After introducing the mission assignment for Dingxing City, Major General Man picked up his water glass, took a sip, and continued to press a few buttons.

A moment later.

While the digital map on the screen zoomed out once more, a somewhat winding white line suddenly appeared within the map.

This white line starts from an icon in the upper part of the map as the starting point.

First, it extends downward at a slant, then turns upward like a hook, and continues to twist and turn to a certain point.

"This is the marching route designated by the campaign headquarters, and the starting point is just outside our Upper Valley, right at the nearby pass."

Major General Man finished speaking, pointed in a direction outside the conference room, indicating where the troops would depart, and then continued:

"The entire march route covers a straight-line distance of 153 kilometers, but the actual distance is 339 kilometers, divided into two nodes:

First, the troops will proceed along the south side of the valley to a break wall called Flat-top Cliff, 40 kilometers away.

Then they will turn northeast to a small dense forest, and then head straight north to the vicinity of Xiaolianzi Mountain.

The whole marching process forms a U shape, though the right side is about one-third shorter."

The route described by Major General Man is much more complex compared to a normal march, basically equivalent to circling the mountain from behind.

Otherwise, the 150-kilometer straight-line distance would mean a marching journey of around 200 kilometers under typical conditions.

It's like standing on the street and wanting to go to a supermarket five or six meters to the right across the street.

The simplest way is to walk straight across the street and then turn right for a few meters.

The route described by Major General Man is like going right along the current street for 50 meters, crossing the street, and then going left for more than 40 meters.

This route is much more complicated than the former.

No choice.

The rabbits have too many things to consider.

The foremost is to try not to disturb other cities during the march; they should avoid exposure whenever possible.

Although only Dingxing City and Giant Spirit City lie within a hundred miles around Xiaolianzi Mountain, this refers to the influence radius during the operation.

The straight-line distance from the camp to Xiaolianzi Mountain is over three hundred miles, covering an area roughly shaped like a 60-degree angle sector.

Marching in a straight line would pass through seven or eight cities and several official roads with considerable traffic.

Furthermore, with no shadow cover along the direct route, it's easy to be observed from afar.

As a well-known rogue, the rabbits naturally prefer to take a longer route rather than be discovered by others.

Therefore, the headquarters chose a longer route on purpose this time.

The nearest city on this route is more than thirty miles away, and the march route is shady, reducing the exposure probability significantly.

The second reason is from a strategic layout perspective.

There's also a bit of luck.

That's because Chixian City's surroundings are all plains and basins — mentioned by Lei Wenjun's team when the coal mine was found.

Little known.

Plains refer to large flat areas with low elevations, generally between 0-500 meters, with relatively few high mountains; even if mountain ranges pass through, it's often the head or tail of the range.

While Xiaolianzi Mountain's main peak stands about eight hundred seventy meters tall, with no continuous mountain range surrounding it, various low and short peaks are numerous, totaling 12, ranging from twenty to three hundred meters.

The total area including Xiaolianzi Mountain and surrounding peaks covers about forty square kilometers, roughly one-eighth the area of Wudang Mountain.

This scale of a mountain body isn't considered small but isn't large either.

This provides the rabbits sufficient implementation conditions for their capture plan.

If they were dealing with mountains over two to three thousand meters high and hundreds of square kilometers large, there's no way they could capture and eliminate.

Demon beasts hiding within could only have half their tracks found.

Even with thirty thousand demon beasts, in such vast mountain ranges, capturing them isn't easy.

Actually, the demon beasts chose to move to Xiaolianzi Mountain out of helplessness.

That's the limitation of the plain region's terrain.

There are taller ones elsewhere, but they're either too far off, hard to reach given the beast horde's damage level then.

Or, they're surrounded by many cities.

Though cities fear nearby demon beasts, demon beasts too worry about nearby human cities.

After all, the beast horde wasn't in a perfect state, and being surrounded by cities made them panic.

"The layout of Xiaolianzi Mountain resembles a semi-conical shape, with the north-south mountain length much greater than the east-west sides, and higher elevation and broader terrain in the north compared to the sharp and low south connecting to the plain."

Inside the conference room, Major General Man continued to illustrate Xiaolianzi Mountain's layout with a laser pointer on the strategic map:

"This mountain shape resembles Patrick Star's head in 'SpongeBob'; the vertical section is a very standard right triangle, with the bottom edge longer and the side shorter.

A right triangle with a longer bottom edge often indicates limited strategic depth; indeed, that's the case.

Our observation shows there are only five or six hollow sections within Xiaolianzi Mountain, meaning demon beasts certainly move from north to south."

As Major General Man described.

Xiaolianzi Mountain's east-west depth is merely 2.3 kilometers, the mountain angles at 41.7°, with vegetation comprising mainly shrubs and some tree species similar to sycamores, providing average cover, not remarkable but decent.

The truly defensive terrain is almost entirely concentrated in the northern highlands, with only six strategic depth locations in the central region.

In short, once the demon beasts are forced out from the northern heights, they either hide in the central heartland or flee southward into the plains.

The depth and angle data were precisely measured by Bo Binghui's team using high-tech equipment, ensuring no error whatsoever in the related values.

After all, confirming these values cost the information engineering group 17 unmanned drones — note that this was solely to gather depth data.

Other tasks such as estimating, counting demon beast numbers, and analyzing species distribution have cost the information group even more.

No choice.

When satellite devices couldn't be used, many data can't rely solely on long-distance photography; close-in suicide missions were necessary.

Such significant equipment losses brought extensive valuable information but also an unavoidable consequence:

The demon beasts at Xiaolianzi Mountain started sensing certain threats, showing defensiveness outwardly.

After all, the leading Core Formation Realm demon beast's intelligence surpasses humans, some even smarter than ordinary humans.

You could say they're as smart as a dog.

So with so many 'alien' disturbances, it's impossible for them not to notice.

These demon beasts at Xiaolianzi Mountain probably guessed that 'cultivators' are watching them, leading to noticeably increased patrolling flying demon beasts in both number and frequency lately.

Yet, campaign headquarters isn't worried at all:

Let them be aware; Xiaolianzi Mountain is isolated with no other bases around, the beast horde can only hold their ground.

This can't be termed as them cutting off their retreat.

Given normal circumstances, a beast horde commanded by multiple third-tier Demon Beast Commanders entrenched at Xiaolianzi Mountain couldn't be easily overwhelmed without a cost.

Even if Ziqiong City mobilized forces spending hefty transit fees flying over two thousand miles for extermination, it would entail some price.

This is the confidence the beast horde relies on.

As demon beasts reach certain cultivation realms, their beast instincts gradually start discerning human traits, enabling them to assess matters from a human perspective.

Thus, under normal circumstances, choosing Xiaolianzi Mountain for defense isn't faulty; with Ziqiong City dismissing the returns as not enough for the expense, enduring until the next passage opens is likely.

But what can they do when facing those exploiting rabbits this time?

Let's return our gaze to the conference room.

After introducing the information on Xiaolianzi Mountain's depth aspect, Major General Man continued:

"For this campaign, the core has specially deployed two digital composite brigades along with an infantry brigade, totaling more than 25,000 personnel, including Captain Yan's regiment, with numerous vehicles and other weaponry.

However, this kind of 'many' is relative; considering Xiaolianzi Mountain's main part, our manpower doesn't currently suffice to employ a surrounding, pincered offensive.

Therefore, based on this headcount.

Campaign headquarters, targeting Xiaolianzi Mountain's lack of depth, designed a series of revolving door tactics and magnetic tactics as the strangling formation's main offensive formation.

As for post-main attack tactics...

Major General Man paused, then continued:

"Of course, it's flanking penetration."

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