Munitions Empire

Chapter 342 Battle of Furnace Fortress 338

"Boom!" A grenade landed in the position of the Northern Dwarf Empire's troops, raising a cloud of dust that eclipsed the sun.

On the edge of the explosion, a soldier was struck in the head by shrapnel and fell, his face covered in blood. Further away, soldiers were knocked askew by the blast.

The troops of the Northern Dwarf Empire had actually never fought such a battle before; they were suppressed by the enemy's artillery fire and couldn't lift their heads, yet they couldn't see the enemy's artillery troops at all.

The traditional tactic of lined-up battle formations had clearly become outdated, and engaging in such tactics was now no different from courting death.

Tactics had fundamentally changed because of the advancement of weapons. Nowadays, an attacking formation in line was met with one outcome, that was being effortlessly annihilated by the opposition's machine guns.

The Northern Dwarf Empire had no experience with such modern tactics, which is why they suffered a great loss in that decisive frontal confrontation.

100,000 troops were heavily decimated in that decisive battle, which directly led to the present situation where the Northern Dwarf Empire could not send more elite forces to participate in the Furnace Fortress battle.

The Northern Dwarf Empire also didn't have time to ponder over new tactics, so they could only think of some clumsy methods to solve the problems they faced.

On one hand, they abandoned the tactic of square formations, allowing their troops to take cover on the spot, thus avoiding concentrated attacks of artillery and machine guns.

However, this tactic was primitive; they had no contact with things like trenches, so there was almost no digging operation.

Therefore, on the outskirts of the defensive line around Furnace Fortress, there were, in fact, no sturdy defensive positions like trenches to stop the advance of the Ice Cold Kingdom's troops, only some hastily constructed breastworks.

These constructs provided basically no defense against the attack of 75mm caliber grenade launchers.

Moreover, the Ice Cold Kingdom, in addition to 75mm field artillery, also carried a large number of lightweight, easily portable mortars.

These mortars were truly divine when it came to attacking enemy targets around 2 kilometers away.

Those Dwarves from the Ice Cold Kingdom, the officers often had Left-Wheel Handguns, which to the defenders at Furnace Fortress appeared to be divine artifacts beyond comprehension.

The enemy's weapons could fire 6 rounds consecutively, whereas his own side could barely fire off one shot after ages; this wasn't a fair war at all, was it?

And many of the veteran soldiers of the Ice Cold Kingdom were equipped with lever-action rifles purchased from the Great Tang Group, which made them more efficient in combat and posed an even greater threat to the Dwarf Troops of the north.

Your journey continues at empire

"My lord! The frontline looks like it can't hold on much longer!" a Dwarf wrapped in bandages stumbled over, clearly putting on a pitiful front.

"I see it! You don't need to tell me again!" the Dwarf commander responsible for this sector of the battlefield shouted in frustration: "500 men! You couldn't hold out for even 20 minutes before being crushed by the enemy!"

"My lord! We did our best! They don't even show their heads! We have no way of returning fire!" pleaded the battalion commander, his voice laced with a whining tone.

In truth, he had no good counters, for the Ice Cold Kingdom's military used updated tactics from the Great Tang Group when they attacked.

After crushing the enemy's morale and destroying their frontline defenses, the Dwarf Troops of the Ice Cold Kingdom would do everything they could to approach the enemy's defensive lines.

Then, they would determine the enemy's defensive layout, and immediately bring up the mortars and heavy machine guns—this was why the early heavy machine guns often came with shields and wheels.

In early siege warfare, heavy machine guns played a role similar to that of infantry support. Before the advent of assault guns and infantry fighting vehicles, they were the most reliable pillar of fire support for the infantry.

When the gunners risked enemy sniper shots to push the heavy machine guns close enough to the enemy's attacking position, the battle was usually already over.

The countermeasure to this type of machine gun advance tactic was actually very simple: prepare heavy machine guns on one's own position as well.

(Please forgive Dragon Spirit's lack of talent in creating names; it's Furnace Fortress till the end.)