Countless ammunition was poured onto the positions of the Dwarf defenders, and at this mont, the Dwarf 11th Corps trying to break out had completely lost mobility. They were pinned down, then covered by the overwhelming firepower of the Tang Army.
Thousands of Dwarf soldiers chose to surrender; they had indeed fought to the last mont, and now they were absolutely depleted of ammunition and supplies.
Having retreated to this point, the ammunition they carried was already scarce, now encircled again, they quickly expended their remaining ammunition and could only helplessly find themselves still trapped within the encirclent.
Tens of thousands of troops were unable to return to Furnace Fortress, now left awkwardly waiting just outside the Central Mountain Region, for the fate of annihilation to befall them.
Binghan the First’s order was for them to fight until the last mont, and they truly did: weapons and equipnt discarded along the path, fallen comrades buried in the snow, left unnoticed.
Now, these soldiers were short of dicine, lacking even basic warmth; without weapons, ammunition, nor air support...
The Dwarf soldiers suffering from trench foot, unable to even remove their shoes, either curled up in the snow waiting for death, or raised their hands walking towards the Tang Army’s positions.
After more than ten days of persistence, the Ice Cold Empire’s 12th Corps was initially unable to hold on, with about 20,000 surrendering to the Tang Army within one day, handing over their weapons.
Subsequently, the frontline of the 11th Corps also saw nurous surrenders: approximately several thousand laid down their weapons, and along with their supervising battalion, beca prisoners of the Tang Army.
The battle had reached a point where the Dwarves obviously couldn’t sustain: even the military police supervisory battalion, overseeing the troops, saw mass surrenders — hoping for the troops to continue attacking was a task impossible to accomplish.
The next day, as the Tang Army tightened the encirclent, more Dwarf troops chose surrender. They yielded their defensive lines and raised their hands to welco the arrival of the Tang Army.
The entire encirclent was chaotic, with soldiers who held a spark of resistance running everywhere, while those determined to surrender gathered together like refugees.
Strategically, the collapse of this force directly resulted in two severe consequences: the first being the complete failure of the plan to have the 11th and 12th Corps fill the gap towards Furnace Fortress; the second consequence was Xie Ke’s hope for them to stall the Tang Army’s northern troops, which was also completely obliterated.
Consequently, the defense of Furnace Fortress was significantly weakened, and Xie Ke’s situation beca tenfold or a hundredfold more difficult... In short, from a bird’s eye view, the Dwarves were entirely in disarray.
Yet, they themselves were unaware of the fact: due to strong electromagnetic interference, the collapse of the 11th and 12th Corps was completely unknown to the Dwarf high command.
On the direction of Furnace Fortress, the left-behind Pri Minister, along with Chief of Staff Larb and Marshal Balov, still hoped the 11th and 12th Corps could break out and retreat to Furnace Fortress, to enhance their defenses.
They naïvely thought if these two corps arrived, they could persist for another month to two months.
Because of the withdrawal of the Eastern Front Army, Marshal Balov’s Western Front Army was already in a tough spot, using half their original forces to hold the entire Furnace Fortress, with each district and building fiercely contested, costing them heavy casualties.
The Tang Army abandoned occupying the ruins to reduce casualties, while the Dwarves, in reclaiming lost positions, paid with countless soldiers’ lives... In comparison, the Dwarves’ situation was indeed dire.
Countless soldiers perished, countless injured, once appropriately organized 3rd and 13th Corps now reduced to remnants, and the situation of the supplented second-line corps was even more miserable.
The reinforcents from Dorne had already withdrawn, leaving only Dwarves in the city, with drastically reduced defenders having to let go of many districts, shortening their defensive lines.
Yet, they held onto hope, believing the 11th and 12th Corps could break out and return to Furnace Fortress, persisting until that day ant stabilizing their position.
The other side appeared even worse, naturally, Xie Ke was unaware the 11th and 12th Corps had already collapsed, not even realizing his own Eastern Front Army had disintegrated.
From the skies, the torrent of the Tang Army was already approaching Dalkas, advancing so swiftly through the center, making the flanks redundant.
At this mont, the Tang Army advancing in concert showed no intentions of encircling the Eastern Front Army, rely ploughing through, leaving countless prisoners in their wake.
Many problems were now the burden of those civil administrators who initially sought to prosecute General Strauss, as they pondered: how to handle these damned Dwarf prisoners.
From the civil administrators’ perspective, these soldiers from the Eastern Front Army could be said to be notorious: their reputation among civilians was dreadful, debts of blood countless, many should face trial and be justly executed to relieve public anger.
This process would garner local civilian support, establishing the authority of Great Tang Empire’s civil administrators among the local populace. Local order would improve imdiately, with the populace settling and willingly supporting Tang Country’s various arrangents.
However, there were simply too many of them... The Eastern Front Army counted nearly 210,000 captives, and the number was still increasing.
If Dalkas were taken, this number might exceed 300,000. After all, Binghan the First indeed found nurous reinforcents for Xie Ke, many preparing to head toward Furnace Fortress.
Identifying who committed cris among so many would be no easy task. The workload was imnse, and a handful of civil administrators were insufficient to complete this endeavor.
Of course, these troubles were re byproducts of the sweeping victory, so Tang Army commanders and civil administrators were both in pained delight. But the Dwarf commanders across them weren’t the sa, their hearts as cold as the current weather.
More and more Dwarf commanders noticed, the Tang Army unknowingly bypassed them heading toward the next target. And they... had inexplicably beco captives.
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