"Air supremacy on the battlefield cannot be overemphasized. If our army wants to launch an effective counterattack, it is imperative to regain air supremacy, otherwise the ground forces will have to bear the threat from the air every time they push forward, and they will inevitably pay huge casualties; At the same time, our artillery positions will also be suppressed by the enemy's train guns, unable to provide fire support to the front-line troops within the effective firing range, combined with the above factors, the battlefield on the Western Front needs the return of Major General Fanny and the 'Flying Dragon Knights' more urgently than ever. ”

When Marshal Pavel sent this letter to Roland, he had not yet received the news that the train cannon had been infiltrated and destroyed by Lena and others, so he still took the four "Old Charlie" into account as an important factor when analyzing the battle plan.

Roland replied in the afternoon of the day he received the letter from His Excellency the Marshal, saying that he had consulted Major General Fanny, and that the Knights of the Wyvern would depart from the port of Parnia before dawn tomorrow and would arrive in Cold Creek at about two o'clock in the afternoon, and that he himself would go with the army to Cold Creek to comfort the soldiers and civilians on the front line.

Because of these foreshadowings, when Roland delivered a public speech on the streets of Lengxi Town on the afternoon of 5 May, he had the confidence to "blow the clarion call for a counterattack" and declare that the war on the Western Front would change from defense to counteroffensive.

At the end of an afternoon of labor activities, Roland had a simple dinner at the headquarters and convened all the generals to hold a combat meeting overnight.

The strategic policy of the counteroffensive on the Western Front has been decided, and the question now is how to devise a complete counteroffensive plan at the tactical level.

The staff team of the headquarters has drawn up a draft of the operation, and Marshal Pavel and his generals discussed the draft one by one as early as yesterday afternoon. Roland held a combat meeting today, mainly to listen to the established reports, not really to let him, the regent of the Far East, give advice to the front-line generals.

Roland had always been self-aware, knowing that his strengths lay in the financial and diplomatic fields, and that he was a layman in the field of military command, far worse than his father Rudolf I, so he tried to express his opinions in the military field as little as possible, and fully trusted the high-ranking generals promoted by his father, and the battle-tested and disciplined army he inherited from his father.

According to the operational plan formulated by the Western Front Command, the primary purpose of the counteroffensive operation was to interrupt the process of crossing the river of the Imperial Expeditionary Corps, and from this point of view, the sooner the counteroffensive was launched, the better, because the longer the time was delayed, the more Imperial troops would cross the Turbid River by transport airships, so that the forces on the eastern bank positions could be strengthened, thus causing more obstacles to the offensive of the Far Eastern side.

Therefore, Marshal Pavel and his staff team agreed that tomorrow morning would be the best time to launch a counteroffensive. The mages of the army performed a divination on the recent weather, and the results showed that there was a high probability that the next week would be sunny, which is rare in the Far East in late spring and early summer, and is ideal for large-scale battles.

"Your Royal Highness Regent, according to the draft formulated by the headquarters meeting yesterday, the battle will officially begin at seven o'clock tomorrow morning, the 1st Artillery Division under the command of General Yuri Popov will take the lead in launching the offensive to provide fire support to the front-line troops with the mission of attacking the fortification, the 1st Independent Mechanical Armored Brigade of the Far East led by Major General Franis will launch an offensive from the front of the battlefield under the cover of artillery fire from the rear, and the Grenadier Division of our army will use the mobile barrier formed by mechanical armor as a cover, accompanying the 1st Armored Knights Brigade to attack the enemy's positions on the east bank."

"At the same time that the 1st Armored Knight Brigade and the Grenadier Cavalry Division launched an assault from the front, our Army's Holy Guard Heavy Cavalry Division and Ranger Chaser Division will also cooperate with the central troops to outflank from the left and right flanks to form an encirclement of the enemy's positions on the east bank."

"There is also a dwarven heavy infantry division on the western front, and I plan to keep it as a reserve, and if the offensive is blocked, it will be put into the battlefield, and at the same time, it will be used to prevent the enemy from sending mobile troops to sneak attack the headquarters of Leng Xi Town."

The above-mentioned operational arrangements reported by Marshal Pavel to Roland were all consensus reached at yesterday's operational meeting, but there was still a great deal of controversy over the dispatch of the Air Force in the future.

Marshal Pavel himself intended to press all the air forces in his hands to the front:

"At 6:30 a.m. tomorrow, the Fourth and Fifth Airship Fleets of the Far East, led by General Jennifer, commander of the Air Force on the Western Front, will attack from the Lengxi Town Air Base and arrive over the east bank of the Turbidity River before the ground forces officially launch an offensive."

"General Fanny led the 'Wyvern Knights' to provide escort for the airship fleet, striving to break through the blockade of the First Fleet of the Imperial Air Force before 7:30 and carry out a suppressive bombardment of the enemy's artillery positions on the east coast, so that our assault troops can withstand as little enemy artillery threat as possible."

Jennifer Adric, as the commander of the Western Front Air Force and the youngest female general in the Far Eastern military circles, is more bold and straightforward than her male colleagues in the command, and can be called the only "female man" in the entire Western Front theater who dares to confront Marshal Pavel in person.

At the pre-war meeting on 5 May, in the presence of Roland, Jennifer once again publicly reiterated that she could not agree with His Excellency Marshal's dispatch of the Air Force. There is only one reason for opposition: "Draining all the air force for attacking the positions on the east bank will inevitably seriously weaken the air defense of Lengxi Town, and it will also inevitably leave an opportunity for the Imperial Air Force to take advantage of!" ”

Jennifer is dressed in a crisp military uniform and wears a major general's collar badge, and her healthy wheat-colored skin and deliberately shortened hair give this handsome female general a charm that transcends gender boundaries.

"Your Royal Highness Regent! Your Excellency, Marshal! I think that after the battle starts tomorrow, the commander of the Imperial Air Force, Alvons Beck, will be the first to notice that our air force is pouring out of the nest and devoting itself to attacking the positions on the east coast, if this person's brain is not too dull, he will definitely send a detachment to sneak around the airspace of the battle and sneak into the rear of the battlefield, as for the next bombing of our artillery positions or dropping bombs on the town of Cold Creek, where the headquarters is located, it is difficult to say, in any case, it is necessary for us to separate at least two airships to stay in the rear as mobile forces, In order to stop any possible air attack by the enemy army at any time! Jennifer expressed her concerns.

"General Edric, your concerns cannot be said to be unreasonable, but you should also see that the advantage of our air force compared with the Imperial air force is not obvious, if the army is divided into two ways, it will only make the forces of both sides weaker, not only will it not be able to achieve all-round effects, but it will fall into a passive situation on the front line and the rear."

Faced with Jennifer's questioning, Marshal Pavel calmly retorted.