I don’t remember which general on earth said that in war, the battle is about how many mistakes both sides make, and the side with fewer mistakes will win the final victory.

Before today's battle, although Gastens knew this sentence, he did not have a personal understanding. It was not until he led his own guards tore through the defense line that the enemy was building from the periphery, and was about to drill through the first encirclement arranged by the enemy that he suddenly realized the meaning of this sentence.

As the commander-in-chief, he had an unshirkable responsibility as the commander-in-chief. Without Eliot's reinforcements, it was the first mistake he made to devote all of Elena's most essential combat power to the battlefield with an enemy who did not understand the background. He clearly had weapons beyond the times, but did not use the flexibility of this weapon well. Instead, he had to fight head-on battles with the enemy and must put himself out of the enemy's range.

Massacre of enemy soldiers and send them to a distance that can be shot by the enemy's rifle and slashed by the big knife is his second mistake. Knowing that his biggest shortcoming was ammunition, but he did not make enough preparations and reserves, which caused Elena's two brigades to fall into such a dangerous situation, which was also his responsibility. If the other party's commander was smart enough and if the other party's commander did not make mistakes, Elena would have suffered the greatest defeat and losses since his semi-public independence.

Fortunately, the enemy was also making mistakes. They asked the soldiers who built the second encirclement to give up their formation and run forward. Although they overcame the shortcomings of slow movement of the combat formation, they also reduced the combat effectiveness of these soldiers. Without formation protection, the soldiers who could not use the queuing and shooting tactics were unable to stop the Gastens Guard, who was in high desire for combat and ammunition. In just a few rounds of continuous shooting, the second line of defense built by the enemy was torn apart by Gastens. The first encirclement, which was fighting fiercely with the surrounding Elena's troops, was obviously not ready to be attacked from both sides. The Gastens guards poured ammunition at the maximum efficiency and finally knocked the gap from the enemy's back, and returned to the army with Ivan and Belancher's troops.

"Boss, I've caused you trouble! We didn't fight well this time!"

During the fierce battle, Gastens found Ivan and Belancher. As soon as they saw Gastens, they would kneel down to apologize, but were stopped by Gastens.

"The fault of this is not you, but me. Now that time is tight, I'm not talking nonsense, immediately organize soldiers to concentrate ammunition, supply all the rear, and block the enemy's pursuit. My guard will break through in the front. You have done a good job, let's retreat now!"

"good!"

Although both of them had a lot to say, it was obviously not the place to speak now. With Gastens's guards first, with Ivan and Belancher's team behind the temple, this team of less than 7,000 people turned around and began to break out.

The Republic of Neglu obviously responded to the breakthrough of Elena's troops. There was almost no hesitation. The soldiers of the Republic of Neglu who were surrounding them and attacking them began to chase after Elena's soldiers' butts. The soldiers on both sides consumed a lot of physical strength, especially the soldiers of Elena, who fought with a full set of equipment of nearly twenty kilograms of steam rifles for more than an hour, and their spirit and physical strength were approaching the limit. Now seeing that the retreat was about to succeed, many soldiers relaxed and lost their energy. The soldiers of the Republic of Neglu behind them had already rotated with the advantage of large numbers of people. They were reluctant to leave the Elena's troops and had small-scale battles from time to time. Every time the Second and Third Regiments of the Production Brigade in the back of the palace had to stop shooting and prevent the pursuit behind them. But even so, the distance between the two armies was not significantly widened.

"Head, where are we going?"

It was not until the entire team entered a relatively stable escape that Ivan and Belancheer had time to ask Gastens for further instructions. Gastens had long been familiar with the terrain around Kurake Mountain. He thought about it for less than a second and gave the order.

"Let's walk behind Xishan Mountain! There is a forest there, which is more suitable for us to fight and retreat!"

Elena's troops firmly implemented Gastens's orders, and the soldiers fought and retreated, gradually approaching the woods. As long as they could enter the woods, they could rely on the terrain advantage to give the enemy a counterattack. The enemies chasing them basically lost their formation at this time, and they fought a counterattack and then left contact. This was the routine that Belancher had broken guerrilla warfare during this period, and he was not worried about his chances of winning.

However, things once again exceeded the expectations of Gastens and Elena's army. Just as Elena's army was about to enter the forest, neat and even desperate gunshots rang out in the forest. Rows of lead bullets flew out from the gaps between trees and grass, and knocked down the front row of the unprepared Elena's army.

It was the Negru troops who were ambushing in the forest at some time. Although they used the Welsh Type 2 rifle that Elena looked down upon, thanks to the ambush, the advance array was arranged and Elena troops were on a runaway state, their first shooting achieved good results. After that, they climbed up from the hidden place, stood up and started to load the bullets. Behind them, the second-line soldiers who had been prepared in advance had already started the first round of shooting. More lead bombs flew out of the gun chamber and shot into the somewhat panicked Elena's team.

"There's a fucking ambush!"

Ivan was really anxious when he said this. There were ambushes in front and pursuers behind. They were all infantrymen and had insufficient ammunition. How should we get rid of the enemy's pursuers? If we can't get rid of them, what should we do if Gastens and Elena?

"Calm down!" Gastens still showed his psychological quality at this time. He just took a look and realized that the enemies in the woods were not that threatening. Although their first round of shooting caused certain casualties to their soldiers, the guards in front of them were Gastens's guards. These soldiers did not experience high intensity, had a long battle, and were sufficient ammunition. They subconsciously counterattacked when facing the enemy's attack, which had caused a large number of casualties to the enemies in the woods. This can be seen from the density of the sound of the third round of guns shot out in the woods. Moreover, before he made a decision, the pride of the front row soldiers as Elena soldiers had already made them consciously enter a state of combat. The soldiers quickly fell to the ground, squat or lie down, and soon suppressed the enemy's firepower.

However, this suppression cannot determine victory, and can only give Gastens more time to think about the next direction. Ivan and Belanchel looked at him at the same time, waiting for his instructions. Over the past year, Gastens has led them from nothing to something, from a death row prisoner to a spokesperson and practitioner of an advanced production relationship, and has never disappointed them. They naturally believe that Gastens will not disappoint them now.

Whether to continue attacking the woods or turn around, Gastens must make a decision. He spent a little longer thinking this time and finally gave the answer.

"There are not many people in the forest, continue attacking! Break through the enemy's blockade and retreat from the forest!"

Ivan and Belanchel looked at each other. According to their original idea, since someone intercepted the road ahead, they should naturally turn around and run in other directions. After all, the Kumafeng Mountain is not high, and there are many directions to choose from. However, Gastens's prestige played a role at this time. The two of them suppressed the questions in their hearts, nodded and began to order the attack.

Once the attack order was issued, the Gastens guards in the front row put in more fierce firepower. Ivan and Belanchel both watched the movements in the forest anxiously, hoping that as Gastens said, the enemies arranged in the forest were limited. If so, they could destroy this line of defense, continue to retreat, and finally get rid of contact.

A few minutes later, the information fed back from the front proved Gastens's statement. The enemies in the forest did not stop them for long before they were repelled. The soldiers of Elena were able to enter the forest. The enemies behind them did not hesitate when facing the forest. Although the Elena troops behind were still shooting the pursuers through point shots, this did not completely destroy the will of the pursuers. They hesitated outside the forest for a while and then rushed in.

——————————————

"Commander, the enemy broke through our defense line in the forest on the west side of Kumafeng Mountain and fled into the West Third Forest. What should we do?" Stefan Schgwa, chief of staff of the Eastern Front Command, stood beside Tai's house, a little excited and a little regretful of failure.

"Oh, where is it?", the Tai family Bush began to search on the sand table. For this ambush, the Tai family's combat staff numbered and marked all the important terrain along the way.

"Here", Stefan Schgwa stretched out his finger. On the sand table, the forest that buried many lives was just a few green wooden sticks.

"Eilena's troops still have two tricks," Tai'e Bush stood beside the sand table, frowned, "Their commander is good to be able to see through the emptiness of troops we have arranged in the forest, and to launch a decisive attack and break through our defense line. Now, their escape has deviated from the route I arranged for them. Since this is the case, we can only use the trick."

Speaking of this, Tai family Bush began to formally issue combat orders. The troops following into the woods on the west side of the Kuma Mountain will receive supplies and more personnel, while the troops lying in several other locations will begin to try to surround the forest. As long as they can focus on this forest, gather Elena's troops and drive them together, he can continue to destroy this team with great combat effectiveness, laying the most solid foundation for the technological and battlefield advantages of the Republic of Neglu.

"Commander, to be honest, I think we fought well this time. Being able to almost keep the enemy with such a big difference in weapon generation, I think we have won. The enemy suffered a lot this time, and for the understaffed Ailena, it should be considered a heavy loss."

Chief of Staff Stefan Schgwa was half sincere and half complimented while slapped the horse. Tai'e Bush smiled and responded.

"It's almost done. If we can wipe them out like the plan, we will win more than half of the battle."

——————————

"Boss, the enemy's commander is very powerful this time. He can put the ambush here in advance. How did he know that we are going to run from here?"

In the forest, Elena's troops, who had temporarily escaped from the pursuers, were rectifying a little. Ivan and Belancher didn't even have to take a sip of water, and grabbed Gastens to discuss the gains and losses of the battle.

"I guess he can't guess that accurately. His biggest advantage over us is that he has more people, so I think that after we launched the attack, he might have placed ambushers in several major places around the Kufeng Mountain where he could retreat. The reason why I asked everyone to attack the ambush directly instead of going another way was because we were safe when we surveyed the terrain in the forest before, the ambush was obviously hastily deployed this point, and finally decided to enter the forest. At the same time, from his attempt to make the soldiers give up their formation and run and establish an outer encirclement to surround you, we can probably guess that this person is a person who dares to take risks. And the person who dares to take risks obviously will not have the patience to wait until a large number of ambushers are in place."

"The boss is wise", Ivan's horses also came out of his mouth. However, whether it was himself, Berangel or Gastens, he knew that the words he said were not very hypocritical or moisture.

"What will we do next?" Belancheer interjected, "The enemy's troops are outside the forest, and they are likely to mobilize more troops to attack us. This forest is not big, and we are not out of danger yet."

"You're right," Gastens nodded, "We take a break for fifteen minutes, clean up the number of people, collect bullets, and give priority to the soldiers behind the rear and the front storm soldiers. Other soldiers are only allowed to fire alone, and we must take advantage of our higher accuracy in weapons to save bullets while ensuring power."

"Then where will we go?" Ivan asked, "If they go back, they will definitely be blocked on the road."

"We go west, continue to go west, and then find an opportunity to pull out the enemy's formation, counterattack two rounds, and get rid of tracking. After getting rid of tracking, we can go to the pre-set reserve point to replenish ammunition."

According to Gastens's theory and the guerrilla warfare rules of Belancheir during this period, while Gastens brought two brigades out this time, he also set up several safe material supply points along the way for post-war replenishment. However, when setting up the supply points, he did not realize that this situation would be ambushed by the enemy and all the ammunition would be used up in the middle of the journey, so the supply points were a little far from the Rufeng Mountain, and it would be difficult to arrive safely and supply them if there were pursuers behind him.

However, Gastens had long had an idea about how to get rid of the pursuers. "The enemy cannot use combat formations when pursuing us. The range and power advantages of our weapons can be fully utilized. I believe that even soldiers of the Niglu Republic will not be able to stand such a huge casualty rate in battles like today. Once they become afraid of battles, it is the time for us to completely get rid of them."
Chapter completed!