119: Chapter 119 Taking Over the Ironwood Nest

After Xia Xingchen returned to the operations department, he informed everyone that the Rebel Army in the Lower Hive had stabilized the situation.

This news invigorated everyone in the operations room.

Orders were immediately issued to all units.

The main attacking force this time was the Death Assault Army under Xia Xingchen's command, which had nearly half of its troops deployed for this operation.

Fifty thousand soldiers of the Death Assault Army were ready to deploy.

The next day, at the first light of dawn, the operational plan of the Death Assault Army was officially launched.

The Death Assault Army advanced steadily from multiple directions toward the upper levels of Ironwood Hive City.

Feeling the vibrations from the ground, the Chaos forces knew their end had come.

Along the way, the Death Assault Army sensed something was wrong; the intensity of the fighting here was even lower than in Western Hive City.

What the Death Assault Army did not know was that Xue Shatian had completely abandoned Ironwood Hive City and withdrawn the vast majority of his troops for the purpose of better defending Troy Hive City.

The Death Assault Army advanced steadily, discovering that the resistance from the Chaos forces was extremely weak, with heavy guards only stationed at key transportation hubs.

Soon, the Death Assault Army reached the front of an important cross-bridge in the Upper Hive.

Here, the Khorne forces had deployed heavy defenses.

They covered the bridge with barbed wire and deployed heavy weapons such as tanks, heavy machine guns, and laser cannons.

The reason they were holding this position to the death was that this cross-bridge was the throat-point connecting all important facilities in the Upper Hive; once destroyed, it would cause immeasurable losses.

Therefore, they were certain that the Imperial Army would never dare to bombard the bridge deck with heavy artillery.

And indeed, facts proved them right.

To ensure the integrity of the cross-bridge, the Empire did not authorize artillery bombardment of the area.

However, the pressure on the Khorne forces was mounting.

Not far away, more and more Imperial Army units were gathering here.

The Imperial Army also recognized this as a tough nut to crack, so they did not rashly attack, waiting instead for brother units to finish assembling.

At the same time, the front line reported the situation here to the command headquarters.

Soon, a command came from headquarters, consisting of only one cold sentence:

"Capture the cross-bridge at all costs and continue the advance."

Upon receiving the order, the troops quickly regrouped.

Xia Xingchen's Death Assault Army used mortars to bombard the Khorne forces on the bridge deck.

Although the mortars had limited power and could not cause substantial damage to the bridge deck, creating at most small craters, their lethality against personnel was real and effective.

Under the cover of artillery fire, the assault army launched a charge toward the cross-bridge.

Seeing this, the Khorne forces immediately set up heavy machine guns and autocannons, firing frantically at the charging Imperial Army.

The powerful firepower instantly mowed down the first batch of Xia Xingchen's soldiers charging at the front like wheat.

But compared to ordinary troops, the Death Assault Army possessed steel-like morale and willpower.

They continued to charge toward the bridge deck without slowing down in the slightest; even as soldiers fell in front of them, no one retreated.

The Khorne forces watched helplessly as the Death Assault Army paved a path with their lives, charging step by step right in front of them.

The Death Assault soldier charging at the very front plunged his dagger into a machine gunner's skull, followed by a swift slash that cut another soldier's throat as if slicing a watermelon.

Cold-blooded assassinations were repeated countless times here, as lives constantly turned into cold corpses.

The Death Assault Army, like a black tide, crashed again and again onto this few-square-kilometer piece of land.

The continuous assault finally tore gap after gap in the Khorne mortal forces on the bridge.

Their defensive line was torn open time and again during the assault, and time and again barely patched up.

Finally, when there was no one left to patch the line, the entire defensive line became riddled with holes.

The Commander of the Khorne mortal forces had just sent out a distress message.

In the next second, a high-explosive grenade landed in his command room, blowing him and the room to pieces.

With this explosion, the situation on the entire battlefield was completely determined; the explosion was like a nail, sealing the coffin of this war with a final notice.

The Empire was victorious.

Standing at a nearby frontline position, Division Commander Zhang Bo watched the front line being completely breached and the entire cross-viaduct fully secured, finally revealing a satisfied smile.

"The plan went even more smoothly than we imagined. We originally thought that attacking Ironwood Hive City would take at least six months, but now we've taken it in less than three."

"At this rate, in at most another month, we will be able to advance to the walls of Troy Hive City."

"And from the start of the war until now, only seven months have passed. We still have a full ten months left before the deadline required by the Inquisitor."

With the entry of the Leman Russ Tank and the double-headed dragon tank, the outcome of the war had long been sealed.

The roar of the tanks and the immense power of the steel torrent ground the remnants of Khorne flat, like a meat grinder.

As the infantry advanced steadily, only The Spire area remained in the hands of the rebels.

The remaining rebels garrisoned the final Spire, and the former fanaticism was no longer in their eyes.

It was replaced by confusion and fear: they did not know what was at the end of this path of Chaos, and were even more afraid that the pitch-black door in front of them would be kicked open at any moment.

But the next second, as if in response to their fear, the door was slammed open. Appearing at the doorway was the cold cannon barrel of a Leman Russ Tank.

Greeting them were bullets sprayed from the tank's coaxial machine gun.

The moment the Leman Russ smashed open the door, its coaxial machine gun immediately opened fire on them.

The powerful firepower didn't care about precision; it only sought to suppress the enemy with the most ferocious fire.

It proved very effective.

The Khorne forces in the corridor didn't even have time to react; one unlucky fellow was shot into a sieve on the spot, while the rest hid in the trenches under the ferocious fire, not daring to even lift their heads.

As soon as the machine gun fire stopped, the sound of dense footsteps followed.

The Imperial Army's charge began.

The Khorne troops hurriedly stood up, just preparing to open fire in resistance, but as soon as one of them poked his head out, he was shot in the head by the Death Assault Army.

The remaining men, after firing in succession, ultimately could not escape the fate of death, only to become corpses amidst screams of collapse.

The moment the Imperial flag was planted on The Spire of the Hive City again, Ironwood Hive City was officially declared returned to the embrace of the Empire.

There were only sporadic gunshots left in the entire Ironwood Hive City, and a large number of remaining Chaos mortal forces existed throughout the Hive City; Xia Xingchen's second-line unit, the Penitent Army, had already begun clearing out the remaining Chaos forces.

At the same time, the command headquarters was busy finalizing the operation against Troy.