He galloped past the battle line, the Brigadier General Division Commander did not leave, and he returned swinging his bright saber.
"For the Empire—"
"To face hardship!"
"For the Empire—"
"To face hardship!"
...
As the Brigadier General Division Commander raced forward, the officers in the front row of the formation drew their sabers.
"The cavalry attacks, invincible," was the battle cry of the Empire's cavalry. "For the Empire, to face hardship" was the motto of the Imperial Guard Army.
For hundreds of years, whenever the moment of life and death arose, the Imperial Guard Army would boldly step forward.
"For the Empire—"
"To face hardship!"
Gathering all his strength, Lian Xusheng shouted loudly as he drew his saber and then raised it high above his head.
In the east, a streak of dawn appeared.
In a moment, artillery fire would illuminate the sky before dawn, that was also the charge signal for the cavalry. Next, ten thousand cavalrymen would charge towards the enemy lines, made up of barbed wire and trenches, with a Mark heavy machine gun placed every fifty meters, under the illuminating sunrise, without a look back.
The roar of a thousand horses, the flash of swords and sabers.
Lian Xusheng's mind went blank, with only the unwavering motto remaining.
For the Empire, to face hardship!
...
At the southwest border of the Empire, Cloud Mist River gorge, a field airport.
"...remember everyone, the primary mission is to locate the artillery positions behind these defense lines to prepare for the upcoming general offensive..."
Inside the operations meeting room, an Air Force Colonel was briefing the mission.
In fact, it was just a large tent capable of holding a few dozen chairs, covering an area of more than a hundred square meters.
The Cloud Mist River originates from the Wuji Plateau, meandering for thousands of kilometers, cutting a wide gap through the Cangqiong Mountains that stretch over two thousand kilometers from west to east, then like a wild horse breaking free, it rushes southward, ultimately flowing into the Fan Flame Ocean from the eastern part of Gangaro Plain.
"Gangaro" means "vast and fertile" in the Fan Flame language.
To the southeast of the gorge, covered by tropical rainforests, lies the Toe Peninsula, which separates East Ocean from Fan Flame Ocean, and to the southwest lies the Gangaro Plain.
The lower reaches of the Cloud Mist River serve as the geographical divide between the Toe Peninsula and Gangaro Plain.
The gorge on the southern slope of the Cangqiong Mountains overlooks the entire Toe Peninsula and Gangaro Plain.
To control this strategic area, the Empire's Army Engineering Troops spent twenty years and the lives of thousands of soldiers to build a railway crossing the Toe Peninsula.
While the Empire has no ambitions over Gangaro Plain, it needs military deterrence to restrain the Great Powers.
Deploying a hundred thousand troops there, with the advantage of higher terrain, the enemy needs two million large troops to guard the towns and transportation hubs on the plain.
Giving up the gorge would require at least five hundred thousand large troops to hold the Toe Peninsula.
For more than four years, the Empire's Army, taking advantage of natural geography, repelled enemy attacks time and again, never letting the Great Powers penetrate the Toe Peninsula.
But now, the situation had changed.
Previously, the Colonel had expressly mentioned that the Domestic Fleet of the Navy would soon enter East Ocean, and the Army would simultaneously launch reprisals on the Western Front and in the northeast. In the next few days, the Army could achieve a decisive victory in the northeast and gain strategic advantage on the Western Front, thereby deploying a million troops to the southwest. If they could make full use of the upcoming dry season, they hoped to achieve a decisive victory before the next rainy season arrived.
They would capture Gangaro Plain, which served as the Alliance Group's granary.
The premise was that they had to break through the enemy lines in one fell swoop.
If the breakthrough failed and turned into a prolonged war of attrition, the reprisal would end in a dismal defeat.
For this, the Empire's Army spent months secretly deploying ten artillery divisions in the gorge and prepared five bases of artillery shells.
Although there were thousands of cannons and tens of thousands of tons of shells, compared to the campaign objectives, it was not a lot.
For this reason, the preparatory artillery fire not only had to be accurate but also sudden.
As a result, reconnaissance operations were scheduled for a few hours before the battle began, and upon discovering the target, the reconnaissance aircraft had to return immediately to report.
Time was tight, not only the two-seater reconnaissance aircraft, but even the single-seater fighters had to be used.
"Gentlemen, success or failure hinges on this," the Colonel finished the mission briefing and began the pre-battle mobilization. "In fifteen minutes, the first batch of planes will take off. As usual, I shall fly at the forefront. Other than that, I have nothing more to say, I hope everyone returns alive to celebrate our great victory!"
"Eagle strikes the sky!" A pilot in the front row stood up, shouting the Air Force's slogan loudly.
"Contempt for the world!"
Behind him, other pilots simultaneously stood up, shouting the second half of the slogan.
Then, the pilots left the meeting room one after another, headed to their respective fighters.
However, there was one exception.
Major Li Yunxiang, sitting in the last row.
After the other pilots had left, he stood up and walked over to the Colonel, who was busy sorting files.
Though already an ace pilot, there were no hints of an ace's typical demeanor about him.
A flight cap tilted on his head, a jacket left unbuttoned, a shirt that looked like it had never been ironed, and a belt that seemed on the verge of giving way.
Without the Major's insignia on his cap, one might mistake him for a rogue soldier.
In the eyes of his superiors, he was a troublemaker.
"Colonel..."
"Don't talk now, do you think this is the right time?" the Colonel clearly anticipated this. "Just complete the assigned task, and do whatever you want. We'll discuss that 'concentrated bombing' tactic you proposed after the battle is over."