The Final Battle Against the Faith Order, Part Seven

The large-scale offensive by the Expeditionary Army against the cities occupied by the Faith Order army marked the official start of this great war.

The Faith Order's army remained resolute in its decision. They carried out the orders of several apostles, intending to use their familiarity with the terrain and the city's buildings as a defensive line to hold back these formidable attacking troops.

These Faith Order armies, familiar with the terrain, were indeed formidable opponents, especially since they included a large number of determined Order Warriors. Even the Expeditionary Army, with its superior weaponry, struggled in urban warfare, frequently encountering stray arrows and surprise attacks.

In small-scale battles, even with the aid of rifles, the Expeditionary Army found it difficult to gain an advantage, and the battle lasted less than half an hour before being called off.

Santos looked at the casualty report in his hand with great frustration; the shocking casualty figures forced him to do so.

In this short half-hour battle, the Expeditionary Army casualties almost equal to those of the entire previous day's battle, with a total of over 500 dead and wounded.

It should be noted that the Expeditionary Army suffered no more than this number of casualties in the previous day's battle, and because they had the advantage of long range, most of them were only lightly wounded, and many of their injuries did not even affect their ability to continue fighting.

But today's half-hour street fighting was different; the losses were so great, and the proportion of dead and seriously wounded soldiers was nearly half.

If the fighting continues for several more hours, the Expeditionary Army will either collapse or lose its ability to fight.

After all, the entire Expeditionary Army numbered only a little over 7,000, of which only 6,000 were elite soldiers capable of fighting. In just half an hour, they lost almost one-tenth of their fighting strength.

Santos knew the war couldn't be fought like this, the blood of the Expeditionary Army couldn't be shed like this, and there was still much to be done.

With this in mind, Santos decided to change his tactics; he would no longer send troops into those buildings and ruins to wear down the enemy.

Santos immediately ordered the artillery to advance their Artillery into the city and bombard buildings where enemies might be present.

Anyway, the Expeditionary Army still had a considerable amount of artillery shells. Even after using some yesterday, there were still more than 2,000 rounds left. Santos didn't care if they were all used to bombard those dilapidated houses and level the entire city.

He couldn't let the Expeditionary Army's soldiers be wasted in street fighting.

On the other hand, while the Faith Order was also pleased by the enemy's withdrawal, the casualties suffered by their Faith Order were equally shocking.

Because of the nature of urban warfare, many fanatical cult armies are simply unable to fight in this environment; they lack the organizational and combat capabilities of elite Order Warriors.

Therefore, in this war, the apostles sent all the Order Warriors to the front lines.

As a result, in the half-hour battle, although they successfully forced the enemy to retreat, the Order Warriors also suffered heavy losses, with more than a thousand Order Warriors killed or wounded, which accounted for one-third of the Order Warriors they had left.

The Third Apostle spoke up at this point, "We can't let our elite warriors be worn down like this. Let's send the believers' army forward and use their lives to wear down the enemy."

His words did not elicit a response from the others, who were less inclined to do so.

Although these believers were weak, they were the reserve force of the Order Warriors. They were young, strong and healthy under the Faith Order's care, and extremely loyal to the Faith Order.

These young men in the believer's army, given a period of training and honing, will eventually become qualified Order Warriors. To simply waste them like this is undoubtedly depleting the Faith Order's resources.