Industrial Revolution of the Mage Lords

Chapter 773 Main Direction of Attack
Langya Ridge border, the general command base of the Northern Army's eastern front.

The battle report from Wayne's Independent Battle Group at Rhinoceros Horn City was delivered to Vice Commander Vaughn, who had just arrived at the pass.

He immediately used the magic network communication to contact the other party and reiterated His Majesty the Emperor's order to mobilize the local grassland people to assist in the battle... The grassland militia that had migrated to Saint Valen were still in the recruitment and training stage. Only by absorbing as many of the revenge resistance forces active in Aisengard as possible could the urgent need to relieve the Northern Army's current predicament of being hampered in the war be truly alleviated.

The Lizardmen's military activities in the wasteland suffered repeated setbacks. After losing two high-level evolved beings, they finally decided to shift their main attack to the Kingdom of the Flying Cavalry. Taking advantage of the God Ridge Mountain Rift, which had been completely opened, they continuously dispatched floating island fortresses to invade the southern border, causing almost the entire northern part of the Kingdom of Eisengard to fall.

Vaughn, as the deputy commander-in-chief of the army, was dispatched here by the Emperor and General Pierce to deal with the current perilous situation.

The Saint Valen Northern Army's plan to push back its defensive line in the central grasslands has almost come to a standstill... Not only is Rhinoceros Horn City embroiled in a protracted tug-of-war, but Steel Rock City, which has been completely occupied by alien races, is also unable to be captured after a long siege.

Several refugee reception points set up on the eastern front were attacked by the enemy in succession to varying degrees, and several major supply transport routes were cut off. The Fourth Independent Regiment, which was responsible for the northwest direction, could only rely on transport airships to maintain supplies and had to slow down its current rapid offensive.

This was a situation His Majesty the Emperor had long anticipated... Traveling thousands of miles across the border to fight in a foreign land, if they cannot cooperate and unite with the local resistance forces, they will sooner or later find themselves stuck in a quagmire, unable to move an inch.

Although the longer the battle drags on, the more development time the United Kingdom of Saint Valen gains by continuously absorbing laborers... the longer the battle lines are drawn out, the more the consumption of soldiers, ammunition, and supplies will undoubtedly increase exponentially.

Two intelligence reports recently received by the capital from the occupied territories forced Vaughn to personally travel to the eastern front to resolve the current war crisis for the emperor.

The first piece of news came quietly from Ironhill, the capital of Eisengard, which had long since fallen and was the first to be reduced to ruins in the wave of attacks by the Lizardmen... The Stoneheart Order, an "outsourced" intelligence agency that was already active in the fallen grasslands, secretly returned to the city after the alien races withdrew from the capital and secretly discovered that there might be traces of a giant floating island beneath Ironhill.

This intelligence almost perfectly matches the map of the abyss provided by the sea race... There is indeed a huge underground river that has been discovered at the foot of the capital of the Kingdom of the Cavalry. However, in the past thousands of years, few sea race cultivators have ventured into this place, and they are vague about the specific details of this underground river.

However, its distribution pattern highly overlaps with the grassland mother river located on the surface. Just from the rushing water of the Xiatlan River, one can see the vastness and grandeur of this underground water system.

This also explains why the military activities and troop deployments of the Lizardmen on the grasslands suddenly increased after the Eastward Expansion Plan was officially implemented... With several floating island fortresses taking root in the north-central part of the grasslands, the speed and efficiency of transporting troops from the wasteland and icy sea were greatly improved.

The second piece of intelligence, however, gave Vaughn a real headache.

In the southeastern border region of Eisengard, around Burningwind Keep and Thornburg, several small mountain kingdoms nestled between the Kingdom of the Flying Cavalry and the territory of the Cave Dwarves, took advantage of the chaos caused by the invasion of foreign races in the northern grasslands. Disregarding their oath to help each other, they sent troops into Eisengard, plundering towns and even stealing the wealth of innocent civilians fleeing south.

Many noble lords, incited and encouraged by slave traders, openly set up checkpoints and abducted people in the border areas, causing the situation in the southeastern grasslands to deteriorate, no different from the fall of the northern tribes.

These two intelligence reports are a pincer attack on Saint Valen at present... Not only are the Lizardmen rapidly increasing their troops, but Eisengard's border neighboring countries are also jumping in to cause trouble. At the beginning of the war, the kingdom's high command did consider that these small countries might sit idly by, but what they did not expect was that these minor duchies would ignore the great threat from the foreign races and instead add fuel to the already tense situation.

The greed and stupidity of the feudal aristocracy and royal family, as well as their conservative and short-sighted military strategy, were almost fully displayed at this moment.

In His Majesty's words, the work of receiving grassland refugees is nearing completion. With the eastern front secured, it is time to spare some time to deal with these "human compatriots" who are causing trouble behind the scenes.

When Vaughn arrived at the Wolf Fang Ridge border, in addition to bringing the 7th Independent Regiment of the Northern Army, which had just been rotated back from the front lines of the wasteland, he also used the newly built railway extending to the east of the kingdom to transport the self-propelled artillery armored vehicles developed by the royal capital's military factory.

A total of 150 vehicles, almost half of the first batch of 350 armored vehicles produced.

These self-propelled artillery armored vehicles are completely different from ordinary military armored vehicles. Although they look like identical square iron boxes, the entire vehicle is protected by welded steel plates coated with optical camouflage. Even the six pairs of wheels at the bottom are specially covered by specially made side steel plates.

The armored vehicle is equipped with replaceable metal tracks, making it adaptable to both grassland and desert terrain. A wide-angle self-propelled gun mounted on its top will serve as the main firepower output unit of the entire armored vehicle.

In addition, the armored vehicle is equipped with two magic-powered machine guns on each of its two flanks. The arc-shaped firing ports allow the machine guns to be adjusted to any firing angle, providing a barrage of fire against enemies from the ground and the air.

Vaughn heard that the alchemy lab originally planned to add beam weapons to make the armored vehicle a truly invincible war vehicle with both offensive and defensive capabilities, but ultimately had to abandon the plan due to excessive load.

Even with its current configuration, it can still be considered a terrifying war machine armed to the teeth.

The moment Vaughn saw it at the military factory in the capital, he could already imagine soldiers driving it into the enemy ranks and slaughtering them indiscriminately.

The cannon mounted on the roof of the vehicle is responsible for bombarding concentrated charging targets. Its standard range of 800 to 1,200 meters is very suitable for combat on plains. It can use explosive shells and solid shells alternately, which can not only damage moving enemy targets in a wide area, but also quickly clear fixed obstacles blocking the route of advance. Even in urban street fighting, it will not be able to move an inch.

The magic-powered machine guns on the sides of the vehicle primarily provide flank protection. With ample ammunition, any enemy entering within 500 meters will be torn apart, making it a truly comprehensive active defense.

The Royal Capital Military Factory originally intended to develop it urgently and deploy it to the front lines of the Ice Sea battle... but the enemy launched a surprise attack first, leaving them no time to produce enough to deploy to the battlefield.

Instead of missing out on important military operations on the Ice Sea front, they ramped up production and managed to amass nearly four hundred units when their offensive on the eastern front stalled. This was enough for Vaughn to distribute to the three independent battle groups currently fighting on the steppe front.

(End of this chapter)