Munitions Empire-Chapter 1159 - 1079 spectacular fleets

Sun Rui piloted the Pirate Fighter, streaking across the battlefield that was billowing with thick smoke everywhere, and from his perspective, there were hardly any targets left to find.

Although the dense smoke near the beach had already dispersed, the area was now crawling with friendly forces — people bustling about in droves, the place looking extremely lively with vehicular traffic like a flowing river of horses and carriages.

A short distance away, amidst the black smoke, the Shen Army ground forces were in retreat, but those disintegrating groups of dozens of soldiers were not worth the Pirate Fighter’s strafing or the waste of ammunition.

In fact, fighter pilots do not carry out ground strafing missions. Unless they particularly wish to engage in battle and actively apply for it, or receive orders from above.

Because the mission of the fighter pilots is "patrolling"; their primary goal is to ensure that enemy aircraft do not enter the airspace of the battlefield to cause disruption, not waste valuable ammunition on those low-value ground targets.

If you run out of ammunition and then, by chance, an enemy plane appears, what do you do? Or after you complete such a mission and return to base, ground crew members would need to waste time correcting the aircraft gun’s trajectory, maintaining and inspecting the plane, which would significantly affect the turnaround time for reflight.

Sun Rui piloted the Pirate Fighter around the battlefield, and when he took another look at the ground, he saw an intriguing scene.

Tang Army armored vehicles, draped with huge national flags and dragon emblems, were advancing desperately forward, following alongside some Type 59 tanks that had no place to display national flags.

To prevent friendly fire, some of Tang Army’s Type 59 tanks had also temporarily sprayed bright yellow over their engine covers — this color being Tang Army’s favorite for distinguishing between friend and foe.

However… these identification marks were almost blackened by the tank exhaust… But despite looking comical, they still pointed the way for the Tang Army planes in the sky.

Soon, over 30 Stuka Dive Bombers, covered by ten Pirate Fighters, passed over the entire battlefield. They were headed to support the Imperial Paratroopers in the Leping and Dongshan directions, and Sun Rui watched them go, then circled back to the vicinity of the landing field.

It was now past two in the afternoon, and the Tang Nation Air Force had once again appeared over the battlefield: initially, a few navigational modified Flying Fortresses were shaking their huge, slow bodies, and after getting close to the coastline, they turned back.

Immediately after, Sun Rui saw a magnificent sight: at least 80 H-6 jet bombers roared into view, crossing over his head in the blink of an eye, and he could hear the tsunami-like roar clearly, even with his headset on.

"Wow! That’s damn cool!" Sun Rui’s wingman also witnessed the scene; they could not care less about the black smoke and battlefield below, looking up at those silver-white swept-wing planes arranged neatly, flying towards the distance.

"That speed is terrifying; by the time we climb to their altitude, they’ll have flown out of sight," Sun Rui exclaimed. Eager to get a better look at these bombers, they altered their route to follow the same direction, but even so, they were easily outdistanced by the other aircraft.

"Haven’t you exercised with the J-6 before? Don’t you know how fast they are?" the wingman pilot laughed in the channel.

Recalling the terrifying fighter planes capable of breaking the sound barrier, Sun Rui’s face showed an envious expression: "Our navy is going to have them soon too, I’ve heard they’re in the testing phase."

Tang Mo was indeed preparing new weapons for his Navy: not just jet fighters designated for naval use, but also catapult-type aircraft carriers capable of launching jet fighters.

These two things are a comprehensive display of national strength; they are the products of a new era that fundamentally widen the technological gap with the rest of the world.

If today’s propeller-driven fighter planes, tanks, warships can still be copied and borrowed, the brand new technologies to be developed next are not so easily caught up with by mere imitation.

Just the task of putting two jet engines side by side to work stably is out of reach without a decade of efforts.

And as for how difficult it is to produce a single stage of jet engine blades, just ask the rabbit who spent decades of hard work and endured much hardship to find out.

After hanging up the phone, Shengwu Zhong silently looked towards his staff officer, and after a long moment, he opened his mouth and said with heavy sorrow, "The coastal defense line is done for, Shenwu Bian has let down my expectations…"

The staff officer was somewhat disdainful of this statement: the tank troops scheduled to support Shenwu Bian did not arrive on time, and Shenwu Bian could only face the full brunt of the Tang Army’s landing forces alone; it was not surprising that his troops collapsed.

But he could not say that, because if he did, he might be dragged out and executed by an enraged Shengwu Zhong.

So all he could do was to say, "General! If the 2nd Armored Division still cannot break through Leping’s defense line, we should start considering… the situation with our defensive line."

At this moment, aside from the coastal defense line, the Mirage Country troops had not constructed a large number of defensive fortifications on South Island.

This means that if the Tang Army breaks through the beach defenses, then all Shen Army units engaged in counterattacks in the field must face the risk of encirclement and annihilation.

Therefore, ordering these troops to switch from offense to defense and build a new line of defense is something that the commanders of Mirage Country have to consider.

If the Tang Army forces arrive and they’re still posing an offensive stance out in the open field... it’s an unimaginable sight.

What a joke, engaging in a battle of attrition with the Tang Army in the open field? The grass over the grave of the last one to do that is already three feet high... If the Shen Army had that combat strength, they should just go fight the Ice Cold Empire and expand their territory...

"It’s too late... bursting forth from the southern beaches, their armored corps can advance to Leping within at most one or two hours... To have troops hold their positions now, at best, is to dig a trench," Shengwu Zhong shook his head and said.

Having troops hold their positions is not feasible; once the Tang Army’s tank units charge, along with the Tang Army Paratroopers behind the defense lines, his defenses would be as fragile as paper, easily shattered in an instant, right?

He only had two choices right now: The first was to quickly get his troops through Leping and clash with the Tang Army’s armored corps in a tank battle; the other was to order an immediate retreat to find favorable terrain and rebuild defensive fortifications.

Unfortunately, neither of these methods was viable: continuing the attack, he could not guarantee his armored corps’ ability to break through the enemy paratroopers’ defenses.

Commanders of the 2nd Armored Division and 3rd Armored Division had both sent him messages, saying they were being interfered with by the enemy air force, unable to complete the breakthrough task on time.

This was a typical case of passing the buck, because for several hours prior, they also had not been able to breach the Tang Army Paratroopers’ defense line.

Of course, now was not the time to assign blame, and Shengwu Zhong had no mood to concern himself with why his two main armored divisions were performing so poorly.

If they couldn’t break through, was retreat possible? A retreat was actually feasible, if only they could ask the Great Tang Empire’s planes not to interfere.

But is that possible? Once losing air superiority, the retreating Mirage Country troops would be harassed by Tang Army bombers. As for how much heavy equipment would be left behind during the retreat, only heaven would know.

However, now clearly wasn’t the time to fret over such matters. While Shengwu Zhong still hadn’t figured out how to keep his troops fighting under such unfavorable conditions, the Tang Nation Air Force launched its third bombing run.

At least eighty jet bombers once again dropped their payloads, destroying the railway bridge in the central region of South Island, rendering the overnight efforts of the Mirage Country engineer troops stationed at two field airports futile.

Those two half-repaired field airports were once again covered by countless cluster bombs, with unexploded shells and craters all over the runways, making them impossible to use for the foreseeable future.

The situation with the railways was similar. The cluster bombs paralyzed the north-south rail line relied upon by the Shen Army, severely slowing down the 3rd Corps’ movement from the northern to the southern part of South Island.

Less than an hour after the bombing ended, the supply materials eagerly awaited by the Tang Army Paratroopers arrived! More than a hundred type-130 transport aircraft flew over the sea once more, arriving above the battlefield.

To ensure the absolute safety of these planes, the Navy dispatched at least thirty Pirate Fighters to escort these behemoths.

The Mirage Country’s Zero Fighters, taking off in desperation, totaled less than twenty and were all shot down—before being taken down, a frenzied Mirage Country pilot crashed into a type-130 transport, and another Pirate Fighter was forced to make an emergency landing in the Tang Army Paratroopers’ controlled area due to malfunctions.

Fortunately, the pilots of the crashed type-130 transport all successfully parachuted and landed safe and sound in the Tang Army-controlled area near the beach...

Having received new supplies, the Tang Nation Paratroopers "sprang" back into action; they had plenty of RPG Rocket Launchers, ample gun grenades, more machine gun belts, and more mortar shells.

The pressure once again shifted to the Mirage Country Armored Corps’ side—when they tried to launch an attack again and were bombarded with a dozen RPG rockets, they realized they probably wouldn’t be able to reclaim Leping Village in this lifetime.

But still unwilling to concede defeat, after more than an hour, they launched another attack, this time deploying nearly all of their heavy tanks.

Seizing the moment when the Tang Army’s aircrafts were temporarily returning to base, the Shen Army assembled more than a thousand infantry, protecting a dozen tanks as they ferociously charged toward the Tang Army’s defensive positions.

Frankly, this was probably their last chance. If they failed again this time, then they would need to consider whether to quickly flee when nightfall comes.