In the following days of meetings, the General Staff reviewed and summarized the entire process of Operation Torch based on Summer's backtracking and the results of the search of the Taquila ruins. Almost every day, reports would be sent to Roland's desk. The pile of reports was almost half the height of a person.
More and more details became clear.
For example, the giant God's Stone that appeared in the battle of the Northbound Slope and the siege of the Taquila city came from the God's Stone mine in the ruins. At the bottom of the mine, the Detective Group found the corresponding missing parts of the ore clusters. Two medium-sized God's Stone pillars were cut in half, and the cut surface was very smooth, as if they had been cut by a sharp weapon.
Although the backtracking ability could not be used near the God's Stone, looking at the overall situation, it was very likely to be related to the giant skeleton. In fact, the latter was not only a transportation tool, but also a small obelisk that could regenerate the Red Mist. The corroded land around the ruins was proof. However, compared to the obelisk that covered hundreds of kilometers, its coverage was only one to two hundred meters, and it could not be created out of thin air. It still needed the supply of the Red Mist to maintain.
As a "sentinel" that could move freely, its strategic significance was self-evident. The General Staff concluded that, compared to the Spider Demons, this giant carrier was probably a rare species among the demons. Otherwise, it could completely replace the role of the outpost and occupy the entire Fertile Plains before the humans could react.
In addition, most of the tunnels behind the Taquila ruins were dug by the Spider Demons. Although their digging ability was far inferior to the devouring worms, they were still much better than the Mad Demons. These tunnels all started from the God's Stone mine, and the depth of the tunnel obviously considered the threshold of observational abilities. Coupled with the ample preparation time, it was not easy to discover them.
As Celine and Agatha were inclined to view the giant skeleton and the Spider Demons as the same type of demon, Roland also gave them a new name: Monstrous Beast, to distinguish the giant skeleton from other demons. With a specific prefix, they could quickly name the demons of the same type that had not yet been discovered.
Currently, these two carriers were named the "Fortress-type Monstrous Beast" and the "Spider-type Monstrous Beast". The latter was further divided into the stone needle thrower Type-1 and the human thrower Type-2. Not only was the accurate name beneficial for battle deduction and command delivery, it was also more convenient for post-battle statistics and records.
Other than the detailed analysis of the battle, Roland's other focus was the shortcomings and improvements that the General Staff listed based on the results.
Among them, Edith's personal report, which was also ranked first among the many problems, was still the shortcoming of the investigation ability.
Putting the sky aside, in the history of human warfare, tunnel warfare was limited by the ratio of excavation tools and cost. It had always been a unique tactic and could not be used as a conventional tactic. But this rule was no longer applicable in front of the devouring worms and spider-like Monstrous Beasts. As long as enough carriers were gathered, the enemy could even excavate an underground passageway for an army to pass through in a short period of time. Thus, the ground beneath their feet had become a dangerous area that they had to guard against.
Without a doubt, not only would Sylvie not be able to take care of it alone, it would also not be worth it. When the Eye of Magic saw through obstacles, the consumption would be greatly increased. Under the condition that the total amount of magic power was fixed, monitoring a target ten kilometers away from the surface for an entire day would only require a shallow layer three to four meters deep the size of one or two football fields.
Moreover, apart from Extraordinaires, all witches' abilities had a threshold. When a certain condition was exceeded, the consumption of magic power would increase exponentially. Under such circumstances, any non-emergency action would be a waste of magic power.
The First Army had to take on this task themselves.
Roland vaguely remembered that in history, both sides had used underground monitoring to guard against each other's tunneling and surprise attacks. The principle was similar to a stethoscope. With the characteristic of sound transmission in solid objects being less attenuated than through air, it could capture the movements of the opponent's tunneling more clearly.
But this method was limited to the tunnels being excavated near the camp. For traps like the Taquila that had been set up long ago, listening alone could not solve all the problems.
After much consideration, Roland finally came up with a feasible method — drilling.
This was a detection method widely used in the civil engineering industry. As one of the Double Dogs of Science and Technology, he had often heard of it from his roommates in the Faculty of Civil Engineering. To put it simply, it was to smash a steel bar vertically into the ground and judge the hardness of the soil according to the depth of the hammer. The test points were generally distributed in plum blossom piles a few meters apart. As long as a probe was equipped, a large area of inspection could be completed with a few people. When the number of steel bar sinking suddenly increased, there was a high possibility that there was a hole below.
Combining the two methods of listening and probing, it was basically possible to detect threats from underground without the help of the witches' abilities.
As for the reconnaissance of the enemy in the air, the only way to get rid of the dependence on Lightning and Maggie was to develop the air force.
As for when this part could be made up, it was up to Tilly.
In addition, there were many conclusions in the report such as "relying too much on the position" and "lacking the ability to provide quick support". While Roland was amazed by the rapid improvement of the General Staff, he also felt somewhat helpless. He was aware of these problems, but due to the limited population of Neverwinter, it was difficult for him to make up for these shortcomings in a short time.
Finally, among the many reports, one point caught his attention. It was a report from a logistician at the grass-roots level of the army. According to the report, the performance of the Mark I type machine gun was not very stable during the high-intensity battle. After the decisive battle, many soldiers in the machine gun squad complained that they spent more time changing the barrel than firing the gun, which was a great burden to the logisticians. If possible, he hoped that the Engineering Department could improve it.
This was also the first time that Roland had directly received the feedback from the frontline soldiers after the establishment of the feedback system. As the users of the weapons themselves, they were the ones who knew the pros and cons of the weapons best.
In fact, when he was attacked at Tower Station No. 1, he had noticed that there was an abnormal increase in the number of discarded gun barrels. However, since these parts could be recast, he did not pay much attention to it. Now that he thought about it, it must be because of the lack of experience of the shooters and the sudden increase in the pressure of the enemies. During the night, the soldiers were more nervous. Moreover, it was difficult to confirm the results of the battle, so they would not let go of the trigger. The air-cooled gun barrel was not as durable as the water-cooled gun barrel. It could handle the intensity of the previous battle, but now that the shooting time was prolonged, the heat dissipation could not keep up.
This also alerted Roland. In the beginning, he had used the air-cooled gun barrel purely because he wanted to use it for multiple purposes. If he had designed it according to Maxim's idea, it would not be "universal". However, the actual effect was not as ideal as he had expected. Although the production of tracer bullets and the increase in the experience of fighting at night could alleviate this situation, the enemy had only sent a small number of soldiers to the Western Front. If the main force of the battle really came to a point where the demons were everywhere, the misfiring of the heavy machine guns would be fatal.
Fortunately, this report made him realize his mistake.
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