Munitions Empire

Chapter 592: 551 things have gotten serious

In fact, very few of the Qi soldiers who witnessed the Tang tanks survived, because those who actually saw them rarely made it out alive.

Most of them had fled following other deserters, simply running in a daze at the cries they heard; if they ran too slowly, their lives would be at risk…

"After all this, you haven’t even seen the Tang Army and you’re already deserters?” The group leader laughed bitterly, his tone full of dissatisfaction.

The two deserters did not know that their command post had been overrun by the Tang Army; right now, Tang tanks were rampaging through the Qi Country’s 3rd Army headquarters. Actually, it made sense—they had no way of knowing what was happening behind them.

At this moment, only those Qi soldiers who had fled from the vicinity of the headquarters might know that the 3rd Army’s command post was finished.

But even among those who had been near the 3rd Army headquarters during the defeat, very few truly knew that the command post was gone—even those who saw it with their own eyes wouldn’t dare spread rumors.

What if they were wrong, or what they said didn’t match reality, and it unsettled the soldiers’ hearts or disrupted the deployment, affecting the battle? Wouldn’t that be an unforgivable mistake?

So unless someone had seen with absolute certainty that the Tang Army had leveled the headquarters, and seen the First Prince’s head chopped off with their own eyes, who would dare speak recklessly?

After some thought and lacking the mood to execute two deserters from other troops, the Qi Army group leader didn’t bother to do such thankless work and waved his hand, telling the two deserters to scram.

Then he had his subordinates spread out a map to carefully examine the markings, trying to figure out exactly where he was and what exactly he should be doing.

"If we cross over here, we should be at the 3rd Army’s headquarters… The distance shouldn’t be too far Looking at the markings on the map, the Qi Army group leader tentatively figured out his approximate location.

Their military maps were not precise; in fact, over the past hundred years or so, they had no need for precise maps.

"That should be about right. Should we head over there?” His subordinate officer nodded and then asked.

"Head over there to do what? Just a few of us, let’s ride over to take a look!” Looking at the congested mass of people, carts, cattle, and horses from the two infantry regiments around them, the group leader signaled his men to find some war horses.

Clearly, being behind had its advantages; most of the high-ranking officers in the Qi Army retained the skill of horseback riding, much like officers from the Northern Ridge faction in the Tang Army, such as Tagg, were adept at riding.

Several war horses were thus led over, and the Qi Army group leader rode off with seven or eight guards, leaving his troops behind and charging toward the rough direction mentioned by the deserters.

The journey was not easy, as they encountered many disoriented and scattered troops from Qi Country and gathered more and more information from these soldiers.

First, they learned that the Tang Army tanks had indeed attacked the 3rd Army’s headquarters—this information was more or less confirmed.

After confirming this news, the Qi Army group leader realized that this offensive was probably not going so smoothly.

With the 3rd Army’s headquarters under attack and the extent of the losses still unclear, if the 3rd Army was in chaos and collapsed, then simply rounding up these deserters could take over two days.

But to remain in such an inhospitable place for two days could mean that the entire troop’s logistical supplies might have issues, right?

Be aware, both Luo Town and Nanye were key locations for material reserves, and now that these places had been cut off or lost, the difficulty the Qi Army’s supply lines faced was evident.

Then, they heard that the 3rd Army’s artillery positions had been completely destroyed; the dozens of heavy artillery that had been brought with great effort to participate in the battle were all lost. Now, the Qi Army had almost no heavy fire support left.

This was yet another piece of bad news: the Qi Army, already at a disadvantage in terms of firepower, had now lost even the means to bluff their enemy.

If they were to attack enemy positions with just infantry and light artillery, it would be no different from a suicide mission.

The enemy’s machine guns could wreak havoc indefinitely, and their heavy artillery could suppress every charge… Under such circumstances, if the Qi Army could make a triumphant advance by storming fortifications, why were they still fighting the Tang Army? It would be much more comfortable to go and eradicate the Dahua Empire and unify the world in one fell swoop…

When they arrived at the former location of the 3rd Army’s headquarters and saw the scene before them, they finally understood the catastrophe they faced.

Although the Tang Army had already retreated, what they left behind was utter disarray. Nearly all the senior officers of the 3rd Army were killed in action, with hundreds of bodies found.

Some regimental and divisional officers belonging to the 3rd Army were tearfully looking for and identifying their superior commanders. Some guards of the First Prince stood by with ashen faces; they hadn’t found the First Prince’s body yet…

It wasn’t just the First Prince’s body that was missing; the body of Tian Heng, the commander of Qi Country’s western front, was also unaccounted for, as was the body of the 3rd Army’s commander…

The situation was utterly desperate; the entire western front command system of the Qi Army had been wiped out, nothing left to spare.

Now the 50,000 leaderless Qi soldiers, like headless flies, were cornered in the wilderness with hardly any decent supplies, not many heavy artillery left, and bombarded daily by enemy aircraft.

Even more desperate was the fact that over 50,000 Qi soldiers were advancing toward them along positions and roads, led by Qi Country’s famous General Qin Xiong, with none other than the First Prince assisting him!

Thanks to the help of the 2nd Company, the 1st Armored Battalion had transported away dozens of bodies dressed in slightly different military uniforms that they could find.

There were even some guards among them; because their attire was also different, Liu Guozhu and his men were seeing the Qi Country guards for the first time, and of course, they couldn’t distinguish them.

At this very moment at the outer defensive line of Luo Town, the relentlessly attacking 3rd Army of Qi Country finally couldn’t hold up any longer.

After losing artillery support, the Qi troops fought bitterly for over an hour under the fierce fire of the Tang Army but ultimately had to retreat due to heavy casualties, back to their starting position.

"Those damned cowards in the rear! If they had fired a few more rounds, the outer positions would have been ours!” the Qi commander clenched his fist and smashed it against the wall of a temporary observation trench, making lumps of dirt fall off.

"There must be some problem in the back, otherwise… it shouldn’t be the officer’s adjutant started explaining by his side.

Logically speaking, even if the artillerymen were afraid of death and ceased firing due to fear of the Tang Air Force’s bombing, the army headquarters right next to the artillery position would send someone to urge the artillery to continue firing.

Even taking ten thousand steps back, if the enemy’s attack truly made the artillery untenable, the headquarters should have issued orders for them to stop the offensive and withdraw to avoid more senseless casualties.

But neither of these things happened, which seemed very strange. Neither the army commander in charge of the elite 3rd Army of Qi Country, nor General Tian Heng, were fools; it was impossible for them to make such a basic error.

Clearly, the division commander responsible for directing the offensive had also figured out the reason behind it.

He furrowed his brows and muttered to himself, “Something is not right! Why hasn’t the messenger I sent for contact returned yet? Send someone else! Figure out

Before he could finish speaking, the messenger rushed back in a flurry and stood at attention before him, “Sir!”

"Speak!” the division commander urgently commanded.

"Our command post was attacked, and the rear troops are in disarray. I couldn’t find General Tian Heng nor the army commander the messenger reported.

"What?” The division commander in charge of the frontline combat was taken aback, his eyes widening.

The officer beside him promptly asked, “Were they bombed? Attacked by enemy aircraft?”

"The fleeing soldiers said, said there were Tang tanks… The scene was in chaos, he said he didn’t see it… but I asked several people, and they all mentioned Tang tanks,” the messenger continued his report.

"That’s bad!” The division commander finally realized the severity of the situation and cried out in despair. After his cry, he immediately ordered, “Retreat! Take the organized troops and recapture the command post first!”

The officer didn’t dare to delay and immediately sent out several messengers, ordering the troops that hadn’t engaged in the assault to assemble and quickly fall back toward the direction of the army headquarters.

Meanwhile, the Qi Army regiment commander who returned to his own headquarters with bad news became even more perplexed. He had not found Tian Heng, nor had he received his new orders as he hoped.

He was unsure whether he should continue to march towards Luo Town and then launch an attack upon encountering the Tang Army, to keep attacking Luo Town.

Nor did he know where to camp, then where to place his troops—the Qi troops were accumulating more and more, clearly requiring a vast open space for encampment.

If he hesitated for a moment longer, the Qi soldiers arriving in the aftermath would almost have occupied all usable spaces.

Upon this realization, he finally decided to immediately move his troops off the road and set up tents in a spot that looked suitable, waiting for definitive orders before considering the next course of action.

Just as he was organizing his troops to rest on the spot and unloading the baggage from the wagons, he finally received definitive news: someone had witnessed with their own eyes that General Tian Heng and the Third Prince had been killed in battle!

This shook the morale of the entire Qi Army; everyone looked bewildered. And at this very moment, a thought of despair rose in the minds of the Qi commanders, “It’s over! Things have escalated!”

Adding an extra chapter, will continue tomorrow

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