118: As long as I have no morals, no one can morally blackmail me!

The American military wanted to put on a complete show, and while Fang Le had no intention of interfering, it didn't mean he wasn't paying attention.

So, with the help of some reconnaissance methods, Fang Le and others watched the show from the base command center.

According to intelligence, the force dispatched by Australia was a hastily assembled mixed unit, numbering about four to five thousand people. It consisted of an artillery battalion, an armored battalion, an engineer battalion, a signal company plus logistics support troops, and three mechanized infantry battalions.

It could be said that it was a conventional, relatively traditional ground force.

This combined brigade successfully reached the Alice Springs area and surrounded the entire Alice Springs.

Third Division Commander Li Dakui said, “Damn it, a force of four or five thousand men dares to surround an area of over one hundred square kilometers, and they even dare to spread their forces so thinly.”

Although Alice Springs is located on a plain, it is not entirely exposed and without defensible terrain.

It is flanked by mountains, which, though small, are enough to block the invasion of heavy armored units.

For this kind of terrain, one must either directly penetrate through the main roads leading into and out of the town, or use overwhelming firepower to first occupy all the high ground, and then attack the town center from above.

However, looking at the range of the combined brigade's long-range artillery, occupying the high ground would require some infantry charges.

However, First Division Commander Luo Hui stated, “But the number of bandits occupying Alice Springs isn't large, estimated to be only a regiment's strength, and their firepower advantage is not as good as this combined brigade.”

“Let's see how these two weaklings peck at each other.”

As they spoke, the two sides had already engaged in battle.

The occupying force had set up machine gun and artillery positions on the small mountain peaks on both sides early on, even constructing concrete fortifications. Shells and machine gun fire rained down on the Australian military forces below the slopes.

Australia also unleashed long-range firepower.

The density of fire from both sides was comparable, with Australia being slightly stronger, but it did not have the advantage of terrain. For a time, both sides exchanged blows, locked in a fierce struggle.

Fang Le was very disdainful.

Pure long-range artillery bombardment, how many people can it kill? Are they playing games?

Just as he thought this, he saw an Apache attack helicopter from the Australian official military slightly push forward, flying over the enemy-occupied slope, and launched a missile at a relatively close range.

The missile streaked away with a whoosh and directly hit one of the occupying force's high-position fire bunkers.

The missile exploded, blowing the entire bunker sky-high. A raging fire ignited there, and soldiers stumbled out of the blown-out hole in the bunker, took a few steps, and then collapsed to the ground, unmoving.

Holy crap—

Fang Le almost spat out a mouthful of iced black tea.

Aren't you guys acting?

The missile, judging by its effect, seemed to be a Hellfire anti-tank missile, equipped with six blades, with considerable lethality. Besides hitting tanks, it could also be used to attack bunkers.

Are they even using this for a staged performance?

Are they showing no mercy even to their own people?

However, that Apache didn't get off scot-free either; it was blown up by the occupying force using a Stinger missile.

Moreover, the other units of both sides were also fighting desperately.

It felt like they were all going for the kill.

Fang Le was completely bewildered and turned to ask the high-ranking officials:

“Is this really an act?”

Yue Hanshan and the others looked at each other.

Yue Hanshan: “I guess they're afraid that if the acting is too fake, without casualties, it'll be easily exposed... But I suspect the attacking and defending forces are not the same group of people at all, otherwise, they wouldn't be so merciless.”

All in all, the attacking side had the upper hand in terms of troop strength, equipment, and firepower reserves. It was only a matter of time before they captured all the high ground and entered the town.

But just as Fang Le made this judgment, the combined brigade's attack collectively ceased.

They completely halted at the foot of the mountain.

Huh?

What's going on?

They're not fighting anymore?

Then something even more surprising happened.

All the forward-pressing combined brigade units, as if receiving an order, collectively turned around and returned to their starting positions a few kilometers away.

Are they letting them off the hook so blatantly?

But soon, Fang Le discovered through intelligence that this was far from a simple letting go; the defending side in the town was truly ruthless.

They actually did that—

—

While Fang Le was watching the show, netizens in other parts of the world could not know the specific details of the war happening in Alice Springs.

After all, ordinary people could only learn about the general situation from the news and did not have firsthand intelligence.

At this moment, netizens were commenting on Australia's press conference from the previous day, which was a follow-up to the public opinion fermentation.

—

“The only ones qualified to make me withdraw from the MacDonnell Ranges and claim territorial rights over me are the kangaroos of Australia.”

“No other creature has this right.”

—

“Hahaha, this Commander Fang of the Anti-War Army is really interesting.”

“Does he mean that the kangaroos of Australia are the true Indigenous people of that continent?”

“Alas, fortunately, the North American continent doesn't have such distinct animals as kangaroos, otherwise Western colonizers could claim that the Native Americans were not the Indigenous people either.”

…

“I say, don't just focus on the press conference. According to public news, the Australian official forces are currently fighting the occupying forces in Alice Springs, right?”

“What do you think the outcome will be?”

“Tsk, what else could be the outcome? The Australian military is bound to lose. Even the U.S. Military has deeply experienced the combat power of the Anti-War Army. What is the Australian military?”

“I admit you have a point... So, do you think the ones occupying Alice Springs are really the Anti-War Army, or is someone else impersonating them?”

While netizens were discussing wildly, the local battle in Alice Springs entered its next phase.

Fang Le looked at the intelligence provided by high-altitude satellites and unmanned reconnaissance aircraft from a distance and cursed, “Holy crap.”

“These occupying forces are truly inhumane; they've even resorted to such a vicious tactic!”

It turned out that, in order to block the advance of the Australian forces, the occupying forces actually pulled out the more than ten thousand ordinary civilians in the town and dispersed them in various places throughout the town.

Including the defensive fortifications.

In other words, they used ordinary civilians as cannon fodder, as human shields.

As long as the attacking side attacked, whether with shells or ordinary bullets, while destroying the occupying forces' fortifications and taking the lives of their soldiers, they would also kill ordinary townspeople.

And the ratio of ordinary people to the occupying forces in the town was 10:1; the most casualties would only be civilians.

Under these circumstances, any commander of the attacking side would have to halt the attack.

Otherwise, no one could bear the responsibility for massacring their own civilians.

Thus, the two sides transitioned from their previous fierce engagement to a period of cease-fire and confrontation.