Munitions Empire

"What!" Upon hearing the news, the Qi Country general overseeing the battle was taken aback, his expression immediately turning grave.

He felt confident that he could crush the riotous troops sent by the First Prince or, at the very least, bribe them into surrendering.

But if the opposing side was the enemy's military, that would make things much more difficult. Although the Second Army, as Qi Country's main force, had not yet engaged in direct combat with the Tang Army, they were not exactly fearful, but along the way, they had indeed heard about the Tang Army's prowess.

They managed to break through the border defenses in two days, conquer Luo Town and Nanye within a month, and even threatened King City of Qi Country...

They killed the Third Prince and General Tian Heng, and routed the elite Third Army... Such battle achievements were indeed enough to cause alarm and panic.

"General, what should we do now?" one of his subordinates asked with a woeful expression.

The several probing attempts had all been executed by troops from his unit. Now, having sent more than 300 men in three companies, only about 80 returned. How could he not be distraught over such losses?

Seeing that Qi Country was already in chaos, having troops meant having power. As the leader of his battalion, he saw that his unit was on the verge of being decimated, so his face naturally turned to an extreme grimace.

The leading general was also out of ideas, so he simply gave the order, "Send the message along the railway to inform the Second... to inform His Majesty the King."

He was not in a position to decide and could only send the message to the Second Prince, letting this "His Majesty the King" make the final decision.

However, about ten minutes after the messenger had left, the general realized that if he waited here doing nothing, he certainly wouldn't please the new king.

His Majesty the King had only recently ascended to his position and needed talent to fill his court. If he did not take this opportunity to show his worth, it would seem quite inexcusable.

Thus, the general once again looked at his subordinates and ordered, "Waiting here will do us no good! Rally the troops! Attack one more time!"

He was not an imbecile incapable of anything; he had a certain level of competence. After digesting the shock of the Tang Army taking Donghe Bridge, he decisively began his tactical deployment.

"Gather all the nearby machine guns! Cover the troop's advance! Get those machine guns close enough to suppress the enemy's firepower!" Knowing he had no artillery support, he planned to use machine guns to suppress the Tang Army's machine guns.

"Moreover, don't add fuel, directly press on with a full battalion! It's okay if we suffer greater losses! As long as we can take the two east-side bridgeheads, that would be a great achievement!" After saying this, he looked at a fully organized battalion leader and patted his shoulder, "This time, it's your turn!"

Having finished, he continued to instruct, "Rest assured! I guarantee we will compensate for this time's losses! And if you capture a bridgehead, you'll be rewarded with 10,000 Gold Coins!"

Upon hearing the bounty of 10,000 Gold Coins, the battalion leader immediately perked up. Now with a dozen machine guns at his back and a hefty reward as incentive, his combat willingness was quite resolute.

As a result, the battalion leader immediately replied, "Rest assured, General! I will spare no cost to take the bridgehead and cover the army's crossing!"

Money speaks volumes. With Gold Coins as a reward, the Qi Army organized the attack at double the speed! Soon, more Qi soldiers were surging along the railway.

Within the crowd, a Qi officer waving his pistol shouted loudly, "Charge! Avenge His Majesty!"

"Take back King City!" On another side, another officer was also frantically shouting, spurring on his soldiers to charge with all their might.

"Crush the enemy! A reward of 2 Gold Coins for each man! Charge!" Further back, the Qi Army's enforcers advanced while shouting aloud.

As they cheered, the bridgehead was almost within reach, "One Tang soldier's head, a reward of one Gold Coin! We're going to strike it rich, brothers!"

"The first to recapture the bridgehead will be rewarded with 50 Gold Coins!" Not hearing too much gunfire, the Qi soldiers grew even more excited, as if just a bit more effort would bring all those Gold Coins into their grasp.

The result was that the officer who had been shouting about avenging the king suddenly had his head blown open by a bullet as he walked.

The enforcer who proclaimed that each paratrooper was worth one Gold Coin also inexplicably fell after a bullet struck his chest.

The Sharpshooters of the Great Tang were remarkably efficient; they aimed at Qi officers with feathers on their hats, taking them down with astonishing effectiveness.

In the south, troops of the First Prince, or rather those who had clashed with the Tang Army, had already removed the ostentatious feathers from their hats.

Because they realized that the enemy had Sharpshooters who specifically targeted the flashy Qi officers. Therefore, whenever these Qi officers went to the front lines, they would change their hats or simply remove the feathers.

As for dignity and aesthetics: such things didn't exist on the battlefield, okay? When compared to one's life, every other consideration was secondary.

Unfortunately, the Qi Country's Second Army, which had never faced the Tang Army in direct combat, had no idea how their unique uniforms would bring disaster upon them.

Time ticked away, second by second, and the Qi Army's attacking troops, having just reached the halfway point, suddenly realized... they couldn't find their damn commander.

On the chaotic battlefield, a soldier carrying a rifle with a troubled frown ran up to a squad leader and asked anxiously, "Where's the First Platoon leader?"

They were actually very close to the Tang Army's position, the enemy could open fire at any moment, and everyone was tense—yet at this moment, they had lost their command.

The squad leader was speechless; he wanted someone to ask for instructions—shouldn't there be some clarity on how to attack? So all he could do was shake his head, his tone filled with anger, "No idea!"

"The battalion commander just fell in battle!" Another squad leader came over, weapon in hand, bringing even more depressing news.

While speaking, he pointed towards a distant area, "The Second Platoon leader is wounded and has just been carried away..."

"Damn it, let the Third Platoon leader take over the command!" the Qi Army squad leader responded with an exasperated and anxious suggestion upon hearing the news.

"The Third Platoon leader can't be found!" said the messenger squad leader, shaking his head, unaware that his shaking head had already been targeted by a Tang Army sharpshooter's crosshairs at a fortress on the bridgehead.

The enemy pulled the trigger, a bullet left the chamber, flying over the Tang Army's position and over the heads of the Qi soldiers in front, striking the neck of the shaking squad leader.

The bullet pierced the carotid artery, bringing forth a spurt of blood, the hot blood splattering onto the face of the squad leader opposite him, causing him to shudder.

The bullet that pierced the neck continued to fly forward, hitting another Qi soldier who was kneeling on one knee waiting for the next command to advance, before finally stopping.

"What happened?" The Qi squad leader, oblivious to the fact that his grey feathered helmet had betrayed him, was still pondering how the squad leader next to him had died.

The man lay at his feet, desperately trying to plug the hole in his neck. Regrettably, no matter how hard he pressed, the blood kept spurting out from between his fingers, like a small fountain.

His legs kicked weakly on the ground, slowly coming to a stop. He saw the squad leader of the neighboring squad, wearing a grey feather, desperately trying to compress the wound, pressing so hard that he could hardly breathe.

As life was slipping away, he could hear the other calling for help; he could also see his face. Looking down at him, the other squad leader was urgently calling his name, urging him to hold on.

He wanted to speak, but his mouth was full of blood; as he opened his mouth, a stream of red liquid burst out. He saw it all too clearly.

In the next second, before he lost consciousness, the head of the neighboring squad leader beneath the military cap suddenly burst open, blood sprayed onto his face, abruptly bringing some clarity back to his confused mind.

The neighboring squad leader with a burst head fell heavily onto his chest, having died before he exhaled his last breath. Enjoy new tales from My Virtual Library Empire

Eventually, the wound on his neck claimed too much blood, and he too lost consciousness. Before he completely succumbed to the darkness, he felt the dead body lying on his chest was extremely heavy, so unbearably heavy.

And so, the attack by Qi Country collapsed once again, as there were no longer enough officers to keep the troops moving forward.

In the midst of the chaos, all the soldiers fled. When the roll call took place later on, they found that more than eighty percent of the officers from this battalion had not returned.

The battalion commander had fallen, all three platoon leaders had died, eight out of nine squad leaders were dead, and only seven squad leaders came back. Additionally, the sharpest losses were suffered by the machine gunners...

In short, this military force had basically lost its ability to fight, and their attack hadn't even made the Tang Army's hidden machine gun nests reveal their positions.

"What's going on? How do they have so many sharpshooters?" The Qi Country's Generals were about to go mad, unable to fathom how the enemy's tactics could be so peculiar.

Try as he might, the General couldn't imagine that the Tang Army had scopes that magnified three and four times, and that the Tang Army sharpshooters' kill ability from one hundred to two hundred meters was a notch above traditional marksmen.

Having never tasted pork doesn't mean one hasn't seen pigs run. The Qi Military leaders also pinpointed the crux of the issue: accurately shooting a target amidst thousands of troops required a mark of identification.

The Qi officers had feathers in their helmets, and the senior officers' feathers were even colored, which was like putting an arrow on top of their heads pointing downwards...

As for the heavy losses among the machine gunners, it was quite expected: they were all near the machine guns, also easily identified and killed.

"Get the officers to take off the feathers!" Having suffered and finally understanding the key issue, the Qi General ordered, "Change the battalion! Attack again! I refuse to believe this!"

Having removed the feathers from their helmets, the Qi officers once again gathered courage, leading their troops into a new round of assault.