Munitions Empire

When Liu Guozhu arrived at the outskirts of Fengjiang City, their mission had already shifted from assisting the 7th Army in breaching Fengjiang City to expanding the defensive line on both flanks of Fengjiang City.

That is to say, their task was to attack along the perimeter of Fengjiang City toward both flanks, to create a semblance of surrounding the city and pose a threat to the flanks of Fengjiang City.

Thus, as the 7th Army was engaged in a room-to-room struggle with the Dahua troops stationed in Fengjiang City, the 1st Armored Division of the Tang Army began a fierce battle with the Qin Army on the flanks of Fengjiang City.

A Panther Tank moved slowly across the battlefield, and sitting at the commander's position, Liu Guozhu carefully searched for potential enemy hiding spots.

In such an unsafe location, he wouldn't rashly stick out his head: a Tang Army tank commander had previously been killed by a sniper for exposing his upper body to direct the fight, so the Tang Army's Armored Brigade began to enforce strict safety precautions for its commanders.

With his face pressed against the slit of the observation window, peering through the narrow gap at the battlefield shrouded in gunsmoke, Liu Guozhu caught sight of the chaotic scene.

The ground was littered with craters and destroyed trenches everywhere. Next to the craters, one could vaguely discern some bodies, mostly belonging to the Qin Army, with a few from the Dahua forces.

"Left front!" Liu Guozhu spotted a suspicious target—it seemed as if something was concealed there, "11 o'clock direction! Appears to be an anti-tank gun! Can you see it?"

"I think I see it!" the gunner replied after adjusting the turret's orientation, face against the sightscope, "Not very clear, could be a dummy target, or a destroyed artillery position..."

His words had barely finished when he saw a flash of light through the sightscope. After the flash, a cloud of dispersing white smoke billowed out.

"Whoosh! Bang!" A shell whistled in, striking directly against the Panther Tank's front armor.

However, the shell didn't penetrate the thick frontal armor of the Panther Tank; it bounced off the sloped armor and flew off to the side.

The immense force caused the advancing tank to shudder as if hammered forcefully, and Liu Guozhu himself was jolted with shock.

"We've been hit!" the radio operator shouted nervously, having only a thin layer of armored steel between him and the shell.

"I know! It didn't penetrate!" Liu Guozhu loudly reassured his subordinates, "Aim and fire! Stop the tank! Stop the tank!"

The Panther Tank smoothly halted in place as Qin Army machine guns and rifles around them began to fire fiercely, bullets striking the tank like raindrops pattering on the armor.

"Boom!" The Panther Tank fired a shell, but due to the hasty aiming, the shell collided with the earthwork in front of the Qin Army anti-tank gun position, deviated from its trajectory, and was flung out far away.

"Missed! Missed!" Liu Guozhu shouted as he watched his shell fly off.

"I know! High-explosive round! Load high-explosive this time!" The gunner shouted back, and then the loader pushed a high-explosive round into the chamber.

"Loaded!" The sturdy loader loudly reported after the breechblock closed, following which the gunner fired the second shot.

This shell once again struck the earth near the emplacement but did not ricochet this time; instead, it exploded upon collision with the emplacement.

The erupting smoke obscured the view, leaving it unclear whether the anti-tank gun position was destroyed.

Nevertheless, following orders, the loader pulled another shrapnel shell from the ammunition rack beside him and pushed it into the chamber.

"Loaded!" The loader confirmed loudly after completing the action.

"Advance! Advance!" Liu Guozhu commanded loudly.

Following his command, the Panther Tank that had just been hit spewed a plume of black smoke from its exhaust at the rear, and the massive body once again began to move forward.

Liu Guozhu looked through the observation window at the smoking area again, his tank slightly shaking, eager to confirm whether the anti-tank gun that had threatened them was destroyed.

In fact, the so-called anti-tank guns were a term used internally; these cannons might not be specialized anti-tank guns but simply used by the enemy to attack their tanks.

Even if it was a shrapnel cannon or an anti-aircraft gun, as long as it fired at a tank, in the eyes of the tank crew, that artillery piece was classified as a "standard anti-tank gun."

"Keep an eye out! That anti-tank gun position from earlier! I still can't be sure if it was destroyed!" Liu Guozhu loudly reminded his gunner.

The gunner was also cautious, "Understood! I'm on it! They haven't continued firing, it looks like..."

His words were not yet finished when another shell flew toward them, this time not hitting Liu Guozhu's tank but striking the side of it and kicking up a patch of dirt.

The other side was using a solid shot that wouldn't explode, looking very much like the armor-piercing rounds used by the Tang Army themselves. However, the other side's gun's chamber pressure seemed to be insufficient, with the armor-piercing ability seeming somewhat inferior.

"It's still firing! It's still firing!" Seeing his own tank nearly hit again, the gunner yelled out loud in fright.

"I see it! The original position! Around 11 o'clock direction, on the edge of the gunsmoke! Can you see it?" Liu Guozhu peered through the slit and saw the enemy's artillery that was firing at them.

"Stop the tank! I'm preparing to fire!" It was impossible to guarantee accuracy while moving, so the gunner yelled loudly.

"Stop the tank!" Liu Guozhu skillfully gave the command.

He could see through the observation window's slit the enemy positions in the distance where they were nervously adjusting their artillery, preparing to fire again. Both sides were racing against time, trying to eliminate their opponent with the next shot.

The Panther Tank shuddered slightly before coming to a stop. The enemy artillery position that had always been in the gunner's sights now became still on the crosshairs.

The gunner pressed the firing pedal, and a shell shot straight out of the barrel, cut through the air, and struck the side of the enemy's anti-tank gun position, raising a cloud of dirt.

"You missed! You didn't hit it!" Liu Guozhu, who was continuously observing, saw where the shell had landed, which seemed to be even farther off than the first.

"Damn it!" The gunner cursed, and again shouted, "Loader! Continue with high-explosive rounds!"

"High-explosive round! Loading!" Upon hearing the command, the loader immediately pulled out a new shell, shoved it into the cannon breech, and closed the breech block: "Ready to fire!"

Compared to the larger targets like tanks, anti-tank gun positions hidden in enemy lines were sometimes more troublesome.

With good cover and a concealed profile, these artillery pieces hastily repurposed as anti-tank weapons posed a serious threat, and they were among the most disliked opponents by the Tang Army tankers.

"Boom!" White smoke rose once more from the enemy's position, and another shell landed not far from the rear side of the Panther Tank.

The enemy also missed, wasting another excellent opportunity. In these short-notice battles, shooting accuracy was generally not high; it all relied on rate of fire to make constant adjustments.

Evidently, the Tang Army's 75mm long-barreled cannon had a higher rate of fire. The Panther Tank stopped in place to reload and then fired another shell.

This time, the Qin defenders' luck seemed to have run out. The shell blew away the shield in front of the gun and scattered the limbs and severed arms of some artillerymen.

Following the Panther Tank, the Tang Empire Grenadiers began their charge, with the loud military bugle resounding through the sky; the Qin Army's defense line, once again as expected, collapsed.

It seemed that in the face of the Tang Country forces' attack, the bravery and good fighting of the Qin Army was collapsing more and more quickly, and their defenses seemed to be getting weaker and weaker.

"What kind of monster is that? What kind of monster is that?" as a Qin soldier watched helplessly his own 76mm caliber anti-aircraft gun fired in a flat trajectory, hitting that strange tank he had never seen before only for the shell to be deflected by the tank's sloped front armor, he shouted in fear.

A tank that couldn't be destroyed was simply a nightmare for infantry. The Qin Army concentrated their firepower in hopes of destroying the Tang Army's Panther Tank, only to find this new kind of tank, whether from the front or side, was much stronger than the number four tank they had previously faced.

After multiple fruitless efforts, the Qin Army began to retreat. They did not understand why the Tang Army possessed so many advanced weapons beyond their ability to counter, nor why the Tang Army had seemingly inexhaustible ammunition.

After many fierce battles, the Qin Army had recognized the gap in weaponry and firepower density between the two sides, and the tremendous losses far exceeded what Qin Country's commanders had predicted.

This had led the Qin Army to re-evaluate this war, which was originally not much to do with them, to ponder why they should persist in a deadly struggle against such a formidable opponent.

On one hand, the principle of a shared fate forced them to continue their alliance with the Dahua Empire and resist this rising Great Tang Kingdom on the East Coast.

On the other hand, they were entertaining some thoughts they had not dared to entertain before: Could it be that the hegemony of the Dahua Empire was destined to collapse, and could it be that Qin Country's time to rise was coming?

Amidst this dilemma, the originally staunch Qin Army's performance on the battlefield began to change in flavor. Directly reflected in their combat actions, it meant that the Qin Army began to preserve themselves, starting to retreat more naturally than before.

They had come to understand, but for this, the Dahua Empire was about to lose important defensive positions. In just one day's time, Tang Army's 1st Armored Division had captured a quarter of the defensive positions around the outer area of Fengjiang City.

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Two chapters today, more to follow tomorrow.