Li De and Dai Lin planned to pursue the victory and expand the results to capture Ratchet City in one fell swoop.
After all, the quilboars still lack advanced tactical thinking. They failed to capture Ratchet City in the first few days, and it will become more and more difficult in the future. On the contrary, the morale of the goblins who successfully defended the city will become higher and higher.
Now that Gazlowe has successfully returned to Ratchet City, Li De no longer expects the wild boars to capture it.
The battle plan drawn up by Li De and Dai Lin was for the First Division to attack from the ground, compress Ratchet City's living space, and force Gazlowe to escape through the only remaining sea route.
This is the most classic "surrounding three and missing one" tactic. As long as Gazlowe dares to escape from the sea, he will definitely be attacked by the Kul Tiran fleet.
The combat effectiveness of the First Division is no better than that of the quilboars. Not only do their soldiers have higher quality, but the weapons they equip are also completely different from those of the quilboars, making Ratchet City's last bit of resistance like a candle in the wind.
At this time, Ratchet City can no longer be seen as a port city with extremely prosperous raw material trade. Spiked fences, barbed wires and trenches can be seen everywhere in the city. The doors and windows of residences and shops have also been sealed, leaving only the
A series of dark shooting holes.
The most eye-catching thing is that at the end of the widest street in the center of Ratchet City, there are four or five huge harvesting robots. The saw gears on their hands rotate rapidly, and anyone who approaches them will be cut into pieces.
Such city defenses make Ratchet City look impregnable, and it is precisely because of these that the goblins have repelled the attacks of the quilboars time and time again.
But at this moment, in the headquarters near the port, Gazlowe knew clearly in his heart that Ratchet City was destined to be undefendable. The reason why he could persist until now, in addition to his absolute control over the people below, was that
The goblins could not bear to surrender to the quilboar.
But things are different now. The Hanhai Protectorate's army is stronger. At the same time, some goblins regard the Hanhai Protectorate as half a goblin regime. Surrendering to them is completely within the acceptance range of the goblins.
Gazlowe planned to abandon Ratchet City and evacuate from the sea. In the process of preparing the plan, Gazlowe looked at Ratchet City with an extremely complicated expression. This was a masterpiece built under his own supervision, but today he was going to
Completely abandon this masterpiece.
Gazlowe did much more decisively than Li De and others imagined. When evacuating, he took away all the gold, weapons and a batch of important engineering machinery in Ratchet City.
Carrying these heavy things must have been inconvenient. During the process of loading these things on the ship, in order to hinder the advance of the First Division, Gazlowi personally ignited the explosives buried under two entire blocks!
This is why Gazlowe was so reluctant before, because he wanted to destroy Ratchet City! A series of explosions in two blocks caused a fire that spread throughout Ratchet City!
The pace of the First Division was delayed, but Gazlowe successfully led a fleet of ten large transport ships southward along the coast?!
Before Gazlowe burned Ratchet City, as long as Kul Tiras' fleet could successfully block Gazlowe's fleet, then this battle would be a great victory for Li De and Dailin.
However, both of them misjudged Gazlowe’s sailing route!
The route from Ratchet to Kezan was due east, and Daelin also ordered his fleet to intercept and kill Gazlowe on that route.
But how could they have imagined that Gazlowe had no intention of escaping to Kezan, but was heading south along the coastline! To the south of Ratchet City is the Hope Port of the Vast Sea Protector, and Gazlowe planned such an escape.
The route is completely an abnormal behavior of voluntarily committing suicide.
Gazlowe certainly did not intend to bring ten bloated transport ships to launch a suicide attack on Port of Hope. His real destination was a large island in the waters of Dustwallow Swamp.
With the presence of the Kul Tiran Navy, Gazlowe knew that he would never be able to escape back to Kozan alive no matter what. Rather than risking death and escaping to Kozan, it would be better to stay somewhere else along the coast of Kalimdor.
Find a suitable base.
Until now, Gazlowe still considers the problem from the perspective of "how to win the war". If Corzan loses the strategic fulcrum in Kalimdor, then there will be no possibility of victory in this war.
For the new base, Gazlowe had a very suitable choice in mind. When he was looking at the charts, he was very fond of that island.
However, it is a pity that the island that Gazlowe likes most is no longer a borderland. It has its own name: Theramore.
It can only be said that it is fate. Since the conflict between the Hanhai Protector and the Bilgewater Cartel over the yarn business, the business contacts between Ratchet City and the Hanhai Protector have been almost cut off.
Gazlowe is an excellent commander in terms of tactics, but after all he is not a strategist. How could he foresee a full-scale war between the Kozan goblins and the Alliance?
This resulted in Gazlowe always having a vague impression of Theramore, and completely unaware that he needed to update his information.
When he saw the buildings on Theramore Island and the flags on the island, Gazlowe felt bad. He never imagined that he would plunge into the arms of the Alliance.
However, this wave was a case of fear from both sides, and Gazlowe's fleet also frightened Theramore's defenders.
Until now, Theramore has not really been put into use, and there is no main fleet here!
Fortunately, there were no warships in Gazlowe's fleet. He had never thought about engaging in a naval battle with the enemy. Everything on the ten transport ships was for the purpose of landing and building a new stronghold.
Gazlowe had never thought of forcing a landing to seize the island, but Theramore was still equipped with enough shore guns, which posed a huge deterrent to Gazlowe.
What was even worse for Gazlowe was that Kul Tiras did not block Gazlowe at sea, and instead used all its air power to search for Gazlowe's presence.
It didn't take long to discover that Gazlowe was near Theramore! When Buck used his scales to contact Li De and Dai Lin, the news frightened both Li De and Dai Lin.
Breaking out in a cold sweat.
The appearance of the dragon made Gazlowe know that the Kul Tiras fleet would eventually arrive. Gazlowe, who thought he was in a desperate situation, was so disheartened that he abandoned Theramore and headed east.
The sea area fled over.
The red dragon Buck Romworth was always hanging behind the fleet. Gazlowe felt as if he had fallen into an ice cellar. He counted down to himself as if he was resigned to his fate, calculating when he would encounter the Kul Tiras fleet.
"Boss! There is an island ahead!"
At this moment, a shout from his subordinate woke Gazlowe up. He grabbed the telescope and then screamed in surprise.
"Why is there an island here?!"
Judging from the field of view of the telescope, this island is almost as big as Theramore! Such a large island is not far from the coastline, how come no one has discovered it before?!
Gazlowe had mixed feelings in his heart. This was simply a paradise island that saved his life!
However, after approaching the island, Gazlowe and the others discovered that this "paradise" was not so friendly. There were a group of vicious brown hydra snakes wandering in the sea near the island!
The names of these guys are "Starshaz". Just by looking at their appearance, it is easy to guess that they are related to Gazrilla. Like the purple cave hydras on the cliff highlands, they are also Gazz.
Rayla's bloodline.
However, compared to the cave hydras, these groups of Stashaz hydras lack much intelligence, and their strength is almost reduced to that of ordinary beasts.
But even so, these hydra snakes still frightened Gazlowe and the others. They have been dominating the barren land for several years. What kind of beasts have they not seen?
Chocobos, prairie lions, saber-toothed leopards... no matter how ferocious the beasts are, they can't resist a shot filled with gunpowder, but for this multi-headed monster in front of me, even a single shot can't penetrate its scales!
Gazlowe can't control so much. Let alone the hydra, even if a Titan emerges from the sea, don't even think about stopping him from reaching the island!
"boom!!!"
He fired the cannon directly and smashed the body of the hydra with one shot. Only then did Gazlowe smile with satisfaction and order to land on the island!
The goblins of Ratchet City wanted to land on the island, but Buck, who was watching from the sky, was very anxious, which meant that the target was likely to escape control. In desperation, Buck decided to lower his altitude to stop them.
However, the Azerite weapons in the hands of this group of goblins caused Buck a lot of trouble, and he could only climb to a safe height in some embarrassment.
"Quick, quick, quick! Be smart with your hands! The dragon greets its companions very quickly! We must build the air-raid shelter before more dragons arrive!"
Gazlowi had two cigars in his mouth at the same time. The strong nicotine made him extremely excited. With the help of the power of the robot hand, he personally moved a drilling rig from the ship and started it.
The huge drill bit roared and drilled underground while spitting out black smoke. Several large drilling rigs worked at the same time, and in conjunction with other tools, they actually dug out an air raid shelter in just over an hour!
All engineers carry engineering backpacks with many manipulators extending from them, and one person can do several tasks at the same time.
"No matter what kind of island this is, with more than a thousand of the best talents under my command, I can definitely build this place into a new fortress! As long as Kezan's supplies are provided, this place can continue to hold on.
!”
Gazlowe used a big wrench to tighten the screws of the anti-aircraft gun, thinking hard in his heart.
…
On the flagship of Kul Tiras, the admiral and the Hanhai Protector looked at each other in silence. They would never have imagined that things would develop in such a direction.
How could there be an island in the sea not far northeast of Theramore?!
This can only be said to be a work error during the exploration process, because such an island suddenly broke into the battlefield and completely revitalized Gazlowe, who was already at a dead end.
"The technology of the goblins is still advanced. In such a short time, they have built an air defense camp. It seems that they are going to build this place into a fortress and resist us to the end?!"
Looking at the photos brought back by the high-altitude scouts, Dai Lin couldn't help but sigh.
However, after just a compliment, Dai Lin began to feel worried. All the information in the photo conveyed that Gazlowe planned to fight tooth and nail.
In the end, the island that caused big trouble for the alliance was named codename: Orkaz Island, which means military fortress in ancient dwarf language.
Li De is very depressed now. Although the first division captured Ratchet City, what they captured was a battered city.
Moreover, in order to save many abandoned goblins at that time, the First Division had to give up chasing the enemy and spent a lot of effort organizing soldiers to put out the fire.
All in all, both sides felt aggrieved in this battle. Gazlowe was the loser, while Li De won unpleasantly.
The next day after this battle, Kezan finally couldn't stand losing Ratchet City and sent their fleet to fight Kul Tiras.
The final result is obvious. Kezan's fleet was completely defeated.
The failure of the last siege of the Hanhai Protectorate can be attributed to the fact that several trade kings went their own way and lost to the enemy due to a failure in command.
But this time it was different. The trade kings learned their lesson and realized the importance of cooperation and division of labor, so they simply put the entire fleet under the command of Gryzlik.
In this way, Vice Admiral Gryzlik officially launched a challenge to Admiral Daelin.
In that battle, Dai Lin made both Kezan and Hanhai Protector understand what the strongest navy is.
Not to mention Daelin's command, the quality of Kul Tiras' naval personnel is much higher than that of other countries.
In the face of the absolute strength gap, everything was in vain. In the end, Gryzlik failed to establish contact with Okaz Island. After losing one-third of his fleet, he fled back to Kezan in a panic and re-established his position.
defensive state.
All this seems normal, a victory for Dai Lin.
But if you think carefully, you can find many problems in this naval battle. The simplest one is: Why does the Kezan fleet give people the feeling of deliberately sending death?
However, these problems cannot be solved in a short time. On the contrary, a problem has also arisen on the alliance side.
Kalimdor's western theater has experienced successive victories (occupying Ratchet City and severely damaging the Kezan fleet), leaving two options before the Alliance:
It is to continue to weaken the goblins step by step, such as first capturing the Treasure Bay in the Kingdom Continent and forcing the goblins to initiate a treaty with compensation;
Or should we directly attack the main island of Kezan, completely eradicate all goblin forces, and use the simplest and crudest way to swallow up all the goblin property?
It just so happened that some time ago, the leader of the alliance, Terenas, appointed a special commissioner to come to the vast sea to protect it.
It is also interesting to say that this special correspondent has a somewhat old-fashioned temperament and is actually unwilling to use the portal. He said that it would be more sincere to take the boat in person. By the end of the day, he should have arrived in Kalimdo by now.