1136. Advance of the Battle
Several Hunter spacecraft flew past at a low altitude. They flew up and down amidst the hail of bullets from the anti-aircraft guns. Suddenly, they swooped down and fired the rockets mounted under their wings. The rockets rained down on the anti-aircraft gun position below.
Boom! Boom! The anti-aircraft gun position was immediately surrounded by countless explosions. At the same time, one of the Hunter spacecraft was hit by a series of bullets. Its wing broke and it tumbled down.
The other Hunter spacecraft immediately raised their altitude and prepared to leave. They passed through the smoke and finally got a full view of the battlefield.
It was a huge fortress city, covering an area of about 20 to 30 square kilometers. There were countless fortresses and firing points on the periphery of the city. Inside the city were factories and residential areas. Clearly, this place was built as an important frontline fulcrum of the war — Steel City.
Just like its name, the entire city was built to serve the war. It provided housing, training, supplies, production, and other support for the army. Moreover, the fortresses and anti-aircraft turrets in the city made it an incomparably strong fortress!
Steel City was also the first step in Tang Yu's expansion into Skynet's sphere of influence. However, it also became a salient part of the area under his control and was targeted by Skynet. After realizing that Skynet wanted to use the armored corps to cut off contact in this direction, Tang Yu proposed a fortress battle plan. He planned to use Steel City as the core to build a powerful urban fortress to achieve his goal of delaying time.
For this reason, Tang Yu deployed the second robot army in the direction of Steel City. A total of more than 20000 robots were there to defend the city. However, in order to increase the number of robots, there were also many G-1 engineering robots among them. In addition, Tang Yu also deployed an infantry division to be stationed inside Steel City as a reserve force. After sensing that the enemy's offensive in the direction of Xinlan Province was not fierce, he also mobilized two regiments, a total of 5,000 people, from that direction as reinforcements.
The commander of this infantry division was Kang Hao. Luo Cheng and his 500 Zealots were also here. Luo Cheng and his troops mainly carried out special operations, including infiltration from behind the enemy lines, sniping, and other methods to kill and injure the enemy.
In front of this army were the four divisions of the Gray Army's Fifth Army, totaling more than a hundred thousand soldiers. Not only that, but behind the City of Steel, the armored units of the Gray Army had broken through the defensive line and were beginning to flank them.
In truth, although the encirclement of Steel City had been within Tang Yu's plans, to be surrounded on the seventh day of the battle was still outside of Tang Yu's plans. This made it too late for him to withdraw the human troops in this direction.
Skynet had concentrated almost 70% of its airpower in this direction to ensure the Gray Shirt Army's assault. Even so, they still left behind more than 400 main battle tanks and more than 800 IFVs and armored vehicles on the defensive line that Frans had designed. It was almost equivalent to half of the entire armored force's strength!
But the defensive line was still breached! Steel City was surrounded!
Tang Yu reacted immediately, ordering the Third Robot Legion in the manufacturing center to launch a counterattack against the encirclement. However, it was clear that the enemy's commander in this direction was not mediocre, and his reaction was especially fast. Almost at the same time that the Third Robot Legion launched its attack, the three infantry divisions of the Second Army, acting as reserves, arrived and established a defensive line to engage in fierce combat with the Third Robot Legion.
With this foundation, the Gray Shirt Army's armored units were free to attack the City of Steel City. But Tang Yu also understood that the enemy's choice was tantamount to admitting that their strategy had failed and that they could only seek a partial victory.
However, the enemy commander's judgment of the situation was very accurate. He understood that he could no longer attack the manufacturing center, so he focused on killing and injuring Tang Yu's forces. As long as he could devour the defenders of the City of Steel City, Tang Yu would suffer grievous losses, even if it would not be a major blow to his vitality. As long as this exchange continued, Tang Yu was certain to lose! Because the fighting potential of Skynet and Tang Yu were not on the same level!
The commander of the enemy's Fifth Army … Tang Yu firmly committed this name to memory: General of the Gray Shirt Army, Ruan Qingshui! Although Tang Yu could not be considered an outstanding commander, Chen Fei was a veteran general who had gone through hundreds of battles. Frans, when she had been an artificial intelligence for strategic command, had studied a great deal of war and military knowledge, both ancient and modern. When the two of them worked together, their ability to command was definitely not inferior to that of a famous general! But this Ruan Qingshui was not the least bit inferior to them!
Once the battle began, Skynet's strategy was very clear. Their First Armored Army would attack the area between the City of Steel and the manufacturing center, while the Terminator Army would attack the connecting area between New Lanzhou and New Lhasa. The true strategic targets of the two directions were the manufacturing center and New Chengdu. After capturing these two areas, the two armies would meet up in New Lanzhou and conclude the first phase of the battle.
As long as the manufacturing center and New Chengdu were captured, then Tang Yu's forces would collapse. The second phase was the clean-up phase. They would capture New Lanzhou, New Lhasa, and New Dalian, and then compress Tang Yu's area of control to New Atlanta and Southampton behind the mountains.
Then the third phase was to completely destroy Tang Yu!
But in the current battle situation, the defensive line set up by the Guardian Group had caused the Gray Shirt Army's armored army to suffer heavy losses. The enemy quickly adjusted their strategy, allowing the armored army to focus on breaking through Tang Yu's defensive line, thus achieving their basic strategic goal. But they had lost half of their troops, so their offensive along the way was stopped.
In the New Chengdu area, the Terminator Army was initially unstoppable, but Tang Yu quickly adjusted his strategy. He increased the strength of the frontal defense, and at the same time sent the Tomb Guards to lure the enemy in, defeating the Gray Shirt Army's Third Army's 14th Infantry Division on the flank. At the same time, the Tomb Guards began to move to the rear of the Terminator Army.
Although the Terminator Army did not eat or drink, they still needed guns and ammunition to fight. The Tomb Guards' detour immediately made it difficult for the Terminator Army to resupply. They had no choice but to slow down their advance and turn back to deal with this annoying army.
In this way, the pressure on the front was greatly reduced. The Terminator Army had been attacking fiercely for seven days, but they had only advanced a little more than 80 kilometers. In this direction, the Guardian Group's defensive line was more than 100 kilometers deep!
At this point, the Terminator Army's strategic goal was getting further and further away. In this way, the two most prominent forces of Skynet's all-out attack were stopped, and the war began to turn into a tug of war. After all, Tang Yu's position was very far from Skynet's core, so the Skynet Army's supply line was very long. This gave Tang Yu an opportunity to take advantage of.
And the delay of the war was also what Tang Yu wanted. After all, the gift he had prepared for Skynet would only be fully transmitted from his original era in eight days!
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