Chapter 1 A New Battle Plan

In the direction of Yunzhou, the direction of Zhenning Pass, and the tribal coalition forces commanded by Tan Weiran and Chi Lei, which were currently pinning down a large number of troops in the northeast of Bei Liao, were all advancing the war step by step according to the plan. To change this, a completely new battle plan was needed, requiring good communication and coordination between the armies in the three directions. When the central army camp was moving its position according to the original plan, with the progress of the war and the continuous advancement of the army, Ye Tao, Dai Yun, and Xue Yuan and Tan Weiming, who had made a special trip, negotiated together and formulated a new battle plan. Subsequently, several directions were adjusted according to this plan, preparing to launch the final blow against Bei Liao.

The most worrying thing for everyone was the army led by Tan Weiran and Chi Lei. The elite Dongping troops in their hands were limited by conditions, and now they did not exceed 10,000 people, which was three organized battalions, plus their directly affiliated guards and scouts. Among the three battalions, one was the light cavalry battalion they brought with them at the time, one was the heavy equipment battalion transported directly from Yicheng, and the other was a mixed battalion, which included an airship squadron, a logistics squadron, and a training squadron. The mixed battalion was responsible for extremely heavy logistics, reconnaissance, communications, and training the tribal warriors into soldiers with basic military literacy. Unless there was extremely important intelligence, news from this army could only be transferred to Yicheng via sea, and then sent to Danyang via the telegraph network, and then to Ye Tao. Although with the continuous improvement of lighthouses and relay communication stations established on a series of islands and reefs on the sea route, this transmission had compressed the time to within ten days, but on the ever-changing battlefield, ten days was still too long. In order to understand the actual situation and deploy the new strategy for the next stage, Ye Tao decided to take a trip himself. Ye Tao hoped that before the general offensive in the Yunzhou and Zhenning Pass directions, a considerable offensive would be launched in the northeast direction to cause a certain scale of mobilization of the Bei Liao army's current military deployment. Naturally, such an offensive would suffer considerable casualties, and the tribal coalition forces in the northeast were not directly affiliated to Dongping after all. Tan Weiran and Chi Lei now had extremely high prestige there, but it would probably be a bit difficult to get the tribal coalition forces to pay a considerable price to launch an offensive on the front battlefield.

A high-speed communication airship spent two full days crossing Bei Liao's territory, sending the news of Ye Tao's imminent arrival to Tan Weiran and Chi Lei. This scared the two of them. If it had been before, they wouldn't have cared about this level of risk, but the air battle that had occurred not long ago showed that Bei Liao was already prepared in this regard, and Dongping's new type of airship had not yet been equipped, and the aircraft, which had a great advantage over airships, could not accompany the flight for such a long distance. If Ye Tao's flying team encountered an interception, if something went wrong, the consequences would be unimaginable.

However, Ye Tao had already set off one day after sending out the advance airship. Tan Weiran and Chi Lei discussed it and finally made up their minds to let the communication airship return the same way, and notify Ye Tao's airship team on the way to land in Jiamen Town. Outside Jiamen Town was a fertile field with open terrain, which could be used for take-off, landing, and resupply operations without the need to build a mooring field. Then, after a short stay in Jiamen Town, they would fly to Tianmeng City, the fortress-type city under construction where the headquarters of the tribal coalition forces was currently located. Naturally, Ye Tao and his party could not be as fast as the communication airship, and it would take about five more days to arrive. But now the problem was that Jiamen Town was not yet in the hands of the tribal coalition forces, and it was twenty-two miles away from their actual control line. Being able to make such a promise was naturally not without certainty. The reason why Jiamen Town had not been captured before was only because the current control line between the two sides was more convenient for their own side to defend, and the pressure on troops was relatively small. Once Jiamen was captured, it would mean that the coalition forces had entered the battle on the Great Plains, and they would have to adjust their combat methods. Entering the plains meant that more troops would be needed for large-scale deployment and defense, which meant that the mobility of operations would be greatly reduced, and the possibility of large-scale battles would increase, and they were not fully prepared for this. However, temporarily capturing Jiamen Town, waiting for Ye Tao to come, and then the entire army would withdraw. Anyway, when Ye Tao went back, if it didn't work out, he could attack Jiamen Town again.

Jiamen Town was like a ripe fruit to them, ready to be eaten at any time. But they waited another day, sending the heavy equipment battalion up before starting the action. After an hour of bombardment, the defenders of Jiamen Town surrendered. This was the most rigorous and formal, but also the most violent siege battle launched in the history of the tribal coalition forces. Although they had captured many towns before, most of them were strategic sieges using sneak attacks and internal cooperation, or simply having worked out the work of the defending generals in advance… Once the coalition forces bared their fangs and showed a completely different side, the Bei Liao generals, who felt that they had grasped some of the routines of the coalition forces, were completely unprepared. A heavy equipment battalion… what a luxurious existence that was. Now, everyone in the world knew that, also a force of three thousand people, the cost of a heavy equipment battalion, according to the standards set by Ye Tao, was twelve times that of a light infantry battalion, four times that of a light cavalry battalion, and three times that of a heavy infantry battalion. The usual training and maintenance costs were roughly the same standard. Moreover, Dongping now had only ten heavy equipment battalions in the entire country, plus the Blood Kirin Army, which had four heavy equipment battalions. The literacy rate of these more than 40,000 troops was 100%. Basically, everyone could master basic four-arithmetic mixed calculations, half of them could use slide rules and quick reference manuals, and one-sixth of them could perform more complex calculations… Such a force, in this era of cold weapons, was the absolute pinnacle of existence, the digital artillery force of this era…

When the heavy equipment battalion and the tribal coalition forces, totaling 16,000 people, launched a full-scale offensive, the defending general of Jiamen Town was almost crying. This was too bullying. In the past, the tribal coalition forces usually fought with half of the elite troops and half of the troops still in training, or simply barbarians with only one thing on their minds… But this time, the light cavalry of the Frost Wolf Army and the Silver Wing Army appeared; the tribal model army, which had completely reached the discipline and combat capability standards of Dongping's light cavalry troops, appeared; even the personal guard troops that the tribal leaders originally only used to stay by their side to show off appeared. After those personal guards were equipped with different styles of armor and weapons produced by Dongping's several ordnance workshops, it was not just a simple matter of improving their combat effectiveness by one level… Anyway, there were no troops that were not up to standard.

The defending general of Jiamen Town racked his brains and couldn't figure out when Jiamen Town had become so important, but even if it was important, how could a garrison of four or five thousand troops in Jiamen Town not use such a lineup to fight? He even thought that if the other party showed their cards and sent someone over to discuss it, he would probably just surrender directly…

Of course, he didn't know that when they learned that Ye Tao was coming, Tan Weiran and Chi Lei, as well as those tribal leaders, were filled with panic about coping with the inspection and acceptance of their superiors, and they also had a strong sense of confidence in demonstrating their achievements.

And after capturing Jiamen Town, the Bei Liao side was also a little frightened. Without knowing what was going on, the Bei Liao side began to shrink its front-line troops and huddle in important towns, instead of deploying them in a scattered manner as before to guard against the harassment of the tribal coalition forces.

Outside Jiamen Town, a considerable mooring field was established within a day, and the flying team was also transferred to carry out daily air duty, vigilance, and reconnaissance, looking like they were facing a formidable enemy.

Four and a half days after Jiamen Town changed hands, the Bei Liao side finally confirmed that the reason why the tribal coalition forces had gone crazy was because Ye Tao was about to arrive. The Bei Liao side received the news after Ye Tao and his party set off. The Bei Liao side carried out two considerable interceptions, but Ye Tao's personal guard flying team was more than a little bit stronger than other flying teams. Although the new type of airship had not been equipped, all the airships had been slightly modified to address the characteristics of Bei Liao airships that might have a higher flying altitude than their own, making it easier to attack targets higher than themselves. Compared with the monotonous and boring weapons of the Bei Liao flying team, which lacked power and accuracy, this team of airships was equipped with new rockets that had considerable speed and accuracy. This kind of rocket, which was specially designed for air combat, did not pursue power, but rather pursued light weight and small size, and could be launched in clusters, and the launch speed and flight speed had to be fast enough. A rocket launcher contained six small rockets, directly covering an airspace, so that Bei Liao airships had nowhere to hide. For the divine crossbow archers on Dongping's more elite airships, they didn't even need such expensive things as rockets. The divine crossbow plus the newly equipped special arrows were enough. The new type of arrow was specially developed to attack airships. This kind of arrow was more rigorous in the selection of arrow shafts, requiring absolute stability of the center of gravity. The three-edged fletching could maintain the stability and accuracy of the arrow in flight very well, and the special arrowhead directly tore a large hole in the airship's airbag without saying a word…

Bei Liao almost risked all the airships that had been manufactured in the two interceptions, but the result of the air battle was a miserable 63-0, which made people extremely angry. Ye Tao taught Bei Liao a lesson this time: high-tech arms, quantity and leading in a single attribute, are completely meaningless… What's more, the Bei Liao airship commander didn't even know how to make full use of the altitude advantage…

"General, there's news… Marshal Ye's airship team has already made contact with our airships. Approximately… they will arrive at Jiamen Town in an hour." A day later, not long after Chi Lei, who had just finished his morning training session, returned to the command post, the messenger brought the news.

"Immediately order the entire army to be on alert and prepare for battle. The flying team will take off for vigilance. Notify everyone, we will go outside the city to welcome Marshal Ye." Chi Lei laughed loudly, stood up, threw down a string of orders, and hurried to find Tan Weiran.

There were more than two thousand people in total who went to the mooring field to welcome Ye Tao, especially the leaders of the various tribes. The scene of them all dressed in full dress was even rarer. These tribal leaders respected Tan Weiran and Chi Lei, but their hearts for Ye Tao, whom they had only heard of, were not just gratitude, admiration, and curiosity. They had almost a religious-style devotion. They now admired Dongping's military strength and cultural prosperity, and it seemed that such a life was not far away from them now. Tan Weiran and Chi Lei, who already had some understanding of the habits of the tribes, saw that some tribal leaders even took out the clothes that they usually only had the qualifications to wear at the grand ceremony of worshiping heaven and earth that was held at the general tribal assembly. Although they couldn't help but feel like rolling their eyes, they undoubtedly felt the sincerity of the tribal leaders.

Just after completing another search of the surrounding area of the mooring field and deploying the defense forces, and the welcoming team had just entered the mooring field, Ye Tao's flying team appeared on the distant horizon. The beauty of the Yunzhou One airship moved even those who were already accustomed to airships. Now was still an era when airships were rapidly updating their generations, and Yunzhou One was always the most advanced and safest airship of this era. The new Yunzhou One was still snow-white from head to toe without any impurities, with only a blue-green tree-shaped mark on the front end of the airship's airbag. That was Ye Tao's marshal flag and also the Ye family's coat of arms. Unlike other airships, which always had various scattered hooks and protrusions on the outside, the Yunzhou One's hull was simple and refined, and the smooth surface fully displayed the airship's perfect curves. Even the huge floor-to-ceiling viewing glass on both sides of the airship's cabin perfectly fit this curve… The curved glass forming technology alone was a major leap.

And as such an airship got closer and closer, and was projected more and more clearly into everyone's eyes, everyone couldn't take their eyes off it. The only ones who felt a little embarrassed and confused were probably the ground crew who were waiting for the airship to drop the ropes and carry out the mooring operation…

When the Yunzhou One steadily stopped about twenty feet above the mooring area, a piece of board under the airship's cabin retracted inward by about two inches, and then moved to the side. An airship crew member poked his head out of this opening, winked at the ground soldiers whose confused expressions had not disappeared, and then threw down a coil of rope.

The airship landed smoothly, and everyone gathered around. Everyone could see that Ye Tao was standing behind the floor-to-ceiling viewing window, smiling and signaling to everyone. Everyone suddenly realized… it wasn't just a matter of curves. This entire huge glass window, which was more than one person tall and had curves that perfectly matched the hull, had no frame in the middle at all. It could be seen that this entire huge viewing window, although it was spliced together from left to right by three pieces of curved glass, the connection between the glass was completely靠胶水 (kào jiāoshuǐ - relying on glue), giving people a huge visual impact… Just these few incredible giant glasses stunned everyone present. What kind of person uses what kind of things, and what will Ye Tao, who can come on such a miraculous airship, bring to everyone?