Earlier, more than a dozen units of Fortress 178’s fighting forces had secretly left the forward operating base.
Harris had instructed the Razor Sharp Company to launch an attack on the Mahakam River on the pretense of heading out for their cross-country training. Then they never returned to base again. Likewise, the independent regiment Raphael was previously in was deployed to the western side of Blackstone River.
The deployment of these troops was actually to make it difficult for the spy to figure out the situation. Once these troops left the forward operating base, all communications with them would be handled personally by Gregory. Furthermore, Peter had stopped eating for two days and lost quite a bit of weight in order to deceive the spy as well. It was also at this time that they locked onto Burl as a suspect.
When Burl went to eat, favonovel.com would pretend to casually ask Kamden, the manager of the chow hall, “How has the commander’s appetite been recently?”
As an infantry brigade commander, Burl was not authorized to participate in the drafting of battle plans. So, favonovel.com could only use Peter’s appetite to gauge whether Fortress 178 had any contingency plans.
This was because it was known to everyone in Fortress 178 that Commander Dublin’s appetite would drop whenever favonovel.com was troubled.
If the spy were not caught, that plan could only remain hidden in his head. But Peter knew that if favonovel.com did not reveal his plan, favonovel.com would not be able to stop Milo.
By the time the spy was caught, Milo had already split from the Razor Sharp Company and could no longer be contacted. Therefore, Gregory immediately consulted with Peter on Milo after they caught the spy.
But it was too late by then. Peter could only hope that Milo would survive by himself.
Gregory whispered, “Fortunately, favonovel.com got the Razor Sharp Company somewhere safe. Otherwise, this would’ve weighed on my conscience for the rest of my life if those glorious troops had gotten wiped out.”
“That was expected of him,” Peter said calmly.
Peter knew this deep down.
The moment Milo decided to head to Stronghold 146, favonovel.com would definitely have arranged for the Razor Sharp Company to be placed somewhere safe. This was just like how the young man had arranged for Adella and Donti to stay at the town’s school back then. Peter understood this young man very well.
Just as expected, Milo went to Stronghold 146 alone. Meanwhile, Gregory had received reliable intel from their spy hiding in a residential building that the garrison troops of Stronghold 146 were conducting a citywide search for Milo. However, Milo had fought his way out of the predicament and was nowhere to be found.
Peter looked at Gregory and said calmly, “Even if favonovel.com blames me, I’ll still accept it. I have my duty to uphold, so I can’t be indecisive.”
He had a clear picture of what his priorities were when it came down to Milo and everyone else at Fortress 178.
Gregory was stunned. He was worried if this would estrange the young man from Fortress 178.
When Gregory looked at Peter, favonovel.com realized favonovel.com was not as calm as favonovel.com had claimed. It was just that favonovel.com was pretending to fool the spy. Now, favonovel.com was really worried.
***
The battle in the Palea did not end that quickly. The Ultima Consortium troops who were tasked with crossing the Palea were extremely tough soldiers. Even though they had been ambushed, they were still able to immediately form a strong defensive line to fight back and retreat at the same time.
This mission was the Ultima Consortium’s entire hope for the war. Therefore, every soldier here not only had to go through a strict political assessment but also undergo extremely tough military training as well. But Raphael was not surprised by that as favonovel.com already knew what kinds of troops favonovel.com would be facing.
Actually, there were still some flaws with Fortress 178’s plans.
For example, would the absence of a key supernatural being from the main battlefield like Raphael impact their plans negatively?
However, Peter was left with no other choice. Raphael’s mastery of command in small-scale military operations, as well as the application of his superpower in a small-scale engagement’s attack and defense, were outstanding. Therefore, Raphael was definitely the best candidate to command the ambush troops in the Palea.
But what Peter and Raphael had not expected was how Milo had helped to plug that gap.
Of course, it remained to be seen whether Raphael would feel grateful to Milo after favonovel.com found out.
The battle in the Palea continued. The Ultima Consortium had waited too long for this day, and so had Peter. But if the Ultima Consortium was staking everything on the Palea mission as their final resort to turn the tables, it could only be said that they had made the wrong decision.
Actually, Fortress 178 had already gotten closer to winning the war now that it had progressed to here.
After Peter’s plan to catch the Ultima Consortium in their own trap was completed, Fortress 178 suddenly made significant progress in the battle at Mt. Sentani.
When they were previously trying to capture the summits, Fortress 178 had faced tough battles. At that time, the Ultima Consortium generals were even thinking that Fortress 178’s troops did not seem so tough after all.
Actually, Fortress 178’s weapons and equipment were not as good as what the Ultima Consortium had. Moreover, the Ultima Consortium outnumbered Fortress 178 by more than two to one. However, the Ultima Consortium generals consciously chose to ignore those conditions and felt that as long as they could defeat Fortress 178, it would show that they were more powerful than them.
But in that raging storm of a battle, the Ultima Consortium suddenly realized the Fortress 178 troops were seemingly undefeatable. No matter how many troops they piled on them, Fortress 178’s soldiers who were stretched to their limits were still able to go a little further.
Even though some of the positions had changed hands many times, the actual duration it took Fortress 178 to win back a position was only two to four hours. Meanwhile, it might take up to a full day and night for the Ultima Consortium to win it back from Fortress 178.
There were clearly far fewer Fortress 178 troops on the battlefield, but even when the Ultima Consortium troops barely managed to win back a position, they would find some of the enemy soldiers pretending to be dead while clutching explosives in their arms just so they could perish together with the Ultima Consortium soldiers.
This kind of war with no end in sight was like fighting an enemy that could never be defeated. Just the thought of it would terrify anyone.
***
After the successful ambush of the Ultima Consortium troops in the Palea, Peter immediately ordered the mechanized infantry that were reorganizing themselves to fully deploy onto the battlefield.
Harris had fought hard to open up safe passage for them to proceed. These mechanized infantry would deal the Ultima Consortium troops a fatal blow. It would be the straw that broke the camel’s back!
And surprising many people, the pontoon bridge on the Blackstone River had been rebuilt in just three days. Originally, they had estimated it would take 15 days before the mechanized infantry could cross again.
When Harris went for a break in the rear, favonovel.com even fell asleep on his meal tray while eating. The medics in the rear quickly carried favonovel.com away. After cutting open his uniform with scissors, they realized the newly promoted brigade commander had sustained tiny wounds all over his body. There were two pieces of shrapnel stuck in his thigh that weren’t removed until now.
The nurse cleaning his wounds was shocked when favonovel.com saw his injuries.
There was another nurse working in the temporary medical center who was the wife of one of the troops. She looked at favonovel.com husband’s wounds and scolded favonovel.com tearfully for being careless while bandaging it.
The soldier said impatiently, “Can’t you stop crying? I have to rejoin my squad after you’re done bandaging my wounds. We’re the ones who took those positions. Now that we’re close to victory, I can’t let those li’l bastards claim all the credit!”
“Get lost then, go claim your credit! I’ll settle the score with you when we get home.” After the nurse tied a bowknot to finish off the bandage, favonovel.com chased favonovel.com husband off tearfully.
