Munitions Empire

Chapter 586: Ask for Directions 545

Liu Guozhu was certain that the map in his hands must be fake. He compared it with all the landmarks in front of him, yet he couldn’t find his exact location.

It wasn’t just Liu Guozhu, the entire 1st Armored Corps had been thrown into confusion; they didn’t know where they had reached or how far they still were from the enemy troops they were searching for.

To avoid being detected by the Qi Army’s outer sentry units, they had to take a huge detour. But after making such a detour, they couldn’t find the road on the map anymore.

In the beginning, they could still hear the booming sounds of artillery fire from the battlefield, but now they could hardly hear it distinctly. There were no villages around, and the roads were not quite what they had expected.

"Shouldn’t this road be a first-class highway?” After looking at the map he was holding, then raising his head to look at the road ahead, Liu Guozhu asked the platoon leader next to him with frustration.

The platoon leader, also frustrated, bowed his head to check the map he was holding and became puzzled as well: “Yes, shouldn’t it be a first-class highway?”

Previously, the platoon Liu Guozhu was in had participated in the battle of Luo Town. The commander’s vehicle had problems; its communication system’s antenna had been broken, and it seemed the equipment had malfunctioned as well.

Therefore, entirely deprived of command capabilities, the platoon leader had no choice but to stay behind in Luo Town to wait for the repair troops to catch up and fix the fault, as well as his radio equipment.

As a result, the command of Liu Guozhu’s platoon was handed over to him—he was, after all, a combat hero and the only person in the entire platoon who had been awarded the third-class Cavalry Medal.

At this very moment, Liu Guozhu was commanding three tanks: Tank No. 2 and Tank No. 5. Tank No. 4 had broken down halfway due to a transmission system failure during an earlier fight and had not returned to the unit yet.

"Could the map be wrong, and we’re actually here?” Liu Guozhu asked with some uncertainty.

"I think it’s possible, but shouldn’t we have made contact with the Qi Army from here? What are we doing, not even seeing a shadow of the Qi Army?” The platoon leader raised his head and expressed his confusion.

They judged their position based primarily on two pieces of information: first, the comparison of the terrain and landmarks around them with the map, and second, based on the strength of the Qi Army units they encountered and the confessions of captured prisoners.

But now, it seemed they were truly lost. The frustrated Liu Guozhu had to climb onto the tank once more and adjust their direction again, according to what he and the platoon leader had discussed.

"Cross this dirt road and take a look, then advance vertically for 3 kilometers along this road! If we don’t run into the Qi Army’s sentry units, then we’ll think of something else,” was roughly the conclusion drawn by the platoon leader after consulting with the company commander.

After Liu Guozhu climbed onto his own tank, he immediately issued the combat orders. He instructed Tank No. 2 to cover his left flank and Tank No. 5 to cover his right as the three tanks crossed the “highway” in front of them.

Soon, the three tanks had crossed the road and began to advance in the direction perpendicular to the road. They quickly passed through the fields on the other side of the road, then broke through the shrubs and crossed a patch of forest.

Before they had completely crossed the forest, they spotted Qi Army troops at the edge of the woods. These soldiers showed no intention of constructing fortifications; instead, they were cooking food there.

"Tank No. 2! Do you see the enemy troops straight ahead? That white tent!” Liu Guozhu shouted his question while advancing.

"I… I… see it There was some electrical interference in the radio, as it wasn’t the commander’s vehicle, but since the distance was close enough, Liu Guozhu could still hear very clearly.

"Platoon command! Platoon command! We have spotted Qi Army troops! At the edge of the forest! We must have been spotted! Requesting attack! Requesting to initiate an attack!” Liu Guozhu switched channels to report his sighting of the enemy.

Granted… ttack Due to the long distance from the platoon leader’s command vehicle, this time Liu Guozhu couldn’t make out what the orders were.

But he knew that opportunity knocks but once; if he stopped at that moment, it was very possible that he would let the enemy in front of him escape and allow the enemies behind to prepare for battle.

So, after confirming twice that he couldn’t hear the platoon leader’s orders clearly, he immediately issued the command to begin the attack.

"Tank No. 2! Watch your flank! Cover me! Tank No. 5! Machine gun cover! Fire at will! Fire!” After giving orders to the two friendly tanks, he loudly commanded his own crew: “Advance, advance! Accelerate! Prepare the coaxial machine gun to fire! Load the high-explosive rounds!”

"High-explosive round, loaded!” Before the tank began to accelerate, the loader deftly loaded a shell into his tank, and then Liu Guozhu’s tank began to bounce violently.

The road wheels of the tank bounced up and down with the undulations of the terrain, and the tracks of the tank rolled over the loose soil, kicking up decomposed leaves.

Trees as thick as a wrist were being snapped off by the tough body of Tank No. 4, producing a crisp cracking sound. The Tang Army troops on the edge of the woods had also noticed the imminent danger.

Unfortunately, they were ultimately not combat troops and hadn’t expected to encounter Tang Army tanks here, so they immediately fell into chaos, screaming and running wildly towards the open space far away.

"Tang Army! The Tang Army is coming!” A Qi Army soldier dropped the big iron pot he was holding and started running back, shouting as he ran to alert his oblivious comrades around him.

Another Qi Army soldier, who was chopping vegetables, still had a kitchen knife in hand. It seemed dangerous to either drop it or keep holding it, so he stood there, unsure what to do.

Out of a white tent, an officer emerged, his face one of shock as he watched Liu Guozhu’s tank roll over the shrubs, its dark cannon barrel pointing in his direction.

"How could there be tanks from Tang Country here?” the officer from Qi Country asked instinctively, but then he realized no one was there to answer his question.

Because everyone around him was sprinting towards the fields behind them. It was no joke; that was the Tang Army! If they ran slowly, wouldn’t they be killed?

They were all cooks from the supply unit, and that too from the military headquarters. Cooking a meal was no problem for them, but combat? That was a bit too much to ask.

The Qi Army soldiers didn’t even have guns issued to them; their weapons were iron pots, kitchen knives, spades, and stoves… How was using these any different from courting death in combat?

"Run fast! The Tang Army is here!” Some of the Qi Army soldiers hadn’t even put on their upper garments as they fled, looking utterly disheveled.

Before the officer from Qi Country could react, Liu Guozhu’s tank was upon him. It circled around the white tent and stopped beside the Qi Country officer.

Lifting the hatch of the tank, Liu Guozhu stuck out his head, looking down at the officer from Qi Country and pointed ahead, asking, “Is that the artillery position over there?”

The Qi Country officer shook his head instinctively.

"Then where is the headquarters?” Liu Guozhu asked again.

The officer from Qi Country raised his hand, trembling, and pointed in a certain direction far away. He reacted instinctively, then just as instinctively recoiled his pointing finger a little.

"Thanks!” Liu Guozhu waved his hand, almost giving the Qi Country officer a military salute. He did salute, just not in a standard way.

And, funnily enough, the officer from Qi Country, also subconsciously, returned a salute to Liu Guozhu—the Qi Country military salute.

Sometimes things just happen in the most miraculous ways, with the nearly impossible occurring on the battlefield in the most unbelievable manner.

An officer from Qi Country was pointing the way for a Tank soldier from Tang Country, then suddenly snapped back to reality and began to sprint into the distance. The Tang Army soldiers didn’t even have the heart to open fire and kill this most cooperative muddle-headed ally.

The three tanks of the Tang Army that had burst out of the woods chased one another towards the nearby Qi Army camp, filled with tents and innumerable soldiers.

The sentries of the Qi Army had noticed the disturbance on the outskirts, but before they could issue a warning, Liu Guozhu’s tank had already reached them.

The scene turned chaotic in an instant. The Qi Army soldiers, who had no inkling that the Tang Army might counterattack and strike here, were utterly unprepared for combat.

The first to suffer were the camps that had just been set up. After the Qi Army had attacked all morning without success, the commander of the 3rd Army finally started considering the prospect of spending the night in the fields.

So, he ordered the rear guard troops to set up camp, but barely had the tents been erected when the Tang Army tanks arrived at their doorstep.

Thus, the troops from Qi Country, in their haste and unable to even locate their weapons, could only do as their comrades before and shout at the top of their lungs, “The Tang Army is coming!” before fleeing aimlessly towards more distant grounds.

The brave Qi Army soldiers who attempted to return fire could hardly do anything. What did they expect, to take up the Shireck model 1 rifles in their hands and fire at the Tang Army’s No. 4 tanks?

When Liu Guozhu’s tank rolled over a white tent, like a tiger descending the mountain, rushing past a group of Qi Army soldiers crouching and surrendering, he didn’t even know which unit of the Qi Army he was attacking.

Equally bewildered were the attacked rear guard troops of the 3rd Qi Army. They, too, did not have the faintest idea where this Tang Army troop had come from, slicing into their defensive area from the flank.

This area housed a newly set up Qi Country field hospital, numerous military vehicles, and carts for transportation, and even the Qi Country headquarters and the artillery positions.

In short, this place was pretty much the Qi Army’s rear base, stacked with valuables but guarded by pitifully few men. And even these sparse defensive troops weren’t prepared for combat.

Because a significant number of Qi Country troops were engaged in battle with the Tang Army for the outskirts of Luo Town, they had never imagined that the Tang Army, already stretched to its limits in defense, would have the spare capacity to send an Armored Corps to disturb their rearguard.

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