Chapter 1266: 1185 Cave
Ever since being dragged out, Shen Haiping no longer wanted to experience the feeling of oxygen deprivation and dizziness. The reason he could sense the breath of the sea was probably that he recalled the swaying feeling on the ship…
His office was set up in a relatively spacious large cave, with all sorts of supplies piled around: mostly useless wood and a small amount of ammunition.
There was truly no food left, and the precious water resources were already running low. The good news was that there were still so streams and underground water in the area they controlled; the bad news was that there were tens of thousands of people needing water.
If the Orcs were more ruthless, they could simply poison so of the streams to thoroughly disgust these goblin lunatics who refuse to surrender.
Shen Haiping lifted his head from the makeshift desk constructed with wooden crates and planks. Already accustod to the noisy environnt, he furrowed his brows as he caught the scent of roasting at in the air.
This made him involuntarily sniff, and his stomach began to growl unconsciously. He looked toward the source of the aroma and saw a group of injured soldiers being helped into the cave by a bunch of hands.
The lighting in the cave wasn’t exactly great, considering that generators consud fuel. However, since it was being used as a makeshift headquarters and required radios and telephones, using generators here was considered a luxury.
“dics! We have wounded here! We have wounded here.” A few officers anxiously shouted, their voices echoing in the cave, making the sounds sowhat piercing.
As the commander-in-chief here, Shen Haiping was sowhat displeased with this clamor; he didn’t think there were any important injured personnel that needed to be brought near the command center for treatnt.
But soon he understood the reason. His temporary adjutant hurried to him and nervously explained, “General, there really is no place left, so we had to place the people here.”
“A field hospital on the front line has been lost, and two outer fire points were burned out by incendiary bombs, leaving no place to accommodate the injured…” As he spoke, he saw a soldier with vacant eyes pass by Shen Haiping.
The burn scars on the soldier’s left face made him look sowhat ferocious, like a monster, causing Shen Haiping to overlook the issue of the soldier not saluting when passing by him.
The soldier clearly had no mood to salute, the scorch marks on his face emitting a charred sll, followed by soone with an arm entirely burnt black… These wounded wore expressions of apathy, to whom everything around them seed irrelevant.
After experiencing hellish flas, these Mirage Country soldiers no longer had the ability to fight, nor even the courage to pick up weapons.
“Place them here, place them here.” Shen Haiping finally made a compromise, stepping aside to let the two soldiers place the wounded on a few wooden crates next to his spot.
Normally, caves occupied by troops would have bunk beds for soldiers to rest on, but now there were very few of those left.
The Orc troops attacked, occupying many similar troop stations, and bombings also destroyed a part, leaving the goblins unable to use these places to accommodate the wounded.
Because similar troop areas were set up in relatively outer parts of the caves, this design saved on ventilation costs and also facilitated access for soldiers into the combat zones.
Now they had to prioritize the caves that were sowhat intact for the combat troops, so the wounded had to crowd into the warehouses and make do.
A dic ran over and began checking the wounded on the ground, who didn’t even have a decent bed, only able to lie on the ground, letting the dust above infect their wounds.
They let out one scream after another, making the entire warehouse chaotic, leaving Shen Haiping unable to continue working, grabbing so docunts and walking out.
This navy admiral truly couldn’t stand such a poorly ventilated environnt, knowing that when he first boarded the Ironclad Warship sold by the Great Tang Group, the ventilation conditions in the cabin were much better than this.
Later on, warships had air conditioning and heating to ensure the proper operation of the ship’s power system; the personnel rely enjoyed the benefit. However, that constant comfortable temperature was sothing Shen Haiping still missed.
Alas… everything had already beco fleeting: the navy’s fleet had completely sunk to the seafloor, and those giant ships once a source of pride for the Mirage Country were now all gone.
As he walked and walked, he ca to a spot under a sign that marked the position of a 200mm caliber heavy artillery. Without much thought, he continued forward to the side of that 200mm caliber heavy artillery.
The artilleryn stationed here were clearing the fallen rubble; the recent bombardnt had struck nearby, causing so rocks to fall, although they didn’t damage the artillery, they affected the iron rail tracks below it.
This artillery, for concealnt, was designed to retract into the mountain when not in use. Its design was quite ingenious, making good use of a cave near the mountaintop.
This natural cave was reinforced with concrete, with sandbags sealing most of the entrance, leaving a cannon window to extend the barrel for firing. Outside, it was further reinforced with soil and planted with vegetation, making it imperceptible from the outside.
For concealnt, this important artillery only fired at dusk, thus hiding the muzzle flash and trying not to reveal its location.
Currently, the place was visibly in a resting state. The artilleryn were clearing the rubble, and so guards saw Shen Haiping walk in, imdiately cleared a path, standing at attention and saluting.
Shen Haiping nodded to these soldiers, found a spot near the cannon window, and sat on an empty ammunition crate, using the natural sunlight coming through the cannon window to look at those spreadsheets.
It must be said that these forms were also imported products disseminated by the Great Tang Group, much more convenient and intuitive than the statistical docunts used by Mirage Country in the past.
From which perspective, Tang Country always seed perfect, so charming that many people longed for it, even forgetting how dangerously powerful it truly was.
The data in the forms did not offer optimism, and Shen Haiping found that besides having a few more cans, all his supplies were decreasing.
These dozens of assorted cans were airdropped by a bomber of the Great Tang Empire, with a surrender docunt attached.
His n found these airdropped cans and brought back that docunt, indicating that subconsciously, his n didn’t want to continue fighting anymore.
If they really wanted to keep fighting, they should have returned with the cans and discarded that docunt. At the very least, they shouldn’t have brought it back so well-preserved…
Sighing, Shen Haiping continued to look down, finding that his artillery shells were also starting to run low, though bullets were left over, consud less than expected.
The main reason for this problem was that the direct attacks on the goblin front lines by the Orc troops were decreasing, with more artillery battles and unilateral bombings by the Orcs.
Without localized infantry battles, the consumption of bullets was relatively slower, while the consumption of shells was slightly more than estimated.
Of course, it wasn’t much more; Shen Haiping had already ordered the artillery to reduce firing as much as possible, conserving shells to maintain reserves.
However, he recently lifted this ban, because no matter how much ammunition remained, if the food ran out, they wouldn’t be able to continue the combat. Thus, he could only use the remaining food quantity as a parater for estimation, calculating the corresponding ammunition reserve.
As for the excess shells, they should be used up! At any rate, Shen Haiping had already resolved to fight to the last soldier, the last bullet! In this way, he would repay the Shen Emperor for recognizing his worth, granting Mirage Country a brief extension of its life.
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The second update will be a bit later, so please check it out tomorrow morning.
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