Two Realms Shuttle Gate: Don't Call Me a Demon!-Chapter 328 - 232: Armored Torrent (30,000 words in three updates, asking for monthly votes!)

Chapter 328: Chapter 232: Armored Torrent (30,000 words in three updates, asking for monthly votes!)

Chan Country!

The border between Ji State and East Qin State.

A river runs through the two provinces, the Baoji River, which carves out fertile land on both banks and also serves as the dividing line between the two provinces.

The terrain of Ji State is mostly flat; it is one of the few plain areas within Chan Country, a basin plain surrounded by high mountains. The industry here is relatively developed. Besides the abundant mineral resources, this is also inseparable from the region’s topography.

Most of Chan Country’s territory is crisscrossed with mountains and jungles, making it difficult to transport resources out, and constructing infrastructure in the dense forests and mountains is beyond the country’s capabilities.

...

At this moment, as the sun had just risen not long ago, many early-rising farmers in Ji State, near the Baoji River, carrying hoes and other farm tools, rolling up their trouser legs to head to the fields, heard a strange rumbling sound. In the distance, they could see black smoke trailing in the sky, extending towards them.

Just as these farmers were puzzling over it, they arrived at the banks of the Baoji River and witnessed a sight they had only seen on television—the steel tide.

An iron bridge, hastily constructed overnight by the engineer corps, spanned the Baoji River. Countless tanks, armored vehicles, self-propelled howitzers, rocket artillery, self-propelled air defense missile vehicles, high-altitude artillery, infantry carriers, and trucks were lining up to cross it.

“Brigade Commander, a tank has broken down on the bridge; we’re working on repairs,”

Inside a command vehicle, Valenkin frowned as he received the report. He stepped out of the vehicle, picked up a pair of binoculars, and indeed saw a tank that had, inconveniently, broken down on the bridge, blocking the way.

He did not hesitate, giving a direct order, “Keep the troops orderly. Don’t bother repairing the broken-down tank. Have the armored vehicles on both sides work together and push it into the river. We must reach the attack position on time.”

He did not spare a thought for the multi-million-dollar main battle tank’s loss, only desiring to cross the bridge as quickly as possible.

After issuing this command, Valenkin returned to studying the map, estimating the speed of the crossing.

Crossing the river should take about an hour, and then a full-speed assault for another two hours should bring them to the first offensive position.

“I hope everything goes smoothly.”

Valenkin watched the brightening sky with some unease. Such a large-scale movement of armored troops, without having established air supremacy, would be extremely dangerous.

As a person from Bear Country, after his retirement, he was employed by the Jieke Group. At first, he only served as a military instructor. However, his diligence earned the Jieke Group’s trust. After bringing his family to Mande City, he was honored to become the brigade commander of the Jieke Group’s only heavy combined brigade, commanding this armor onslaught on lightning strike missions.

Valenkin was an officer in an armored unit back in Bear Country, and after retiring due to certain incidents and his parents’ severe illness, he was forced to leave the army and sought livelihood with the Jieke Group.

It was unexpected that the Jieke Group, urgently requiring high-level military personnel, would treat him well. He cherished this hard-earned opportunity and did not want the heavy combined brigade to suffer serious losses.

In fact, when he received this military mission, Valenkin was quite resistant.

In modern warfare, air supremacy reigns supreme, and the enemy could launch fighter jets and ground attack planes for a strike at any moment.

Even with air defense missiles and high-altitude artillery, ground armored troops would struggle against a large number of fighter jets.

The enemy only needed to eliminate the air defense armored units with air-to-ground missiles, and the remaining armored troops would be sitting ducks for the aircraft overhead, a tempting snack.

However, his opposition was not acknowledged; his superiors merely hinted at solving the enemy’s air supremacy issue, but how it would be resolved was not something within his knowledge.

Even now, he was unsure whether the assurances from above were true or false. Should the enemy’s air supremacy remain, the heavy combined brigade would undoubtedly suffer heavy damage.

“Brigade Commander, urgent telegram from headquarters.”

Suddenly, a signalman ran over in a hurry, holding a stack of telegrams, his face beaming with great joy.

Valenkin grabbed the telegrams and, after reading them, his previously furrowed brow gradually relaxed until he couldn’t contain himself and burst into hearty laughter.

“Hahaha, excellent, we have won for sure now.”

Valenkin excitedly punched the air; the telegram stated that the air strike group’s three attacks launched in the early hours of the morning had been a complete success.

The enemy’s air combat jets, which he had been most worried about, were mostly destroyed on the ground. Now his armored troops could advance unobstructed.

“Full speed ahead, today I will stay overnight in Jiwei City, Ji State’s largest city. Tell the lads below to put their backs into it.”

Valenkin’s excitement was palpable. Without the threat of airstrikes, the armored troops’ advantage would become limitless.

Jieke Security First Brigade continued crossing the river, under the watchful eyes of some curious farmers by the roadside, completing the river crossing in less than an hour. Then, the whole unit turned south and headed straight for the nearest Chan Country Army camp.

…….

Two hours later.

A Chan Country Army camp, where a thousand soldiers were stationed, saw fire rain from the sky.

Rockets streaked with beautiful trails, dropping haphazardly around the camp, blasts turning the earth to scorched rubble, with human limbs scattered everywhere.

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!

Following that, shells from 152mm caliber artillery fell, blasting the soldiers in the barracks into dizziness and confusion. Caught in a state of panic, they had no thoughts of preparing a defense.

Many of these Chan Country Soldiers were newly recruited and had never faced such a battle with gunfire flying and shells raining down indiscriminately. Those who could still hold onto their guns without ducking were considered good enough.

Many of the new recruits were so frightened they wet their pants, crying and lying on the ground, not daring to even peek their heads out.

Even those so-called veterans from the Chan Country, who were more accustomed to dealing with guerrillas in the mountains and forests, had never encountered such a fierce and concentrated artillery barrage.

Neither their government army nor the warlords had ever operated like this. It’s as if they thought artillery shells and fuel didn’t cost money!

Most of the armored vehicles they had purchased were kept in storage, these gas-guzzlers rarely had the chance to see action.

“Is anyone still alive, make a sound! I’m scared.”

When the shelling stopped, a new recruit in a dugout bomb shelter started shouting tremulously.

He couldn’t hear any noise outside and the silence led him to fear that all his comrades had died.

“Hey, is there still anyone alive, I…”

Before the recruit could finish speaking, he saw a veteran crawl in, reach out his hand, and drag him out to the cover behind the dugout.

The veteran was furiously yelling, but the recruit could hear nothing. It was not until then that he realized he had lost his hearing from the artillery shock.

The recruit vigorously rubbed his ears, terrified that he might truly have gone deaf.

Fortunately, his hearing loss was only temporary. Gradually, he began to hear the chaotic noise from outside: the cries and the shouting.

“My leg is gone, has anyone seen my leg?”

“Where is the enemy, where exactly is the enemy?”

“Medic, we need a medic over here, my brother’s belly has been hit by shrapnel, I can barely hold in his intestines.”

The recruit, shivering, listened to the chaotic noise of the battlefield when suddenly, he felt the ground trembling slightly beneath him.

Then, the sound of mechanical rumbling grew closer. The recruit poked his head out of the trench and saw an endless number of tanks and armored vehicles appearing on the horizon of the plains, rolling like a steel flood shaking the earth, with black smoke blotting out the sky.

Seeing this sight for the first time, the recruit’s mouth hung open as fear made his whole body tremble.

It wasn’t just the recruits who were afraid; all the soldiers in the barracks were terrified.

They were just a bunch of infantrymen, and on this plain terrain, how could they stop the advancing steel flood?

The few resistances they had attempted to put up by firing a few shots; as a result, after tanks blasted them sky-high, the remaining soldiers, one after another, sensibly raised white flags and walked out of their shelters to surrender.

This steel flood hardly paused. After leaving a small number of infantry to take over the prisoners, the remaining forces continued to advance.

At this moment, the headquarters of the Chan Country had already received intelligence about this heavy mechanized brigade and immediately issued orders to set up multiple layers of defenses.

But the military officials of the Chan Country had overestimated the mobilization speed of their troops. On the plains, how could human legs outrun an armored force?

Before the Chan Country troops could reach the blocking positions, the heavy mechanized brigade had already breached the defensive line.

Even for the units that managed to catch up and attempt to block, on the plains facing the assault of armored forces, they had no option but to dig trenches and set up defenses with drones, artillery, rocket launchers, and anti-tank missiles.

However, compared to the vast steel flood, such defenses were too easily broken through; with armed helicopters in the sky and tanks and armored vehicles on the ground, the infantry also coordinated their efforts.

Especially those second-class and third-class Super Soldiers assigned to the units, each nearly a Sharpshooter.

The soldiers trying to ambush with rocket launchers often got sniped in the head by Super Soldiers before they even had a chance to aim properly.

Many infantrymen didn’t even have time to dig trenches before encountering the steel flood on the open plain, getting shattered on impact, and having their defense lines broken through layer by layer.

Lacking air superiority, the heavy mechanized brigade charged forward unhindered, advancing at a lightning-fast pace and tearing through the defensive lines laid out by the Chan Country Army within Ji State. After crossing Baoji River, they swiftly moved ahead, reaching Jiwei City, the capital of Ji State, by sunset.

Meanwhile, a sizeable elite force of 50,000 from the Chan Country Army was mostly deployed in Jibang Jinlao Mountain, facing off against the East Qin State border, where they had built numerous defenses.

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In the basin plains surrounded by forests and mountains of Ji State, Jiwei City was their logistical backbone. Now that it had been blocked by the Jieke Group’s heavy mechanized brigade, the 50,000 Chan Country troops at the border were immediately at a loss.

If they failed to break through Jiwei City, they faced the prospect of running out of water and food, without logistics for ammunition and supplies, this large contingent of troops could only become isolated.

As history has shown, no strategy is more devastating than cutting off provisions.