The underground pipe system that fell into Army Group South became a shortcut for them to traverse the ruins of the wreckage of the warships outside Dunling City.

This meant that they didn't need to crush the coalition forces deployed in the ruins, and could go straight to the heart of Dunling City.

Through a number of underground trams urgently built by the engineering troops, Army Group South continuously transported its troops and supplies through the channels of the underground pipeline system to what was originally the inner city of Dunling.

It's only 10 kilometers straight from the royal palace district where the Han Platinum Palace is located, and there are some mansions along the way, and there are basically no solid buildings

Although the coalition forces have a large number of defenders here, there are still a considerable number of elite troops still fighting in the ruins of the outer city and suburbs, and the overall combat quality is not comparable to that of the attacking troops of Army Group South.

Army Group South was better equipped than the coalition forces, and the troops transported through the underground pipeline system were generally more effective than the coalition forces in the inner city.

And no matter how much the inner city is built, there is no way to really make the inner city into a thick steel defense line.

Even if the coalition forces wanted to build a large number of trenches, machine gun bunkers, and a large alchemical defense matrix in the inner city to defend against the train guns of the Southern Army, it would not allow the defenders to carry out large-scale civil engineering operations in the inner city.

Not to mention whether they have the energy and time to do so.

So now the inner city defense line of the coalition army is retreating, and Army Group South is getting closer and closer to the royal palace area where the Han Platinum Palace is located.

The coalition forces in the other half of the underground pipeline system can barely hold their positions, and are unable to counterattack the territory held by Army Group South.

A part of the troops that received an urgent order to retreat was turned into reinforcements in the encirclement because the decipherment department of Army Group South had already achieved some results.

Outside the city, Army Group South troops arrived at the place where they had to pass and ambush them before the allied forces returned to the defense force.

Without the communication of real-time information, some of the defense units that do not have the latest theater distribution map can only rely on themselves to find areas that are still in the hands of the coalition forces and return to the inner city.

However, even if they remained silent on the radio, Army Group South, which had the advantage of communications, was often able to successfully ambush them.

After experiencing many heavy losses, the return troops outside the city also immediately began to change their tactics, and the first batch of return troops was reduced to zero, and countless small units began to find out the situation ahead for the large forces in the rear.

Rely on manpower reconnaissance to avoid the large forces of Army Group South, quickly crush the few enemies in front of you, and enter the area still in the hands of the coalition forces through the area they are responsible for defending.

In this way, the area outside Dunling City became full of gunfire again.

As casualties mounted, more and more troops were committed, resulting in numerous small towns outside the Duchy of Tun Ling becoming battlegrounds for both sides.

In order to cut off the allied army's support for Dunling City, Army Group South once again sent a group of troops totaling eight divisions to the outer areas of Dunling City to fight.

Their goal was to take the two main points of communication that would support Dunling, Dublin Town and Mancheston Town, or at least not to keep Dunling City from being supplied in a timely manner.

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Major General Gaston led the remnants of the 7th Infantry Division of the Duchy of Dunling to defend the core industrial area of Dunling City.

As the largest industrial city in the south, Army Group South did not want to destroy this core industrial area, so it has always let the infantry units fight for this place.

The Principality of Tunling's armor had been lost in battle with Army South's Land Cruiser fleet, so it was also the infantry that defended it.

But isn't the outer city of Dunling, which has been reduced to ruins, part of the industrial zone? So many transport routes, so many small factories.

It's not just the big factories that are all there is to the industrial zone, and a person doesn't just have a body and a head.

Dunling City is beyond repair, and it is better to rebuild it than to build a new one.

Army Group South just wants a city that can provide industrial capacity, and the Duchy of Dunling doesn't just want a core industrial area and a royal palace area if it is holding on to this Dunling City.

Even if this battle is won, what can it do? The repulsed Army Group South will switch to a defensive posture, so will the coalition forces that have repelled Army Group South be able to launch a large-scale offensive?

So Gaston couldn't understand why all the civilians had been evacuated, the civilian officials had been evacuated, and even the Stuart family had withdrawn some of the people who could keep the principality running, so what was the point of sticking here?

Gaston is not an unpatriotic person, if he told him that he and others are holding on here in order to re-establish the defensive line on the outskirts of Dunling City, then there is no problem in holding on, he Gaston is in the position.

But to tell him now that this is for the sake of industry and politics is not fooling people? If it was really to defend the place of Dun Ling, then why couldn't so many sturdy factories in the industrial area be used as a fortress?

Isn't it a waste of soldiers' lives to have to do defensive work on the perimeter?

Major General Gaston threw away the cigarette butt that had been extinguished.

The 7th Infantry Division is considered the first-line troops of the Duchy of Dunling, and there are only ten divisions in this first-line infantry, so they who were originally fighting in the outer city were dropped to the core industrial area to fight.

However, after four high-intensity encounters, the 7th Infantry Division had only about 900 men left. This is also what happened to most of the returning forces.

The troops of Army Group South could wait for their work and set up ambushes, but they could not, they had to pay attention to time, and it was impossible to advance slowly and leisurely.

You can't carry heavy weapons on a fast march, and it is very difficult to engage in street fighting without heavy weapons, and you will inevitably pay great sacrifices.

In order to eliminate the machine gun crews hidden in the building, the fast-marching troops have to find a way to rush into the floors and take out the enemy.

Rushing into the floor under the cover of machine gun fire, think about it to know how many people will be killed.

However, the 7th Infantry Division was okay, at least they were able to successfully defend themselves, and many of the troops were not so lucky, and they were ambushed on the road and eventually annihilated.

Gaston was now very worried, these 900 men had to defend a kilometer-long front, so there was only one person on average one meter, and there was only a thin line of defense.

In the face of the attack of Army Group South, it was necessary to arrange at least three lines of defense, so that each line of defense had only 300 men, and this was still counting himself, the general staff, communications personnel, medical personnel, and lightly wounded soldiers.

In fact, there were very few people on the defensive line, and Gaston always had to leave some reserves in case of an emergency.

A sapper pulls out a rusty steam generator with no bullet holes, pulls out a red crystal fuel rod, and begins powering the communications device.

In today's ruined battlefield of Dunling City, high-power communication devices must be used to maintain smooth communication, so it needs to be equipped with a power supply.

Other sappers began to gather building materials from the surrounding area, began to pile up bunkers, and part of the core industrial area was not able to be built on a large scale, and unfortunately the 7th Infantry Division was assigned here.

Soon, the general command of the core industrial zone defense area sent a communications soldier to hand over an updated theater map to Gaston, and his adjutant brought a cylindrical lamp.

Looking at this red line red arrows, broken blue lines, and blue arrows that are basically absent, you can see how bad the situation has been here.

Gaston frowned, and it was hard to say anything.

The battle situation has reached this point, either retreat or retreat to the interior of the industrial zone, what is the purpose of holding the outer defense line so stubbornly? Are the people above already stupid to this point?

But he couldn't help it. Those countless red lines and red arrows meant that the enemy could attack from all sides at any time.

It can be said that this map is very detailed and informative, but it ends here, it is of poor value, and it does not tell Gaston that he should focus on the defense of those sectors, and that every place is equally important.

Shaking his head, he left the headquarters, which had just been built in a dormitory building attached to an industrial zone, and began to inspect the fortifications of the soldiers in his own defense area, accompanied by the guards.

In the distance, the smoke of gunpowder is forever shrouded, and the corpses of soldiers with blackened clothes blend with the surrounding ruins.

Occasionally, a black shadow would fall from the sky dragging a line of black smoke from the sky, and it was the remnants of the coalition air force that were fighting with Army Group South.

Both sides used propeller fighters, but because the technology was relatively immature, there was no large-scale aerial combat.

And Dunling City, which has been reduced to ruins, has nothing worth striking with air warships

The gunfire that rang out from time to time was no longer so harsh, and the rumbling of artillery in the distance was even somewhat reassuring, because it showed that he was not the target of these earth-destroying weapons.

Gaston returned to headquarters, studying the map in the light.

He will not take his brothers who were born and died to die in vain, once he really can't hold on, he will definitely retreat to the industry with his troops.

Or evacuate from the city of Dunling to the outside of the city to take part in the battle to defend the supply line. Anyway, except for the core industrial area and the palace area, there is no place in this whole area that is not in the midst of war, where you can kill the enemy for the motherland.

Three days later, at four o'clock in the afternoon.

Gaston was eating a cold lunch.

A meeting that lasted more than five hours had just begun, and the five division commanders, including himself, demanded to retreat to the core industrial area to fight.

However, the commander-in-chief always forbade entry into the industrial zone on the grounds that it was our fundamental goal to defend the core industrial zone from destruction.

None of them were mere soldiers, they had received enough education before becoming officers, and how could those factories be badly damaged unless they were attacked with artillery?

Moreover, their retreat to the industrial zone will make the enemy more cautious, because the enemy does not know whether they and others will be burned and buried with the industrial zone.

Retreating into the core industrial area is a psychological game with the enemy.

But even if what they said was justified, one officer even suggested that we should retreat to those small factories and hold on.

For five hours, nothing was discussed, but he was almost starving.

"Sir!" A guard entered the headquarters.

"The front-line sentinels have discovered the enemy's tracks!"

When Gaston heard the news, he immediately put down the bread and cold vegetable soup in his hands, put on his military coat and helmet, and went outside the headquarters under the escort of the guards.

Although there is also an observation window inside the headquarters, the field of view is still a bit narrow compared to the outside, and as long as the battle has not yet reached this point, Gaston prefers to come out to check the situation on the front line.

When he arrived at a toy store that was the support point of the first line of defense, a sentry happened to return.

"Corporal, how is the enemy?" Gaston asked.

"Report sir! Visually inspect the enemy at least four or five hundred people! We are moving towards our defense zone with a clear goal! ”

"Very well, go back to your post."

"Yes!"

With that, the sentry left the toy store and headed forward.

A sentry unit consisted of a total of five people, including a sniper, two sappers and three scouts.

If the conditions are a little more affluent, you can also assign them an additional communication unition, a medical unit and a fire support unit.

However, with the current situation of the Seventh Division, this is still not satisfied.

After a while, there was a bang in front of me. Most of the time it was triggered by a mine planted by the Sentinel that was triggered by the enemy.

The placement of a small number of mines can not only disrupt the enemy's goal of disrupting the enemy's offensive rhythm and delaying the speed, but also quickly transmit early warning information to one's own troops in the rear.

Now the soldiers of the 7th Division immediately began to enter combat readiness after hearing the explosion, and Gaston left the toy store and returned to his headquarters.

Five minutes later, a group of Dunling soldiers hurried back to their positions, the sentinels who had withdrawn from the front, and they reported the information they had received to Gaston.

In addition to the first wave of four or five hundred forwards, there was at least one follow-up force of six or seven hundred men in the follow-up.

Gaston guessed that there were still six or seven hundred people behind them, and today was probably the time for the enemy to launch a general attack.

Ten minutes later, the enemy's mortar shells were the first to fall to the forefront of the defensive line, and with the sound of this explosion, the enemy began to attack.

Twenty minutes later, the first line of defense of the 7th Infantry Division had been breached, and the enemy's advance had been almost exhausted.

The follow-up troops did not rush into the battle to expand the results, so the ambush arranged by Gaston was of little use. It seems that the opposite side is a very cautious commander.

Yes, in order to prevent the defenders of the core industrial area from being forced into a desperate way to make some irrational moves, the opposite side will adopt the method of boiling frogs in warm water to oppress little by little, forcing the coalition forces to retreat on their own.

This requires a discreet commander to take command of the battle.

And the other party does have some ability, before the 7th Infantry came here, the General Command had already dealt with five deserters at the rank of lieutenant colonel.

Everyone knows that these lieutenant colonels are not people who really want to be deserters, but they have been withdrawn to take the blame. It can force those division commanders to have the idea of retreating, and it is possible to predict the level of which commander on the opposite side.

If he had given Gaston three divisions, plus there were not so many restrictions, he would have wanted to fight the commander on the other side.

But now he only has this amount of troops in his hands, so he can only use ambush tactics.

By the time the sun went down, the two sides had already engaged in more than a dozen encounters, and the ambushes that Gaston had painstakingly arranged were all spotted by the enemy.

Or that the other side is not in a hurry at all, just to wait for Gaston to be in a hurry.

Gaston did almost want to make a big wave.

But soon his sanity prevailed.

On the other hand, he took advantage of his disadvantage in numbers and the lack of morale of the soldiers to want a partial victory, and constantly lured himself to the casino, revealing huge flaws.

Gaston took a deep breath and put the war zone map in front of him again, his eyes not on the outer lines, but on the roads inside the industrial zone.

As night fell, the fighting in Dunling City gradually weakened, but it did not stop there, and the night attack on both sides was being prepared.

So in the second half of the night, countless flares flew from the positions of both sides to each other, and green, red and yellow tracer shells drew countless lines in the darkness.

When a trace of fish belly white began to appear on the horizon, the night battle was over.

In an hour or a few hours it will be the daytime battle.

The soldiers began to change their guards, and Gaston and the commanders began their own short rest.

A few hours later, the enemy attacked again.

In this way, after three days, the 7th Infantry Division was not supported by a single soldier, and now it has been reduced to 600 men, and the first line of defense cannot be held, and now they have only two lines of defense left.

Another three days passed.

During these three days, the enemy attacks became more and more intense, and Gaston could not tell how the battle was going outside.

The communications device was blown up yesterday by enemy mortars, and even the only remaining communication device of the 7th Division with the protection of the signal corps with his body would not help.

Now, except for running errands with manpower, the 7th Division has temporarily lost all contact with the outside world.

What annoys Gaston the most now is that there are very few people, but there are enough ammunition and weapons, and if the industrial area is used for sports warfare, then so much ammunition can play its role.

He can hide the ammunition separately, so that he can greatly increase the speed of the troops, and when the time comes, he will immediately evacuate after emptying a base of ammunition and move on to the next place where the ammunition is stored.

But in the current positional warfare, it is impossible for you to hide your ammunition in other trenches and then move to someone else's position