Dark Ruins Dawn

Chapter 138 Deployment
"The enemy did not anticipate this."

Zhuang Fan refuted Mao Shanwang's guess: "The fact that the Apocalypse Cult chose to launch its final attack after midnight is more of a coincidence, stemming from the tacit understanding among those fighting in the wasteland."

After all, the fog is thickest in the wilderness after midnight, and the defenders' will is at its weakest.

He closed the map, the room returned to darkness, and his gaze swept over the members of the Firewood organization who were carrying ammunition boxes.

"My original plan was to harass their strongholds and lure their main force out of their hole and into the ambush."

"But now that they've come to us themselves, it saves us a lot of trouble, so let's just resolve this once and for all."

"But that's two thousand men!" Mao Shanwang was full of concerns. His power armor made him look particularly bulky, like a sphere covered in an iron shell.

"Quantity is meaningless."

Zhuang Fan patiently explained, "Their power armor is all cobbled together and has poor defensive capabilities. Our heavy machine guns can even penetrate it directly."

"What about those ferocious beasts?"

Mao Shanwang was still uneasy. He thought of those troublesome beasts from the Apocalypse Sect, especially the Iron-horned Rhinoceros and the Saber-toothed Tiger.

Zhuang Fan laughed and said, "Iron-horned rhinoceros and saber-toothed tiger are nothing to be afraid of. Although locusts and blood mosquitoes are a bit troublesome, we have plenty of shock bombs and incendiary bombs."

To deal with these beasts, he spent a huge sum of money to prepare a large amount of weaponry, not to fight with manpower, but only with financial resources.

As soon as he finished speaking, Zhuang Fan's wrist began to tremble.

"Boss."

The armored soldiers stationed at the underground platform reported: "The ratman legion has just arrived."

"Okay, please have the Jetta team come up immediately."

He specifically invited the Rat Advisor over to confirm some details of the ambush.

Meanwhile, on the underground platform.

"Clang-"

Amidst the screeching sound of friction, several flatbed wagons slid along the rusted tracks, eventually coming to a slow stop.

A swarm of rat-men jumped off the vehicle and quickly assembled on the platform. Although the formation was not perfectly orderly, it already resembled a legion.

More than four hundred rat guards armed with iron-pipe pistols, and twenty elite soldiers wearing power armor.

Jetta brought almost all of his assets.

He jumped out of the car and looked around at the familiar rock walls. This place used to be the old lair of the ratmen, but now it had become a temporary warehouse. A trace of nostalgia flashed in his rat eyes.

Old Fukang is too old to come this time; he stayed behind at the rat-man's stronghold.

The Rat Master followed behind Jetta, still with that refined demeanor, his gray-white whiskers trembling slightly.

Santana followed closely behind.

He turned his head and saw several rat guards making the most of their last moments to replenish their strength.

They pulled out several twitching cockroaches from their pockets, skillfully twisted off their heads, stuffed them into their mouths, and chewed them with a crunching sound.

That distinctive sweet and fishy smell also wafted over.

"Hey!"

Santana snapped gruffly, "Haven't you guys had enough to eat on this journey?"

“I’m full…”

"Now that you've eaten, you'd better behave well later! Don't embarrass our king, understand?"

"Understood!"

The mice responded enthusiastically, stuffing the last bit of their shells into their mouths, making a continuous "crunching" sound.

The Rat Master stood behind Jetta, turning his face slightly to avoid the strong, sweet, and fishy smell.

As a refined rat-man who mutated from a human, he was used to nutritional pastes made from ground cockroach powder, but he still couldn't accept this primitive way of eating.

He knew that this was the way the ratmen lived, but he could only respect it and maintain a semblance of peace.

"Master, what's wrong?" Jetta noticed that his expression was a little off.

The Rat Advisor forced a smile: "It's nothing, it's an old problem, I just get a little carsick, it was too dark in the tunnel."

The three Jettas then passed through the base's passageway.

The gray walls on both sides of the passageway were no longer the ones they remembered, but were now covered with alloy partitions.

There was a machine gun turret every ten meters, with red scanning beams sweeping across it at a constant speed.

Although there were only a dozen or so members of the Fireline organization passing by, they were all full of energy and wore uniform armor, which contrasted sharply with the steel plates of the Rat Guards.

The Jetta and Santana exchanged a glance, both seeing the shock in each other's eyes.

This is the real armed base.

Pushing open the door to the operations discussion room, Mao Shanwang, Cole, and the others were already prepared.

"Boss."

Jetta put aside all distractions and bowed respectfully.

Zhuang Fan nodded to them: "Time is of the essence, let's talk on the way."

Afterwards, the group arrived outside the base, and the airship's hatch opened with a "whoosh," allowing everyone to board in turn.

The airship ascended vertically and quickly disappeared into the night.

Inside the cabin, Zhuang Fan turned on the holographic projection, pointed to a narrow area, and said slowly, "...The enemy's main force will pass through this canyon, so we should lay mines here in advance."

He looked at the Rat Advisor: "Advisor, this is our pre-battle plan. Do you have any good suggestions?"

The Rat Advisor leaned closer to the screen, his long, thin whiskers twitching, and humbly replied:

"Sir, this plan is simple and direct. It allows us to leverage our firepower advantage and avoid being outnumbered."

He paused, then continued his analysis:
"The Apocalypse Cult excels at using fanatical followers who have taken white pills to launch suicidal charges. This canyon is a natural bottleneck that can completely disable the human wave tactic."

"Our powered armor and heavy firepower will ensure that as long as we hold the pass, no matter how many of them come, they will die. However, the battlefield is ever-changing, and we must adjust our response at any time."

Master Rat's analysis made Jetta and Santana nod repeatedly, but King Mao sat to the side muttering to himself:
"Are we really strong enough? They have two thousand men on the other side..."

He counted on his fingers: "On our side, we have over four hundred rat guards, while the Firewood Base only has a few dozen that can fight back, so we don't even have five hundred in total... Holy crap, that's four to one!"

"Old Cat, how many times have you done this?"

"Sigh, I'm just a little panicked."

Zhuang Fan patiently tapped on the holographic projection to bring up the combat power list:
"What you're calculating isn't troop strength, it's cannon fodder, while what we need to calculate is the number of armored vehicles."

"You have 20 armored soldiers, I have 48, and Jetta also has 20, for a total of 88 powered armored vehicles."

"88 mobile fortresses are enough to crush a bunch of lunatics with iron pipe guns and machetes."

However, Mao Shanwang's worries were not unfounded. In fact, Zhuang Fan was also uncertain and felt that tonight's battle might not be easy.

But he is the backbone, so he cannot show it.

After a while, the airship began to descend and came to rest behind a secluded hill.

The hatch opened, and a blast of cold air rushed in.

The wind carried the stench of distant decay and a faint, almost imperceptible smell of rotting corpses.

When Zhuang Fan first came to this area, he jumped off the airship and his boots touched the soft sand.

He looked up and around and found that the canyon in front of him was wider than it appeared on the map, several hundred meters wide, but with steep cliffs on both sides, the highest point of which was nearly a hundred meters high, making it an excellent ambush point.

In the canyon, Cole's armored squad had arrived ahead of time and, under Old Badger's guidance, laid a large number of landmines at the designated locations.

"Under that rock on the west side, yes, right there! Put two more anti-personnel mines in there!"

Old Badger gave on-the-spot instructions: "The slope on the east side is gentler, they will definitely break out from there and bury all your cluster bombs there!"

Seeing Zhuang Fan approach, Cole and Badger simply nodded in acknowledgment before returning to their work.

The armored soldiers quickly climbed the high ground on both sides, and the armored units of Maoshanwang and Jetta also took their positions, using the shadows of the rocks for cover.

The dark muzzles of guns and rocket launchers were all locked onto the bottom of the valley.

Immediately afterwards, Santana and Hua Xin each dispatched elite scouts to continue gathering intelligence on the enemy's latest movements.

Standing on high ground, Zhuang Fan observed the rat guards who were on high alert and quickly discovered the problem.

More than eighty armored soldiers, along with a large number of landmines, were enough to tear the enemy apart. The ratmen's iron-barreled pistols had limited firepower, and crowding them here would only interfere with their firing space.

In addition, the steel plates haphazardly tied to the rat guards are practically made of paper, and once they are exposed to enemy fire, they are more likely to suffer casualties.

While zero casualties are impossible, Zhuang Fan abhors meaningless sacrifices. These ratmen are Jetta's people, and he prefers to preserve his own forces.

"Jetta, have the rat guards retreat to the second echelon and be on standby."

"good?"

Jetta was taken aback, clearly not understanding the plan, but still waved and did as instructed.

The Rat Advisor understood Zhuang Fan's plan; he had assumed the Ratmen would be used as the first wave of cannon fodder.

"My lord, you are... merciful."

"It's not about being merciful, but about making the right decisions."

No sooner had he finished speaking than more than twenty abandoned cars with their headlights on drove over from the other side of the canyon, led by Gage.

These wrecked vehicles were seized from the Blue Knife Gang and the Wild Wolf Gang, and the cargo compartments were filled with sandbags and steel barricades.

One of the carriages is equipped with four "skilled" machine gun turrets.

"Boss."

Gage jumped out of the driver's seat, his engineer's suit covered in engine oil. "Everything has been delivered. Xiong Da is at the base watching over the prisoners. Everything's safe."

Looking at the defensive fortifications being dismantled from the base, Mao Shanwang was full of confusion. He leaned closer and lowered his voice:

"I don't quite understand. We're here to ambush, so why are you laying out all these wrecked vehicles, barricades, and sandbags? Isn't that just telling the enemy that there's an ambush ahead?"

"Let's put it aside for now, just in case. There are a lot of wild beasts on the other side, we can just ram the wrecked car into them... If we really don't need it, we can use it to carry our spoils, right?"

Zhuang Fan's voice was not loud: "Because I always feel that if things go too smoothly, it's easy for something to go wrong."

"Hmm, it's good to be cautious," Mao Shanwang muttered.

Just then, a nimble figure flashed out from the shadows of the rock wall to the side; it was Hua Xin.

"Brother Ya, there's unusual activity at another Apocalypse Cult stronghold, Sector A-2!"

"Take your time, don't rush."

Hua Xin forced himself to calm his breathing, and said in short, gasping breaths, "The entire force at that base is assembling, with 1,200 people and at least twenty powered armored vehicles!"

King Mao was stunned; this number already exceeded their numerical advantage.

Almost at the same time, Santana also rushed back from another direction, his voice even more urgent:

"Sir, the entire force at the A-3 outpost is assembling! There are over a thousand people, but... we don't have any of our scouts over there, so we can't see their specific unit types."

Two new enemies. Zhuang Fan immediately asked Santana, "How long is the estimated journey from over there?"

"Sir, at their marching speed, they'll probably arrive in half an hour!"

Hua Xin also did some quick calculations: "It's been exactly half an hour for me too."

After confirming the map information, Zhuang Fan nodded solemnly:
"This is the source of the enemy's confidence to attack. They directly combined three strongholds and wanted to encircle us with overwhelming force."

The air seemed to freeze.

The Rat Master stopped stroking his whiskers, his brows furrowing. Jetta and Cole exchanged a glance, both seeing the surprise and doubt in each other's eyes.

"Gudong."

Mao Shanwang swallowed hard.

The enemy force had only numbered two thousand a moment ago, but in the blink of an eye, their numbers had doubled, completely disrupting their plans.

Zhuang Fan remained calm and quickly marked the locations of the other two strongholds on the map.

"Three strongholds, with a total of over four thousand people."

"Based on a conservative estimate, the enemy has more than one hundred powered armored vehicles and one thousand armed cultists. As for the remaining three thousand, they are fanatics sprayed with white powder."

Hua Xin whispered a reminder: "There are also ferocious beasts..."

Zhuang Fan nodded: "Yes, there are at least several hundred beasts in the three strongholds combined."

"grown ups."

The Rat Advisor's voice rang out, pointing to the map:

"Although these three strongholds are all in the west and not far from each other, logically they will definitely launch an attack in three separate groups."

The Rat Master's finger traced across the map, finally stopping at the canyon where they were located.

"It's illogical that they would deliberately take a long detour and meet up just to run into the line of fire in this canyon."

Zhuang Fan agreed with his analysis; "Yes, the enemy isn't that stupid."

"That means..."

Mao Shanwang's voice rose several octaves, even becoming somewhat distorted: "At least two thousand Apocalypse cultists have slipped through the net! They don't use this canyon!"

His cat-like eyes suddenly turned towards the base, and the fat on his face jiggled: "Our main force is all here, the base is going to be wiped out!"

"Boss, those fanatics are nothing to fear."

"But the number of enemies... is indeed too many," Cole said in a deep voice.

He swallowed back some of his concerns; now was not the time to dampen morale.

Just then, another cat-person scout rushed back:
"Outpost A-1, the entire battalion is on its way! We will reach the canyon within half an hour!"

As if by prior arrangement, Hua Xin and Santana's communicators rang simultaneously.

"Brother Ya, the A-2 base has been attacked."

"The same goes for Outpost A-3!"

The atmosphere inside the canyon was extremely oppressive, as more than four thousand enemies surrounded and encircled it from three directions.

Panic began to spread little by little.

Cole was the first to react. He turned to Zhuang Fan and said, "Boss! I'll take some men and remove half of the landmines immediately, then bury them on the other two roads!"

After hearing this, Gage realized something: "Then we can use these wrecked cars and sandbags to build temporary defensive lines on the left and right flanks! Let's hold off the enemy first!"

Jetta stepped forward: "Sir, I've divided the Rat Guards into three teams, each with 150 men. I, Santana, and the Rat Advisor will each lead one team!"

"I'm afraid... that won't work."

The Rat Advisor shook his head slightly, pouring cold water on them: "The Rat People are brave, but their animalistic nature has not been extinguished. They can charge forward with a roar when they have the upper hand, but once they are caught in a fierce battle, or suffer too many casualties, they will easily scatter."

Both Jetta and Santana remained silent, knowing that what Master Rat said was true.

They couldn't win, they couldn't hold out, and if they were any later, they might not even be able to escape... A suffocating atmosphere enveloped everyone.

After a moment's hesitation, Mao Shanwang spoke in a low, almost pleading tone:
"Well... how about we pack our bags and run? We can still escape through the underground station. Let's not be reckless; it's better to live a miserable life than to die."

"No need to back down, we can win."

Zhuang Fan's voice wasn't loud, but it suppressed all his panic.

He pointed to the holographic map again, where three red arrows clearly indicated the enemy's movements.

"The central canyon is manned by two thousand main forces."

"The abandoned road on the left, 1,200 people."

"There are also 1,200 people on the mountain road to the right."

Zhuang Fan raised his head, his gaze sweeping over the core members present. His voice remained calm as he issued specific instructions:
"Cole, immediately send men to move all the wrecked vehicles, sandbags, and iron chevaux-de-frise that Gage brought to the left side of the road, and have Old Badger set up a temporary position."

"Gage, distribute all the drones, robotic dogs, and those four 'Skillful Hand' machine gun turrets to the left flank. Remember to protect the machine gun turrets; they are one of our few high-value assets, so don't damage them."

"Yes, boss!"

Zhuang Fan's gaze shifted to the Rat Advisor:

"Master, you lead two hundred rat guards and ten rat armored soldiers to defend the left flank with all your might."

"But your mission is not to annihilate them all, but to delay them as much as possible. If the enemy breaks through your position, you should retreat decisively and switch to guerrilla warfare. Can you do that?"

The Rat Advisor immediately understood Zhuang Fan's intention: he was using the left wing as bait and a tripwire.

He nodded and said, "No problem, but I need some landmines to intimidate the enemy and prevent them from charging easily."

Gage responded immediately, knowing the contents of the truck like the back of his hand: "There are twelve anti-personnel mines left in the truck, is that enough?"

"enough."

The Rat Advisor didn't want to kill, he wanted to intimidate.

Mao Shanwang listened with a chill running down his spine. Was there really so few people on the left wing?
What about the mid lane?

"The middle lane has the most landmines. Even if it can't tear apart a third of the enemy's forces, it will be enough."

Zhuang Fan's gaze swept across the canyon below. "The explosion will stop them. As long as they don't dare to advance rashly, we've achieved our goal."

"In addition, eight Firearms Armored Soldiers and one hundred Rat Guards are deployed on each of the high grounds on both sides of the canyon."

He looked at Hua Xin and Cole: "Hua Xin is in charge of the east side of the rock face, and Cole is in charge of the west side. You two should delay the enemy's advance as much as possible without risking your lives."

"Simply put, use the high ground advantage to harass them. If the enemy launches a heavy attack on the hillside, you should retreat decisively and not fight them head-on."
"Wait until the enemy returns to the bottom of the valley, then circle back and attack, understand?"

Cole and Hua Xin replied in unison, "Understood!"

The Rat Advisor added with a smile: "When the enemy advances, we retreat; when the enemy camps, we harass; when the enemy tires, we attack; when the enemy retreats, we pursue."

He was using tactical language to calm his men down.

Zhuang Fan then looked at the raccoon man who had remained silent.

"Xiong Er, you need to find a sniping spot with a field of vision that can cover both the left flank and the middle. Your mission is to hunt down the enemy commander and cover our troops."

"Gage has rocket launchers and rockets. If the enemy formation is dense, you can fire a few first."

"understood."

Xiong Er succinctly picked up two sniper rifles, one to take down armored soldiers and the other to take down conventional enemies.

After listening for a while, Mao Shanwang realized he had been left out. "What about me?" he asked.

"Old Cat, your task is the most important."

Zhuang Fan pointed to the airship anchored behind the hills:
"Take four of the most agile catmen with you and be responsible for airdropping bombs and incendiary bombs. You need to take care of all three battlefields. Go to the side that is under pressure to provide relief."

"So this cat is a firefighter after all. Not bad."

Mao Shanwang said with a hint of regret, "It's a pity that this is a civilian boat. If I had known, I would have gotten a combat boat."

Zhuang Fan emphasized:
"Old Cat, the Apocalypse Cult may not have flying vehicles, but that doesn't mean they don't have anti-aircraft weapons."

"So you must not fly too low, otherwise your airship will be destroyed and we won't be able to save you."

"Don't worry, my flying skills are top-notch,"

Mao Shanwang suddenly realized something: "Wait... what about the right wing? What are your plans for that?"

Zhuang Fan's gaze fell on the third red arrow on the map: "Deploy 65 armored soldiers on the right flank, including myself, Jetta, and Santana."

Mao Shanwang was somewhat astonished: "Sixty-five units... You've thrown eighty percent of your main force into one place?"

"Yes, because the right wing doesn't need to defend, but can concentrate its forces on offense and break through the enemy's lines first."

Zhuang Fan's finger traced across the map, the trajectory starting from the right wing, drawing a hook shape, and circling around to the back of the canyon.

"Then... we surrounded the middle lane and wiped out all the enemies in the canyon."

"Finally, we'll deal with the left wing."

The Rat Advisor listened silently, a slight smile appearing on his shrewd rat face as he nodded.

"Your Excellency is wise. We are outnumbered. If we divide our forces into three routes for defense, each route will fight a tough battle. The Apocalypse Cult madmen don't care about casualties, but we do."

Zhuang Fan patiently explained: "Well, so we must concentrate our forces and annihilate the enemy's weakest flank as quickly as possible, and then concentrate our strength to take down the stronger enemy."

Cole stood to the side, lost in thought.

His initial idea was to hold every line of defense, so he planned to divide his forces evenly, which was a conventional defensive counterattack.

But after listening to Zhuang Fan's line of thought, he realized how ruthless this tactic was.

The leader never even considered defense.

From the very beginning, he was planning a campaign to encircle and annihilate his enemies.

Mao Shanwang understood the tactics, but his inherent caution and fear of death still made him uneasy.

"That's true, but what if we can't win?"

Zhuang Fan replied casually, "If you can't beat them, just retreat. It's that simple."

Mao Shanwang: "Huh?"

Gage, who was standing to the side, suddenly remembered this:

"By the way, boss, the base has packed up all the important items, crating them and placing them in the underground station. We can... run away at any time."

"Phew... That scared me to death."

Mao Shanwang breathed a sigh of relief and patted the power armor's chest hard: "That's good, that's good."

Zhuang Fan was speechless: "You really don't trust my arrangements?"

"Hey, my rule for surviving in the wasteland is to consider defeat before victory; survival is the most important thing!"

Seeing that everyone's emotions had finally been stirred up, Zhuang Fan secretly breathed a sigh of relief and looked up towards the canyon.

Darkness gathered there, awaiting a grand feast.

(End of this chapter)