Urban warfare is like this, sotis the two sides are less than ten ters apart, separated by a few walls, yet unable to detect each other.
You head east, I head west, and we just pass by each other, as if there is no desire for combat between us.
The Tang Army is clearing Dwarf soldiers from building to building, they can’t blow up every building into ruins, after all, they’re to occupy a city, not erase it from the map.
Clearing ruins to rebuild the city is extrely difficult; if the Tang Army doesn’t want to create trouble for themselves, they can’t use shells to turn the entire city into a wasteland.
There are still millions of Dwarf civilians in the city, if the city is leveled, it would also an slaughtering these civilians—such accumulated hatred would only make the Tang Army’s occupation of the Ice Cold Empire much more difficult.
In fact, the Dwarves are already dying in large numbers without the Tang Army’s slaughter: they have lost water and power supply, lost sources of food, and can only live among ruins without any guarantees.
However, this city indeed has a population of over a million, losing a few thousand people a day doesn’t really show much. Especially during warti, no one cares whether those unknown people a block away are dead or alive.
Just a few buildings away, on the other side of a seemingly wide road, Dwarf soldiers are reinforcing a new defensive line.
They are reinforcing sandbags behind the barricades built earlier, placing prepared rocket launchers within easy reach, observing through gaps the direction where the enemy might appear at the end of the street.
The Tang Army is close enough to launch a new attack at any ti, they must prepare as quickly as possible, deploying firing points inside a building on one side to form a solid defense line of mutual support with the barricades.
Dwarf infantry can shoot from a height in buildings at the Tang Army attempting to assault the barricades until they are driven from those buildings.
If the enemy uses heavy firepower, it plays right into their hands: as long as the buildings collapse, it can block the road, preventing the Tang Army’s tanks and armored vehicles from passing through.
This tactic surely incurs huge losses, but they don’t have much better choice: they have almost no support from heavy artillery now, and very few anti-tank weapons in hand.
With no ans against the Tang Army’s tanks, they can only rely on obstacles to block the Tang Army’s advance, else what can they do? Throw stones at the tanks?
...
In the basent, Binghan the First finished the beef and potatoes on his plate, wiping the sauce off his beard with a napkin. His food was still very exquisite, prepared by a special chef, appealing in color, aroma, and taste.
Furnace Fortress has not been completely surrounded; no matter how scarce supplies are, there cannot be a shortage for His Majesty The Emperor. While millions of Dwarf civilians go hungry, Binghan the First can still choose the food he wishes to see on today’s nu.
Although recently his appetite hasn’t been very good, he can still eat a little. Today he chose a local specialty of Ice Cold Empire, beef from the cow’s backbone, distinctive in its chewy texture.
"Has Marshal Xie Ke launched a counterattack on the Eastern Front?" the Dwarf Emperor asked his chief of staff, Larb, who ca to report the battle situation after setting down his napkin.
Larb hesitated for a mont, recalling the Pri Minister’s reminders before coming here, then reported: "Your Majesty, Marshal Xie Ke’s counterattack was very successful, reclaiming part of the defensive positions in the suburbs, but the Tang Army is very strong, and Marshal Xie Ke hasn’t been able to completely drive the Tang Army out of the near suburbs."
The Pri Minister warned Larb not to undermine Xie Ke, because if His Majesty The Emperor lost trust in Xie Ke, very likely Larb as the chief of staff would have to take over the work Xie Ke is doing.
Larb naturally didn’t want to be the commander of the Eastern Front Army; even if given a Marshal’s title, he didn’t want to deal with Xie Ke’s ss.
With things at this point, everyone knows what the outco will be, saving a bit of face is better than being obstinate...
So, Larb helped Xie Ke cover up the fact that there was no counterattack from the Eastern Front Army, even fabricated a limited victory in his report.
Indeed, upon hearing that Xie Ke’s counterattack achieved so results, Binghan the First’s mood improved significantly. His expression visibly relaxed, and he rubbed his hands back and forth on the napkin: "Send Marshal Xie Ke a portion of beef... Oh, and send one to Marshal Balov as well! Thank them for everything they have done for the Empire."
As an Emperor, the basic skills are still there. Even at this ti, Binghan the First hadn’t forgotten to win people’s hearts.
However, his beef couldn’t solve any problems, Xie Ke needed effective air support, needed tanks and anti-tank weapons, needed dicine and a large quantity of ammunition supplies.
Now, even the Dwarf troops are lacking steel helts so much that several people have to use them in turns, new recruits can only rely on scavenging equipnt from corpses...
In such a situation, a plate of delicious beef doesn’t have any effect, while eating the beef Binghan the First sent, Xie Ke also had to order the abandonnt of the defense of a street.
His troops are retreating, leaving behind a large number of corpses: not only soldiers’ but also a large number of civilians’. The Dwarves’ scorched earth policy not only creates trouble for the Tang Army but also brings imasurable suffering to their civilians.
"Marshal... we didn’t launch a counterattack, why did His Majesty send you these als?" the adjutant, sowhat worried about his chief, asked.
Xie Ke smiled indifferently while eating: "No one wants to take over my ss at this ti, that’s obvious... As for His Majesty, perhaps he doesn’t even know how much the battle situation has deteriorated these past two days."
His guess was completely correct, no one dared to tell Binghan the First the true battle situation, and during these last days, everyone chose to hide the truth to seek a mont of peace.
The truth is no longer important, as everyone already knows the ending: since the Dwarf military cannot keep the Tang Army at the outskirts of Furnace Fortress, they cannot hold the city district of Furnace Fortress.
A fool would know that within a while, the Tang Army will occupy here, and the Ice Cold Empire, having lost Furnace Fortress, only heaven knows how much resistance they have left.
And Binghan the First has recently repeatedly rejected several ministers’ proposals, refusing to retreat southward... his intentions are already very clear.
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