Munitions Empire

Near Donghe Bridge, Xiang Ziyu lay in the trench, somewhat bored as he watched the Qi Army launch another attack.

They surged forward en masse, only to be pushed back by machine gun fire. The continuous ripping sound of the guns made it impossible for the Qi troops to get close.

The Maxim machine guns supplied to the Qi Army did not come with shields or wheels; they were a lighter version, improvised for easier transportation and carrying, but this had cost them the ability to assault head-on.

Without the protection of shields, carrying the heavy machine guns within range of the enemy's to return fire was an extremely challenging task.

Without heavy artillery support, capturing bunkers, especially bridgeheads like solid and towering fortresses, was very difficult.

However, the Tang Army was also under pressure; their ammunition was scarce and resupply was difficult, which made conserving ammunition necessary.

The battle raged until the afternoon when this Qi defensive force, which had not seen much of the Tang Country Air Force, witnessed a true strategic bombing.

The Tang Country's Flying Fortress Bombers, in dense formation, bombed the Qi Army spread along the railway, preventing Qi's heavy weapons from deploying timely to Donghe Bridge.

The Second Prince had also learned that his path ahead had been blocked; he rushed to the front lines, only to realize his troops were stuck halfway to King City.

If it had been Qi rebels in front of them, it would have been simple, but the Tang Army at Donghe Bridge was a different matter.

He had to struggle to break through here, for this was his only chance to return to King City, ascend to the throne, and hold legal and orthodox authority.

So, he returned to the bombed railway section to personally supervise the Qi troops and somehow managed to transport the immobilized heavy cannon from the railway to participate in the battle at Donghe Bridge.

While the Second Prince was striving for his troops to retake Donghe Bridge and clear the way ahead, another tank unit from the 4th Armored Division penetrated into the Kingdom of Qi's King City.

Encountering almost no resistance, they seized the outer defenses of King City. After minimal negotiations, the Qi troops stationed on the city walls surrendered their weapons.

Unaware of the situation, the ministers within the city found the Dragon Banner of Tang Country already hoisted outside the walls.

In the suburban industrial districts, the working Qi laborers were astonished to see Tang Army trucks entering their factories one after another.

The Tang soldiers, recognizable by their steel helmets, were unmistakable, especially since the engine hoods and roofs of the trucks were painted with the red Dragon Banner.

Everything continued as usual, and the Tang officers assured everyone that the Tang Army would not threaten the safety of any civilians.

Meanwhile, inside King City, Tang tanks boldly drove on the streets, terrifying the Qi civilians who were still in the dark.

They had vaguely heard that Tang forces had occupied Nanye, but they had never imagined the Tang Army would reach the heart of Qi Country so quickly.

It was evident that with the fall of Qi's main decision-making body to paratroopers, the control of the remaining Qi officials over the country had collapsed.

Their vision too narrow, focusing solely on electing a new King to divide the spoils, they were incapable of resisting such a formidable external force.

These officials couldn't even control their own King City, lacking even the ability to persuade soldiers to hold their ground for a while.

The ministers, still preoccupied with whether to let the First Prince or the Second Prince take over, only realized their doom when they saw Tang tanks parked outside the Royal Palace of Qi.

Unsurprisingly, the officials of King City lacked the courage to sacrifice their lives for their kingdom. They chose to surrender and cooperate with the new rulers.

They were even willing to carry the token from inside King City and rushed to the northern part of Nanye to inform the encircled Imperial Guard troops that King City had fallen.

That very night, as King City fell, the 10,000 elite Imperial Guards besieged there chose to lay down their arms and surrender.

Half of Qi Country was now thoroughly purged, with none of Qi's resisting forces remaining, Tang Army's supply lines were completely secure, and even the railway was restored.

It seemed as though overnight, Qi's resistance had bewilderingly collapsed. King City surrendered without firing a shot, and there were no more threats to the paratroopers behind Donghe Bridge.

More dramatically, the already decaying body of Qi King Jiang Xian, which had been difficultly brought back to King City, once again became a trophy of the Tang Army.

As the 2nd Army of Qi dragged its heavy cannons to the vicinity of Donghe Bridge, the 4th Armored Division of Tang Country also moved the cannons captured near the Kingdom of Qi's King City to support the paratroopers near Donghe Bridge.

The battle became bizarre as Tang soldiers used Qi's cannons to shell Qi's own artillery. With an arsenal at their backs, providing ample ammunition and convenient transport, their firepower was even stronger than that of the far-coming 2nd Army of Qi.

The Second Prince was immediately dumbfounded; after confirming that King City had been lost, he frantically led the 2nd Army in retreat, unflinchingly fleeing towards the relatively safe Beiyuan City.

The ironic part was, the Tang Army's 4th Armored Division, which had prepared to relentlessly pursue the 2nd Army, had just crossed Donghe Bridge and hadn't chased far to the east when they discovered the railway had been bombed and severed by bombers, leaving them truly unable to catch up with the fleeing men of Qi Country who had abandoned all their supplies.

Thus, the 4th Armored Division could only wait for the Engineer Corps to come and repair the railroad, a wait that ultimately lasted three days.

Three days later, with the moment long past, the main forces of the Second Prince had already made a clean getaway, and the 4th Armored Division had also received new orders to wait in the vicinity of Donghe Bridge.

Having fought at Donghe Bridge for seven or eight days, the division perfectly executed their mission, even killing the Tang Country Paratroopers who were ordered to transfer their position to them, and then they went to Qi Country's King City for rest and reorganization. Enjoy new stories from My Virtual Library Empire

This heroic force enjoyed a rare vacation; each of them received a substantial reward, the bounty paid out from the treasury of Qi Country...

In the unresisting King City of Qi Country, all the materials had been preserved intact. Including Qi Country's treasury, the Tang Army seized a treasure trove so vast it was staggering.

This was the accumulation of a kingdom over a century, and just the treasures in the Royal Palace's storerooms alone could be described as priceless.

...

The Qi Country troops near Luo Town had already ceased their assaults; they constructed defensive fortifications on site, but their resolve to hold fast had long since vanished.

Because they could no longer obtain sufficient supply materials from behind their own lines, and even... no one seemed to care whether they lived or died anymore.

When Qin Xiong retreated, he had never expected the Qi Country rear-guard troops abandoned at this location to fight to the death, so he hadn't arranged for logistic troops to continue to provide adequate supplies to these troops.

He left in haste, with the remnants of the 1st and 3rd Armies, and some other units that retained a relatively complete combat effectiveness.

The remaining Qi forces were mostly made up of incomplete formations or units with low combat capability and insufficient training.

The day after the First Prince decided to retreat, the Tang Army's 1st Armored Division launched an attack on the flank of the remaining Qi forces.

Liu Guozhu's unit charged forward a full 60 kilometers, almost completely encircling the Qi defensive forces near Luo Town.

Meanwhile, the First Prince and Qin Xiong led their battered forces eastward, striking towards the original defensive zone of the Second Prince.

Before leaving, the Qi Army took all the food they could find in the entire defense zone, killed the civilians who refused to cooperate, and committed every possible misdeed.

They never intended to return, or rather they never imagined that they would one day be able to win back this land—the southern part of Qi Country, in the eyes of the First Prince, was essentially already Tang Country territory.

War is often like this: In the beginning, the sides are evenly matched with give and take, but as one side's resources are depleted and the situation collapses, everything suddenly becomes surreal.

The day after the Second Prince retreated towards Beiyuan City, the First Prince's troops in the southern region of Qi Country incorporated some of the Qi forces left behind in the Second Prince's defense zone and then opened fire on the small units loyal to the Second Prince.

Internal conflicts within Qi Country began amidst the invasion by foreign enemies, and in just one day, the situation spiraled beyond control.

Both Qin Xiong and the First Prince knew that their problem was not a lack of troops on hand, but rather insufficient supplies.

If they took in too many troops, it would become a major drag on them. Thus, they had no intention of incorporating the forces abandoned by the Second Prince; they planned to pilfer these troops' equipment instead.

Of course, the troops left behind could not just watch the First Prince take away their food and ammunition, so they too took up arms.

Unfortunately, there weren't many Qi forces capable of defeating the elite 1st and 3rd Armies of Qi Country, and moreover, the commanders weren't necessarily willing to fight earnestly.

The result was that the First Prince's forces broke through and managed to seize all the food and ammunition from the Qi troops stationed in the southern defensive line.

The remaining forces, devoid of food, thus lost the courage to hold on. Some dispersed like birds and animals, while others simply headed further south to surrender to the Tang forces on the northern defensive lines.

They made simple demands in their surrender: "Big brother, we don't ask for anything else, just don't treat us as prisoners of war. Give us something to eat as civilians, and that'll be enough!"

As a result of this surreal turn of events, the Tang Army's northern reserve forces unexpectedly took in a large number of prisoners of war and even inadvertently took over part of Qi Country's southern defensive line.

Without any exaggeration, the war situation in Qi Country had utterly collapsed in the last few days. Without powerful reinforcements, it was highly likely they would be completely occupied by Tang Country within a month.