Munitions Empire

Chapter 584: Since I'm here already

Chapter 584: Since I’m here already

In fact, the battle at Luo Town had not completely ended when the 3rd Army of Qi Country was assembling. When Liu Guozhu climbed back onto his tank, the defensive forces of Qi Country had not yet given up their resistance.

Fierce gunfire continued within Luo Town, stretching from the train station all the way to the power plant in the east, with Qi Army soldiers persisting in combat.

Their resistance was ultimately suppressed by the 1st Armored Division, though. Wherever the tanks went, the troops of Qi Country simply had no ability to retaliate.

Tank No. 4, brought to a battlefield of World War I caliber, was just too powerful. The military of Qi Country basically had no way to counter this weapon and could only rely on valor to meet the enemy with their flesh and blood.

Even though at the train station, a Qi Country soldier armed with explosives ultimately managed to destroy one of the 4th company’s tanks, his efforts could not change the defeat and surrender of the Qi forces.

The 3,000 soldiers stationed at Luo Town from Qi Country were almost entirely wiped out, and the soldiers who barely survived chose to surrender honorably. They handed over their weapons and were then escorted by the Tang Army to the rear.

Immediately after, the Tang Army did not dare to slack off, judging from the combat effectiveness of the Qi soldiers who defended Luo Town and from the interrogation of Qi commanders, they learned that Qi Country had already begun to notice the importance of Luo Town.

Or rather, the Qi Army had realized that Luo Town was in grave danger and was trying every possible means to send reinforcements there.

All signs indicated that the Qi Army would certainly attempt to recapture Luo Town, so the Tang Army had to set up a sturdy defense line here to meet the imminent enemy forces.

“Move quickly! We have no time to waste!” a Tang Army commander urged while shoveling dirt, reminding his subordinates.@@@@

In the upcoming battle, a complete and robust line of defense was their only reliance to maintain combat effectiveness or, in other words, to save their own lives.

Fortunately, every Tang grenadier was equipped with a standard Engineer Corps shovel, enabling them to construct the defense line rapidly.

Each soldier dug a foxhole, which would soon be connected as construction progressed, forming trenches.

Real trenches differ from those in movies; to avoid artillery bombardment, they are often contorted and twisted, rarely straight.

Why don’t movies accurately reproduce real trenches? The reason is simple: real trenches offer poor lateral visibility, affecting filming, and they lack the imposing presence of straight trenches, so they make artistic compromises.

After connecting the foxholes to form trenches, the Tang Army began to construct more solid machine gun flanking positions on both wings of their trenches.

These flanking positions appeared to be unremarkable individual soldier positions when viewed from the front, but hidden machine guns lay in wait at a slant across from their own positions.

Once the enemy approached their main positions, the hidden machine guns would open fire from the flank, suppressing the enemy’s advancing forces and inflicting heavy casualties.

The crossfire from both wings is a tried-and-true classic setup, so most of the lower-level commanders graduating from the Great Tang Kingdom’s military schools would adhere to the book as much as possible.

Quickly, behind the collapsed buildings, mortar support fire from the company level had already determined firing angles and sectors.

Those with no immediate tasks were helping to unload ammunition from trucks, then distributing it as much as possible to the participating units.

Because of the presence of these planes, the numerical advantage of the Qi Army’s artillery was completely nullified; half of their dozens of artillery pieces were either in hiding or destroyed.

The remaining half fared no better in the face of Tang Army fire. The commanders of Qi Country had not anticipated that the artillery of a single Armored Division of the Tang Army could exchange fire with all the artillery of their two or three infantry divisions.

For Qi Country, this wasn’t even the most troubling issue. The most troubling issue was their first exploratory attack had not been launched by noon.

After the fifth wave of Tang Army Stuka Dive Bombers arrived on the battlefield, the leaders of the Qi Army finally realized that the planes overhead might truly never leave.

Without having launched a single attack and already suffering over a thousand casualties, the commander of the 3rd Army of Qi Country finally commenced the first fierce offensive, gritting his teeth.

Ignoring their casualties, the Qi Army artillery once again launched an artillery assault. They fired dozens of rounds, enveloping Luo Town in thick smoke.

Afterward, the 3rd Division of the 3rd Army of Qi Country threw in an infantry regiment, a human wave surging towards the Tang Army’s position.

“Charge! The first to breach Luo Town will be rewarded with 50 gold coins!” A Qi Army commander waved his Mauser Bolt-Action Rifle, rallying the Qi Country soldiers moving forward with bayonets at his side.

It was easy to distinguish the soldiers of Qi Country without helmets; they looked quite different from the Tang Army soldiers wearing M35 steel helmets. The Tang Army soldiers were all equipped with tactical vests, while the Qi Army soldiers only had the most basic gear belts.

At the forefront of the position, the decoy machine gun nest enticing the Qi Army troops opened fire first. The MG42 machine guns, with their distinctive and menacing sound of tearing fabric, roared to life.

A barrage of bullets met the Qi Army soldiers head-on, and they fell in droves, unprepared. The remaining Qi soldiers immediately spread out further, hunched over as they inched forward.

“Rat-a-tat-tat-tat!” The Maxim machine guns covering the advance of the Qi soldiers also roared angrily, fiercely spraying bullets towards the origin of the tracer rounds.

The 3rd Army, under the third prince, truly was an elite combat unit. From the outset of the engagement, their combat discipline showed to be far superior to other Qi Army troops.

Their attack was more methodical, with machine gun cover and artillery support, clearly well-trained, and their commanders fully understood the performance of their weapons and equipment, combining them effectively to unleash greater power.

However, as impressive as they were, their performance was only exceptionally good by the standards of the First World War.

Very soon, the Tang Army’s mortars deployed in the town began to give the attacking Qi soldiers a taste of hardship. They were broken up by a barrage of fire, and the first probing attack quickly collapsed into a rout.

It was only at this point that Qi Army commanders seemed to remember, the Tang Army’s ease of penetrating defenses, slicing through them like cutting melons and vegetables, did not mean everyone could easily break through well-prepared defenses.

Without the cover of Air Force and Tanks, it seemed ... the Qi Army couldn’t breach the defensive positions of the Tang Army the same way.

But they no longer had the option to retreat; after all, there’s a saying: since we’re here...

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