Chapter 489: 489 Cyric's Iron Shoes
Chapter 489 489 Cyric’s Iron Shoes
Hands of bomb craters are scattered all over the battlefield, countless large and small. The severely deformed trenches are like a thread, stringing together some of the craters, looking like a pearl necklace from a bird's eye view.
In this pearl necklace, there are countless soldiers, crouching down, waiting for large-caliber artillery shells to fall and hit the ground near them.
Every time a cannonball exploded, the soil around them shook, and then there was the sound of falling mud and rocks hitting the brim of a hat.
Most of these soldiers did not wear steel helmets, only a military hat with a brim, and they had canvas ammunition pouches on their sides, which contained their ammunition.
As the artillery shells fell on both sides of the position, countless stone chips fell down. The thick smoke raised by the artillery shells obscured the sky, making the entire battlefield look like the end of the world.
The bombardment from large-caliber heavy artillery is very terrifying for every soldier. Every time these 200 mm or even 300 mm caliber heavy artillery is fired, it carries the power of destroying the world.
In just two days, the Goblin Kingdom poured 10,000 large-caliber artillery shells on the border. Cyric's 130mm caliber grenades bombarded the Dorne Kingdom's positions as if they were free.
Every artillery shell explodes in the soil, leaving a huge crater. Because the craters are too dense and some even collide with each other, the crater exploded first will be blasted into a crescent shape by the second shell.
On the edge of the crater, there are the corpses of Gobel soldiers and the corpses of soldiers from the Kingdom of Dorne. Some of these corpses have been reduced to pieces by cannonballs, and some are still intact.
Many soldiers' corpses have been cut beyond recognition by cannons, and the remaining parts are missing arms and legs. Torn military uniforms are hung on the broken barbed wire fence, and deformed Cyric rifles and S3 rifles are scattered everywhere.
These days, no one is wasting their precious troops and investing more troops into this battlefield that symbolizes death.
Everyone hid in the trenches, and then used the cannon behind them to greet each other's eighteenth generation ancestors.
Now, what is roaring is the artillery of the Kingdom of Goblins. Hundreds of cannons fire one after another, hitting their shells near the trench positions of the Kingdom of Dorne.
Amidst the artillery fire, in the middle of a trench on the defense line of the Kingdom of Dorne, in the cement-reinforced headquarters, an officer was sitting on a chair by the wall and yawning.
In fact, at this time, there would be no enemy troops charging over to die, so he stayed here just for a task similar to "on duty".
There is one meter of concrete on top of this command post. As long as it is not directly hit by artillery shells, there is no danger at all.
Because it is very safe here, a lot of supplies have been piled up, and there are even a few pieces of dried bacon hanging in a shady corner.
Various cans are stored in the empty ammunition box. Because this is where only officers can come in, the arrangement is obviously more casual.
The neatly stacked ammunition boxes served as a makeshift table, with a map of the war zone spread on it, and iron cups and gas lamps were randomly placed on top of the map.
A gasoline engine is working continuously, and the noisy sound of the motor is not too abrupt when mixed with the rumbling sound of the gun.
This engine drives the generator to rotate continuously, providing not very stable power to the working light bulbs and telegraph machines.
It is daytime now and the sound of cannons is relatively noisy, so the generator can be run. At night, the place can basically only rely on gas lights for lighting or simply turn off the lights.
After all, noise and light will attract enemy fire. Paying attention to concealment is the only way to survive longer on the battlefield.
"Report!" A noncommissioned officer entered the command post with a briefcase. After shaking off the dirt on his body, he stood at attention and saluted, and handed the document in his hand to the officer on duty: "Sir! This is the 2nd Regiment and Inspection report of the 3rd regiment.”
In order to confirm the combat effectiveness of our own troops and better understand the condition of the soldiers in our hands, regular inspections are very necessary.
Especially in this situation of being bombarded for several hours every day, maintaining morale is what every commander must do.
The officer on duty here took the report, looked at the numbers on it, turned to the previous day's report for comparison, and then signed his name on the latest report.
The data of the two inspections did not change much, which was good news for him: from this data, it can be seen that the enemy did not have a decent attack yesterday, and we did not attack the enemy's position.
Because each attack cost the enemy at least 1,000 soldiers, and their counterattack would also kill about 1,000 soldiers.
Since there are not so many reports of losses, it proves that neither the enemy's attack nor our own counterattack has begun, which is good news.
“When will our army’s artillery counterattack start?” After signing his name, the officer put down his pen and asked.
The non-commissioned officer stood at attention and saluted again, and then replied: "Reporting to the commander! According to the plan, our army's artillery fire will start in half an hour."
“Do you want the infantry to participate in the counterattack?” The officer on duty spoke again and asked the noncommissioned officer who came to deliver the news.
The sergeant was stunned for a moment, and then quickly explained: "General Bolton's order is that all troops should stay where they are and no more offensive operations of any kind are allowed."
Are you kidding me, launching a counterattack in front of the enemy's solid fortifications? Isn’t that pushing the soldiers to die?
Even if you want to gain merit, you can’t do this, right? If too many troops are lost, they will be held accountable!
Thinking of the terrifying punishment, the noncommissioned officer who came to deliver the news immediately took out General Bolton as a shield for himself.
Sure enough, the name of Bolton, one of the two heroes of the kingdom, is really useful. After hearing what the sergeant said, the officer immediately nodded and said: "I know, then let's follow the plan."
"Yes! Sir!" The noncommissioned officer stood at attention and saluted. He was afraid that the other party would make some strange request, so he immediately turned around and walked out of the command post.
Exactly half an hour later, the Dornish Kingdom’s counterattack began. The same large-caliber artillery, the same hundreds of cannons roaring almost simultaneously.
Howling cannonballs flew over the heads of the soldiers, making a shrieking sound of the air being torn apart, making the newly recruited soldiers tremble. Those veterans who had become accustomed to such sounds began to take out cheap cigarettes from their pockets and enjoy a moment of "peace".
They knew very well that only when these artillery roared, their enemies would stop firing, giving them a slight sense of security.
Some veterans began to put rations into their lunch boxes, and some veterans began to build campfires in the trenches.
Some squad leaders and platoon leaders began to order the soldiers to repair the damaged trenches with nearby materials, and some shouted to ask their men to quickly fill the bomb holes near the trenches.
The defenders in the entire trench became busy. Everyone hurriedly re-inserted the broken wood into the wall of the pit where they originally were. Some people leaned on the edge of the trench and watched their own artillery shells fall on the enemy's position and explode. Come on.
That scene was really spectacular: the artillery shells whizzing overhead fell into the enemy's position in an instant, directly lifting off the barbed wire fence at the front of the enemy's position, and also blew up the bodies near the barbed wire.
Threads of black smoke rose up, like huge pillars, standing between the sky and the earth, scattering on the horizon.
Since they no longer have to fight on the enemy's position, the soldiers of the Kingdom of Dorne are very relaxed looking at everything in front of them. The recruits even dare to point at the rising smoke pillars.
The Kingdom of Dorne declared war on the Kingdom of Goblins. In fact, it was a sudden declaration of war with the intention of launching a sneak attack. As a result, the airship unit responsible for the sneak attack did not play a decisive role, and almost the entire army was wiped out early the next morning.
All 20 airships participating in the battle were shot down. The only result was the destruction of a frontline city of the Gobel Kingdom, the bombing of the arsenal next to the city, and the destruction of the city's train station.
However, these results were not significant enough to determine the outcome of the border battlefield. In the end, the border battle unsurprisingly fell into the mud of trench warfare.
Within 10 days, both the Dorne Kingdom’s attempt to attack the Gobel Kingdom and the Gobel Kingdom’s attempt to counterattack the Dorne Kingdom failed.
Neither side could break the enemy's defenses on the border, so the imaginary attack naturally evolved into a trench confrontation.
With the support of barbed wire, mines, trenches, and cement bunkers, the defensive side’s advantage is too great. Therefore, even if the attacking side has an absolute advantage, it will not be able to break through the enemy’s permanent defenses in a short period of time.
Even in the Second World War, and even in the 21st century, when attacking strong fortifications, the offensive side needs to face tremendous pressure.
Originally, Dorne wanted to concentrate its superior forces to take over the Goblin Kingdom in one fell swoop. However, the war here had just reached a stalemate when the Lions Empire behind them stabbed Dorne in the back.
The Kingdom of Dorne was trapped in a two-front war and was attacked from both sides. It had no choice but to look for allies everywhere, and this search led to the Empire of Nanla!
Although the Nanla Empire was unwilling to start a war with the Lions Empire, the temptation to defeat an empire was so great that the Emperor of the Nanla Empire and his ministers finally chose to take the risk.
So, seven days after the Lions Empire declared war on Dorne, the Nanla Empire suddenly declared war on the Lions Empire, which put both empires into a dilemma of fighting on two fronts.
Because of the blessing of trenches, no one could do anything to each other in a short period of time, and all countries participating in the war obviously re-estimated the risks of war.
Since the attack suffers and the defense takes advantage, the risk of defeat after declaring war is significantly reduced - in the worst case, one can just stick to the trench defense line on the border and negotiate a peace for a few months.
But if we can break the enemy's defense line, it will be a very profitable business! Based on this simple and naive idea, various countries declare war on each other, which seems to have become a fashion and is popular among trade alliances.
However, the Datang Group or the Datang Kingdom still seemed unwilling to interfere, and did not even do the superficial work of sending telegrams to communicate, which made the countries participating in the war feel more and more at ease.
It seems that as long as there is a winner between them, Datang Group will naturally continue to cooperate and have good relations with the victorious party, and the relationship between the trade alliance will not be affected by this war!
After repeated trials, these participating countries finally relaxed and began to go all out to pursue their own victory.
Just as the countries in the trade alliance were declaring war on each other and beginning to form alliances with each other, a huge army was gathering at a train station in the hinterland of the Gobel Kingdom.
Densely packed soldiers stood on the platform, waiting to board the train in front of them. Some of these soldiers were from Gobel, and some were from more distant countries.
You must know that the Goblin Kingdom is one of the most important industrial bases built by Cyric. Its invasion obviously made Cyric really angry.
After confirming that the Datang Group or the Datang Kingdom was unlikely to get involved in this muddy water, Cyric's war machine started to operate unscrupulously.
50 newly manufactured airship bombers moved quietly towards the front line of the Gobel Kingdom. Along with the arrival of these airships, there were 200,000 manpower that quickly gathered.
Because of the blessing of railways and highways, the troops were assembled faster than expected this time, and the transfer of supplies was also faster than in the past.
What is even more frightening is that Cyric intends to use this war that Datang Group is unwilling to participate in to regain his former position as a military-industrial hegemon.
On another railway track next to the train transporting soldiers, a flatbed train had just stopped. The train was filled with soldiers on alert, many of whom were wearing gray military uniforms that they had never seen before.
On the flatbed train behind them, there were huge weapons and equipment covered by canvas. From the gap between the canvas and the flatbed train, you could see rows of densely packed tiny wheels.
Under the wheel, there is a special chain-like device pressed down. If the armored soldiers of the Tang Dynasty saw this thing, they would definitely exclaim its name: "Crawler!"
Yes, in order to win this war, break through the defense lines of the Kingdom of Dorne, and completely relieve the future crisis of the Goblin Industrial Base, the Cyric Consortium took out their secret weapon.
The off-road performance of this super tank wearing iron shoes is countless times better than that of an armored vehicle. The brand-new walking device makes it no longer afraid of bullets.
The "tank", which Sophia had high hopes for and personally named the Cyric Type 1 super tank, was pushed onto the battlefield by the Cyric Consortium.
What makes the Datang Group regretful is that they were the ones who originally developed a new weapon like the tank, but when this new weapon was put on the battlefield for the first time, it still had nothing to do with the Datang Group... This has to be said, it is an amazing thing. Things that are dumbfounding.
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Long Ling's body is almost fine. Updates will resume in August, and then we will look for opportunities to make up for the updates=. =!
(End of this chapter)