Chapter 358: Water Cut Off

Chapter 358 – The Water Cut

Mountain City.

After the ground passage opened, reinforcements began to pour into the mountain city without cease.

The first wave of aid was still chiefly the remnants of the Han River Expeditionary Force, interspersed with a few mechanist clergy troops conscripted in Anhan.

By He Shuo’s design, all of them were placed under the supervision of Guo Xu and his two companions.

It was a pure stratagem of bright daylight; He Shuo intended to use these three already “pre‑modified” elite guards to further fragment and remodel the clergy troops, letting the change seep through the whole Mechanist Cult.

Of course, that was only the superficial layer of his plan.

What truly took effect was not merely Guo Xu’s influence over the clergy.

Likewise, in the process of commanding the clergy, the troops would in turn affect the three men.

Yet once they truly sensed the divergence between the two forces, seeking a “moderate balance” between the two stances would become ever more elusive.

Watching Guo Xu berate the loosely‑formed clergy with coarse language, Chen Jian’s lips curled into a faint smile.

He would soon be driven to madness by those very clergy.

Even if a fresh Sacred Legion arrived from Jinling later, the sense of disparity would not be eased.

Because his threshold had already been raised to an extreme.

To readjust, how could it be easy?

When his conflict with the clergy and the Mechanist Cult grew irreconcilable, He Shuo’s next move would finally be set in motion.

——

But that is not the pressing task at hand now.

Chen Jian withdrew his gaze and turned to the newly erected screen in the makeshift command post.

Then he spoke:

“According to the intel from Shen City, we have formed a preliminary judgment on the ‘Ring’ concept.”

“It is likely a ‘special equipment network’ spanning various regions across the globe.”

“Although we still do not know the exact purpose of these devices, we can confirm that Mountain City is one node in that network.”

“Thus, our offensive against Mountain City has shifted from ‘optional’ to ‘mandatory’.”

“What do you think? Any objections?”

When his words fell, everyone in the temporary command post shook their heads.

“No.”

“No.”

Receiving the unanimous answer, Chen Jian gave a slight nod and continued:

“Then we won’t beat around the bush. The Shen City matter is left to Shen Mu—Lei Jie, you should fly back as soon as possible to assist.”

“Everyone else, stay focused on Mountain City; our goal is to resolve its problem completely and swiftly.”

“Alright, let us move into the tactical discussion phase.”

He paused briefly, then projected the latest operational map onto the screen.

He went on:

“From the current data, the entire Mountain City has entered a full lockdown.”

“We no longer detect any anomalous activity signals, and the electromagnetic scanners have ceased picking up unknown EM waves.”

“The city’s surface and subterranean sections are now completely sealed; they are like turtles retreating into their shells, leaving not a sliver of opening for us to strike.”

“Now I understand why the denizens of Mountain City have grown so audacious.”

“They truly have confidence.”

“Centuries of development have rendered the underground space as solid as a colossal fortress.”

“I seriously doubt that even burying a high‑yield nuclear warhead underground would inflict any significant damage upon them.”

“Moreover, if we attempt to go underground, the danger of the operation escalates instantly.”

“The unmanned combat units in the subterranean realm are immune to surface electromagnetic pulses.”

“Deprived of electromagnetic suppression, we would be forced into a genuine close‑quarters melee.”

“This is troublesome. The question arises.”

“Is there a way for us to breach the underground swiftly, shatter their defenses, and plunge straight into the core of Mountain City?”

His words hung in the air, and the room fell silent.

After a moment, Lei Jie spoke up:

“We can pit unmanned combat against unmanned combat.”

“They have autonomous machines; we have them too.”

“Even if we lag in production capacity, we can offset the gap with our resource advantage.”

“No.”

Chen Jian shook his head, cutting Lei Jie off.

“There is a timing issue here.”

“We must strike the interior of Mountain City, but the moment we succeed will ultimately determine the outcome of this operation.”

“Capturing it within ten days yields a completely different result than doing so after two months.”

“Even setting aside the ‘Ring’ issue, a prolonged delay would turn the situation decidedly against us.”

“This underground citadel will become an unremovable nail, or a sword of Damocles hanging over our heads.”

“It could fall at any instant, rendering all our efforts to dust.”

“Negotiations?” He Shuo asked.

From his perspective, many matters need not be forced onto the battlefield.

If a problem can be settled at the negotiating table or behind the scenes, there is no need to spill blood on the front lines.

That line of thought, in fact, is not unreasonable.

After all, war is essentially a form of internal attrition, an extreme remedy that appears only when problems cannot be solved otherwise.

If there were a chance to halt that attrition, who would still yearn for the frenzy of war?

——

Yet a new dilemma emerges.

Does the current Huaxia army truly possess any bargaining chips for negotiations with Mountain City?

Before the ground passage was opened, before the first‑tier monsters were cleared, both sides might have had a genuine chance to talk.

But the war has already begun, both sides have sunk heavy sunk costs, and now every chip on the table has been reduced to zero.

To restart the game, both sides must lay down fresh stakes.

The reality, however, is that Shancheng still holds chips, while the Huaxia army has none.

With that thought, Chen Jian shook his head and said:

“We can’t negotiate.”

“Given the cards we hold now, our stake is far too small compared to Shancheng’s.”

“If we enter the negotiation process, they’ll lead us by the nose.”

“Unless we can acquire new cards, but—”

“We have them.”

He Shuo raised his hand, cutting Chen Jian off, and continued:

“We can indeed obtain new cards.”

“You mean the so‑called Ring?”

Chen Jian asked.

“Certainly not.”

“The Ring is too ethereal for both us and Shancheng.”

“Until we fully understand its function, it remains merely a possibility, perhaps a flourish in the later stages of talks.”

“But using it as a stake would be utterly inappropriate.”

“So aside from that, what else do we have?”

Chen Jian pressed on, puzzled.

He Shuo tapped lightly on the table and answered:

“In negotiations of this magnitude, the stake will never be profit.”

“We are already locked in mutual hostility, so a truly effective stake must be destructive.”

“We must seize their vital point.”

“And their vital point is computational power.”

“We need to cripple their computing capacity as much as possible.”

As his words faded, Chen Jian spread his hands and said:

“That brings us back to the beginning—our basic assumption is that even a megaton nuclear bomb cannot effectively shake the underground computing hub.”

“We don’t need to strike the computing center directly.”

He Shuo cut straight to the answer.

“Water—water is the core.”

With those words, Chen Jian was struck by sudden insight.

A revelation like a flash of enlightenment!

Indeed,

Water is the foundation of everything.

Because a computing center of such colossal scale cannot exist without an enormous water supply for cooling!

The perpetual mist that drifts over Shancheng may well be the vapor of that cooling water!

The answer becomes crystal clear.

A megaton bomb cannot outright destroy subterranean installations.

But what if we use an explosion to sever the water supply?

Underground Shancheng must possess a cooling‑water management system, after all, they must contend with water scarcity during drought periods.

Yet even so, there is room for maneuver.

The Yangtze River

Chen Jian slammed his palm on the table, rising.

“This plan is brilliant!”

“Conduct remote sensing of the surface to locate Shancheng’s main water‑intake channels!”

“Cut off the water, and I’ll see how long they can hold out!”

(End of chapter)