Chapter 152: [Operation Market Garden], Shocking the Head of State of the Blue Star Empire (6.6k Combined Chapter)

On the ground.

It was a scene of chaos.

Because they had deviated from the target location by nearly ten kilometers and were suddenly attacked while in the air, many Allied soldiers who had fallen along with the corpses were left bewildered on the ground.

In the dense forest, there were trees everywhere.

The direction that could still be determined in the sky was completely lost now that they had landed on the ground.

Yu Feng's side was relatively lucky.

Because there were too many paratroopers in the sky, the Empire's forces couldn't cover everyone.

So they had managed to land.

After landing, Yu Feng's group determined their direction based on the "real-time map" in the stream and the sun in the sky, and he commanded everyone to assemble.

Fortunately, Yu Feng's status was that of an officer; otherwise, it would have been truly difficult to handle.

However, Yu Feng was still shaken at this moment. After barely managing to command everyone to assemble, he watched the Allied paratroopers still being shot down in the sky.

For a moment, he didn't know whether to organize everyone to attack the Imperial troops or to carry out orders to capture the bridge.

But soon.

Yu Feng saw the messages in the stream and nearly spat out a mouthful of old blood.

【Streamer, run! You've jumped into the place where the Imperial Armored Division is resting.】

【There are over ten thousand Imperial armored troops waiting for you; what's the point of fighting this?】

???

Over ten thousand Imperial soldiers? An armored division?

What the f***?!

How was the intelligence gathered?!

Why wasn't this information known?!

Over ten thousand Imperial soldiers?!

You have to know that for this airdrop, the British Federation's 1st Airborne Division, where he was located, had only deployed 10,000 men in total.

And before they even landed, they were cleared out by the Empire's anti-aircraft guns.

A few thousand remnants going up against a fully equipped Imperial armored division? Are you kidding me?

Yu Feng looked up at the sky; it was already in complete disarray.

Because of the Empire's anti-aircraft guns, many panicked Allied soldiers were maneuvering their parachutes in the air, trying to fly in all directions to escape the area.

Yu Feng had only managed to gather a few hundred men; it was unlikely he would be able to assemble the scattered Allied soldiers.

Seeing this, Yu Feng could only lead these people and dash toward the bridge several kilometers away.

Attacking the bridge garrison of the original target was simpler than leading these few hundred men to charge head-on into an Imperial armored division of over ten thousand.

The situation in other streams was much the same.

Basically, everyone had been assigned by the backend to the British Federation's 1st Airborne Division.

Some were lucky enough to land, while others were riddled with holes in mid-air.

Even worse, some streamers, out of panic and a desire to survive, flew in the direction they thought was safe.

Only to find dense rows of Imperial army tents.

On the ground, besides the rapidly firing anti-aircraft guns, there were countless Imperial soldiers laughing and pointing at them, watching them like monkeys.

Some Imperial soldiers even started fighting on the ground to see who would capture them first.

It made that streamer want to commit suicide right there in mid-air.

Under the mocking gaze of thousands of Imperial soldiers, that British Federation streamer landed on the ground with his hands raised, and several Imperial soldiers laughingly tied him up.

In the "Little Black Room" (streamer chat).

Listening to the constant gunfire outside and the laughter of the Imperial soldiers, the tied-up streamer complained:

"To hell with this."

"Playing this game until now, this is the first time I've experienced such an absurd war."

"Operation Market Garden?"

"Which big idiot designed this operation?"

"God of War, my foot."

"It's just... I can't even describe it."

"I'm so pissed off!!!"

Unlike these Allied-faction streamers.

The streamers in the Imperial faction were going crazy with joy.

They had known about the Allied "Operation Market Garden" beforehand; after all, there was a game forum, and there were no secrets when it came to communication.

Initially, when they saw the plan for "Operation Market Garden," they also thought it would be difficult to deal with.

But there was nothing they could do; their voices were too small.

Most were just regimental or battalion commanders, and reporting it up the chain of command was useless.

They just didn't expect the Allies to be such a ragtag bunch.

They were nearly 10 kilometers away from the Allied target location, yet they could deviate to such an extent; these 10,000 Allied troops were basically here to deliver medals.

Inside the stream of Imperial faction streamer Shao Yan.

Shao Yan was holding a light machine gun, excitedly firing at the dense white parachutes in the sky:

"One medal, two medals... holy crap!"

"I'm about to take off!!!"

After a burst of machine-gun fire, he had lost count of how many kills he had.

The Blue Star netizens in the stream were also incredibly envious.

A battle this satisfying was something they had never even dreamed of; to actually see it in a stream.

Shao Yan's deputy battalion commander looked at the map and said excitedly:

"Battalion Commander, those Allied commanders probably can't even read a map, right?"

"To actually command troops to land here?!"

This was nearly 10 kilometers away from the nearest key bridge; if they knew how to read a map, they wouldn't have had their troops jump here.

Shao Yan didn't have time to care if the Allied high command could read a map, saying excitedly:

"Forget about that, grab the machine gun!"

"These are all medals!"

With one burst of fire, even if you closed your eyes, you could get an Iron Cross.

The two streams with such distinct scenes truly stunned the Blue Star players.

It wasn't just a matter of tactics.

It was also because of Montgomery, who had been hyped up for so long; the players had even created their own rankings, which were still pinned on the Polar Star forum.

He had surpassed the Empire's three great generals.

It was almost as if they were pointing at Zhao Ming's nose and saying his "Hall of Fame" was flawed.

How could such a legendary God of War not make the cut?

Yet, with this one wave.

The Blue Star players were slapped hard in the face.

The plan was fine.

But in execution, there was a huge problem.

First, the Allies lacked detailed intelligence and didn't even know there were Imperial reserve troops here.

10,000 paratroopers.

Landed in the middle of an Imperial armored division of over 10,000 men; and the enemy hadn't even planned to fight them or set an ambush.

They were just resting here.

Military merit falling from the sky.

It really was falling from the sky; one burst of fire meant an Iron Cross. This kind of good fortune couldn't be found a second time throughout the entire "Second World War."

It once again demonstrated that "Earth" was a massive ragtag organization.

However, there were also rational analyses.

"Operation Market Garden" itself required multi-party cooperation, and not a single part could go wrong; once one part failed, the entire plan was scrapped.

Just like the paratroopers in other bridge areas, who didn't make such mistakes.

Instead, they successfully captured those bridges, waiting for the main Allied army to arrive from the land.

But now, they were stuck at the 1st Airborne Division.

Because of the deviation in location and incomplete intelligence, thousands of the 10,000-man airborne division died before they even landed, and the rest were scattered everywhere.

Not only were they powerless to capture the bridge, but they also had to face the encirclement of Imperial troops.

Now the problem appeared.

The Allied troops that had successfully captured the bridges couldn't be supported from the ground because the British Federation's 1st Airborne Division hadn't captured their bridge.

And because support couldn't get through, the Allied troops inside were in a very awkward position.

Fight... there was no support; capturing a bridge with this few people was fine, but expanding the results was impossible.

Don't fight... then they were just waiting to die here; the Imperial troops could arrive at any moment, and support couldn't get through because of the problem in one location.

Now they could only look at the situation with the 1st Airborne Division, but the Blue Star players no longer held much hope.

And the facts were indeed so.

On the Sky Shark streaming platform, there were no fewer than 200 Allied streamers whose plot had advanced to "Operation Market Garden."

But half of them were killed in the air.

After landing on the ground, because of the different flight directions, some crashed into the Imperial camp and another third died.

Now, only about 50 streamers remained alive.

It was unknown how many players triggered this plot, but looking at the situation in the 50-plus streamer rooms on the Sky Shark platform.

There was absolutely no possibility of a comeback.

Yu Feng's side was relatively better; after landing, he gathered over 500 people.

But after fighting their way to the bridge and attacking the Imperial bridge garrison, after half a day of fighting.

Now only over 200 people remained.

However, although they had captured this key bridge, the problem followed.

Ground reinforcements hadn't kept up and still hadn't arrived.

The Imperial garrison was about to attack; these 200 people fighting over 10,000 Imperial armored troops? Isn't this a joke?!

Yet... this wasn't a joke.

The situation was just that cruel.

Yu Feng led his remaining 200 men to hold their ground in a village near the bridge, waiting for reinforcements to arrive.

He had no idea that the Allied high command was also in chaos at this moment.

The American general Patton was on the verge of pointing at Montgomery's nose and calling him an idiot; if it weren't for Eisenhower mediating between the dissatisfied generals.

The American-British Allied forces would have already split up.

The most urgent matter now was to carry out remedial measures.

The British Federation and the American Freedom Federation kept sending planes to airdrop supplies, hoping to let the British Federation's 1st Division soldiers hold on for a while longer.

It was just that these supplies eventually fell into the hands of the large Imperial force resting on the ground.

They were helping the enemy deliver a huge wave of supplies for free.

After Yu Feng saw this from the stream, he was nearly furious.

Do these guys have brains?

They were already Imperial troops resting; sending them another wave of supplies, well, they were fully restored to health, and then they came over to fight these remnants.

Day 1...

Day 3...

Day 5...

Boom, boom, boom—!

In the village.

Yu Feng led his men to hide in a pit under the bunker; the Imperial shelling was non-stop, and sometimes they had to brave the artillery fire to rush out and beat back the Imperial troops.

Fortunately, because there was only the bridge as a passage.

Yu Feng's group built fortifications nearby and repelled several Imperial attacks.

Because the bridge could only accommodate so many people.

So the large Imperial force couldn't rush in and could only engage in a war of attrition with Yu Feng's side.

Yet even so.

The number of people on Yu Feng's side was rapidly decreasing; by the 7th day, only 80 people remained on his side.

Allied reinforcements finally arrived, but there were only a few hundred people, and they were also paratroopers, just paratroopers from other areas who had received orders to come and meet them.

These people couldn't hold the position anymore.

The American paratroopers who came to meet them saw that only this many people were left, so they simply took them and retreated.

But the movement here also attracted the attention of the Imperial troops on the opposite bank.

They sent a large army to attack.

Yu Feng led his men while retreating and fighting, and finally, everyone boarded the vehicles sent by the American Freedom Federation to meet them, but after a series of bumps...

A sharp pain struck from his chest.

Yu Feng looked down in the dim carriage and vaguely saw a bullet hole in his chest, and now his uniform was already dyed red.

The screen went black.

This round of the "Immersive Plot" mode ended directly.

!!!

The sound of something being smashed rang out.

Yu Feng's gritted-teeth voice sounded in the stream:

"Damn it!"

"Can I really be this unlucky?!"

Held the position for 7 days, only to get killed while retreating.

Yu Feng took a few deep breaths, scratched his head, and comforted himself:

"Get used to it, just get used to it."

Then he clicked on the Polar Star official website and entered the player forum:

"What's the situation now?"

"Does anyone know?"

He had been guarding in the game for the past two days and didn't have much time to understand the situation in other streams.

He didn't know how miserable the result of "Operation Market Garden" was, and now he finally had time to check.

As soon as Yu Feng entered the player forum, the Blue Star netizens in the stream were chattering away:

【Streamer, it's already been renamed; this operation is called "Operation Market Giveaway," also known as "I Give the Empire Medals."】

【Laughing to death, no need to check; currently, it's estimated that the British Federation's 1st Airborne Division had 10,000 people go, and only about 2,000 came back.】

【Those 8,000 people either died or were captured.】

【The streamers in the Imperial faction are all going crazy with joy, each with an Iron Cross; the Imperial soldiers affectionately call you "Iron Cross Medals."】

Looking at these teasing messages.

Yu Feng's head was buzzing, and his face couldn't help but flush red.

What the hell is "Operation Market Giveaway"?

And they even affectionately call it the "Iron Pi-Character Medal," what a terrible pun!!!

Yu Feng's mouth twitched, and he entered the forum.

At this time in the forum, that "WWII General Voting" post was still pinned at the top, and it had three "Explosive" tags added to it; one could imagine how popular this post was.

Yu Feng also clicked in to see the voting inside.

At this time, Montgomery was already at the bottom.

But Yu Feng didn't let him off, directly casting a vote to step on him.

This still wasn't enough to vent his anger, so he shared the link to the stream, letting the netizens in the stream come over to rush it, with everyone stepping on it once.

Only then did he start browsing the intelligence and news in the forum.

In these few days, as some players died first and skipped the plot.

The situation on the Allied side had also been sorted out.

Inside the Allied high command, it was said that the high-ranking generals of the American Freedom Federation almost fought with these British Federation people.

When it came to blaming someone for the failure of this operation.

Montgomery insisted that his plan was fine, and the failure was due to the unforeseeable Imperial soldiers—no one knew they were resting there—and weather reasons.

The high-ranking generals of the American Freedom Federation doubted whether this guy could even command; the logistics and intelligence before the battle were insufficient.

And he actually blamed it on the unforeseeable?

What the hell is unforeseeable?

If your intelligence was done properly, how could it be unforeseeable?

Both sides blamed each other, and Montgomery insisted his plan was correct.

It was just that because of the failure of this operation.

The originally excellent situation was forced to turn into a defensive phase.

This was a responsibility Montgomery couldn't shirk.

The command of the Allied forces gradually tilted toward the American Freedom Federation; it was mainly because this operation was too miserable. Under Montgomery's command.

The 10,000 men of the 1st Airborne Division almost didn't produce any effect.

They even completely became existences for Imperial soldiers to farm medals, and the British Federation was also very dissatisfied internally.

More importantly.

Because of the failure of "Operation Market Garden."

The advantages gained from the earlier landings in Sicily and Normandy were all gone, and the Western Front suddenly fell into a disadvantage.

And there was news in the player forum.

Because of this operation, the Empire had already begun preparing for a counterattack, wanting to press their advantage.

If the Empire really succeeded in their counterattack.

Then Montgomery would be nailed to the pillar of shame in world history.

The Western Front was stagnant and forced into defense, but the Eastern Front was blossoming everywhere; the Soviet Federation had already fought into Poland.

They were almost driving the Empire out.

If they didn't find a way, there would basically be nothing left for the Western Front.

And this was also the problem that the Allied high command was worried about.

Once the Soviet Federation fought into the Empire, the Allies wouldn't be able to share any benefits.

That's right.

At a time like this, the Allied high command was still thinking about the issue of benefits.

They didn't care about the lives of the soldiers at all.

And the official player who reported this news was also stunned when they were in the meeting.

Because of the failure of "Operation Market Garden," they weren't discussing the life and death of those tens of thousands of soldiers, but because of the failure of this operation.

They couldn't fight into the Empire's mainland.

Once the Soviet Federation fought into the Empire's mainland, they wouldn't be able to share the cake.

The politicians on "Earth" were far more evil than the Blue Star players thought.

At the same time, it also felt more pathetic; the deaths of these tens of thousands of soldiers were just high-ranking generals blaming each other, and the high-ranking officials didn't even discuss it at all.

Instead, they were thinking about how to gain the greatest benefits before the Empire surrendered.

This wasn't the first time the Blue Star players had seen this, but it still felt disgusting after reading it.

Yu Feng also cursed a few times, then looked at the situation of the whole world.

Currently on "Earth."

The Empire's signs of defeat were already very obvious, so these politicians were impatient to share the cake, but the failure of this "Operation Market Garden" hindered them from sharing the cake.

They had originally planned to fight into the Empire's mainland early so that they could have a little more leverage when negotiating with the Soviet Federation.

But now it had fallen through.

And the main reason was still the British Federation, so when sharing the benefits, the British Federation still lost the most.

This was also why there were many officials in the British Federation who were dissatisfied with Montgomery; it was because you, a rookie.

Delayed the cake we were sharing from becoming smaller.

You deserve to die!!!

Yu Feng then went to the Imperial faction to look at the posts and also found some news.

The Empire was indeed reorganizing, preparing to use this victory to launch a blitzkrieg again, to split the American-British Allied forces on the Western Front.

And to capture a series of important ports, using the Allied soldiers stranded on the Western Front to force the American-British Allied high command to negotiate, thereby concentrating their forces to deal with the Eastern Front.

These were all internal news sorted out by the Imperial faction players.

It was just...

Looking at the operation of this plan, the final part.

Yu Feng felt inexplicably familiar, and said somewhat uncertainly:

"This wouldn't be a plan formulated by the Imperial Head of State, would it?"

Because this last part was too similar to the previous "Dunkirk."

In "Dunkirk," the Empire attempted to use the 300,000-plus British Allied soldiers stranded there to force the British Allied forces to negotiate.

As a result, they didn't expect that people would drive their fishing boats over, and in a few days, they completed the evacuation of over 300,000 people, and this plan also came to nothing.

And now it was like this again.

It was another attempt to capture ports and use the Allied soldiers stranded on the Western Front to force the Allies to negotiate.

Although the purpose was to use the negotiations to delay time and fully deal with the Eastern Front.

But let's not discuss whether this kind of plan fails or not.

Just looking at the faces of those high-ranking British and American Allied politicians... were those soldiers below even considered human?

The deaths of tens of thousands of people.

The high-ranking British and American Allied officials were actually arguing because the plan failed and they couldn't gain benefits later.

Under these circumstances... the Empire wanted to use those soldiers to force the high-ranking British and American officials to negotiate.

It was truly a bit naive.

Those high-ranking British and American officials didn't treat those soldiers as human beings at all; on the contrary, the Empire actually treated those soldiers as human beings, as bargaining chips...

It was just that after such a commotion.

The failure of "Operation Market Garden" made the war situation in Europe a bit confusing again.

No one expected that the Empire, which was already at the end of its rope, would be given a blood transfusion by the American-British Allied forces.

Yu Feng looked at the "real-time map" and chatted with the stream, then prepared to start a new round, but this time he chose the Imperial faction; the British Federation side had truly angered him.

A few days later.

In Yu Feng's stream.

At this time, Yu Feng was in a corps under the Imperial SS 6th Panzer Army.

His starting status was a deputy regimental commander.

And the actions and orders of the Imperial 6th Panzer Army also confirmed that the news on the forum a few days ago was true, because Yu Feng was on his way to the front line.

The goal was also to prepare to raid the Allied troops.

Yu Feng sat in the command vehicle, looked at the map, and explained to the netizens in the stream:

"The counterattack is real."

"The plan is also about the same as what I saw on the forum a few days ago."

"Hiss—there are so many people playing, this game seems to have no secrets."

"My front-line troops just received the news, and the players who are Imperial officials over there had already leaked it days ago."

"The plan was indeed formulated by the Head of State."

"Hmm... how should I put it, I won't comment."

"Although it's a bit naive, it can be considered treating those American-British Allied soldiers as human beings, laughing to death."

"Suddenly feel this joke is a bit cold."

Yu Feng said:

"We have gathered about 200,000 people and 500 tanks here; this is all that can be brought out on the Western Front."

"I dare not imagine what the situation will be if this fails."

Looking at the various messages floating in the stream, Yu Feng picked and replied:

"Fight?"

"This still has to wait for a while; you know the Empire's logistics."

"Now it can't be supplied anymore."

"Actually, it doesn't matter if it's said out loud; after all, the NPCs on Earth basically won't listen to our player intelligence; the fuel for the Empire's current offensive hasn't even been gathered yet."

"It would be good if half of the 500 tanks could start."

"So the Allies still have some time to organize their defense line."

"No way, the Empire's situation is just like this."

"Supplies can't keep up."

As Yu Feng was chatting, the messages suddenly went wild.

【Holy crap?! Go check the player forum!】

【The Empire has collapsed again!!!】

【It's hopeless, it's hopeless, streamer, hurry up and commit suicide to switch back to the Allied faction.】

【What a pity.】

Yu Feng looked at these messages, a bit confused, and hurriedly opened the player forum, but what caught his eyes was a post with an "Explosive" tag.

【Rommel committed suicide, the Imperial Head of State has gone crazy!】

Looking at this post, Yu Feng was also dumbfounded:

"Holy crap?!"

"What's the situation? Rommel is gone?"

"Didn't they say he was hospitalized due to an air raid by the British Federation last time?"

"How did he suddenly commit suicide?"

And what does this have to do with the Imperial Head of State?

Yu Feng clicked into the post.

What caught his eyes were photos, obviously all screenshots from streams.

However, one could vaguely see the clear appearance of Rommel from the side, as well as those "Gestapo" surrounding him, one of whom was saying something while handing Rommel something.

Finally, Rommel chose to take it, then returned to the room; the player who triggered this plot guessed it should be saying goodbye to his family.

Then Rommel appeared in the courtyard; at this time, Rommel had changed into a military uniform, stroked his beloved dog that rushed over, and then, under the gaze of the "Gestapo," took something.

Then he sat on a chair in the courtyard.

It was only a few seconds.

Rommel's body tilted, and he completely collapsed.

The photos in the courtyard ended here.

And next, it was also the last photo; what caught his eyes was a newspaper, and the headline on it was "The Empire's Hero, General Rommel, Dies of Sudden Illness."

Below was the Imperial Head of State's eulogy.

However, looking at these photos.

The Blue Star players only felt an indescribable absurdity; what on earth is the Imperial Head of State doing? The Empire's three great generals, the "Hall of Fame."

Officially recognized, and just like that, he was forced to commit suicide?