Chapter 661 - 411: Eerie March

The haze lingered over the Capital City, now clearly morning, yet the sunlight was obscured by dark clouds, causing extremely dim lighting.

The city streets were basically emptied, except for the stationed soldiers, keeping their weapons at the ready for any potential battle. Various light and heavy armored units and self-propelled artillery replaced civilian vehicles, becoming the main actors in transportation hubs.

The public broadcast delivered an announcement from the World Government, urging citizens to stay home and remain calm. Parks and squares lost the usual laughter of crowds, with only a few lonely birds, which quickly flew away scared by the piercing broadcast, unsure of where they went.

The threat of war was approaching step by step, with the "Capital Group Army" as the World Government’s most elite force, already securing the city’s defense.

Frontline commander "Lu Yangming" stood at a high vantage point, holding binoculars and gazing toward the distant horizon.

Due to the rebel hackers’ team, many advanced devices were rendered useless, most notably satellites.

Originally with the massive reach of big enterprises, satellite reconnaissance range covered the globe, allowing any movements on the battlefield to be instantly known and communicated to the respective operational units.

But now all satellites were offline due to viruses, and even high-tech reconnaissance planes couldn’t be used, possibly flying and suddenly infected by electronic viruses leading to a loss of control and a crash.

To conduct aerial reconnaissance now, they had to use long retired relics, like jet airplanes.

These antique planes primarily relied on mechanical transmission systems, lacking any digital modules, relying entirely on the pilot’s visual observations of the battlefield, who then returned with relevant intelligence.

This incredibly inefficient method led to severe opaqueness in battlefield conditions, exemplified by the demise of the Inland Sea Fleet; an entire fleet was wiped out, yet those behind were unaware of the specifics.

Even now, after the rebels landed at the coastline, they still knew nothing about their current whereabouts.

Using binoculars too long had tired Lu Yangming’s eyes. As he contemplated resting and rubbing them, his peripheral vision suddenly caught something.

He noticed those gradually appearing black dots at the horizon’s far end, his expression immediately turning serious, loudly shouting: "All units, attention! Rebel vanguard observed!"

Military telephone lines had long been strung between positions, this ancient wired communication method considerably reducing hacker intrusions, allowing prompt message transmission.

The news of the rebels’ appearance spread, the atmosphere instantly growing tense, especially for troops stationed at the city wall positions, instinctively tucking their heads further behind cover, only peering through the gaps to observe the battlefield situation.

Lu Yangming adjusted the binoculars to periscope mode, continuing observation from a safe position.

A dark shadow began to rise at the horizon, like a moving black wall, composed of rebel infantry troops dressed in black, advancing from the far side of the horizon toward the Capital City.

Their columns were orderly and actions coordinated, with an extremely large number, the marching of thousands produced a deep, rhythmic thumping, as if the earth was shaking, their dark combat uniforms appearing even more menacing in the gloomy weather.

Soon enough, the seasoned Lu Yangming noticed something unusual.

The marching of this rebel force was overly orderly.

In both horizontal and vertical directions, they maintained tidy formations, each soldier’s footsteps perfectly synchronized, with the sound traveling from afar resembling a rhythmic drumming.

Lu Yangming, having decades of military experience as a General, had seen such precise formations during annual military parades where rigorously trained honor guards displayed similar precision.

But on the battlefield, displaying such orderly marching?

Honestly, he’d never seen it before.

Firstly, it holds no real significance, it’s no longer the era of cold weapons, massive armies don’t rely on formations anymore.

Marching so tidily, is it to make a pretty sight when hit by a bomb?

At most combat units form small groups maintaining tactical formations.

Secondly, during the rapidly changing realities of combat, especially on long marches, maintaining a neat formation is impossible, even keeping people from straying is considered proficient.

Marching like this was utterly perplexing, how were the rebels accomplishing this?

Perhaps they marched normally before forming formations upon nearing the city?

But what’s the point of that?

Solely for demonstration?

It’s baffling.

At this moment, the adjutant spoke: "Sir, the enemy vanguard is within artillery range, should we commence the bombardment?"

Lu Yangming squinted, saying: "No, let’s wait. The enemy isn’t deep enough, bombing vanguards is futile, wait for their main force to trap themselves first."

As time passed, more rebels appeared in the horizon, from initially a few black walls extending into a line completely occupying the horizon, then seemingly pulled by an invisible giant hand into a black carpet, slowly unfurling toward the Capital City.

Lu Yangming watched the enemy’s movements, saying nothing, waiting patiently.

Earlier, areas outside the Capital City were already sprinkled with mines by mine-laying vehicles.

This mine-laying method scatters mines on the shallow surface, lacking concealment, but offers large scope and high deployment efficiency.

Lu Yangming didn’t expect to surprise the rebels with the mines, since any commander with sense would anticipate defensive mining.