nangong Technology Group in the western part of the Miso United States had already set off for the North Pole.

In about a month, the first batch of ink crystal ore would arrive in Yun City State.

Originally, for convenience, Nangong Yan intended to build the new ink crystal military factory on the coast of Donglu Province, partly to make it easier to ship goods to the Black Hawk Empire.

And also to save time, but Li Xiao insisted on finding a hidden location in Yun City State to set up the factory. It wasn't for anything else; he needed to keep the production of the military factory firmly in his own hands.

Nangong Yan was only responsible for factory construction, transportation, and sales, which was the only way to ensure she wouldn't try to take advantage of him from both sides.

Nangong Yan was very clear about Li Xiao's thoughts, but since the technology was in his hands, she had no choice but to compromise.

During the time waiting for the ink crystal raw materials, the ink crystal military factory was also being built rapidly, and Mavis, under the protection of Ling Chao's Shadow Special Forces, went to assist in setting up the factory's production line.

...

One day, Li Xiao was fishing at Fengyu Lake when Yun Dongliu suddenly drove over.

Seeing him looking travel-worn, Li Xiao hurriedly asked, "What's wrong?"

Yun Dongliu got out of the car, sat down next to Li Xiao, and smiled, "The matter of the resistance forces you asked me to investigate is almost done."

"Hmm, tell me about it." Li Xiao reeled in his fishing rod.

"Currently, there are about fourteen cities in the south, and nearly twenty-something teams have formed a coalition called the Microstar Alliance."

"This coalition's sixty-thousand-plus members have assembled a force of nine million people, intending to launch a full-scale attack on Weixing City and replace us!"

"Nine million?!" Li Xiao said with a low laugh, "It seems they really intend to drive the Xiao Yao Army out."

Yun Dongliu said the word "nine million" quite casually, as he took out a handheld computer and pulled up a data interface.

"But you don't need to panic. Our army's strength is not weak right now. Although we just suffered over a million in combat losses, the newly added members can still provide over four million troops. Plus our advantage in armored units, fighting a defensive counterattack is no problem."

The situation that Yun Dongliu analyzed conservatively did not make Li Xiao feel entirely at ease. They were now the target of everyone, and restoring troop sources could not be accomplished overnight.

Once their forces were excessively depleted, potential enemies would not hesitate to jump out and deliver a fatal blow.

Li Xiao didn't want to fight a war of attrition; he wanted to use a method with a lower cost to resolve this crisis.

"When do they plan to launch the attack?"

"It should be within these two days." Yun Dongliu added, "The initiator of this Microstar Alliance is named Captain Yu Tu, who created the Yufeng Team and sits on four third-tier cities with over ten thousand members."

"Their team hasn't fought a battle in over a month, and this time they have sent out all their elites. Their team alone has mobilized two million people."

Li Xiao pondered for a moment and said to Yun Dongliu, "After you go back, monitor the movements of the Microstar Alliance at all times. Let each regiment prepare for battle. As for how to defeat the enemy, leave it to me; you only need to ensure the defense."

"Yes!" Yun Dongliu replied.

After Yun Dongliu left, Li Xiao immediately returned to the base.

He checked the current equipment composition. Di Yun's First Armored Company and Yang Chao's Second Armored Company currently each had three modified blade ifv, twenty AMX infantry fighting vehicles, ten Rangers, and the seven newly arrived Wildcats.

Leng He's Third Company, apart from not having any blade ifv, had a total of thirty vehicles of various types combined.

The six blade ifv of the First and Second Companies had experienced many battles, and now their durability had reached twenty million points. In addition, nine AMX vehicles had exceeded ten million, all Rangers had exceeded three million, and as for the Wildcats, they had added about one million during the battle for Weixing City.

"Hmm, seems not bad!" Li Xiao closed the base overview and lay down on the bed, feeling at ease.

Because of the appearance of Level 1 Army organizations and the setting where occupying a second-tier city grants tax revenue from the entire territory, the transmigrator forces, which had been calm for over a month, began to become turbulent again.

In these two days, entering any national channel, one could see people discussing the situation of the battles for second-tier cities.

The large teams everywhere, fearing falling behind others, didn't even bother to consider how many armored vehicles they possessed or whether they had sufficient anti-armor capabilities; they gathered large troops and launched attacks on second-tier cities.

One can imagine what the result was: the transmigrators paid a huge price, losing tens of millions of troops, just to barely occupy those second-tier cities.

But immediately following that, countless "orioles" hiding in the back began to strike at the "mantises," and civil strife was imminent.