Munitions Empire-Chapter 1244 - 1163 increasingly difficult Goblins

The Orcs’ attacks became sharper, making the Goblin troops on the "Middle Defense Line" suffer greatly.

The Middle Defense Line, built relying on mountains, rivers, and forests, is the Goblins’ greatest reliance. The southwest of this defense line is Dingcheng. This city is a node on the entire defense line and an important supply base.

The Orcs’ target is here, along with the airfield behind this base that has been destroyed beyond recognition. After Shan Lu received 30 rocket launcher vehicles and 50 Field Bees, they launched an attack on Dingcheng once again.

Compared to the Goblins, the Orc troops are better equipped, and their ammunition and fuel are relatively more sufficient. Even though the Orcs’ supplies rely on sea transportation, the Goblins’ reserves have already run out.

By the 14th day of the Orcs landing, the Goblins’ fuel reserves on Ben Island were nearly depleted: The Navy’s fuel was mostly handed over to the Army, and the Air Force’s unused fuel was all taken for emergencies.

To avoid unnecessary waste, rookie pilots in the Air Force only conducted one takeoff and landing training before focusing most of their efforts on collision target practice.

Under such circumstances, the Mirage Country’s Air Force was practically incapable of training new mature pilots: Even on the relatively safe Northern Island, the Mirage Country’s Air Force couldn’t organize any effective training.

For each mature pilot lost, the number decreased by one. In such a situation, the air combat performance over Ben Island, which had just slightly improved, began to decline again.

While facing equally unskilled Orc pilots, the Mirage Country pilots regained some confidence, but they gradually discovered... the enemy began to outnumber them.

The current training process for Orc pilots is as follows: They prioritize selecting those with good physical conditions before going to Qin Country.

Then they receive training on the way in Qin Country or Chu Country, learning basic cultural knowledge. The smart Orcs are ultimately selected to become pilots, while the others are assigned ground crew training or sent directly to the army to serve as non-commissioned officers.

The selected trainees undergo crash courses in Tang Country, mastering the basic knowledge of flying, then operating planes to control basic flight skills.

They are then transported by sea to the air above South Island, where they patrol the southern airspaces of South Island and New Island, familiarizing themselves with aircraft operation while piloting Butcher Fighters.

Ultimately, the skilled pilots are dispatched to the northern part of New Island to participate in the offensive operations against Ben Island! After completing this entire process, each pilot had approximately 100 hours of flight training time.

Even though it still appeared to be insufficient, they were much better than the Mirage Country’s replacement pilots. This wasn’t just a small gap, but a huge disparity.

Thus, the Orc pilots grew in both numbers and skills, while the Mirage Country pilots became fewer and weaker with each battle.

Two Butcher Fighters swept across the sky, and several Goblin soldiers hidden in the mountaintop observation post stared blankly as they listened to the roar of the engines.

Several days of continuous combat had exhausted them, and now they were seizing every opportunity to rest.

They hadn’t heard their own fighter jets in the sky all morning, and those Zero Fighters seemed to be unwilling to take off and engage in combat anymore.

The troops’ equipped kerosene lamps had become mere ornaments, and the precious combustible materials were now all controlled items. Even many officers within the troops were clamoring to launch a counterattack to seize the Orcs’ fuel.

Counterattacking was simply impossible because a counterattack without victory would waste large amounts of fuel. This fuel was precious and could not be squandered lightly. freēwēbηovel.c૦m

The Mirage Country troops, already lacking vehicles, had begun to prohibit transporting any items by vehicle. Officers, unless absolutely necessary, were prohibited from traveling by car.

There was no choice; the fuel was too precious. It had reached a point where everything that could be replaced by alternative methods was swapped for solutions that didn’t consume fuel.

Cavalry became precious. If you could ride a horse, you wouldn’t even have to go to the front lines; instead, you’d take charge of transporting supplies from the rear. Officers also used warhorses for travel as much as possible, making the Mirage Country troops’ mechanization level regress almost ten years.

"It’s starting again..." a soldier yawned, lazily cursing as he heard the sound of artillery firing, that terrifying sound pressing down on his mood.

The secret observation post built into the cliff was extremely safe; the Orc bombers could never penetrate such thick rock. But the vibrations and loud booms still made people jumpy. Such devastation weighed heavily on every soldier.

"Boom!" Indeed, a shell landed not far from the observation post, and the tremor caused dust to fall from above the heads of these Mirage Country soldiers.

The Orcs possessed more and more 155mm caliber heavy artillery, and these bastards seemed not to care about ammunition consumption, firing incessantly every day.

Here, in the mountains, the situation seemed a bit better. Now, it was truly an inferno in Dingcheng’s direction. The Orcs continuously launched offensives in the flat areas over there, leading to extremely fierce battles on both sides.

The Shen Army’s 1st Armored Division had now officially clashed with the Orcs’ 1st Armored Division. Both sides believed in their strong combat capabilities, so they fought fiercely, sending tanks to engage until both realized the opponent was equally a tough nut to crack.

After resting for a day, the Orcs launched an attack again; it seemed they had received some support, with more and more heavy artillery, making it difficult for the Goblins to withstand, having already been pushed to the outskirts of Dingcheng.

That area was where the Goblins had focused their defensive works, with dense bunkers and numerous tunnels. Combined with the almost ruined areas of Dingcheng, the complex crisscrossed terrain made it a perfect defensive position.

The Orc troops did not retreat, believing they had gained urban combat skills in Fengjiang through tough street battles.

So the two sides continued their fierce battles in the suburbs, going on for two days now with almost no progress.

The defenders suffered heavy losses but held their main positions; the attackers suffered heavy losses too but captured some peripheral areas.

It was like playing cards in a snowy tavern; both realized the opponent was equally matched. No ’easy bullying’ was taking place; instead, there was a mutual appreciation for each other’s strength.

"Just watch, they’ll charge up again soon..." Another Goblin had grown accustomed to it. From morning until night, they saw this kind of scene a dozen times each day.

Almost every hour, the Orc troops would launch an attack, leaving some corpses at the mountain’s foot, then retreat... punctually like going to work, routinely like performing a job.

There were even a dozen Type 4 tanks and Type 4 assault guns at the foot of the hill. Without looking at their paint, some Mirage Country soldiers almost mistakenly believed they were defeating the Tang Country’s Armored Corps.

But these Goblins weren’t completely without pressure; their ammunition was depleting bit by bit! Because of the bombings, the ammunition factory’s production capacity had significantly reduced, leaving bullets and shells mainly available, but supplies of some heavy weapons were obviously running out.

For example, the 75mm mountain guns and the 76mm caliber anti-tank guns that the Shen Army particularly needed were almost unreplenished.

These small-caliber artillery pieces were effective in mountain warfare, more agile than tanks or heavy artillery and better suited for deployment. Unfortunately, Mirage Country lacked qualified steel, and the factories were damaged, making production challenging.

In the past few days, roughly 20 units of 75mm caliber mountain guns were lost at the front, but only 7 were replenished.

This was at the Middle Defense Line backed by a factory. Almost isolated, the Western Defense Line, where the Mirage Country’s 4th Armored Division was stationed, practically received no replacements for their lost artillery.

"Rat-a-tat!" Maybe they saw the Orc troops coming up again; a Maxim machine gun on the mountainside suddenly opened fire. Sporadic rifle shots were mixed in, and the siege battle started again.

Unlike before, shortly after the gunfire commenced this time, a round of violent explosions nearly leveled the Mirage Country soldiers’ position at the foot of the mountain.

The dense explosions were countless, with an enveloping force that left the soldiers in the observation post terrified, their breaths caught in their throats.

When they regained their senses, the area hit by rocket artillery was raging with fire, smoke billowing everywhere. A scorched smell permeated the air, the choking aroma nauseating.

"Ugh! Cough, cough, cough!" The Goblin soldier in the observation post squinted against the black smoke, clutching the wall as he dry-heaved. He wanted to vomit but couldn’t bear to waste his breakfast on the ground.

Food was incredibly precious; Mirage Country was beginning to experience food shortages, and the quality of military rations was declining, making vomiting indeed a form of waste.

"How come they have rocket artillery..." Nowadays, rocket artillery was nothing new, and the Goblin soldiers on South Island and New Island had already experienced this weapon’s power.

The Orcs had never had such things before, but now they did... and apparently in significant numbers. Coughing as he spoke, the officer in the observation post grabbed the phone on the table: "Hello? Hello! Cough, cough, cough! This is the main observation post! Yes! The mountaintop main observation post! The enemy used rocket artillery and incendiary bombs... Yes! The frontline could be finished!"

On the other end of the call, the officer responsible for holding the position orders with bitterness: "Continue to observe! Report changes anytime to me! Yes! Hold on! Hold on! No matter what, you must not lose the main peak!"

If this position were lost, the Orcs would gain a vantage point over the entire Dingcheng, and then... defending Dingcheng would become exceedingly difficult.

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The second update will be a bit later... My schedule is messed up again, so read it tomorrow... Sigh.