68: North-South War

"Xuan Yu, your Squads Six through Ten must immediately flank around to the east rear of the Aurora Squad! Speed is essential!"

"Qin Luming, push your troops further up! Do not give the Qin Chuan Squad a chance to break through!"

"Dong Liu! Send all the heavy machine guns up! I want you to suppress the enemies in those two buildings opposite us and create an opportunity for the Meng Hu convoy to break through!"

The first day of the last week of the second month after entering the Inverse Fire World, the battle to encircle the various squads south of Xi City began.

Li Xiao mobilized one-quarter of the total troops from every player in his entire squad, totaling twenty combat squads and twelve thousand men, to launch a surprise three-pronged encirclement of the Qin Chuan Squad's main base located at Yueping Reservoir.

The Qin Chuan Squad was the number one large squad in the south, possessing nearly two hundred members and a total force of over sixteen thousand men.

They had established themselves around the primarily fishery-based Yueping Reservoir. In the early stages, they quickly accumulated massive resources by selling fish. Their squad members had an average level of five, and they possessed over fifty Level Six bases.

According to Yun Dongliu's reconnaissance, nearly one-third of the Qin Chuan Squad's bases were situated at Yueping Reservoir, which is why the Xiaoyao Squad decided to launch a surprise attack there.

They planned to use the tactic of 'besiege a point to strike at reinforcements' to intercept the Qin Chuan Squad's external reinforcements and their allies' troops.

Li Xiao stationed himself at Mount Yue, north of Yueping Reservoir, observing the battlefield situation on the three banks surrounding the reservoir. At this moment, within dozens of square kilometers around Yueping, the air was filled with the sounds of gunfire, and smoke blanketed the reservoir's surface.

The first two hours of this surprise attack were relatively easy. The main force of six thousand men quickly completed the encirclement of Yueping Reservoir, annihilating nearly thirty bases.

However, the captain of the Qin Shan Squad, Xing Ming, proved to be a troublesome opponent. He decisively abandoned the dozen or so bases that the Xiaoyao Squad had already captured around the reservoir, ceded the north bank to Li Xiao, and then stubbornly defended the vital routes on the east and west banks.

Over three thousand men, relying solely on light and heavy machine guns and a large number of pre-laid timed C4 explosives, managed to hold up Liu Nian's main force of six thousand for over three hours.

During this extended period, the Aurora Squad—a medium-sized allied squad of the Qin Chuan Squad with over one hundred members—had already mobilized its entire force, rushing over seven thousand men from the southeast direction.

Fortunately, Li Xiao had deployed Xuan Yu in advance to destroy a bridge on their reinforcement highway, which prevented the Aurora Squad from arriving in time.

But the Aurora Squad was still formidable; they abandoned their vehicles and chose to wade across the river. Xuan Yu exerted every ounce of her ability to hold them back along the ten-kilometer stretch of the riverbank.

On the other side, Yun Dongliu and Qin Luming were holding back several smaller squads and a large contingent of nearly ten thousand men from the Qin Chuan Squad.

"Damn it! We should have sent half our forces here. That way, we wouldn't be fighting such a stalemate!"

Liu Nian looked at the Qin Chuan side's defensive line on the west bank. The firepower was so intense it was like pouring rain, with dense firing points covering everything from the shoreline to the mountainside.

Li Xiao, however, remained unconcerned. Looking at the map of Yueping Reservoir, he said, "Yueping Reservoir is surrounded by mountains on three sides; only the south has a wide, open plain exit. That area is densely packed with bases and would be even harder to attack."

"It's a good thing I sent sixteen meng hu off-road vehicles to support Yun Dongliu, otherwise we would definitely have suffered a defeat today."

Liu Nian nodded. "Speaking of which, how much health do those off-road vehicles of yours have? They actually managed to block them for so long using the streets in Ning'an Town's defense zone."

Li Xiao smirked but said nothing. Over the past few days, by utilizing the durability contributed by his squad and the two allied forces, he had managed to raise the average durability of the sixteen meng hu off-road vehicles to over two hundred thousand. The machine gunners and riflemen on board each had over one hundred thousand health points.

Of course, this amount of health alone could not withstand an assault by tens of thousands of men. Before the battle, he had set up dense light and heavy machine gun emplacements on the streets of Ning'an Town, the only path leading to Yueping Reservoir, and buried hundreds of C4 explosives within a one-kilometer radius at the road junctions.

The troops led by Yun Dongliu and Qin Luming were all deployed within the residential buildings along the streets of the small town, providing layered resistance to the advancing enemy.

The off-road vehicle platoons led by Di Yun and Yang Chao, the First and Second Platoons, provided continuous suppressing fire from behind the machine gun nests.

Although a massive amount of bullets struck their vehicles and bodies, the health points and durability continuously replenished from the three battlefronts were also being simultaneously added to his own troops by Li Xiao.

In fact, Li Xiao had already discovered through Wang Si that he could also add health points and durability to other players' vehicles, but doing so would directly expose his secret. Currently, with his ability level, he didn't dare reveal it.

As for the local natives, the 'Otherworlders' in their eyes probably always possessed all sorts of strange and bizarre abilities. Besides surprise, they wouldn't question it like players would.

Even so, Li Xiao was extremely anxious. The replenishment of health points was beginning to fall behind the consumption rate of the First and Second Platoons. He needed to find a viable breakthrough method as soon as possible.

Before the war, he had sought help from the Dark Soul Mercenary Group and Chang Zhan, but the militia maintained neutrality among the Otherworlders. Chang Zhan adamantly refused to help him infiltrate from the south.

Wang Si also made an exorbitant demand, asking for one hundred thousand Star Coins, wanting Li Xiao to hand over the money he had earned from him.

"How about calling in the reserve forces for reinforcement? After all, the team members still have half their forces left; maintaining daily defense shouldn't be a problem."

Although the Xiaoyao Squad only deployed one-quarter of its forces, they had actually organized an equal quarter as a reserve force to guard against the Qin Chuan Squad flanking around to launch a surprise attack on their main base in the east or west. After all, with his people positioned everywhere in the north, he could reach the Xiaoyao Squad from any direction.

"No, we must ensure the safety of our own people's bases, otherwise the loss will outweigh the gain!"

Li Xiao glanced at the combat report Yun Dongliu had just sent back regarding Ning'an Town. The southwestern reinforcements were now down to only about six thousand men. Thanks to the steadfastness of the meng hu off-road vehicle unit, Yun Dongliu and his men still had about two thousand soldiers remaining.

As for Xuan Yu's direction, the woman had divided her three thousand troops into three waves for continuous, tiered resistance. The Aurora Squad had now reached the second defensive line.

"How to break through! How to break through!"

Li Xiao desperately tried to recall the battle scenarios from the games he had commanded in the past. The backpack panel was open before him, containing six M20S Quad Rocket Launchers and over forty armor-piercing rockets.

This was the trump card he currently had left. It could absolutely shatter the dense machine gun emplacements at the east and west bank junctions immediately, but if he used it, his plan to attack Xi City would be delayed by several days, which was detrimental to the Xiaoyao Squad's development.

This was because, over the past few days, news had been continuously flowing in from various locations on the national channel about successful conquests of local county towns. It was only then that people learned that capturing a local city allowed one to construct a technological military factory inside, capable of producing the players' first armored vehicle: the Armored Personnel Carrier!

This was no small matter. Once more and more large squads occupied cities and Armored Personnel Carriers became common, it would greatly impact the Xiaoyao Squad's future external expansion.