Munitions Empire-Chapter 1976 - 1856: Half the City in Smoke and Fire

"Bang!" A dull sound echoed as a soldier from the Laines Empire fired a gun grenade at the distant positions of the Tang Army from behind the barricade.

His gun grenade was mounted on the rifle’s muzzle, launched using blank-like ammunition, propelling a hand grenade into the distance for an attack.

The inspiration for this device came from the Great Tang Empire’s gun grenades, though compared to their grenade launchers, the technology was quite primitive.

Despite its primitiveness, it could still cause trouble for the Great Tang Empire’s troops on the battlefield. The grenade exploded on the other side of the street, leaving Tang Army Soldiers behind sandbags covered in dust.

In reality, it was merely dust-covered... the accuracy of this thing was truly unimpressive. If someone were hit by it, it could only mean their luck was exceptionally poor.

The Tang Army seized the opportunity of the Jade City’s civilian uprising to attack the area, establishing a large bridgehead in the urban district. The Coalition Forces were caught off guard and could only hold their ground to prevent the Tang Army from expanding its occupied zone.

Both sides fiercely battled on several streets, and since the Coalition Forces maintained a numerical advantage, the urban warfare was quite a stalemate.

"Damn it! Can’t these bastards just surrender quietly?" spat out dust from his mouth, a Tang Army Soldier cursed as he loaded a grenade into the launcher attached to his rifle.

His grenade launcher was much more accurate than the opponent’s, and aiming through the gap in the sandbags at the enemy’s barricade, he decisively pulled the trigger.

"Bang!" With the same dull sound, the grenade precisely hit the sandbags on the opposite side, exploding between the sandbags and the wreckage of a discarded city bus.

The seven or eight Laines Empire Soldiers hiding there were instantly turned into bloody heaps on the ground, with the remaining soldiers losing combat capability from the explosion.

On the other side of the barricade, a machine gun in the firing port continued to roar, apparently able to be so audacious until the heavy fire from the Tang Army arrived.

There was no choice; the battle had raged for more than an hour, with the Tang Army’s light infantry having exhausted their rocket launchers and anti-tank missiles. The soldiers now had no way of countering the barricade, so their progress was halted here.

They had just called for armored corps support, but the nearest tank would take over an hour to arrive at this district, and artillery couldn’t cover the area due to angle issues, so the Laines Empire Army seemed to have stabilized the defenses here.

"Let them be arrogant for a while longer! Wait until the tank arrives, and see how they die!" another Tang Army Infantry leaned against the sandbags, loading bullets into his magazine while constantly complaining.

The opponent seemed to have no better means to deal with the Tang Army Soldiers who had advanced here: the earlier gun grenade was one of the few useful weapons left in the hands of the Laines Empire Soldiers.

After firing this grenade, the opponent was left only with machine-gun sweeps as a means of suppressing the Tang Army. It seemed they hadn’t deployed mortars on this side of the barricade, or else the Tang Army would have abandoned this position long ago.

During the stalemate, on the other side of the barricade, hundreds of reinforcements of Laines Empire Soldiers began entering the positions.

Within the city of Jade City, the Laines Empire Army still held an absolute numerical advantage. At least Paul had sufficient reserves at his disposal, and the main force of the Coalition was still intact, maintaining combat effectiveness.

The Dorne side also received a request from the Laines Empire, sending three divisions into the city to help quell the civilian uprising in Jade City. The chaos within the Coalition-controlled area was gradually calming down, and the streets were almost entirely occupied by the military.

With no civilian interference, the Coalition’s movement within Jade City was relatively fast. They blocked the path of the attacking Tang Army, or rather, they held onto the remaining defenses in their hands.

The Tang Army’s relatively small force that pushed into the urban area had to stop their assault after gaining some ground. From the Coalition’s perspective, this was proof that their defense was effective.

Consequently, the Coalition celebrated their perceived stabilization of the situation, launching a series of small counterattacks, causing considerable trouble for the Tang Army inside the city.

However, after a day and a night of intense fighting, the Coalition Commander Paul realized he had no chance of expelling the Tang Army from Jade City.

Approximately over 5000 casualties laid before him, a loss he couldn’t sustain. Not even on the entire front line of Russia could achieve such casualties in a single day.

If he lost 5000 men daily, his army would only last a few months at most. But this was a real war, not a math game: his troops couldn’t keep dying one after another until the last man fell; his forces faced the risk of collapse if losses exceeded thirty percent.

"We’ve come to support you! What’s the situation?" Just arrived at the positions, the Battalion Commander of the Laines Empire Army approached the friendly Commander guarding the barricade.

This Commander was also a Battalion Commander, with smoke-blackened marks still on his face. Adjusting the steel helmets atop his head, the Battalion Commander briefly introduced the battle situation: "The opposing Tang Army has been temporarily suppressed by us. They’ve halted their assault, possibly either planning to retreat or waiting for their tank."

Everyone knew that once the Tang Army’s tank appeared opposite the barricade, this district would essentially be considered lost.

As for why the Tang Army’s tank hadn’t arrived yet... the newly arrived Battalion Commander knew some reasons: "Their tanks won’t arrive very quickly. We just lost a few nearby districts, and before retreating, we demolished some buildings... the Tang Army is likely clearing the debris now, making it difficult to advance quickly."

In reality, the Tang Army could take a detour, but the battlefield situation is complex, and detouring also takes time. This explains why it’ll still take over an hour for the armored corps to come and support the Tang Army.

"How many men did you bring? Any rocket launchers?" The Battalion Commander defending the barricade patted his pocket, realizing he had finished all his cigarettes.

The new Battalion Commander appeared to be a smoker too; noticing the other’s actions, he realized they were looking for cigarettes and smilingly pulled out a cigarette box from his pocket.

This type of cigarette was a famous civilian brand, a specialty of the Laines Empire. It was popular among the soldiers, although the cigarette’s quality had significantly decreased as the war dragged on.