Chapter 701 — The Proposal

Step one: retain the series of positions built during the earlier "deception operation," and as subsequent roads are constructed and gaps in supplies and armaments filled, develop them into a continuous chain of supply stations. Each station would be equipped with sufficient long-range firepower, forming a primary defensive line together with Long Wind Fortress through a network of interlocking fire. At the same time, each station would serve for early warning, resupply, and maintaining backup communication lines, ensuring the line's intelligence flow, responsiveness, and survivability.

Step two: leveraging the clear roads between stations, ensure several units are kept ready to maneuver at all times. This was to guard against Typhon knight orders finding gaps in the line and bypassing fixed fortifications to raid the rear. Long Wind Fortress had once had similar patrol cavalry to counter Typhon's "detours," but without station resupply their effectiveness was very limited—they could only deal with the Typhon army of the past. Now, however, Typhon kept developing; its transcendent legions had taken shape, and more importantly, they had mastered arcane vehicle technology. Their army's mobility could break through at any moment, so preemptive deployment along the border was essential.

And for step three, Ma Qi's suggestion surprised even Gao Yang.

That former commander of Bedrock proposed building a "railway defense belt."

"...With Long Wind Fortress as the core, we can build several railways running north and south, connecting all supply stations and border garrison points, and run multiple armed trains along the tracks, ensuring that at any moment mobile firepower can support any point along the border... Typhon's transcendent legions pose a tremendous threat to fixed fortresses, but their effectiveness against armed trains in motion will be greatly diminished...

"Considering the Iron Throne's exorbitant cost, deploying several along a single border is unrealistic. We can build simpler armed trains—using mining-type carriages, reducing the number of arsenal and transport sections, eliminating fortress-grade heavy artillery, and arming them mainly with arcane missile launch towers and small fragmentation howitzers. Since Typhon's armies are still composed chiefly of 'people,' simple armed trains are already enough to inflict casualties...

"The charging rails themselves are carriers of the magic web; building the tracks effectively completes the laying of the border's magic web, and since the rails carry their own shields, this further ensures the security of the line's communications..."

Gao Xi slowly set down the report and sighed softly. "...We picked up a treasure at Bedrock Fortress."

Amber didn't much understand the business of war, but after several years at Gao Yang's side she had absorbed enough to follow what the report described. After running it through her mind, the Director of Military Intelligence's eyes slowly widened. "Good heavens... if this system actually gets built, how would the Typhon even think about charging the line... is this what they call an 'ultimate defense'?"

"There is no ultimate tactic in this world. The art of war advances endlessly through attack and defense. Typhon may one day find a way to counter a mobile defense network—but more advanced defensive concepts will always follow," Gao Yang shook his head, his gaze returning to the report. "At least at this stage, against the enemies we currently face... Ma Qi has hit on the most suitable plan."

While preserving the fortress's role, Ma Qi's plan came close to the limit of what Cecil's engineering capacity and technical strength could achieve. The traditional Long Wind Fortress remained a vital structure of the line, but it had gone from sole core to one among several key nodes, taking on more of the role of command center, logistics hub, and frontline industrial center—while a mobile defense network built on modern transport and communications could further amplify the arcane legion's advantages, offsetting the current shortfall in the number of Cecil's border troops.

What was more commendable was that Ma Qi had also considered cost savings in the process. He noted the Iron Throne's problem of excessive firepower against infantry units, and his proposed simplified armed trains would greatly ease the financial pressure on the Cecil Empire.

After all, reconstruction, renovation, and construction across the nation all cost money. If Gao Yang were to start building seven or eight Iron Thrones at this point, Hedy would likely jump straight off the bank of the White Water River...

Of course, even with such optimizations, Ma Qi's mobile defense plan would still require enormous expense to realize—but Gao Yang was clear on one thing: everything else could be economized, but education and national defense could not.

The former determines how high a nation can rise a century from now; the latter determines whether a nation can survive to a century from now.

Gao Yang turned a page of the thick report. There was more.

Further on, he found Philip's full account of that night of terror on the Paramel Highlands, along with several pages of lessons learned.

"...Due to lack of experience, our forces failed to fully utilize the Iron Throne. The successful withdrawal of the Typhon units was itself avoidable, but we missed the opportunity.

"There were problems of coordination between the armored train and fixed ground positions, and problems in intelligence sharing with the Long Wind line, such that intelligence from several observation posts on the Paramel Highlands could not be delivered to the Iron Throne in time. Granted, those observation posts also failed to detect the Typhon units' movements, but the breakdown in intelligence flow was real.

"Our forces lack sufficient reconnaissance means in adverse weather. The Typhon could detect the Iron Throne, yet none of our several observers detected the Typhon scouts. Traditional griffin knights can scarcely take to the air in bad weather, and means such as eagle-eye spells and telescopes are heavily affected by weather conditions..."

"...recommend developing observation devices with life-detection capabilities, and recommend adding a function akin to a 'magic monitoring tower' to the Iron Throne, so that hidden extraordinary entities or traps in the vicinity may be sensed in time.

"We need aerial reconnaissance methods beyond the griffin knights as a supplement. The current griffin knights have already reached their load limit: they cannot bear more protective equipment to cope with extreme weather, nor can they carry more weapons, and their sole self-defense armament is no match for the Typhon army..."