Chapter 486: 486 Flame in the Snow
Chapter 486 486 Flame in the Snow
On the eastern border of the Ice Empire, in a neighboring dwarf barracks outpost, flames were shining on a group of strong men carrying rifles.
These dwarves have big beards, with an average height of between 1.5 and 1.6 meters. Each of them wears a leather hat and has a Mosin-Nagant rifle in his hand.
The Mosin Nagant rifle is a rifle specially designed by the Datang Group for dwarves. The technology is very mature and has become the standard rifle for the armies of seven or eight dwarf kingdoms and the Ice Empire.
Beside the fire, a dwarf was holding a cup, and the hot soup inside was steaming. Although it is almost spring, it is still very cold here.
In order to cope with the cold climate, dwarves' winter clothing is very thick, which makes them look like balls.
They sat around the fire, their fronts burned by the flames, but their backs were blown cold by the cold wind.
“This **** weather!” A dwarf complained helplessly after taking a sip of hot soup. The border has been full of crises recently, otherwise they wouldn't be guarding such a trench in such horrible weather that no one would come.
The entire outpost is composed of two trenches and a watchtower. The watchtower is still some distance away from the trenches. No one will be stationed there at night, because it is dark anyway and nothing can be seen.
This small fortification is far away from the main road, and almost no one comes here, so stationing an infantry squad here has a symbolic significance that is obviously greater than the actual significance.
“We are pretty good, at least we still have a mouthful of hot soup to drink.” The dwarf squad leader knocked the ice chips on his shoes and breathed hot breath to comfort his men.
They are a weak country. After the establishment of the Ice Empire, they have been living in fear. War could break out at any time, and everyone knew it was only a matter of time.
As soldiers, they can only fight for their motherland honestly. This is an undoubted obligation and responsibility. But in this case, who can be less stressed?
After such a long period of integration and development, the Ice Empire was no longer a behemoth on the same level as their kingdom.
After raiding the historic city of Ironforge, the Ice Empire seems to have inherited the Dwarf Empire in terms of legal system, and is naturally one level higher than the surrounding dwarf kingdoms.
What is even more despairing is that this icy empire, which is already large in size, has also completed horrific industrial construction with the support of humans.
The ice dwarves built factories and laid a railway that stretched from Everwinterport to Ironforge. Countless industrial facilities have given Ironforge a completely new look, and many dwarf kingdoms have even taken the initiative to attach themselves to the Ice Empire.
With the support of industrial capabilities, the Ice Empire's army is obviously also very powerful. In the past year, the top brass of the Ice Empire have been ready to take action and plan for external conflicts.
Everyone knows that war is a good way to resolve internal conflicts, so everyone also knows very well that this war can easily start.
"I don't know what the cold dwarves are thinking. They are already so rich, and they are still not satisfied... Do they really need to unite the dwarves?" A veteran brought the slightly cold hot soup close to the fire. , complained depressedly.
If the powerful countries were not expanding their armies and preparing for war, small countries like them would not follow suit and resort to militarization. If it weren't for dealing with the Ice Empire's army, they wouldn't have been recruited into the army and come to this place where nothing matters.
From a distance, the trench they were in was almost completely covered by ice and snow. The wind blew across the smooth snow surface and blew up cold ice crystals.
Although the trenches can block most of the cold wind, no one can stand in the dark in this weather.
Took out another piece of frozen bread from his food bag. The veteran heard some vague noises, so he slightly adjusted the direction of his ears.
"What's wrong?" The squad leader asked immediately when he saw that his most experienced veteran suddenly felt strange.
You must know that when the Ice Empire was still the Ice Kingdom, it suddenly attacked the Northern Dwarf Empire, quickly ended the war, and occupied Ironforge.
Now everyone is afraid that the Ice Empire will repeat its old tricks, so they are very vigilant. Everyone has dug several lines of defense on the border, deployed a large number of troops, and formed a rolling trench defense zone.
"It's okay." After listening carefully and finding nothing unusual, the dwarf veteran shook his head and rejected his judgment.
After saying this, he fastened his food bag, then stuffed the hard bread into his mouth, chewing it carefully.
The individual soldier carrying equipment developed by Datang Group is very popular, so all countries have tried to imitate it and developed unique military carrying equipment belonging to each country.
Some countries prefer larger kettles, some countries can make grain bags smaller, some use leather as a drawstring, and some use canvas.
In short, they are diverse, which also increases the recognition of these troops. After all, if everyone wears the same equipment on the battlefield, it will be ridiculous to fight.
The most convenient thing to distinguish is the steel helmet, so the styles of steel helmets in different countries are basically different. Because the area where the Dwarf Kingdom is located is cold, most countries are reluctant to use steel helmets, preferring to use leather hats as their standard equipment.
After all, compared to steel helmets, leather hats have obvious advantages in terms of daily warmth, because the raw materials are self-sufficient and not expensive. The bigger reason is that these countries have seriously insufficient consideration of defense performance.
The world has not yet broken out into a large-scale, all-round cruel war like the First World War, so there is no theoretical support for generals to make the determination to popularize steel helmets or similar protective equipment.
Not everyone has a system like Tang Mo’s, which is accurate and forward-looking. Therefore, some countries completely copied the Datang Group's work and directly purchased and equipped helmets, but some countries did not do so due to various reasons.
Some are for the sake of being cheap, some are for the sake of being cheap, and some are just for the sake of being cheap—this one reason is enough, and the second one is not needed.
Due to the lack of steel production capacity, steel helmets are definitely a luxury item: compared to rifles and machine guns and artillery, it is obvious that a "hat" can be discarded.
"It's going to be okay." The squad leader still became vigilant. He stood up in the wind and snow, walked to the side with squinted eyes, and stuck his head out into the wind and snow to look at the direction of the border.
The night was pitch black. Looking at the flying snowflakes, there was darkness everywhere, and the whole earth was so quiet that it was a bit eerie.
"It's nothing...if someone had come over, they would have been exposed long ago." The veteran also stood up, walked to his squad leader, and advised: "Go back!"
The squad leader thought about it and realized what the veteran said made sense. They have been busy on the border for almost a year, and it is not in vain. It is not that they do not have their own advanced weapons!
They have laid tens of thousands of landmines along such borders, almost all over inaccessible areas. Although there are only a few dozen per kilometer, the deterrent effect is still sufficient.
Just burying dozens of new weapons such as landmines, and then inserting a wooden sign with a warning about the danger of the minefield where the enemy can see it is enough to scare away those Ice Empire soldiers who have evil intentions. And if the enemy invades on a large scale and steps on these mines, the explosion will immediately alert the defending side and provide early warning to the defending forces.
This thing called a landmine is a new weapon developed by the Datang Group, but it soon became an artifact that countries are competing to imitate.
In order to slow down the enemy's attack speed and cause continuous damage to the enemy, this weapon soon became the sweetheart in the hearts of commanders from various countries, instantly surpassing the heavy machine gun.
“I’m overly concerned.” The squad leader smiled, reached out and patted the shoulder of his most trusted veteran, then glanced into the distance again, retracted his head, and walked back to the bonfire.
Several soldiers filled the firewood and sticks that were almost covered with snow at their feet into the bonfire to make the beating flames more intense.
I dare not sleep. If I fall asleep in this cold weather, whether I can open my eyes tomorrow is a question.
So everyone could only huddle around the flames. Waiting for the wind to stop and the snow to subside, waiting for the sky to be illuminated by the sun again.
The squad leader continued to sit back and chat with the veteran. They talked about their children and the plump dwarf female star Maka.
Then there was everyone's unbridled, joyful and obscure laughter, and the topics that only belonged to adults drove away everyone's sleepiness.
As he spoke, the veteran suddenly stopped again. He turned his ears and frowned, as if he really heard some weird, continuous slight sounds.
But the sound was quickly lost in the wind, making it unreal to hear. The veteran listened for a few more seconds and then disarmed himself in confusion - he really didn't dare to confirm whether he really heard something.
At this moment, directly above them, a huge black shadow was slowly drifting forward in the wind and snow.
In the dim airship cockpit, the airship commander of the Ice Empire had his hands behind his back and listened to the report of his subordinates with an ugly face.
The top of their airship is already covered with ice and there is thick snow hanging on it. The load-bearing capacity of the entire airship is already very dangerous, but the previous weather forecast did not say so.
"We have been trying our best to lose weight..." The adjutant's face was also extremely ugly, and he reported dejectedly: "Two warriors have taken the risk to climb onto the airship and are removing the snow... I hope... the snow will stop soon..."
“I hope so.” The captain looked through the porthole on his side and looked at another huge black figure flying in the same direction not far away. He was still very nervous.
The Ice Empire has been carefully preparing for this operation for more than half a year. If there is a problem with them in this link, then they will be the sinners of the empire.
“Confirm the direction!” Because we were traveling at night and there was no star reference, the captain had to nervously confirm whether his flight direction was correct every once in a while.
They are now in the enemy's territory, and as soon as day breaks, a fool can see their huge figures.
But it doesn’t matter! Because they are in heaven! In the sky where no enemy can stop you! As long as they keep flying towards the target, the enemy will be helpless against them!
The other side can only watch them fly to their destination, and then drop bombs one after another, destroying those high-value and extremely expensive strategic targets!
They are like sharp knives, piercing the enemy's softest belly at the fastest speed! Defeat the enemy with one blow and end the war!
“There is no problem with the heading!” The pilot controlling the helm glanced at the compass in front of him and reported back to his commander.
"Send two more people up! No matter what method...maintain the altitude of the airship!" Looking at the altimeter again, the captain became nervous again and ordered to the adjutant: "For His Majesty the Emperor! Ula!"
“Hurrah!” The adjutant responded in a low voice with enthusiasm, and then walked to the rear cabin.
Going through the narrow corridor, on both sides of this long passage spliced together by iron mesh, are the airship magazines filled with bombs.
At present, only half of the bombs are mounted on these ammunition racks. Because long-distance raids are to be carried out, only half of the ammunition can be carried considering the load.
It is precisely because of the accurate calculation of the load before that they can now float safely in the wind and snow.
Just when everyone was extremely nervous, God seemed to hear the prayers of these dwarves of the Ice Empire.
The snow stopped…
The wind gradually died down, and the snowflakes stopped falling.
The captain in the airship cockpit clenched his fists! The crisis is over! Their chance is still there!
In the quiet night sky, thirty huge black shadows gradually drifted into the distance quietly.
On the ground, the wind and snow stopped, and the veterans next to the campfire no longer heard the weird continuous buzzing sound just now.
“The snow has stopped!” The squad leader stretched himself, feeling that God still favored them. At least, the snow stopped in the middle of the night.
“Yes! Good luck!” The veteran nodded, waved away the uneasiness in his heart, and forced a smile.
In the hinterland of the kingdom, next to an ordinary country village, a man took out his pocket watch and checked the time next to a candlestick.
Then he picked up the clay pot at his feet and walked out of his house. Under the moonlight, he walked to an open space and looked at the pile of wood he had piled up all day.
On this pile of wood there were messy withered grass and neatly stacked wood. There was also snow on top that had no time to be cleared.
The man swept away most of the snow on the pile of wood, then poured the black oil from the clay pot on the wood, and then took out a box of matches from his arms.
He struck a match and flicked it into the pile of wood, igniting the kerosene inside. Huge flames soared into the sky and could be clearly seen from a thousand meters in the sky.
In the cab of the Ice Empire airship troop, the navigator shouted excitedly: "I saw it! The ground guidance saw it!"
—
Today is not so uncomfortable anymore. Thank you everyone for your concern! Waiting for Long Ling to find the status, he will start to resume updates.
(End of this chapter)