Before dawn came, the aviation base, codenamed "Dragon's Lair," located deep in the battle line, was busy. In the berthing area of flying battleships, flying battleships and cruisers in complete form rose into the air one after another, meeting with the cruisers waiting over the base; In the landing area of the transport ship, groups of heavily armed soldiers boarded the ship one by one, and the transport ship full of soldiers took off one after another.

The flying ships of the Ulster Free Federation Army are all painted with eye-catching blue star insignia, and at this time, in this very large air base, there is also a group of ships with silver shields and gold crown insignia, they are the "ally troops" sent by the Kingdom of Wessex in the north to participate in the spring conference exercises. In the past, the Wessex Kingdom's participating troops would appear in the second half of the exercise, and each time they played the role of reinforcements from the defender, and this time was obviously no exception.

At the same time, in the No. 2 operational demonstration hall of the general headquarters of the spring conference, members of the exercise evaluation committee gathered around the sand table and listened to a report by the chief of staff of the defending side on the latest operational deployment -- after three consecutive days of fierce fighting, the defending side had stabilized its position in the last line of defense and launched a tactical counterattack in a local area, temporarily curbing the offensive momentum of the attacking side. In order to reverse the offensive and defensive situation as soon as possible and get rid of the "battle damage punishment" caused by successive defeats, the defenders gathered four divisions of elite troops, together with the "allied reinforcements" of the Wessex Kingdom, to carry out large-scale airborne operations behind the left flank of the enemy's battle line, and the ground troops will also cooperate in launching an offensive and flanking the enemy's left flank in front and rear.

"The first wave of the airborne forces consisted of the 71st and 80th divisions, and the airborne field was located north of Volak City, and after the landing of these two divisions, the first task was to cut off the enemy's communication with the front-line troops in Volak City and to besiege the city from the north, east and south. The second wave of airborne forces consisted of the 53rd and 59th Divisions and the Kingdom of Wessex Task Force, the 53rd Division's mission was to encircle and capture Volak City with friendly forces, the loss of the siege force was expected to be around 10,000 men, and the siege operation was completed within 36 hours; The task of the 59th Division is to penetrate directly into the rear of the enemy's battle line, launch an attack on the enemy's deep positions in sections C31-C32, strive to achieve a breakthrough within 12 hours, and focus on seizing or destroying the enemy's artillery units in this area; The Wessex Kingdom Task Force only has 70% of our combat divisions, so we arranged for them to attack and capture the towns of Senyuan and Caolin to the west of Volak City, establish blocking positions, and pin down enemy reinforcements. ”

After explaining his side's latest operational deployment with clear thinking and fluent language, Lieutenant General Daengos, chief of staff of the defending side, waited for the committee members' questions and comments in a straight manner.

As usual, the committee members asked a few questions about equipment input and expected losses, and then they raised their questions about the location and combat mission of the Wessex Kingdom Task Force: In the early years, the Wessex Kingdom sent a large number of troops to participate in the training, and their combat effectiveness was strong, and they were positioned as "a new force in the middle and late stages of the war" in the drill exercises, but in recent years, with the subtle changes in the relations between the two countries, the number of troops sent by the Wessex Kingdom for training has been continuously reduced, and in the past three years, there has not even been a full combat division. Is it appropriate to involve them in the fight behind enemy lines? Is it appropriate to leave them alone with the task of interdiction?

Lieutenant General Da Ngos, who was already gray-haired in his fifties, explained that this arrangement was mainly based on two considerations: first, the defender's troops were too consumed, and many of the main divisions urgently needed time to rest and replenish, and a large number of troops were deployed in front of the defensive line. The second is that General Link, commander of the training unit of the Wessex Kingdom, took the initiative to invite Ying to participate in the war, hoping to hone his troops through this conference and improve and enhance the relationship between the two armies by the way.

After a brief consultation, the commissioners accepted General Daengos's explanation and agreed that the defending side would proceed according to the plan.

After leaving the exercise headquarters, General D'Arngos immediately instructed his entourage to send out a radio signal to instruct the participating troops to immediately launch an operation -- such a tight arrangement could prevent the other side from obtaining information about his own deployment through extraordinary channels as much as possible. Although from a political and strategic point of view, the defender must be the victor in this exercise, the attacker will not sit idly by during the exercise, and the more trouble they cause to the defender, the more brilliant their performance will be, and the more their command and staff officers will be recognized by the top level, and thus obtain better praise and promotion opportunities.

Receiving the order to attack, the battle fleet quickly advanced to the theater of operations. According to the rules of the exercise, the flying ships judged to be damaged or seriously injured have all withdrawn from the exercise, and those with moderate and slight damage will have to wait for a certain amount of time before returning to the combat ranks, resulting in a significant reduction in the number of flying ships available to both sides in the middle of the exercise, and the battle at this time is mainly between the ground forces of the two sides, and this setting is highly consistent with the actual combat situation.

When the attacker's airmobile forces were attracted by the defending fleet, the defender's five squadrons of transports, under the direct cover of the Munster garrison, bypassed the attacker's left flank and quickly pounced on Volak City, which the defender was using to rest and stockpile supplies. After arriving at the target area, the Munster garrison launched suppressive fire on the defenders of the city with the two remaining armored cruisers, and the two elite infantry divisions that were close to full strength landed outside the city in only 40 minutes.

The Wessex Kingdom's training fleet, which had not participated in the "battle" before, then appeared on the battlefield with an exceptionally neat lineup. They escorted 15 transports with 10 flying warships, including 3 large transports that could carry 1,500 soldiers and all their combat equipment at a time, and flew to the northwest of Volak City unintercepted. All 8,600 combat infantry landed in half an hour, and after a short period of grouping, they marched west in regimental units.

After completing the scheduled airborne mission, more than 100 flying ships of the Ulster Free Federation Army and the Royal Defense Force of the Kingdom of Wessex turned around and returned home. The queue was orderly when it came, and it looked messy when it returned. In the process, no one noticed that a light transport ship with the Silver Shield Gold Crown logo was "left behind". It ducked into the clouds and flew south at full speed.

In this era of no radar, people can observe air targets by sight and ears, so the cloudy weather is both loved and hated by warship commanders, who can use the cover of clouds to march covertly and advance and retreat on the battlefield with ease, and their opponents can also use the clouds to deploy tactics.

After a two-hour flight, the light transport ship emerged from the clouds, and after checking its position through the terrain features, it opened a special hatch at the rear and released an unpowered glider, before quickly burrowing back into the clouds and hiding its form.

(In the process, the Navigator on board the Ulster Free Federation Army was in a daze for what had happened, for after landing outside Volak, he fell into a coma "or" from fatigue and did not wake up until he returned to the Dragon's Lair, and the navigator's coma became an ideal excuse for the light transport ship to get lost halfway and delay for several hours before returning to the air base.) ）

On this day, both the attacking soldiers stationed in the town of Epolon and the two Basston student regiment cadets who sneaked out of the town to reconnoiter were completely ignorant of the fierce fighting that took place more than 200 kilometers away, and they were still carrying out their respective tasks according to their respective roles.

As the unmarked glider silently skimmed through the woods, Cullens Fitzler, a cadet who had come with Kunisen, happened to catch a glimpse of it.

"Hey, lo and behold, a flying machine!"

Kunison hurriedly looked up at the sky, but he saw nothing.

In an affirmative tone and technical jargon, Cullens said to Kunison, "It was definitely a flying machine, a flying machine that relied on aerodynamic power rather than star stone lift. ”

Kunison frowned slightly: "That Lebold really got it out?" ”

Cullens whispered, "I heard that, like his brother, he wanted to be a flying battleship commander since he was a child, but his father was worried that he would lose his two sons in an air battle, so he only allowed his brother to join the air force and let him come to the Bathton Military Academy." He had no interest in the Army course, but spent a lot of time and effort on flying machines, and became an expert in this field. ”

Kunison snorted coldly: "You are so concerned about the affairs of this president's son, you have to find a chance to make friends." ”

Cullens smiled awkwardly: "It's a pity that this president's son has a strange temper, and ordinary people can't say two sentences at all." ”

"He's on good terms with that Clumber Haysen." Kunison said angrily.

"But then again, the aircraft usually uses a car engine to drive the propellers to provide the propulsion and then fly on aerodynamic force, and I didn't hear a sound when it flew over the woods. That's not quite right! ”

Kunison rolled his eyes: "You mean...... Could it have malfunctioned? ”

"Well, it's possible. I've seen flying racing, but they can also get out of control completely and fall to pieces. ”

"Isn't that great? Like I said, this is a chance to make friends with him! "I'll just stay here, and you can go over and see what happens." ”

"You're not going?" Cullens was surprised.

"I'm not the same as them!" Kunison replied dryly.

Cullens hesitated: "Okay then! I'm going to see what happens, after all, he's on our side now, and if something goes wrong with him, we won't be able to get any benefit. ”

Kunison replied coldly and said no more.

Kalens ducked back into the woods, untied the reins from the tree, turned on his horse, and rode in the direction the plane had left.