Munitions Empire-Chapter 1177 - 1097 battle achievements brushed

For Qin Country, this day might be considered a good one. King Qin Ying Duo received the support of the Great Tang Empire and formally declared himself Emperor, proclaiming the establishment of the Great Qin Empire.

The Tri-Emperor Alliance was officially formed, and its new name greatly excited Ying Duo. Of course, this was before he learned of the Tang Army’s massive naval victory.

When King Qin Ying Duo heard that the Tang Navy had annihilated the Shen Army’s main fleet, sinking 12 battleships in one fell swoop, he felt that his imperial throne didn’t seem as appealing anymore.

From his perspective, he had hoped that Tang Country would suffer a defeat during its offensive against the Shen Army. Then, Tang Country wouldn’t shift its attention to the Western Continent, giving Qin Country better developmental opportunities.

Unfortunately, Tang Country was still the same Tang Country—invincible! Tang Mo’s Navy achieved unprecedented brilliance, and their landing troops had firmly established footholds.

The long-range deployment capabilities and combat strength displayed by the Great Tang Empire made Emperor Qin Ying Duo even more apprehensive.

But apprehensive or not, on the surface, Ying Duo still had to congratulate Tang Country on its victory, just as Tang Mo had congratulated him on his triumph at the Shu Mountain defensive line.

...

After the Great Tang Empire began selling Panther Tanks, sloped armor technology was no longer a secret. Once the advantages of sloped armor were understood, tanks with vertical armor seemed outdated.

The vast majority of Shen Army tanks fell under this outdated category: most had vertical armor, and their thickness was barely adequate.

To compensate for these shortcomings, Shen Army heavy tanks added an additional layer of armor outside the main armor. However, due to manufacturing issues, there was a finger-width gap between the two layers of armor.

This unintentional modification ended up mitigating the effects of the RPG Rocket Launcher’s shaped-charge warheads, occasionally preventing RPGs from penetrating the frontal armor of Shen Army heavy tanks.

As the concept of sloped armor spread, everyone realized how terrifyingly effective the recalculated thickness of sloped armor could be. When Shen Army tank crews came face-to-face with the Type 59 Main Battle Tanks, sheer despair consumed them.

"Open fire!" Inside the cramped hull of a Shen Army tank, the tank commander desperately shouted, but unfortunately, no matter how hard the tank’s main gun tried, it couldn’t penetrate the frontal armor of the Tang Army tank standing mere meters away.

The shells directly ricocheted off, and to the Shen Army tank crew, Tang Country’s Type 59 tanks appeared almost invincible.

Another shell was fired, another shot struck the Type 59 tank’s turret front. Predictably, this shell also ricocheted; it hit the curved front armor, deflected upwards, and disappeared without a trace.

Soon, the Tang tank’s gun barrel turned in their direction, releasing a burst of flame. In an instant, the Shen Army tank erupted into flames, leaving behind only a charred wreck.

"The tank that fired at us just got taken out—are there any targets left?" Watching the Shen Army infantry ahead abandon their positions and flee in disarray, the gunner asked disdainfully.

The commander peered through the gaps around him to look for targets. Unable to see any enemy tanks nearby due to the limited field of view, he said, "I don’t see any!"

After speaking, he lifted his hatch and poked his head out for a better view. Though risky, he preferred this method of scouting for targets.

Otherwise, solely relying on the limited visibility through the observation ports around the tank commander’s hatch might result in getting hit five times by enemy side tanks before even identifying their positions.

"Looks like there are no enemy tanks nearby." Surveying the burning black wreckage around his tank, the commander, somewhat disappointed, retracted into the hull.

"No worries. Since Liu Guozhu isn’t here, we still have hope of surpassing his kill record," the gunner reassured the commander.

"Hardly honorable." The commander felt that racking up kills against Shen Army’s subpar tanks wasn’t much of an achievement.

"Liu Guozhu’s targets were even worse than the Shen Army’s tanks we’re battling now!" The gunner sneered, dismissing the tank ace Liu Guozhu’s achievements.

To him, back in the day, Liu Guozhu’s opponents didn’t even have radios in their tanks—it was pure stat-padding without any technical skill involved!

However, he admitted that the current battle was just as much a slaughter: Tang Country’s attacking force consisted of only a single company—15 tanks in total—while the Shen Army had about 40 tanks, roughly an entire battalion.

The result: Tang Country’s tanks suffered zero losses, while the numerically superior Shen Army tank unit was completely wiped out.

Under the fierce assault of Tang Army tanks, the Shen Army’s tanks didn’t even have time to retreat before being killed for glory and statistics.

After a night of rest, Tang Nation’s 9th Corps restored the glorious tradition of the Great Tang Empire’s military: they began a relentless advance, heedless of danger, launching an all-out offensive with air support. The armored corps surged forward like bulldozers, crushing everything blocking their path.

To put it mildly, by sunrise, Tang Country’s attack forces had completely captured Shen Army’s Airport No. 2 on South Island, adding it to the previously seized Airport No. 1. Tang Country now controlled two abandoned Shen Army field airports.

Meanwhile, the relentlessly advancing 9th Armored Division turned its sights on Shen Army’s 3rd Armored Division. The latter, unwilling to fight, retreated to the central region of the island in one breath.

The 19th Infantry Division spread along the Great Southern River, while other units arriving later began to prepare for a river crossing to encircle Great Southern Bay.

Equipped with a variety of engineering tools, Tang Army engineers had successfully landed. To expedite the repairs of the two airports abandoned by Shen Army, much of the equipment and manpower of the 9th Corps remained afloat offshore.

With steamrollers, cement mixers, and a fleet of transport vehicles, the engineers worked relentlessly. The speed at which Tang Army repaired airports was several, even dozens of times faster than Shen Army!

Thanks to the boosting effect of advanced machinery, the repair speed was astonishingly fast. Tang Country had developed fast-drying cement specialized for airport repairs—something Shen Army did not possess.

Additionally, the bridge-building division commandeered a significant amount of landing resources. General Feng Kezhi awaited the engineers to cross the Great Southern River.

The Shen Army underestimated Tang Country’s engineering capability, and General Shengwu Zhong assumed Tang Army would require at least ten days to prepare for a river crossing.

Little did he know, Feng Kezhi planned to commence bridge construction within hours after the pontoon division landed—at the latest, by tomorrow morning.

The disparity in technical expertise led to different battlefield assessments, resulting in entirely opposing decisions by both sides. Clearly, Shen Army’s Shengwu Zhong was already outpaced by Feng Kezhi’s operational tempo.

At around 10 a.m., Tang Country’s jet bombers returned to Shen Army-controlled areas, dropping an enormous payload and complicating Shen Army troop movements.

Later that afternoon, the bombers undertook another sortie, targeting transportation lines and nodes within Shen Army territory. However, as strategic carpet bombing, the effects remained moderate.

Still, with Bernard’s Navy wiping out the Shen Army’s main fleet, naval aviation’s ground support operations grew significantly.

Over a hundred aircraft circled above the Tang Army, providing General Feng Kezhi immense security. The northward charging 9th Armored Division suddenly shifted direction toward the Great Southern River, establishing bridgeheads with help from Navy Marine Corps’ Type 63 amphibious tanks and constructing a bridge.

The news of Tang Army crossing the river took over an hour to reach Shen Army defenders. They hadn’t anticipated that Tang Country possessed a dedicated engineering division for rapid bridging, and by the time Shen Army realized, they were outmatched by Tang Army already across the river.

Upon receiving the news, Shengwu Zhong fainted immediately. Exhausted from over 36 hours of continuous work, his collapse was likely due to sleep deprivation rather than the shock.

That night, Shengwu Zhong woke up, but new reports from his subordinates nearly caused him to faint again.

The river-crossing Tang Army armored corps had severed South Island’s railway, thereby cutting off the northern 3rd Army Corps from the 2nd Army Corps stationed at Great Southern Bay.

For the heavily damaged 2nd Army Corps to defend Great Southern Bay would require assistance from the 3rd Army Corps. Yet now, the 3rd Army Corps must break through Tang Army’s 9th Armored Division to link up.

If Shen Army had the capability to achieve this, they would have broken through Tang Country paratroopers’ defenses at Leping and Dongshan earlier, wouldn’t they? fгeewёbnoѵel.cσm

"What’s the situation with the Navy?" A weakened Shengwu Zhong, after discussing the 3rd Army Corps issue, inquired about naval warships.

Everyone knew he wasn’t asking about the annihilated main fleet; he referred to the panicked destroyers and cruisers that had fled into Great Southern Bay.

"Well…" His subordinates exchanged nervous glances, stammering.

"Speak!" Shengwu Zhong impatiently barked.

"They rushed in fearfully and collided with our covertly deployed naval mines, losing two destroyers… The remaining three destroyers and one cruiser are relatively intact, docked at the harbor and usable as stationary gun platforms..." his subordinate reluctantly reported.

Learning that their treaty-violating covertly deployed mines had sunk their own ships nearly caused Shengwu Zhong to faint again.

Weakly, he ordered provisions be prepared and allowed himself to be escorted back to the command center.

Though circumstances left him powerless, he needed to show courage and resilience. If not, his subordinates might succumb entirely to the mounting defeats.