Industrial Revolution of the Mage Lords

Chapter 807 The Smokescreen of the Alien Race
"Watch out! Watch out! Be careful with the weight on the slings... This thing is too heavy!"

The military dock at Thorn Lake was bustling with people. A team of engineers, under the command of a sergeant, was working hard to drag the giant wreckage floating on the lake ashore using an alchemical beast equipped with a sliding rail and cable.

Navy Commander Lieutenant Commander Guterres stared at the pile of shattered "spoils" in front of him with a grim expression, not uttering a word. The atmosphere around him seemed to drop, and his adjutant was trembling with fear.

Lieutenant Quincy, who had just returned safely from a mission, walked straight over and reported in a deep voice: "Sir, the enemy's troops that were deployed to the underground river of Thorn Lake have been completely wiped out by us, and these conch beasts... have also been successfully destroyed by us."

The battle that broke out in the underground river half a day ago ended quickly. From the discovery of the enemy's traces to their complete annihilation, it took less than an hour. The submarine force only suffered minor damage to two ships and completed a near-perfect first battle.

In the deep, dark underground river, whether it is a statically laid minefield or torpedoes and magic-powered machine gun bullets actively launched by ships, it is just as difficult for the magic lizardmen, who fight purely with their flesh and blood, to resist as they are on land. They can hardly find cover in the narrow waterways and are quickly torn apart like paper.

But this was not something to be happy about for the naval officers and soldiers... The alien floating islands that the General Staff had anticipated did not appear. Instead, they easily tricked the underground river garrison into exposing themselves by using a few conch beasts.

Guterres let out a soft sigh and turned to his adjutant, ordering, "Report to the General Staff immediately and tell them... our deployment in the underground river channel may have been detected by the enemy in advance. Their advance force is clearly a decoy, designed to probe our defensive deployment."

After the adjutant hurriedly took his orders and went to deliver the message, Quincy said with a worried expression, "Sir, now that we've been exposed... should we make a strategic retreat? After all, besides the main waterway beneath Thorn Lake, there are at least two other underground rivers in the southeastern border area that are enough for the Lizardmen's giant floating islands to navigate through..."

“No…” Guterres shook his head, his attitude turning resolute again. “They are clearly playing hide-and-seek with us. I’m sure that the other two areas that need to be defended will also be smokescreens created by their advance troops.”

After saying that, he beckoned to the soldiers to bring a huge regional map, which was then laid out on the wooden pier of the dock. He squatted down and pointed to the coordinates of the underground river that represented the location of Thorn Lake, and said in a deep voice: "Since His Majesty has entrusted me with the task of deploying defenses along the underground river, it means that we have the same autonomy as the army. If rigid defense is ineffective... then let's try to take the initiative!"

Independent action...taking the initiative?
Quincy paused for a few seconds before recovering, his emotions slightly agitated, and said, "You mean...we should send out a submarine fleet to actively search upstream along the underground river? To determine the true location of the enemy's main fortress?"

……

"Attention! There are over a hundred enemies at the eleven o'clock position ahead... They are Black Lizard Warriors!"

"Aim and fire! Don't let them get within 30 meters of the position, and be careful of the crystal spikes!"

As the warnings from several scouts echoed through the trenches, the soldiers on the defensive line, which had been quiet for less than half a minute, immediately reappeared at their firing positions, followed by a burst of intense gunfire.

Several machine gun positions set up on high ground were equally determined, raining down bullets on the enemy's location, sending pebbles and mud flying everywhere.

The counterattack's success was obvious... The enemy soldiers who led the charge were instantly torn to shreds by bullets, and the Black Lizard warriors who followed fell to the ground, but were still silenced by the indiscriminate barrage of gunfire. A few survivors at the very back of the column managed to escape by rolling over and hiding in deeper craters. Those craters, originally created by artillery fire from the human army, now became the Black Lizardmen's lifeline for survival.

Fortunately, there was also the "finishing blow" of portable artillery. These lightweight shells had an astonishingly high accuracy within 500 meters. With the soldiers' skillful operation, they blew up those turtles hiding in the shell craters as easily as ordering food.

After the two conch beasts that were at the forefront of the battle collapsed with a crash, the remaining enemies began to slowly retreat, dragging the jet worms used for ranged attacks and resupply back into the swamp. Only a few black lizardmen, seemingly still not having run out of supplies, stubbornly fled into the dense forest on the other side.

Herrera put away his weapon and quickly reloaded bullets into the empty magazine. He casually asked his adjutant, "Don't rush to clean up the battlefield. These monsters will definitely come back tonight. We still have enough ammunition... Let's fight them for a while before we retreat."

The adjutant nodded to indicate that he understood, and added in a low voice, "Those enemies who did not retreat into the water fled towards the muddy marshland... Should we send a small team to follow and wipe them out?"

“No need. Alba’s militia guerrillas are stationed nearby.” Herrera shook his head. “They are perfectly capable of handling those small fry.”

In fact, the entire central defense line of Eisengard is currently executing the same tactics under the instructions of the military and the General Staff. The main battle group is responsible for taking on the toughest challenges in the city attacks in enemy-occupied areas, while Herrera's Ranger mobile force is responsible for infiltrating the firefight zone of the defense line, using its flexibility and speed to intercept small groups of enemy troops, while also participating in the escort mission for frontline supplies and actively handling the rescue and transfer of refugees... making it a master at filling gaps.

The smaller number of isolated enemies, as well as the remnants defeated by the main force, were left to be mopped up by the militia guerrillas who were more familiar with the local area. With regular supplies and support from the Northern Army, the fighting power of these militia squads, composed entirely of locals, should not be underestimated.

It was precisely this meticulously planned three-tiered defensive and counter-offensive tactic that enabled the Southern Human forces, with only Saint Valen participating in the war and clearly at a disadvantage, to firmly hold the central defense line of Eisengard and prevent the Lizardmen's forces from easily sweeping across the entire grasslands of the Flying Cavalry Kingdom like a black tide.

Given the current war situation, the only thing that worries the kingdom's high command and the military is that it is almost unrealistic to build a solid defensive line that stretches across the entire central grassland. After all, wherever the rivers and waterways pass, a group of demon lizardmen could suddenly appear and land to cause trouble. It is no longer possible to hold the position at the mouth of the sea and "play whack-a-mole" as we did on the Ice Sea front.

Fortunately, the war never spread to Saint Valen's homeland. With the support of the royal capital's military factories working day and night on weapons research and production, the weapons in the soldiers' hands became increasingly powerful and sophisticated. Even a cavalry battalion led by Herrera, with only 500 men, was able to confront thousands of Lizardmen troops head-on in skirmishes and ambushes, displaying a formidable fighting force.

With just a few hundred military magic-powered vehicles, carrying dozens of magic-powered machine guns, a dozen portable artillery pieces, and ample ammunition and supplies, plus the main combat troops stationed nearby, combat battalions like theirs would have virtually no chance of losing the battle unless they suddenly encountered the most terrifying "evolvers" in the rumors.

Ultimately, this stalemate and dilemma is due to the human army's inability to pinpoint the enemy's main fortress island and their lack of clarity regarding the Lizardmen's main attack direction, which leads to the need to plug leaks along the long defensive line.

This also meant that even Herrera, a Ranger who had just joined the Northern Army and held only the rank of Major Battalion Commander, was aware of the passive situation the current battle was in.

Until the main combat force finds the location of the enemy's floating island base, these lower-level combat units... will probably have to continue to be entangled with these seemingly endless alien monsters.

(End of this chapter)