Twenty minutes after Gante's broadcast, Jiang Ye convened a meeting with his think tank and senior officers.
The senior officers had been analyzing intelligence on Wheeler Star for some time, as it was clearly the next place to earn medals. A few officers eager for merit and achievement had been working tirelessly, spending fourteen hours a day in front of the large map conducting campaign simulations. Several old generals argued heatedly amongst themselves, maintaining their mental alertness with strong tea and coffee, eating and sleeping in their offices.
Now that the critical moment had arrived, these officers finally presented their hard-won research results to Jiang Ye.
Firstly, Gante's tactic of concentrating civilians as human shields was anticipated. A week prior, around the time many spies went missing, Gante's territory had begun a comprehensive population census, requiring civilians not to move freely and to submit applications to local garrisons for any moves or long-distance travel.
Concurrently, dense construction of Gante Towers had commenced near major military bases a week ago.
Gante Towers were a type of building widely constructed within Gante's territory. Originally serving as barracks for warlord troops, they were later used to house refugees after wars and to address housing issues for impoverished civilians.
These Gante Towers typically stood ten stories high, shaped like a "口" (mouth) character, with 32 households per floor. The building structure was assembled using giant floor slabs mass-produced by factories, joined by mortise and tenon, and then reinforced with reinforced concrete. Each building could house nearly two thousand people and could be constructed in about ten days. They were sturdy, crude, and built in large quantities to provide shelter.
Whenever Gante prepared to expand outwards, he would pre-emptively build a large number of Gante Towers to quickly house local refugees after certain areas were razed by war. Typically, each Gante Tower was equipped with a 10-person submachine gun squad. If any refugees caused trouble, the squad could immediately execute them. After the war ended and life stabilized within the building, the submachine gun squad would withdraw and be replaced by a 5-person pistol police force responsible for maintaining order within the building. Gante's territory was in the tropics, with many snakes and insects, so the police force's daily work often involved continuously catching snakes.
Therefore, Jiang Ye's officers became vigilant after noticing Gante's intensive construction of Gante Towers and began making relevant projections.
The number and location of most Gante Towers were related to the nearby population; more buildings were in areas with more people, and fewer in areas with fewer people.
However, four locations were particularly anomalous: the Liuleliu region, the Retuo region, the Cheyake region, and the Mu Jiang region.
Gante's territory only occupied the edges of these regions. The local population was only around ten thousand, yet over seven thousand Gante Towers had been densely constructed there a week ago, with four thousand Gante Towers concentrated in the Liuleliu region.
Near these four regions were large warlord forces that had been in a state of confrontation with Gante's territory, with occasional exchanges of fire and friction, but no major battles had occurred.
Several of Jiang Ye's army commanders believed that Gante was likely to fight major battles in these four locations to flatten the nearby warlords.
From a geographical perspective, occupying these four places would allow control over vast contiguous mountain and lake regions, making them ideal locations for building anti-air systems and concealing troops. It would also eliminate threatening external threats, as these were the last significant hostile warlords near Gante's territory; the rest were insignificant remnants like bandits.
Jiang Ye did not hesitate and fully trusted his officers. Midway through the meeting, he ordered immediate contact with the minor warlord forces in the Liuleliu region, Retuo region, Cheyake region, and Mu Jiang region, informing them of the potential war and preparing to provide weapons, equipment, and medical aid.
While the meeting was ongoing, many warlords on Wheeler Star urgently contacted Jiang Ye, requesting immediate mechanical soldier assistance and even demanding Jiang Ye's troops to garrison and protect them in response to imminent war crises.
The officers continued to analyze Gante's territory.
Gante occupied 70% of the tropical regions on Wheeler Star and 10% of the temperate regions. Overall, Gante's territory resembled a ribbon wrapped around Wheeler Star.
A decapitation strike was temporarily impossible because, according to existing intelligence, Gante had at least five decoys, and the true location of both the real person and the decoys was unclear, making it impossible to paralyze Gante's army by precisely destroying a single location.
The officers' idea was a cutting tactic, to divide the entire tropical region into several segments, isolate each piece of territory, prevent mutual support, and then conduct a prolonged siege to force surrender.
Jiang Ye looked at the officers' operational plan map and felt it was like using a sword to chop a snake into segments.
It seemed feasible, but it faced several major problems.
Firstly, Gante had concentrated a large number of civilians near military bases. Bombarding military bases would inevitably lead to numerous civilian casualties, contradicting Jiang Ye's intention to avoid human casualties.
Secondly, if a long-term siege and starvation were employed, it would still result in a large number of civilian deaths.
Che Zhen proposed a completely different plan: the Tropical Cage Tactic.
In the fringe areas of the tropics, quickly build a batch of military bases.
Simultaneously establish transportation lines, including rail and air transport, that could reach the temperate rear areas unimpeded from the tropical military bases.
Station large numbers of troops in these military bases. Once Gante's army left its territory, nearby military bases would dispatch forces to repel them.
Like a cage, restrict Gante's sphere of influence to the tropics and prevent further expansion.
If any of Gante's troops were captured, they would be disarmed, taken back to military bases, immediately sent to the temperate rear areas via transportation lines for ideological and labor reform. After strict assessment, their free status would be restored, but they would not be allowed to return to the tropics.
During peacetime, small units would be constantly deployed to persuade and besiege enemy-held areas, gradually extracting personnel and sending them to the rear, keeping them away from the battlefield.
Through this protracted war, Gante's territory, army, and population would be eroded, diluting his strength and avoiding the heavy casualties of major battles.
Jiang Ye decided to try Che Zhen's plan. He could feel that the Tropical Cage Tactic would be very difficult to execute, very expensive, and had a high probability of failure, but it was the only way to avoid massive human casualties at the moment.
The meeting lasted for over three hours.
As soon as the meeting adjourned, intelligence from spies, satellites, warlord leaders, and Weng Zimo arrived almost simultaneously:
Gante's army was launching a large-scale attack on the Liuleliu region!
Jiang Ye, tired and drowsy, injected himself with a stamina booster, forcing himself to be alert, and headed to the combat command center.
While receiving the injection, Jiang Ye suddenly felt that his body was not as good as before. After all, he was no longer a young man. Once the fighting stabilized, he should hurry and get surgery to turn back the clock by ten years.