Munitions Empire-Chapter 1145 - 1065 Chaotic Beach

A Type 63 amphibious tank rolled over the corpses on the ground and fired a shell towards the distant bunker. A massive explosion spread through the gradually thinning white mist, illuminating the faces of the Navy Marine Corps soldiers who were advancing in the attack.

"Ratatatatata!" Armed with Type 56 assault rifles, the Tang Army’s Navy Marine Corps swept through the trenches, taking out the Mirage Country’s defending forces. Occasionally, someone would step on a hidden mine and perish. Soon, some Shen Army soldiers equipped with submachine guns appeared and managed to barely hold back the Tang Army’s assault from the side.

Upfront, inside the thick concrete defensive structures, Mirage Country soldiers were firing Maxim heavy machine guns at the beach, their visibility had improved a lot, but the targets in front of them had become much more complicated.

On the beach, there were advancing amphibious armored vehicles, as well as landed amphibious tanks, with more Marine Corps soldiers having come ashore. The machine gun firepower was no longer able to maintain a threat to these vulnerable targets.

"Keep firing! Keep firing!" Inside the bunker, a Mirage Country officer chopped forward with his command saber, slightly longer than a dagger, and shouted frantically.

The Mirage Country soldiers gripping the machine gun handles stood on stools and poured down ammo on the distant targets from a higher vantage point.

Honestly, few troops could attack the Great Tang Empire’s forces so recklessly. These Goblins really had the upper hand now; they had killed a large number of Great Tang Empire soldiers, more than they might have in a previous battle.

"Ratatatatata!" The Maxim machine guns kept firing. Tracer bullets zigzagged through the increasingly sparse smoke, striking the landing craft’s steel plates, the tanks’ armor, and the bodies of many Tang Army soldiers.

The Tang Army infantry, having blasted a gap open, were now expanding their success. An amphibious armored vehicle provided cover for another group of soldiers who approached the rocks. Following a breach beside the rocks, soldiers of the Great Tang Empire swarmed in and stormed into the Shen Army’s defensive positions.

"For the glory of the Shen Emperor! Long live His Majesty!" The Mirage Country soldiers, with bayonets fixed on their rifles, charged wildly at the Tang Army soldiers who were still struggling to secure their foothold.

However, a barrage of bullets from the onslaught of assault rifles came over their heads, driving back these fervent converts.

With the protection of armored tanks, the Tang Army picked up the pace of their attack. A Type 63 amphibious tank, bulky in form, rolled over the broken Mirage Country trenches.

The tank’s tracks knocked down piled-up sandbags, and right after the bullet-ridden Type 63 amphibious tank passed by, Goblins with explosives rushed towards this Great Tang Empire’s war machine from behind.

The next second, a huge explosion engulfed the tank, followed by a sympathetic detonation of the Type 63 amphibious tank, blowing up everything around it, leaving only a twisted wreck of steel behind.

Both sides were seeing red, desperately fighting in a very limited area. The Great Tang Empire’s soldiers were advancing meter by meter along the trenches, while Mirage Country soldiers were counterattacking the attacking Great Tang Empire soldiers unrestrainedly.

From initially only the Great Tang Empire’s soldiers bleeding, the situation evolved into soldiers from both sides bleeding. Everyone was madly slaughtering, unrestrainedly trying to put each other to death.

"Gun grenades!" After gaining a better firing position, the Great Tang Empire’s Marine Corps soldiers began to take advantage of their superior weapons and equipment.

A row of soldiers kneeled on one knee, aiming their Type 56 assault rifles equipped with gun grenades, and, lobbing them high, sent the grenades flying.

Seconds later, the grenades fell from the sky, and like mortar shells, landed near the entrenched positions of the Mirage Country’s defending forces, instantly raising clouds of dust.

"Load up again!" Under the commander’s orders, the grenadiers took gun grenades from the pouches on their hips, loaded them into the grenade launchers at the front of their rifles, and fired another round.

The place that had just exploded once again raised dirt and dust; this time, the Mirage Country’s defending forces were genuinely starting to falter.

More and more Tang Army tanks appeared on the beach. Although many were stuck in mud and sand and some were destroyed by mines and artillery, there were still tanks approaching their positions.

The Tang Army force on the flank was also growing; they had blown a huge gap along the trench, and the number of Tang Army soldiers landing near the gap was increasing.

Even though the smoke was about to dissipate and the Tang Army had no intention to reinforce it with more smoke shells, as the visibility improved, the Tang Army’s attacks became more precise.

The Great Tang Empire’s snipers hidden in corners were taking out exposed Mirage Country soldiers, the number of fallen Mirage Country machine gunners was rising, and the entire defense line was beginning to crumble.

The line that was built up with sheer numbers was no longer effective; the Mirage Country soldiers armed with Shireck Type 1 rifles suffered heavy casualties. They were running out of reinforcements and could no longer apply pressure on the Tang Army with countercharges.

In relatively safe areas, the large-caliber mortars equipped on the modified Type 77 amphibious armored vehicles had landed, providing soldiers with more accurate and timely fire support. The hidden but frail machine gun positions of Mirage Country began to falter.

Accompanied by the sound of engines, the carrier-based aircraft of the Great Tang Empire appeared in the sky above the battlefield; the Stuka Dive Bombers with their wings swept upward instantly dragged the officers of Mirage Country back into their terrifying memories.

Many officers of Mirage Country had witnessed the horror of the Stuka Dive Bombers during the Battle of Beiyuan. The image of them diving down and dropping 500-kilogram bombs had remained ensnared in the officers’ minds like a nightmare.

Some of the Mirage Country officers had also taken part in the Battle of Fengjiang, where they had seen their own Stukas slaughter the enemy: these vulture-like planes would swoop down from the sky, followed by a gigantic column of smoke rising from the enemy’s positions.

"Damn it... how could they have planes?" A Mirage Country commander heard the sound of the engines, looked up, and saw the silhouette of the Stukas, cursing subconsciously.

Amid his curses, a Stuka Dive Bomber nearly vertically struck the ground with a 500-kilogram bomb, hitting the position where the Mirage Country soldiers were stationed.

The point of impact was less than 5 meters away from a steel-reinforced concrete bunker, creating a huge crater that completely destroyed the nearby trenches.

The bunker was also affected by the blast, with part of it collapsing, instantly killing the soldiers inside, leaving the Shen Army with one less fire support point.

With one Aerial Bomb after another dropping from the sky, the soldiers of Mirage Country felt the ground beneath their feet tremble ceaselessly.

The attack of the Great Tang Empire Soldiers seemed to have halted because the landed Navy Marine Corps troops were busy displaying their national flag or igniting red flares in their controlled area: they were signaling to their own bombers not to drop bombs on their comrades.

Two Pirate Fighters responsible for escorting began to strafe ground targets with their 20mm caliber autocannons, creating deep grooves in the ground and scattering the bodies of Mirage Country soldiers nearby.

"Boom!" Just as the Mirage Country soldiers were busy looking up at the sky and shooting in an attempt to drive away the annoying planes overhead, a Shen Army position experienced a violent explosion.

25 kilometers away, smoke was still rising from the muzzle of the 380mm main guns on the Dongwan No. 1 Battleship.

Inside the sealed turret, soldiers were busy operating machinery to clean the gun barrel, preparing for the next loading. Amid their busyness, the breech of another cannon on the left side sat back with a sudden force, and even through the heavy armor and earplugs, the gun operators could hear the deafening roar.

A shell surged out of the muzzle of the 380mm caliber heavy cannon, passing over the transport ships laden with supplies below, then over the giant wheel discharging soldiers, and a myriad of landing crafts and amphibious landing ships.

As it began to descend, losing height and speed, it approached the ground nearly vertically. Eventually, it crashed into an open field and violently detonated several meters underground.

The surrounding land shook in response, nearby bunkers and trenches crumbled, deformed, and were destroyed in an instant. Soil was flung into the air nearly a hundred meters high, falling down as if it were raining mud and sand.

After the brutal explosion, the nearby battlefield seemed to quiet down, with a colossal crater lying between two trenches, even deforming and squeezing the trenches.

"Offset coordinates by 0.1 to the left! Repeat, shell impact coordinates offset 0.1 to the left!" On land, the liaison officer holding the telephone handset loudly reminded the Fleet to correct the fall of the artillery shells.

Closer by, the Destroyer Squadron of the Great Tang Empire Navy had lined up in a straight line close to shore and was fiercely depleting its ammunition.

A loader, dressed in heavy heat-resistant gear, shoved a shell into the chamber of his main gun, whose breech immediately closed automatically. The cannon fired and recoiled, promptly ejecting the steaming shell casing.

Another loader was already in position with a shell, pushing the projectile into the barrel, and the main gun of the Destroyer fired once more, the muzzle spewing hot flames again.

On the bridge, the communications officer urgently tore off a telegram, then walked over to the artillery commander: "Section 56-74 is off limits!"

"Cease fire! Cease fire! You’re hitting our own men! Shift the gun barrel! Coordinates 82-91," the artillery commander hurriedly grabbed the intercom, shouting loudly!

The neighboring Destroyer continued to fire, and even further away, more Destroyers were still recklessly bombarding the already-smoking positions of the Shen Army. There, the targets were hardly visible through the smoke, yet the Fleet responsible for artillery support showed no sign of ceasing fire.