Armor-piercing bullets don't believe in carbon-based monsters

Chapter 358 Cut off water
mountain city.

After the ground access was opened, reinforcements began to pour into the mountain city.

The first batch of support mainly consisted of the remaining forces of the Hanshui City Expeditionary Force, mixed with some of the Mechanicus Guardians who had been "incorporated" in Anhan.

As arranged by He Shuo, all these people were placed under the management of Guo Xu and his two companions.

This is a purely open conspiracy. He Shuo wants to use these three Imperial Guards who have already been "preliminarily transformed" to further divide and transform the Guardians of the Faith, and then gradually spread them throughout the entire Mechanicus.

Of course, this is only the surface of the plan.

What truly took effect was not just the influence of Guo Xu and others on the Christian Protection Army.

Similarly, in leading the Apostolic Guard, the Apostolic Guard will also have a reverse influence on the three individuals.

But once they truly grasp the differences between the two teams, finding a "moderate balance" between the two perspectives becomes increasingly difficult.
A smile appeared on Chen Jian's face as he looked at Guo Xu, who was standing in front of the loosely formed guards of the faith, constantly cursing them with crude language.

He will soon be driven mad by these purists.

Even if a new Holy Army legion is transferred from Jinling later, this sense of disparity will not be alleviated.

Because his threshold has been raised very high.

Readjusting is easier said than done.
When his conflicts with the Guardians of the Faith and the Cult of the Machine God reach an irreconcilable point, He Shuo's next move will officially begin.
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However, that's not the main task right now.

Chen Jian turned his gaze away and looked at the large screen that had just been set up in the temporary command post.

Then, he spoke:
"According to the intelligence from Shanghai, the concept of 'circle' has been preliminarily determined."

"It is likely a 'special equipment loop' distributed across various regions around the world."

"Although we do not yet know the specific purpose of these devices, we can confirm that Shancheng is also a point on the equipment loop."

"Then it's clear that our offensive against the mountain city has changed from an 'optional' to a 'must-do'."

"So, does anyone have any objections to this?"

As soon as he finished speaking, everyone in the temporary command post shook their heads.

"No."

"No."

After receiving everyone's answers, Chen Jian nodded slightly and then continued:
“Then let’s cut to the chase. We’ll leave the matters in Shanghai to Shen Yue—Lei Jie, you should fly back as soon as possible to assist.”

"The rest of you should focus on Shancheng, with the goal of resolving the problems there as soon as possible."

"Alright, now let's move on to the tactical discussion."

At this point, Chen Jian paused slightly, then projected the latest battle map onto the screen.

Then he began to speak:
"Judging from the current situation, the entire mountain town has been completely locked down."

"We have not detected any more abnormal activity signals, and the electromagnetic detection equipment has not detected any more unidentified electromagnetic waves."

"The mountain city's above-ground and underground parts are completely isolated. They are now like an iron turtle that has crawled into a tortoise shell, leaving no gap for us to attack."

"Now I understand why these people from the mountain town are so arrogant."

"They certainly have the confidence."

"After hundreds of years of development, the underground space of the mountain city is as solid as a giant fortress."

"I now seriously doubt that even if we bury a high-yield nuclear bomb underground and detonate it, it will not have much of an impact on them."

"Furthermore, if we go underground, the danger of combat will increase."

"Unmanned combat units in underground spaces are unaffected by electromagnetic pulses on the ground."

"After losing electromagnetic suppression methods, we will face a real close-quarters combat battlefield."

"This is troublesome. Here's the problem."

"Is there a way for us to quickly penetrate underground, break through the enemy's defenses, and directly enter the core area of ​​the mountain city?"

After he finished speaking, everyone in the temporary command post fell silent.

After a moment, Lei Jie spoke:
"We can use unmanned combat against unmanned combat."

“They have unmanned aerial vehicles, and so do we.”

"Even with a disadvantage in production capacity, we can use our resource advantages to bridge the gap between us."

"No."

Chen Jian shook his head, interrupting Lei Jie.

"There is a timeliness issue here."

"We need to fight our way into the mountain city, but when we can take it down will ultimately determine the success of this operation."

"Winning it within 10 days versus winning it two months later will have completely different results."

Even without considering the 'circle' issue, if it drags on for too long, the situation will become quite unfavorable to us.

"This underground city will become an inescapable thorn, or rather, a Damocles' sword hanging over our heads."

"It could fall at any moment, rendering all our efforts futile."

"What about the negotiations?" He Shuo asked.

From his perspective, many things don't necessarily have to be dealt with on the battlefield.

Problems that can be resolved at the negotiating table or behind the scenes do not need to be dragged onto the battlefield for a bloody showdown.

This idea isn't actually that problematic.

After all, war is essentially a form of internal strife, an extreme solution that only emerges when problems cannot be solved.

If given the chance to end internal strife, who would want to become a warmonger?
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But then a problem arises.

Does the current Huaxia Army really have the leverage to negotiate with Chongqing?
If the ground passage had been opened, and if the few level-one monsters had been eliminated, the two sides would have had a real chance to negotiate.

But the war has already begun, and both sides have paid a heavy sunk cost. At this point, all the chips on the table have been reduced to zero.

To restart the game, both sides must offer new bargaining chips.

The reality is that Shancheng still has leverage, but the Huaxia Army does not.

Thinking of this, Chen Jian shook his head and said:
"No way."

"With the cards we have right now, our chip stack is far too small compared to that of Chongqing."

“Once we enter the negotiation process, we will be led by the nose by them.”

"Unless we get a new trump card, but—"

"We do."

He Shuo raised his hand to interrupt Chen Jian, and then said:

"We can have new trump cards."

Are you referring to the so-called circular ring?

Chen Jian asked.

"of course not."

"The circle is too abstract and unrealistic for us and for the mountain city."

"Until its function is fully understood, it can only be considered a possibility. It may be a nice bonus if placed in the later stages of negotiations."

"But using it as a bargaining chip is absolutely inappropriate."

"So besides this, what else do we have?"

Chen Jian pressed for an answer, puzzled.

He Shuo tapped the table lightly and answered:

"In negotiations at this level, the bargaining chips will definitely not be interests."

"We are already in a state of mutual hostility, so the truly effective bargaining chip must be destructive."

"We must seize their weakness."

"And their Achilles' heel is computing power."

"We need to disrupt their computing power as much as possible."

As soon as he finished speaking, Chen Jian spread his hands and said:

"This brings us back to the beginning—our basic assumption is that even a high-yield nuclear bomb cannot effectively shake the underground computing center."

"We don't need to launch a direct attack on the computing center."

He Shuo directly revealed the answer.

"Water, the core is water."

As soon as he finished speaking, Chen Jian suddenly realized what was happening.

Daigo empowerment!

indeed
Water is the foundation of everything.

Because such a massive computing center cannot function without a huge amount of water for cooling!
The fog that permeates the mountain city year-round might just be the result of cooling water evaporation!
The answer is then obvious.

High-yield nuclear weapons cannot directly destroy underground fortifications.

But what if I use an explosion to cut off the water supply?

There must be a cooling water management system underground in the mountain city, after all, they have to deal with the problem of insufficient water supply during the dry season.

Even so, it's not like we can't make a fuss about it.

Yangtze
Chen Jian slammed his fist on the table and stood up.

"This plan is excellent!"

"Conduct remote sensing operations on the ground to locate the main water diversion channel for the mountain city!"

"Cut off their water supply and let's see how long they can hold out!"

(End of this chapter)