Chapter 219 Delayed Action

After Qi Yiming arrived at Lando Galaxy, he was not in a hurry to enter the battlefield.

Instead, they used the cover of the asteroid belt to circle around the coalition fleet and observed the configuration of the enemy fleet in various positions.

After completing the preliminary investigation, Qi Yiming first contacted Wang Shuhua, who was in a bitter battle, and asked him to delay the enemy's breakthrough to the third planetary defense line as much as possible, while he commanded the Xuefeng to hide in the asteroid belt again.

Wang Shuhua was not surprised by Qi Yiming's arrival. He knew that he had told Qi Yiming that he would coexist and die with the Lando Galaxy function, but Qi Yiming would never just watch him die in the Lando Galaxy.

"You shouldn't have come."

"How could I have known that there would be so many New Federation citizens wanting to evacuate the Lando Galaxy if I hadn't come here? You had the opportunity to evacuate here..."

"I was never prepared to evacuate the Lando system from the beginning."

"Nonsense... It's just a gain or loss in a galaxy. There is no need to fight with the enemy here."

When Wang Shuhua heard Qi Yiming say this, he thought he was going to give up on those civilians: "You can't give up on those citizens who are willing to evacuate to the hinterland of the federation."

"When did I say I was going to give up on them?" Qi Yiming said with a smile: "There is no word "give up" in my dictionary."

Wang Shuhua breathed a sigh of relief and then asked: "Then what are your plans?"

"The Lando Galaxy cannot stand it at the moment. We have to buy enough time for the evacuated people. According to your current strategy, you have to explain yourself here before the evacuation fleet has gone far."

"24 hours, I can only sacrifice myself for these 24 hours."

"Listen to me, don't fight head-on with the enemy from now on, our goal is to delay time."

"Tell me, what are your plans..." Wang Shuhua asked Qi Yiming again about his next plan.

"Use air mines to block the channel you left, and let them slowly clear the mines first. You lead the fleet to retreat to the sky above the Violet Star, and leave the rest to me..."

Soon, Wang Shuhua followed Qi Yiming's arrangement and used air mines to completely block the enemy fleet's attack channel.

Now it was Lu Zhenyang's turn to be blinded. He really did not expect that the commander of the New Federation Fleet would have so many air mines before the fleet launched the attack. The dense minefields completely blocked their attack path.

If front-line combat ships are allowed to go to mines regardless of losses, Lu Zhenyang believes that the coalition forces will soon become passive in fighting due to huge casualties, which will seriously affect the overall attack speed of the fleet.

Lu Zhenyang could only report the situation on the front line to the senior officials of various countries, so that he would have enough time to arrange minesweepers to open a passage for the fleet.

Governments of various countries have no good solution when faced with this strategy of using air mines to block the forward channel.

These air mines themselves are very small. Except for the special radars carried by demining ships of various countries, it is difficult for ordinary ship-based radars to detect these air mines.

Even if intensive firepower is used to eliminate the threat of minefields, it is inevitable that some air mines will be missed. Although air mines are small in size, their destructive power is indeed very large.

If a battleship hits an air mine, even if it is not sunk, it will be severely damaged and withdraw from the battle.

No matter how wealthy a country is, it will not risk losing a battleship by sending its fleet to a minefield, so it has no choice but to ask the coalition fleet to postpone the attack and send minesweepers to clear mines.

This situation is exactly what Qi Yiming expected. Now, as long as Xuefeng's ultra-long-range attack is used to interfere with the work progress of the enemy minesweeper, enough time can be bought for the evacuated Yunshun fleet.

Then the nightmare of the coalition minesweeper came.

Kong Qingchao is a captain of the mine clearance team of the coalition support fleet. Today he received an order from his superiors to go out for a mine clearance mission.

This kind of order is normal for a captain like him who performs mine clearance work all year round. The only difference is that the amount of mine clearance in this mission is much larger than that of previous missions.

However, the coalition command dispatched thousands of minesweepers to perform the task, and his minesweepers were only responsible for a small area.

Soon, Kong Qingchao commanded his warship to leave the fleet and fly towards the minefield ahead.

At first, he didn't notice anything unusual. The enemy seemed to have given up on the line of defense in front of them, so the expected delayed attack did not appear.

"It seems like this is another relaxing and enjoyable demining job..."

Kong Qingchao was holding a tea cup in one hand and using the other hand to control the holographic map in front of him on the battleship console to carefully observe the minefield in front of him.

The density of the minefield is not high, but it is difficult for a frigate with a length of more than 300 meters to pass through the minefield.

If he wants the coalition battleships to pass through this minefield, he must at least clear out more than 80% of the air mines in the minefield in front of him.

"Air mine model KB-211, proximity fuze..." The engineer on board the ship loudly reported the situation of the air mine to Kong Qingchao when the warship was about to approach the first air mine.

"This is such a childish thing again." Kong Qingchao muttered quietly and then ordered to the personnel of the engineering team: "Release the work boat and sail towards the second air mine."

Just as Kong Qingchao commanded the warship to approach the second air mine, he discovered that the friendly ship in the operating area adjacent to him seemed to be in some trouble.

A work boat that had just been released might have made a work error and accidentally triggered the air mine fuse, causing quite a bit of chaos in that airspace.

A few minutes later, the friendly ship released another workboat. This time, the workboat released was much more cautious in terms of flying speed and approaching the air mine.

Kong Qingchao looked proudly at the workboat he had just released, and a sense of pride radiated from the inside out.

Because his minesweeper still holds the highest mine clearance record in the Commercial Alliance, and it is also the only minesweeper with zero casualties and zero mistakes in all previous missions.

Before his ship approached the next air mine, the workboat that had just been released sent back a message: "4 minutes and 35 seconds, mine clearance is over."

"Not bad, Lao Qian... broke the record again." Kong Qingchao smiled proudly again after hearing the voice from the communicator.

The second air mine was still a proximity fuse. Kong Qingchao repeated the previous order and released another workboat, while his warship continued to sail towards the third air mine.

Just as he was about to release the third workboat, the battlefield monitor of the warship sent back the picture across the minefield.

Kong Qingchao saw a warship on the opposite side from the gaps of dense air mines, which seemed to be preparing for an attack.

He immediately informed the friendly ships in the fleet channel: "Attention, all ships, a battleship has been found on the enemy side, and it is charging its weapons, so be careful to avoid it."

As soon as he finished speaking, he found that hundreds of bursting lasers accurately passed through the gaps in the minefield and hit the friendly ships on his left and right sides.

And his own ship was also hit by more than a dozen bursting lasers.

Fortunately, in order to resist the power of air mine explosions, the outer armor of the minesweeper itself is relatively thick, and this attack did not cause much damage to his ship.

But the workboat that was just released was not so lucky.

The workboat driven by Lao Qian, who was still shouting in the internal channel that he was going to treat everyone to a drink because of breaking the record, was directly vaporized by a bursting laser, and now even the body cannot be found.