Otherworld Advance Team
Chapter 130 - 126: Reconnaissance of the Base

Chapter 130: Chapter 126: Reconnaissance of the Base

The two of them exchanged glances, their brows furrowed. If the situation was as they suspected, then things were indeed quite serious. The fact that Masya’s frontline forces were willing to use five rounds of artillery on merely five of them indicated that their ammunition was, plainly, abundant.

Masya had requested an ammo purchase from the United Nations at the beginning of the year, and now it was year’s end. In this period, the United Nations hadn’t agreed to sell Masya any rounds. This implied that Masya, throughout the year, must have had a steady supply of ammunition from an unknown source, supporting their war efforts.

This was not a small matter. If pushed, the UN Security Council could indeed resort to turning Otherworld upside down in search for culprits.

The night passed without conversation, the group gathered around a bonfire until daylight. The weather remained clear, allowing them to travel through the snow-capped mountains outside wearing sunglasses. At this point, they had to return to the frontline legion’s base for a report; they were also keen to understand why Rodney would resort to using artillery instead of deploying troops.

Although they already had their suspicions, they still had to follow protocol, especially since they had in their possession the carrier pigeon cage for Princess Melia. Rodney might serve the Crown Prince, but he was bound to have some reverence for the Princess.

The accumulated snow on the road seemed harder on the return journey, not up to their knees, as it had been before. They finally arrived at the main base of the frontline troops in the afternoon, albeit after some delay from the on-duty guards who pretended not to recognize them. However, Luo’er believed the most important thing at the moment was finding out the exact number of rounds the frontline troops had in reserve.

Inside the base, Rodney was expecting them. His face broke into a broad smile when he saw their safe return, a smile that, to Luo’er and his companions, appeared full of mockery.

"Captain Luo’er, welcome back!" Rodney said in a respectful tone as he saw Luo’er dismount.

"Thanks to you, we weren’t blown to pieces by the cannon fire," Luo’er replied coldly.

"I apologize. My soldiers are still unacquainted with the artillery. I’m sorry if you were alarmed," Rodney said, his face still full of that same mocking smile.

"Commander, we are the saviors and friends of Princess Melia. We have already reported this matter to the Princess. We hope you will exercise restraint next time and avoid causing unnecessary displeasure," Luo’er responded, his face stern. He didn’t have the patience to engage in bureaucracy and got straight to the point.

He knew that Rodney would likely continue to stretch their patience at the frontline base. His only hope was to use the backing from Princess Melia to make Rodney exercise some caution. If Rodney pushed them too far, there could be trouble if the Advance Team was killed in the base.

"We will definitely investigate this and provide an explanation," Rodney responded as his smile gradually froze upon hearing Luo’er’s words. "What have you learned from your reconnaissance in enemy territory?"

"A village approximately 30 kilometers from the front was occupied by the rebels. However, it has been destroyed by your frontline troops’ artillery fire," Luo’er replied, his gaze never leaving Rodney’s.

"In the middle of winter, it’s impractical to send troops on an attack 30 kilometers inside enemy territory. Destroying it with artillery fire was the best option," Rodney said confidently, completely unfazed by Luo’er’s gaze.

Luo’er glared at him before closing his mouth. While their mission did involve disrupting the frontline troops, at this moment it wasn’t practical to get into an argument with Rodney. If they wanted to sow discord between them and Otland’s troops and still be able to retreat unharmed, they needed to tread carefully.

Ignoring Luo’er, Rodney’s leering gaze fell again on the two girls. Not because women were rare, but it was indeed infrequent to come across well-developed, pure, fair-skinned girls like Tangmo and Baiyue.

In Rodney’s mind, only noble girls looked like this, while common women were usually tan and emaciated, with rough hands and feet due to hard labor. For someone of Rodney’s stature, toying with such women would be beneath his dignity as a commander.

Suddenly, his gaze turned to Yaning, and with furrowed brows he asked, "Who is she? The frontline base isn’t a place anyone can just show up at—is she a spy for the rebels?"

Seeing Rodney’s attention on Yaning, Tangmo turned her away protectively, shielding her from Rodney’s view.

"She’s our slave," Luo’er interjected bluntly, "Hard won from the village."

"This isn’t right," Rodney objected, "You are scouts for the army. Theoretically, any bounty you discover should belong to the army, not kept for personal use."

"Commander," Luo’er calmly responded, "I suggest you steer clear of her. Princess Melia has taken a special interest in her. We plan on offering her as a gift to the princess."

"Princess Melia? How are you in communication..." Rodney suddenly noticed the carrier pigeon cage on Baiyue’s horse and promptly closed his mouth.

Even though he’s the Crown Prince’s man, Princess Melia has neither power nor status to pose any threat to the Crown Prince at present. Therefore, even if he complained to the Crown Prince, the latter was likely to not be of any help.

Though Princess Melia is the half-sister of the Crown Prince, there’s a certain sentiment he harbors toward her, otherwise he wouldn’t have agreed to have her men infiltrated among his own troops.

Overall, Crown Prince Oliver is probably the only one unaware of how dangerous Princess Melia can be. Hence, when she poses no threat to him, he is more willing to accept her than eradicate the problem at its root.

"Since it is for Princess Melia, I will not pry further. You all have come home victorious and I have already instructed the servants to prepare a feast to celebrate your safety," Rodney said with a smile.

"There’s no need, General. We appreciate your kind gesture, but it’s not the time for celebrations yet. It won’t be too late to celebrate after a successful spring offensive," Luo’er calmly declined his proposal.

They bid farewell to Rodney and arrived at their own tents. For Luo’er, it was of utmost importance to understand the ammunition reserves of the frontline army. As for muddling the relationship between the frontline army and the dispatched forces of Odelanqi, it could wait for now.

Once the source of Masya’s army ammunition is identified, it would put an end to the ceaseless arguments in the UN Security Council that had lasted for half a year, allowing them to focus on the imminent Third Interdimensional War.

They asked the two girls to stay behind in the tent to take care of Yaning while the three of them strolled around the camp. The casual walk was actually a reconnaissance.

Pulling artillery was clearly the major weapon of the frontline troops, therefore the area where the artillery was located was classified as the core area. They initially planned to fake casual strolls near the artillery but were soon driven away by the guards.

Cheng Ziang noticed that there were several large tents next to the artillery position. He analyzed that it was likely where the shells were stored and that it would be necessary to sneak in for investigation at night.

Through their reconnaissance, they roughly understood the situation of the frontline army camp. The whole camp stretched out from west to east along the battle line, extending all the way to the river next to Obus. The main area of the camp was the headquarters, and the forest clearing to the northeast of the headquarters was the camp of the Odelanqi’s mage legion. The dispatched forces of Odelanqi, Gudelv’s royal knight legion, were guarding in front of the mage legion.

The position behind the headquarters to the east was the army’s artillery position, equipped with eighteen large-caliber pulling artilleries. Based on Luo’er’s past experience, these artilleries’ range definitely exceeded 30 kilometers, otherwise, they wouldn’t have been able to completely cover the villages within the enemy territory.

There were several big tents potentially used for storing the shells behind the artillery position near the mountain. The frontline army planned to launch an offensive in the spring to eliminate the threat of Obus being surrounded and to push the frontline forward by 100 kilometers.

Such a large offensive required a formidable amount of shells and those stored in the few tents were insufficient. Therefore, the reconnaissance focus of the advance team is to determine the input route of these shells and figure out who is supplying Masya’s army with them.

Whether in Earth or the Otherworld, artillery has always been the main force of ground warfare. Before contact with Earth, the artillery used in the Otherworld was basically outdated, using black powder to fire solid bullets.

Such artillery was indeed effective when dealing with a single enemy, and even tier-two defense runes might not be able to resist. But once the enemy launched a cluster charge, particularly using magic for defense, it could minimize the threat of artillery.

Due to magic, the development of artillery in the Otherworld hadn’t significantly progressed, and the entire military operation system revolved around magic. This situation didn’t change until the Interdimensional War.

In the first Interdimensional War, the invading Otherworld Allied Army, which lost the protection of magic, had its magic-centric military offensive system collapse instantaneously and was defeated by the US Army, which had powerful ground and air firepower.

In the second Interdimensional War, despite the home-court advantage allowing them to use the magic-centric offensive system against multinational forces, the mature and advanced firepower suppression tactics of Earth left a profound shock on them. Large-caliber howitzers could instantly tear their formation apart, easily breaking their cluster warfare system.

Although they had defense magic to prevent the Otherworld Allied Army from being too embarrassed, all the countries of the Otherworld were deeply impressed by the Earth’s advanced artillery technology.

That’s why even Masya, a country that advocates the old magic system army, is willing to purchase Earth’s artillery for warfare. After all, as a weapon, power is always the most attractive feature.

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