Chapter 620 — Iron and Fire
Blade of Dawn · Page 4 of 4
Because of the crystal giants' instinctive aggressiveness once they lost control, the legion did not even need to deliberately seek out those hiding in blind spots or far in the distance—so long as the cannons still thundered, nearly every monster within a hundred li would come willingly to the blazing purifying flames.
On the high ground in the rear, Gaoyang stood beneath a sunshade, quietly watching the scene on the distant plains. The battlefield ablaze with gunfire and the flashes from the direction of the Gorgon River (occasionally a rainbow beam of astonishing scale and momentum would sweep across the riverbank) filled his vision. Near him, a mobile magic-net relay vehicle was rebroadcasting the dense communications from the Pathfinder and the ground forces; several magic-net terminals projected different images, and signalmen and orderlies bustled between equipment and tactical maps, orders and reports pouring in from every direction.
In a daze, he even felt a faint sense of temporal dislocation.
On the other side, the young Philip Qian was standing not far away at the map table with a group of officers, watching the changes on the battlefield, while Byron's holographic projection floated beside Philip—through the magic-net terminal, Byron, far away aboard the Pathfinder, seemed as though he were present in the army command post itself.
The plan for amphibious advance had been proposed by Gaoyang. In it, he required the river fleet to support the ground forces with heavy guns; after the crystal giants' legion arrays were initially torn open, the land tank forces would advance, using long-range howitzers and the like for a second sweep of the field; then, before the crystal giants could react, the land forces would swiftly seize favorable positions and, relying on heavy burners, flamethrower infantry, the White Knights battalion, and other forces, thoroughly purify the entire battlefield.
Philip Qian, building on this, drew up a more detailed operational plan for the land forces—using Steel Ambassadors as reconnaissance vehicles; leveraging their mobility and range advantage, plus reliable shield devices, these vehicles would swiftly lock onto the command nodes within the crystal legion ahead and remotely direct artillery fire to destroy those nodes.
After that, the loyal Cecil legion would use equally loyal incendiary weapons to annihilate the enemies who had lost control.
These plans proved astonishingly effective.