Wasteland Commander-Chapter 394 - 85: Bait

Ye Fan knew a little about what happened in Zhonghai.

Because on the radar screen, Ye Fan had discovered early on that a group of survivors had survived deep within the core of the zombie horde.

At the time, Ye Fan was very shocked when he discovered this.

Given the density of zombies in Zhonghai, it was difficult not only for ordinary survivors but even for the Dawn Army to establish themselves there.

Yet these survivors managed to establish themselves and even mixed in with the zombies.

Ye Fan thought for a long time and came up with a rough idea.

This group of people was captured by zombies; what exactly they were doing is unknown, but they were definitely captured.

This was extremely peculiar, and not knowing what changes had occurred in the zombie horde, he instructed the soldiers at the radar station to closely monitor Zhonghai.

Later, Ye Fan also found out when people from Jiangnan Base City appeared at the Yellow Leaf River.

Although the freighters had radar stealth coatings, the soldiers were not that discreet, even Ma Guoxing casually sat on the deck, let alone other soldiers.

They often appeared on deck and naturally got exposed under the spy satellites of the Dawn Army.

Despite leaving Dawn Island due to the battles, Ye Fan still instructed the soldiers to keep an eye on this fleet; if this fleet attacked Dawn Island from Yellow Leaf River, Xiaoba and the others lurking in the water would definitely pull this fleet into the Great River.

Ye Fan even ordered the air force to retreat to Dawn Island airport, ready to bomb at critical moments.

Now is a crucial moment for Dawn Island, and Ye Fan won’t hold back at all.

However, the development of events completely exceeded his expectations.

This fleet was unexpectedly attacked by zombies and mutant beasts in Zhonghai, resulting in heavy casualties.

He observed almost the entire process, and in the end, the troops tried to resist upon landing but faced a merciless siege from zombies, with only a few thousand surviving, and the remaining points all disappeared.

Seeing this, Ye Fan was quite surprised, not understanding why zombies would show mercy. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺

Leaving other survivors might be for breeding, but what use is there in leaving a group of soldiers?

Ye Fan couldn’t figure it out for a moment.

Although he didn’t see the specific scenes, Ye Fan was very pleased.

Because the unconscious actions of the zombies inadvertently helped him a lot.

Even if he had deployed the air force and Xiaoba, war would definitely bring casualties and losses, and financial repercussions were unavoidable; he didn’t want to see that scenario.

Moreover, he strongly suspected that if a fight broke out here, the troops from Jiangzhou would advance eastward, and that could really cause some troubles.

Now this surprise attack force was almost completely wiped out, and Jiangzhou troops would be unable to advance eastward until reinforcements arrive, keeping Dawn Island safe.

"It seems my neighbors across the Great River are somewhat useful after all."

After reviewing this matter, Ye Fan paid it no further mind, as the war had already begun in the central region.

......

On October 7th, the first battle erupted in Qi Lu Province.

Two field brigades of the Dawn Army, coordinated with armor, artillery, and air force units, engaged in a battle with the alliance from Mountain River Base and Huaihai Base on the central plains of Qi Lu Province.

The Dawn Army’s strength in Qi Lu was around forty-five thousand men, while the alliance’s forces deployed a total of four hundred thousand troops.

The alliance troops had a grandiose presence but overall combat strength was far inferior to the Dawn Army.

In the first phase of the war, an encounter between thirty thousand of the opponent’s troops and ten thousand from the Dawn Army sparked a moderately sized engagement.

The Dawn Army’s Tianqi Tank Corps once again performed brilliantly, destroying more than two hundred enemy tanks and vehicles in the frontal battle, gaining combat advantage.

The Dawn Army seized the opportunity to attack, decisively defeating this force of thirty thousand men, achieving a strong start in the war.

Initially, there was belief that the Dawn Army would swiftly breach and rout the enemy, but these troops learned from the previous ones, and no longer engaged the Dawn Army in large-scale battles.

The entire battlefront was stretched very wide, spanning more than a thousand kilometers in the middle of Qi Lu Province, and every place was a battlefield.

Moreover, the enemy’s aircraft were deployed, and they actually had quite a few third-generation jets, causing some trouble for the Dawn Army.

The stealth fighters of the Dawn Army Air Force wanted to find an opportunity to fight decisively with the opponent, but they had already mastered the essence of guerrilla warfare, refusing large-scale battles and resorting to small-scale harassment.

Troops were fragmented, operating on the scale of a squad, platoon, company, or an armored vehicle.

The Air Force also deployed sporadic aircraft, resolutely not providing the Dawn Army with an opportunity to completely annihilate them.

Although the Dawn Army often gained the upper hand in various small battlegrounds, they couldn’t completely annihilate them in one go.

Especially the enemy’s Air Force, deploying a fighter here and another there, tiresomely harassing.

The Dawn Army wanted to deploy fighters, but now all fighter jets had undergone stealth modification, and although deploying them could win, Ye Fan didn’t want to reveal the stealth fighters’ situation temporarily, causing the battlefield to reach a tense stalemate.

He was very clear about the enemy’s intentions, which were to delay time and not let the Dawn Army have the chance to settle it in one decisive battle.

The purpose of delaying time was clear, to postpone until the troops from Jiangzhou were fully assembled, to postpone until Fengtian’s troops captured Dawn City, if they could keep the Dawn Army’s forces tied up in the Qi Lu battlefield, they considered their mission accomplished.

This tactic was very cunning and shameless; even if the delay was too long, they would be slowly eaten away by the Dawn Army, but Ye Fan didn’t have that much time.

...

"These despicable cowards!"

In Golden City, Chen Chuan, Commander of the 4th Brigade of the Dawn Army, slammed the table in anger, clearly very dissatisfied with the current battlefield situation.

"Commander, we need to come up with a plan, those cowards got scared after just one encounter with us, they don’t dare to engage us directly, now they flee at the sight of us, hitting and running with guerrilla tactics over thousands of kilometers. We’ve set many ambushes, but their Air Force always reconnoiters and thwarts them, achieving little. We’ve only killed less than 2,000 enemies, if this continues, we’ll be fighting indefinitely."

Seeing the subordinates a bit frustrated, Ye Fan asked: "You’ve been fighting for several days, have you figured out their troop deployment?"

"Almost, their total force is 400,000, now roughly 350,000 remain, but these people are not to be feared; without their Air Force’s interference, they can’t stir up a major storm, at least they won’t dare attack Golden City."

"How is their Air Force strength?"

"Honestly, it’s quite strong. According to our investigations, their Air Force units combined have over 600 fighter jets, with third-generation jets making up almost half. However, their Air Force doesn’t dare large-scale operations, so how do we fight?"

Ye Fan looked at the battlefield map for a while, then suddenly spoke, "You all know their purpose, right?"

"Of course, they’re just waiting for the southern and northern lines to capture Dawn Island and Dawn City, dragging on here."

Ye Fan nodded, "That’s right, the southern line there has strong forces, let’s leave that aside, tell me about the northern situation."

"The northern line is Fengtian base city, with Fengtian and Liancheng two large base cities. Now Fengtian’s forces have begun moving north, both base cities are relatively empty."

Ye Fan looked towards Liancheng’s position, "Then tell me, if we abandon the Qi Lu battlefield and concentrate forces to attack Liancheng, what will happen?"

The officers paused; Chen Chuan thought for a while, "Commander, if we abandon Qi Lu, wouldn’t the battlefront break? We’ll not engage the Mountain River Base and Huaihai Base."

"Don’t worry about that, simulate according to what I said."

Chen Chuan thought for a while, "Then we should be assembling at the Laizhou port, right? The navy has to come there, and the air force has to move there, with transport ships converging there, cross the bay, directly attacking Liancheng, forcefully landing, and raiding Fengtian Base."

"Good, the troops assemble at Laizhou Port, now if you were the commander of the Mountain River Base and Huaihai Base, what would you do?"

The officers pondered for a moment, then Director Shen suddenly spoke, "If I were their commander, I would gather superior Air Force power and air raid Laizhou port, considering our weak foundation in Qi Lu Province, Laizhou hardly has any air defense facilities, if the air raid succeeds, our side might collapse, losing Dawn City almost certainly."

Ye Fan nodded slightly, "Hmm, that’s well spoken. Since you can think of that, the commanders over at Mountain River Base can also think of that."

Director Shen’s face twitched slightly; was the commander praising me?

Ye Fan’s mind was extremely clear now, "The likelihood of their air raid is very high, because if they don’t support, we’ll abandon Qi Lu to attack Fengtian, their plan to attack Dawn City will completely fail, since Fengtian can only rely on middle-line reinforcements to block our attack, so the air raid is almost certain."

Chen Chuan hastily said, "Then we can’t assemble at Laizhou, if we’re air-raided, our losses would be significant."

Ye Fan slightly shook his head, "No, we must gather, and gather on a large scale, notify the navy’s two carrier battle groups to arrive at Laizhou port for rest within two days, then inform part of the helicopters and transports to park on the roads near Laizhou, the roads there can accommodate planes."

An officer asked in confusion, "Commander, why? There’s hardly any air defense, aren’t we giving the enemy a chance? Once our carrier battle groups are attacked, the losses would be severe."

Ye Fan nodded, "We indeed want to give them a chance. If the bait isn’t significant, how will they take it? Intentionally leak some information, let them know our marching plan, use the two carrier battle groups as bait, let’s see if they take the bait."