Looking at the food on the plate, Mirage Haiping felt like crying. He could still eat a slender dried fish in this closed environment, but his soldiers had nothing serious to eat.
In fact, Mirage also has some canned food. In order to increase the storage time of food, Mirage also thought of some ways within its power.
In the beginning, when conditions were the best, Mirage had its own cannery. They would mix meat with starch or select fish with better quality to make cans for long-term preservation.
Later, raw materials began to be in short supply, and the quality of cans was not very good. When metal could not be used, cans and bottles began to be used. After cans and bottles could not be produced... they had no choice but to stop production.
After running out of energy and raw materials to produce luxurious canned food, the Mirage's logistics forces began to consider using bacon or dried fish instead.
They will process vegetables into dried vegetables, dry salted fish into dried fish and store them in large quantities, and pickle some meat to enrich their recipes.
But these things are still relatively few in number. In the supply sequence of the Mirage Kingdom, fresh vegetables and grain are the real pillars.
Without the pillars, there is no way for these side dishes to continue to exist. Without the supplement of staple food, these dishes cannot withstand large amounts of consumption.
Subsequently, the entire central fortification area began a self-reliant production movement: people went all over the mountains and fields looking for wild vegetables to eat, catching mountain rats or other things, and even reclaimed some areas to try to grow food and other crops.
Some caves began to try to raise some animals, and goats or pigs that were easy to raise were also placed in relatively unsafe caves and raised in captivity.
But this is obviously not a good choice, because these animals will bring unpleasant smells and completely ruin the air quality of the entire cave.
The bad smell is only the least important aspect: what is really deadly is the feed consumed by raising these animals, which may keep the soldiers of the Mirage fed for a longer period of time.
This is the most direct reason for the direct failure of the plan to raise animals: the energy conversion ratio of meat is too low. Although plants with the same feed are very unpalatable, as long as they are eaten in the stomach, they are better than converted into pork.
Full stomach.
Many efforts failed, animal raising was quickly stopped, and there was no point in cultivating farmland in the mountains. As long as the bombers of the Tang Empire dropped incendiary bombs or cloud bombs, these crops would disappear completely.
A bomber that cannot find any targets can easily select these easily identifiable targets and then drop bombs around these targets.
Farmland that takes time and effort to cultivate can be wiped out in seconds, so the option of farming is almost non-existent.
Hunting also became inefficient because the controlled areas were gradually reduced, more and more vegetation on the mountains were destroyed, and hunting became more and more intensive.
It used to be that every time the patrol went out, they would quickly bring back some good things like wild boars, mountain rats, and rabbits. But now, they have to hunt every day, but they have gained almost nothing.
If you finally catch a rabbit or mountain rat, you have to hand it over to the officer for enjoyment. Ordinary people have no chance to eat these game animals. Only those who catch the prey are eligible to share a rabbit head or a "duck neck"
To show reward.
This kind of thing has developed to this day, and Mirage Haiping can no longer eat hares or mountain rats every day... With tens of thousands of people and tens of thousands of mouths, the game has been eaten up long ago with such a way of eating.
In fact, it’s not just people who are eating. Because of wars, wildfires caused by incendiary bombs, the intimidation of shelling and other sounds, and the destruction of vegetation, animals in these fortified areas are actually migrating.
Therefore, hunting obviously has no way to feed the mirage army to continue fighting. The only thing left is to eat wild vegetables and reserve grain.
As time went by, the food reserves began to gradually dry up. Under such circumstances, the Mirage soldiers in the fortification area could actually only eat one meal a day.
Hunger spread among the mirage army, coupled with the lack of ammunition, the combat effectiveness of the troops was seriously affected. In just two days, with the withdrawal of all troops stationed in the northern mountains, the orcs had compressed the mirage army into a horizontal and vertical city.
Only a narrow range of less than 10 kilometers is left.
The Mirage troops inside the encirclement are fighting hard, but the Mirage troops outside the encirclement are desperately digging trenches and building fortresses, turning the Mirage into a huge military fortress.
Mirage is frantically repairing the fortifications, and has armed all the civilians that can be found near Mirage City. Mirage has stocked up on a lot of weapons and ammunition, which gives Mirage some capital to squander.
It has to be said that these ammunitions are too late, dare not and cannot be easily transported to the central fortification areas, but are now being distributed to civilians. This has to be said to be a irony.
The Mirage Army has built complete defenses around the Mirage City before. Do you still remember how the Mirage Army arranged its defenses before? The entire island is divided into four sections: the Western Fortress, the Central Fortress, the Mirage City and the Northern Section. Corresponding structures were built respectively.
fortifications.
Mirage City is an important part. In fact, before the orc troops landed, a large number of defenses had been built here to guard against possible sneak attacks by the Tang Army.
Now, these defenses are about to come into play: countless bunkers and bunker fortifications will become stumbling blocks for the orc troops to attack.
Don't underestimate these things. They were built for the Mirage City. This is the royal city of the Mirage Kingdom! Whether it is the quality of the construction or the level of care, it is obvious that this place is second to none.
Even if it is not as good as the fortification area in the central defense line, it is backed by a bustling city, has more supplies and materials, and has more troops... its combat effectiveness is naturally more guaranteed.
However, Mirage's defensive deployment in Mirage City is not impeccable. In fact, if the orc troops fight steadily, Mirage City is actually nothing more than another central fortress.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! If the mirage city that has lost its supplies loses contact with the small workshops hidden in the north, they will also be consumed until they are exhausted.
Therefore, as long as the orcs surround the mirage city, no matter how hard the goblins struggle, they will only choose to starve to death in the mirage city.
This is something Mirage Haiping can't figure out: since there is no way out as long as they are surrounded, then what's the point of Mirage's troops repeating such demise?
In Mirage's view, defense is meaningful only by holding a line of defense across the island. If it is impossible to block all the enemies and establish a stable rear, then the current resistance trapped in one city and one place is just delaying destruction.
It’s just time.
Since they are all destined to perish, why retreat? Concentrate all your strength in one place and fight the orcs... or in other words, fight the Tang army to the end.
Unfortunately, this is just his idea. The Mirage King obviously does not think so. The King of Mirage Kingdom has now pinned almost all his hopes on the negotiations between the two countries far away in the Lions Empire.
As long as he holds on, there is a way! As long as his troops can hold on to their position, then the Tang State may agree to the conditions offered by the Mirage State.
Although the news from the Lions Empire has confirmed that none of Tang Guo's conditions will be cancelled, Mirage Emperor still has a glimmer of hope that he can use resistance to increase the casualties of the orcs and force Tang Guo to accept Mirage's conditions.
Mirage surrendered.
This logic is actually not very smooth, because even the Mirage Emperor himself cannot explain why the heavy casualties of the orcs caused great pain to the Tang Empire.
It is precisely because this logic does not make sense that the negotiations are still continuing. The Tang Empire is not in pain or itchy, and the Mirage State also pretends to be "I can hold on if I push harder."
A mouthful of salty and bitter dried fish made Mirage Haiping miss the smell of the sea. He seemed to breathe in the sea breeze and feel the moist atmosphere at this moment.
But the next second, he frowned, because this was not an illusion, but when he was eating fish, he really smelled an unnatural musty smell.
Just when he put down the tableware and chopsticks that had been passed down from the Tang Empire to the Mirage Kingdom, and raised his head to ask what was going on, the door was already pushed open from the outside.
An army officer hurriedly walked in, stood at attention and saluted and reported the situation: "General Ping! There is a problem with the ventilation system here. Please come with me..."
This kind of fortifications hidden deep underground is very safe, but there is one disadvantage, that is, such fortifications generally require a ventilation device to ensure internal air circulation.
Since it is a ventilation system, no matter how concealed it is, there must be a ventilation fan connected to the ground. No matter how concealed this device is, it must be placed on the ground.
As the battle progresses, such a device will become more and more vulnerable to attack: because the area of orc bombardment will become smaller and smaller, so in such a small area, a certain piece of land will become increasingly vulnerable to artillery fire coverage attacks.
Although there was a lot of vegetation and it was built on a reverse slope, the ventilation systems in the mirage fortification area gradually began to be found one after another.
Aerial strikes are becoming more precise and effective. Bombs and artillery shells cannot hit tunnels and caves. Isn't it easy to hit ventilators exposed to the outside?
The round of shelling just now came from the southeast, because this direction is the direction where the mirage is located, and it is the originally safest direction in the central fortification area, so most of the ventilation fans and corresponding devices are facing this direction.
Now the central area has been surrounded, and the originally relatively safe directions are already enemy-occupied areas. Under this situation, those exposed devices... are becoming more and more vulnerable.
With the help of several guards, without even having time to pack up his things, Xu Haiping evacuated his office in embarrassment and moved to another relatively safe place.
