78: The battalion commander is still quite capable

"Boss, there's movement in the town across from us!"

Li Xiao took the binoculars from Zhao Feipeng and looked toward the town entrance; sure enough, he saw a large number of vehicles blocking the intersection, and soldiers were active in the windows of the houses on the outskirts of the town.

"It seems I'm definitely the attacker. The pressure is immense!"

This kind of open terrain was undoubtedly a disadvantage for the attacking side launching a charge, but Li Xiao didn't feel much about it.

However, the surrounding players were a bit unsettled, and they started grumbling, complaining that the system was unfair and so on.

Li Xiao had originally wanted to step forward to devise an attack plan, but those players who had survived the first round and dared to sign up for the second were bursting with self-confidence, and none of them would yield to the others.

That was until a man in his forties with a serious expression drove around, notifying these fifty teammates to assemble one by one.

Li Xiao saw that the man had a military air in his every movement, and he judged that he was likely an active-duty soldier, and at least a veteran with over a decade of experience.

But when the other party spoke, he turned out to be an Asian foreigner. He said in English: "Everyone! I am Togg, and I once served as a battalion commander of a mechanized infantry battalion in the Army of the Republic of Senayado. If you all trust me, this battle can be left to my command!"

Upon hearing that the middle-aged man had actually served as an infantry battalion commander on Blue Star, everyone was overjoyed. Most of them, including Li Xiao, had never been exposed to war before transmigrating here.

And the country of Senayado had been plagued by constant conflicts on Blue Star over the last few decades; a battalion commander of an infantry battalion would definitely have been through many battles.

Thus, everyone quickly reached an agreement to have Togg take command.

At this moment, the system prompted that the battle had begun, with a duration of two hours. As the attacking side, they needed to breach the town within two hours and destroy the communication station in the center of the town's fountain square.

Exceeding the time limit or the total annihilation of their forces would be considered a failure.

Togg certainly had some skills. He said to everyone: "The enemy has the same number of troops and vehicles as us, and they also have houses as cover. Our disadvantage is that we have no cover when charging, but our advantage is that our vehicles can fully utilize their speed, while the enemy's vehicles can only be used as roadblocks."

He pointed to the town entrance and continued: "The enemy has already blocked the two roads leading in and out of the town with vehicles, attempting to force us to attack from the other two sides of the town, allowing them to better use the buildings to slaughter us. But they are thinking too simply!"

He took out C4 explosives and smoke grenades and explained: "We will first dispatch fifty vehicles to form a phalanx, charging from the side while throwing smoke grenades. This will create a smoke wall to cover the follow-up troops as they break in. After this first batch of vehicles finishes deploying the smoke grenades, they will all charge under the residential buildings, detonate the C4 explosives on the vehicles, collapse the buildings, and tear open their defensive line!"

"Wouldn't that mean the first wave of over two hundred people would be gone?"

Someone immediately questioned after Togg finished speaking.

"Yes, they will die, but actually, only two people are needed per vehicle—one to drive and one to operate. The results achieved by these hundred people will be something that thousands of troops could not achieve. Moreover, considering the situation in the previous match, provided we achieve victory, the soldiers who died earlier will all respawn, so it really cannot be counted as a suicide mission."

Li Xiao secretly imagined the scene of the attack. He had to admit that this Togg really had some skills. With the roads blocked by vehicles, even if his ten vehicles could take a lot of damage, they wouldn't be able to push through such dense roadblocks. After all, they weren't tanks that could use tracks to flatten those off-road vehicles and drive over them.

Everyone discussed it for a few minutes, and since no one came up with any other plan, they had to follow Togg's command.

"Then, everyone, contribute one vehicle and two soldiers, and pool 80% of your C4 explosives and all your smoke grenades for them. We begin the attack in five minutes!"

Being able to dare to participate in such a battle, the teammates' execution was also super strong; soon, everyone organized a shock vehicle formation of fifty vehicles.

Following Togg's order, the fifty meng hu off-road vehicles charged out at full speed.

The defending troops also discovered the attacking unit and immediately began to intercept them using dozens of heavy machine guns moved down from vehicles.

The off-road vehicles were extremely fast and soon reached the edge of the town. The smoke grenades they continuously threw along the way quickly formed a smoke wall over twenty meters wide.

A few dozen seconds later, an unprecedentedly violent explosion erupted in the town, and the towering flames even illuminated the gloomy sky into a fiery red.

Thousands of C4 explosives directly blew several two-to-three-story brick-concrete residential buildings into ruins, and a breakthrough point was thus created.

The fifty vehicles exploded one after another, and in the end, only one remained—the one Li Xiao had sent out. After the vehicle with Di Yun and Leng He on board crashed into a residential building, they threw dozens of C4 explosives into a building, then abandoned the vehicle and captured another residential building.

In the explosion, the durability of this off-road vehicle was reduced by two-fifths.

Di Yun and his partner took out a few defenders in the building and then held the staircase on the third floor tightly.

Seeing that the attack was effective, Togg ordered all the remaining troops to charge without hesitation. However, only seven or eight brave players, including Togg and Li Xiao, followed the troops in the attack, while the remaining forty-plus people stayed in place, commanding remotely via headsets and maps.

Hundreds of vehicles charged toward the breakthrough point along the now fully dispersed smoke wall. At this moment, the defenders realized that the attacking side had committed all their troops to this side of the defensive line and hurriedly transferred defenders from other parts of the town to this location.

A few dozen seconds later, the main force rushed to the residential buildings on the outskirts of the town, and everyone jumped out of their vehicles and headed straight for the fountain square.

Togg's goal was clear: to take advantage of the defenders' slow response and reach the square as quickly as possible to complete the mission.

However, defenders had been stationed in almost every building in the town, and as soon as the attacking troops entered the residential area, they were immediately met with fire from above and from all directions.

For a time, the troops at the very front were losing men one after another, suffering heavy losses.

Fortunately, Togg's unit took the lead in the charge without stopping. This former battalion commander, being very experienced, led the people to pass through the enemy's blind spots as much as possible.

But even so, they still lost four or five hundred men in the process of rushing through the residential area and entering the town streets to advance toward the fountain square.

The defenders had deployed heavy troops on the streets leading to the fountain square, with as many as a thousand people relying on the shops on both sides of the street and some cover to resist them step by step.

Togg's unit, which was charging at the front, was hit by the first wave of fire and lost more than a dozen men. He hurriedly ordered the troops to find nearby cover to take shelter.

But in doing so, their rapid offensive was stalled. Li Xiao was very worried about reinforcements from the intersection behind them, as they would be caught in a pincer attack.