Chapter 678, Sacrifice is the cornerstone of the empire
Does Xi Rui have to do this task?
Not necessarily.
The Alliance also has excellent generals to choose from. Whether it is two battle groups or alliance generals like Yan Fangxu and Perbeuf, they can play this role.
Just as Gu Hang had already made various plans to deal with the remnants of the Northern Army Corps, if Xi Rui and Qin Zhiping were two confused people, it would not hinder Gu Hang's rough plan.
However, if the remnants of the northern front were not considered at all, then Gu Hang would not only keep the generals, but also separate a group of troops to use as a feint attack.
The remaining troops must not be weak, otherwise the feint attack will not succeed, but will show cowardice, and even let the Zerg push back, and the gain will not be worth the loss.
But if there are too many and too strong troops left behind, the probability of completing the feint attack mission will be greatly increased. However, the number of troops required to annihilate the huge reinforcements is not small. Gu Hang will bear greater pressure, and the entire operation will be fault-tolerant. The rate will be lower.
If you don’t have a choice, you have no choice.
But isn’t there a choice?
Gu Hang believes that Xi Rui and Qin Zhiping have shown qualities that make him feel reassured to a certain extent.
Gu Hang's worst plan was that the remnants of the Northern Front rebelled, but he suppressed it, and then split up the remaining Northern Front legions. He would keep some of the troops, take some with him, and break them up as much as possible, and use them with alliance personnel. take over.
But in that case, not only will one's own side suffer a considerable loss of combat effectiveness due to internal strife and suppression, but also the Northern Front Army after the split will be demoralized, resentful, and basically unusable.
The situation was certainly much worse than it is now.
Objectively speaking, Xi Rui and Qin Zhiping's behavior of knowing each other solved a big trouble for him.
As for commanding the remnants of the Northern Front to carry out this cruel mission that must involve very heavy sacrifices, Xi Rui and Qin Zhiping, the two former top leaders of the Northern Front Army, were the best choices.
By maximizing the combat capability of the remnants of the northern legion, we can significantly reduce the number of troops Gu Hang has to stay behind to take charge of the feint attack, making the northern attack on the Zerg reinforcements more reliable.
As for the issues that Xi Rui was worried about, Gu Hang naturally also considered them.
As for how many people would die...he thought about this question, but did not answer it.
War, that's what it is.
Sacrifice forged the empire of man.
Moreover, Gu Hang did not think that Xi Rui could not figure out these things.
He might be apprehensive at first, but he'll figure it out eventually.
On the other hand, the other question deserves a few words.
"Just do your best. I believe that the Black Crusaders and the Foreign Order will serve as the backbone. Moreover, I will also leave some troops, especially a considerable amount of the army, under your command to cooperate with your actions."< br>
"Don't worry about casualties, and don't worry about being unable to maintain the offensive, or what will happen if you maintain the offensive but are discovered. As long as you try your best, I believe that the pressure your attack will bring to the insect swarm will not be small."
"Even if they finally see through it, the insect swarm cannot ignore the pressure you bring. It's nothing more than a feint attack turning into a strong attack, and from attraction to containment."
"It is impossible for the insect swarm to support their troops heading south at the first time. Your mission will be considered a success."
At this point, Gu Hang's tone became more serious: "Marshal Xi Rui, I believe you can also see that this is a very important task. It is indeed a bit difficult, but it is by no means an insurmountable or death-defying task. . My requirement for this operation is that the goal must be achieved. This is a decisive battle for the entire war. Do you understand what I mean?"
Xi Rui felt awe-struck.
Of course he knew the seriousness, nodded solemnly, and made a guarantee to Gu Hang:
"In the name of the Black Crusaders, I will definitely be able to complete the mission!"
……
"Attack, attack! In the name of the Black Cross, attack!"
Xi Rui shouted vigorously in the communication signal, without his usual calm look.
This was already eighteen days after the conversation between him and Gu Hang.
After that conversation, Union troops moved very quickly and very efficiently.
The troops that should be left behind by Xi Rui were quickly arranged.
The naval force did not leave much behind. After all, the battle to attack the Zerg reinforcements in the north was probably dominated by naval battles. The alliance's main fleet must be taken away. It would be good to keep the remaining warships on the northern front and the flagship of the Black Cross Fourth Fleet's 'Cross Black Star'.
In this case, it would be unwise to engage in naval battles with the swarm fleets among the stars through naval fleets.
It's not that the insect fleet here is very strong, at least it is much larger than the fleet in the hands of Marshal Xi Rui after the alliance's main fleet left.
To put it bluntly, he only had the remaining ships on hand from the remnants of the Northern Front. It would be a dream to rely on these ships to launch a sharp offensive that could seriously attract the attention of the insect swarm.
If you really fight like that, it's called death, not attack.
But on the contrary, the number of troops Xi Rui had on hand was sufficient.
There are 20 to 30 million remaining troops on the northern front. Excluding those sailors who were unable to fight, the remaining armies totaled tens of millions of people.
The Alliance Army has left six army groups, which are not completely full, but also have a scale of over 100 million.
At the same time, both the Raging Flame and the New Age Torch each had two hundred space warriors left behind. In addition to the three hundred from the Black Crusaders, one hundred from the Silver Watch, and one hundred from the Light Space Marines, we can all make up eight hundred.
In addition, there is a small Titan army recruited from the forge world of Alamita, and there are more than 2,000 members of the Holy Mercy Lily Battle Sisters.
In general, he has a lot of troops and elite forces.
Fighting on land can really put some pressure on the insect swarm.
There is no need to play naval battles, but there are land battles, so the only way to fight is this way: select a planet that is very important to the Void Zerg, and then go through the most difficult release process, and then, with the only, Insufficient fleet to provide orbital cover.
Gu Hang agreed to his plan and provided some help to Xi Rui at the beginning of the plan before the main fleet left. The Alliance giant ship attacked, temporarily driving away the biological ships of the insect swarm, and helped Xi Rui's men complete the most difficult stage of troop deployment.
A large number of troops finally entered Shan Peach Star safely.
Shan Tao was the target battlefield they chose.
The reason why I chose this place is because this planet was originally a populated land in the Queen's Star Territory, a hive world with a population of 90 billion. And now, this place has become a very huge digestion ground for the insect swarm.
Within Shantao, there are still many people who are still living as infected people. They have no ability or consciousness to resist, but even so, they haven't had time to be digested.
Not to mention being transported away. In fact, there is no need. The insect queen seems to use it as a hatchery at the same time. A large number of insect swarms are simply born here, and then sent directly to the frontline battlefield to make up for the losses nearby.
The swarm is absolutely unwilling to lose this place.
The Alliance had tried to throw an Extinction Order weapon here before, but it failed. Although the Zerg ships were driven away, a clear area was theoretically cleared. But when the Burning Sky Torpedo hit, countless flying demonic insects swarmed above the stratosphere and destroyed the Burning Sky Torpedo before it detonated.
Although all those flying demonic insects died in the end, they were nothing to the insect swarm.
And the loss of a Burning Sky torpedo is quite a loss for the human army.
This time, if we target Shantao, a place where a large amount of biomass is stored, we won't worry that the insect swarm doesn't care and won't be attracted to it.
But at this stage, the rest depends entirely on the ground troops themselves.
The fleet of the remnants of the Northern Front is really remnant. After the alliance's main fleet leaves, it is unrealistic for the remaining ships to go up and fight for their lives.
But they did not expect to be able to bring much help to the troops on the ground, and they did not even dare to expect to completely drive away the ships of the insect swarm to prevent the insect swarm from providing orbital support to the ground. As long as they can keep these swarm ships from supporting them unscrupulously and at no cost.
More battles will still have to be fought by the ground troops themselves.
This dozen lasts for half a month.
Everything is planned.
The insect swarm is indeed unwilling to give up. Not only is the huge biomass in Shantao Star being transformed into the insect swarm army, but at the same time more insect biological ships, carrying more insect swarm troops, land on the ground. Fighting bloody battles with human armies.
The war situation is definitely getting worse day by day for the human side.
There are already many insect swarms in Shantao, and now there are also insect swarm troops supporting from outside. Not to mention, as time goes by, there are more and more hatching pools in Shantao, which originally has a huge population of 90 billion. In the hive world, there is sufficient biomass that can be converted into various types of hive monsters.
However, from the same perspective, Xi Rui felt lucky: so far, he had completed the tasks assigned to him by Gu Hang relatively smoothly.
The fight was so difficult. It can be imagined that the Zerg's attention was indeed fully attracted to Shan Tao.
In fact, the effect of all this is a bit too good.
The insect swarm on the single peach almost swamped the ground troops.
At this point, what kind of offensive should we maintain?
Just hold on to it.
But unfortunately, if you want to hold on at this moment, you have to attack: the army's ammunition and personnel losses far exceeded expectations. The delivery of new reinforcements to the ground and the delivery of supplies require orbital delivery by transport ships. Transport ships need a clear, non-threatening space.
The remaining ships of the Northern Front Legion seduced the Zerg biological ship away, and the remaining ships escorted the transport ship to suddenly approach. But despite this, on the ground, the biological cannons evolved by the Zerg and a large number of flying demon insects will still pose a great threat to the landing transport spacecraft.
This requires the ground troops to launch an attack from the ground when the transport spacecraft arrives, destroying the hatching nests and biological cannon nests of the flying demon insects, so that they have a chance to smoothly let the transport spacecraft fall.
And the ground troops have already suffered heavy losses in personnel, equipment, and ammunition. They are just waiting for supplies from the sky, but now they are still fighting desperately?
There is no other way but to fight like this.
Often after huge sacrifices, replenishing ammunition, equipment, and personnel can slightly make up for the losses. The Zerg biological fleet will come back, forcing the human transport ship to leave immediately, otherwise it will be intercepted, which will be a huge loss. .
This war lasted for eighteen days.
Until now, facing the reported losses, Marshal Xi Rui no longer felt heartache - because he was already numb.
The total losses in the eighteen days were roughly estimated to have exceeded 10 million people. On the ground, the main force in the battle was no longer the remnants of the Northern Front, but the Alliance Army.
It's not because Xi Rui is deliberately conserving strength, but because the remaining troops on the northern front have been beaten even more disabled. On the sixth day of intense fighting on the ground, more than 40% of the tens of millions of remaining ground troops on the northern front had been lost. Without the large-scale intervention of the Alliance Army, let alone maintaining the offensive, they would have been completely annihilated.
Of the 300 Black Crusaders who are his closest relatives, 260 have gone down. Only a few dozen of them are on the ship, operating the battle barge 'Cross Black Star' and several other strike ships. cruiser. These ships require specialized operations by space warriors to maximize their performance.
In other words, Xi Rui's Black Crusade has already fully invested.
Silver Watch has also fully invested, and Qin Zhiping himself is on the ground.
What about the remaining troops on the northern front?
By now, Xi Rui no longer considered whether his task of 'attracting and containing' could be completed.
It has already exceeded expectations.
Now, according to estimates, the number of Zerg in front is already more than three times that of when Gu Hang himself was still there.
This of course counts as mission accomplished.
The question now has turned into how long can they maintain the pressure on the Zerg?
When the battle reaches the back, the loss of troops is still secondary, and the loss of equipment cannot be made up for. It is becoming more and more difficult to project power to the surface of the planet. What should we do when we need to withdraw our troops later?
He soon stopped thinking about these things.
Fighting, day by day, is nothing more than gritting your teeth and holding on minute by minute.
On the 19th, the losses expanded to 11 million; on the 25th, a major failure in ground support resulted in the death of more than 2 million people on board the transport ship. After the support was confirmed, the ground battles suffered successive rout. On the 28th, the total losses directly expanded to 37 million. It wasn't until the 32nd day that the devastating losses were averted. But the price was that the small Titan army recruited from Alamita was destroyed, and only then a few key insect nests were destroyed, allowing support to reach the ground and stopping the collapse.
Although the bleeding has been ‘stopped’, the Titan has been burnt out. What will happen next?
Sure enough, on the 39th, ground support failed again.
Seeing that the great collapse was coming, Xi Rui was prepared to sacrifice more than two hundred Space Marines in order to stop the bleeding. However, on the 40th day, the insect fleet suddenly retreated in full.
Xi Rui's first reaction was that he breathed a sigh of relief. The fleet could finally deliver support to the ground much more safely, and could even provide some orbital fire support to the ground troops. The immediate pressure was relieved a lot.
However, why did the swarm fleet retreat?
Of course it was impossible for them to fight back.
The battle on Commander-in-Chief Gu's side should have already begun, right?
Thinking of this, Xi Rui became worried again.
Have you completed your task?
What's the situation like with Commander-in-Chief Gu?
————
This chapter makes up for yesterday.
I really didn’t finish writing yesterday.
I had an infection due to the change of season. I had a runny nose and felt dizzy for two days.
Try to finish one more chapter before going to bed at night.
(End of chapter)