221: The Battle of Lingnan ended

After more than half a month of sleepless, bloody battles and advances, the unprecedented Lingnan Campaign finally concluded with the total victory of the two major coalition forces!

Shaocheng and Meicheng, two cities with populations of eight million, were completely liberated. Phoenix City, which had been left undefended due to the Zombie Horde's main force pouring out, was also taken by the Red Alert Legion and the Southern Military Region in one fell swoop, encountering almost no significant resistance.

By liberating three densely populated and economically developed cities in the southern Region in one fell swoop and annihilating tens of millions of the Zombie Horde, 40% of Lingnan Province's territory had been reclaimed. This brilliant victory was like dropping a bombshell into the dull and oppressive clouds of the apocalypse; once the news spread, the whole country was electrified!

This was not just a military victory, but a declaration to all survivors struggling in the darkness: humanity still has the capability to take back its lost home!

The Red Alert Legion and the Southern Military Region simultaneously cabled the entire country, spreading this triumphant news to all survivor bases that were still operating.

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A Telegram to Our Compatriots in Bases Across the Country

Since the apocalypse descended, the mountains and rivers have wept blood for over half a year.

However, the human race has not perished! The spark has not been extinguished!

Today, my Red Alert Legion has mobilized tens of thousands of troops, marching south to the South of the Ranges, working in unity with the soldiers of the Southern Military Region, shedding blood on the battlefield, and finally overcoming the stubborn enemy!

We have now returned the three major cities of Lingnan Province—Shaocheng, Meicheng, and Phoenix City—to the banner of our human race! In this battle, over a million common people were saved, and the scourge of zombies in nearly half of the territory of the South of the Ranges has been eliminated!

Sparks ignite the torch of hope; faith forges an immortal Great Wall!

The zombie crisis is by no means invincible! The dawn of morning has already pierced the darkness, shining upon the land of our China!

We hope that the military and civilians across the country will unite as one to overcome this national crisis!

— Red Alert Legion Supreme Command

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Following this, the National Government and the Supreme United Front Work Department, far away in the capital, also quickly issued a circular, expressing their warmest congratulations on the huge victory achieved by the Red Alert Legion and the Southern Military Region. They highly praised the heroic and fearless achievements of the soldiers of both armies in recovering lost territory, calling it "the most iconic victory since the apocalypse," which greatly boosted the morale of the military and civilians nationwide.

The gains from this campaign also caused the strength of the Red Alert Legion under Jiang Xin to experience explosive growth once again.

In terms of population, the nearly six hundred thousand survivors rescued from the three cities of the South of the Ranges were methodically transferred to various newly built bases within Xijiang Province for resettlement.

Regarding troop numbers, the main force of the Red Alert Legion under Jiang Xin had expanded to eight full-strength main brigades. Added to this were two Mixed Brigades reorganized from civilian forces, led by Zhang Lei. These two Mixed Brigades were well-equipped, well-trained, and had high morale, having quickly grown into a formidable force of significant weight. Jiang Xin's total troop strength had reached sixty thousand!

Meanwhile, the operations to recover prefecture-level cities within Xijiang Province, led by Zhang Lei and Zhang Long, also reported frequent successes, with battles in Jiangzhou, Raozhou, Cidu, and other places nearing their end. Thus, over ninety percent of the territory and cities in Xijiang Province were already flying the flag of the Red Alert Legion!

The core goal of the next phase was to recover the Hero Mei City - Hongdu! This provincial capital Mei City, with a population of over ten million, had been deep in the clutches of the Zombie Horde for months, and time waited for no one.

In his strategic layout, Jiang Xin used Yuanzhou, Jiangzhou, Raozhou, and Lingchuan as the main directions of attack, deploying a crack Red Alert main brigade in each. Like four sharp swords, the twelve main regiments formed a huge strategic encirclement, locking Hongdu firmly in the center. In addition, the Mixed Brigade No. 2, attacking from the direction of Jiancheng County, and the Mixed Brigade No. 1, pressing up from the direction of Zhongling County, undertook auxiliary attack and containment tasks.

A dragnet to recover the Hero Mei City had been woven, and the moment for the general offensive was approaching!

The provincial base in Xijiang Province, which had been trapped within the ten-million-strong Zombie Tide in Hongdu for months, was already struggling to survive. They relied on Qingshan County, which was directly administered by Hongdu, to barely accommodate about four hundred thousand surviving civilians and maintained an active-duty force of over twenty thousand through expansion. However, compared to the well-equipped Red Alert Legion, their equipment was rudimentary: a total of only two hundred tanks and infantry fighting vehicles, twenty-plus armed helicopters, and fifty-plus transport helicopters. They were extremely lacking in heavy artillery, missiles, and main battle tanks, and had a complete void in high-end aerial power such as bombers and fighter jets. As a provincial base, the aid they received from the Eastern Military Region was minimal, and they were supporting themselves entirely independently.

Looking at the whole country, the situation in the seven major military Regions was relatively encouraging:

· Western Military Region: Progress was almost synchronized with Xijiang Province. Except for the super-Mei City of Chengdu, which had a population of seventy million and was still in a stalemate, other cities in the Western Sichuan Region had basically been liberated, which was largely due to the characteristic of the Region's population being highly concentrated in Chengdu.

· Northern Military Region: Thanks to the vast territory and sparse population of the Three Eastern Provinces and a strong industrial foundation, progress was the most rapid. In Liaoning Province, except for the provincial capital Shengjing, it had basically been liberated, and two cities in Jilin Province with smaller populations had also been recovered. More importantly, the Northern Military Region successfully recovered several crucial arsenals and strategic grain warehouses, and carried out agricultural production in many places, greatly alleviating the pressure on weapons, ammunition, and food for the Northern and Central Military Regions.

· Central Military Region: As the most powerful force of the National Government, although they were temporarily powerless against the terrifying Zombie Horde of five hundred million in the core area of the capital, they had steadily taken many key locations in Jizhou and successfully linked up strategically with the Northern Military Region in the northern part of Jizhou, comprehensively compressing the space for zombie activity.

· Eastern Military Region: With the addition of the tier-3 top expert Xiang Wentian, they were unstoppable and advancing triumphantly. However, the population density of the Suzhou area, which was the highest in the country, made the recovery work exceptionally difficult. Currently, they had only successfully liberated two cities with relatively small populations, such as the garrisoned Yangtaicheng, as well as scattered counties in surrounding cities.

(I have chosen these contents for the Lingnan Campaign; I won't write about the recovery of the core urban areas, as that would be much the same as the Jiancheng recovery operation. The Lingnan Campaign is over, and we will enter the Hongdu chapter immediately. I still want to shamelessly ask friends for reviews; please move your little hands to click for a good review and support me! Thank you very much!)

· Anxi Base and Tubo Base, the two major border defense bases: The situation was the most optimistic. Tubo, relying on its special geography and population distribution, had almost declared the entire province liberated. Anxi was also progressing smoothly. Both major bases had currently accommodated 1.4 to 1.5 million survivors, each possessing nearly two hundred thousand active-duty troops.