Munitions Empire

"No matter what, we can't hold out. We must take Li Family Village! Only by continuing west to South Wind Pass do we have a chance at survival!" Quickly, the leading general of the Dahua military grasped the critical nature of the situation. If we have our troops set up camp immediately, holding out in the open field, perhaps the entire unit won't fall into disarray, but what follows would be troublesome. From every aspect, it seemed they were encircled in the same pocket as Dahua's troops from Xicong. It would be foolish to return to Xicong through the original route, for that was clearly a dead end; they must break through! There was no choice in the direction of the breakout—it had to be Li Family Village! Taking Li Family Village and fighting their way back to South Wind Pass was their only option. "General! This... this... How are we going to fight this?" A general wore a troubled expression, spreading his hands and asking dejectedly. They all knew the state of their own troops, which had been full of complaints all the way and whose morale was already on the verge of collapse. Returning to South Wind Pass might restore some spirits, but to fight a battle in a place like this, the troops might as well disband themselves. "Gather the elite! Each unit must pick the best to lead the charge! We cannot shrink back! We can only give it our all to take down Li Family Village! To carve out a lifeline for ourselves!" The leading general of the Dahua military clenched his fist, loudly encouraging everyone. "With every step we take backward, we move further away from our country! Once truly surrounded, those hundreds of thousands of troops would be beyond redemption!" The more he spoke the quieter the surroundings became, and through his guidance, everyone saw the rationale. If they broke through, they would have a chance at life, but without a breakthrough, wouldn't they just be trapped within the borders of Tang Country? What was even more frightening, they didn't even have time to stop for a rest, to regroup their forces: because with every moment of delay, the Tang army stationed at Li Family Village could grow stronger. "General! I will go to the 204th Division and take a look right away! Immediately organize our forces for the assault! No matter what, we must recapture Li Family Village!" A general volunteered, ready to supervise the frontline battle and quickly take back Li Family Village from the Tang army's occupation. As he spoke, the Tang army's commander in Li Family Village had already ordered tanks to roll out of the village, continuing to strike eastward against the Dahua troops. Throughout their advance, they had almost encountered no resistance, only completely annihilating less than two platoons of the enemy's garrison in Li Family Village. And before they could send out their own scouts to continue pressing eastward, they ran into the vanguard of the Dahua's retreating troops: the 1st Battalion of the 204th Division. As a result, fierce battles broke out within the village, and the Tang vanguard quickly overpowered the vanguard of the Dahua forces, driving them out of the village. Because the battle ended so quickly, the routed battalion of Dahua forces couldn't discern the true scale of the Tang army. Based on the Dahua forces' experience, they believed the Tang forces here comprised at most an armored battalion with dozens of tanks. But what they didn't know was that the Tang forces here consisted of a tank regiment, along with a reinforced mechanized infantry regiment, an artillery battalion, and an additional armored reconnaissance battalion. In effect, the Tang forces behind Li Family Village amounted to roughly a division's worth of troops, and additionally, more forces were gradually converging on this area. After all, the Tang army was also preparing to launch an offensive, so a substantial force had been assembled. With such a commanding numerical advantage, the Tang commander naturally wouldn't wait within Li Family Village for the enemy to come knocking; his mission was to strike first! Hence, after meeting the Dahua vanguard head-on, the Tang army immediately went beyond the barrier of Li Family Village to deploy their forces in the more spacious area behind it. Then these tanks, covered by armored cars and wheeled armored reconnaissance vehicles from the armored reconnaissance battalion, charged headlong into the Dahua forces, who hadn't yet realized what was happening. These Dahua forces were still on the move, having just received orders to halt and rest aimlessly on the road when they saw the Tang tanks advancing along the highway, like lambs witnessing their doom. The huge bodies of the enemy tanks rolled over the crowded masses, their coaxial machine guns ceaselessly strafing, taking down the gathered Dahua soldiers who were too late to flee. Disturbance arose among the attacked, while those behind remained unaware of what was happening. The soldiers, who'd been complaining about marching in the rain, were soon exposed to the harsher realities of war. "Run! The Tang forces are coming!" Finally, the situation couldn't be concealed any longer; someone screamed in alarm, shoving others and bolting down the embankment. Beneath the embankment was the Dahua force, which had just started making camp and preparing meals—this was also a method of encamping when the army was on the move. What was originally a clever anticipation of tasks had now turned into a sheer disaster. The routed soldiers began to crash into the campsites, while from the other end, Tang tanks rolled on, simultaneously crushing everything in their path. Some dizzy officers began to scurry away with their heads in their hands, as Tang's tanks rolled through like rhinoceroses plowing through dry brush. Dahua soldiers assaulting the camp trampled over each other, followed by grenades from the pursuing Tang tanks exploding amidst the crowd. Distant Dahua soldiers, upon seeing the explosion, immediately realized the danger, their first thought not of counterattack, but of fleeing in blind panic along with the routed. The Dahua military had lost all restraint, and officers could only flee alongside their disbanded units. In fact, they lacked the courage to stay behind, preferring to drift along with the current in such circumstances. From this moment, the whole situation spiraled out of control, which was why Tang commanders believed their forces could easily rout the Dahua troops in the open field. Armored corps, when attacking such mobile enemy forces, had a distinct advantage, much like cavalry. The scene was just like when the German Army came across the hastily mobilized French forces in the outdoors during Operation Barbarossa in World War II. A great number of French troops could only surrender, for they could neither outrun nor outfight the tanks... It was the same now, with vast numbers of Dahua troops casting aside their armor and weapons in their disarray, countless men kneeling in the mud, hands raised in surrender. Because there were so many, even the Tang Army didn't bother to stop and look at these surrendering Dahua troops, leaving just a few men to guard these enemies who had long lost the will to fight, while the rest followed the tanks and armored vehicles surging forward. Standing on the high ground, a commanding officer of the Dahua forces painfully closed his eyes, for he had just ordered the deployment of troops to recapture Li Family Village when Tang's onslaught threw all his plans into disarray. What drove him to despair was that, seeing the scale of Tang's attack, this was not a minor unit but a main force of the Tang Army. Seeing over a hundred tanks and armored reconnaissance vehicles appearing on the battlefield at the same time, he knew he was finished, everything was over. "General..." his adjutant, with a choked voice, looked to his superior and pleaded, "We must leave now! There's still a chance in the chaos of battle." "Leave? Where to?" The leading officer laughed bitterly, "Even if we leave today, where can we go? Retreat to Xicong? To live for two more days, what's the use?" His string of questions left his adjutant speechless. Thus, in greater sorrow, he waved his hand dismissively and said, "You go! Return to Xicong... I'm not going anywhere. I'm staying right here." As he spoke, he pulled out the pistol from his waist and, to everyone's shock, pointed the barrel at his own head. "Bang!" A gunshot rang out, and the blood-streaked pistol fell into the mud next to a pair of mud-caked military boots. Then the boots wobbled and, along with their owner, toppled over. Watching his superior commit suicide, the adjutant froze for a moment, then, ignoring the body in the mud, turned and ran toward the distance. Leaderless warhorses neighed non-stop in the sound of artillery, abandoned cannons lay aside, and ammo boxes from overturned carriages were strewn everywhere. The 150mm caliber howitzers, painstakingly accumulated and manufactured from various places, were now of no interest to anyone. The Tang forces that emerged from Li Family Village plunged into the heart of the Dahua troops like a sharp knife, melting away any Dahua force they encountered as easily as a hot knife through butter. The flanking Dahua troops began to disband, those near the center surrendered in large numbers, and the entire battlefield was filled with howls and shrieks, a scene of utter carnage everywhere. Soldiers whose feet were stuck in the mud did not have time to escape before they were knocked down by oncoming tank treads, crushed into the muck, flattened into meat patties. Blood mingled with the muddy paths, turning practically the entire road blood-red. In the distance, in the fields, upturned tents were everywhere, bodies piled upon the embankment so densely that the original color of the earth was indiscernible. Soon, the tanks were rolling not over muddy paths but over bodies within the mire. Treads adorned with mud, the mud mingled with fresh blood, and the blood in turn wrapped with mud. Once again, a light rain began to fall from the sky, as if weeping for the tens of thousands of scattered souls. Among the rain, cries and sounds of gunfire were shrouded in a misty haze, everything becoming surreal as if it were a silent film slowly fading away. By the time the remnants of this two hundred thousand-strong force retreated back to Xicong, there were no more than fifty thousand left, and all this would happen days later. Now, the Dahua senior commanders were still unaware of the defeat at Li Family Village. At this time, Qian Jinhang was still sound asleep, and Ding Hong at South Wind Pass was equally dreaming sweet dreams. In his dream, Ding Hong saw the return of the two hundred thousand-strong army to South Wind Pass, and at that time, he became the hero of the entire Dahua Empire. It was he who saved the disastrous situation in the southeast, he who held the vital southern oil fields. Returned to the Imperial Capital, he sat on an equal footing with General Feng Kezhi, and even Shen Chuan would have to address him as Great General!