Darkstone Code

Chapter 1219 - 1217: Market Demand

"From the current situation, it appears we have made many mistakes, and I must admit, in actual warfare, we still lack effective experience, even some of the most basic experiences."

The front line has already opened fire and is facing the great danger of being attacked from two sides, the forty-thousand-strong army could become a mere handful of sand at any moment.

In fact, neither the Federation Ministry of Defense, the Military, nor even the Federation Government is concerned about how many people might die in this war, they only care about whether they can win.

Or rather, whether they can avoid losing.

Avoiding loss is the key!

As long as the Federation doesn’t lose, it will still maintain its dominance within the World Development Committee. Of course, losing might make little difference, but isn’t it better not to lose?

To avoid losing, the Federation Ministry of Defense has arranged for sixty thousand army troops to start boarding ships for Nagariel, and they are expected to enter the current war zone in about six days.

So far, the Federation’s news outlets have not yet learned of the situation at the front, and they still believe that the Federation has a significant chance of preventing the Peng Jieao troops from advancing.

Because of this, Federation defense and military-industrial stocks, along with the industrial index, rose by two percent, creating the largest single-day increase in the second half of the year!

If tomorrow or the day after, the media gets wind of these events, no doubt everyone in the meeting room will have quite the expression on their faces.

The stock market will plummet, a massive amount of wealth will evaporate, and capitalists will become enraged. Those who earlier cheered "The Federation has gained a more important position in the world" will turn around to blame the Federation Government for "blindly inciting a war" and label it "the sinner of the entire Federation"!

Therefore, the tide must be changed swiftly.

The President was watching the Ministry of Defense general presenting his views, forcing himself to continue listening, but his impatience was already visible on his face.

He could already imagine how brutal those crucial people would be when the stock market crashes, how they would slam his phone, and tell him how disappointing he is before doing so.

The Ministry of Defense general summarized some issues, which is necessary, discovering problems and solving them during actions.

He introduced part of the issues, "...We lack a systematically effective method to distinguish between friend and foe, when the enemy infiltrated us, we actually already noticed them."

"But our people couldn’t differentiate, and we also lack strict management systems."

"In this regard, our experts provided us with some effective assistance, for instance..."

He hadn’t finished speaking when the President raised his hand, "I’m not interested in these at the moment, after the war, you can provide me with a report, and I will read it very carefully."

"Right now, I just want to know how you will resolve the current predicament, we have over forty thousand soldiers on the front line, who can be surrounded and wiped out or captured at any time, and more than forty thousand families in the Federation might have to endure the pain of losing their loved ones forever."

"I just want to know how to change this now!"

The speaking Ministry of Defense general glanced at the seated individuals, seeking help with his eyes.

At this moment, an Army Major General coughed, "Mr. President, I admit the predicament was caused by our lack of experience, but we have already tried our best to compensate."

"We’ve contacted Mr. Lynch from Darkstone Security, who will assist us in fending off and even eliminating the enemies attacking us from the rear."

"This way, we can concentrate our superior forces to annihilate or destroy the enemy’s main forces in the tug-of-war, achieving a phased victory."

The President did not smile upon hearing this explanation, instead, he appeared worried, "Can Darkstone handle such tasks in a more professional warfare?"

His meaning was simple, he thought Darkstone Security might be able to handle some local warlords, but facing a strong army nation like Peng Jieao might be another matter.

After all, the profession of a soldier is to fight, and Lynch’s people do all kinds of work, they might not be the most professional.

The Army Major General felt a bit embarrassed, he smiled to mask his awkward expression, "We can’t think of any other methods for now..."

The President closed the file in front of him, took a deep breath, and closed his eyes.

This breath lingered in his chest for a while before slowly exhaling out, and he opened his eyes, "Then let’s pray, perhaps the Lord will help us!"

The people from the Ministry of Defense didn’t mention that they raised Lynch’s commission again; now all they can do is pray, if even Lynch fails... then it really won’t work.

It’s not that they don’t want to act; it’s just that there isn’t enough time.

Even if they mobilize troops from Nagariel, it would take two days, and there’s not enough time.

Perhaps in two days, the battle would already be over, currently, it seems like there’s nothing they can do besides pray.

At this moment, Lynch was also arranging the upcoming battles; he wasn’t a tactical master, not a born conductor, nor a superpower user, he was just good at seizing opportunities.

"Let’s have the United Forces take the lead first, consume some of their ammunition, I don’t believe every one of them carried dozens of kilos of ammunition through the jungle to come up from behind."

"Their ammunition must be very limited. Let those United Forces go to their deaths; when most of them are gone, our people will move in."

"Remember to use the war vehicles provided by Mr. Wardrick as the first echelon. They’re very effective against those infantry, but don’t let them go to soft and wet areas—they’ll get stuck."

"If you can’t withstand the Peng Jieao forces, immediately retreat to the campsite to defend. They won’t advance towards the defensive line without removing this thorn..."

Lynch is not worried about whether they can defend or not; from the start, the Federation and the United Forces have all misunderstood one thing.

They don’t need to confront those people head-on in battle; they simply need to hide in various corners for defense.

Without thoroughly clearing out the rear camp, those Peng Jieao forces will never advance towards the defensive line.

Otherwise, they won’t be flanking the Federation front and back; instead, the Federation will first flank and eliminate this small group of Peng Jieao forces maneuvering from behind, then regroup superior forces to occupy geographical advantages to counter the Peng Jieao forces on the foreshore.

So in this battle happening in the rear, the core isn’t "elimination," but "preservation" of one’s forces, making them hesitant to form a pincer.

Lynch clearly conveyed his tactical thoughts, though he also told the frontline commander that the specific tactical arrangements are up to them. He’s just offering some ideas.

He then requested continuous reports on the frontline situation and hung up the phone.

"You seem to have quite a study on warfare," some others were in the room, such as Mr. Wardrick.

Lynch holds a small stake in Wardrick’s heavy industry factory; not much, but both parties now have a genuine cooperative relationship.

Lynch shook his head, poured Mr. Wardrick a glass of wine, and sat relaxedly on the sofa opposite him. "I don’t know much about warfare, but I can figure out these simple logics."

"If they don’t want to be beaten, they’d better advance layer by layer. We don’t need to eliminate them; just stall them long enough for the frontline troops to repel the Peng Jieao main force."

"A wise man once said, ’Never counter the enemy’s swords with your fists—that’s the shield’s job!’"

"What we need to do is arrange the right tools to do the right things at the right time!"

Mr. Wardrick fully agreed, "Very philosophical words. So we’re looking at patiently awaiting a good outcome?"

Lynch raised his glass, "At least not bad!"

Meanwhile, on the Nagariel battlefield, the Peng Jieao forces indeed acted as Lynch had said; they meticulously cleared the battlefield.

Since the battle broke out, the 8,000 infiltrated the rear, where about 100 have been lost to accidents in the dense forest. Besides them, only 5,000 of the remaining 7,800 are left.

After getting overwhelmed, the Federation quickly organized a counterattack. They might not be as skilled as the Peng Jieao forces in professional matters, but at least they aren’t entirely ineffective.

The United Forces also contributed some power, quickly organizing a defensive line to proactively counter this segment of the enemy.

However, their skills and experience are still somewhat lacking.

The Peng Jieao forces are very experienced in mortar use; whenever encountering defense points, the mortars soon became useful.

This is also why the defensive line continuously diminishes; the Federation and United Forces struggle to form a defensive island at any given point, then link multiple islands into a defense chain.

Once a defensive point is hit, the entire chain quickly collapses.

In the tense battle, darkness has started to fall, and the rear’s engagement intensity has also decreased.

As the frontlines approached Darkstone Security’s camp, some war vehicles from the camp quickly drove out, fiercely inserting into the battlefield.

Since the camp is built on the foreshore along the riverbanks, the soil here is very loose. That’s also why no war vehicles appeared here previously; they’d quickly get stuck in the mud, and during battle, there’s hardly time or chance to free them, merely becoming targets for the enemy.

Plus, they believe with the defenses, fortifications, bunkers, and artillery positions at the rear, there isn’t a need for war vehicles on the battlefield.

Now Darkstone Security’s war vehicles played a crucial role on the rear battlefield!

After an initial attempt, engineers from Mr. Wardrick’s factory redesigned the supply system of the war vehicles, converting the cannons into quad machine guns.

The reason for this change is that their current war vehicle structure can’t handle the recoil of repeated shelling; it would impose a heavy burden on the vehicle’s parts.

Instead, the machine guns have moderate recoil, within a tolerable range, and are more lethal to infantry than shells. So besides two war vehicles with cannons, most are equipped with quad machine guns this time.

As the rat-a-tat of gunfire resonated, the battle was quickly brought under control!