Chapter 140: The entire army was wiped out.
The Southern Shore Battery at Gukou was locked in fierce combat at this moment.
The Shun Army had only 3,000 defenders, while the invading force numbered over 10,000, with overwhelmingly superior equipment.
The Shun Army's rifles were outdated and lacked magazines; after each shot, they had to reload. The enemy was armed with Enfield rifles, which were much better in terms of performance.
As the stalemate endured, suddenly cannonballs flew from behind the invading army and crashed down upon them!
These massive cannonballs, weighing over 100 kilograms, were not only powerful but also incredibly precise.
The first cannonball hit a Steel Armored Knight, turning him into a heap of mangled flesh and twisted steel; the second struck a Vampire Officer stationed at the rear, turning the demon beast into dust in the blast wave.
Reduced to such tiny particles, their formidable vitality was useless. They were bewildered, wondering how they had become exposed to direct artillery fire!
At this moment, 5 kilometers behind the invading army, Lu Yao had taken over their artillery position and was operating a "9.2 inch siege howitzer," with the sisters loading cannonballs and him firing.
Liao Ya pulled back the gunlock, and a smoking shell fell to the ground, which she kicked away; then Liao Qe hurriedly stuffed a new cannonball in and closed the breach.
Lu Yao, who had already aimed, fired immediately. Flames and smoke belched from the barrel as the cannonball whistled out, arcing down upon the enemy's heads and blasting them into disarray, limbs scattered in all directions.
The "9.2 inch siege howitzer," which normally could only fire twice a minute, was firing ten times per minute due to the perfect coordination among the three operators! Explore more at M-V-L
Towards the end, fearing the cannon would overheat and explode, they were forced to continuously switch guns, raining down cannonballs on the invading army like a deluge.
Cries of agony filled the scene; some were clutching their severed limbs, wailing, while others, missing their lower halves, still cried for help, hoping comrades would drag them back to cover, only to be met with a merciful bullet.
The invading army didn't possess the courage or the will to stand firm under artillery fire. Led by the fleeing Steel Armored Knights and Vampires, they scattered on the spot.
The soldiers defending the battery were equally dumbfounded. Where had this artillery support come from? Were there friendly forces nearby?
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Seeing the enemy flee, Lu Yao quickly operated the drone and used its marking function to specially target the Vampires.
Had these Vampires been solely focused on fleeing, it would indeed have been difficult to block them all, but after running a few steps, they attempted to regroup, clustering together.
Lu Yao certainly wasn't going to be polite, charging directly at them from the front!
To prevent their escape, the three spread out, encircling the enemy from three directions.
Just as a Vampire Officer had gathered the routed soldiers and attempted to regroup, a barrage of .50 bullets disrupted their plans.
As darkness fell, bullets hot from the barrel glowed a dark red, appearing like a shower of meteorites in the night sky, reaping lives with a terrifying beauty.
The three fired their machine guns at anything that moved.
A formidable Vampire Officer leapt into a tree, but while he could dodge one person's bullets, he couldn't evade the others; soon, several gaping holes the size of bowls opened in his body, causing him to crash down.
When a Vampire was hit, a cloud of black mist would burst from the wound until the body reached its limit and carbonized into collapse, turning into dust-like remains.
Without silver, every Vampire still left behind a Blood Core to some extent, although some were exceedingly small, no larger than a fingernail.
At that moment, this small grove too became a bloody slaughterhouse. Amidst the faint gunsmoke, limbs were strewn all over the ground.
Activating his Spirit Refining State, Lu Yao scanned the area to confirm there were no survivors and began to clear the battlefield.
"Including those from the artillery position earlier, there are 25 now," he said, shaking the cloth bag in his hand, which was full of Blood Cores, with the largest being the size of an egg.
Liao Ya's muffled voice came from within her Battle Armor, "What do we do next?"
"Let me check." Lu Yao pulled out the controller, and the hovering drone immediately began to work.
"The naval batteries won decisively; the foreigners' ships are flying white flags... The garrison has also launched an attack, let's steer clear of them, I'm not ready to face them yet."
Just as the three were about to leave, Liao Qe exclaimed in surprise, "Aren't knights cultivated... I thought they were human. Why is their blood green?"
She was staring intently at a knight who had been killed, he had charged at them while Liao Ya was reloading, but was killed by a steel punch that blew his head apart, leaving his body relatively intact.
Not only was his blood green, but his body also had many huge centipede-like stitching scars, which looked very unnerving.
After some thought, Liao Ya said, "I once heard Sister Li Pei at the National Martial Arts Association say that the Western monsters have been experimenting on living people, trying to mass-produce these 'knights.' This one might just be a product of that."
The three surrounded the eerie corpse, curiously discussed it for a while, but then moved on to intercept the rest of the vampires.
And with their involvement, the whole battle took a wildly different turn.
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The Gukou Battery, undistracted, focused on the exchange of fire with the fleet. The battery, originally at a higher position, already held an advantage, and with the help of the latest heavy artillery, they beat the enemy so badly they were looking everywhere for their teeth.
At one point, the fleet even tried a deception tactic; they raised the white flag but didn't drop the anchor, planning to sneak to the side of the battery and then retract the white flag and open fire.
This was seen through by Admiral Shi and the ship was directly sunk.
The fleet commander "Hebu" had originally hoped that the navy could hold on until the army captured the battery, then turn defeat into victory in one fell swoop! But he waited until his own flagship was sunk, without ever getting the good news that the army had captured the battery.
At this moment, the remnants of the Einheit navy were rescued by the Menes and the opportunistic "Tuoyiwang" battleship that had come to join in the fray.
And the humiliated Hebu also quickly received the news—not only had his navy been annihilated, but the army had been completely wiped out as well!
Enraged, Hebu bared his fangs and his eyes turned blood-red as he roared, "Despicable savages! How dare they! This is provoking a full-scale war!"
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Meanwhile, on the battery, it was time to eat, and bowl after bowl of snow-white noodles were served up.
The ordinary soldiers, covered in soot and ash, were very happy as they ate. Such delicacies were only available during festivals, birthdays, and still had to be eaten sparingly along with cornbread and pancakes.
After one bowl, they did not go for seconds, as it was generally understood that each person was allowed only one bowl. But surprisingly, the noodles were unlimited—eat as much as you want!
The soldiers ate their fill with astonishment, wondering where all these fine noodles had come from.
Admiral Shi Rongchun ate a few bites casually and was incredibly surprised by the military report in his hands: "The invading enemy was totally annihilated."
The garrison had only 3,000 men; just holding the battery was a miracle, but to completely annihilate 10,000 enemy troops?
After daylight broke and the battlefield was cleared, seeing the bodies and the various captured materials, he was completely convinced: They had truly won, and it was a grand victory!
Shi Rongchun, full of joy, hastily wrote a memorial to report the victory!
Normally, his own decision to start a battle might have been punished, but such a great victory changed everything!
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Count Spee immediately sent a telegram back home, reporting what he had seen and heard:
[The Einheit's military vessels are outdated, their tactics obsolete; the army is worse than pigs, completely wiped out by the antiquated equipment of the Shun Army]
After some thought, he added a sentence: [Arrogance is stupidity's twin, it's time for the radiance of the Empire of the Eternal Sun to end!]