As the war progressed, the Norman Empire, the Union Army, and the Wessex Army repeatedly fought on various fronts, and the scale and intensity of the war intensified, and the continuous consumption and replenishment of troops made the need for weapons and equipment on both sides a terrible bottomless pit. Although the Normans and the Union army valued the performance of their weapons, by the middle of the war they had to make a change - they chose a more pragmatic wartime thinking, that is, simplifying the complex, the less man-hours the better, the more productive the better, as long as the performance and quality of the equipment did not fall below the limit, everything could be considered.

Against this backdrop, the warring parties have undergone drastic changes in their military aspects. In the early days of the war, the federal army, which was losing and retreating one after another, was the first to "think of change when it is poor," and the army's field units were reorganized from the traditional combat divisions, alert divisions, and reserve divisions into national defense divisions, which greatly enhanced the combat effectiveness of the troops, and the flying units underwent revolutionary changes. On the Norman side, the adjustment of the army units was more at the command level, and it could even be said to be a "side effect" brought about by a power struggle, although this power struggle also affected the formation and deployment of the aviation force, but in the face of the united resistance of the federal army, the Norman fleet, which suffered heavy losses, had to make major adjustments at the technical and tactical level: they used the loot captured in Wessex and their own resources to complete the construction of a number of assault ships in a relatively short time, It not only made up for the losses of the capital ships in the early stage to a large extent, but also significantly improved the ground suppression capability of the aviation forces. At the same time, the Normans changed the original three-class armored cruisers into standard-type battle cruisers, which were roughly equivalent in tonnage and combat power to the second-class armored cruisers at the beginning of the war; Changing the various types of fast cruisers and frigate cruisers to standard air defense cruisers, the tonnage and combat power of which were roughly equivalent to the first class frigate cruisers at the beginning of the war; The three classes of cruisers were changed to standard escort ships, and their tonnage and combat power were roughly equivalent to those of the second class frigates at the beginning of the war...... Through this kind of mass production and standardization, the production of flying warships has jumped to more than twice as much as before the war!

This time, the two Norman battleships that Weiss used to play with the help of the dense fog were the large air defense cruisers, and the small ones were escort ships. The former is equipped with 7 pairs of twin main guns and nearly 100 rapid-fire guns and machine guns, and it is a flying hedgehog alive, and the firepower output efficiency is comparable to that of the past third-class armored cruisers, and more than 40% of the parts adopt the integrated casting process of armor and hull, which greatly reduces the amount of riveting engineering of hull armor; The latter returned to the low-cost profile single-mounted main gun and large propeller thruster, using an integrated casting process to cover more than 50% of the hull parts, and replacing the sophisticated military boilers and steam engines with tandem internal combustion engines - at roughly the same tonnage, the cost was much lower than that of the old second-class cruisers, but the actual combat effectiveness continued unabated.

The annoyed flying hedgehog was only shooting indiscriminately at first, and when the target it attacked returned fire, the Norman gunners, who thought they had locked on the enemy's tracks, completely let go of themselves, 10 of the 14 guns could fire at the same target, and the rapid-fire guns on the side were also desperately pouring artillery fire on the enemy hidden in the thick fog...... In Weiss's special vision, the poor Norman cruiser was quickly bleeding under the blows of its own cruisers, and its hasty counterattack was ineffective, firing hundreds of shells, only one or two hits, and the Norman cruiser on the opposite side showed almost no substantial damage.

Before the friendly ship could be completely destroyed, the Norman cruiser finally ceased fire. It seems that although the fog obscured the view, its commander realized that something was quite wrong—perhaps a keen battlefield instinct came into play, or perhaps he had received a distress telegram from the dying cruiser that had been beaten, and he ordered a ceasefire. After that, the Norman cruiser slowly followed the direction of the shot, but before it could get closer, the battered cruiser could no longer hold on and began to fall, and after a while, only a few loud noises were heard, and the guy crashed to the ground, and the remaining ammunition was violently detonated.

The clever plan succeeded, and Weiss's reaction was very calm. He curled the corners of his mouth slightly, squinted at the direction and course of the Norman cruiser, quickly calculated the deceptive trajectory of the trajectory, and then adjusted the angle of the two naval guns, and once again opened fire on the Norman cruiser while the enemy was suspicious. After firing two shells, he hurriedly ordered his "free men" to call Brother Hu Zi and ask them to help evacuate the four wounded from the transport ship, and then set a fire in the coal bunker to give the transport ship a "cremation".

With the order in place, Weiss found and removed one of the ship's anti-aircraft sirens and went around from the outside to the door of the cargo hold where the food was unloaded. The strong men of the tribe had no physical strength, and carried heavy loads for several hours in a row, with only two short breaks in between. Thanks to their efforts, almost eighty percent of the mountain of food has been removed. The rest of the pile of cargo looks like a sight to behold, and it would be a shame to burn along with the transport, but the current situation really doesn't allow them to achieve perfection.

Within ten minutes, all personnel had been evacuated from the long-lost transport, and Weiss was the last to walk into the woods, where he looked back under an oak. It didn't take long for the Norman cruiser to come out of the thick fog, like a murderous black dragon, originally extremely vicious, but when I saw this burning transport ship, I immediately fell into confusion: Who is beating me? Who am I fighting?

Weiss turned and walked into the woods, turning the hand-cranked anti-aircraft siren he had brought out, and the low and poignant sound of the anti-aircraft siren suddenly resounded through the dense foggy mountain forest, stirring the nerves of the Normans who were already entangled and confused......

Hovering over the mountains and forests for a while, the Norman cruiser climbed hopelessly to the top of the fog. After that, whatever happened on the ground seemed to have nothing to do with it. Weiss and his warriors, along with the hired tribal warriors, waited in the woods for reinforcements, and the Normans seemed to be waiting for something. By the afternoon, the dense fog in the mountains and forests had gradually lifted, and the Norman transport and cruiser that had crashed had burned into two piles of charred wreckage, which also set fire to some surrounding trees. From above, this scene can be seen at a glance, of course, the Normans on the cruiser can also be 100% sure that there are no Federation flying ships in this area at the moment, as for whether it or they have come, and what kind of battle it is, I am afraid that I will not be able to find the answer just by looking at these remnants.

The four hours between the fog and nightfall are undoubtedly a difficult and leisurely time. The wounded soldiers of the guerrilla advance party and the hired warriors of the tribe had nothing to do, and each slept soundly in a secluded and comfortable place as possible. Weiss found a tall fir tree and sat on the branch to keep watch, and his "free men" sat under the tree with semi-automatic rifles, waiting to be sent at any time. The result was somewhat surprising: the Norman crew who had escaped and hid had since sent a distress signal to the cruiser in the air in various ways, and the Norman cruiser was slow to respond, whether it was concern or some other reason. It wasn't until just before dark that a cruiser flew in from the direction of Forther, came to the crash of the two ships, and lowered a small number of armed men in the pod - these people mainly surveyed the wreckage of the ships and the obvious signs of battle nearby, and did not enter the woods where Weiss and the others were hiding. Soon, the men returned to the cruiser, searched the smoke in the mountains and forests, and rescued some of the surviving crew members who had escaped from the transport.

After dark, the two Norman warships did not leave, but continued to maintain a combination of one high and one low, one static and one moving. The Norman cruiser that had shot the friendly ship continued to maintain a cold and arrogant attitude, patrolling the mountains and forests that belonged to the Free Federation of Ulster in the night sky with the bright moon hanging high. The Normans have taken control of this place at the cost of their blood and lives, and now they have to defend it at the cost of blood and their lives, and this is war—sometimes it can bring everything a nation and a people can only dream of, and sometimes it is just a terrible nightmare, and in the end nothing is gained.

The Norman cruiser, which arrived behind, continued to fly close to the woods, unhurriedly rescuing more of the surviving crew. Although the enemy ship was slow to pay attention to the area around the downed transport, and the rescued Norman crew certainly did not know what the battle was all about in the fog, the officers on the cruiser would surely know that their transport had crashed because the ship was mixed with the enemy, and reported the situation to their superiors. If there were Union warships in the area when the fog was thick, the attackers might have flown away on board, but if not, they would most likely still be in the woods...... Through empathy and logical simulations, Weiss speculated that the Normans would soon realize this potential possibility, and that it would not take much effort or time to confirm it, whether or not there would be fog the next day, that it would become increasingly unsafe to be here, and that if the reinforcements did not arrive, they would have to leave the food they had so hard to get and evacuate first.

It was almost midnight, and the reinforcements had not yet appeared, but the Norman cruiser could not bear to leave first. As soon as the "big man" left, the commander of the Norman cruiser probably felt that this place was dangerous and that it was not advisable to stay for a long time, so he hurriedly left. Seeing this situation, Weiss was not overjoyed, but worried about the situation of the main force of his guerrilla advance force, if something happened, it would really be "picking up sesame seeds and losing watermelon", and it would be useless to regret the intestines.

At two o'clock in the morning, the seemingly indefinite wait finally came to an end, and a small detachment of the guerrilla advance team appeared in the woods. After identifying them from afar, Weiss personally went out to meet them, and learned that the large force bound for Forther was behind them—and after receiving the news, they arrived without delay, and the reason for this later than Weiss had expected was because the messenger had circled in the fog and had only joined the troops the afternoon before. In addition, large groups of troops marched long distances, and they could not lose any equipment and ammunition, and the speed of march was slightly slower than that of normal armed marches.

After listening to the explanation, Weiss finally breathed a sigh of relief, but immediately calculated: because of the planned raid on the fortress, although the troops did not carry additional baggage, but bullets, grenades, mortar shells, explosives and other combat necessities, plus ordnance and equipment, the average weight of each person has exceeded half of the limit load, even if everyone comes here to have a full meal, and then the payload is full, they can only take away part of the food. If you let everyone turn into a "porter" and carry it around two people in a box, the problem of transportation capacity will be basically solved, and the food supply for almost half a month will also be solved, but the speed of transfer may not even be guaranteed at half the normal marching speed.

Either...... Thinking about setting up a new secret camp in situ?