Gexilu Changes Hands

After defeating this enemy unit, Xia Jin tallied the losses; she had lost six Armored Heavy Cannon Bugs.

“Not bad at all.”

In a head on armored engagement, even with a numerical advantage, it wasn't usually easy to achieve such an exchange ratio.

In the end, some Dawn Empire soldiers even raised their hands in surrender.

This wave wiped out about 1,100 enemies (including prisoners).

Proportionally, this part of the Imperial army was indeed elite; otherwise, they wouldn't have had so many combat vehicles and a Tier 9 powerhouse.

Coincidentally, there were no ultralisks in the Zerg units attacking in this direction. If not for Xia Jin, they likely would have suffered significant casualties.

With the enemies here dealt with, the bugs continued their advance at extreme speed.

...

The route ahead consisted of vast plains.

After devouring several Imperial legion level units in succession, the portion of the enemy force on the West Line finally collapsed back to the few remaining coastal areas.

Hundreds of thousands of people were gathered on a flat, open stretch of land less than 200 kilometers long and 100 kilometers wide, facing frantic bombardment from the sky.

The Swarm deployed an average of 400,000 rocket bugs and missile bugs daily. In this single battlefield alone, an average of 600,000 units of standard energy were consumed daily for the bombardment.

Massive amounts of rockets fell like rain, wave after wave, crashing into the areas where the enemy congregated.

The anti aircraft weapons of these hundreds of thousands of people were completely useless against such a concentrated fire offensive.

By the second day, the Swarm had compressed the encirclement to an area of 60 kilometers by 20 kilometers.

With 400,000 rocket bugs dropped on this narrow area in a single day, supplemented by the concentrated fire of hundreds of artillery pieces and over 800 mutalisks in the sky (180 had been lost in previous air combat and ground strikes), the situation became untenable. After nearly another day of this, the Imperial army on the West Line finally shattered completely.

As the pocket was squeezed to its final limits, a large number of human soldiers surrendered.

Final statistics showed that as many as 350,000 people were killed or seriously injured, while fewer than 150,000 eventually surrendered.

Among the survivors, those the Zerg deemed risky or capable of providing significant resources were naturally dealt with; only those of relatively low rank were allowed to live.

After the enemies on the West Line surrendered, the Zerg did not forget to promote their noble character of treating prisoners well.

The actual purpose of doing so was to leave the enemy with the impression that surrender resulted in good treatment. This way, during battle, many might not develop a do or die mentality and would instead raise their hands.

...

As soon as the fighting on the West Line ended, the Zerg were finally able to move their main force from there to the Central Line.

Over 500,000 Dawn Empire troops were also approaching from that side.

If the fighting on the West Line hadn't ended quickly enough, the Zerg's main force of 800,000 would surely have been caught in a pincer movement.

But now...

Although they had lost over 90,000 main units and a staggering number of locusts during the battle, it was a massive victory nonetheless.

In terms of strength, there were almost no significant losses. By moving some bugs from the rear, the force of 800,000 could be fully replenished.

Xia Jin left 200,000 units behind to handle the surrendered enemies and guard against any further Dawn Empire reinforcements from the south. The rest were all redeployed to deal with the forces pulled from the Central Line battlefield.

By this time, the bugs in the Gexilu Kingdom area had been completely driven into the lake.

When the Empire's million man army swept across the land and reached the shores of Clearwillow Lake, they could only stare blankly at the boundless depths.

There were many corpses on the ground, all belonging to the Zerg.

But all the survivors had entered the water at the last moment.

“At least 80,000 escaped.”

The commander frowned as he looked out over the calm surface of the lake.

He was truly speechless. The bugs here should have been completely annihilated; who could have imagined these guys could dive?

Diving was one thing, but these creatures could now hide at the bottom of the lake and launch attacks on land at any time.

“Notify the rear. Have the research department see if they can develop some creatures for underwater combat,” the commander shouted to the intelligence officer behind him.

“Yes, sir,” the other man replied, his tone somewhat weary.

The Zerg were truly difficult to fight, much more troublesome than the demons. They could fly, burrow, and now even go underwater. They were numerous and seemed to pop up from nowhere... In short, they were extremely hard to deal with.

“Leave 100,000... no, 200,000 troops on the shore. Point all cannons at the beach. If any bug appears, blow it up immediately.”

Landing was always harder than defending, even on a lake.

Having 200,000 troops guard over a thousand kilometers of shoreline might seem sparse, but most of the defending units were equipped with long range weapons.

With front line positions established, machine guns and heavy artillery ready, magic planes patrolling 24 hours a day, and local garrison forces providing long range fire support from the rear, it was more than enough.

Once they were certain that the Gexilu Kingdom was essentially liberated, this Central Route army of over three million began to split into two directions, preparing to advance toward the Zerg heartland.

It was only then that they learned the 500,000 strong offensive force on the Western Route had been wiped out by the Zerg in one fell swoop.