Munitions Empire

Li Family Village, a shell fell beside the already collapsed house, raising dust that reached for the sky. The air was saturated with cold dampness, but the rain had stopped, and the heavy dark clouds overhead hardly let through any sunlight. In the slightly murky view, soldiers from the Dahua military were climbing over crater after crater, launching another assault on the ruins within Li Family Village. Soon, the unique sound of a sniper's G43 rifle rang out, its crisp reports echoing in the sky, signaling that the battle was far from over. On the contrary, the battle was just beginning! Accompanied by the sound of gunfire, the Dahua soldiers roared once again, shouting "Long live His Majesty the Emperor," as they charged forward with bayonets fixed. Their tactics were still primitive but had improved significantly. They no longer maintained their formation; instead, wherever they took fire, they immediately went prone and advanced, evading the incoming bullets. Although their casualties were still extremely heavy, at least these Dahua soldiers had used their heads to come up with some strategies. "Tat tat tat tat!" From the rear, a Maxim heavy machine gun began firing in support of the infantry's assault, bullets hitting shattered fences, crumbling low walls, and collapsed rooftops. "Bang!" A gunshot came from nowhere, and the Dahua gunner operating the Maxim machine gun fell face downwards. Quickly, another person took his place and continued to operate the machine gun, firing relentlessly. Obviously, they still hadn't located the sniper, shooting blindly instead, and amidst the hail of gunfire, the attacking Dahua soldiers kept advancing non-stop. In the muddy craters, the Dahua soldiers shouted their slogans as seven or eight of them worked together to push a Maxim heavy machine gun, complete with a shield and wheels, into the designated position. Under their feet lay the corpses of Dahua soldiers, their boots stepping on those pitiful bodies that had been soaked pale by the muddy water in the bottom of the craters, as countless Dahua soldiers continued to carry out the attack orders from above. A tank from the Dahua Empire rolled over the mud, crossing over a black tank wreck and knocking down a section of already shattered fence. As it prepared to continue forward, its tracks hit a landmine, and a huge explosion erupted into the sky, severing the tank's tracks and killing everyone inside. The surrounding Dahua Empire soldiers fell in droves, and when they got back up, their numbers had thinned significantly. They blindly climbed over obstacles, then were shot to death by bullets coming head-on, becoming entangled in fences, wooden stakes, barbed wire, and shrubs. In close-quarters combat, the grenade-throwing forces of the Great Tang, who had mostly completed the switch to Type 56 assault rifles, clearly still held the advantage. The Dahua soldiers were still using the mediocre performance Shireck Model 1 rifles, which were only good for bayonet-fighting at close range. Sadly, the grenade throwers of the Great Tang Group didn't give the enemy any chance to fight with bayonets. They fired wildly, using the crudest methods to eliminate the enemies before them. Of course, unlike the last time the Tang Army fought the Shen Army, this time both sides made massive use of hand grenades, with the Dahua Empire using the Shireck-manufactured stick grenades, which were copies of Tang Country's first generation design. Tang Country used egg-shaped grenades with pre-fragmented casing, similar to those used by the United States during World War II. Both types of grenades were classic, so the battlefield became exceedingly brutal with the appearance of these grenades. Once they got close to each other, Dahua Empire's soldiers pulled the cords beneath the grenade sticks, tossing the white-smoke-emitting grenades toward the Tang Army. Gruesome explosions followed from that direction, shards flying everywhere. Before the ringing in their ears from the blast subsided, these Dahua soldiers leaped to their feet and charged toward the Tang Army's position still shrouded in gunsmoke. The Tang soldiers, having just dodged the grenades, came back to their senses at that moment and raised their weapons to fight back. The dense sound of gunfire enveloped the battlefield. Dahua soldiers who had charged with bayonets against the enemy position shook as bullets hit them, trembling as if they had stepped on live wires before collapsing. More Dahua soldiers stepped over the bodies of their comrades, weapons in hand, continuing the assault. They finally climbed over the low wall and tangled with Dahua soldiers who had no time to retreat. The sound of gunfire gradually became sparse, and another assault was repelled by the Tang Army. Corpses from the Tang Army were present, but there were more from the Dahua soldiers, all piled together, creating a scene of bloody brutality. After a brief pause, more intense artillery shelling landed near Li Family Village, turning additional buildings into complete rubble, and once-smooth roads into craters. If one were to look down upon the area, it resembled the surface of the moon, pockmarked with craters of all sizes, large ones next to small ones, layer upon layer, with no end in sight. Among these craters were scattered the wrecks of various tanks, easily over 100. The majority belonged to Dahua Troops, with one Panzer IV and two Sturmgeschütz IV assault guns belonging to the Great Tang Kingdom. "Ah..." In a house formerly belonging to a wealthy family, two doctors were intently cutting into a soldier's body. The soldier on the bed let out twisted, piercing screams, and the blood on the ground couldn't even be wiped clean. Lacking better means to treat large wounds, they could only choose to cut away the necrotic parts. This was the most primitive healing technique, and it was also the most effective. However, such a simple and brutal approach would leave the soldiers with disabilities difficult to repair. But to save a life, who could worry about that? Amid the screams, another soldier lost his arm. The anesthetic had run out, and replenishment was more than an hour away. The enemy had sealed off the road leading to Li Family Village with large-caliber artillery. Although they hadn't completely cut off Tang Army's supplies, it certainly complicated their resupply efforts. The ambulances transporting the severely wounded had to be extremely cautious when passing through the blockade, significantly reducing the efficiency of evacuating casualties. "Hold him down!" Another wounded soldier was carried into the operating room by two other soldiers with lighter injuries. Compared to the poor devil who just had his elbow blown off by a shell, this soldier was clearly more fortunate. Without time to wash away the blood on the operating table, the doctor inserted his fingers into the hole in the soldier's arm. Before the soldier could scream, the doctor spread the wound with his fingers while the other hand's tweezers reached in. With a pull, he extracted the deformed bullet embedded in the muscle. Blood immediately gushed out, soaking the torn camouflage uniform of the soldier. The doctor casually tossed the bullet, now held by the tweezers, into the tray beside him. At that moment, the wounded soldier finally regained his senses in pain and began to cry out wildly. "What's the use of yelling... It's all done and you're still shouting," the doctor said with a snort of contempt. Humiliated by the doctor's mockery, the soldier tried to suppress his emotions and was about to close his mouth. But before he could, a nurse stuffed disinfecting gauze soaked in alcohol into the wound, and instantly, the soldier felt as if he had been shot again. "Ah!" He screamed once more, nearly passing out from the pain. However, the nurse saved him: the force of the bandaging brought the soldier back to his senses, due to the pain. The windows, which should have provided sufficient lighting, were entirely blocked by sandbags, not allowing even a sliver of sunlight to penetrate. Despite being two rooms away, the deafening clatter of the diesel generator still made everyone in the operating room restless and agitated. Bombs falling in the distance caused the ground beneath their feet to tremble incessantly, while dust and plaster fell from the ceiling now and then, causing the chandelier to sway gently without stopping. Just one day before, Dahua Empire's shells had hit a power pole, causing all the nearby buildings to lose their electrical supply. The materials for emergency repairs had run out, so maintenance could only continue the next day. The factory beside the village that could repair tanks had turned into a battlefield. In the midst of ruins, soldiers from both sides fought relentlessly. It wasn't until reinforcements from Tang Army arrived in the afternoon that they managed to clear out the Dahua soldiers. The water treatment plant had been utterly destroyed by the bombardment; the Dahua Empire clearly did not want Tang Army to keep using the facility to improve their living conditions. No way around it, the Tang Army stationed in Li Family Village had to earnestly find their own ways to solve their water supply issues, just like the Dahua Army opposite them. The good news for both militaries was that there was no shortage of water here. By simply using a raincoat to set up a rainwater collector, one could easily gather plenty of fresh water. After dropping a few disinfection tablets and boiling, it was safe to drink. The bad news was, only Tang Army had disinfection tablets. The Dahua Military seemingly had not equipped such items, and the likelihood of them getting sick from drinking unboiled water was much higher than that of Tang Army, which had the village to rely on. "Tat-tat-tat!" In the ruins, a Tang Army grenadier jumped into a crater, killing the last panic-stricken Dahua soldier, ending this round of battle. Peace returned to the battlefield, leaving only the sound of exploding shells in the distance. The rain started to pour down once again. The soldier who just narrowly escaped torment by the nurse was now taken to a makeshift open-air ward in the yard, which was simply a tented area open on all sides. Staring blankly at the rain shelter above his head, he couldn't quite comprehend what he had been through. Suddenly, he felt hungry. Although his arm still hurt terribly, and there were still some untreated shrapnel wounds painfully throbbing on his body, he could distinctly feel the hunger. He wiped his nose and felt an urge to cry because he sadly discovered that his ration bag seemed to have... disappeared.