Counterfeit Hero

Chapter 1247 - 8-34: Breakthrough!

Pei Litong stood on the mountaintop, holding a miniature long-range viewer, looking down the mountain.Hot Spring Town was right in front of him.

This was a small town in the mountains, famous for having the best hot springs on Canglang Star. Many years ago, this used to be a mining area. After the mineral resources were exhausted, the town should have gradually been abandoned like most similar settlements. But the hot springs discovered deep underground, together with Canglang Star’s growing population, allowed this small town to maintain its former prosperity.

Hot Spring Town was an ancient town surrounded by water. Several streams from the surrounding mountains and a tributary that wound its way into the Karachi River wrapped this town—which on a map looked like a heart—right in the middle. Outside the town, the river was channeled into stone-lined canals of blue flagstone; countless stone bridges spanned the canals, giving the town a classical charm.

In peacetime, in early winter, this place should have been packed with tourists on vacation. Those rows of villas half-hidden in greenery, those hotels known for attentive service, and the hot spring houses spread around the town should all have been packed to capacity. But now, the entire town had become a military fortress, deathly quiet, without a sound.

The miniature long-range viewer warped constantly under electronic interference. Switching to optics mode, the viewer was nothing more than a primitive telescope, able to observe only through a narrow field of view at fixed angles, completely unable to probe the true situation inside the town. Even so, what Pei Litong saw before him was enough to chill his heart.

The Jiepeng people clearly had no intention of hiding anything.

Their defensive line started right from the outskirts of the town. The tallest nine-story building at the town entrance had been turned into a firepoint. The houses built along the river on all sides were ringed by trenches, sealing them up like iron barrels. Anti-infantry isolation nets, fortifications built from quick-setting concrete and modular metal bulletproof walls stretched out in patches.

In addition, faintly visible behind the positions were rows of houses reduced to ruins. Inside those buildings, mecha and soldiers were running back and forth. There were also two energy supply towers to the south and north under tight protection, a base electronic interference tower, and even large energy shield generators mounted on the outer walls of the two camps.

With such meticulous arrangements, let alone that there were two full-strength Jiepeng Armored Groups garrisoned here, even if they had only one infantry regiment, trying to punch through would still require an extremely heavy price.

"General Pei," Balmer anxiously glanced at the time. "We can’t stay hidden much longer. We’ve pushed the deception mode of the electronic systems to the limit. The enemy has already grown suspicious. The patrol mecha and Reconnaissance Soldiers they’ve sent out have also expanded their patrol range. You see..."

Pei Litong also subconsciously looked at the time, then exchanged a glance with the always-silent Old Marshal Li Cunxin. Both of them felt a twinge of worry in their hearts.

After the troops left Height 415, they had force-marched all the way and finally managed to rendezvous with Balmer’s vanguard at the scheduled time. Now, the main force of the 13th Armored Division and the 51st Infantry Division had all concentrated here, just waiting to make one concerted effort to break out.

To the northwest of Hot Spring Town lay open country; to the southeast of Hot Spring Town was a narrow cage. If these twenty thousand men stayed trapped here, in less than ten hours they would be wiped out to the last. At this point, every concern had to be cast aside; the only way was forward.

But facing them head-on were two full Armored Groups, with the added protection of prepared positions, while on their own side, even scraping everything together, they barely had a bit over one Armored Group. And many of those were just ordinary light mechs! These mecha, used by local garrison forces for maintaining public order, had extremely poor performance. Most were obsolete 5th and 6th Generation Mecha eliminated from frontline units. Not only did they lack close-quarters combat capability, even their Energy Cannons were pitifully weak. If they ran into the Jiepeng Eighth Generation Yoshida Fushan, they’d be blasted to scrap with a single shot.

If that Major General Tian from Leray and the nine War God Level Mech Knights under his command were here, their chances in this battle would at least double. But as luck would have it, that Major General Tian was dead set on staying behind to hold Height 415. Before launching the attack, they all had to maintain communication silence, relying on the electronic interference and camouflage systems of electronic mecha to deceive the enemy. So, no matter how anxious they were now, they could not get in touch with Tian Xingjian.

Time ticked away, second by second. No one knew what was happening now on Height 415, which had only one battalion holding it. If the position was forcibly overrun by the enemy, if that Major General Tian was defeated and fled, then every minute they delayed here would multiply the danger.

Checking the time, according to the battle plan, this was when they should be launching the attack.

"We can’t pin all our hopes on someone else!" In the end it was Old Marshal Li Cunxin who made the decision. His face was like iron as he swung his great hand down. "Attack! If out of these twenty thousand men one-fifth can get out, that’s a victory!"

Once the decision was made, the units that had long since completed their preparations immediately began to move.

They had only one chance to break out. It was impossible to use one Armored Group to attack positions held by two Armored Groups, annihilate and occupy them, and then let the main force break out at leisure. The only way now was for the Armored Group to spearhead the way—one strike, aimed at punching a hole through the enemy’s line, then spreading to both flanks to form a corridor. The main force would follow close behind and, at the very instant the passage was opened, pour into it, using assault tactics to consolidate the captured zone. However many could break out, that was how many they would save!