Chapter 7: Breakthrough (3)
After some troop movements, the commanders of the Big-Headed Ant Kingdom Army found that the troops at hand were insufficient, and they were not even enough to complete the task of pinning down the frontal battlefield for several days.
This has to be said to be an irony, before the expedition, all the kings thought that their own forces were superior in any of the lost sub-nest battlefields, and they did not expect that the Paving Ant Barbarian Army did not divide their troops this time, but stuck to one place. That's what makes us in this predicament.
At the time of the expedition, the army of the Big-headed Ant Kingdom had 60 legions and 90,000 troops, and after three days of fierce fighting, there were still more than 70,000 soldiers left.
After the transfer of ten full corps, there were only 50 unsatisfactory corps left on the frontal battlefield with less than 60,000 soldiers, and the most severely deficient corps was only about half of the troops.
The kings have already sent messengers to ask for help from the main nest, and the main nest itself has not many troops left, and it will take time to mobilize reinforcements from the various secondary nests. This army of the Big-Headed Ant Kingdom will have to hold out for another week before it can get reinforcements from the rear.
On the frontal battlefield, there are still as many enemy troops as there were on the first day in the Lost Side Nest.
The Big-Headed Ant Kingdom Army generally invests forty legions with 1,500 warriors each legion in the first line, while the Paving Ant Barbarian Army invests thirty legions with 2,500 warriors each.
Although the losses of the paving ant barbarian army these days are not slighter than those of the big-headed ant kingdom army, and even the exchange ratio of the big-headed ant kingdom army is a little higher.
But no matter how many troops the Big-headed Ant Kingdom Army invests to the front line, the Paving Ant Barbarian Army can send thirty legions to meet it.
The strength of the Paving Ant Barbarian Army on the frontal battlefield has gradually tended to counter the super-headed ant kingdom army, and its secret lies in the queen ant stationed in the lost secondary nest.
Because the wedding ceremony of the paving ant barbarian and the big-headed ant kingdom is close to the time, the paving ant barbarian kings who have lost their secondary nest have preliminarily estimated the time of the counterattack.
Half a month ago, the queen ant stationed here had begun to receive sufficient food supply and began to lay eggs in large numbers.
Now, it's the time for the newborn paving ant warriors to reach adulthood in large numbers.
The newborn warriors were able to partially fill the damage on the battlefield, and the two secondary nests in the rear were also providing a steady stream of reinforcements and food.
In this way, the net loss of the Paving Ant Barbarian Army every day is only half of the army of the Big-headed Ant Kingdom on the opposite side.
One side is blind and arrogant, and the other side is careful to calculate, this is "the one who has more temples wins".
Even if the thirty legions sent to the front line by the Paving Ant Barbarian Army were not satisfied, the Big-headed Ant Kingdom Army did not dare to take it lightly. Once the troops invested in the first line are reduced, the paving ant barbarian army will boldly prepare to outflank on both wings, in a vain attempt to counterattack and eat the big-headed ant kingdom army on the first line.
In the past, the army of the Big-headed Ant Kingdom could always keep a reserve of twenty legions, which would be able to maintain the balance of power on the front in response to the enemy's two flanks of the enemy, or the gap formed after a local area was breached.
However, after transferring a full ten full corps, the current Big-Headed Ant Kingdom Army can only leave the ten legions with the greatest losses in the rear as reserves, and the total strength of the reserve is only 9,000 soldiers.
Reserves of this size are completely insufficient, and with just one more day or two of fighting, the losses on the front line will exceed the total number of reserves in full. At that time, the big-headed ant kingdom army can only put the reserves into the front line.
And the loss of reserves means the loss of the last resort, which is very unfavorable for the entire war situation.
According to the protagonist's calculations, the Big-headed Ant Kingdom Army has to hold back the enemy for at least four to five days on the frontal battlefield before the two partial divisions can capture the target and rush back to support. A week later, the main nest sent a second wave of reinforcements to arrive.
How can we help the Big-Headed Ant Kingdom Army survive these few days when its troops are at a disadvantage?
First of all, in the length of the front line, the Big-headed Ant Kingdom Army cannot shorten the length, otherwise the enemy will find the dilemma of the Big-Headed Ant Kingdom Army, and then try to counterattack, forming a favorable battlefield situation of semi-encirclement or encirclement.
But the disadvantage of the Big-Headed Ant Kingdom Army is already obvious. Therefore, making full use of the existing forces and maintaining the existing formation has become a contradiction that must be resolved.
The protagonist gives the plan to maintain the frontal width of each legion, but reduce the depth of each legion.
In the past, a fully formed army of the Big-Headed Ant Kingdom Army had 30 squads and 1,500 soldiers.
They usually put 10 squads of 500 fighters on the front line, of which only 100 fighters are engaged, occupying about one-third of the width of the battle line.
Eighty percent of the soldiers in the front-line squad waited for their comrades in front to die in battle before stepping forward to replace them.
The remaining squads in the back are divided into the first line, and when the first line of squads loses too much, they will rotate forward.
In this way, only one-fifteenth of the soldiers of a fully formed army are in a state of engagement, and the rest are waiting to be engaged, which is a huge waste of force resources.
When the regiment is lost, the first line of soldiers will still be distributed according to the ratio of one-fifteenth, so that the battle line will be shortened.
The plan given by the protagonist is not to reduce the battle line, maintain the width of one-third of a meter, let the rear squad fill the losses of the first line, and shorten the strategic depth of the entire legion.
In this way, at least for a short time, the existing forces can be used to maintain the width of the front.
But there is obviously a cost, the time for the combat fighters to rotate to the rear to rest will be shortened, and the longer the time will affect their physical strength and combat effectiveness.
And the width of the battle line remains the same, which means that the Big-headed Ant Kingdom Army has to accept up to thousands of battle losses every day.
When the Paving Ant Barbarian Army was able to replenish its troops nearby, and the reinforcements of the Big-Headed Ant Kingdom Army were still far away, this kind of battle damage seemed unacceptable.
Therefore, the protagonist also needs to improve the overall combat effectiveness of the Big-headed Ant Kingdom Army to reduce battle damage and avoid the worst.
The so-called worst-case scenario is that the partial division fails to capture the target, and the reinforcements of the main nest cannot arrive in time to support after a week.
In this case, unless the Big-Headed Ant Kingdom Army retreats, it will lose the ability to protect itself.
The most direct way to increase the combat effectiveness of the entire army is to improve the tactical thinking of the commanders of the legions, the kings.
The King of Public Security and the Western King who had already died had taken the initiative to learn the tactics of the Divine Envoy King's legion, and although they could not fully understand it, they also developed a simplified version of the tactics of using soldiers and ants intensively according to their own understanding.
Subsequently, both the Public Security Legion and the Western Legion became the first-class powerhouses of the Big-Headed Ant Kingdom in a short period of time.
What the protagonist wants to do is to teach the existing tactics of the Public Security Corps to the other kings. But it's not easy.