Munitions Empire

Chapter 419 408 Inexplicable Artillery Battle

The goblin officer seemed quite disdainful and had no intention of answering the commander of the First Company's question. The commander of the First Company waited a few seconds, and finding that the other party seemed to have no intention of answering his question, nodded.

He looked at the somewhat embarrassed officer of the Second Company and said, "I'll give you a chance to hit back..."

The officer of the Second Company was at least 1.78 meters tall. Hearing this, he glanced at the goblin officer who was roughly only 1.45 meters tall, and a cruel smile appeared on his face.

The goblin officer was taken aback and before he could react, a fist in front of him grew larger and larger.

Amid the exclamations of the remaining goblin captives, the goblin officer was struck in the face by the punch from the officer of the Second Company.

At that moment, his world was a kaleidoscope of colors, with only chaotic and fragmented images left in his mind. He remembered his grandfather and seemed to see his own backside.

After spinning around in place for about a circle, the goblin officer finally realized he might have been hit. But before he could prepare to defend himself, his chin was met with another heavy and forceful uppercut.

His brain lapsed into a state of shutdown, and his body involuntarily leaned backward. He staggered three steps back and still couldn't stabilize, eventually collapsing onto the sand.

The goblin captives behind this officer began to stir, but the shiny bayonets and the dark muzzles of guns brought them back to their senses. Everyone watched helplessly as their commander was pinned to the ground, receiving punch after punch.

"How did you discover us and set up here in advance?" Picking another captive at random, the commander of the First Company patiently asked the same question again.

"We didn't set up in advance, we were just rotated in..." The goblin being questioned glanced at his commander, who was being pummeled on the ground, and swallowed before answering.

"Rotated in? How many of you are there?" The commander of the First Company faintly felt that things might not be so simple.

"A legion..." The soldier spoke without reservation, clearly not wanting to get hit.

"We crushed a company... This means there are still two companies of the enemy nearby." An officer looked at the commander of the First Company, offering a reminder.

"Get the second platoon to work with the Third Company to deploy a defensive line along the shrubbery! Prepare for the enemy's next wave of attacks!" The commander of the First Company immediately made a judgment, "People of the Second Company, help set up that 105 howitzer! We might need artillery support."

"Stop hitting him! Wait for the regiment commander to handle this!" Watching the officer of the Second Company who continued to throw punches while straddling the other, the commander of the First Company called out to stop him.

Rising to his feet with bloodied fists, the officer of the Second Company looked at the goblin officer sprawled on the ground who had only the energy to moan weakly, spat, and turned to carry out his duties.

Soon, the troops on the landing site began to mobilize, some helping to set up cannons on the beach, while others armed with weapons started to arrange defenses against the direction of the enemy's charge.

As the commander of the First Company had estimated, the Shen Country's military finally obtained some intelligence from the fleeing soldiers, understanding that the landing force was not the incompetent Zheng Country troops they had been previously fighting.

Zheng Country's military was weak in combat and usually dares not launch attacks proactively. Moreover, once they were engaged in melee combat, they would often collapse swiftly.

This was exactly why the Shen Country's troops did not form squares and charged directly in an attempt to drive the landing forces of the Great Tang Group into the sea with a melee attack.

Accustomed to melee combat, they attempted to use their most familiar tactics to dispose of the enemy before them.

Knowing this, the battalion commander abandoned the idea of getting his own artillery involved in the combat and started to think of other solutions.

The enemy's gunfire lacked precision; it was a complete shot in the dark. So while it seemed fierce, it was essentially ineffective.

A blind cat won't catch a dead mouse most of the time, and firing solid shot blindly was unlikely to accidentally hit a high-value target.

Aside from a cannonball that hit the beach, kicking up gravel and leaving a group of soldiers who had just landed covered in dust, most of these cannonballs' landing spots were unknown.

"We can't let them keep firing blindly! If one shot hits by chance, the loss would be unbearable!" When he saw a solid shot plunge into the sea, spurting a water column less than ten meters away from a small boat, the battalion commander felt that sitting idly by was not an option.

"Even if it's just to scare them, let the 105 howitzer fire!" He knew that although there was only one cannon, a high rate of fire and powerful artillery from the Great Tang Group were incomparable to Shireck's muzzle-loading cannons.

Just as the adjutant was about to relay the order, the Goblin's artillery fire unexpectedly ceased. The battalion commander was taken aback, then realized... the enemy's cannon reloading speed couldn't keep up.

"The enemy's gunfire... has stopped... then, should we still return fire?" the adjutant asked with some uncertainty.

Sighing, the battalion commander thought for a few seconds and made a decision, "Let's wait for now! Since they can't keep up with the rate of fire, let's wait!"

After he spoke, he gave another order, "Organize troops to scout! Find out the exact location of the enemy's artillery..."

Before the battalion commander could finish his sentence, the sound of tearing through the air came from above, the terrifying whistling noise made everyone on the beach involuntarily shrink their necks.

Dozens of cannonballs whistled past, over the beach, and landed beyond the small thicket where the white smoke had not yet completely dispersed.

The next second, flames shot into the sky, the earth trembled, and the blast wave carrying broken branches swept everything around, a series of explosions followed, echoing in the sky.

These were rounds fired by the 150mm caliber guns of the Navy's cruisers, which passed over the beach, also soared over the troops of Zheng Country, and landed further afield, turning an open space upside down.

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Unaware that a battle had already started on shore, the lookout on the Navy warship saw the remnants of white smoke from the muzzle-loaded cannon fire.

That clearly wasn't their own fire, as most of their howitzers were still on the ships, waiting to be unloaded. The surprised Navy realized that the stealthy landing might have turned into a frontal assault, and the troops on the shore were being attacked by the enemy!

Bernard, acting as the highest commander on the battlefield, immediately ordered the warship to open fire to cover the landing troops. Out of concern for avoiding friendly fire, they decided to elevate the guns just a tad...

As a result, these shells flew over the beach and the troops of Zheng Country, falling further away, creating explosions in isolation.

Fortunately, the warship's naval guns were equipped with semi-automatic loading mechanisms and had a high rate of fire, allowing for a slight adjustment of the gun elevation to quickly fire a second salvo...

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