Munitions Empire-Chapter 979 - 901 Open Cards Warfare
Chapter 979: 901 Open Cards Warfare Chapter 979: 901 Open Cards Warfare Something’s not right! Watching the shells fall on the position, Zhao Chen instinctively felt there was a problem with Fengjiang’s military tactics. He was delaying time because reinforcements were continuously coming from behind. What was Fengjiang waiting for?
Could it be that they were waiting for reinforcements from the Great Tang Empire? That didn’t seem realistic! If the Great Tang Empire were willing to get involved in the war, their response would definitely not be this slow.
To step back tens of thousands of steps, even if the ground forces of the Great Tang Empire needed time to assemble and mobilize, the air force of the Great Tang Empire should have already joined the war!
Those terrifying flying demons didn’t need much time to gather and could casually send out hundreds of planes. Even the earliest Stuka Dive Bombers to appear on the battlefield were definitely a headache for anyone.
But now, whether it was the Flying Fortress, the Stuka, or that damned attack plane called the Il, none had appeared near Hezhe.
This indicated that the previous promise by the Great Tang Empire about not getting involved in the war had some binding force.
If the Great Tang Empire had no immediate plans to get involved in the war, then the defensive strategy of the Fengjiang troops was problematic!
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Anyone could see the logical paradox with a bit of thought: without reinforcements, Fengjiang’s delaying tactics were simply a road to death. The only explanation was that their frontline defense was meant to divert troops to cause trouble in another direction.
The terrain of Fengjiang City was very simple; extending northward was a plain without a direct railway to Guiguang City, making the movement of large troops to the north laughable.
Therefore, the most likely choice for Fengjiang troops would be to head south to attack Shanping—Zhao Chen had actually considered this possibility on his way over, so he had made corresponding arrangements.
Firstly, three defensive lines were established on the road from Shanping to Fengjiang, heavily fortified. According to Zhao Chen, even if the Great Tang was attacking, breaching the defenses and advancing on Shanping would take some time.
As long as he was given time, he could continue to send reinforcements to Shanping. By then, if a war of attrition were fought, it would have the same effect as a decisive battle at Hezhe.
However, Zhao Chen still felt that Shanping was not secure enough, feeling he should strengthen the defenses in that direction.
So he turned, looked at the commanders beside him, and ordered, “Have Zhao Zheng’s two Armored Divisions go reinforce Shanping immediately! Have the troops from Datian and Shanchong assemble in Guiguang!”
He felt that, with the addition of two Armored Divisions from Guiguang, the defenders at Shanping should also be deliberately prepared to counter Fengjiang’s attack.
The Zhao Zheng mentioned in his orders was a royal confidant newly promoted by Zhao Kai, tasked with replacing Qian Jinhang’s position and commanding hundreds of thousands of troops in the southern region of the Empire.
Being valued by the Emperor and entrusted with such responsibility, Zhao Zheng was by no means an incompetent officer. In fact, he was quite capable and a commander who tended to follow orders.
After receiving Zhao Chen’s command, Zhao Zheng immediately ordered the Armored Divisions under his command to move northeast, preparing to head to Shanping.
Meanwhile, in the headquarters of the Fengjiang southern troop formations, the leader of the military advisor group from the Great Tang Empire, Luo Xiao, began issuing combat orders.
“The 1st Armored Division of Fengjiang will be responsible for the flank attack… The 1st and 2nd Infantry Divisions of Fengjiang will deal with the enemy head-on! We have already reinforced you with all the artillery that could be mustered. You must take the first line of defense within a day, understood?”
“Understood!” The commanders of Fengjiang’s army responded in unison. They actually felt very confident about this operation; now that their troops were well-supplied and morale was high, if they still could not succeed, then they might as well be dead.
For the commanders of the Dahua Empire, as long as they were not fighting against the Great Tang Empire, they felt their chances of victory were quite high.
“Then get ready! Launch the attack in an hour and a half.” Luo Xiao dismissed the commanders of Fengjiang and then returned to the map with his staff.
He stared at the military situation near Fengjiang and sighed, “The terrain is too ordinary, and Fengjiang’s intentions are almost completely exposed. The enemy commander would guess our plan as long as he’s not an idiot.”
“There’s nothing we can do; there are only two routes to take. If not Hezhe, then Shanping. There’s no need to guess.” One of the staff members responded with a bitter smile.
“Zhao Chen is on the northern line, Zhao Zheng on the southern line, and it looks like Zhao Zheng is easier to push around. So we have no choice but to push around Zhao Zheng,” another staff member expressed it as a matter of course.
In terms of both the number of troops and their quality, Zhao Chen was not the easier opponent to face, so attacking Zhao Zheng’s forces first was the right choice.
“No matter what, let’s focus our forces and defeat Zhao Zheng first!” Luo Xiao made up his mind, or one might say he had no other choice from the start.
On the other side, after receiving the reply from Zhao Zheng, Zhao Chen settled down somewhat. He pondered for a while, then walked to the edge of the map and scrutinized it carefully again.
Then he returned to the table, picked up the phone, and connected to the Hezhe frontline command center, “Hello? Hello! This is Zhao Chen! … I order your unit to be prepared within an hour, within two hours… you must launch an attack!”
“Attack? Commander, weren’t the orders to hold off on attacking for now?” The commander on the other end of the line asked in confusion.
“The orders have been changed! I will repeat it once more! The orders are amended! Be prepared to attack within an hour! You must launch an attack within two hours!” Zhao Chen, gripping the phone, commanded in a resolute tone.
After a pause, he continued, “At all costs, launch a fierce attack on the Fengjiang defense line! By tonight, you must take down a line of defense for me! Repeat my orders!”
“Yes! By tonight, at all costs, we must take the enemy’s first line of defense!” The frontline commander immediately responded on the other end of the phone.
“Good! Carry out the order!” Zhao Chen hung up the phone, walked once more to the front of the map, and stared at the locations already marked as the Fengjiang defense lines, falling into silence for quite a while.
Just over ten minutes after he issued his orders, the Dahua Empire’s artillery roared once again, with the barrage of shells falling once more upon the Fengjiang military positions, kicking up mounds of soil.
The sturdy defense positions wavered slightly in the sound of the bombardment, and the soldiers hiding in the bunkers could only wait, waiting for the madness of the artillery fire to subside.
However, this time, the artillery did not cease. A barrage followed another, breaking the unwritten rules of the past two days: the sporadic bombardment that seemed to have irked a certain high-level figure, today’s artillery fire was not procedural, but a real battle.
Through the years of training, the Dahua Empire’s military had made some progress, albeit only a little. Though they could only learn a fraction, they truly did acquire some techniques from the Great Tang Army.
As the artillery fire still had not completely ceased, the Dahua Empire’s Armored Corps began their assault, with Type 3 tanks lined up one after another, covering the infantry as they charged forth menacingly.
The Fengjiang defenders, who thought the enemy was merely doing perfunctory shelling, hadn’t realized that the enemy was already moving closer at this moment.
They hid in the trenches, awaiting the end of the artillery attack that was drawing to a close. A Fengjiang soldier, who was supposed to be on watch, returned once more to his covered outpost, and through the gap straight ahead, he spotted the enemy’s movements.
“Oh my God! Quick, come see! They’ve brought the tanks out!” Face pressed against the observation slit, the sentinel shouted loudly.
“Tanks! The tanks are coming!” Hearing his shout, the squad leader immediately peeked out and saw the heavy vehicle in the distance making a turn.
To be honest, if the Dahua Empire’s Type 3 tank wasn’t compared to the Panther Tank, it was actually a fairly decent medium-heavy tank, almost on par with Germany’s Panzer III, not too far off.
However, it indeed lagged behind in performance, especially when the Tang Empire had already started equipping with the Type 59 tank.
Fortunately, it did not have to face Panther Tanks or the legendary Type 59 now; it only needed to deal with friendly tanks of the same model.
“Damn it! The artillery just passed, and they’re already up here, they’re really playing with their lives.” Watching the Type 3 tank inch closer, the squad leader stationed there complained angrily.
They didn’t have any anti-tank weapons—only an anti-tank gun belonging to the battalion, a short distance behind them. With such fierce shelling just before, who knew if that anti-tank gun was still operational or not.
“Old Zhang! Old Zhang! Go check, see if the anti-tank platoon’s anti-tank gun is still functional!” The squad leader bellowed. If that gun was out of commission, they’d have to quickly retreat.
Otherwise, what to do? Play with their lives using hand grenades against tanks? What a joke—you didn’t see that a huge mass of infantry following behind the tanks!
“Squad leader! The gun crew is still there! They’re adjusting the artillery!” Before long, Old Zhang’s voice came from not too far away.
The squad leader immediately felt heartened and began tactical deployment, “Follow Brother Liu’s arrangement! The machine gun to position number 1, fire from the flank when the enemy approaches! Let the tanks pass, the anti-tank gun behind will take care of them!”
Brother Liu, mentioned by the squad leader, was the advisor sent by the Tang Empire. Apart from this advisor, no one else in the squad’s position could make the squad leader call them brother.
Soon, Fengjiang’s artillery also roared, landing near Dahua soldiers pressing forward, frighteningly accurate. Soldiers fell where the shells exploded, some even blasted into the air by the force of the detonations.
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There were more advisors from the Tang Empire on the artillery positions; their artillery skills were definitely among the top on this planet. With them providing parameters, how could Fengjiang’s artillery not be accurate?
