While Chen Xin was preparing his tunneling plan, the military also slowed their offensive, abandoning some previously conquered caverns and tunnels in favor of solidifying the areas they had already secured. They strategically collapsed many passages, sealing off all pathways for the alien creatures to break through upwards, leaving only a few openings for their own use.
With these adjustments, the military only needed a small number of troops to guard a few main passages left open to completely block the alien creatures' upward attack routes.
And due to this shift from offense to defense, most of the troops originally intended for underground attacks were temporarily freed up.
The military did not let these troops idle. Besides continuing to monitor the entire Dongting Lake Region to prevent alien creatures from possibly digging new tunnels to surface again, they prepared these troops for the upcoming cleanup operations.
