Chapter 150: Chapter 131, The Battle of the Three Pools_6
At the start of the attack, the plunderers in Sanchi Town were already a little stunned.
Even Terrell, when he bravely ascended a high platform to observe the battle, was somewhat dazed.
It was unquestionable that the heavy artillery fired first. Around the edges of Sanchi Town, and then at the buildings, followed by the plunderers who had dug trenches, were too scared to stick their heads out under the bombardment. If it weren’t for the leaders exerting pressure, nobody would have dared to run, and it’s possible that this artillery barrage alone could have totally shattered the outer defenses.
The plunderers hiding in fortifications, bunkers, and trenches actually suffered relatively few casualties. If they weren’t hit directly by a shell, or too close to the blast to be killed or injured by the shock wave, the deadly and terrifying shrapnel couldn’t penetrate their cover to cause harm.
After all, they wouldn’t die as miserably as those unlucky ones who had been defending in the open field — being bombed there was truly horrific.
However, the ear-splitting roar of the cannons and the terrifying force that made the earth tremble filled people with fear and horror. It seemed the enemy’s artillery must have been more than twenty kilometers away; even if they wanted to retalitate, they couldn’t see a thing.
They could try to calculate the enemy’s artillery position based on the trajectory of the shells, but it was useless. They did have cannons of their own, but those small-caliber, assorted mountain guns could barely maintain accuracy beyond ten kilometers, let alone affect the heavy artillery positions twenty kilometers away. Their only option was to shrink back and bear the bombardment.
But if that had been all, it would still have been within Terrell’s expectations.
However, following this round of artillery fire, he could see that the Alliance Army had launched a full-fledged offensive.
Just after the shelling, maybe just two hundred meters from the blast site, the infantry of the Alliance Army had already appeared. The mortar teams also showed their might, unleashing a round of shelling toward the front.
The soldiers were rapidly charging forward; before the warmth of the artillery barrage had even dissipated, they had already rushed into the position that had just been shelled.
The stunned plunderers, with the wounded getting finished off by rifle fire, and those lucky enough to be unharmed, were too scatterbrained to put up any effective defense and were quickly and messily eliminated.
But of course, there wasn’t just one layer of defenses, aside from the locations that were bombed, there were still other plunderers present behind them. If they had shown themselves and started shooting at this moment, they could certainly have posed a threat to the attacking soldiers.
But they didn’t, as another round of artillery had already covered their position.
The most terrifying thing was that the infantry of the Alliance Army were only about two hundred meters from the blast site. The lethal range of those fearsome heavy cannons was nearly one hundred meters.
Weren’t they afraid that if a shell were to fall just a bit off course, it might land on their own men?
The gunners weren’t afraid, the commanders weren’t afraid, weren’t those frontline infantry afraid?
Terrell had never seen anything like this before.
A few terms he had only heard of but never witnessed crossed his mind: combined arms operation, creeping barrage.
He knew that the outer defenses he had spent so much time building were now doomed.
But Terrell quickly realized that he couldn’t really let the outer defenses be destroyed.
Otherwise, once the Alliance Army broke through, without the town’s edge fortifications and trenches, the battle would become even more difficult.
That area was intended to be his launch point for a breakout operation from behind.
Terrell, gritting his teeth, issued orders to the troops behind him to open fire with their own artillery.
The much smaller caliber mountain guns, even if they couldn’t reach the Alliance Army’s artillery in the rear, at least had to threaten the enemies right in front of them, making them taste the artillery fire as well.
Moreover, under his command, more plunderers counterattacked in the direction of the Alliance Army’s advance.
He didn’t want this, but the situation changed too fast, and there was no time to slowly organize troops and find a breakout direction. If they truly had to fight a breakout battle, then they needed to crush the enemies before them and they could potentially kill their way out.
However, just as he had ordered a large number of his own troops to fill into the first line of defense and engage in close-range firefight with those new Alliance soldiers, two new developments occurred.
First, the artillery barrage they had just fired two rounds of, was finished.
He had ordered his own artillerymen to fire and then move positions after each shot. Nevertheless, the narrow spaces within Sanchi Town made it difficult for the artillery to maneuver, and relocation was even tougher. Moreover, although their cannons were light, they lacked towing vehicles, and relying on manpower to push meant the speed of movement was not at all guaranteed.
As a result, they were caught in the act.
Their artillery could not reach the Alliance Army’s artillery formation, yet the enemy’s heavy cannons undoubtedly brought their cannons within their firing range.
After two rounds of bombardment, the raiders’ artillery positions were no more.
Not only were there heavy casualties among the gunners, but a large number of the cannons were destroyed or damaged as well.
Of course, once the Alliance’s artillery had focused its firepower on the town’s artillery, there was no way to provide cover for the soldiers fighting at the front.
Although the attacking infantry still had some mortars available to them, these were nowhere near as powerful as the 155mm howitzers.
This slowed the pace of those soldiers trying to break through the outer defenses, but the raiders who continued to push forward actually succeeded in pulling the combat range to within a hundred meters.
At this distance, the effectiveness of firearms greatly increased, and it became difficult for the Alliance’s heavy artillery to cover this area.
Even if the Alliance’s gunners were accurate and their soldiers fearless, friendly fire from artillery was a real concern. Hesitant to risk hitting their own, of course they couldn’t continue to recklessly bombard an area where both sides were intermingled in close combat.
However, just as he started to comfort himself with this thought, Terrell saw another scene that sent a chill through his limbs.
The Alliance’s tank platoon had advanced!
A total of twelve tanks stirred up clouds of dust on the dirt roads. Their 76mm smoothbore guns began to assert their dominance.
Knowing they wouldn’t be facing any armored targets, all the tanks were loaded with high-explosive fragmentation shells. A dozen guns fired in unison, and at a range of just a few hundred meters, not even a kilometer, they began to strike at the raiders’ newly-formed counterattack posture.
The raiders appeared to have no answer to these steel beasts.
And taking advantage of the tanks’ suppressive fire, the infantry began to surge forward. They specifically targeted raider fire teams trying to threaten the tanks. As for places firmly held by the enemy, such as scatter pits and temporary positions built from building debris, there wasn’t much to discuss—just call for the tankers to fire a couple of shots, or even sweep through with co-axial machine guns, and it was all over.
The tanks’ tracks rolled over trenches, moving closer and coordinating with the infantry in combat.
The raiders’ counterattack was directly destroyed, and those who dared to close in for hand-to-hand combat all learned of the power of tank cannons and co-axial machine guns, suffering heavy casualties as a result.
Seeing this scene, Terrell finally lost his composure.
Frantically grabbing the field radio, he shouted, “Drink all those combat drugs! Drink! Fight them with everything! If we can’t win, there’s no way out!”
After finishing, he took several deep breaths, then shook his whole body as if realizing something, and hurriedly left the command post.
Immediately afterward, his closest and most trusted squad, protecting him, headed out of Sanchi Town in another direction.
He was running away.
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This chapter is ten thousand words!