Vientiane Throne of Civilization

Chapter 1795 Old Arms and Legs
As the main weapon of their Great Zhou army at this stage, the Thunder Rifle may be very ineffective when attacking undead units.

In response to this situation, Li Ce had undoubtedly had a serious discussion with his deputy general Wei Qing at the previous tactical meeting.

In a sense, this is unsolvable. Bows and arrows, as well as rifles, are ineffective against undead units. This is one of the undead's advantages, and neither the Great Zhou, nor any normally developing power, can avoid it.

After all, the Undead are not a race or force that can be found everywhere. In fact, they are somewhat unorthodox. Who would bother to guard against such an obscure and unconventional tactic?

Given this premise, it is clearly unrealistic to expect soldiers to put down their rifles, switch back to their swords, and engage in close combat with the undead forces in such a steep mountainous environment.

Given the current situation, they can only seek breakthroughs elsewhere.

Having planned his tactics in advance, Li Ce was not flustered at this moment, and even seemed quite at ease.

After leaving the extreme environment of the desert, the undead, with their aging limbs and slower, less agile movements compared to normal soldiers, were exposed on the steep mountains.

Not only is progress slow, but if you lose your balance or slip, you will roll all the way down the mountain. The shortcomings of poor balance and coordination are also revealed at this moment.

This gave the Zhou army, which occupied advantageous terrain, ample time to deploy and proceed with ease, step by step.

During this time, no matter how poor the results were, the rifle attacks continued. Once the undead army had advanced more than halfway, Li Ce gave the order.

"Dwarven bombardiers, prepare!"

"bomb!"

Upon receiving the order, the dwarven bombardiers, who had been waiting in ambush, immediately swung their arms and threw grenades at the densest concentration of undead soldiers on the opposite side.

"Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang..."

Compared to bullet attacks, grenades, with their area-of-effect explosive attack, finally brought some good results to the Great Zhou forces.

Within the blast radius of the grenade, ordinary undead soldiers were instantly blown to pieces, with broken bones flying everywhere.

At the same time, on this steep hillside, even being thrown by the outermost blast was enough to make the undead soldiers, whose limbs were stiff, roll down the slope, which was an unexpected result.

Under the control of the dwarven bombardiers, wave after wave of grenades were thrown out, and so far, the effect has been surprisingly good.

The only downside to this strategy is that it's expensive.

After all, in previous battles, although they also threw grenades, they never threw them like this.

At this throwing efficiency, it would only take a short while to throw out a whole box.

To guard against that desert force, the Russian border has a sufficient stockpile of various weapons and ammunition, but at this rate of continuous bombardment, even a large number of grenades would not be enough to withstand it.

Meanwhile, considering the current situation, grenades were highly effective against the undead forces, even to the point of being excessive in terms of firepower. There was no need to throw so many in one round, so Li Ce immediately adjusted his strategy.

"Pass on my order: have the third rank of dwarven bombardiers cease bombing. The first and second rank dwarven bombardiers shall proceed as planned. Begin bombing as soon as a large number of undead troops cross the second warning line. Stop bombing once they are blown out of the second warning line! Deal with any small number that rush forward using the emergency plan!"

To facilitate command, Li Ce had arranged some routine tactics in advance.

When it comes to battle, he only needs to issue some relatively concise orders, and his troops can understand his meaning and then immediately carry out the pre-deployed tactics.

If any adjustments are needed during this period, Li Ce will make a judgment on the spot and directly order the adjustments.

Take the bombing tactics, for example. To ensure sufficient suppressive power and to allow the dwarven bombardiers some recovery time after each bombing run, thus extending their effective combat time, Li Ce arranged the dwarven bombardiers into three rows, with each row taking turns throwing bombs. However, as things stand, three rows are too frequent and too energy-consuming, making them completely unnecessary.

In addition, Li Ce set up four warning lines on the hillside, marked as number one to four.

Once the enemy crossed the first warning line, it meant they had entered the effective range of their Thunder Rifles, and the infantrymen began to fire.

Once the enemy crosses the second warning line, it means they have entered the dwarven grenade thrower's range, and they will begin throwing grenades.

Similarly, Li Ce's tactical adjustments were very rapid.

Right now, the most important thing for him is to buy enough time for their emperor to arrive at the front lines.

During this time, judging from the behavior of the undead army on the other side, it was obvious that they wanted to wage a war of attrition against him.

A war of attrition is one of the undead's strengths, and this just happened to be exactly what Li Ce wanted.

As expected, the undead army's attack continued throughout the night.

Although the advance was not very efficient, the Zhou soldiers stationed at the mountainside camp were able to get rest time by taking turns.

But the sounds of gunfire and grenade explosions outside were almost constant, making it difficult even for professional soldiers to sleep soundly amidst such noise.

Maintaining this constant state of depletion, before we knew it, the distant sky had already begun to lighten with the first hint of dawn.

The soldiers of Great Zhou, who had been fighting the Undead army for almost a whole night, looked somewhat dazed at this moment, but Li Ce knew that the real battle had just begun!
As expected, the undead showed no intention of stopping their offensive, which continued even after dawn.

This was undoubtedly within Li Ce's expectations.

Don't forget, he once served as the Commander-in-Chief of the Southern Territory, leading the lizardmen and human forces in a protracted and arduous battle against the ratmen!

The ratmen are best at swarm tactics, which is essentially a war of attrition.

Therefore, Li Ce can be said to be very experienced in this area.

However, even if the same tactics are used, different types of troops will naturally produce different effects.

Compared to the undead, the ratmen are still made of flesh and blood.

Simply put, rat people actually need rest; they can't keep launching attacks without sleep or rest.

Therefore, the rat people's war of attrition often lasts for a week, half a month, or even a month!

The undead are different; their actions only consume necromantic energy, but they are not limited by physical strength and do not need to rest.

During this process, the undead army also deployed a large number of necromancers. Whenever the undead energy of the front-line troops ran out, the necromancers would work together to cast spells to recharge the front-line troops, serving as 'emergency rations' for the front-line troops.

This will make the Undead's war of attrition even more aggressive.

Their aggressiveness lies in their relentless attacks, day and night, until they completely wear down the defender!

(End of this chapter)