Chapter 176: Dumpling Wrapping
“I plan to gather all the tank companies from each combat battalion in the brigade. With over fifty tanks, we’ll form an armored fist and, under artillery cover, punch straight into the center of the enemy’s defense line.”
“Once we break through, our mechanized and motorized units will follow swiftly. Within a single day, we need to carve a thirty-kilometer-deep breach in the enemy’s defenses to create the conditions for subsequent forces to break through and encircle.”
Pobov shared his plan with his longtime partner.
After listening, Leroy gave it some thought but had no objections.
This was exactly Pobov’s style: charge head-on and drill through the enemy.
“If you have no objections, then let’s do it. We set out tomorrow morning. The troops have had two days to rest; that’s enough. Hopefully, the newly recruited soldiers can hold up and not cause any mishaps.”
…
It turned out that the new recruits did not disappoint Pobov. Though they were still somewhat green compared to the veterans who had survived numerous brutal battles, their military skills were certainly up to par.
Early the next morning, at dawn, the 1st Brigade set out.
Thunderous artillery fire rained down on the enemy positions.
The soldiers and leaders of the anti-Governor Alliance were stunned by the ferocious bombardment.
Previously, when facing the 7th and 8th Divisions, they had already experienced the Alliance’s artillery power. But back then, these two divisions combined had only about fifty guns.
Yet even with those fifty heavy guns, they had managed to hold off seventy to eighty thousand anti-Governor troops, preventing them from gaining an inch.
With the help of fortifications and anti-artillery bunkers, they could barely hold the line; without artillery countermeasures and armored cover, those fifty guns alone could decimate any attacking force.
After losing enough soldiers, they realized that attacking like that wouldn’t work.
But before they could come up with new strategies, the Alliance’s iron fist had already arrived.
Now, as usual, the anti-Governor troops huddled in their bunkers and fortifications as the artillery fired upon them.
They thought this was just another routine bombardment, like what they had endured daily for over half a month. It was miserable and deadly, but they just had to endure it.
But this time, it was different.
This bombardment was far more intense and lasted much longer than usual.
This was definitely not the effect of fifty guns!
And indeed, it wasn’t.
At this moment, the five divisions could collectively mobilize ten artillery battalions, with over three hundred guns firing simultaneously!
The artillery units of all five brigades had been concentrated for a unified bombardment in the direction of the Silence Wind Brigade’s planned assault.
In one hour, a hundred rounds were fired, with thirty thousand 155mm howitzer shells landing across roughly an eight-kilometer-wide strip in the enemy’s central defenses. On average, a 155mm shell fell every thirty centimeters—there was barely room for the shells!
So what if they had bunkers?
A direct hit could collapse any bunker that was slightly shallow; even if they weren’t directly hit, the vibrations would cause dirt to fall, eventually collapsing bunkers after enough tremors.
Not to mention, not every soldier had a bunker; some had to take cover in trenches or even foxholes.
One shell could easily cost the lives of anyone it struck.
And these thirty thousand shells were just the prelude to the attack.
When the bombardment stopped, an officer of the anti-Governor Alliance climbed out of a concrete bunker half-buried in the earth.
He was dazed, deaf, and had dried blood clinging to his ears.
Just now, at least ten heavy shells had landed near the bunker.
Fortunately, none had hit the bunker directly, or he wouldn’t have survived; unfortunately, the two trench exits had been struck, rendering him partially deaf, while shrapnel from the shell killed several staff officers around him and severed his arm.
Holding his bleeding arm, he exited the bunker, only to see the trenches strewn with corpses. Some were groaning, but many couldn’t make a sound, and some bodies were unrecognizable.
He staggered forward, stumbling onto the firing step, and looked in the direction of the Alliance forces.
He saw fifty steel beasts advancing in a skirmish formation toward the trenches at twenty- to thirty-meter intervals.
Behind these cannon-mounted steel beasts, he couldn’t even count the number of armored infantry vehicles.
Further back, barely visible, were countless trucks filled with infantry.
He called out loudly for the soldiers to rise and fight, to block the enemy advance, but he couldn’t even hear his own voice—he was deaf.
No one responded to his call.
At least in this small area of the line, there were no survivors.
What should he do next?
With a dazed mind unable to make sense of the situation, he saw a tank barrel turn toward him.
He stared blankly at the dark muzzle as it flashed with orange fire, and his vision went black; he knew nothing more.
…
Following the troops into battle, Colonel Pobov was several hundred meters behind the tanks near the front lines. He risked sticking his head out, using binoculars to survey the battlefield.
He happened to witness the scene just now.
Grumbling, he said, “Damn, you see a mosquito, and you fire a shell at it? Do you think ammo’s free?”
He was slightly annoyed.
It wasn’t really because the tank crews were wasting shells; rather…
“Damn it, the artillery’s done all my work! What am I supposed to do?”
He sat back down in the vehicle, not very pleased.
Leroy, of course, knew his old partner’s ways. He patted Pobov’s shoulder, smiling as he reassured him, “If it’s something artillery can handle, don’t waste lives. I think this is a good thing. Besides, if you want to fight, there’ll be plenty to do; the artillery brothers are skilled, but they can’t do everything.”
Leroy had a point.
One shell every thirty centimeters was an exaggeration. The enemy’s defense wasn’t just a single line, and the opposing commander, however amateur or foolish, knew to build a defense in depth.
Though devastated, the eight-kilometer-wide, three-kilometer-deep defense line wasn’t entirely wiped out.
In reality, the Silence Wind Brigade encountered resistance.
The enemy started to reappear, as some lucky survivors emerged from their bunkers, trenches, and anti-artillery holes under orders to fight back.
However…
The resistance felt like a mere tickle.
The Anti-Governor Alliance’s artillery positions were either blown away by the previous thirty thousand heavy shells or simply nowhere to be found at this time.
The soldiers did have some barely adequate anti-armor weapons like rocket launchers and explosives, but there weren’t many of them, and their power was insufficient. The rocket launchers barely scratched vehicles like the Walkers or Challenger tanks, unless they managed a very close-range hit on the tank treads, wheels, or the thinner rear armor.
Explosives needed to be delivered by hand, but that was difficult; to ensure accuracy and impact, one would have to get very close to the armored units. However, the tanks and infantry fighting vehicles weren’t stationary turtles; they moved faster than soldiers and packed serious firepower. Besides their large cannons, the tanks had machine guns, while the infantry vehicles had autocannons and heavy machine guns that could easily devastate light infantry. Without covering fire, the light infantry would be shredded before they could approach.
Even if someone lucky or tenacious managed to rush out when a tank passed, their chances of success were almost nil.
The Silence Wind Brigade’s specialty was precisely this armored charge with infantry-armor coordination tactics.
The Alliance infantry were no pushovers either.
This time, the Silence Wind Brigade adopted an assault pattern called "Armor-Led Shock": tanks in front, dismounted mechanized infantry in the middle, and infantry fighting vehicles in the rear. Each tank was flanked by one or two infantry squads, whose firearms would quickly dissuade any enemies from trying to outflank the tanks. Further back, the infantry fighting vehicles provided concentrated fire support.
The tanks maintained a distance of twenty to one hundred meters from the infantry and would pause after securing a position to allow infantry to advance.
Once the infantry caught up, they would clear and secure the surrounding area, enabling the tanks to push forward and break through to the next section, with the infantry following close behind.
This cycle continued.
The follow-up motorized units would then sweep up any remnants of the already fragmented enemy forces.
Even a well-organized enemy with a fortified defensive line would find it hard to fend off this tactic, let alone these disorganized Anti-Governor Alliance troops.
Drawn from various settlements, they were a motley crew with visible deficits in equipment, morale, training, and experience. After thirty thousand shells plowed through their ranks, few survived, and even those who did were close to the point of total collapse.
In truth, if not for the officers’ orders to resist, they would have fled or hidden, awaiting surrender.
But… weren’t these Anti-Governor Alliance officers afraid of death themselves?
It was obvious they were.
In some places, when soldiers fled, the officers tried to rally them but quickly gave up and fled themselves.
Some officers called for resistance only to slip away first.
Other officers fled with their soldiers in tow.
Altogether, organizing any resistance after such devastating bombardment was remarkable for such a ragtag force.
However, the little resistance they could muster was swiftly shattered by the advancing armored forces.
If soldiers fled to the sides, Pobov’s men let them be; they had no time to bother with the flanks. But those who tried to escape directly to the rear were doomed to be chased down by the armored forces. There was no way their legs could outrun wheels.
As the enemy’s resistance waned, Pobov adopted a bold, aggressive tactic, no longer maintaining close coordination between infantry and armor. Tactical discipline was loosened, with a focus now on speed.
The infantry fighting vehicles moved ahead of the slower Challenger tanks. Engineering units in armed trucks also rushed forward, filling in trenches and building temporary roads wherever they encountered obstacles.
This was dangerous, but they faced no serious threats.
Within just two hours of the Silence Wind Brigade’s entry into the battle, they had torn through the central section of the enemy line.
Eight kilometers wide and four kilometers deep, the enemy’s line was completely obliterated.
At this point, Commander Yan’s "Center Flower" tactic had achieved preliminary success.
The enemy’s fifty-kilometer-wide line had been split, creating an eight-kilometer-wide salient.
From the initial bombardment to the completion of the armored assault, it all took only three hours.
Next came the next phase of the Center Flower strategy: encirclement.
The creation of the salient was aimed at preparing for the complete annihilation of the enemy.
After breaking through the line, the Silence Wind Brigade did not stop. They crossed the trench-laden, contested zone and reached an open stretch where their mechanized forces could pick up speed.
Five hours later, the vanguard of the Silence Wind Brigade had already advanced fifty kilometers.
By this time, only eight hours had passed since the artillery bombardment began.
Eight hours was not enough time for the Anti-Governor Alliance, now split in two, to organize any effective response.
Meanwhile, Yan Fangxu’s next wave of attacks was already underway.
The 2nd Motorized Infantry Division swiftly followed the path carved out by the Silence Wind Brigade. Some units held the central salient, while others joined the Silence Wind Brigade in advancing northward and westward.
These were the escape routes for the two now-isolated enemy forces.
At the same time, the 3rd Beast Slaughter Independent Regiment and the 7th and 8th Garrison Divisions, with artillery support, launched a full-scale assault.
The enemy forces began to waver.
Their center was breached, communications on both flanks were severed, escape routes were cut off, and their front was submerged under relentless artillery fire.
Surrounded and battered from all sides, they were like stuffing in a dumpling.
Yan Fangxu’s strategy first bloomed in the center within half a day, and then in another day, the encirclement was complete.
Thin dumpling skin, filled to the brim with meat; though the stuffing lacked the strength to break through the seemingly thin line of troops containing them.
They held out for three days.
No supplies, no ammunition, no reinforcements…
Expecting this disorganized rabble to fight to the last bullet and man?
Unrealistic.
By the fourth day, mass surrenders began.
With that, this packed dumpling was fully cooked.
————
Happy Dragon Boat Festival!
Yesterday, a small part was missing—just a couple of lines about Lacroix’s promotion. I don’t know what triggered the filter, but it was deleted.
Second time I lost content without any warning, quite annoying.
I’ve re-added it now.
(End of Chapter)