152: The cruelty of modern warfare

In fact, as the first echelon, they were well aware that they were destined to be wiped out, but their mission was the most critical: to exhaust the enemy's ammunition and durability as much as possible.

Artillery roared and machine guns thundered; almost every second, hundreds of soldiers fell on the path of their charge.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

Facing the fearless charge of the Xiao Yao Unit, the defenders could not wait for the second round of strikes from the artillery brigade and began firing anti-tank missiles and gun-launched missiles.

Due to terrain limitations, the attacking force's military off-road vehicles and civilian vehicles were forced into a dense formation, allowing the Black Hawk Empire's anti-tank missiles to destroy multiple vehicles simultaneously with their area-of-effect explosive damage.

Meanwhile, the battle situations on the other two fronts were also extremely intense, but because the main force was attracting the artillery brigade and bomber attacks, their losses were not as severe.

However, lacking heavy firepower, they struggled to inflict more significant damage on the defenders.

Yet, none of the three battlefields had deployed their infantry fighting vehicles, choosing to keep them hidden for now.

Minutes later, Qin Luming's first echelon was completely wiped out, and Liu Nian promptly ordered the players to retreat.

The first echelon's results, besides consuming a vast amount of the enemy's ammunition, also inflicted about 20% durability damage on those five hundred-plus infantry fighting vehicles.

"Second echelon, advance!"

The second echelon was commanded by Xuan Yu, totaling over a thousand team members and a force of 200,000.

In addition to her original veteran members from the Night God Squad, some freelance players from Hengshui had also joined.

Xuan Yu's second echelon was equipped with over 10,000 military off-road vehicles and nearly 20,000 civilian vehicles, launching their charge in several rows across a two-kilometer front.

Once the enemy entered the maximum range of their heavy machine guns, these tens of thousands of light and heavy machine guns began pouring out bullets. While these torrential bullets caused no damage to the main battle tanks, they caused endless headaches for the infantry fighting vehicles.

Their autocannons had to first clear the tens of thousands of civilian vehicles acting as cannon fodder before they could hit the military off-road vehicles hiding behind and providing fire support.

This invisibly wasted a large amount of the Imperial armored force's ammunition and caused significant damage to their vehicles.

Li Xiao saw that the enemy vehicles were continuously taking damage, but he did not appear too relaxed, because by now, his main force had already lost more than 10% of its troops without having dealt any critical damage to the enemy.

Just as Xuan Yu's offensive was in full swing, and with the help of a large number of cannon-fodder vehicles, they approached within 500 meters of the enemy, a series of sharp whistles suddenly came from the sky.

Xuan Yu, standing behind the attacking force, also heard this somewhat familiar sound, and her icy expression flickered.

"It's mortars..." someone nearby shouted.

"No! The caliber is at least twice as large as our active-duty mortars! I'm afraid it's the howitzer battalion that Yun Dongliu mentioned might exist!"

Boom, boom, boom, boom!

As the words were spoken, shells landed in the formation. There weren't many, only about twenty, but each one had the power equivalent to an aerial bomb, with an explosion radius exceeding thirty meters.

Vehicles and personnel within the impact zone were blown to pieces on the spot, dying in a gruesome manner.

Just over ten seconds later, the second round of shells fell again, and over a hundred soldiers were killed.

Seeing this scene, Xuan Yu and Li Xiao at the command post were helpless. They had no means of counterattacking at this moment; all they had was the ability to use human lives to charge the Black Hawk Empire's defense line again and again.

Large-caliber howitzer shells kept falling, attempting to halt the Xiao Yao Unit's momentum, but how could the 100,000 to 200,000 people of the second echelon be wiped out in such a short time?

Although those civilian vehicles could be destroyed by just two or three autocannon rounds, their sheer numbers were overwhelming.

Within a 500-meter range, over a thousand military off-road vehicles were now facing the infantry fighting vehicles' artillery fire head-on. They unleashed wild fire with their heavy machine guns, while soldiers braved the shelling to disembark and fire rocket launchers at the enemy.

Just as the main follow-up force was about to charge in front of the infantry fighting vehicles, the rocket artillery fired by the Black Hawk artillery brigade flew over the city again, instantly wiping out the vanguard of the second echelon.

"Damn it!"

Liu Nian slammed his fist onto the hood of a military off-road vehicle and said angrily, "Damn the Black Hawk Unit! We were so close! If we could just reach the defense line, we would win for sure!"

Before setting out, Li Xiao had Liu Nian require every soldier to carry a piece of C4 explosives, as that was the most effective artifact for their human-wave tactics to destroy enemy vehicles.

"Lao Xiao, why don't we send in the infantry fighting vehicles? If you put those thick-skinned vehicles of yours at the very front, as long as we can tear open a gap, we'll definitely win this battle!"

Lao Xiao shook his head: "It's not time yet. The enemy's infantry fighting vehicle ammunition has only been half consumed, and they still have plenty of main battle tank shells left."

"Besides, their anti-tank missiles haven't been exhausted, and the enemy's Army Aviation Regiment hasn't shown itself yet. If we send in our armored forces for a frontal assault now, we'll be wiped out in one wave by the enemy!"

Li Xiao had considered deploying the armored forces just a moment ago, but the enemy's combined firepower—howitzers, rocket artillery, and armored fire—was too fierce. If his three companies were sent up and focused upon, they would likely be wiped out before they could even reach the enemy's face.

Furthermore, his biggest concern was still the heavily armed Army Aviation Regiment; he was the type who would never release the hawk until he saw the rabbit.

"Alright!"

Although Liu Nian was unwilling to see large numbers of soldiers throw their lives away like this, he had to defer to Li Xiao's overall strategic considerations.

"Everyone, don't stop! Order the troops to charge at full speed!"

Xuan Yu shouted hoarsely amidst the sound of artillery fire. The remaining 100,000+ people of the second echelon launched a full-line charge, but under the enemy's three-pronged fierce firepower, neither soldiers nor vehicles could penetrate within 300 meters of the enemy.

Soon, the civilian vehicles were all destroyed, and the military off-road vehicles hiding behind to provide support began to bear the brunt of the fierce artillery fire.

Even under these circumstances, they did not give up the attack; instead, they pushed their engines to the limit and charged toward the enemy, allowing their vehicle-mounted heavy machine guns to inflict higher damage on the enemy.

Ten minutes later, the second echelon was wiped out, and all remaining members retreated.

Li Xiao calculated the enemy's ammunition and durability values and still did not order the armored forces to attack. He turned to Yun Dongliu and said, "You take the third echelon up! You must suppress the enemy infantry fighting vehicles' armor health to 30%!"

Yun Dongliu didn't say anything, just nodded and turned to leave.

The third echelon also consisted of 200,000 troops, with vehicles comparable to Xuan Yu's unit, but this time, for Yun Dongliu's assault, Li Xiao decided to use their only long-range support firepower: two hundred 75mm mortars.