CH 246

The Papal States' cavalry occupies an area of at least 400,000 square kilometers in Zhongzhou.

In Zezhou, there is only an occupied area of about 50,000 square kilometers, because the central and southern regions of Zezhou are the battlegrounds between the main forces of the empire and the Papal States, and can no longer be considered enemy-occupied areas.

The task of the cavalry is to fully contain the empire's forces, threaten the empire's heartland, and prevent the empire from sending more troops to support the front lines.

As for the pincer attack, even the empire's commander-in-chief would be able to laugh at it. Using motorized troops to attack tank forces is something only a fool would do.

The empire's Tiger-45 tanks cannot be penetrated even by armor-piercing shells, and their 105mm Super Line Barrel guns can easily destroy a regiment, with a self-controlled machine gun on the turret.

It would take a whole division to deplete their fuel and ammunition.

Therefore, the motorized mobile forces play their mobility in the rear, striking the empire's weak points, which is the correct strategy.

In fact, it has been very effective so far, keeping many of the empire's garrison forces near Zhongzhou, effectively dividing the battlefield.

However, uncontrollable changes have occurred since yesterday.

First, the previously invincible harassment tactics failed, resulting in significant casualties.

Then, overnight, there was a major problem with the rear supply of goods.

In less than a day, more than sixty transport vehicles were bombed, over a thousand people died, and even some patrolling mobile units were attacked.

The commander-in-chief of the cavalry, Padike, paced anxiously in the command post, unable to understand what had happened. With the mobility of the cavalry, the enemy's rear was unharmed, while their own rear was heavily damaged.

It's a huge joke!

The most important supply for the cavalry is fuel, and the largest fuel depot they control is located in the city of Dahancun at the junction of Zezhou and Zhongzhou.

It is a long supply line of more than 700 kilometers from Dahancun to the front line, which is their lifeline.

Now, this supply line has been cut off, and the mounts of the front-line cavalry have begun to run out of fuel.

Without the mobility of the cavalry, Wang Bo'an has fewer concerns and is launching a more fierce attack on the strongholds.

If the central stronghold falls, then the large number of strongholds captured in the northwest will be threatened.

Padike realized the seriousness of the problem, but before he and his staff could come up with a solution, even worse news came: their food supply line had also been cut off.

Padike's face darkened, and the staff all shouted, "Commander, seek the help of the Monastic Order! The great Lord Yabu will surely help us solve this problem!"

Padike hesitated for a moment, but still went to the Monastic Order's room deeper in the command post.

Thirteen monks were sitting in the room, all wearing yellow-green monk robes and headscarves.

The three senior monks sat at the top, symbolizing the priests of the three main gods of the Burning Heaven Sect.

The heavy sandalwood filled the room, making Padike very uncomfortable.

He quickly bowed to the senior monk at the top.

"Lord Yabu, please send out the elite Monastic Order to exterminate the vermin in our rear."

The senior monk opened his eyes, "Select thirty saintesses from the tribes of the cavalry."

Padike broke out in a cold sweat, but bit his lip and said, "Okay."

The senior monk then closed his eyes, and the ten young and strong monks below him got up and walked out.

Padike felt somewhat relieved and returned to the command post to inform the staff of the situation.

The staff calmed down and came over to praise Padike, "Damn, Commander!"

"Damn it, Padike, sir."

"The Monastic Order can do anything."

"The battle monks are invincible!"

"The defenders of the Burning Heaven Sect are unmatched in this world."

Half a day later, a messenger rushed in and shouted, "Report! The entire Monastic Order has been wiped out!"

The command post fell silent, and the staff who had been greeting each other with praise earlier couldn't say a word.

After a long time, Padike weakly said, "Withdraw the two strongholds on the front line and deploy 10,000 elite motorcycle pilots to completely eliminate the rats in the rear."

But the whole night was still filled with bad news.

The staff, regardless of the fierce attacks on the front-line strongholds, had been studying the work of clearing the rear. Suddenly, a staff member slammed the table and shouted, "Commander! It's bad!"

Padike, already extremely agitated, angrily said, "It's been bad for a long time! I don't need you to tell me, you useless fool!"

Ignoring the reprimand, the staff pointed to the map and shouted, "Look! The points of attack along our route, connect these points, and they point to this location!"On the map, a series of attack points were marked in cyan. If these marks were connected, they would resemble a winding bolt of lightning, pointing directly at their fuel depot.

Dahan City!

Paddick slammed his hand on the table and stood up abruptly: "Quick, dispatch all the ace pilots, we must annihilate these rats scurrying about like enemies!"

If the fuel depot were to be bombed, they would have no supplies here.

Before long, the cavalry would become infantry, those with horses would be without, and those with cover would be exposed.

Without their machines, how could the ace pilots fight?

Losing their mobility advantage, they would transform from hunters disrupting the empire's hinterland to prey trapped deep within it.

Only the possibility of being surrounded and hunted down remained.

At that moment, another staff officer shouted: "No, not necessarily, the fuel depot in Dahan City was transferred by us! The empire's mongrels couldn't possibly know! We have many empty depots in that direction too!"

"Right!"

The chief of staff, who had been silent for a day, suddenly spoke up:

"They must be targeting those empty depots! We don't need to be too anxious, we can concentrate a large force to guard the empty depots, and we don't need to station anyone at the real depot! This is called creating chaos with falsehoods! Counter their plans with their own strategy!"

Upon hearing this, the entire command center was filled with praises of "damn genius," even Paddick showed a relieved smile.

He immediately issued orders, dispersing the 80,000 defenders of Dahan City to the nearby empty depots, leaving not a single guard at the real depot, except for patrols.

——

Dahan City.

Lin Wen looked at the nearly deserted depot and scratched his head: "Eh, not long ago it was indicated that this place was fraught with danger and opportunity, how come the danger is gone now?"

He couldn't be bothered to think about it and unleashed a 【Fiery Blast】.

He had now realized the benefits of the 【Fiery Blast】; this spell was tracking, capable of locking onto any target within sight, and once locked on, it was extremely difficult to shake off, making it very useful.

The explosion at the depot was massive, and 【No Colorful Phoenix in Body】 had warned of a safe distance that was quite far, even a bullet might not reach, making 【Fiery Blast】 just perfect.

Lin Wen didn't want to waste effort, time was precious, and after all, it only required 5% of his spirit energy, a bargain for the quality.

The fireball, trailing a long tail, struck the depot, immediately causing an explosion that set off the nearby depots.

In an instant, the roar echoed throughout Dahan City, a huge fireball soared into the sky, followed by billowing smoke that obscured nearly a third of the city.

Lin Wen glanced over, the demolition was successful, and the good karma was entering the settlement phase.

He turned and flew down from the city, continuing to search for easy targets.

With the superior detection ability of 【No Colorful Phoenix in Body】, Lin Wen reaped plenty of good karma.

He headed westward, unwittingly fighting for a whole day, and when there were no more dark spots ahead and he was about to return, he suddenly noticed a flickering light out of the corner of his eye.

The light was bright one moment and dim the next, constantly changing.

Attracted by this strange phenomenon, Lin Wen immediately ran over and discovered another base hidden underground.

This base was much smaller and much more rudimentary.

Yet it still indicated a certain risk.

And this risk fluctuated, expanding and contracting unpredictably.

This was the first time Lin Wen had encountered such a thing, and to be safe, he activated 【Aura of Forbidden Power】 and 【Immunity to All Poisons】 to avoid accidents or inadvertent poisoning.

Then, he tore open the base's door and walked in.

With a clang.

The torn door was thrown behind him, crashing to the ground, revealing the painted pattern hidden on its side.

It was a cluster of maggots huddled together, placed within a web composed of countless threadworms.