Munitions Empire

In the drizzling rain, a platoon of Tang Army soldiers dressed in raincoats trudged along a muddy road, carrying ammunition and weapons and following behind a No. 4 assault gun. Soon, these soldiers arrived at a small village where the civilians had already evacuated, leaving only a few men behind. These men quickly stood in front of the short assault gun, volunteering to guide the troops, introducing the local terrain and claiming their homes still had food supplies. However, the soldiers did not take the food. After revising the map details based on the locals' descriptions, they asked the men to leave the dangerous area immediately and take all the food they could carry with them. Then, the soldiers began to set up defensive lines around the small village. Everyone was busy; some were digging trenches, others were burying mines. In an instant, the once peaceful and tranquil village had turned into a dangerous battlefield, as if every corner hid lethal means of killing. The distant rumble could be heard, indistinct as artillery fire or the muffled roll of thunder. Unnoticed, the rain had stopped, the sky still laden with thick clouds, crystal-clear water droplets hanging from the leaves, and the puddles underfoot remained as turbid as ever. The low-profile assault gun was covered with branches, concealed behind a thicket of bushes. The tank commander leaned out, peering through binoculars at the wilderness in the distance. This was the main route for the attack on Xicong, and a defensive line they had to hold. The enemy was expected to arrive here in a few hours, and everyone knew it would be a tough fight. Soon, a truck appeared on the highway extending west. As it approached, the white identification paint below the car's radiator grille, distinguishing friend from foe, became evident. It was a counterattack unit retreating from the front lines, half filled with wounded soldiers and the other half who had expended all their ammunition, forced to retreat to this point for rest and reorganization. Soon, the wounded continued their retreat eastward in the truck, leaving behind soldiers who, after receiving ammunition, stayed to reinforce the defenses here. Approximately another hour passed, and a No. 4 tank riddled with bullet holes escorted three Type 113 armored vehicles to this location as well. The grenadiers continued to collect their ammo, and logistics trucks from the east also arrived in the village, bringing in more ammunition amidst the bustle. "Your counterattack units fought brilliantly, significantly slowing down the enemy's progress. They will likely only reach here by the afternoon," the battalion commander stood in the shadow of the village's tallest two-story building, offering a cigarette to the retreating tank commander. The latter accepted the cigarette, lit it, and then exhaled a puff of white smoke saying, "The battlefield is too muddy, isn't it difficult for both us to maneuver and them to advance?" The troops' organization had become disrupted: the forces retreating from the front were already a mixed composition. Some were tanks supported by the Armored Corps, others were infantry's own assault guns, all mingled together, temporarily commanded by various battalion and regiment commanders. There was no choice since there were no defensive works, which meant that the light infantry was almost incapable of stopping the enemy tank clusters' assaults. The Armored Corps had to be broken up to serve as a firefighting team. Those who retreated here was a typical "small unit" configuration: one tank and two armored vehicles from the Armored Corps, with the remaining armored vehicle and truck from the grenadier units. As the frontline pushed deeper into Tang Country, the defensive forces of the Tang Army gradually increased. It wasn't just a boost in manpower, but equipment was also strengthening. The slow-moving heavy artillery units began to appear on the battlefield later on. The closer to the railways, the more plentiful the supplies, and consequently, the Tang Army's artillery fire grew more intense. However, as the Dahua Empire's military continued their offensive, they also gradually moved away from their own supply lines. The mud was not just the friend of Dahua's military; it was also aiding the Tang Army in resisting the advances of Dahua's forces. "Lucky you came, or just relying on us to hold here, we probably couldn't last until tomorrow," the tank commander said, looking towards the direction from which the enemy would come, his words laden with worry. The battalion commander nodded, smiling as he reassured the other, "Aren't we here now? Two more Hornet units will soon arrive, and then we'll let those damned bastards see what we're made of!" "I'm not trying to scare you, but this time the enemy is different!" the tank commander warned the commander, "They're well prepared, and their artillery fire is strong, otherwise we wouldn't have been in such a sorry state." With no Air Force to weaken the artillery, the Dahua Empire's artillery finally got the chance to utilize their firepower advantage to give the Tang Army a taste of what fire suppression really felt like. It was an unfortunate situation. Usually, the Tang Army had the support of the Air Force, and their artillery emphasized mobility, so they were naturally at a numerical disadvantage. Although you could say the Tang Army had more self-propelled artillery, and it was more advanced, when it came to sheer numbers, obviously, the Tang Army's self-propelled artillery was not so advanced that it could offset the advantage of numbers. "They're coming!" On the outer defenses, the No. 4 assault gun's commander who had been on the lookout put down his binoculars and held down the intercom, alerting his crew. On the highway in the distance, Dahua's military tanks followed one after another, with dense groups of soldiers on both sides of the roadbed. The drizzle had barely stopped, and the mobility of Dahua's troops had somewhat increased. Commanders were all desperately rushing, trying to make up for the time wasted earlier due to the ambushes by the Tang Border Defense Force. They had no choice, for they had not anticipated that the seemingly unimpressive border defense force, with its limited manpower and ammunition, would put up such a fierce fight. By the standards of the Dahua Empire, these border defense units of the Tang Army, if placed under Dahua commanders, would be the treasures at the bottom of the box, the core of the main force. Soon the Tang Army switched to camouflage mode, and the company commander grabbed the newly installed field telephone in the temporary camouflaged shelter: "Hello? Hello! This is Li Family Village! The enemy has appeared! Yes! Yes! I assure you, we'll hold our positions!" After hanging up the phone, he looked at his adjutant: "Hold fire until they're closer, don't waste ammunition! Give them a fierce one as much as possible!" "Understood!" The adjutant smiled and nodded: "Everything is arranged; let's show the Dahua people the might of us Tang people!" In the foxholes, the grenade soldiers of the Tang Army peeked out their Type 56 assault rifles, with the dark barrels aiming towards the approaching enemy in the distance. But before they got within range, an enormous blast sent a leading tank of the Dahua troops and seven or eight soldiers flying into the air. It was an anti-tank mine planted by the retreating Tang Army, and the horrific explosion caused the Dahua troops to halt. They waited in place, dumbfounded, for ten minutes before regaining order and continuing their advance. This mine seemed to send a dangerous signal, and the Dahua troops began to spread out gradually, not advancing solely along the road anymore. As a result, the mines buried by the roadside began to take their toll, with explosions one after another causing continuous interruptions in the advance of the Dahua troops, preventing them from gaining speed. Eventually, it seemed that the commanders from the Dahua Empire lost patience; about a dozen tanks, covering roughly a battalion of troops, hurried their pace aggressively and charged towards Li Family Village. Many villages in Tang Country are named after the most prominent family surname within them, and while there are not a hundred Li Family Villages, there are at least eighty; the one here is just one of the inconspicuous ones. However, with the population growth and improved economic conditions in Tang Country, the scale of its villages has already surpassed that of small towns in other countries. This place is not like villages in other countries with just several dozen straw huts; here, there are over a thousand residences, even quite a few two-story buildings. On the east side of the village, there are two small factories, one processes the oranges grown nearby into canned oranges, and the other is a repair shop that can even perform simple maintenance on tanks. Of course, the village's electricity is transmitted from towns further away; it doesn't have its own power station, and the water plant is still under construction and not yet completed. Even so, compared to the frontier villages in the Dahua Empire, this Li Family Village is indeed more than twice as prosperous. "A bunch of fools; after fighting all day, they still haven't learned how to walk properly!" Watching the swarming Dahua troops, a Tang Army sniper hiding in a concealed position spat out the grass stalk he was chewing on. He raised his sniper rifle and peered through the scope at the enemies staggering along in the mud next to the tanks, their rifles in hand. His crosshair moved back and forth between their heads and chests. The Dahua's soldiers could not be blamed for failing to see the Tang Army that was practically within arm's reach, because the camouflage work of the Tang Army was too good. Their helmets were covered in fabric and camouflage nets, and many of the experienced veterans had even inserted small branches with leaves into them. Together with the camouflage raincoats of the Tang Army, from afar, their outlines were cut by the camouflage patterns, blending into the natural colors so that they became unrecognizable. So when they were less than a hundred meters from the village, the concealed Tang Army defenses still went unnoticed. But because the Dahua troops had suffered too much from the attack the day before, they would unconsciously slow their pace when everything seemed too quiet. This was a sign of respect for the dead and an acknowledgment of the enemy—even though they hadn't learned the deeper tactics of survival, they had developed an awareness of self-preservation. "Ratatatatat!" Finally, a grenadier at the front pulled the trigger; the continuous gunfire of the assault rifle shattered the surrounding silence. In the distance, a cannon fired; the artillery shell whistled overhead, crashing into the steel plate at the front of the turret of the leading Dahua Type 1 tank. The immense force tore through the already thin steel plate, followed immediately by the ignition of all inflammable and explosive materials inside the tank. With a colossal boom, the tank exploded, the body burst into flames, the turret flew off, and the surrounding Dahua Empire soldiers were knocked down.