Large-Scale Battle

“I believe the opponent is not a demon, but as for what kind of creature they are, it is hard to say. Perhaps they are something like demons—creatures that have always lived in some corner of this world. It is just that after Xia Jin discovered them, she found a way to gain their support.”

“Hmm, perhaps that creature wants to use her as a springboard to invade the entire world. Regardless, they must be dealt with. Accelerate the general mobilization. The Zerg are very strong and still evolving; I worry that if the battle drags on too long, unexpected things will happen.”

“Understood.” Hearing this, the Military Minister immediately rose and prepared to oversee the front lines.

...

The intensity of the Dawn Empire’s offensive did indeed increase. By the evening of the second day after the man’s encounter with Xia Jin, 600,000 main troops entered the front lines.

This greatly increased the difficulty of the Zerg's defensive operations.

After a breakthrough operation, the Empire’s main force, concentrating 22 legions, launched an attack from the southeast of the Gexilu United Kingdom, pushing directly into the country’s heartland.

Territories previously under Zerg control fell.

Of course, because the Swarm does not experience large-scale collapses or surrenders, the Dawn Empire found the fighting to be incredibly difficult as they engaged.

Supported by massive firepower, hundreds of thousands of soldiers armed with firearms launched fierce assaults on cities and towns.

Even with the advantage across the entire line, they did not dare assume the Zerg would not launch a sudden counterattack or spring a trap to wipe out small Imperial units.

In fact, even under these circumstances, over three legions of Dawn Empire warriors were completely annihilated in these battles, with no survivors.

After three days of continuous fighting, the Zerg lost 380,000 main units and over 3.4 million locusts.

The Dawn Empire lost 370,000 combat soldiers and 40,000 logistics personnel.

The Gexilu United Kingdom committed 200,000 men to this battle and lost 120,000.

This became the most brutal clash since the start of the war.

Bodies from both sides were left abandoned by the roadsides. Soldiers advanced by stepping over corpses. Even the Zerg found it difficult to recycle resources because the firepower was simply too intense.

Averaging over 150,000 casualties a day was something that only happened in the past during the decisive battles against Clear.

Now, it was just a single campaign.

“If this trend continues, it is inevitable that the scale of the upcoming battles will surpass the Eastern Front of World War II.”

The result of this campaign was that the Empire's main force exhausted its momentum after advancing 220 kilometers. Having suffered excessive casualties and wanting to avoid being devoured by a Zerg counterattack, the country's main force temporarily retreated 20 kilometers and quickly stabilized its defensive line.

The following day, over two million more troops from the Dawn Empire's rear arrived on the scene.

This new army was exceptionally well-equipped. Tens of thousands of tanks formed a steel torrent, launching an offensive against the Zerg from all directions.

Among them, 600,000 were positioned toward Novien and Mia, where the Zerg's main force was relatively weak, as most had been committed to Gexilu in the east.

With the arrival of these reinforcements, the Dawn Empire seemed intent on encircling the Swarm in the vicinity.

Fortunately, the Zerg force in Gexilu still numbered over 400,000. They temporarily detached 100,000 to intercept the threat, while the rest maintained their formation to continue fighting the Empire.

To stabilize the front, Xia Jin, who had been keeping her forces dispersed in the rear, sent 400,000 new Zerg as reinforcements. Her goal was not to destroy a specific number of Imperial troops but to ensure the entire defensive line remained connected and protected from end to end.

Regardless of the reason, it was extremely dangerous for a main legion to be encircled.

With these 400,000 Zerg deployed, the Swarm on the front lines reached a scale of 800,000.

They were far fewer than the Empire and lacked equivalent firepower, so the rate of loss was bound to accelerate.

But Xia Jin could only watch. The hives in the rear were hatching new Zerg every day, with numbers exceeding 100,000 daily. Through battle after battle, how many times could the Empire keep this up?

As long as they did not let the enemy advance too quickly on the front lines, it would be fine.

Moreover, by this point in the conflict, Xia Jin had already secured air superiority.

There was no other way; producing 300,000 scourges a day was simply absurd.

She now knew that the Dawn Empire’s magic planes were produced using magic printing technology.

Production was fast, with ten thousand units produced daily.

Of course, they did not have this capacity a few years ago; it had exploded within the last year.

And because the Empire had not realized earlier that they would need so many planes, their initial production stockpiles were likely only in the hundreds of thousands.

As a result, under the Zerg's relentless attacks that disregarded losses, the Dawn Empire's aerial magic planes simply could not hold out.

Furthermore, the Zerg began infiltrating the enemy's heartland, using their air forces to strike aircraft manufacturing plants directly.

The magic planes were VTOL-capable and did not require runways. Most were parked in underground hangars, so attacking airfields was not very effective.

Since the obsolete models had all been destroyed, only the high-grade ones remained. Consequently, it generally took over ten scourges to trade for a single plane.