Chapter 678, Sacrifice Is the Cornerstone of the Empire

Does Xi Rui have to be the one for this mission?

Actually, not necessarily.

The Alliance also has outstanding generals to choose from. Whether it is the two regiments or the Alliance generals like Yan Fangxu and Perbov, they can all play this role.

Just as Gu Hang already had various plans to deal with the remnants of the northern line army, even if Xi Rui and Qin Zhiping were two people with confused minds, it would not hinder Gu Hang's general strategy.

However, if the remnants of the northern line are completely ignored, then Gu Hang will have to leave behind not only the generals, but also a group of troops for feint attacks.

The troops left behind cannot be weak, otherwise the feint attack will fail, but instead show cowardice, and even let the Zerg push back in one wave, which will not be worth the loss.

However, if the troops left behind are too many and too strong, the probability of completing the feint attack mission will be greatly increased, but the military force required to annihilate the huge reinforcements is not small, Gu Hang will bear greater pressure, and the tolerance rate of the entire operation will be lower.

There is no choice, then naturally there is no way.

But isn't there a choice?

Gu Hang believed that Xi Rui and Qin Zhiping had shown qualities that made him feel at ease to a certain extent.

Originally, Gu Hang's worst plan was that the remnants of the North Line would riot, which he would suppress, and then split the remnants of the North Line Corps, leaving some of the troops behind and taking some away, splitting them as much as possible, and letting the alliance take over.

But in that case, not only would they lose a lot of combat effectiveness in the internal strife and suppression, but the North Line Corps after the split would be demoralized, resentful, and basically useless.

The situation would definitely be much worse than it is now.

Objectively speaking, Xi Rui and Qin Zhiping's sensible behavior still solved a big problem for him.

And to command the remnants of the North Line to carry out this cruel task that would surely involve great sacrifices, Xi Rui and Qin Zhiping, two former high-level officials of the North Line Corps, would be the best choice.

By driving the combat capabilities of the remnants of the North Line Corps as much as possible, the number of troops that Gu Hang would have to leave behind to make a feint attack could be greatly reduced, making the action of attacking the Zerg reinforcements in the north more certain.

As for the issues that Xi Rui was worried about, Gu Hang naturally considered them.

As for how many people would die... He thought about this question, but did not answer it.

War, that's what it is.

Sacrifice created the human empire.

Moreover, Gu Hang did not think that Xi Rui would not figure these things out.

He might have many concerns at first, but he would figure it out in the end.

The other question is worth a little more discussion.

"Just do your best. I believe that the Black Crusade and the Anti-foreign Order are the backbone of the forces. Moreover, I will leave some troops, especially a considerable number of land forces, under your command to cooperate with your actions."

"Don't worry about casualties, and don't worry about not being able to maintain the offensive, or what will happen if the offensive is maintained but still discovered. As long as you try your best, I believe that your offensive will definitely put a lot of pressure on the Zerg."

"Even if they are finally discovered, the Zerg cannot ignore the pressure you bring. It's nothing more than changing from a feint to a strong attack, from attraction to containment."

"It is impossible for the Zerg to support their troops heading south in the first place, and your mission will be considered a success."

At this point, Gu Hang's tone became more serious: "Marshal Xi Rui, I believe you can see that this is a very important task. It is indeed a bit difficult, but it is by no means an impossible, suicide mission. For this operation, my requirement is that the goal must be achieved. This is a battle that is decisive for the entire war. It is a death order. Do you understand what I mean?"

Xi Rui was awed.

Of course, he knew the seriousness of the situation. He nodded seriously and assured Gu Hang:

"In the name of the Black Crusaders, I will be able to complete the mission!"

...

"Attack, attack! In the name of the Black Crusaders, attack!"

Xi Rui shouted hard in the communication number, not as calm as usual.

This was eighteen days after his conversation with Gu Hang.

After that conversation, the Alliance army acted very quickly and efficiently.

The troops that should be left for Xi Rui were soon arranged.

Not many naval troops were left. After all, the battle to attack the Zerg reinforcements in the north was mainly naval battles. The main fleet of the Alliance must be taken away. It would be good to leave the remaining warships of the remnants of the northern line and the flagship of the Black Crusaders Fourth Fleet, the "Cross Black Star".

In this case, it is unwise to use the naval fleet to fight a naval battle with the Zerg fleet between the stars.

It's not that the Zerg fleet here is so strong, at least it's much larger than the fleet Marshal Xi Rui had after the main fleet of the Alliance left.

To put it bluntly, he only had the remaining ships of the remnant army on the northern line. Relying on these ships, it's a dream to launch a sharp offensive that can attract the attention of the Zerg.

If you really fight like that, it's called suicide, not attack.

But on the contrary, the number of land forces at Xi Rui's disposal is enough.

The remnant army on the northern line has 20 to 30 million people. Excluding those seamen who can't fight, the remaining land forces, added up, also have a scale of tens of millions.

The Alliance Army left six army groups, which are not fully staffed, but also have a scale of over 100 million.

At the same time, Fury and New World Torch each had 200 Space Marines left behind. Add to that 300 from the Black Crusaders; 100 from the Silver Watch... 800 Space Marines alone.

In addition, there was a small Titan Legion recruited from the Aramita Forge World, and more than 2,000 Holy Lily Battle Sisters.

In general, he had a lot of troops and elite forces.

Fighting a land battle would really put some pressure on the Zerg.

There was no naval battle, but there was a land battle, so the only way to fight was to select a planet that was very important to the Void Zerg, and then go through the most difficult deployment process, and then use the only fleet that was not sufficient to provide orbital shelter.

Gu Hang agreed to his plan, and at the beginning of the plan, before the main fleet left, he provided some help to Xi Rui. The Alliance's giant ships attacked, temporarily driving away the Zerg's biological ships, and helped Xi Rui's subordinates complete the most difficult stage of troop deployment.

A large number of troops finally entered Dantao Star safely.

Dantao was the target battlefield they chose.

The reason for choosing this place was that this planet was originally a populous land in the Queen Star Region, a nest city world with a population of 90 billion. And now, this place has become a very huge digestion field for the Zerg.

In Dantao, there are still many people who survive as infected people. They have no ability and consciousness to resist, but even so, they have not had time to be digested.

Not to mention being transported away.

In fact, there is no need. The Queen of Zerg seems to use it as a hatchery at the same time. A large number of Zergs are simply born here, and then sent directly to the front battlefield to make up for the losses nearby.

The Zerg is absolutely unwilling to lose this place.

Before, the Alliance tried to throw an extinction order weapon here once, but the launch failed. Although the Zerg ships were driven away, a clear area was theoretically cleared. But when the Burning Sky torpedo hit, countless flying demon insects swarmed to the stratosphere and destroyed it before the Burning Sky torpedo exploded.

Although all the flying demon insects died in the end, it was nothing to the Zerg.

And the loss of a Burning Sky torpedo was quite a loss for the human army.

This time, if Dantao, a place storing a large amount of biomass, is targeted again, there is no need to worry that the Zerg will not care and will not be attracted.

But at this stage, the rest of the things depend on the ground forces themselves.

The fleet of the remnant army on the northern line is really remnant. When the main fleet of the alliance left, it was unrealistic for the remaining ships to fight desperately.

But they did not ask for much help to the ground troops, and they did not even dare to hope to completely drive away the Zerg ships and prevent the Zerg from providing orbital support to the ground. They just wanted to prevent these Zerg ships from supporting recklessly and without cost.

More battles still had to be fought by the ground troops themselves.

This fight lasted half a month.

Everything was as planned.

The Zerg was really unwilling to give up. Not only was the huge biomass in Dantao transformed into the Zerg army, but more Zerg biological ships, carrying more Zerg troops, landed on the ground and fought a bloody battle with the human army.

The war situation was definitely getting worse and worse for the human side.

There were already many Zerg in Dantao, and now there were Zerg troops coming from outside to support, not to mention that as time went on, there were more and more hatching pools in Dantao. In the huge nest world with a population of 90 billion, there was enough biomass to be transformed into various Zerg nest monsters.

However, from the same perspective, Xi Rui felt fortunate: he had completed the task assigned to him by Gu Hang relatively smoothly so far.

The fight was so hard that it was conceivable that the Zerg's attention was indeed fully attracted to Dantao.

In fact, the effect of all this was a bit too good.

The Zerg on Dantao almost drowned the ground troops.

At this point, what offensive is needed?

Just hold on.

But if you want to hold on, you have to attack: the loss of ammunition and personnel of the troops is far beyond expectations. The delivery of new reinforcements and supplies to the ground requires transport ships to be delivered in orbit. Transport ships need a clear, unthreatened space.

The remnants of the Northern Front Corps lured the Zerg biological ship away, and the remaining ships escorted the transport ship to approach suddenly. But despite this, the biological cannons evolved by the Zerg on the ground and a large number of flying demon insects will still pose a great threat to the landing of the ground transport spacecraft.

This requires the ground forces to launch an attack from the ground when the transport spacecraft arrives, destroying the hatching nests and biological cannon nests of the flying demon insects, and then have a chance to let the transport spacecraft land smoothly.

The ground forces have already suffered heavy losses in personnel, equipment, and ammunition, and are waiting for supplies from the sky. As a result, they still have to attack desperately now?

There is no other way, we can only fight like this.

Often after huge sacrifices, the replenishment of ammunition, equipment, and personnel can only slightly make up for the losses, and the Zerg biological fleet will come back, forcing the human transport ships to flee immediately, otherwise they will be intercepted, which will be a huge loss.

This kind of war lasted for 18 days.

Until now, facing the reported losses, Marshal Xi Rui no longer felt heartache - because he was numb.

The total losses in the 18 days were roughly estimated to have exceeded 10 million people. On the ground, the main force of the battle was no longer the remnants of the northern line, but the Alliance Army.

It was not because Xi Rui was deliberately retaining strength, but because the remnants of the northern line had been beaten even more. On the sixth day of the ground war, the 10 million ground troops of the remnants of the northern line had lost more than 40%. Without the large-scale intervention of the Alliance Army, let alone maintaining the offensive, I am afraid they would have been completely annihilated.

And his most loyal 300 Black Crusaders, 260 of them have gone down, and only a few dozen people are on the ship, operating the battle barge "Cross Black Star" and several other strike cruisers. These ships all need to be operated by Space Marines to maximize their performance.

In other words, Xi Rui's Black Crusaders have been fully deployed.

The Silver Watch has also been fully deployed, and Qin Zhiping himself is on the ground.

What about the remaining troops on the northern front?

Up to now, Xi Rui has completely stopped considering whether his task of "attracting and containing" can be completed.

It has already exceeded the estimate.

Now, according to estimates, the Zerg in front is more than three times that when Gu Hang was still there.

This is of course considered to have completed the task.

The question now has turned into how long they can keep the pressure on the Zerg?

At the end of the battle, the loss of troops is still secondary, and the loss of equipment is somewhat irreparable. It is becoming more and more difficult to project forces to the surface of the planet. What should we do when we need to withdraw troops later?

He soon stopped thinking about these things.

Fighting day by day is nothing more than gritting your teeth and holding on every minute and every second.

On the 19th, the losses expanded to 11 million; on the 25th, a major failure of ground support resulted in the death of more than 2 million people on the transport ship, and because of the actual support, the ground battles suffered a series of major defeats. On the 28th, the total losses directly expanded to 37 million. It was not until the 32nd day that the collapse-like losses were slowed down. But the price was that the small Titan legion recruited from Aramita was destroyed, and only then several key Zerg nests were destroyed, allowing support to reach the ground and stop the collapse.

Although the bleeding was stopped, the Titans were all gone, so what should be done later?

Sure enough, on the 39th day, the support to the ground failed again.

Seeing that the big collapse was coming, Xi Rui was ready to sacrifice more than 200 Space Marines in the future before the bleeding could be stopped. However, on the 40th day, the Zerg fleet suddenly retreated completely.

Xi Rui's first reaction was to breathe a sigh of relief. The fleet could finally send support to the ground, which was much safer, and even provide some orbital firepower support for the ground forces, which directly relieved a lot of pressure.

However, why did the Zerg fleet retreat?

Of course, it couldn't be that they fought it back.

The battle on Commander-in-Chief Gu's side should have started, right?

Thinking of this, Xi Rui became worried again.

Has my mission been completed?

What's the situation with Commander-in-Chief Gu?

————

This chapter makes up for yesterday's.

I really didn't finish writing yesterday.

I got some infection from the change of seasons, and I have a runny nose and a dizzy head for two days.

I will try to finish one more chapter before going to bed tonight.