In the mountains south of Yuzhou, after Guo Pinming's suggestion of a pincer movement was formed, the three fronts began to advance simultaneously, continuously squeezing the mutated beasts' living space. Battles occurred almost every day, with the mutated beasts fleeing everywhere within the inverted triangle area. However, no matter where these mutated beasts went, they were shot back by a volley of fire from the soldiers.
Helicopters observed the situation from the sky, reporting the movements of the main mutated beast forces at any time. Thus, the three defense lines could react accordingly. Conversely, the mutated beasts had no intelligence sources, acting like headless flies, constantly crashing against the encirclement.
Mutated beasts were continuously sent out from the mountains, truckload after truckload delivered to Yuzhou city. In just a few days, victory reports poured in.
The helicopter pilot roughly estimated and said, "There are about 800,000 mutated beasts within the encirclement. Ten thousand have already been eliminated. From now on, we just need to continue advancing to annihilate all the mutated beasts!"
The pilot felt that after the encirclement was formed, the subsequent battle became very simple. However, the number of mutated beasts was still too large. Once the mutated beasts desperately broke through, the defense line could still potentially have a gap broken.
The pilot did not understand tactics, so he gave a seemingly reasonable suggestion.
However, Lu Kaiyang then advised Shen Feng, "City Lord, I suggest we stop shrinking the defense line in two days. We have been fighting for more than ten days and have eliminated many mutated beasts, but their numbers are still too large. If we continue to shrink the defense line, the mutated beasts will lose their space to maneuver and will become desperate, charging in one direction. This way, the defense line is likely to be breached."
Although Shen Feng did not understand tactics well, he understood the principle of desperation. One should not push an enemy into a corner, otherwise, it would lead to a fight to the death. Whether it was surrounding three sides and leaving one open or surrounding without attacking, the goal was to prevent the enemy from falling into complete despair.
Moreover, at this moment, the encirclement had already been formed, and the mutated beasts could not escape. If they were too eager for quick success now, it might backfire.
"Then, let's do as you say, but we need to hurry. In another month, it will snow in Yuzhou. By then, the soldiers wearing thin clothes will not be able to continue fighting," Shen Feng nodded, agreeing to the decision but feeling a sense of urgency.
It was already winter. Although Yuzhou was in the south, it was in the subtropics, surrounded by mountains. When winter arrived, it would snow, and it would be even colder in the mountains, easily freezing people to death.
Shen Feng was worried that the more than seventy million mutated beasts would break through the blockade. At the same time, he was worried that if the battle was not over when heavy snow fell, the operation would also fail, as they had not prepared much in terms of cold-weather supplies.
Lu Kaiyang frowned, thought for a moment, and then said in a low voice to Shen Feng, "City Lord, if this situation occurs, we can only make the worst-case plan. If we cannot finish the battle, we will set fires. I have observed that although the mountain forest has experienced rain, it is now autumn and winter, and it is very dry. If we start a fire, we can kill more than half of the mutated beasts!"
Shen Feng was startled by this ruthless plan. He did not expect that the unassuming and honest-looking Lu Kaiyang would propose this suggestion. Setting fire to the mountains was a serious crime before, and if it really caught fire and could not be controlled, it could even spread to other areas.
"A wisp of smoke on the mountain, years of hardship below. Have you thought it through?" Shen Feng couldn't help but ask Lu Kaiyang.
Lu Kaiyang nodded and said seriously, "I have truly thought it through, City Lord. If the offensive mission cannot be completed for a long time, there is no other way besides burning these mutated beasts to death. As for how long it will take for the trees on the mountain to recover, that is not our concern."
Shen Feng frowned and thought for a moment, but he did not give a clear reply. However, he then notified Yuzhou to prepare to arrange for personnel to go into the mountains to cut trees.
Lu Kaiyang understood. Although the City Lord had not yet decided to set fires, he was already making preparations. Why would he have people cut trees? Was it for firewood to keep warm? No, Yuzhou had many hydropower stations, and even during the dry season in winter, Yuzhou's electricity was sufficient. Therefore, there was only one explanation for cutting trees: to build firebreaks.
Afterward, Lu Kaiyang began to command the battle. The three directions attacked in rotation. After the northern front began its attack, the southern front entered defensive mode, and the same applied to the other sides. Only one army was fighting each day. The mutated beasts trapped in the encirclement were immediately exhausted. Faced with the powerful offensive, these mutated beasts only thought of escaping and never considered fighting head-on.
Thus, the mutated beasts were worn out. Today, they had fled from the north to the south, and before they could rest, the sound of gunfire and cannons came from the southeast. The mutated beasts' fear of guns and cannons reappeared. They could be said to have developed PTSD. As soon as they heard even a little bit of gunfire or cannon sound, they would immediately have a stress response.
Seventy million mutated beasts were trapped in the encirclement, hearing the sounds of guns and cannons from all directions, and were forced to flee daily. Only by running could they survive. No matter how strong the mutated beasts were, they were still mortal. After running for a long time, tens of thousands of mutated beasts died of exhaustion every day!
In such a situation, the soldiers achieved exceptionally rich combat results every day, and the casualties were mainly from mercenaries, with more than a dozen people dying from eating the wrong things.
It turned out that many camellias had bloomed out of season in the mountains. Although the best camellias were in Yunnan Province, as the provincial flower of Yunnan was the camellia, there were still quite a few camellias in the south. Several provinces in the southwest had the habit of eating camellias. Some used them to make pastries, some to make flower wine, and some to brew tea. Even if none of the above, they could be taken home and placed in water as decoration.
Therefore, many people, upon seeing the camellias blooming in winter, immediately began to pick them. Some impatiently put them into their mouths. However, just two hours later, these people died one after another. Upon investigation, it was discovered that these mercenaries had eaten camellias.
A soldier brought camellias to Yuzhou. Lu Kaiwen tested the various components in the camellias and finally discovered that there was a terpene compound in the petals that was not present in other camellias. This meant that this camellia had mutated, turning from non-toxic to toxic. This indicated that flowers could no longer be casually used to make food in the future.
Chang Haojie felt it was very novel while participating in the battle, dreaming of traversing the battlefield, preferably killing seven in and seven out in the enemy ranks. But now, it seemed that things were completely different from what he had imagined. The battle was very boring, and the dramatic duels seen in television dramas were impossible. It was all about large-scale collisions, and the mutated beasts' tactics were also very limited, to the point of having no tactics at all. They were constantly fleeing. Besides driving away the mutated beasts, the only simple tasks were cutting trees and transporting mutated beast corpses.
Chang Haojie did not want to be a freeloader, so he actively participated in the transportation work, dismembering the killed mutated beasts and loading them into trucks. What he found most terrifying was that some people ate raw meat, completely disregarding the unpleasant smell of blood. They would cut a piece of meat from a mutated beast and stuff it into their mouths, with blood flowing from the corners of their mouths. This was completely like the legendary "eating raw meat and drinking blood."
"Young Master, do you want to try?" The burly man eating raw meat felt a little embarrassed when Chang Haojie stared at him. He quickly cut off a piece of steaming meat and offered it to Chang Haojie.
Chang Haojie quickly waved his hand and said, "No, no, a gentleman does not take what others love! I can't eat this!"
The burly man was still polite and continued, "Young Master, you need strength to eat meat. Look, how fresh this piece is, it's still twitching!"
Chang Haojie glanced over and indeed, in the piece of raw meat the burly man offered, there was still a place gently twitching. Clearly, this piece of meat was very fresh. The mutated beast was dead, but its muscle cells were not dead, which was why it was twitching continuously.
"I don't want it, I don't want it!" Chang Haojie turned and left. He was afraid that if he stayed any longer, he would be persuaded to eat raw meat. He really could not accept this.
After walking a distance, Chang Haojie finally breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed he really didn't need to eat raw meat.
However, at this moment, Chang Haojie heard the two people beside him talking. These two men were carrying a black plastic bag. They were conscripted mercenaries, so they often engaged in petty theft. They would keep some mutated beast meat on them and specifically ask someone to send it back to their homes in Yuzhou.
Chang Haojie originally thought these two people were talking about mutated beasts, but he did not expect to overhear other conversations.
"Brother, I have good stuff here. After the war, I'll treat you to Three-Phallus Wine," one man said seriously.
"Big Brother, you are too kind. I was planning to treat you to a Five-Kidney Feast," the other, a younger middle-aged man, quickly replied.
Chang Haojie heard what the two were saying and immediately leaned over and asked, "What is Three-Phallus Wine?"
Instantly, the two people who were talking stopped awkwardly. They did not expect their conversation to be overheard. It had to be said that the hearing of ability users was indeed more sensitive, being able to hear such quiet conversations.
"Young Master, you misheard. I said 'drink three times wine,' meaning I will treat my brother to fine wine three times when I return," the man who spoke first quickly explained.
Chang Haojie flew in the sky every day, and the soldiers could see him. Therefore, many people recognized him and knew he was the City Lord's brother-in-law. Thus, these two dared not talk nonsense. If they misled the young master and were held accountable by the City Lord's mansion later, wouldn't that be a big problem?
However, Chang Haojie's curiosity was piqued, and he continued to ask, "What is Five-Kidney Feast?"
The other person also scratched his head, not daring to explain the truth. After thinking about it, he explained, "Young Master, you misheard. I said 'Martial Saint Feast.' Martial Saint, like Guan Yu, is said to be the banquet that Lord Guan loved to eat, that's what it means. But! The banquets we eat are definitely not comparable to what you eat."
"Nonsense, don't I eat the same food as you in the military camp? Where is the distinction between good and bad? Forget it, I won't talk to you anymore. I'm going to find my brother-in-law." Chang Haojie shrugged. Since he had clarified what these two people were talking about, there was no need to dwell on it further.
Seeing that Chang Haojie had finally left, the two breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed the young master did not suspect anything, and it was enough to get by.
Chang Haojie found Shen Feng. Shen Feng was observing a map, planning the areas for the upcoming tree felling. Several days had passed, and another 200,000 mutated beasts had been killed. So many mutated beasts were sent to Yuzhou to be made into canned meat, which helped to recoup some losses. Now, transactions between big cities were conducted with real gold and silver. The main reason was the lack of a unified currency, so precious metals like gold and silver naturally became the currency.
However, Shen Feng still felt it was not enough. There were still many mutated beasts, five times the number on their side. Most importantly, changes had occurred among the mutated beasts. Many large mutated beasts were gathered in the center of the encirclement, completely inactive, as if they were conserving energy for battle. More and more mutated beasts were gathering together, forming a beast tide.
"Brother-in-law, haven't you decided which trees to cut yet?" Chang Haojie asked.
Shen Feng nodded, rubbing his head and said, "To be honest, setting fire to a large area of forest in the south is still too much. It's an area of several hundred square kilometers. If I burn it, my reputation will definitely be ruined. After all, a large group of people have been shouting for environmental protection for decades. If I go against the trend, I will inevitably become a target."
As it stood, Shen Feng had people cut many trees in the outer areas, successfully establishing firebreaks. The temperature was also dropping every day, and a cold wave was moving south. Even sleeping in tents now brought a chill. However, setting fire to the mountain, which seemed simple, was something Shen Feng had not yet decided upon.