"War is an act of violence that forces the enemy to submit to our will."
The sound faded away.
"Karl von Clausewitz's ' On War '?" Zhou Zhenguo raised his eyes slightly.
"Hmm," Shen Heng replied.
"In that case, I'll use a line from it to describe it!" Zhou Zhenguo steered the conversation back on track with a single sentence.
Upon hearing this, everyone turned their gaze in that direction.
Shen Heng also looked over, his eyes thoughtful, as if he knew what Elder Zhou wanted to say.
After all, a book usually only has a few sentences worth praising.
Sure enough, a strong, aged voice rang out.
"War is, in a sense, a continuation of politics!"
Zhou Zhenguo began to speak, his gaze sweeping over the crowd.
"Of course, what you said isn't wrong, it's just a different perspective, but you still need to understand that our war with the Ruins Realm has its own objectives!"
"This objective can be broadly summarized as: protecting Blue Star and resisting the invasion of the Ruins Realm!"
"In other words, all our actions at present can be said to be an extension of this purpose."
"As I've been repeating to you, our current strategy is to force the Ruins Realm to change its strategy and gather the Calamity Beast towards the Anchor Point and the Eye of Earth Marrow."
"For this strategy, we have to make many choices and sacrifices, including leaving the safe base to build cities elsewhere; facing the beast tides that could wipe us out at any moment; and also... sending those ordinary soldiers to the front lines."
Everything else was fine, but the last sentence caused everyone in the command room to change their expressions slightly and fall silent once again.
Shen Heng's expression also became somewhat grave.
He slowly raised his eyes, his gaze sweeping across the map before finally settling on the right side near the edge.
There, there was a dim, enormous spot of light.
As someone who had explored and experienced it firsthand, he naturally understood the meaning of that point of light.
Light Gate, Light Gate connecting to the Ruins Realm!
Every Calamity Beast that arrives in the Plateau Erosion Zone must pass through that Light Gate to get there.
Without a doubt, the closer a city is to that Light Gate, the more dangerous it is!
but...
With a quick glance, Shen Heng looked at the three glowing spots representing the presence of inspectors in Bedrock City, Chongshan City, and Frontier-Pacifying City.
The three points of light are located in the upper left, lower left, and upper center positions, respectively.
Even the farthest Frontier-Pacifying City, is only just past the center line of the map.
On the contrary, the cities guarded entirely by ordinary soldiers stood one after another in front.
Isn't that ridiculous?
The group representing humanity's strongest fighting force is not in the most dangerous place, but rather hiding in the back.
but...
Shen Heng's eyes flickered.
This seems to be the only feasible solution at the moment!
Sending members of the Supervision Bureau would at most only slightly hinder the initial progress of the Calamity Beast.
After their initial attack failed and they realized that the area was not easy to conquer, the Calamity Beast would undoubtedly send even more Calamity Beast there.
When the time comes, should we leave the members of the Supervision Bureau to die, or should we allow them to evacuate?
If they stay to their deaths, then Blue Star might truly have no future. After all, it would take at least several years to cultivate another batch of martial artists of this caliber.
What's the difference between letting them leave and not staying there at all?
Therefore, it would be better to have them in the back, so that they wouldn't face too dangerous an environment and could still play a better role!
Everything, everything, is for the sake of implementing the strategy!
Suddenly, Shen Heng lowered his gaze slightly.
In fact, this strategy could have continued to be implemented even without the participation of members of their Supervision Bureau!
This strategy only requires three points:
1. The ever-growing cities; 2. The Calamity Beast killed during battles; 3. The harassment of Anchor Point.
By repeatedly highlighting these three points, the Calamity Beast realize that destroying those cities is pointless. To restore the Anchor Point to normal operation, defenses must be tightened, and more Calamity Beast must be deployed to defend against human attacks.
These three points can be achieved even without the involvement of members of the Supervision Bureau.
In fact, throughout the year-long conflict, those who truly played a crucial role were never the members of their Supervision Bureau, but rather the soldiers who carried weapons, their faces ashen, knowing they were likely to die but still resolutely marching forward!
It was they who held up the human defenses within the Erosion Zone!
All the inspectors could do was try to minimize the number of ordinary soldiers who died.
This function applies equally to the base, to Bedrock City, and to this strategy!
For this strategy to succeed, what is needed is never the members of their Supervision Bureau, but rather one soldier after another.
It was they who rebuilt the fallen city, and it was they who drove the Calamity Beast back...
Beside him, staff officer Lu Xunzhou took a light breath, then slowly exhaled.
He said:
"Commander, I understand what you've said, and I also want this strategy to be implemented as soon as possible. But that's precisely why I disagree with your suggestion to divide the forces into three groups, plus those of us staying behind in Bedrock City, making four groups in total. Even if we manage to capture the Calamity Beast, it won't be of much use!"
Seeing that he couldn't reason with him, Zhou Zhenguo got a little angry and shouted, "I can tell from what you're saying that you don't fully understand. If you understood, you wouldn't be arguing!"
Lu Xunzhou's face remained calm, seemingly unconcerned.
"I'm not sure what exactly you mean by 'understanding,' but I think even if I understand what you're saying, I still..."
Shen Heng sat in his seat, listening to the argument that had started again.
Unite, divide, unite, divide...
He paused for a moment, then interrupted:
How about this?
The voice wasn't loud, but it still drowned out the other two.
Everyone looked over, but no one showed any joy.
Zhou Zhenguo frowned slightly, wondering what Shen Heng would say.
Lu Xunzhou also frowned slightly, worried that Captain Shen, who had just given a similar interpretation of war, might agree with his superior's statement.
The only ones who seemed even less concerned were the other two officers, who appeared to be merely listening in.
Shen Heng looked at the group and said:
"The remaining forces are divided into three groups. One group will remain in Bedrock City to guard against potential small-scale Calamity Beast and deal with any remaining monster tides. The other two groups will be deployed to Chongshan City and Frontier-Pacifying City, respectively!"
These few words caused completely opposite changes in the expressions on Zhou Zhenguo's and Lu Xunzhou's faces.
The first sentence eased Zhou Zhenguo's brows a little, but he quickly frowned again because of the next two sentences.
Lu Xunzhou first frowned, then relaxed a little, but he was still frowning.
Shen Heng glanced at the expressions of the two men, then turned his gaze to Zhou Zhenguo first.
"Divided into three branches, under the current circumstances, they are indeed unlikely to be of much use."
"The fighting strength of Chongshan City and Frontier-Pacifying City will not increase much just because of the addition of one thousand soldiers."
"After all, ordinary soldiers rely more on firearms and bullets to kill the Calamity Beast, but they can't bring many weapons with them when they go to provide support."
"While our presence will significantly boost the combat strength of ordinary cities, it will still be difficult for them to thoroughly investigate the situation there and reliably suppress the beast tide."