Munitions Empire - Chapter 1334 - : 1251 one night of chaos
Chapter 1334: 1251 One Night of Chaos
The wingman followed close behind Rudeler, also dropping a guided bomb. These bombs are a cost-effective ground attack product made by installing guidance modules onto regular air bombs.
Its precision isn’t as high as missiles, but since Tang Empire planes can drop bombs at low altitude under the cover of night, this flaw isn’t an issue at all.
With just two bombs dropped, a large area on the clogged road opened up. However, two huge craters lay across the road, completely severing traffic.
On the contrary, the horses tied to the carts beside the road let out screams due to their injuries, a wheel of a dragged cannon had gone missing, and the artillerymen huddled behind the cannon, shivering from the sudden attack.
The Qin Army, which had just moved from fixed positions, had no organization for a counterattack. They neither fired flares nor took down the searchlights mounted on carts or trucks.
In such chaos, the disruption continued under the Tang Empire’s bombardment. Commanders couldn’t find their soldiers in the dark, and soldiers showed no interest in locating their commanders.
Some fled into previously cleared farm cottages, while others hid deep in the woods… in essence, it was a matter of every man for himself, using any means to save their own lives.
Actually, restraining the troops was beyond the capability of several Qin Country officers. All they could do now was run alongside the retreating soldiers and try to manage the few followers around them.
Higher-ranked officers fared somewhat better, with at least bodyguards running with them, and staff or civilian positions like clerks were willing to escape with such officers. Lower-ranked officers were already running solo, lost in the crowd without a chance to shout their unit numbers.
Rudeler piloted the plane around in the sky before swooping back onto the battlefield, lining up his nose with the highway then pressing the trigger on the control stick.
“Rat-tat-tat-tat!” The tracer bullets from the 30mm caliber cannons seemed like lasers, stretching from the nose to the ground. Instantly, the Qin Army convoy clogged on the road was thrown into chaos, leaving devastation in the wake of the strafing.
The assets accumulated by the Qin Army over the past decade were ruthlessly reduced to heaps of scrap metal. The 75mm mountain guns, 100mm cannons, and even the 105 and 130mm “heavy artillery,” all disintegrated into components.
The congested tanks also went down one after another. These Panzer IV tanks, purchased at great expense from the Tang Empire, were ignited and exploded in clusters, turning into dazzling flames.
Rudeler’s wingman also began shooting, piercing the weak top armor of another line of tanks, leading to ammunition exploding and turning into burning scrap metal.
Ammunition trucks ignited and exploded, lighting up everything nearby. Countless Qin troops scattered in panic across the fields, with abandoned supplies littering the roads, even burning people rolling in shock, and terrified horses dragging blazing carts through the crowd.
Hiding in a corner, the Qin infantry regiment commander watched the distant allied forces being repeatedly ravaged by Tang military aircraft, silently unsure what to say.
Before nightfall, this experienced Qin Army commander sensed that crowding with fools on the road wasn’t wise. Thus, he ordered his troops off the road, advancing through the fields beside the roadbed.
This command saved his infantry regiment: those unwise men were now under horrendous attack by the Tang Empire aircraft…
Luck spared the Qin Army infantry regiment commander from disaster, though he couldn’t understand why Tang Empire aircraft could operate at night, nor why nighttime sorties had such precise bomb drops.
But he witnessed everything firsthand, realizing night was no longer safe for them. Qin Country’s troops could no longer depend on nightfall to evade aerial strikes from the Tang Empire.
The sweet days when enemy planes ceased operations around three to four in the morning were over; night had become more terrifying…
Several desperate Qin soldiers fled toward their regiment in the direction of their escape, appearing weak and panicked under the backdrop of firelight.
Slowly, the entire battlefield lit up like daylight, the fire illuminating everything around. The chaotic Qin Army fans out like rats running across burning vehicles.
Qin Army infantry commanders standing not far away acknowledged the 3rd Armored Army was utterly finished! They had barely received fuel for retreating, yet the path of retreat was now inaccessible.
Of course, for the Qin Army, the truly bad news was not the disasters faced tonight, but that they might face similar catastrophes every night moving forward…
The Tang Army’s bombardment persisted, not only from Thunderbolt but A6 attack aircraft, which could also operate at night and strike the ground.
In order to fill the numbers, the Tang Empire deployed many J-7 fighters, primarily tasked with blanketing the ground with rockets, causing significant trouble for the Qin forces on the ground.
Early the next morning, tormented by all sorts of bad news through the night, Qin commander Wang Luo learned the Tang Empire’s strike force had appeared on the outskirts of Xiajian, and Tang forces from the north had even severed the railway between his troops and Xiajian.
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Only then did Wang Luo truly receive a clear message: his hundreds of thousands of troops weren’t just surrounded, but paralyzed in the wilds.
Now, he had to find a way to break out, while also tackling various issues. Among the biggest problems was his troops having been severely disrupted by massive air raids last night, and were now utterly chaotic.
The previous disruption was due to the higher command being destroyed, while this chaos stemmed from his troops collapsing, resulting in a loss of connection between commanders and retreating soldiers.
Recovering from this requires a long time, but what Wang Luo lacks the most now is time. After all, he must quickly organize his troops to break through; it’s their only chance for survival.
Once the Tang Empire troops secure their position, given the current situation, returning to Xiajian would be nearly impossible.