Munitions Empire

The Tang Army was the same, having fought throughout the day only to realize that they had to fall back at night, relinquishing the positions they had captured during the day. This was because they were still stuck between enemy lines, incapable of sustaining the losses from a night-time counterattack.

"It's tough to fight, the enemy's defense lines are becoming more and more like permanent fortifications. We've lost several assault guns and tanks, yet we still can't take those damned trenches," another officer cautiously peeked out and looked towards the distant quiet enemy positions, lamenting helplessly.

"Keep the troops concealed. The enemy's artillery fire will be coming soon," the company commander glanced at the body of a Qin soldier lying sideways at his feet, his face had been struck by bullets and was already unrecognizable.

"What's with these damned Qin people, coming here to play with our lives..." The officer also glanced at the Qin soldier who had died a grim death, complaining bitterly.

Everyone had heard about the fierce nature of the people from Qin Country in the northwest, and after frequent encounters, the commanders of the Tang Army had finally experienced the ferocity of Qin soldiers.

Compared to the troops from the Dahua, they were even more fierce and determined, and they learned combat tactics extremely fast. They belonged to those born with a knack for using their brains in battle, increasingly resembling the Tang Army the more they fought.

They learned tactics from the Tang Army, absorbing lessons and experiences, and after being subjected to air raids by the Tang Army a few times, they immediately changed their tactics and began to compensate for their deficiencies.

"I don't know. I heard the Dahua Empire gave Qin Country quite a bit of money... Who knows," the company commander didn't understand why these lunatics would cross the Dahua Empire just to play with their lives against Tang Country.

All he knew was that these enemies had arrived, and as the stronghold of the defensive forces, they helped the Dahua Empire, already quite passive, stabilize their footing.

Newspapers said Qin people were poor and had always been reliant on relief from the Dahua Empire, so this time it was about repaying a debt. Others said that the Qin people felt that if the Tang army destroyed the Dahua, it would leave them vulnerable, so they joined the war.

In any case, everyone's reasons sounded logical, and no one knew who was correct... Perhaps they all were, for reasons are often complicated.

"The First Armored Division has already closed in. I heard there's going to be one more attempt before winter to test it out, but I don't know if it will work," the officer followed the company commander, walking along the rugged trenches towards the other end of the high ground.

The trench the enemy had built looked very professional, with zigzag shapes combined with concealed dugouts, minimizing the impact of the Tang Army's artillery.

As they spoke, two Stuka Dive Bombers were carefully circling in the distance. Their engine sounds were low, and their flight path in the sky was erratic.

The recent close air support missions had become increasingly dangerous. Professional ground-attack Stuka pilots began to complain, saying that their adversaries were increasingly like a porcupine.

The enemy began to equip a large caliber machine gun among their ground troops in the front line; some of these machine guns had calibers of 13 millimeters, others 14 millimeters, with substantial firepower.

Normally, these machine guns could also shoot flat to deal with the Tang Army's Type 113 armored vehicles. In emergencies, a burst of gunfire could be quite threatening.

Aside from the Panther Tanks, the remaining armored vehicles of the Tang Army were actually vulnerable to being destroyed by these Anti-Aircraft Guns, especially the Dahua military's 76mm caliber anti-air guns. If hidden well and ambushing with a single shot, even the side armor of a Panther Tank was at risk of being penetrated.

A large number of anti-aircraft guns required the Tang Army's planes to be extremely cautious before diving, avoiding potential ground fire to ensure their safety.

Compared to the previous unconstrained dive attacks, such complicated attack procedures had already reduced the Tang Army's bombing efficiency.

What had relatively improved was the Dahua's anti-air experience: the troops of the Dahua army, long suffering, could almost be said to have the deepest understanding of anti-air combat.

Although their weapons and equipment were still not quite right, to avoid being hit, the soldiers still managed to exercise initiative and quickly improve their combat skills.

Usually, Dahua troops would choose an open place to set up several fake positions to distract the attention of Tang air force pilots. Occasionally, a real anti-aircraft machine gun would indeed be deployed at these fake positions to produce a deceiving effect.

The real main attack firepower was independently set up: they would choose small hills with open lines of sight on the edges of the fake positions and build impressive anti-aircraft machine gun emplacements on them.

They would cover their main positions with camouflage nets, disguise themselves as much as possible, and wait like hunters for the Tang dive bombers to fall for the trap.

This tactic initially achieved some results; some less experienced Tang pilots would fall for it and get shot down.

However, as time went on, Tang planes also began to become more vigilant. Under normal circumstances, they would adopt tactics like pairs of planes covering each other in bombing runs or several planes circling and taking turns to cover each other, to avoid the risk of sneak attacks.

That is to say, Tang anti-enemy attack pilots would circle in the air continuously, carefully identifying targets not to give the enemy the chance to deceive with fake positions.

After locating the real positions, the Tang planes would often dive in groups of two or more, covering each other.

Once the real anti-aircraft artillery positions were spotted, the higher-altitude covering group would immediately dive down to suppress those anti-air forces, helping friendly planes get out of danger.