On February 3, 170 New Calendar, Emperor Meier personally visited the Zhanggul War Zone to supervise the battle. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

In fact, in September 168 of the new calendar, 80% of the strategic objectives of the Zhanggul theater had been achieved, and only the Puran Dowang area was left uncaptured. The Prandowan region is unique in that the daylight hours are very short, the intensity of daylight is insufficient, the temperature is below freezing all year round, and it is covered with snow all year round.

The region of Pramdowan was controlled by the ancient kingdom of Tugu, which was occupied by the Imperial army and the royal family withdrew with its troops. The country had been operating in the Prandowong area for many years, and had built a large number of warehouses and stockpiled a large amount of supplies here, in order to retreat to Prandowong in the event of the fall of the mainland.

If only the army of this country retreated to Prandowong, the Imperial Army would still be able to capture it. The problem is that the remnants of the coalition forces in the entire Zhanggul theater of operations have been withdrawn here, and there are still a large number of people willing to support the old nobility to support them. Most of the soldiers of the Imperial Army were born in the tropical and temperate zones, and very few soldiers were born in the cold zone. There weren't many people in the cold places, and the empire couldn't recruit soldiers from the cold zone.

The area of Prandowong is large, more than 300,000 square kilometers, and it was sparsely populated before the coalition forces retreated. Only a few roads have been built here, and they are all rudimentary dirt paths, barely enough to accommodate two horse-drawn carriages running side by side. The Imperial Army wanted to build roads here, so the frozen soil in the cold zone became the biggest enemy of the engineering troops and construction teams.

Due to lack of preparation, the Imperial Army was severely short of cold equipment, and it was not until April 169 of the new calendar that it was barely replenished. From November 168 to September 169 of the new calendar, for a full ten months, the front advanced less than ten kilometers. The situation in the Zhanggul theater became more and more dire due to the heavy losses of the Imperial Army in the Prandowong area, as well as the loss of a large amount of equipment.

“…… The weather was so cold that the new rifles were often frozen and could not be loaded. Because of the heavy gloves, the reloading time of the musket was nearly doubled, and sometimes the musket would be muted. The snow is too thick for the artillery to transport or deploy, and—"

Mel raised his hand to interrupt Shirley's report, and he sighed heavily and shook his head.

"The problems we have to face, the enemy has to face as well. We must adapt to the land as soon as possible and become more aware of it than the enemy, and only then can we achieve victory. Of course, the problems that should be solved must be solved, but these problems are not something we can solve, and we can only leave them to the Ministry of Scientific Research and the Ministry of Administration. As for us, before we move on to the next step, we have to find out one thing, and that is whether this land can produce food or not. ”

The land of Prandowong is all permafrost, and it stands to reason that it is impossible to grow food. The Imperial Army has already surrounded Prandowong, and although there will still be people who will secretly send food to the coalition army, there are as many as 600,000 coalition troops in the encirclement, and the food sent in is a drop in the bucket, and it is impossible to supply the needs of the 600,000 army.

Although the Imperial Army lost a lot of weapons and equipment due to tactical defeats, it did not lose much grain and grass. Now the Imperial Army has surrounded the coalition forces for a year and a half, but the coalition forces are still in good shape, and it seems that there is no shortage of food. Prandowong has been in business for many years, but its operators are only a small kingdom with a population of less than four million, and there is no black technology, and its production capacity is limited.

If it were only the country's troops who retreated to Prandowong, perhaps they would have been able to resist for three and a half years with the help of food reserves, and with the assistance secretly sent in by the outside world, it would not be too much to resist for more than ten years. However, the total number of allied troops is as high as 600,000, and it stands to reason that the grain reserves here will not last more than a year. However, this was not the case, and Maier felt that the coalition forces should have other means of obtaining food, such as devastating hunting, natural harvesting, or other methods that Maier could not think of.

"The enemy's control over Prandowong is very strong, there are secret posts everywhere, and as long as our scouts leave the area controlled by our army, they will lose contact with our army, and we will not be able to obtain more information."

Shirley has been in the Zhanggul war zone for nine months, and she knows this place well. She was so happy with her father's arrival that her face, which had been slightly sallow from mild malnutrition, turned white and red.

"The long legs of the Tugu people have the advantage here, and their trump card troops can move faster than cavalry in the snow. They often sneak up on our patrols, and they also go around to the rear to attack our supply teams, causing us a lot of trouble. Enemy troops of other races only show up during ambush battles, and are not seen at all on weekdays. ”

"Can you capture the movement of a large army of the enemy in advance?"

"Nope." Shirley shook her head, "The enemy army is elusive, and our army is always very passive. Every time we are ambushed, the enemy suddenly pours out from all directions, so we will suffer heavy losses. They never go head-to-head with us, they only ambush us. Every time we were able to repel them, but their support was so fast that we had to retreat with the wounded first in order not to be surrounded by enemy troops, which is why we lost so much equipment. ”

"I see...... "Maier nodded thoughtfully, "the road is still controlled by them?" ”

Shirley nodded and replied, "We have tried to build roads, and the enemy will not come to interfere with our road construction, but they will try to destroy our roads. For example, using gunpowder canisters to bomb the road surface, or sprinkling water on the road to make the road icy. At the moment we are using the fortress to advance, but it is no less difficult to build a fortress here than it is to build a road, because the ground is too hard. We can now push the front forward by ten kilometres, all supported by fortifications that have been built. At this rate, it will take at least fifteen years for us to take Prandowong. ”

Empires have time, but building forts requires a lot of manpower and resources. By the time the Battle of Plandowang is over, the area will be occupied by a large number of fortresses, and it will be a headache to dismantle them. But if it is not demolished, the empire will have to send people to garrison here, otherwise these fortresses will definitely be used by traitors and lawbreakers.

Maier turned his head to look out the window and saw that it was getting dark. The days in the Prandovan area were short, about eight hours, and the nights were sixteen hours, which was one of the reasons for the slow progress of the Imperial Army.

What a troublesome place.

Mel shook his head helplessly, and he gave Shirley a gentle smile before asking Tal to light the candle. He asked Shirley a few more things about Plandowang, and when it was completely dark, Mel, who had been running from Byron City non-stop, was too sleepy to open his eyes.

Shirley saw her father's appearance and advised him to rest early. She advised her father to take a hot shower and eat something before going to bed so that he could have the energy to work the next day. Maier didn't take a serious break all the way, so he followed his daughter's advice, took a shower, ate something, and then went back to his room to get ready for bed.

When Mel returned to his room, he found Tal standing outside the door. When Tal saw Myer, he knocked on the door, and then stopped him and asked him to wait a moment. After about two minutes, Shirley came out of Meier's room. This surprised Mel, and before he could ask Shirley and Tal about the situation, Shirley urged him to hurry back to sleep.

Mel was so tired that he didn't think too much about it, and went back to his room at Shirley's urging. He looked at the quilt and couldn't help frowning. On the way to Plandowang, Maier had already been plotted by the cold bed. He still couldn't forget the bone-chilling feeling, and then he called Tal over to sleep with him, and the bed became warmer.

It is worth mentioning that Tal was so excited that he didn't fall asleep that night.

I'm going to be completely sleepy when I get in, right?

Suffering early and suffering later will all be suffering. Myr wanted to rest early, so he took off his coat as fast as he could, and got into the bed. To his surprise, it was not cold at all in the quilt, although it was not warm, but it was definitely much more comfortable than the cool quilt. Mel smelled a faint scent on the quilt, which was the smell of Shirley's favorite balm.

Remembering what had just happened, Mel smiled helplessly.

This kid is really ...... Obviously, girls need to keep warm more, and she came to warm my quilt, so I must talk about her tomorrow......

A warm current wells up in my heart, warming my whole body. Mel's eyelids began to heavi, and it didn't take long for her to fall asleep. At the moment of losing consciousness, the corners of his mouth flashed with a happy smile.

When Mel woke up, it was already dawn the next day, which meant that he had slept for more than ten hours. Perhaps influenced by the scent of the quilt, Mel dreamed of Shirley. In his dream, he travels back to the time of the counterinsurgency war, after Shirley and Al were discovered by the guards. At that time, Shirley always ran to Myer's tent under various pretenses, and used various excuses to say that she couldn't sleep, and wanted her father to put her to sleep.

Where does Mel put a child to sleep? All he could do was to stretch out his arms as Shirley asked and let her fall asleep with his arms on his pillow. Sometimes Al comes, but most of the time she's not there. Wait until Shirley is asleep before Mel falls asleep. By the time he woke up, Shirley was gone, every time.

Speaking of which, the kid confessed to me after Kiki's funeral......

Maier shook his head with a wry smile.

It was only because she was so sad and impulsive that she said something like that. After Kiki left, I obviously didn't care enough about Shirley...... Now Euris and Yishan are also gone...... Dela, Raella, and Wayne are all married, so I don't have to worry about anything, but Shirley doesn't......

Shirley needs a husband – and Mel thinks so. But marriage is something you and I want, and the twisted melon is not sweet. Shirley never mentioned getting married, she didn't even want to go on a blind date, and there was nothing Mel could do about it.

After Mel got up, Tal sent someone directly to inform Shirley. Shirley went straight to the kitchen and made breakfast for her father. This is the first time Shirley has cooked for her father, and she learned her cooking skills from Kiki, and the taste is seven or eight points similar to Kiki's food. Maier first ate Shirley's cooking, and thought it was fresh, and praised it before she even started eating. But when Mel put a spoonful of soup into his mouth, his expression froze completely.

Two seconds later, Mel forced out a smile. He took a deep breath and briefly complimented Shirley. He praised him while eating, and after a few bites, he couldn't eat.

The familiar smell reminded him of Kiki, which made his heart twist, and the pain quickly spread from his heart to his whole body. If it weren't for his strong will, he would have cried the moment the food was eaten.

He couldn't help but glance up at Shirley. At this moment, Kiki's face coincided with Shirley's, causing him to lose his mind for a moment. Shirley did not inherit Kiki's height, but her appearance and body were at least eight points similar to her mother's. Except that her eyes are Leiting's eyes, her face is almost carved out of the same mold as Kiki. At first glance, she looks like an enlarged version of Kiki, but Maier has been watching the child carefully, so he doesn't notice it.

"Kiki......

"Father?"

Shirley's voice brought Mel to his senses, and he realized his gaffe, quickly cleared his throat, and pretended to be calm.

"Ah...... It's not too early, so come and eat. I suddenly remembered that I had something to deal with, I had to go back to my room first, you don't have to wait for me, I will prepare my horses after eating, I will go to inspect the troops. ”

With that, Mel hurried out of the dining room. Tal didn't follow, because he knew that Mair wanted to be clean by himself. He didn't expect Shirley's breakfast to remind Mai of Kiki, which he regretted. On the other side, Shirley looked at her father's back as he left in a hurry, and a smile on her lips that was not easy to be noticed.

Finally noticed......

Shirley's fingers lightly swiped over her delicate face, and her eyes were a little lonely.

Unexpectedly, I had to use my mother to get my father's attention......

I'm sorry, Mother. Although you have taught me that I cannot use trickery emotionally, the resistance I have to face is too great for me to do.

Please forgive me, Mother.

I will continue your love for my father, and together with my love, I will soothe my father's heart with two loves.