I, who was eager to retire, became an Imperial General.

Chapter 151 Piercing Through and Playing the Game

"The 1st Demolition Company has annihilated the Light Dragoon Regiment in the E01 ambush zone!"

"Ground support forces have completed the decapitation and magical facility strike missions in the E16 search zone!"

"The enemy's heavy armored regiment is withdrawing from the E43 front!"

"The 3rd Guerrilla Squad encountered a surprise attack by an enemy medium armored regiment in the A33 guerrilla zone. The 1st Artillery Group has been instructed to provide artillery support from the nearest location!"

"The 10th and 11th guerrilla squads have dispersed and harassed the enemy as instructed, successfully drawing the fire of two medium armored regiments of the enemy's 2nd Division. Our reinforced armored regiment has arrived at the D41 ambush site and is about to launch a surprise attack on the enemy from the flank!"

"Guerrilla squads 16 and 17 encountered the enemy's 3rd Division Light Dragoon Brigade in the F15 guerrilla zone. The enemy had a large number of armored vehicles. The 9th artillery group has carried out smoke and artillery cover as instructed."

"The 3rd and 4th artillery groups have completed the B35 long-range decoy shelling order and successfully attracted the firepower of the enemy's 1st Division Heavy Armored Brigade. The 4th, 5th and 6th guerrilla squads are now conducting dispersed harassment!"

"The 5th artillery group, together with the 8th squad, has defeated the enemy light dragoon regiment in the C32 ambush zone and is heading to a new combat location."

"The 7th Guerrilla Squad was ambushed by a heavy armored company on its flank and has now lost contact."

"..."

Inside Horseshoe City, John's expression remained unchanged as he received the intelligence about the front lines from Martha in his mind. Instead, he issued combat orders to the various units on the front lines based on the real-time battlefield troop deployment map in front of him.

In fact, the light dragon cavalry regiment that had just been wiped out by the first bombing company had been completely wiped out the moment it saw the red dot representing the enemy on the map and rashly broke away from the main force.

John realized that this was a decoy force that Frank had deliberately deployed. Around this decoy, Frank must have hidden more than two armored regiments using the Allied forces' special magical technology facilities.

If he were to actually order his armored regiment to ambush and encircle the enemy, he could easily annihilate them, even with the armored regiment's firepower comparable to that of an enemy brigade, and the superior firepower suppression from the 11 beam magic cannon vehicles.

However, after eliminating this light dragoon regiment, our own armored regiment will be ambushed by the enemy, resulting in a severe loss of mobility.

Forced to halt at this battlefield by the enemy's attack.

This is something John absolutely does not want to see.

To win this war, reinforced armored regiments must maintain high mobility and quickly reach the smaller battlefields that have been gradually fragmented by the dispersed harassment of their own guerrilla forces.

Relying on its superior firepower, it completely overwhelms the enemy forces that are weaker than its own with irresistible force.

Then, before the enemy can encircle them, they quickly retreat, becoming a ghostly force that moves like the wind, never to be captured by the enemy, yet possessing the power to pierce through an enemy armored regiment with a single blow.

And things turned out exactly as John predicted!

Looking into the field of vision, the dense red dots representing the enemy's medium armored regiment in the D41 ambush zone were torn open in the middle by the surprise attack of our reinforced armored regiment, creating a terrifying gap. They were then quickly dimmed and disappeared by the scattered artillery fire of 11 black and gold-colored beam magic cannon vehicles.

Realizing that the enemy force had been completely wiped out by their main force in less than ten minutes, John immediately turned his attention to the other side of the battlefield where fierce fighting was taking place, and then issued new orders:

"Order: The Independent Armored Regiment, together with the remaining members of the 10th and 11th Squads, shall immediately proceed to location E12 and, together with the demolition company, crush the enemy forces at the E43 evacuation point."

"Ground support forces withdraw from location E43 and immediately proceed to the F15 guerrilla zone to assist squads 16 and 17 in conducting guerrilla harassment missions. Level 2 access to buildings is granted."

"The logistics battalion shall immediately transport supplies to the designated location and begin evacuation of the wounded!"

"instruction,……"

John quickly issued action orders to troops at all levels based on the real-time battle map in his field of vision.

He knew that Frank would soon find out after his main force's breaching operation.

Therefore, he must, within one hour, take advantage of the reinforced armored regiment's high mobility and overwhelming firepower to defeat as many enemy regimental-level units as possible before the enemy has completely changed its formation.

Once Frank confirms through battle reports that he has deployed his main force, he will quickly devise countermeasures and traps based on his combat style, attempting to curb the pace of his reinforced armored regiment's continuous penetration.

They might even throw out a large number of decoys, encircle the enemy, or use magical technology to evade their own observation and set up concealed ambush zones in advance to try to completely wipe out their main force.

This laid the foundation for victory in the battle.

But John would not give the other party the opportunity to achieve this goal.

Now that both sides have completed their initial probing and maneuvering, the next phase of the battle will take a completely different turn depending on the strategies employed by their respective commanders.

"But unfortunately, I have now foreseen everything, which is why I will become the true winner of this battle in the end!"

Looking at the map, he saw the reinforced armored regiment, representing his strongest firepower, slowly advancing, about to engage the enemy heavy armored regiment, which was being harassed by Barnabo's 1st Demolition Company, in the ambush zone he had predicted.

As if anticipating a certain possibility, a barely perceptible cold glint flashed in John's eyes, and a playful smile gradually appeared on his lips.

……

"Using the terrain to carry out an ambush? What a sly little trick!"

Meanwhile, in the Seventh Army Command Post, Frank raised an eyebrow in surprise upon hearing on the radio that John had destroyed their own decoy by blowing up the peak forest, though he wasn't too surprised by it.

Even now, he had already anticipated that the enemy's main force, which had just annihilated a medium armored regiment of the Seventh Legion, would most likely join forces with the magic-based unit that had completed the attack, attempting to crush his scattered functional regiment and his heavy armored regiment together. However, he did not feel anxious or irritable because of his side's successive defeats on the battlefield; instead, a confident smile appeared on his lips.

In fact, whether it was the light cavalry regiment that took the initiative to act as bait, or the two regimental-level units that cooperated in the ambush.

When Frank first issued this mission, he was already prepared for the Light Dragoon Regiment branch to be defeated.

Because the one he actually used as bait was never the Light Dragoon Regiment, but the First Heavy Armored Regiment from the 2nd Brigade of the 1st Division.

He knew that with the anti-magic device carried by that armored regiment guiding the coordinates, the enemy's magic soldiers had no chance of destroying it with explosive magic. They could only try to drive his troops to other locations by bombing the ground.

In order to eliminate this disjointed heavy armored regiment, John Maslow would certainly choose to join forces with the magic soldiers to ambush this most threatening armored regiment after using his main force to defeat the remaining nearby friendly forces.

This decision made by the other party was exactly what Frank wanted to see.

He intended to use his heavy armored regiment to delay the Empire's main force.

Once it is confirmed that there are no follow-up support troops, the two motorized assault brigades he had arranged eight kilometers away from this location, equipped with a large amount of magical technology equipment, camouflage spells, and numbering 5000, can launch a surprise attack on the enemy's rear with a tsunami-like offensive while the enemy is completely unprepared, and complete the final interception!

This is the real killer move he left for John Maslow's main force!
To deploy these two motorized assault brigades, he almost emptied out the two light dragoon brigades of the 2nd and 3rd Divisions. The two light dragoon brigades that are now active on the battlefield, which look like they are carrying a lot of soldiers in their armored trucks, are actually just empty shells!
Currently, the two light dragoon brigades of the 2nd and 3rd Divisions have a combined total of less than 1000 soldiers.

Once the enemy targets these two brigade-level units and attempts to concentrate their fire, the two cavalry brigades positioned on the flanks of the 2nd and 3rd Divisions' wedge formation will be easily breached due to a lack of manpower.

His deliberate feint will thus be exposed.

John Maslow would also halt the main force's offensive upon discovering the anomalies of the Light Dragoon Brigade.

This led to the failure of his encirclement plan.

But Frank knew that this was impossible.

First, in this war where the numbers were already vastly different, John Maslow simply did not have a second main force to launch a breaching operation.

Secondly, having fought against Olko countless times in simulated battles, he was very clear about how to deal with guerrilla warfare.

The essence of guerrilla warfare is harassment and attempts to lure enemy troops by striking them, thereby dividing the battlefield.

This style of warfare, because the soldiers are scattered and deployed in different areas, makes it difficult for the enemy to use artillery to launch precise strikes against them, and they can only be dragged into the enemy's rhythm.

However, guerrilla tactics also have an inherent flaw that they cannot avoid.

That is, when facing a large number of enemies, or what appears to be a large number of enemies, in order to harass and hinder the enemy's advance, guerrilla forces will only attempt probing attacks and inducements on the enemy's perimeter.

They would never choose to concentrate their forces to launch a surprise attack on the enemy before the enemy launched a counterattack and became separated from the main force.

This gave him the opportunity to act.

By creating the illusion that the 3rd Division's light dragoon brigade was still active on the front lines, they actually used motorized motorcycles and camouflage to conceal their tracks and silently approach the decoy that was destined to attract the attention of the enemy's main force.

Wait until the other party actually bites the bait and takes the bait.

He was ambushed by two infantry brigades that suddenly appeared, in conjunction with a heavy armored regiment.

The final outcome of this contest between the two teams' key players is already self-evident!

In Frank's view, commanding a battle essentially depends on the strategic planning and information processing capabilities of the two commanders.

Frank, a 64-year-old veteran, was absolutely confident that his experience in this area far surpassed that of the opposing team's young, almost excessively young, captain.

The latter, relying on its own magical technology, is also more advanced in information processing and calculation than the Empire's crude method of calculating and processing information through the human brain.

After all, how can the human brain, whose computing power is affected by emotions and state, compare with that of a machine?

It is even less likely to achieve the computational speed that mechanical energy can achieve.

Even if it is barely achieved, it is impossible to maintain this state indefinitely.

However, if the other party makes a calculation error or cannot keep up with the speed at which we analyze information, then the situation will be different.

This will lead to uncontrollable information gaps, which in turn cause time differences.

But whether a war can be won often depends on the information gap, or even the time gap in information!
"Victory is within reach!"

Looking at the real-time battle situation map representing both sides, which was displayed on the screen by the Kingdom's Magic Technology based on the signal transmission devices and monitoring devices carried by each unit and calculated by the core of the Magic Technology, I saw...

Frank, sitting in the main seat, couldn't help but sigh softly. He then reached out and gently stroked his mustache, a confident and composed smile slowly curving his lips.

……

(End of this chapter)