He stared blankly at the pitch-black muzzle as it emitted a burst of orange flame, and then everything went black, and he knew nothing more.
…
Following the charge of the troops, Colonel Perbov, who was several hundred meters away from the front line where they were engaging the enemy tanks, risked poking his head out and surveyed the battlefield with his binoculars.
He had just witnessed that scene.
He swore under his breath, “Damn it, do you have to fire a shell every time you see a mosquito? Do you think shells are free?”
He seemed a bit down.
It wasn’t really because the tankers were wasting ammunition, but rather…
“Damn it, the artillerymen did all my work! What am I here for?”
He sat back down inside the tank, not too pleased.
Leroy, next to him, of course understood what his old partner was like. He smiled, patted Colonel Perbov on the shoulder, and comforted him, “If a problem can be solved with shells, there’s no need to solve it with lives. I think this is pretty good. Besides, if you want to fight, it’s not like there’s no battle to be fought. Artillery brothers are capable, but can they really finish all the work?”
What Leroy said certainly made sense.
To say that each artillery shell was less than thirty centimeters across was an exaggeration. The enemy’s position wasn’t just a single line; even the most amateur and foolish commander would know to construct in-depth defenses.
They were bombarded quite badly, but it really wasn’t enough to wipe out the soldiers on an eight-kilometer wide, at least three-kilometer thick defensive line.
In fact, the Wind-Extinguishing Brigade still encountered resistance.
Enemies began to show themselves, and some lucky ones who had survived the artillery fire had, under the strong orders of their officers, emerged from their shelters, fortifications, and bombproof shelters to launch counterattacks against the attacking forces.
However…
This counterattack was as effective as a tickle.
The artillery positions of the Anti-Governor Alliance Army were nowhere to be seen; whether they had been obliterated under the previous 30,000 heavy artillery shells or not, at this moment they were absent;
The soldiers did have some makeshift anti-armor weapons, like rocket launchers and explosive packs, but there weren’t many, and their power was not sufficient. Those rocket launchers, whether targeting Walkers or Challenger tanks, were no more effective than tickles unless they could strike very close and hit the precisely vulnerable parts like tank tracks, wheels, or the thin rear armor.
The explosive packs had to be placed by someone getting close.
But that was difficult, because to ensure accuracy and potency, one had to get very close to the armored units. However, the enemy’s tanks and armored fighting vehicles were not turtles—they moved faster than a person and had much fiercer firepower.
Not to mention the tank cannons; the machine guns on tanks, the autocannons and grenade machine guns on armored fighting vehicles, all posed explosive threats to light infantry. Without fire cover, relying solely on light infantry, they’d be torn apart before they could get close.
If there were some exceptionally lucky or tenacious individuals who could wait to rush out when tanks passed by, their chances of success… would likewise be virtually impossible.
The Wind-Extinguishing Brigade’s coordinated tactics between infantry and tanks, the armored assault, was their specialty.
The infantry of the Alliance Army were no slouches either.
This time, the Wind-Extinguishing Brigade’s combined infantry and armor tactic was an armor-led charge, with tanks in front, mechanized infantry alighting to fight in the middle, and armored fighting vehicles at the rear. On each side of the tank, there would usually be one or two squads of infantry following.
The firearms in their hands would teach those who thought the tank’s cannon was not turning fast enough and who wanted to strike from the side a lesson. At the same time, the armored fighting vehicles further back served as the major firepower support for the infantry.
At the same time, the tank units would not make the mistake of getting cut off; they often maintained a 20-100 meter distance from the infantry. After capturing a position, the tanks would stop for a while and wait for the infantry to catch up.
Once the infantry had arrived, they would complete the capture and clearance of the surrounding area. After that, the tanks would move out again, break through a stretch of the line, and the infantry would follow.
So on and so forth.
Once the motorized troops caught up, they would proceed to sweep away the already scattered enemy forces for the final clearing.
This tactic, even for an enemy position with a solid defense, was not easy to hold off, let alone for the current Anti-Governor Alliance Army.
They were, to begin with, a ragtag group pulled together from various settlements, with visible disparities in equipment, morale, training, and experience. After being plowed by 30,000 rounds of artillery fire, there weren’t that many survivors. What’s more, even those who were still alive had already reached the brink of morale collapse.
Honestly, if not for the officers’ strict orders to resist, they might have run away or hidden to wait for a chance to surrender.
But… were these officers of the Anti-Governor Alliance Army not afraid of dying?
Clearly, they were.
In some areas, when the soldiers fled, the officers tried to call them back, but it was futile. So they simply followed and ran away too;
Some officers, after yelling at their soldiers to go out and resist, were the first to slip away;
Some officers simply led their men and ran outright.
Overall, the Anti-Governor Alliance Army, after suffering from terrible artillery bombardment, was still able to organize the remaining personnel to carry out a certain degree of counterattack, which was quite impressive considering their motley crew status.
However, under the assault of armored troops, this resistance was swiftly crushed.
Soldiers who ran to the sides were mostly ignored by Perbov’s men, who had no time to care about matters on the flanks of the battle line; whereas those who ran aimlessly backward were chased down by the armored forces, which was clearly very bad. Two legs can’t outrun wheels.
Especially after the enemy’s resistance became weaker and weaker, Perbov adopted a bold, aggressive tactic, no longer maintaining close coordination between the infantry and armored troops, loosening tactical discipline and emphasizing attack speed.
Armored personnel carriers began to surpass the slower Challenger tanks to the front; engineer battalions riding armed trucks also rapidly caught up, and where something was not crushable, the engineers disembarked to fill in trenches and build temporary roads.
This was actually very dangerous, but they did not encounter any danger.
Merely two hours after the Wind-Extinguishing Brigade was fully engaged in combat, the entire unit had breached the central area of the enemy’s defense line.
Eight kilometers wide, four kilometers deep, completely torn apart.
At this point, Commander Yan’s “Central Blossom” tactic had also been initially successful.
The enemy’s line, which was about fifty kilometers wide, now had a “blossom” right in the middle, with an eight-kilometer-wide bulge punched out from the center.
All this, from the artillery strike to the armored forces completing their assault, all happened within three hours.
Next, it was time for the next phase of the Central Blossom tactic: wrapping dumplings.
The bulge had been created, of course, in preparation for annihilating the enemy.
The Wind-Extinguishing Brigade did not stop after breaching the defense line. Once past the difficult terrain and enemy resistance in the trench area, the path beyond was much clearer. The mechanized units of the Wind-Extinguishing Brigade picked up great speed on this open ground. Explore stories at M V L
Five hours later, the vanguard of the Wind-Extinguishing Brigade had already advanced fifty kilometers.
By that time, it had only been eight hours since the bombardment began.
Eight hours, not even enough for the two segments of the Anti-Governor Alliance Army to mount any effective response.
But Yan Fangxu’s follow-up attack plan was already underway.
The 2nd Motorized Infantry Division rapidly followed through the bulge created by the Wind-Extinguishing Brigade. Leaving a part of their forces to defend the central bulge, the rest of the troops, along with the Wind-Extinguishing Brigade, began to encircle in the due north and due west directions.
This was the rear of the two divided enemy forces.
At the same time, the 3rd Beast-slayer Independent Regiment and the 7th and 8th Garrison Divisions, with the support of artillery fire, started a fierce overall offensive.
The enemy troops began to falter on a massive scale.
The center had been breached, the flanks had lost contact, the rear was encircled, and the front was being overwhelmed by ferocious artillery fire…
Under multi-directional pressure, they became dumpling fillings.
Yan Fangxu spent half a day on Central Blossom, and another day to wrap a solid dumpling.
With thin skin and a thick filling, but the meat inside the dumpling could not break through the seemingly sparse dumpling skin.
Surrounded, they held out for three days.
No supplies, no ammunition, no reinforcements…
A motley crew expected to fight until they had no bullets left, no food, until every man was dead?
Not realistic.
By the fourth day, large-scale surrenders began within the enemy troops.
By then, this dumpling with thin skin and a thick filling was thoroughly cooked.
————
Happy Dragon Boat Festival!
Yesterday’s content was missing a part about Lacroix’s promotion, which was just two sentences. I don’t understand where it went wrong, but the review deleted it…
This is the second time content was deleted without my knowledge; it’s very annoying.
I have already re-uploaded it.
