69: Recovering the South

Li Xiao was hesitating whether to send in the reserve troops to force a breakthrough of Qin Chuan's defensive line when Li Le came forward and shouted: “Boss! Militia Company Nine's Company Commander Chang Zhan is looking for you.”

“Chang Zhan? Why is he looking for me now?”

Li Xiao took the satellite phone with confusion. Chang Zhan said with a smile: “Captain Li, my observer says your attack isn't going very smoothly.”

“What, did you call specifically to watch me make a fool of myself?”

Li Xiao was depressed. Not helping and watching the show—what an utterly unreliable ally.

“How could you think of me that way? Although I can't help you fight, lending weapons between allies is certainly possible.”

“Lend weapons? What weapons do you have?” Li Xiao was a bit curious.

“Nothing much, just eight 75mm mortars and fifty rounds of shells!”

“What! Holy cow! That’s awesome! Hurry up! If we win this battle, I’ll give you an off-road vehicle with thirty thousand durability when we get back!”

“Deal! You said it yourself. The mortars should be almost there. I await your glorious news!”

Li Xiao hung up the phone, excitedly kicked Liu Nian in the rear: “Little brother, we’ve got this one in the bag!”

“Hey! Are you crazy? My butt has no meat!”

Liu Nian rubbed his sore rear and asked, “What’s the situation?”

“You’ll know in a moment!”

More than ten minutes later, Chang Zhan’s two mortar squads reported for duty. Liu Nian’s expression was almost identical to Li Xiao’s when he saw the eight mortars—he nearly drooled.

“Damn, eight mortars with fifty shells fired down—those dozens of heavy machine guns won't stand a chance!”

Li Xiao quickly and politely said to the two squad leaders: “Squad Leaders, just aim your cannons directly at the machine gun positions on the highway and blast them!”

“No problem! Captain Li, we will definitely complete the mission!”

At this time, Li Xiao also told Liu Nian to recall half of the attacking force from the east side, leaving a thousand men to continue the feint attack. This way, the western attacking force could reach four thousand men.

Professionals are professionals. Although Du Ziteng, who had experience operating mortars under Li Xiao, was accurate, he was slightly inferior when it came to rapid deployment and quick calculation of firing solutions.

Half an hour later, the eastern troops had converged. Liu Nian’s two assault squads had also completed their attack preparations. Li Xiao then signaled the mortar squads to open fire.

The mortar position set up on the open area of the mountainside could clearly see the dense machine gun fortifications on the sparse highway through the woods. The eight cannons were lined up. As the spotters locked the angles, the eight loaders performed the same action simultaneously, releasing the shells with both hands.

The sound of the shells rapidly falling down the barrel was clearly audible, followed by the muffled thuds—*thump thump thump thump*. Green smoke spurted from the muzzles of the eight mortars as the shells flew out instantly.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

Even from six or seven hundred meters away, Li Xiao could faintly hear the whistling sound of the shells cutting through the air. Following that, he saw the machine gun positions of Qin Chuan's troops explode.

Balls of fire erupted into the air, the intense bombardment blasted the machine gunners out of their sandbag and rubble piles, and collapsed the roadblocks meticulously constructed by Qin Chuan Squad.

“Three, two, one, fire!”

Round after round of salvos caught Qin Chuan's troops completely off guard, tearing open a gap in the tight defensive line. As the last volley of shells whistled in, Liu Nian issued the order for the general assault in the squad channel.

Large numbers of troops poured into the blasted gap like an opened floodgate, surging toward Qin Chuan's troops. Stray bullets flew everywhere on the roads and in the woods.

The sound of dense grenade explosions, layers of smoke bombs, and gunfire as dense as New Year's fireworks made it impossible to distinguish the frontline of the opposing sides.

In this kind of close-quarters combat, the snipers on both sides had endless targets, and they simply couldn't shoot them all.

But the time left for the routed side to pick off targets was running out. Soldiers, surging forward one after another, completely wiped out the more than one thousand enemies on that battlefield.

“Don't bother cleaning up the battlefield yet! This small amount of supplies is nothing. Everyone charge forward and demolish the bases!”

Liu Nian called out to the players who were picking up equipment and ammunition from the command unit to continue rushing toward Qin Chuan Squad's main camp.

The breach of the west bank defense line directly affected the defenders on the east bank. The players disregarded defense and ordered their troops to retreat and defend the base.

What is a rout like a mountain collapsing? This was a vivid example. A three-hour defensive line could be dismantled in one minute. Even though Qin Chuan Squad's commanders roared hysterically in the group chat, they couldn't stop the tide of the rout.

In just one hour, Liu Nian’s nearly five thousand main force punched straight through, demolishing dozens of Qin Chuan Squad's bases.

The entire twenty-kilometer stretch along the reservoir was swept clean like a bulldozer. Li Xiao stood on the mountain, watching the thick smoke rising in the distance and the continuous explosions. He couldn't help but mock that these members were simply like a swarm of locusts!

It was true, though. If they could demolish a Level Six base now, they could get nearly a hundred thousand resources. Who wouldn't risk their lives running for it? He seriously suspected that these guys had stocked hundreds of C4 explosives in their backpacks, just waiting to demolish bases.

However, speaking of which, Qin Chuan Squad Leader Xing Ming still had a lot of support from his men. Until the very end, more than ten members still followed him for the final defense, holding the bottleneck leading into the southern plain of the reservoir with less than a thousand troops.

Seeing this situation, Li Xiao personally came to the front line and tried to add Xing Ming as a friend, but unfortunately, this proud man flatly refused.

He then ordered Liu Nian to have the troops shout the slogan 'Drop your weapons and you will not be killed,' but not a single person walked out from the defensive line.

Li Xiao knew that Xing Ming was still fantasizing about reinforcements from the southeast and southwest. However, when his defensive line was breached an hour ago, the offensives of the two reinforcement routes had gradually weakened.

Even the Captain of Aurora Squad had already proactively contacted him.

“Xing Ming doesn't know his reinforcements have already slipped away, does he?” Liu Nian watched the figures moving between the opposite mountain valleys.

“Of course, he knows. It’s just Xing Ming’s nature. I’m afraid he’s the type who would rather be shattered jade than an intact tile!”

“I really admire these straightforward people who aren't afraid of death!” Liu Nian shook his head. “I admit I couldn't do that.”

“Haha, otherwise how could you and I become heroes?”

To become a hero, one must possess an iron will and a noble spirit. Li Xiao believed he would probably find it very difficult to make such a decision. Although he sometimes spoke heroic words that echoed loudly, when it came to the critical moment, the courage required might be more than you could ever imagine.

Ultimately, Xing Ming did not wait for reinforcements. After a stalemate of two hours, Liu Nian and the retreating Xuan Yu formed a pincer movement, directly causing the enemy's defense line to collapse.

Xing Ming finally detonated over a thousand C4 explosives in his command post, and half of Xiaoyao Squad's assault team perished with him.

From morning till evening, in one day, Xiaoyao Squad recaptured the south, unifying all resource areas under Xi City.

At the same time, Xiaoyao Squad continuously reorganized the remnants of Qin Chuan Squad, Aurora Squad, and over ten smaller squads. The total number of members broke through the one thousand mark.