Chapter 145: The Art of War of the Zombies in Qinglong County, Qinhuangdao (3)

The encirclement was basically solidified. Li Qiang, commanding 80,000 troops, was trapped inside the county seat of Qinglong by 3.5 million enemies, with his outer defense line formed by a ring of surrounding hills.

The terrain was narrow and restricted. Tanks, artillery, and other heavy weapons belonging to his forces were crammed everywhere throughout the county town, making tactical deployment extremely inconvenient.

Aside from ammunition, the most troublesome issue was that provisions were only sufficient to sustain 80,000 soldiers and 20,000 civilians for five days.

"I will never lead the vanguard force again next time," Li Qiang thought as he stared at the military map. "It is too difficult to maintain a macro-level grasp of the entire troop. Experience, what a matter of experience." The situation was perilous in the extreme.

With the exception of the Chief of Staff who stayed behind to hold the fort and coordinate centrally, all other staff officers had been dispatched to various hilltop positions. They would guide the construction of fortifications while consolidating intelligence data and funneling it back to the command post.

The 39th Corps was the People's Liberation Army unit most skilled in field engineering—a fine tradition of theirs. Recommendations were quickly sent back, requesting that ammunition caches on certain hills be reallocated to other sectors or hauled back to the temporary logistical base in Qinglong county town as a strategic reserve.

Knowing that Li Qiang’s background in the regular military prior to the apocalypse had only reached the rank of a tank commander, the Chief of Staff harbored no condescending thoughts, given Li Qiang’s illustrious combat achievements since the end of the world. Dutifully, he explained to Li Qiang, "Those specific hills possess perilous terrain; simply rolling down boulders and logs can smash back the zombies, conserving ammunition wherever possible... This battle is entirely winnable."

Every hilltop was frantically constructing various fortifications. Where conditions permitted, trenches were dug all the way down to the outward base of the hills, barbed wire was stacked across different segments according to the terrain, and piles of stones were readied on the summits to serve as improvised munitions. With no need to factor in enemy air raids, the battle would be much easier to fight.

Generators were scarce in Qinglong county town, failing to meet the massive demand for area illumination. Along the outward-facing slopes, towering piles of firewood were stacked at regular intervals. These would be lit in sequential order when night fell to counter nighttime combat operations. Lacking high-power lighting equipment, the night did not belong to humanity.

At both ends of the S251 Provincial Highway leading in and out of the county town, extensive barbed wire entanglements were deployed and deep trenches were excavated. There was no longer any regard for damaging the road infrastructure; if everyone perished, roads were utterly useless.

Staff officers were also meticulously plotting fields of fire on digital maps. In the post-apocalyptic era without the Beidou navigation system, they were forced to calculate the firing coordinates of various artillery groups surrounding the perimeter using primitive manual methods, coordinating with each battery accordingly. Barring absolute necessity, the heavy artillery within the county town would remain silent to conserve ammunition for emergency use.

They coordinated the movement of forces outside the encirclement: positioning units near Dawulan Township along the S355 Provincial Highway, near Dadaohe Township along the S251 Provincial Highway thirteen kilometers away, near Xiaoyingzi Town along the S252 Provincial Highway, and deploying a portion of the garrison from Caoying Town along the S251 Provincial Highway forward to Pingfangzi Township. This granted the 35th Group Army in Qinglong county town artillery support from four distinct directions, with transportation capacity being the sole factor limiting their bombardment potential.

Without civilian masses covering the hills to support the frontline, fortunately, the sea of zombies was concentrated closely around Qinglong county town. If the zombies had been scattered across the entire mountainous region, it would have been a catastrophic headache.

Li Qiang felt that the current posture bore a striking resemblance to that of Zhang Lingfu: they were surrounded by a horde of zombies, while that very horde was simultaneously encircled by outer friendly forces. It all boiled down to a contest of who could devour whom first.

The 35th Corps operated with practiced speed and wasted no time; the zombie horde did likewise. Just as the engineering works were being completed from the foot of the hills all the way to the summits, the horde launched a nocturnal assault. The heavy artillery inside Qinglong county town held its fire, while the guns from the four remote bases unleashed fierce bombardments directed by frontline infantry.

Streaks of fire tore across the firmament, landing with pinpoint accuracy on the outer slopes of the defensive hills surrounding the encirclement. The earth shook violently as blossoms of fire erupted everywhere.

Where the explosions sounded, sparse skirmish lines of zombies could be seen swarming every hill, charging forward relentlessly wave after wave through gullies and along ridge lines.

When the heavy machine guns atop the hills opened fire, the first wave of the zombie assault was shattered.

Li Qiang found this rather peculiar. This did not align with the typical behavior of zombies; fighting to the death without retreating and displaying unyielding tenacity should have been their standard operational philosophy, though he immediately realized that applying such vocabulary to describe zombies was somewhat inappropriate.

In less than half an hour, the second wave of zombie attacks commenced, and this time, a jaw-dropping development occurred.

To the north of Qinglong county town lay a long, expansive valley flanked by towering mountains with exceedingly gentle slopes that provided mutual cover. During the initial bombardment, not a single artillery shell had landed in this valley; the zombie horde attacking through it was meant to be intercepted and annihilated by the forward-deployed heavy machine gun nests as they rushed out of the valley.

This time, however, the zombies abandoned attacks from all other directions and surged entirely toward this single valley. Making matters even more difficult, map reconnaissance revealed that the exit on the opposite side of the valley featured overly rugged terrain, with multiple branching gorges providing access.

The exit leading into the county town was similarly rugged, choked with jagged boulders and offering abysmal fields of fire. In less than an hour, emergency reports had already been flashed several times.

According to ballistic calculations for the artillery, it was utterly impossible to seal the exit or deliver plunging fire into the valley.

Upon receiving the report, Li Qiang immediately ordered heavy machine guns to be shifted toward this valley to the greatest extent possible, while simultaneously dispatching the 155mm heavy artillery from within Qinglong county town to seal off the route.

All of this required time. The county town was compact; if they could buy an hour or so, the deployment could be successfully executed.

Li Qiang watched as the Elite Marksmanship 4th Company deployed their security perimeter around him, their crimson company banner—"Elite Marksmanship 4th Company"—snapping violently in the early winter wind.

Pacing back and forth a few times in deep thought, he turned to Company Commander Gao and remarked, "Everyone says you are the Elite Marksmanship 4th Company, never missing a shot. Sounds like sheer bragging to me."

Company Commander Gao's face flushed crimson with indignation as he blurted out anxiously, "Sir!"

At a complete loss for words, he pleaded, "Send us into the fight!"

"Very well, I shall personally test your capabilities," Li Qiang assumed the air of an officer well-versed in handling inspections. He hefted a Type 81 assault rifle, waved it through the air, and commanded, "Follow me."

Flanked and shielded by the 4th Company at the very rear of the formation, Li Qiang marched alongside them toward the valley.

Upon arrival, they witnessed an exit up to 500 meters wide, segmented by seven or eight steep, massive boulders. Consequently, a single heavy machine gun could only cover a narrow sub-exit. These sub-exits were winding and tortuous; by the time the gunners could acquire a clear sightline on the zombies, the creatures had already closed to within 100 meters. Even so, the heavy machine guns maintained their formidable and domineering firepower, casting streams of crimson tracers that lit up the valley. Their rounds enjoyed absolute priority of passage on the battlefield, frequently piercing through multiple zombies before embedding themselves into the colossal boulders, kicking off showers of sparks.

Whenever a heavy machine gun required a barrel change, the narrowness of the position prevented the spare gun from opening fire simultaneously. During those critical windows, adjacent infantrymen had to hold the line with rifles, allowing the zombie horde to push forward by a significant margin.