Chapter 100: Passive Response
Cody was dead.
He had blown up the last two warlocks.
Tadius’s eyes were bloodshot with rage.
He felt it was his own inadequacy that led Cody and his team to sacrifice themselves, ensuring the mission’s completion at the cost of their lives.
Both had maneuvered and agreed on the attack plan.
Cody’s side accomplished their task smoothly, while Tadius’s team encountered obstacles. All five warlocks were dealt with by Cody’s team…
What have I been doing?
Objectively, Tadius had indeed played a role in distracting and creating opportunities, killing many armed mobsters guarding the warlocks. He had a significant impact, but it felt insufficient compared to Cody’s achievements.
He wished he could charge in like Cody, taking out more enemies even at the cost of his own life. Only then would he feel the fury in his heart dissipate.
However, reason ultimately prevailed in his mind.
He waved his hand, leading his team to retreat slightly.
He still had five soldiers with him, forming two combat groups. When their front-line comrades launched an attack, his men would block the enemy’s retreat route.
Tadius glared at the enemies with hatred in his eyes.
I want you all to die here!
…
Gu Hang heard about Cody’s heroic deeds from Osena.
When he had initially tried to model his military system based on his memories, it was to quickly integrate and reorganize prisoners.
He had the 【Troop Cards】 feature to rapidly train military skills with some Grace Points, but cultivating loyalty took time.
Now, he felt both gratified that his earlier arrangements were effective and pained by the loss of a loyal soldier.
But Cody’s sacrifice was valuable.
According to the information Gu Hang had, out of the six grain transport routes that were attacked, four had been secured.
There were some losses in grain, but they were not substantial.
The Phoenix Battalions had already been dispatched to the two routes from which there was still no news.
After Osena sought his help, Gu Hang immediately turned to the Star Warriors for assistance.
When it comes to fighting cultists, the zeal of the Phoenix Battalions was likely on par with that of the Sisters of the Sacred Lily.
No matter how many or how strong the enemies were at those two locations, the presence of six Star Warriors, divided into two teams, would surely resolve the issue.
In terms of military might, they were unmatched.
Gu Hang’s forces, though not numerous, were elite enough to easily handle those cultists.
The battle at the Norris Factory had already significantly demonstrated this fact.
Gu Hang speculated that the cultists were likely running out of resources.
Their total force for attacking the grain transport routes probably numbered around seven to eight hundred, with about twenty warlocks among them.
This force was much smaller than what they had deployed at the Norris Factory.
Firstly, the cultists’ personnel and strength were not limitless.
Over the past few days, they had lost about sixty to seventy core members. Those who could cast storm magic were not easily cultivated.
Besides the core warlocks, they had incited nearly five thousand people at the factory and deployed seven to eight hundred in attacking the grain convoys.
Controlling such a large number of people, whether through some evil brainwashing method or regular preaching to create fanatic followers, came at a cost.
Clearly, they must be depleting their accumulated resources.
If they had the numbers to double their efforts in this wave, at least four of the six grain convoys would have been destroyed, and Gu Hang’s troubles would have been much greater.
The most troublesome aspect of these cultists was their ability to hide within a city of a million people, where grassroots control was particularly weak, making it difficult to root them out quickly.
The failure at the Norris Factory had likely taught these cultists that direct confrontation was not viable.
These guys were causing trouble in the shadows, leaving Gu Hang to respond passively.
This was not enough.
Gu Hang believed that the cultists must have another plan in place.
And this plan was likely centered around the fifty grain distribution points.
The enemy was in the dark while he was in the light.
After experiencing simultaneous attacks on six transport routes and failing, the cultists should have realized that it was unrealistic to achieve their goals in one fell swoop.
Despite their significant losses from two consecutive failures, the remaining forces of the cultists could still pose a major threat if they targeted a few grain distribution points.
Attacking while civilians queued for grain, they could incite chaos and violence.
Gu Hang decided to deploy all the platoons with commissars from the prisoner camps. Each grain distribution point would be directly assigned a platoon!
Let’s see if the cultists can muster the strength to destroy a whole platoon before reinforcements can arrive!
Of course, Gu Hang remained clear-headed and didn’t expect every platoon with a commissar to perform at the level of Cody’s platoon.
In reality, both Cody and Tadius, according to Yan Fangxu, who was in charge of prisoner reformation, were the best-performing units among all the platoons.
Yan Fangxu could only identify seven platoons of similar caliber.
Otherwise, how could recently disarmed and detained prisoners be expected to engage in hard battles with significant casualties and emerge victorious as Cody and his men did?
Even performing at a minimum level of effort would be considered good. In the worst-case scenario, they might panic and scatter when faced with danger, unlike Cody’s unit, who fought fiercely despite casualties.
Nonetheless, under the current circumstances of severe manpower shortages, Gu Hang decided to mobilize them all.
Even if they didn’t perform as valiantly as Cody’s platoon, or even fell short, as long as they could reliably follow orders in combat and not easily desert, that would be sufficient.
They only needed to hold their ground for a short time until reinforcements, including patrolling Star Warriors, arrived at the scene.
With this arrangement, the safety of grain distribution should be significantly ensured.
The remaining task was to launch targeted strikes.
Merely responding was too passive.
In addition to defending, strong offensive actions were necessary.
In this regard, the Sisters of the Sacred Lily had brought him good news.