Empire Conquest-Chapter 796 - 69: Tactical Reprisal

The key is that during a war, especially in the initial stages of the war, the production efficiency of main battle equipment is certainly not very high. Because it takes a lot of time to complete war mobilization, the main battle equipment that can be put into use in the early stages of the war mainly depends on the reserves before the outbreak of the war.

This principle is very simple, and all major countries attach great importance to war readiness during peacetime.

For example, after the last war ended, the Liangxia Empire established a relatively complete storage system for main battle equipment, which has been implemented to this day. From aircraft carriers weighing tens of thousands of tons to rifles used by soldiers, everything will be stored after retirement for reuse in the event of a war.

In addition, make the weapon equipment as simple as possible to reduce the difficulty of production.

In this regard, the West Luosha does it most thoroughly.

Simply put, the weapons and equipment of the West Luosha are known for being simple and reliable. From the AK series of assault rifles, with a total production of over 100 million units including various improved versions, to the T-series main battle tanks, and the MI series of military helicopters, all follow this principle.

In fact, this is also the key to the T-72 securing a place in the Luosha Army.

Don’t forget, compared to the T-80, the T-72 is actually a simplified version.

However, the production volume of the T-72 is several times that of the T-80!

The most crucial point is that the T-72 is simple enough, requiring only one-third of the labor hours needed for the T-80, with production costs less than half of the T-80.

This means that the T-72 can be mass-produced after the outbreak of the war!

This is also the foundation of the West Luosha Army’s confidence in not fearing a war of attrition.

After completing mobilization, just one production line can produce 1,000 units a month, and the West Luosha has a total of 3 T-72 production lines.

Previously, the Tiaoman Army’s armored units were at the forefront, mainly because the forward units needed fuel supply, and to allow the soldiers to get necessary rest, even if it’s just for a hot meal and sleeping for 2 hours by the roadside, considering they have fought all the way from Volgograd without stopping.

Continuous combat—no one can endure it.

Now the problem is that the performance of the Tiaoman armored units is unsatisfactory, failing to achieve a breakthrough, and in the end, they still have to rely on the West Luosha’s armored units.

For whatever reason, perhaps due to dissatisfaction with the Tiaoman Army’s performance or to prove their own combat capability.

The West Luosha Army deployed an entire armored brigade at once!

Faced with the iron flood, the soldiers of East Luosha almost lost their fighting spirit.

This is not a matter of courage, but there is simply no way to fight the enemy.

If it weren’t for Situ Lin’s foresight in deploying 11 tanks from the company 3 in the rear of the defense line and setting up assault routes in advance, allowing them to return to the positions before the enemy charged in, making a sharp reprisal that resisted the enemy’s attack, the defense line would have been breached.

However, the cost was extremely heavy.

Six main battle tanks were divided into two combat units, positioned on the east and west sides of the defense line, and all adopted mobile defense tactics.

Simply put, making full use of the pre-set fire points, constantly changing defensive positions to avoid being targeted by the enemy’s anti-tank fire.

At this point in the battle, the concern is not only the armor-piercing bullets coming from the new main battle tanks but also the anti-tank missiles fired from afar.

To put it simply, the anti-tank missile poses a greater threat.

Up until now, not a single ZT-99B has been destroyed by the enemy’s armor-piercing bullets, at least the turret and frontal armor of the chassis have not been penetrated.

However, several ZT-99Bs have been destroyed by the enemy’s heavy anti-tank missiles.

Smoke is swirling over the position.

It is not fog or gunpowder smoke at night, but the smoke released by tanks during combat.

The enemy’s anti-tank gunners follow behind the main battle tanks, operating on infantry fighting vehicles. They dismount at the forefront of the defense line, find hiding points, set up anti-tank missile launchers, and begin searching for and attacking tanks.

In the heat of battle, there is no way to attend to the enemy’s anti-tank gunners.

Usually, cooperative infantry uses large-caliber machine guns or automatic grenade launchers with similar range to deal with the enemy’s anti-tank gunners.

Unfortunately, there is no cooperative infantry.

The East Luosha Army on the positions is already in disarray, with two mechanized infantry companies suffering heavy casualties, and the remaining soldiers cannot be brought in for the moment.

The battle is extremely fierce, with the enemy’s tanks already charging onto the positions, just waiting for infantry to occupy.

However, Situ Lin did not think much, nor did he have time to think more.

"All units, report your status."

"This is Zhang Jianguo, on the west side of the position, with 3 tanks, running low on ammunition, with less than a third of the armor-piercing bullets left."

"This is Niu Halong, on the east side of the position, also with 3 tanks, each with about 10 armor-piercing shells."

Hearing the report, Situ Lin’s heart tightened.

Niu Halong is the second platoon leader of Company Three, and according to unwritten rules, the deputy company commander should be directly commanding the second platoon in combat, and the fact that the platoon leader is reporting indicates that the deputy company commander’s vehicle has been destroyed.

Perhaps, the deputy company commander has already died heroically for his country.

"Brothers, the enemy has already reached our position, passive defense can’t hold them off. Let’s launch a counterattack, drive the enemy out of the position, and buy time for the infantry."

"Got it."

"Understood."

"Everyone, standard assault formation, Zhang Jianguo, watch the left side, Niu Halong, keep an eye on the right, identify the markers clearly, aim before firing!"

"For the nation——"

"For the nation——"

...

This time, it wasn’t Situ Lin who shouted the slogan; the crew members of other vehicles shouted it first.

"For the nation!"

Tang Xuebing followed with a loud shout, then stepped on the gas.

"Steady!"

Situ Lin reminded the already excited driver.

During combat, shouting slogans and other methods are mainly used to overcome fear and ignite the soldiers’ fighting spirit.

The fighting spirit is needed now, but absolutely no basic mistakes can be made.

"Go!"

"Fire upon aiming!"

"Boom——"

As soon as Situ Lin gave the order, Wu Qitie stepped on the pedal to fire the shell.

Although the tank gun can be controlled by a switch on the joystick, the ZT-99B retains a pedal switch to ensure that it can still fire in special circumstances.

Actually, Wu Qitie had long set his sights on the tank with several whip antennas on the turret.

Although he couldn’t see the number on the enemy tank’s turret, he could tell from the number of antennas that it was definitely a command vehicle.

Only a command vehicle would be equipped with extra communication equipment and require more communication antennas.

With the two-way stabilization system, whether speeding or suddenly accelerating or decelerating, the ZT-99B can keep its gun aimed at the target.

Besides, a distance of less than 2000 meters is not far at all.

Therefore, after rushing out of the hidden shrubbery, Wu Qitie couldn’t wait to fire the first shot.

This distance is really too close.

About 1800 meters, for an armor-piercing discarding sabot with a muzzle velocity of 1750 meters per second, it takes just a bit more than one second to reach the target.

In fact, when the tank stabilized and the infrared imager regained a clear image, the armor-piercing shell had already hit the target.

There was no exploding accident, but one tank crew member crawled out of the turret.

Before Wu Qitie switched the fire control, the coaxial machine gun swept over, that guy slid down from the tank and disappeared.

Apparently, that tank had been destroyed by the armor-piercing shell.

At this moment, the other 4 ZT-99Bs behind also opened fire.

Tang Xuebing didn’t stop, just adjusted the tank’s direction to keep the vehicle body aligned with the turret, aiming the front as directly as possible at the enemy.

This is not only because the frontal protection of the vehicle body and turret is the strongest but also relates to the stability of the gun.

If the angle between the gun axis and the vehicle’s central axis is too large, then after firing, more time will be needed to eliminate the resulting vibrations.

Of course, the main concern is protection.

Any tank, even the over 60-ton "Challenger 2", has relatively thin side armor. It’s not just powerful armor-piercing shells; even common armor-piercing shells, or even infantry rocket launchers, can penetrate and take out personnel inside the tank.

This time, Situ Lin’s team adopted a dense formation, with a lateral distance of about 50 meters between the 5 tanks.

The enemy is overwhelming, and Situ Lin’s mission is to raid, disrupt the enemy’s battle deployments, and attract the enemy’s attention, not to engage in an annihilation battle here.

They don’t have the resources for an annihilation battle anyway.

The remaining 11 ZT-99Bs have about 120 armor-piercing shells; calculating at a hit rate of sixty percent, it’s simply not enough to destroy all enemy tanks.

If they can scare the enemy away, that would be good enough!