Munitions Empire-Chapter 641 - : Battle of Beiyuan City at 600

Chapter 641: Battle of Beiyuan City at 600

Shenwu Sanlang’s guess was not wrong; in fact, while artillery fire was being prepared, the Tang Army’s tanks had already started their attack. The speed of the Tang Army was even faster than Shenwu Sanlang had imagined.

Covering the infantry as they advanced steadily forward, the tanks’ treads rolled over a battlefield already filled with craters, and the positions that were bombed and shelled earlier had not yet been completely repaired. The soldiers of Qi Country hiding in the trenches were suddenly scared witless by the sudden onslaught of the Tang Army.

The machine gun posts quickly began to roar as they tried to stop the attacking Tang Army. However, the tanks of Tang Country covered each other, coordinating flawlessly, and soon one tank halted, its turret slowly turning towards the firing machine gun post.

The Tang Army infantry hiding behind the tanks all lay down, coordinating perfectly. After spotting the machine gun post, they suppressed the enemy’s firepower with bursts from their submachine guns.

Finally, the coaxial machine gun on the tank’s turret began its assault, tracer bullets flew towards the fire-spitting loophole in the bunker, and then the gunner who had found his target stepped on the firing pedal.

With a loud boom, the 75mm cannon spewed a puff of white smoke, a shell rushed towards the bunker and then exploded near its firing hole.

...

The enormous destructive power silenced the bunker in an instant. After confirming that the enemy was completely silent, the No. 4 tank once again began to advance.

The soldiers of the Tang Army behind it got up and continued to move forward. Directly in front of them, another plume of black smoke rose into the air—that was another shell from a tank hitting a different target.

The soldiers of Qi Country had never seen such terrifying war machines. Stationed in the trenches, they were now utterly panicked.

The commander of the Qi Country military, having no other choice, drew his Longsword and loudly ordered all the soldiers to fix their bayonets, preparing for close combat, “Fix bayonets! When they get close to the trenches, fight them with everything we’ve got!”

This was about the most realistic plan he could think of, as his position didn’t have any anti-tank guns, leaving him without any means to counter the tanks of the Tang Army.

Whether it was machine guns or rifles, they were far too weak against the No. 4 tank. They were utterly unable to stop the advance of the Tang Army, so they could only watch as the tanks of Tang Country delivered their infantry right in front of their trenches.

Soon, the Tang Army’s No. 4 tanks approached a massive anti-tank ditch. This great pit indeed caused significant trouble for the tanks of the Tang Army.

There was no choice but for the engaged tanks to begin bypassing it; they had deliberately searched for collapsed trench sections beforehand and then began to cross the anti-tank ditch at these points.

Due to a lack of coordination, the artillerymen of Qi Country failed to launch a counterattack when the Tang Army tanks slowed down and concentrated, squandering this golden opportunity.

Soon, Tang Army tanks emerged from the destroyed sections of the anti-tank ditch and once again spread out in formation.

This time, regardless of what they did, the military of Qi Country could no longer halt the attack of the Tang Army’s tanks. Soon, the tanks of the Tang Army, shooting as they rolled, rumbled over the defensive trenches of the Qi Country soldiers.

The next second, soldiers of Qi Country who had just fixed their bayonets to their rifles were shot into sieves by the Thompson Submachine Guns in the hands of the Tang Army soldiers who leaped into the trenches.

They had barely managed to avoid the tank treads and not get crushed, only to quickly have their thoughts of fighting with bayonets dashed by the dense fusillade of bullets.

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The rate of automatic weapon equipment in the Tang Army was simply too high. In World War II, most of the German grenadiers could only be equipped with Mauser Rifles, yet most of the grenadiers of the Tang Army were already equipped with Thompson Submachine Guns.

The two forces were not on the same level at all. The firepower of the Tang Army was too fierce, and the Qi Country defenders could not fend it off.

A group of soldiers of Qi Country hiding in the trenches held their rifles, fixed with bayonets, waiting for the chance to fight desperately with the approaching Tang Army soldiers.

What awaited them, however, was a grenade flying into their trench. Before they could react, the explosion blew most of them away.

The rest, staggering and attempting to rise, were shot down by Tang Army soldiers who had jumped into the trench.

A dozen soldiers didn’t even manage to shout a single cheer of “Long Live Qi Country” before they were wiped out in this massive crater.

This crater had been left by a 500-kilogram bomb dropped by a Stuka Dive Bomber—above it used to be a concrete bunker.

After the bomb exploded, a huge crater spanning across the trench was left: The soldiers of Qi Country were too late to repair the crater and had directly used it as a foxhole for cover.

Now that it was occupied by the Tang Army, the infantry that had followed the tank attack to this point eliminated all the soldiers of Qi Country in the pit, and then they began to clear out along both sides of the trench.

Dealing with this kind of battle situation, the soldiers of the Tang Army were very skilled. The weapons in their hands were born for this purpose, with grenades and submachine guns being the optimal solutions for trench warfare of this era.

The Tang Army soldiers leaned against the trench walls and swept fire at the approaching Shen Country soldiers, covering each other as they alternately advanced. If faced with many enemies, they resolved the problem with hand grenades.

With the simple and unstoppable rhythm of sweeping fire combined with hand grenades, the Tang Army quickly cleared a trench. Once they could find no more Shen Country soldiers, the fight for that piece of ground usually neared its end.

Meanwhile, another part of the Tang Army followed behind the tanks to attack the second line of trenches, slicing through Shen Country’s defenses vertically and causing the Shen Country troops on the flanks to worry about their lines being breached, leading to their collapse to both sides.

Once the breakthrough was achieved, everything became much simpler—the Shen Country soldiers, who had lost the cover of the trenches, stood even less chance against the Tang Army.

Overhead, Tang Army fighter planes roared past, searching for Shen Country artillery positions. Anywhere that dared to fire upon them would be targeted for attack.

These planes even brazenly skimmed low over the ground, furiously strafing Shen Country targets. With these threats present, the Shen Country artillery fire was as pitiable as the breaths of a dying patient.

In fact, the Tang Army’s tactics had progressed further than before; following the assault forces, the Engineer Corps surged forward and implemented a form of “return farmland to forest.”

They used detonators and explosives to clear the defensive fortifications left by the Shen Country forces, blasting the landscape beyond recognition.

With this kind of destruction by the engineers, even if the Shen Country forces counterattacked and recaptured these positions, they would have to start digging trenches and building pillboxes from scratch.

Sure enough, Shen Country’s counteroffensive began an hour after the Tang Army’s attack, with over 5,000 Shen Country soldiers rushing from all directions, desperately trying to retake the defensive positions captured by the Tang Army.

Their costly assault at one point forced the Tang tanks to begin retreating. However, it was not long before the counterattacking Shen Country forces ran out of steam and were driven back to where they had launched their offensive.

That night, fearing a night assault by the Shen Country army, Redman ordered the 4th Armored Division to withdraw, giving back about half of the territory recaptured during the day to the battered Shen Country defenders.

During that day, Shen Country suffered at least 4,000 casualties, and their defenses on the western side lost a large area.

Just by looking at the losses, it was clear that the Shen Country troops near Beiyuan City could already be described as having suffered heavy losses. Although there were hundreds of thousands of Shen Country troops, if they lost 4,000 people every day, in less than 10 days their forces would be nearly wiped out.

It was also that night that Shenwu Sanlang, who had been actively counterattacking, realized he might have been tricked!

The Tang Army seemed to be luring Shen Country troops into open-field defensive positions, especially targeting those assigned to counterattack missions. This inflicted heavy losses on Shen Country forces without damaging the city of Beiyuan behind them.

Therefore, he had to abandon his original counterattack plan and seriously considered the feasibility of contracting his defense line.

On the other side, Redman was also tallying up his own losses: the 4th Armored Division had lost two tanks during the attack, both of which were broken down and abandoned on the battlefield.

The crew destroyed these tanks when they retreated, leaving nothing for the people of Shen Country. By the time the Shen Country troops got close, these tanks were reduced to little more than charred frames.

There was no choice; gasoline engines were just that capricious.

In addition, the accompanying grenadiers suffered 155 casualties. Despite the Tang Army having the upper hand, it was still difficult to avoid personnel fatalities amidst the chaos of the battlefield.

Another horrifying reason for such an exchange rate was the vast disparity in medical capabilities between the two sides: the Tang Army had a complete rescue mechanism, field medics, and helmet protection.

On the contrary, Shen Country had none of these: their soldiers wore soft caps instead of helmets, medics were considered talent and kept far from the battlefield, and they lacked tradition and mechanisms for evacuating the wounded.

Under such stark contrasts, the casualty figures were brutally honest.

On the first day of engagement, the Shen Country military suffered a significant defeat. They abandoned the foolish idea of trying to recapture their lost positions and instead began fortifying their defensive positions like mad under the cover of darkness.

Previously they did not bother because they assumed the Tang Army would not attack lightly, but now that the Tang Army had indeed attacked, they had no choice but to earnestly renew their damaged trenches and strengthen their defenses based on them.

However, the night was doomed to be anything but calm: news came from the southern defensive positions of Beiyuan City that the Shen Country troops stationed there had spotted Tang forces moving northward, taking over the defense duties from the Qi Country troops across from them.

That’s right, the First Prince’s troops had been completely annihilated, and now the Tang Army had encircled Beiyuan City from both the southwest, completely.

It also meant that another main Tang force, the 1st Armored Division, was already pressing against the front line of Shen Country’s defenses. Suddenly, Shenwu Sanlang, in charge of defending Beiyuan City, felt twice the pressure.