At ten in the morning, the artillery fire ceased completely, and all units under Yu Xiangyang's command entered a ceasefire.
Concurrently, the Gante army, comprising a total of 14 divisions and 6 independent brigades, amounting to 170,000 soldiers, found themselves surrounded in a narrow zone with a depth of only twenty kilometers.
In addition to the encircled Gante field forces, eight cities were also besieged, trapping 9.1 million citizens within their walls, with only a small contingent of city defense forces barely holding on.
In the span of a single night's intense battle, Yu Xiangyang's forces had encircled a staggering 9.27 million people.
However, Yu Xiangyang's command consisted of only thirty thousand mechanical soldiers and twenty thousand human soldiers, totaling four divisions. Of these, ten thousand human soldiers were assigned to logistics and administrative roles far from the front lines.
This was already a miracle in the history of the Wheeler Star wars: fifty thousand soldiers holding down 9.27 million people, a minuscule force controlling numerous cities and enemy troops. All the enemy forces were now trapped like fish in a barrel. The twenty-kilometer depth meant that a single round of bombardment and artillery fire could cover them entirely. Yu Xiangyang needed only a simple order to completely annihilate the seventeen thousand surrounded Gante soldiers within half an hour.
Yu Xiangyang reported his next plan to Jiang Ye: first, evacuate all civilians from the cities, while continuously containing the enemy forces and forcing their surrender through starvation.
Due to the large number of civilians, Yu Xiangyang requested an additional fifty thousand troops from Jiang Ye to manage civilian evacuation and maintain order.
Jiang Ye acted swiftly, transferring four reinforced mechanical divisions from Bi Rong Star overnight to the front lines, placing them under Yu Xiangyang's command.
It was initially expected that Yu Xiangyang would quietly await the complete evacuation of civilians while maintaining the siege on the Gante army.
However, as soon as the reinforcements arrived, Yu Xiangyang's forces launched a fierce assault on the encircled Gante army, clearing all enemy forces within a mere six hours.
During the intense offensive, forty thousand enemy soldiers were severely wounded or killed, while the remaining thirteen thousand surrendered and laid down their arms.
Yu Xiangyang did not pause. He actually swept forward with his heavy forces and, within two days, encountered another fifteen thousand Gante soldiers.
Jiang Ye began to feel that something was amiss.
A sense of foreboding settled upon him.
Yu Xiangyang's advance speed was exceptionally fast, and in battle, he showed no regard for casualties, charging forward with reckless abandon, as if aiming to cut through the equator. He appeared like an out-of-control, maddened beast.
Coincidentally, the investigation team previously dispatched had made a breakthrough and came to see Jiang Ye with highly classified information.
Jiang Ye met the two representatives of the investigation team in a small conference room: a man and a woman, Jiang Yuanji and Ping Jingjing. Both were young talents and bore a striking resemblance to each other, as if they were a couple.
The three sat by the coffee table, facing each other at close range.
"Sir, we have uncovered some earth-shattering matters. I hope you are mentally prepared," Jiang Yuanji said, opening his briefcase and beginning to sort through the documents.
"I am prepared," Jiang Ye nodded, his expression grave.
"In the Lushan area, two mass graves were discovered, containing over four thousand four hundred and over six thousand three hundred bodies, respectively. The corpses were all wearing Gante army uniforms. Here are the photographs. We dug out the remains with excavators in the middle of the night and then returned them," Ping Jingjing said, handing several photographs to Jiang Ye.
Jiang Ye's face began to turn pale, layer by layer, and then flush red, layer by layer.
"In addition, Yu Xiangyang underreported the number of enemy killed and captured. The unreported quantity is approximately double the reported quantity. In other words, Yu Xiangyang reported half, and the other half was not reported," Jiang Yuanji handed over an album. "This album contains secret POW camps that were secretly constructed near Lushan. We have confirmed with the division commander that these POW camps were built by Yu Xiangyang without any official report. Furthermore, they were kept strictly secret, known only to a very small number of Yu Xiangyang's trusted troops."
"The conditions in the POW camps are extremely dire. Three divisions of Gante soldiers are held there, living in deplorable conditions. The prisoners inside live like livestock. As you can see in the photographs, these POWs are housed in environments akin to pigpens. Feces and urine are in the corners of the walls. Because there are too few guards, they cannot clean the latrines in time, and they dare not let the POWs relieve themselves in the open field for fear of them escaping amidst the chaos. The desperate POWs can only relieve themselves in the corners and then sleep curled up on the other side of the wall, covered with the coats of their fallen comrades, or with military fabrics like the rainproof covers of howitzers, and even with potato sacks." Ping Jingjing explained.
"When we visited the POW camps, the guards' attitude was extremely arrogant. They almost shot us to death. These guards are all veteran soldiers from Yu Xiangyang's trusted units, fiercely loyal to Yu Xiangyang and do not recognize us. However, we still managed to make contact with some POWs and learned some information from them," Jiang Yuanji said, his expression still lingering with fear.
"For the first two days, there was no food, only water. The POWs were so dizzy from hunger that some attempted to gather and escape. Over a hundred and fifty people managed to break out at night, only to be met with ambushes of automatically aiming machine gun turrets in the open field, and they were all shot dead. Their bodies were brought back and displayed in the corridor, and then food was distributed."
"It is said that this process was personally instructed by Yu Xiangyang: starve them first, then kill them, and then give them food. This can quickly make the POWs obedient and can also be used to subdue deserters. Deserters often face an additional measure of random execution, where everyone lines up, and a lottery is drawn. For every fifth person, one is shot, serving as a deterrent to deserters. This method has been used multiple times in the history of the Le Liu forces, and the Le Liu forces learned this practice from the Gante army, who repeatedly carried out such inhumane operations in past generations of warfare," Jiang Yuanji narrated.
"After eating a full meal for one day, a regimental commander came and issued an order, demanding that the POWs carry out military missions, with all those who refused to be executed by firing squad. Within an hour, five thousand people were taken away in military vehicles towards the front lines. It is said that upon reaching the front lines, these POWs were first assigned to various tasks as laborers, transporting ammunition and constructing fortifications. Dozens of them died from exhaustion, most of them having pre-existing injuries that worsened due to the high-intensity labor. After they died, their companions would bury them by the roadside and disappear."
"During the major battle in Ivli City a few days ago, these POWs were sent to the front lines, issued weapons, and ordered to fight. A chilling death order was also issued: every five hundred people formed a combat unit, and if the combat mission was not completed, everyone in that unit would be executed. For example, if a unit was tasked with capturing a hill and failed to do so by the deadline, mechanical soldiers would arrive to execute the remaining personnel."
"It is said that at least twenty thousand Gante army POWs at the Ivli City front line, under Yu Xiangyang's command, attacked the Gante army. These POWs fought with extreme ferocity, charging towards their objectives without fear of death, and many were killed by the opposing Gante army, but they generally completed their combat missions."
"During the fighting in the Shengshan area a few days ago, there were even more instances of Gante soldiers fighting their own kind. In addition to the previous POWs, Yu Xiangyang also forcibly conscripted many young and strong men from Ivli City to serve as laborers, responsible for tasks such as transporting ammunition."
"In other words, Yu Xiangyang is currently implementing an extremely brutal strategy of 'war feeding war.' After conquering a region of the enemy, he controls a large number of the enemy and forces them to fight the next region's enemy, thus accumulating his strength like a snowball," Jiang Yuanji summarized.
Ping Jingjing nodded in agreement, "Yu Xiangyang is in a great hurry. He likely knows that you would not approve of his actions, so he is trying to go all out and achieve results as quickly as possible before you discover them. In pursuit of speed, Yu Xiangyang has likely openly and secretly instructed many inhumane acts, including killing surrendering enemies to establish authority. The process of this war machine he has set in motion is extremely terrifying, and some are already saying that Yu Xiangyang is the Bai Qi of Wheeler Star."