novelnext Chapter 598: 557 Awkward Retreat
Chapter 598: 557 Awkward Retreat
Chapter 598: 557 Awkward Retreat
Liu Guozhu was in a shabby state, and as he had his tank turn around, another shell dropped, nearly flipping his tank over.
The massive explosion made him feel the vibration inside the tank, a mix of relief from a narrow escape and terror.
“Speed up! Full speed! Quick!” Liu Guozhu, wanting to leave this wretched place as soon as possible, didn’t want to stay here for another minute.
Not far from his side, a No. 4 tank that had been hit directly by a shell had its hull torn apart, a horrible sight to behold.
The shell had smashed the No. 4 tank’s turret directly, the deformed turret flew far away, and the remaining body immediately caught fire, with the tracks ceasing amidst the flames. Due to the intense heat, the road wheels were detached from the body and rolled away to the side.
The road wheels of the No. 4 tank were surrounded by rubber rims, and these flammable materials were all consumed in the raging fire.
Everything from the tank’s headlights to the paint riddled with bullet holes was peeling off and breaking apart in the fire and then gradually disappearing.
When everything finally came to a stop, only the rusty armor of the tank remained, barely showing the original contours of the body, nothing more.
As for the crew members inside, they had long been burned to ashes, leaving nothing behind. They would turn into charred remains, and over time crumble into dust.
“There are our trenches up ahead!” The driver, while steering the tank forward in a mad rush, shouted to Liu Guozhu.
“I know! Don’t mind it! Just go over it!” Liu Guozhu figured that as long as the soldiers weren’t blind, they’d definitely notice them barreling towards them.
Sure enough, in the trenches, the grenade-throwing soldiers of the Tang Army, who had seen the artillery hitting their own tank units, also saw their tanks swiftly turn and charge towards them.
“Tanks! Tanks are coming! Bend down! Get down! Get down!” An infantry platoon leader, seeing his own tanks frantically approaching, immediately turned and shouted to his soldiers.
Upon hearing his cry, the soldiers of the Tang Army in the position immediately started to dodge, some bending down, some simply running off to the distance.
In no time, the first approaching No. 4 tank rolled over their own trench, as if it was charging at them.
The tracks crushed the edges of the trench, continuing to move with the soil, then flung the mud clinging to it onto the steel helmets of the Tang Army soldiers, clanging noisily.
After the first tank rumbled past their own trench, the second tank charged over recklessly, rushing past everything.
Without the time to look back at the tanks that had passed, the grenade-throwing soldiers of the Tang Army, who had not yet encountered the Qi Army tanks, were once again rolled over by their own.
“Hey! You bunch of cowards! You only know how to pick on your own kind, eh?” One of the soldiers, discontented, knocked the mud off his helmet, turned back, and cursed at the passing tank loudly.
Before he could finish his curse, a veteran soldier next to him reached out, grabbed his neck, and pushed him back into the trench.
The next second, the No. 4 tank of Liu Guozhu, with its not-so-wide tracks, collided over. It almost hit the back of the reckless soldier’s head.
The colossal body of the No. 4 tank swept past over the soldier’s head. If he had looked up, he could have seen the maintenance hatch reserved on the bottom of the tank.
Tanks, after all, are a new type of weapon and equipment, and it’s more than common for them to have some issues on the battlefield. For an Armored Division with several hundred tanks, being able to maintain two-thirds of them in battle-ready condition was already a very high level of combat readiness.
“They’re really ruthless, beginning the indiscriminate bombardment while their own men were still out there,” a tank commander, who had a bandage wrapped around his head, complained to Liu Guozhu while leaning against a tank.
“What happened?” Liu Guozhu pointed at his own head and asked the other party.
“The tank shook violently, and I hit the handrail...” The tank commander was too embarrassed to admit that he was running too eagerly, and gave a vague reply.
“You’re actually lucky,” said the platoon leader as he came over, carrying a map and some documents, and said after looking in the direction of the third platoon, “One of the tanks from the third platoon was destroyed... later on... all the tank commanders will have to go there for a memorial service.”
“Yes!” The tank commander, still leaning on the tank with a bandage on his forehead, stood at attention and saluted.
Liu Guozhu also stood at attention and saluted, “Understood!”
“Oh, right, Liu Guozhu, the regimental commander has read your report, and he’s very satisfied! The matter of you killing the third prince of Qi Country has been confirmed, and the division will send someone to commend you, so don’t worry,” the platoon leader seemed to remember something and said to Liu Guozhu, “The second platoon leader specifically asked me to thank you...”
“Thank me for what?” Liu Guozhu looked genuinely puzzled.
The platoon leader showed a smile and pointed in the direction where Liu Guozhu was, “At such a young age, where did you learn so much about the ways of the world? Get out of here!”
Although it was a rebuke, there was no dissatisfaction to be heard, and it seemed that the platoon leader was very pleased with Liu Guozhu, his subordinate.
The Tang Army’s retaliation was swift and decisive. In the afternoon, countless bombers visited the area where Qi troops were stationed.
This time it was not just three or five planes carrying out bombing missions as a matter of routine, but an all-out deployment of 50 Stukas, plus 60 FW-190 “Butcher” fighters.
Qin Xiong had never seen so many aircraft deployed by the Tang Army before. He hid in his command post and watched helplessly as his troops were bombed to the point of screaming for their fathers and mothers.
With more than a hundred planes dropping bombs in rotation, Qi Country’s ground troops failed to organize a single attack until darkness fell.
The unique sound of the Stukas echoed in the sky all afternoon, their continuous howling sapping the fighting spirit of the Qi Army. No matter how much the commanders urged, the troops were unwilling to leave their hiding places to assemble and launch an attack on the Tang Army defenses.
As the chief commander of Qi Country, Qin Xiong had no good solution either. Although he was seen as a rather professional senior commander in the Qi military, he was indeed helpless against the Tang Army of another caliber.
After witnessing the power of the Tang Army, what occupied Qin Xiong’s mind now was how to get away from the cursed place of Luo Town.
At this time, the news of the loss of Nanye also reached Qin Xiong’s ears. Clearly, recapturing Luo Town had become undisputedly superfluous for the Qi Army.
Because their plan to open a line of transport between Luo Town and Nanye had utterly failed with the fall of Nanye.
COMMENT
0 comment
Vote
3 left
SEND GIFT