Chapter 295: Beast King Charge
In the 2108th year of the Han calendar, December, the Western Region campaign was still ongoing. Gusts of dust rose from the ground one after another.
Xuan Chong heard a loud “waaagh!” from behind the orcs. However, amid these rising and falling “waaagh!” sounds, new weak “waaagh!” sounds had just emerged.
Xuan Chong vaguely guessed: “Has a batch of orcs proliferated in the North grassland?”
Half an hour later, the Xian Han ecological monitoring team confirmed that “Ouke reinforcements” were being born.
Xuan Chong then activated his torque perspective and took a look. Good grief, although the North was bitterly cold with biting winds, a batch of mushrooms had still matured.
Liu Mei appeared on Xuan Chong’s screen.
From her commanding tone, she seemed to be of higher rank than him. After querying the atlas device provided by the Lin Group, he learned that she was the renowned “organic resonance.”
When a new species proliferates in an area, she can “smell” the traces of organic matter.
In Xian Han’s current agriculture department, many high-yield superior breeds are related to her.
After learning of this situation, Xuan Chong thought: he indeed needed to give her face. Because in this spacetime’s ancient era, someone with her ability would have been the “Thick Earth Empress” on the earthen altar.
Dragon Power Users are products of myths passed down to this day.
Xian Han’s top echelons already believe that the deities from the ancient mythical era were Dragon Power Users. Of course, they did not pull the ancient gods off their altars; on the contrary, after matching “sages” with “deities,” they showed even greater reverence for the “sages,” placing them in exalted positions during sacrificial rites.
Xuan Chong could understand Xian Han’s culture: contemporary Dragon Power Users are not identical to the “supernatural powers” of the gods, so they do not qualify to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the ancient gods. They also need great merits and virtues remembered by the world to be considered gods worthy of incense and fire.
The descendants of the Han Family have always tried to emulate the sages in virtue.
But Taixi could not understand. Half of the awakened Supernatural Users there had converted to the church, while the other half were excessively free, believing themselves to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the Greek gods.
Since the Greek gods’ behaviors could hardly be called “merit,” being all about bullying the weak and acting arbitrarily, it was natural for some contemporary Taixi awakeners to think of themselves as gods.
Back to the topic, this “Thick Earth” Empress had sensed through her ability that after the Oukes arrived, the original ecological cycle in the ecosystem was disrupted by an “unreasonable force” smashing and banging around.
Earth’s native species are mutually balanced and restrained, maintaining stability. Including humans, they all belong to “beneficial bacteria.” But orcs here are like “malignantly proliferating” mold.
…Guardian of homeland…
In the frontline combat base, a curtain was unfurled, then projected upon, and both sides began a remote visual dialogue.
Xuan Chong, as if meeting a fellow practitioner, eagerly exchanged: “Can you hear the orcs’ roars? I mean, that incessant rising and falling noise of theirs.”
Liu Mei glanced at Xuan Chong and shook her head: “I can’t hear them. But I can feel that they ‘stink’.”
Amid Xuan Chong’s surprise, Liu Mei said: You have “sense of hearing” for them, while I have “sense of smell” for them. Sense of smell discerns abnormal molecules in the environment; their massive organic compounds clash with the native environment.
At this point, Liu Mei instructed Xuan Chong: You must resolve these orcs as quickly as possible.
Xuan Chong nodded to indicate understanding: “Please stay in touch at any time. If this group of Ouke reserves shows new changes, please inform me anytime.”
Liu Mei’s expression softened slightly, then she nodded. She had previously told the other lords about the severity of this matter, but they had dismissed it. Now, Xuan Chong had clearly taken it in after just listening for these few minutes.
…Taotie rampages…
Almost from December 12th to 18th over those days, large numbers of bombing airships crossed the frontline, activated magnetic storm devices, went invisible, infiltrated the North, and began bombing.
In photos of the area where the airships arrived, the great grassland was a wasteland. All organic matter in the soil was covered by green mycelium, and every eight meters, a two-meter-tall big mushroom grew from the mycelium.
Inside the big mushrooms, relatively symmetrical Oukes were growing out. Waiting for these Oukes to emerge, endure wind and rain, turn from green skin to black skin, their fangs would become asymmetrical, and their eyes would become (0 .o) asymmetrical.
High in the sky, the airship pilots felt fear toward this scene, and toward this vast mycelium-spreading pollution zone, they dropped bombs.
However, these bombs were a drop in the bucket, utterly unable to destroy so many orcs.
When the photos reached Xuan Chong, he realized that the Oukes must be crushed on land, and a large army dispatched there to eradicate them at the root, so they indeed needed to act fast.
The current battlefield situation of the Great Yuezhi was a stalemate, because Xian Han lacked automobiles and fuel in that region, resulting in insufficient power.
Meanwhile, the Oukes were using their wondrous methods to convert coal and even grass and wood into combustion dust for engines. After all, their “force field” was convenient, allowing them to directly “hand-rub” ordinary fuel into a powdered explosive state.
Xuan Chong now wanted to seek more departments to prepare for combat, but suddenly stopped, because he felt that the biggest “waaagh!” had been targeting him recently. — Xuan Chong narrowed his eyes, certain in his heart: I stare into the abyss, and the abyss stares back at me!
In response, Xuan Chong abandoned the plan to seek three divisions, instead pondered and contacted Liu Yi at the rear, because Xuan Chong now also realized that there was another person beside Liu Yi.
On the communication interface, Xuan Chong’s first words to Liu Yi: “I’m going to lose.”
This sentence stunned Liu Yi, who then asked: “What’s the situation on your end?”
Xuan Chong said directly: “I’m going to fail.”
After Liu Yi inquired carefully, in the video, Xuan Chong suddenly made an OK hand gesture, then hung up.
Liu Yi had just wanted to reconnect when she suddenly turned around and discovered that the Tiger Group’s Heavenly Rank had appeared behind her.
Ma Feiyan: “He’s going to lose. Let’s prepare.”
Liu Yi was slightly stunned but did not refute, because space-time Ability Users were like muttering prophets. Clearly, she had foreseen changes on the frontline.
But Liu Yi paused, figuring this must be the reason for Xuan Chong’s gesture just now, and said to Ma Feiyan: “Did you contact him?”
Ma Feiyan: “No, he reached out.”
Liu Yi realized: “He can connect with you?”
Ma Feiyan gave no further answer and directly teleported away.
…Reunion…
Xuan Chong here let out a long sigh of relief. Now he was taking a risk. Fortunately, he had confirmed that the first character summoned from the novel “Brave Soldier” had powerful abilities and was willing to cooperate with him.
In classical military campaigns, the premise of all a military strategist’s exquisite tactics is built on “gaps.” Without “gaps,” don’t play all those tricks.
And in the near modern era, contests between information, from deciphering telegrams to later electronic warfare, were fought with great relish!
Currently, due to the orcs’ unique situation, Xuan Chong believed that communications centered on him were being closely watched by the enemy.
Any “organized” Han Army war-related actions were being “figured out” by the Oukes in real time.
Here, Xuan Chong listened to that biggest “waaagh!”, which seemed confused by his recent ambiguous external communications, and also somewhat exasperated.
“Hahaha!” In the concrete basement, Xuan Chong broke into a silly grin, leaving his guard soldiers baffled.
It seemed Xuan Chong’s reaction made the Oukes feel humiliated. The Ouke boss wanted a hearty battle and was quite dissatisfied with this — small fry’s behavior.
About three hours later, the Ouke orcs’ large army arrived. Xuan Chong’s sense of hearing detected large and small “waaagh!” sounds heading straight for him.
However, Xuan Chong summoned the Han Army commander and handed over command.
This Third Rank military general (division commander) was stunned, as if saying: “At this critical moment, you’re passing the buck to run away?”
But then, amid Xuan Chong’s honest nod of admission, this General Who Conquers Barbarians gave him a deep look, as if saying “fare thee well.”
Then this general took full command. Various organizations in the army began following the series of orders issued from his takeover of the command center, executing frontline defense, activating frontline and firepower coordination tactics.
Lu Changfeng: “My lord, are we withdrawing?”
Xuan Chong: “Withdraw? Withdraw what.”
Xuan Chong instructed him to draw some cannonballs from the rear, then took out a map and had them placed around the battlefield.
Xuan Chong now felt that the opposing “waaagh!” seemed forced to focus on another General Who Conquers Barbarians, with attention on his side decreased.
…Hide to act…
In the new round of combat on the Gobi, it was as if the noise of countless iron drums dragging on the highway echoed across the vast land.
Local wolf packs and other wild animals were startled and fled far from this area.
The orcs’ “indescribably shoddy” modified motorcycle vehicles began a methodical surprise attack. These motorcycles? Made from iron sheets of varying rust levels welded together, powered by gas tanks.
On this savage land where camel carts were still common and steam train lines were scarce.
These “junk things” were indeed too advanced, like in Xuan Chong’s previous life, some desert tribe government riding camels suddenly rolling out hypersonic missiles — no proper automobile industry, yet using civilian automobile-modified transport vehicles to carry missiles.
Technical personnel couldn’t help but exclaim upon seeing this: “This is bullshit!”
And the orcs’ mechanization rate was higher than the Han Army’s, making Xuan Chong immediately suspect if external forces had begun aiding the orcs. Like the European Banners, Xian Han’s strategic rivals.
But seeing the orcs’ fuel tanks made by wrapping “metal oil drums” with reinforcing ribs, and motorcycle wheels as horse cart wheels coated with a layer of rubber, made Xuan Chong grit his teeth in confirmation of how limitless the “waaagh superpower” was.
Because aid from a proper industrial nation would never involve so much unreliable stuff.
It was like in his previous life: an industrial Cthulhu could easily aid a foreign country with a million electric fans, but sending 100,000 handmade, rubber band-powered windmills would be hard. Who would be bored enough to have tens of thousands of people make such junk.
Of course, with the orcs’ superpowers so bottomless, Xuan Chong determined he no longer needed to worry about anything. “Yellow Heaven Thick Earth” (Way of Heaven) would not impose any taboos on his superpower applications next.
In the northeast direction of Yibohai, Xuan Chong’s gaze gradually locked onto the Ouke boss’s position: the place with the most intense black smoke dozens of kilometers away, where the most mechanical junk was, and that Ouke boss was staring.
…Madness under the clamoring yellow sand…
The beast’s leader “Kao Diké” relied on instinct to find the most effective combat nodes. Oh, this name was given by Xuan Chong, from a famous orc villain in a game from his previous life.
Kao Diké scratched his skull with his nails: At this moment, these small fry on the frontline fighting him were running around in panic on various positions, but why had that loudest “waaagh!” small fry on the opposing side suddenly stopped participating?
A puzzled expression appeared on this big guy’s savage face.
But then he commanded his lads to charge at the weak points in the human positions! After counting his six fingers on the left and eight on the right, he ordered the lads, “You go this way!” “Copper Fang, you go that way!”
These orders sounded like arranging gang fight underlings, but in fact, this 30,000-strong black orc force precisely split into thousand-man teams infiltrating the positions, and within each thousand-man team, flexibly divided into multiple tactical squads.
Such tactical allocation, without radio communication reports, allowed commands to flow so smoothly up and down — truly jaw-dropping!
On the frontline positions, Oukes surged forward with even more flexible and ferocious tactics. The Han Army positions swept with machine guns but still couldn’t stop the orcs’ waves. Multiple positions were lost under repeated Ouke impacts.
Only occasionally, by shelling and taking out a big one among the orcs, would their formation fall into chaos.
…Han Army’s sudden downturn…
Across the artillery-fire-filled battlefield, Xuan Chong listened to the “waaagh!” sounds like ocean tides; Xuan Chong began drafting based on “volume.” That is, using a “pencil case” to analyze frequencies, then after a round of calculations.
Xuan Chong replicated the positions of the orcs’ large and small groups on the sand table before him.
Xuan Chong used polished quartz sand blocks to represent the orcs’ movement steps. The sand constantly trembled from vibrations, each “tremor” being an orc “waaagh!” sound.
A brigadier general who had withdrawn from the frontline saw Xuan Chong in a safe zone behind the positions and asked him in a roar honed by artillery fire: “Didn’t you leave? Why are you still here?”
However, glancing at the map before Xuan Chong, he was suddenly dumbfounded. Having just come from the frontline, he knew the orcs’ forward deployment, but on Xuan Chong’s map, the jumping sand kept moving forward — wasn’t that exactly the orcs’ offense?
If Xuan Chong’s clear, intuitive real-time strategy image appeared on the frontline, how many fewer people would die…
This brigadier general was interrupted from his gaze by cannon fire, lifted his head from the table, and stared at Xuan Chong: “You, this?!”
He wanted to figure out if the current battlefield situation real-time map Xuan Chong had drawn was real.
Xuan Chong did not answer, but in this deputy general’s eyes, no answer meant admission.
Thus, he grabbed Xuan Chong, wanting to take him to the command post, but Xuan Chong held him back and shook his head, indicating: “I can’t go to the command post.”
The soldier stared at Xuan Chong, filled with grief and indignation: “Brothers are falling one by one up front. You clearly know the beasts’ distribution — why hide it?”
Lu Changfeng and others nearby raised their guns to protect Xuan Chong. Xuan Chong had the bystanders lower their guns and slowly said: “Not letting this appear in the command post is to help you! Because I can see the other side — but can they?”
Amid the brigadier general’s extreme incomprehension, Xuan Chong patted him and said: “I won’t leave.”
…Victory or defeat lies in calculation…
After sending off this brigadier general, Xuan Chong continued marking the battlefield situation with numbers, even more precisely locking onto every enemy leader group. The Oukes had already revealed most of their superpowers, while Xuan Chong had yet to use his.
The orcs’ current military organizational framework, though not entirely accurate, was mathematically probabilistically distributed similarly to Xian Han’s current divisions, regiments, battalions, level by level.
The orcs now lacked human radio communications at every level. But between the boss and the lads, the “waaagh!” force field was no less effective than radio. Right, the “waaagh!” force field could serve as a flexible tool hand to craft tools, or gesture on the battlefield.
Their communications could even span seven or eight hundred meters across half a noisy battlefield for exchanges like “You charge and cover me, draw fire; after success, I’ll give you a tooth.”
Note: In theory, anyone can trade teeth with Oukes, as long as they can withstand the trade method — the tooth receiver punches the giver, knocking out a tooth as payment.
That is, after Kao Diké roars once, the secondary-level “war bosses” in the Ouke horde, even dozens of kilometers away, can hear the boss’s intent. Then these war bosses roar at their combat teams, and the big lads below can grasp the meaning.
Relying on this “gesturing” method, the orcs turned their large-scale raiding into coordination no less than a regular army’s.
Every orc team’s relationship is like a human society’s fierce bandit gang. The bandit leader maintains management through the most violent threats.
However, human “bandit gangs” are limited by the leader’s deterrence not reaching the lower levels, ultimately capping at thirty people; beyond that, a management code is needed.
But orcs can expand these “bandit gangs” limitlessly. Those speed demon Oukes, smashing iron sheets with horns, pulled their “disorderly” organizational capacity to the max.
Just as Xuan Chong finished his final calculations, the outermost layer of the Han Army positions was thoroughly breached.
Accompanying thrown firepower — that is, ass-precision-guided big bombs mixed with burning coal and oxygen — were hurled onto the human positions.
After Xian Han troop position personnel quickly withdrew, rear artillery began covering.
Lu Changfeng clenched his mecha-clad fists. Just as he prepared to persuade, Xuan Chong packed up the blueprints: “We’ll withdraw to the second line of positions. Have our rear line people (Lin Group) prepare.”
