As the battle of the ground forces commenced, the anti-aircraft systems, originally disguised as rocks or large trees, revealed their coordinate locations on the radars.
Xia Chujian took a quick glance and was slightly taken aback.
This wasn't just two hundred and fifty-four anti-aircraft strongholds?
There were easily over a thousand anti-aircraft strongholds! But she quickly realized that the rebels were also using radar deception.
Of these thousand-plus anti-aircraft strongholds, only two hundred and fifty-four were likely real, with the rest being decoys.
Just as she was pondering how to distinguish between the real and fake strongholds, the pilots flying the Harrier-type Warplanes had already plunged below the cloud cover and began firing at the anti-aircraft strongholds displayed on their radars! The Warplanes were equipped with Smart Machine Guns specifically designed for fighters. These guns had a slightly slower rate of fire than ordinary Smart Machine Guns, but their caliber was twice as large.
At the same time, each Warplane was also equipped with ten portable miniature air-to-ground Smart Missiles.
One hundred and ninety-seven Warplanes carried a total of one thousand nine hundred and seventy air-to-ground Smart Missiles.
If Xia Chujian were in command, she would have all the Warplanes coordinate their attacks.
Regardless of whether they were real or fake, a saturation attack could simultaneously destroy all the true and false anti-aircraft strongholds on the ground highlands.
Unfortunately, for the sake of rankings, few trainees were willing to cooperate.
While Xia Chujian regretted this, she watched the Harrier-type Warplanes below begin their attack.
They charged ahead, meaning they were closer to the ground, near the ring-shaped highlands.
*Boom!* A miniature air-to-ground Missile was launched, and a ball of red light with thick Black Smoke immediately rose from a stronghold on the ring-shaped highlands.
Unfortunately, that location was not a real ground anti-aircraft stronghold, but a decoy.
And the Harrier-type Warplane that launched the Missile first exposed its position.
As a result, a surface-to-air Missile shot out from the other side of the highlands, locking onto the Harrier-type Warplane! The pilot in the Harrier-type Warplane sighed, feeling that it would be difficult to survive.
Even if he ejected at this moment, he would be an easy target and would be taken out by the rebel Snipers on the ground.
But at this moment, Xia Chujian unhesitatingly activated her Warplane's fire control radar and locked onto the surface-to-air Missile that had just been launched from the ground.
*Boom!* With a loud bang, the two Missiles collided in mid-air, erupting in a huge blaze of fire and thick smoke.
A Harrier-type Warplane that had just flown nearby, hoping to pick up an easy kill, could only quickly veer away, otherwise the shockwave from the explosion would knock its Warplane off course!
"Who the hell is the idiot! Using a Missile to hit a Missile, don't you want to live?!" The pilot of the Harrier-type Warplane cursed loudly on the public communication channel.
Another faint voice sounded, "D10 is awesome, able to lock onto Missiles and shoot them down... I just don't know if this counts as a kill?"
At this time, the Instructors on one of the Peng-type Transport Aircraft were also engaged in heated discussion.
"I think it should count as a kill! I've never seen such a way to defuse a crisis! If this doesn't count as a kill, what else deserves to be called a kill?! Just killing people?!"
"Agreed! And she also saved a pilot, a Warplane, and defused a surface-to-air Missile crisis at the same time!"
While they were arguing, Xia Chujian quickly launched a second Missile, directly destroying the anti-aircraft stronghold that had launched the surface-to-air Missile!
That anti-aircraft stronghold was one of the real ones, not a decoy, and it probably had a large amount of ammunition stored there.
Because as soon as it was hit, the highlands erupted in a deafening roar, a mushroom cloud rose into the air, and the entire hilltop was instantly flattened by half! Score!
Regardless of whether her first Missile counted as a score, this second one definitely should.
And this was the first rebel anti-aircraft stronghold destroyed by the trainees in this battle.
Judging by the amount of ammunition, it was probably one of the four key anti-aircraft strongholds at the ammunition depot level!
This score would be very considerable!
Sure enough, the Mechanical Intelligence of the Peng-type Transport Aircraft, which was responsible for high-altitude detection, calculated the amount of ammunition based on the smoke and dust from the explosion and the volume and angle of the flattened highlands.
Based on their intelligence comparison, this was one of the four ammunition depots where the rebels were hoarding ammunition in this area!
It could be said that Xia Chujian's one Missile had disintegrated a quarter of the rebel's combat power.
As a result, the Mechanical Intelligence in the Instructor command post on the Transport Aircraft determined the score to be ten thousand points.
It should be known that in this battle, according to their scoring standards, the locations of the four ammunition depots were key anti-aircraft strongholds, each worth ten thousand points.
The remaining two hundred and fifty ordinary anti-aircraft strongholds were only worth eighty points each.
Killing one of the forty thousand rebels was worth one point, for a total of forty thousand points.
There were a total of one hundred thousand points up for grabs, contested by one hundred and ninety-seven trainees.
And only five minutes into the exercise, Xia Chujian had already scored ten thousand points...
Because Xia Chujian was the first to score, and scored ten thousand points at that, some instructors became even more insistent that Xia Chujian's first rescue missile should not be counted.
The instructors who had previously wanted to argue on her behalf gradually faded into silence after Xia Chujian's aggressive initial score.
Only Yu Fei was indignant, insisting, "Xia Chujian's first missile should score even higher than the second! That's the kind of person who makes a good comrade-in-arms! No matter how high others score, would you dare to team up with them for battle?!"
That was what he said, but the scores were too important.
Each instructor had their own Interstellar Fleet preferences. The Fourth Interstellar Fleet was known for its poor combat performance, and had no representation among the base instructors. Therefore, at this moment, apart from Yu Fei, no one spoke up for Xia Chujian.
Yu Fei was incredibly frustrated at this moment.
Although he wasn't from the Fourth Interstellar Fleet, Xia Chujian was a trainee in his group!
Pei Zijing patted him on the shoulder and said softly, "Don't worry, keep watching."
Gradually, the scores determined by the Mechanical Intelligence increased.
The real anti-aircraft strongholds on the enemy's high ground began to be destroyed one by one by the trainees.
But the remaining three ammunition depots showed no signs of being destroyed.
Because everyone didn't have Xia Chujian's good luck, and couldn't find their coordinates.
...
Inside the cockpit of each trainee's warplane, there were several virtual display screens, one of which was the leaderboard.
This leaderboard displayed the top twenty point scorers, as well as the pilot's own score and ranking.
If the ranking was not in the top twenty, it would not be visible to others.
Only the scores and rankings of the top twenty were visible to everyone.
After a while, Xia Chujian discovered that she had climbed to the top spot with a high score of ten thousand points!
Xia Chujian: "..."
What had she done? How did she suddenly get ten thousand points?
Was it the anti-aircraft stronghold she had just blown up?
Or was it her first air-to-ground missile that destroyed the enemy's surface-to-air missile?
Just as she was pondering, the leaderboard marked the key point for her score: Destroying one of the enemy's four important anti-aircraft strongholds (ammunition depot).
So it was the anti-aircraft stronghold she had just blown up.
It turned out to be one of the enemy's four ammunition depots!
No wonder it was worth ten thousand points! Xia Chujian was immediately excited.
However, she was not arrogant, nor did she continue to "try her luck" because of her high score.
She steadily piloted the Eagle-type Fighter, continuing to familiarize herself with the entire battlefield and the tactics of this type of battle.
It had to be said that she was not unfamiliar with this kind of tactic, because it was a free-for-all, where whoever scored, got the points.
It was exactly the same as the Dark Night Hunter Association's approach.
She didn't need to coordinate air combat with others, so there was no need to break in, and this kind of tactic of destroying them one by one was exactly what she was good at.
But she didn't think this tactic was the best.
She looked at the physical display screen in front of her, where the ground situation was becoming clearer and clearer.
The big trees in the mountain depression were actually close to the edge of the high ground, and the center of the mountain depression was a plain area, surrounded by a ring of high ground.
At this moment, the Posuo City garrison detachment, wearing white uniforms, was launching an attack on the enemy under the cover of the snow.
The rebels' clothes were more varied, with almost no white, either camouflage, dark green, dark blue or black, and shades of earth yellow.
In this snowy night, their figures were like colorful pieces on a white chessboard, making them too easy to identify.
Not only could the Posuo City garrison detachment accurately raise their guns and fire, but even the Ground Fighters flying in the air could easily mow down large swathes of them.
Patches of rebels in various colored clothing fell onto the snow, their blood staining the white expanse a dark crimson.
Yet, an endless stream of rebels emerged from underground, howling as they charged.
Xia Chujian zoomed in with her high-definition lens, clearly seeing elderly men, young boys, and women in tattered cotton coats among the rebels.
They perfectly embodied the literal meaning of the word "cannon fodder."
Xia Chujian couldn't bring herself to fire.
She pursed her lips and subconsciously raised the warplane, elevating the muzzle of the warplane's Smart Machine Gun.
She set her sights on the anti-aircraft strongpoints on the annular highland ridge, rather than targeting the rebels emerging from underground.
At that moment, she retrieved the technical specifications of the rebel anti-aircraft weapons from the warplane's Mechanical Intelligence system, calmly estimating the optimal range of the smart anti-aircraft guns. Then, she piloted the Eagle-type Fighter swiftly downward, arriving above the highland.
The Eagle-type Fighter Xia Chujian was piloting moved with incredible speed, like a dark falcon descending from the sky, its wings skimming the low-hanging clouds, gliding through the treetops.
Simultaneously, the Eagle-type Fighter's machine gun, with a caliber twice that of an ordinary Smart Machine Gun, began to fire dense bullets at the ridge of the annular highland.
This area was devoid of rebel infantry; it was solely a location for anti-aircraft weapon deployments.
Tutututu! Tutututu! The snow-covered ridge was blasted by bullets, sending up snow dust and even triggering small avalanches.
Under her direct provocation, the anti-aircraft strongpoints on the highland ridge, based on the Mechanical Intelligence of their deployed weapons, focused all their fire on Xia Chujian's Eagle-type Fighter as it flew low.
In the instructor's command room of the transport aircraft high above, the instructors gasped at the scene.
"Fire! Quickly destroy the entire ridge with the Ion Beam Cannon! Save her! Save her! Save her!" Yu Fei roared in the command room, punching the air in frustration.
This is the second update, reminding all my darlings to vote with your monthly tickets!
There will be a new update at 00:05 tonight.
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