Munitions Empire-Chapter 1007 - : 929 is conducting military drills in Fengjiang
Chapter 1007: 929 is conducting military drills in Fengjiang
With Guiguang being occupied by Fengjiang Troops, the advisory group of the Great Tang Empire moved their headquarters from Fengjiang to here.
Luo Xiao was recently planning to dispatch a force from Guiguang to attack Wanliang, posing a threat to Hezhe from the south and easing some pressure on the Fengjiang battlefield.
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However, numerous new changes had emerged on the Fengjiang battlefield at this time, prompting Luo Xiao to convene another meeting to discuss the new issues that had arisen.
At the beginning of the meeting, an officer in charge of personnel training gave an introduction to the basic situation. In the Fengjiang civil strife this time, the Great Tang Empire had also sent some personnel to participate in the warfare, directly or indirectly.
“Using some opportunities to train troops has been a decision made by the superiors a while ago, and the main forces we have dispatched for training are, apart from middle-level commanders, only a few special forces,” the officer listed as an example: “Including snipers, mapping and calibration personnel, signal corps, ground support staff, etc. These personnel, apart from snipers, generally do not participate in frontline combat.”
Leveraging this Fengjiang civil war, the Great Tang Empire was also nurturing new talent and kept many special forces and sniper teams in optimal combat readiness.
Many new types of individual equipment were also given to these personnel for testing, including new sniper rifles, more precise aiming devices, smaller batteries, and individual communication equipment, among others.
In addition, the logistical support troops of the Great Tang Empire took over a significant portion of Fengjiang army’s transport, distribution, and scheduling tasks, which trained new logistics troops and cultivated a large number of logistics commanders.
Many things cannot be truly understood without getting hands-on experience and actual participation.
Thus, letting these greenhorns from the logistics troops mess with the Fengjiang troops and mercenaries, allowing them to accumulate experience to ensure the smooth logistics of the Great Tang Empire’s own forces in the future, became very important.
Luo Xiao looked toward the officer and asked, “So the ones most likely to suffer casualties would be the snipers.”
“Yes!” The officer nodded, then continued to add, “The reason for this meeting, is that I have brought some not-so-good news. There may be some Dahua Empire snipers appearing on the Fengjiang frontlines. Our snipers must be extra careful when they are operating.”
Hearing what the officer said, Luo Xiao raised his eyebrows and confirmed, “Oh? Is this just intelligence, or is there data?”
Knowing the enemy troops’ movement generally only happens in two situations: the first is that the intelligence department has provided corresponding intelligence, the second is that the enemy’s troops were actually encountered on the battlefield.
By asking this, Luo Xiao was essentially asking whether it was just heard that the enemy snipers had arrived at the frontline or if they had indeed encountered snipers and suffered casualties.
The officer in charge of training answered directly, “We have data. In the past three days, the casualty rate of Fengjiang’s snipers has significantly increased. We can confirm that among them, 7 were killed by the enemy snipers.”
Luo Xiao seemed to still be confirming; he wanted to know whether the other side was really taken out by snipers or if it was possible that they were killed after bumping into enemy regular forces, “Killed with a single shot?”
“Yes, most cases are kills with a single shot,” the officer gave a relatively accurate answer, “The fallen Fengjiang snipers were all trained by us. Even though their level is not that great, it’s still not easy for regular infantry to take them out.”
Luo Xiao nodded and commanded, “Remind our sniper teams to be vigilant in combat! Find those troublesome enemy snipers and eliminate them.”
“Yes, understood!” The officer stood at attention and saluted in response.
…
“Cao Fei! There’s work to do!” Approaching Cao Fei who was cleaning his weapon, his spotter threw several documents on the table and pulled up a chair to sit down.
The sniper teams all have their own rest encampments, and though the facilities are simple, they are relatively quiet and safe at the frontlines.
This place is a reinforced shelter, fitted with two bunk beds, a table, and a gas lamp for lighting; there’s even a wooden door at the exit for privacy.
Ordinary soldiers wouldn’t have such considerate positions, let alone the stacks of high-quality supplies in the corner — according to the Great Tang Empire’s supply grading, snipers receive top-tier battlefield supplies among the infantry.
If not for logistical supply difficulties, snipers would get two packets of cigarettes, four bars of chocolate, several pieces of candy, and other extra supplies each week; the instant noodles and other food for the infantry would all be replaced with canned food or beautifully packaged “pre-cooked meals.”
These pre-cooked meals aren’t that high-tech stuff, but rather a vegetable and meat mixture that’s not particularly tasty but is quite nutritious. It’s very convenient, needing only to be boiled before eating.
Compared to the infantry, sniper teams on the frontline should have their own rest rooms according to the standards, convenient for them to recover their strength and study tactics.
In Fengjiang, the snipers of the Great Tang enjoy even better treatment, being able to enjoy a week’s vacation after a week of combat, and taking their leave directly in Fengjiang.
Most of the time, the job of the snipers of the Great Tang Empire involves training Fengjiang’s snipers, only occasionally performing some high-level sniper missions when they feel the need to familiarize themselves with the battlefield environment.
Generally, the sniper missions of the Great Tang Empire, ranked from highest to lowest priority, are: scouting enemy troop movements, guiding artillery bombardment, assassinating high-value enemy targets, and eliminating enemy snipers…
From this, it is evident that, in the eyes of the Great Tang Empire’s snipers, opening fire and attacking is quite low on the priority list.
Cao Fei, who was maintaining his expensive sniper rifle, set down his tools and looked at the documents on the table: “Hmm? Is there a mission?”
“It’s not just a mission, but a big one! Recently, some enemy snipers have been spotted on the front lines, and the higher-ups want us to eliminate these snipers,” said the spotter with a chuckle.
After saying that, he picked up his own assault rifle leaning against the table and carefully inspected it.
Cao Fei perked up; having been a sniper for so many years, he really enjoyed this hunter-like lifestyle: “Really?”
His spotter fiddled with his own weapon while replying: “For real! There have already been over twenty Fengjiang snipers killed.”
“Some tough guys, then,” Cao Fei said, feeling that the mission itself seemed even more interesting.
The spotter agreed, “Exactly, those apprentices of ours have suffered losses.”
They were well aware of the skills of the Fengjiang snipers they had trained; although these Fengjiang snipers were still rookies, there were disparities even among rookies.
It seemed that among the enemy snipers, there must be a few very formidable figures. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have killed so many Fengjiang counterparts in such a short time.
“Let’s go! Let’s meet these colleagues!” Cao Fei wiped his hands and walked over to the bed to start packing his belongings.
The spotter also began stuffing food and some spare tools into his backpack: “The boss said to be careful!”
This was a game without respawns, so everyone knew they had to be careful. Life only comes once, and any small mistake could cost one their life.
Cao Fei adjusted his ghillie suit, wearing the rag-like thing over his body, as did his spotter, and they both walked out of their hidden shelter looking like two heaps of rags.
Behind them, Fengjiang City was still emitting thick smoke, and in recent days the Dahua Empire had pushed the frontline to within less than 11 kilometers of Fengjiang’s urban area.
Zhao Chen had to be commended for his abilities; while reinforcing his flanks with troops from Wanliang, he was also striving to break into the urban area of Fengjiang to change the tide of the war.
Now that the distance was so close, many of Dahua Empire’s artillery guns could start shelling the urban area of Fengjiang.
Zhao Yu, trembling with fear within the city, no longer talked about driving away the Dahua Empire’s artillery, because even the 150mm caliber artillery guns of the Dahua Empire could now fire shells into Fengjiang City.
Cao Fei, rifle in arms, walked step by step in the trenches. Next to their shelter was an anti-aircraft gun position of the Dahua Empire, where there were more than a dozen 76mm caliber anti-aircraft guns, all purchased from the Laines Empire using old and outdated technology.
It’s worth noting that initially all of Fengjiang’s anti-aircraft guns had been moved to the vicinity of Fengjiang Airport; most of the guns deployed near the urban area now were purchased from abroad, old models that were not cheap.
Passing a machine-gun position that protected these anti-aircraft guns, a Fengjiang officer, already familiar with Cao Fei and his comrade, greeted them.
Their location was about 4 kilometers from the frontline, and they had to pass through many trenches; once they reached a point only 1 kilometer away from the actual combat zone, they had to proceed with extreme caution.
Not just to guard against the possible appearance of enemy forces, but also to avoid nervous friendly forces. It wouldn’t be impossible for some idiots to shoot at them in a moment of panic, given how they were dressed.
Identification of friend or foe on the battlefield has always been a big problem, especially on battlefields like Fengjiang’s: it wasn’t just about the uniforms but also the racial diversity.
Dwarves, Goblins, and Elves all uniformly wore M35 steel helmets, but not wearing an M35 helmet didn’t necessarily mean someone was an enemy; the snipers of the Great Tang had their own composite material helmets, different in design from the M35 steel helmets.
Therefore, everything had to be done with extra care, for dying by the hands of one’s own side would be truly an unjust fate.
——
Sleep was poor and I have a splitting headache, so just one chapter today. I will make it up tomorrow.
