While countless small teams underground are fighting in every passage, every nest room, and every fork in the road, on the ground, a joint meeting composed of commanders from all ethnic groups is receiving intelligence feedback from the underground and reacting to it. .
The top commanders of the various armies and some important generals were on standby in the joint meeting at this time. The scale of the underground fighting was basically at the squad level, and it was not the turn of senior officials to go to the front line.
The supreme commander of this Angel King Legion is "Gun II" of the 1st Tank Corps, and "Rambo Wan II" and "Rambo Tu II" are also there.
Countless intelligence was sent back by frontline soldiers and gathered at the joint meeting. Just like a blind man feeling an elephant, the soldiers on the front line only know that they are fighting and investigating, but they do not understand the overall situation. However, the joint meeting can aggregate different intelligence and piece together a rough overall picture.
As the underground exploration deepened and the frequency of battles greatly increased, the joint meeting gradually realized one thing: the enemy's resistance was not strong!
Although the siege war is still in the first stage - the reconnaissance stage, the main goal of this stage is to find out the terrain and the enemy's defense deployment, paving the way for the subsequent large-scale attack and key breakthroughs.
However, the resistance displayed by the enemy at this stage was far lower than the level during the siege before winter last year.
Last year, the fire ant army almost fought for every inch of territory. At this stage, in order to protect an important fork in the road, the two armies repeatedly fought and fought for dozens of times. The positions were occupied and then taken away by counterattacks, and all the soldiers died. More reinforcements arrived. An important position often requires hundreds of lives to fill it.
But this time, although the enemy also deployed dozens or hundreds of defenders in some important areas, these defenders were either far less in number than last year, or they were not strong enough to fight and quickly retreated, or they fought to the death without any support. .
In the reconnaissance operation, the civilized ant tribe coalition relied on warriors from various tribes to seize many important areas. This was unimaginable last year and took at least a week to set up. Today is the first step of the siege battle. one day.
The joint meeting discussed this information, and finally attributed it to the fact that last year's war had caused too much damage to the Red Fire Ant Country. The enemy had been besieged before winter and did not even have time to collect food reserves for the winter. The coalition forces knew this.
Without food, the enemy army would have to starve all winter long. Not only would it be unable to replenish its troops, but it would also be continuously weakened. But that's not it! ?
Knowing that the enemy's strength was weakened and the reconnaissance operation was going very smoothly, the coalition forces launched a large-scale offensive in advance.
Those probing teams guided the front, and tens of thousands of coalition soldiers swarmed in and quickly marched along the pheromones, blocking almost every underground passage.
The scale of the battle expanded rapidly, and fighting was taking place at almost every defensive position at the same time. The coalition forces continued to receive good news:
The leaf-cutter ant army occupied a certain fork...
The sharp-tailed ant army captured an empty nest room somewhere...
The Angel King's army repels a small enemy force...
The army of marching ants killed more than a hundred enemy ants...
If these battles were conducted in the field on the ground, the scale would not be comparable to that on the table, but in street battles in underground lairs, such high-frequency small-scale battles are the norm.
The coalition's advance encountered strong resistance only in the afternoon of that day.
As the roads extend underground and continue to merge, hundreds of small passages gradually converge into several main roads, which all penetrate into the hinterland of [Liuyi City].
After the outer positions were lost, the fire ant army focused on fortifying several main passages. They had to defend here, otherwise they would be unsafe!
These main passages are relatively spacious, the small one can fit a peanut, and the large one is as big as a grape.
The expansion of space allows the defenders to open up their defensive positions, and the attackers can also increase the number of troops they invest.
Only then did the familiar battle begin. The defenders were no longer easily defeated and repulsed. They formed formations and fought to the death on the main channel position until dusk. The coalition launched multiple attacks but failed to achieve a single breakthrough.
That night, the coalition forces retreated to the occupied area of the lair to rest while taking strict precautions against enemy night attacks. Last year, the enemy counterattacked continuously at night, and each time they regained a lot of lost ground, leaving the attacking coalition forces to start all over again the next day.
But tonight, the fire ant army did not launch a large-scale counterattack, only sporadic troops came to test, and once they came into contact with the coalition soldiers, they quickly retreated.
The joint meeting was also confused and just responded to the changes by remaining unchanged, and continued to launch the attack the next day.
More than 20,000 soldiers dropped down and attacked several main channel positions in turn. Finally at noon, they completely exhausted all the defenders in one of the small main channels.
After occupying this main passage, the coalition forces began to make detours and attack several other main passage positions from the side and rear.
Being surrounded by enemies from both sides, the defenders did not receive reinforcements from other areas and gradually fell into siege. Although they still had four stations, they could no longer change the outcome.
The coalition fought fiercely until nightfall. The coalition successfully opened the doors of several main passages, then set up defenses on the spot and spent the night.
The defenders launched a counterattack this time, and they also realized the importance of these main passages.
However, there are not many troops involved in the counterattack. They are usually just dozens of fire ants and hundreds of slave ants. The only ones who really fight to the death are the soldiers of the red fire ant tribe. Once the other slave warriors are caught in a headwind or lose the supervision of the fire ants, , will soon retreat.
The enemy's night attack was ineffective. On the next day, March 19, the coalition forces finally entered the hinterland of [Liuyi City].
Previously, in the upper half of the nest, the defenders had evacuated the ant colonies and supplies, and the coalition forces had basically captured empty nest chambers. But now, the nests they attack are basically inhabited by ant colonies of all races in the red fire ant country, and materials are stored there. Some of the captured nests are even dedicated to accumulating corpses.
The enemy is still resisting in all areas. The slave ants, who were originally weak in fighting will, have become determined in fighting after being massacred by the coalition forces.
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A group of hundreds of leaf-cutting ants were currently fighting in the "mountain of corpses and sea of corpses".
This is a real mountain of corpses, not a rhetorical device - in this open nest room, there are thousands of corpses piled up, including fire ants, burrowing ants, abdominal ants, leaf-cutting ants, big-headed ants, black ants, etc. Fire ants...there are ants of all races.
Some of the corpses were still fresh, and some were already smelly. They might have died last year. Some corpses were relatively complete, while others were mutilated and even showed signs of being chewed.
This group of leaf-cutting ants and a similar number of defenders stepped on countless corpses and fought, and continued to increase the number of corpses!