Chapter 1695: Chapter 1612: Losing Montum
The intense battle lasting more than two hours finally ended, and apart from leaving behind more than 500 corpses, the Dwarves seed to have made no progress at all: neither side’s positions had changed, only a heap of soon-to-be rotting flesh added to the forest.
Although the Dwarf 8th Corps used Black Crow No. 3 on a large scale, they did not have enough troops: eating Black Crow No. 3 did not make them invulnerable, and the dead could not crawl up as zombies to continue fighting, so Durman ultimately canceled plans to continue the attack in the following days.
He had to wait for reinforcents to arrive before he could launch another attack: the entire 8th Corps had already lost more than 6,000 soldiers in the offensive, a number he found hard to bear.
Even though most of those thrown against the Tang Army were new reinforcents, even cannon fodder are living people, and losing hundreds a day is unbearable for anyone.
After taking the drug, people indeed fell into a frenzy, but those who didn’t take the drug were still human, with reason and the ability to think for themselves.
The regular soldiers of the 8th Corps witnessed what happened to those fearless super soldiers, and no one wanted to beco the next sacrifice, so fewer and fewer people were willing to take the drug, leaving only a bunch of cunning “smart people.”
The officers could easily get the first batch of people to take Black Crow No. 3 under the pretense of fighting for the nation, but the second and third batches were not so easy to handle.
So refused to take the drug, and the number of volunteers dwindled, so in the end, everyone was forced, against their conscience, to take it and head to the front lines.
As the morale-boosting operation using the drug continued to its final stages, forcing soldiers to take it beca a morale-damaging tactic—a vicious cycle that ultimately led to the army’s collapse.
No one was a fool, and Durman knew that doing this frequently would inevitably cause dissatisfaction and eventually lead to destruction.
But he had no other option; he could only gamble that the “Secret Weapon” would produce miraculous effects in a short ti, breaking through the Tang Army’s defensive line.
Regrettably, even with cheats activated, the Dwarves could not achieve a quick breakthrough against the Tang Army with their absolute power, and finally, the two sides were deadlocked, and the battle lines gradually stabilized.
Yet this line was sowhat far from where Durman hoped to reach: Durman wished his troops could push the line back near Eternal Winter Port, but now they were still over 200 kiloters away…
“Sir, we can’t continue the attack. The Tang Army’s defensive line is becoming more solid, and our losses are too great.” A general subtly reminded Durman: “Reinforcents won’t arrive until tomorrow, and it’s said there are only 2,000.”
Even soldiers serving as cannon fodder require training. No one can tolerate wasting the hard-earned ard reserves in such a manner.
Although the Dwarves had begun full mobilization, boasting of 10 ard Corps in the rear, these troops were essentially not capable of independent operations.
Most new recruits would be sent directly to the front lines to supplent units that suffered significant losses, achieving a degree of experienced-led training.
But this way, there wouldn’t be any increase in numbers, and for the side urgently needing more troops to launch a counterattack, rely having reinforcents isn’t good news.
At the very least, new troops should join the frontline combat sequence, with new heavy weapons participating in battle, which would establish a positive cycle.
“I know… But if we stop now, everything we’ve done so far will be in vain.” Gazing at the distant positions of the Tang Army, Durman muttered reluctantly.
He, of course, knew how great the losses were, with over 100 tanks turned into scrap tal by the Tang Army’s planes on their worst day. That was over 100 tanks! Roughly half the power of an armored division!
Those tank crew couldn’t just get “high” and fight; they needed to operate equipnt, and re excitent did no good, so they were all regular combatants, professional soldiers.
Training these tanker crews was expensive and ti-consuming, and these armored corps suffered losses on the front lines without making any impact. How could Durman not be pained?
“Let’s pause the subsequent drug-dosing troops first… those already dosed, attack once more! Try again… We don’t have many chances left.” In the end, after deliberating for a few minutes, Durman decided to stop and regroup.
There’s no choice; even steel n need food and drink. The troops were too exhausted and losses too colossal; continuing to fight would’ve clearly led to collapse.
Recently, the Tang Army had clearly intensified air bombardnts, slowing the supply speed of the Dwarf military significantly. With logistics lagging, front-line operations inevitably struggled.
This is not ancient tis; soldiers can’t just fight with swords. Without food, they might last two more days on Black Crow No. 3, but they couldn’t survive a day without ammunition.
Those damned Tang Air Forces carried out operations in small numbers, but their bombing efficiency was terrifying: they would precisely destroy bridges, blow up roads, and sabotage railways, crippling the entire transportation network in northern Ice Cold Empire.
Although the Dwarves were frantically repairing damaged routes, they underestimated the power of guided bombs. Dwarves would fill in a bomb crater only for three more to be created ahead! Using reconnaissance planes and satellite images for intelligence analysis, the Tang Air Force knew precisely which segnts the Dwarf Engineer Corps was repairing.
Without supplies, materials struggled to reach the front lines, and the reduction in the Dwarves’ offensive efficiency was easy to guess. More frustrating for the Dwarf high command was that not only could they not deliver supplies, subsequent troops seed unable to provide reinforcents either.
The 7th Corps had been stranded on the road for several days; according to plan, they should have already reached the front lines, but most of their forces were still in the middle of nowhere.
The 10th Corps was in a similar situation, albeit slightly better, with roughly two divisions reaching their positions, deployed behind the 9th Corps.
Yet this was far from the scenario envisioned at the start of the campaign. After ten days of intense assault, the Dwarves found that attaining their objective of recapturing Eternal Winter Port was still a distant dream.
Indeed, this ti the Dwarves once again returned empty-handed: they wasted over 200 soldiers before dinner, and the line remained unchanged.
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