After Huaxia's national war zone shrank, only 1,000 square kilometers remained, with an irregular overall shape—mountains to the north, rivers and plains to the south.
After some study, Xuanyuan Zhen and several generals immediately began deploying the army.
"Our territory has one advantage: roughly speaking, its east-west and north-south width are about the same." Xuanyuan Zhen pointed at the map projected from his wristwatch and said.
"At this stage, the first priority is to set up defenses for our territory."
"The north is mountainous. First and Second Armies will go to the northeast and northwest positions on the map, scout the nearby area, find suitable locations to station troops, and build defensive structures."
"There's a big river to the south. This river flows into our territory and forms a large lake. Third and Fourth Armies will station at the southeast and southwest positions, exactly flanking the lake, to prevent enemies from invading by water."
"Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, and Eighth Armies will station at positions five li behind the border, at the east, south, west, and north, for defense. Besides holding the first line of defense, if any part of the outer defense line is attacked, two armies can immediately reinforce."
"Ninth and Tenth Armies will guard the Red Flag."
"In addition, each army must send out teams to patrol the surrounding areas. There are two types of patrol teams: one is a fixed patrol unit of 100 men, the other is to select some small squads for secret patrols."
"Immediately send out exploration squads to figure out the situation in the surrounding countries."
Zhang Xuan added, "There's also a small trick. Since Huaxia has a large population, each person's ripple effect reaches 50 people. From these fifty, choose some as message relays. Since they all gather in the main city, they can pass information to each other, thus achieving long-distance communication."
Unless supported by Ghost Star, the wristwatch cannot directly allow players to talk to each other.
What Zhang Xuan meant was: Soldier A, through his ripple list, finds a No.1 relay player to pass a message. Then that No.1 relay player personally passes it to another relay player "Number One." Number One then delivers the message to Soldier B, thereby allowing long-distance message transfer between A and B on the battlefield.
This little bug wasn't hard to discover.
"Yes, each army must select 10 or so communication soldiers to establish links with other units. Inside the teams, we also need more communication soldiers. While we haven't yet split up, have each army's leader implement this immediately," Xuanyuan Zhen said.
The feature of communication soldiers was that they had traveled through many main cities.
As soon as Ouyang Yi learned the teams needed communication soldiers, he went to sign up.
Ouyang Yi had friends in all seven major regions, making him suitable for the role of internal communication soldier.
Once his role was confirmed, Ouyang Yi immediately contacted his friends from the list, asking them to gather with friends of other communication soldiers at designated areas, to make exchanging information easier.
After arranging communication soldiers, each army set off toward their assigned regions.
As planned, Huoshen and his three companions were assigned to the Tenth Army. Their task was to guard Huaxia's national flag.
Worth mentioning—Shijika of the same Guild of Gods was also assigned to the Tenth Army, though not with Hu Yan's group of four.
"Zhao Tiezhu, you're now a secret patrol squad. You're in charge of watching this area." A military officer drew an area on the map and told Zhao Tiequan, "Remember, don't reveal yourselves if you spot something, report immediately."
Zhao Tiequan nodded. "Alright."
"Do you want me to assign one more person to you?"
"No need, the four of us are enough. We don't have to fight anyway, so fewer people doesn't matter."
"Alright then, be careful."
After receiving the mission, the four of Huoshen left the main force and moved toward their designated area.
Meanwhile, players of other countries who weren't participating in combat were all watching the progress of the global national war.
So far, no news of any two countries going to war.
It seemed that in the past few days, most countries' missions were to explore the detailed terrain of their zones, build defensive structures, and deploy defensive forces.
On Huaxia's side, the four armies of the first defense line completed terrain scouting in one day, and built defensive works on two necessary routes, blocking the third with rubble to reduce pressure.
The two southern armies destroyed several natural river crossings, and thus finished their stationing.
On the second day, Huaxia's ten armies completed their deployment.
The first line of defense had four armies, each with 600,000 soldiers. Five li behind, the second line of defense had four armies, each with 400,000. The Ninth and Tenth Armies, tasked with guarding the national flag, each had 500,000.
Patrol teams covered everywhere, with secret patrols also observing in the dark.
Though when enemies invade, the map shows a marker, it doesn't give specific details.
How many enemies, whether it's a large-scale invasion or just probing attacks—these don't show clearly on the map. Someone must observe directly.
Just as Huaxia completed its defensive deployment, the international forum suddenly erupted in heated discussion.
Country Y had sent 4 million troops to attack nearby Country A!
You had to know, aside from one's own country's territory, all other areas were covered in fog of war. Country Y making such a bold move carried huge risk.
At the time, Country A was also deploying defenses, with forces scattered. No one expected that Country Y would actually not set up its own defenses first, but directly attack another country.
Truly a surprise move to win, Country Y instantly caught Country A off guard. With the strong backing of Country Y's national soul at 8.24%, they took down one of Country A's zones in a single strike!
Only after Country A's main force rushed back to defend did Country Y retreat.
But with only 60,000 losses, Country Y annihilated 400,000 of Country A's troops, and even managed to seize one of Country A's zone flags!
According to the rules, Country Y would gain control and vision of that zone, plus receive 500,000 reinforcements.
With that, Country Y, already strong, was now ahead of all other countries in both manpower and land!
When Xuanyuan Zhen got the news, he sighed.
"That battle was indeed beautiful!"
Zhang Xuan said, "Beautiful, yes. But they bet big too. If they hadn't taken a zone from Country A, they'd have been in trouble."
"Besides, with such a strong national soul, that's the root of their confidence."
Just as they were speaking, new news spread on the international forum.
Country M followed closely and captured a zone of a neighboring country.
Then came Island Nation, Country L, Country X…
"Good grief, with powerful national souls combined with these aggressive countries, they've already directly begun seizing cities and land." Zhang Xuan shook his head.
Xuanyuan Zhen's face grew solemn. These strong countries struck first and achieved good results. Even those that didn't capture a flag still achieved two things: they discovered the opponent's position, and at little cost, they hurt their enemies.
Those countries that were attacked didn't even know where the attackers were and could only defend.
So even without directly capturing flags, these strong countries would be fighting with open eyes against blind opponents, holding absolute initiative.
"Unfortunately, we don't have a national soul. As defenders, we have the added recovery effect within our territory, but we can't be as aggressive as other countries." Xuanyuan Zhen said.
Fortunately, Huaxia hadn't run into enemy invasion during its defensive deployment.
And they had long been prepared, sending out exploration squads in advance.
Just then, Xuanyuan Zhen and Zhang Xuan simultaneously saw a red alert appear on their wristwatch maps—at the southwest position.
The two looked at each other.
"Near the Third Army. Tell Wang Xuchu to immediately send men to check!"
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