The First Order

Chapter 857: A new contest

The Pyro Company's main forces had gathered 70 kilometers away in the vast plains and forest north of Mt. Dashi. They were planning to establish a defensive line that stretched 31 kilometers long, and currently, only seven kilometers of the construction was complete.

A large number of refugees and stronghold residents had been deployed to the front lines. Besides engineers and maintenance workers, all able-bodied male adults were recruited for the construction as well.

After these refugees and stronghold residents arrived here, their only job was to race against time and build the defensive line as quickly as possible.

Several hundred brick kilns at the rear were working nonstop to fire bricks, and due to that, the amount of silt dug up from the nearby river had caused the channel to widen by more than ten times.

It was an extremely shocking sight. If someone were to look down from above, the defensive line could be seen extending horizontally outwards to the left and right.

In Hope Media's article, they reported that when foreign enemies came attacking, a new Great Wall in human history would rise once more.

Initially, the plains to the north of the New Great Wall did not have a name. But it had been named the Dingyuan Plains[1]. That was because the Pyro Company was aware the barbarian troops were called the expeditionary army. As such, they planned to stop the barbarians at the Dingyuan Plains and send them back where they came from when the opportunity arose.

Actually, the main purpose of this war was to effectively wipe out as many of the barbarian troops as they could.

If they just defeated the barbarians without killing enough of them, the opponent might just make a comeback after some years.

As the terrain of the Dingyuan Plains was flat, the Pyro Company could maximize the power of their firearms and explosives against the barbarians.

Prior to this, the Pyro Company was most fond of fighting battles on complex terrain, because they had an overall stronger physical fitness. Once a battle broke out against their enemies in the mountains, be it the Kong Consortium or the Wang Consortium, they could only scurry away like frightened rats.

Even if the Kong Consortium had more troops than the Pyro Company, they would also be slowly worn down by the Pyro Company. This was a huge advantage the Pyro Company had over the Kong Consortium with their stronger physical fitness.

But it was different now. Even though the barbarians did not use firearms and explosives, they were much fitter than the Pyro Company's troops.

Using the Pyro Company's own strength as a comparison, their average combat power would be between T1 and T2, while almost all of the barbarians were rated as T3s.

Moreover, after the battle at Mt. Dashi, P5092 had submitted a very detailed combat report. One of the important points to take note of was that there were also stronger individuals among the barbarians.

The barbarians had already faced off with the Pyro Company's main forces multiple times in the region between the Dingyuan Plains and the New Great Wall. However, they were still at the stage of probing each other's strengths.

The Pyro Company's 3rd Division led by P5092 had already arrived and garrisoned the strategic location assigned to them along the front lines.

However, the first thing P5092 did was not to consolidate the military and defensive line but to hang the barbarian corpses they had killed at Mt. Dashi in a very prominent area beyond the defensive line.

Hundreds of wooden stakes were suddenly erected outside the New Great Wall where P5092 was standing. The barbarian corpses hanging from them swayed like tattered rags in the wind.

After all, the massacre at Stronghold 176 had really angered everyone in the Central Plains, including the Pyro Company.

And P5092 was trying to provoke the barbarians.

To achieve this, he even ordered the main forces that went into Mt. Dashi to not let any barbarians escape. After killing them, they loaded all their corpses into the trucks and transported them to the front lines.

Crows were circling in the sky as though they could not wait to devour the barbarians' corpses. However, the Pyro Company soldiers did not care and just let the birds eat to their heart's content.

P5092 knew the barbarians' scouts must be observing this place secretly, and that would be enough for him.

His deputy commander who was standing off to the side whispered, "Sir, if you do that, you're probably going to make the barbarians very angry. I hope they won't concentrate their attacks on our lines when the time comes."

P5092 stood atop the New Great Wall in this era of the wastelands. He saw it stretching far into the distance until he could no longer see the end of it.

He said coldly, "Let them come then. That's exactly my intention."

At 11 o'clock that night, dozens of flares were suddenly launched into the sky from the New Great Wall, releasing a tremendous amount of heat and light.

When the flares reached their apex, they began falling back to the ground slowly. With that, the Pyro Company soldiers on the Great Wall could clearly see thousands of barbarians running on the ground from the north with the aid of the flares' illumination.

P5092 calmly looked at this sight. "So we really managed to provoke them? Their advance guard has turned out in full force. Hand down my orders to open fire on any who enter within range. Show them no mercy."

His deputy commander asked, "What if they run away?"

If they opened fire as soon as the barbarians got within range, that would mean their opponent could get out of their area of fire by retreating a little. Then it would be very difficult to kill more of them.

P5092 could not possibly be unaware of this. The high-ranking Pyro Company officer took off his black sheepskin gloves and said, "It's alright. Just proceed according to my plan."

The Pyro Company soldiers continued firing more flares into the sky. Someone watched the incoming barbarians in the distance and muttered, "Those barbarians sure can run fast. It almost looks like they're brown bears. If they get near us, our defensive line will probably be torn apart in an instant. Wait, look! The barbarians at the front look like they're dragging something."

A moment later, someone suddenly issued the order. "Open fire!"

Heavy machine gun rounds were visible to the naked eye when fired during the night. When the heavy machine guns were fired into the distance, they formed a trail resembling a long whip lashing at the barbarians' advance guard!

The garrison troops at the other locations on the Great Wall were alarmed by the battle over here. They all took out their binoculars to observe. Someone radioed over to ask P5092 if they needed any reinforcements. However, P5092 replied there was no need.

Everyone could see through their binoculars that the most well-built barbarians who were running at the front had suddenly placed large shields more than two meters tall in front of them!

Five barbarians held up a shield at the same time, and it was specially made from multilayer compressed leather. They continued advancing at a very fast speed even though the shields were extremely massive and solid.

It was so heavy that five barbarians were needed to hold one up together even with their strong physical fitness.

When the machine gun bullets finally impacted the shields, it sounded like heavy rain hitting the ground. The top layer of the leather shields started cracking all around when they were hit by the bullets. But to everyone's surprise, the heavy machine guns were unable to fully penetrate the shields!

The deputy commander was shocked. He did not know what the shields were made of. If they allowed the enemies to get far closer before opening fire, they might have been able to approach the base of the wall relying on those shields alone. Then, with their strong physical fitness, they could climb up the Great Wall and tear apart the defensive line.

The deputy commander glanced at P5092. "Sir, were you expecting them to have a strategy like that?"

"No, I just thought it was better to play it safe. We can't be too greedy on the battlefield." P5092 shook his head. "At the very least, we definitely should not think about wiping out the enemy before figuring out their actual strength. Get ready to launch the mortars. Be careful, the battle tonight is only just beginning."

[1] 定 (Dìng) is the Chinese character for 平定 (Píngdìng) which has the meaning of "to quell; pacify; suppress; put down a rebellion," and 远 (yuǎn) refers to the first character of the expeditionary army (远征军团)