What the fuck! An armored vehicle-launched bridge is here too?

"Static... Lieutenant August, please respond if you copy..."

Just as Lieutenant August was feeling completely helpless about the situation before him, his radio suddenly received a message from another unit.

After listening to the message from the other end, tears of joy almost welled up in his eyes. Truly, Heaven never cuts off all avenues of escape!

He had previously thought that his armored battalion would be unable to cross the river ahead because the local bridge had been blown up.

If they were to rely solely on infantry assault boats to forcefully land on the small town before them, there was no telling how many men would die facing the enemy's firepower.

Most importantly, even if a small number of light infantry could be sent to the opposite bank, successfully capturing this town would be utterly meaningless.

There was no way their subsequent supply trains could be slowly ferried across using small boats; where could one even find enough ferryboats on this river now?

Fortunately, however, another friendly unit operating five kilometers downstream had achieved a major breakthrough.

This friendly unit happened to be escorting one of the Empire's newest bridge-laying mechs. Although this piece of junk was rarely used on most battlefields, suffered from a shockingly high failure rate, and could not span very long distances, it was a bridge-layer nonetheless.

Regardless of all its flaws, they had successfully managed to hastily construct a small bridge across a narrow, shallow ford downstream.

Though the bridge was small and incapable of supporting mass troop transport, it was at least sufficient to allow his armored forces to cross gradually without any major issues.

Upon receiving this news, he immediately issued a redirection order to his armored battalion and two other infantry battalions, instructing them to launch a breakthrough from downstream and then maneuver around to attack the town from the rear.

There was no alternative. Even though they could cross the river using the bridge-laying mech, they had to capture this town in order to control the now-severed main bridge.

Once the town was secured, their follow-up engineering corps would naturally have the leeway to slowly repair the bridge. Otherwise, leaving this place unattended and pushing deep into enemy territory alone with such a small force would yield zero results.

Moreover, even now, Lieutenant August remained obsessed with annihilating the enemy's "ace unit."

The more he was met with fierce resistance from the enemy within this town, the more inclined he was to believe that the town garrison must be the enemy's elite force!

Only by thoroughly destroying this ace unit could he wash away the disgrace he had suffered!

Seeing that the enemy was not preparing to force a river crossing, but was instead heading downstream, Andrei, watching from his covert position, let out a sigh of relief.

He had half-expected these people to use some other crazy method to continue assaulting the town, since the settlement essentially served as the bridgehead for the bridge ahead.

Even with the bridge broken, they were bound to fight for this location, or else they would have to take a massive detour.

However, watching them shift their movement toward the downstream direction, Andrei felt a trace of puzzlement:

Were they seriously planning to make such a huge detour and then force a breakthrough from another bridge downstream?

He wasn't entirely sure how many kilometers this Black Hawk unit could march in a day, but disregarding their armored vehicles and calculating based on the standard marching speed of a World War I-era unit, they would likely need at least four extra days just to reach the other bridge.

Thinking along these lines, Andrei immediately lost his fear.

Their assigned mission was to hold this position for seventy-two hours and then withdraw. By the time the enemy crossed the river down there and maneuvered all the way back here, at least eight or nine days would have passed.

By then, their mission would have long been completed, and they would have fallen back to the rear. It seemed there was nothing left to worry about, right?

Just as Andrei was indulging in pleasant visions of an early retreat to the rear, the bell in the church tower—which served as the command post—suddenly began to toll.

Hearing the bell, Andrei froze slightly.

The bell was supposed to signify a assembly order. What had happened this time to require a sudden muster? Could it be time to retreat?

Upon arriving at the command post, however, Andrei realized he had thought too soon.

The friendly unit on the other end had relayed a piece of unfortunate news before their complete collapse:

Among the enemy forces, a certain type of bridge-laying mech capable of rapidly transforming itself into a bridge had appeared.

Relying on this damn contraption, the enemy had managed to construct a new makeshift bridge just a few kilometers downstream!

And clearly, the Black Hawk unit currently retreating and shifting position was heading straight for that makeshift bridge!

"What the hell? Which version of the Black Hawk Empire is this? Why do they have so many sci-fi gadgets? Even bridge-laying armored vehicles are showing up?"

Hearing Lieutenant Unere's explanation, Andrei couldn't help cursing inwardly.

There was no time for curses, however. Their current mission was to rush out and halt the enemy's river-crossing operation; under no circumstances could the enemy be allowed to waltz right across.

Therefore, even though Lieutenant Unere knew his troops were already exhausted, he had no choice but to detach two battalions of infantry and dispatch them urgently downstream to contest the enemy's bridge.

The two battalion commanders who received the orders quickly went to assemble their troops. Turning his head, the lieutenant fixed his gaze on Andrei and said:

"You've all worked hard. As for this operation, you and your men won't need to go. You've performed brilliantly in the previous battles, and I think you and the remaining soldiers in your company should take some rest..."

Before the lieutenant could finish his sentence, Andrei cut him off with an immediate objection:

"No, Lieutenant, please trust me! My soldiers can still fight!"

"I can pull a group of our most combat-experienced veterans from my company. They have extensive anti-armor combat experience, and every single one of them has survived the fires of war! I am certain they will play a vital role!"

Lieutenant Unere had wanted to say more, but seeing the resolute look in Andrei's eyes, he finally nodded in agreement:

"Very well. Since that's the case, select a group of your fighters to come along with my men! This battle is bound to be extremely perilous, but we must seize that bridge!"

It had to be said that Lieutenant Unere was deeply moved by the willingness of Andrei and his company to volunteer for battle, having witnessed firsthand the contributions made by Andrei's unit.

If all Cambrian soldiers could display such resilience and tenacity, and willingly risk their lives to defend their homeland, how could they ever fail to repel the invaders?

What the lieutenant did not know, however, was that Andrei had volunteered not out of pure zeal, but because the players would never sit still.

With a battle actively underway, forbidding the players from participating would surely cause them to sneak off and start a rebellion.

Since that was the case, he might as well throw all the players into the mix and grant them a small perk along the way.

It was time to give his players another power spike!