Chang Haojie stood on the clouds, observing the scene below. He could clearly see the changes in the battle. First, the ferocious mutated beasts charged towards the human side, but they were then killed one by one. Chang Haojie watched this with great satisfaction. With such power, one could walk sideways even in the mountains. What was there to fear?
However, at this moment, Chang Haojie saw the mutated beasts fleeing ahead. After the battles on the battlefield, these mutated beasts were all terrified and turned to run. But the army did not pursue them at all. Instead, they spread out towards areas with fewer mutated beasts. Chang Haojie immediately became anxious.
"The mutated beasts are about to escape, why aren't they chasing them?" Chang Haojie was puzzled and quickly descended on his cloud to find his brother-in-law near the communication vehicle.
"Brother-in-law, the mutated beasts are about to escape, why aren't you chasing them? There are few mutated beasts on the sides, so you don't need to worry about the flanks!" Chang Haojie found Shen Feng and said quickly.
Shen Feng smiled and said, "These mutated beasts won't get away. Since you've come out with me, I'll teach you some tactics. Bring the map here."
Chang Haojie obediently went to find a map and prepared to ask Shen Feng about the next tactics.
Shen Feng pointed to the mountains south of Yuzhou and said, "Look closely. In the mountains to the south, with such a large area, if we kill mutated beasts as we see them, wouldn't we be running around everywhere in the mountains? But we don't have the manpower for a carpet search. If I had a million troops, I would directly encircle them and conduct a carpet sweep. But that's impossible. I only have 100,000 soldiers, and many of them are mercenaries with average combat strength!"
Chang Haojie looked at the map and nodded. Indeed, there were countless mountains south of Yuzhou, especially the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau to the south, with steep terrain. If they kept charging forward, they might be able to kill a wave of mutated beasts, but they couldn't cover the entire area.
Shen Feng continued, "Now look again. Guo Pinming is penetrating from the northeast to the southwest, and Lu Xian is penetrating from the northwest to the southeast. After setting up the defense line, I will lead my men to advance from north to south. What will it look like then?"
"An inverted triangle!" Chang Haojie suddenly realized. So that's how it was. No wonder his brother-in-law didn't let anyone pursue the escaping mutated beasts. It turned out there was a bigger plan. First, they would penetrate and set up a defense line, driving the mutated beasts in the mountains towards the central area, and finally, they would encircle them from three sides, directly annihilating most of the mutated beasts.
Shen Feng nodded and pointed to a spot in the south, saying, "Yang Chang is taking his men the shortcut into the southern mountains. He needs to prevent the mutated beasts from going south into Guizhou Province. We just need to advance the front line step by step to annihilate a large number of mutated beasts. Do you understand?"
Chang Haojie scratched his head. He now roughly understood Shen Feng's tactics, but he had new doubts and couldn't help but ask, "But if the defense line is stretched too long, won't there be mutated beasts attacking the defense line? If the defense line is broken by the mutated beasts, won't it be a waste of time?"
Shen Feng rubbed his brother-in-law's head. He didn't expect him to ask this question. Indeed, his brother-in-law had pointed out the weakness of their tactics. Once the mutated beasts gathered and broke through one of the three defense lines, the plan would be ruined. After all, although Shen Feng had 100,000 soldiers, a large portion of them had poor combat effectiveness, and a defense line that was too long could indeed be breached.
However, Shen Feng then explained why he still had to do this: "It's very smart that you thought of this, but the mutated beasts can't think of it. The reason humans can rule the earth is because of their brains. The IQ of these animals is not even as good as a three-year-old child. They are not smart enough, so they will never think of this."
Chang Haojie understood. It turned out he had overestimated the intelligence of the mutated beasts. If the mutated beasts were really that smart, they wouldn't still be hiding in the mountains living their lives.
"Alright, you continue to patrol. If you find any mutated birds, report them to me," Shen Feng said to Chang Haojie.
Chang Haojie nodded, summoned a cloud, and then flew back into the sky.
In fact, Shen Feng's tactics seemed perfect, and even the problem of the mutated beasts' IQ had been considered. However, there were actually loopholes, namely the mutated birds in the sky. The mutated birds would not be interfered with by the defense line. As long as they flapped their wings, they could fly out of the encirclement and even pose a threat to humans.
As for Shen Feng's side, although they had helicopters, their combat effectiveness was not very good. Therefore, if the number of mutated birds was too large, only Shen Feng could fight in the sky, and he might not be able to retreat unscathed. Shen Feng did not personally participate in the battle; he needed to focus all his energy on the sky.
If Shen Feng participated in the battle, thousands of mutated beasts would not die under bullets, but under wind blades.
Shen Feng was lucky. There were not too many mutated birds in the southern mountains. Chang Haojie occasionally saw a flock of mutated birds in the sky, but their numbers were no more than a few dozen, not the massive numbers seen in Wudang Mountain.
However, among the mutated beasts in the mountains, snakes were more numerous. It seemed that the reason for the small number of mutated birds was the presence of mutated snakes.
When night fell, Shen Feng ordered his men to set up camp, light fires, and cook meals. The sentries were also all in place to ensure they would not be attacked at night.
The mercenaries discussed the day's battle while cooking, their excitement lingering. They couldn't believe they were participating in such a large-scale battle. The mutated beasts that were terrifying in their eyes were being killed in large numbers. Now, the pot was simmering with mutated beast meat. They thought their fear earlier was unnecessary.
"I thought the mutated beasts in the mountains were some kind of unkickable iron plate, but they were driven away so easily. All in all, at least ten thousand mutated beasts were killed today, right?"
"Who told them to charge at us so foolishly? I couldn't help but open fire and killed a mutated goat."
"If it goes on like this, the battle will be over soon. After all, aren't these mutated beasts being chased by us!"
"Who says not? The sooner we kill the mutated beasts, the sooner we can go home and rest. The cold wave from the north has already moved south, and winter is coming. If we have to fight when it snows, it will be too miserable!"
The mercenaries' dejection from the day was gone. After discovering the change in their combat effectiveness, they were no longer afraid of fighting mutated beasts and even seemed eager. Looking at their boasting, they seemed to be rampaging on the battlefield, but in reality, these boastful people had only fired a few shots during the battle.
The main force in the battle was the silent soldiers eating. Many veterans had witnessed the grand scenes of the Battle of Yanjing, and now killing mutated beasts in the mountains was just a minor matter, not enough to make them proud. Some new recruits saw the veterans like this and felt there was nothing special, so they lost their desire to show off.
Shen Feng ate and chatted with Lu Kaiyang, while Chang Haojie sat obediently and listened. It was his first time going out on a mission. He had thought that war was all about charging into battle on the battlefield, just like in the movies. However, after observing for a whole day, Chang Haojie changed his mind. War not only required consideration of combat scenes but also attention to many other details.
"City Lord, as we continue to enter the mountains, carrying food will be inconvenient. The mountain paths are particularly difficult to walk, and it often rains in autumn. If we continue to advance, transporting food will be a big problem. We don't have enough helicopters to airdrop food!" Lu Kaiyang said, stating the current difficulties while eating.
There was a large pot over the campfire, simmering wild boar meat. When marching, one couldn't be picky about meals. Shen Feng put wild onions and salt in the pot, mixed it with rice, and started eating. The wild boar meat was very firm, and after more than an hour of simmering, it was still not tender. Shen Feng had to make do with it, as there were no other choices.
Shen Feng also knew that the pressure of food was immense, mainly to maintain the speed of the front line's advance. The army couldn't carry too much food, and many mountains didn't even have paths. They had to cut their way through with swords and sabers. If the food supply couldn't be maintained, the advance of the front line would be problematic.
Lu Xian's side was fine, as roads and railways could be used. However, in Shen Feng's and Guo Pinming's directions, the railways had to detour because the terrain was too steep, making food transportation the biggest problem.
"We can only ask Cao Fuli to work harder. He is mainly responsible for our support. Now that food transportation is difficult, he will have to work hard with his men. If necessary, we can recruit civilians from Yuzhou to transport food," Shen Feng said helplessly.
The deeper into the mountains, the poorer it became, primarily due to the inconvenience of transportation. Even in times of peace, there were countless impoverished people in the mountains. Now that the world was in chaos, the situation in the mountains was even more difficult to grasp.
Chang Haojie asked confusedly, "I saw many roads from the sky. Why don't we use the roads to transport food?"
Lu Kaiyang glanced at Chang Haojie and explained, "Young Master, it's like this. Landslides often occur in the southern mountains. Especially in the summer this year, a typhoon hit, and it rained continuously in Yuzhou. Many places experienced landslides, covering the roads. The roads were also impassable. Now, transporting food mainly requires people to carry it."
Chang Haojie nodded and suddenly had an idea. He quickly said, "Why don't I draw out all the passable roads? That way, we can use vehicles to transport food, right?"
Shen Feng nodded and said, "That's fine, we can try it, but I don't think there's much hope."
In Shen Feng's opinion, the three front lines had to cooperate and advance simultaneously, otherwise, there would be large gaps exposed. In this way, the soldiers couldn't always march along the roads. There would always be soldiers marching in the mountains, and such teams would be difficult to resupply.
At this moment, news came from Yuzhou. Chu Chaoyan sent fried noodles and fried rice, which immediately relieved the pressure on Shen Feng's side. He also breathed a sigh of relief.
"I'm so confused. I didn't prepare the military rations properly before setting out, and now I need Chaoyan to help me fill the gap!" Shen Feng said with a wry smile.
Lu Kaiyang quickly comforted him, "It's alright, City Lord. We are not professional learners of this. We didn't think of this point, so it's not our fault. We'll pay attention to the military ration issue in the future, won't we?"
Shen Feng shook his head. He still felt that he hadn't considered the food issue properly. Although he was not studying military affairs, as a leader, he always needed to understand various knowledge. Before, he had only fought defensive battles, and Shen Feng had never lacked food. Now that he was entering the mountains to fight a mountain war, his true colors were revealed. If Chu Chaoyan hadn't sent fried rice and fried noodles in time, the advance of the front line would have been problematic.
"Next time, I will definitely consider the food issue and can't just take things one step at a time," Shen Feng reflected.
Shen Feng felt that if he had consulted others seriously before, someone might have pointed out the difficulties of the food issue. In the end, it was his own overconfidence that made him overlook the food issue.
Chang Haojie suddenly asked, "Are fried rice and fried noodles tasty? I don't think I've ever eaten them."
Shen Feng shrugged and said, "They're not tasty, but they're filling. Eighty years ago, it was good enough to have fried noodles to eat. With the fried rice and fried noodles sent from Yuzhou, the food problem will be alleviated for a short time!"
Then, Shen Feng explained the importance of fried noodles to Chang Haojie. Although fried noodles had a single composition, tasted bad, and could lead to vitamin deficiency if eaten for too long, meaning they had many drawbacks, their advantages were enough to offset the other drawbacks. First, they were easy to carry, and second, they were filling, providing basic calorie replenishment.
Since the old people eighty years ago could fight wars eating fried noodles, people now could do the same. Shen Feng believed this.