great-warnovel Chapter 267 Clash of Cavalry and Armored Tanks
Chapter 267 Clash of Cavalry and Armored Tanks
Although the old sergeant said that, looking at the densely packed, endless warhorses in front of him, his Adam's apple bobbed up and down, and his palms were sweating.
"Sir! Enemy heavy cavalry divisions and armored vehicles have approached within five kilometers of our first line of defense!"
The observer's urgent voice came through the phone at the forward observation post:
"Enemy armored train begins probing fire!"
"Boom! Boom!"
Several muffled cannon shots rang out on the railway, and two shells slammed into the open ground in front of Chen's army's defense line, exploding into two large pillars of mud.
"What's the panic?!"
Zang Keping stood in the forward defense command post of the First Division, holding the telephone receiver, and rudely spat out a mouthful of saliva:
"Write down the enemy's artillery coordinates for me, we'll settle accounts with them later!"
"Order all battalions, machine gunners to take their positions. No one is to expose their firing positions without my order!"
He put down the phone, peered through the observation peephole at the smoke-filled battlefield outside, and a cruel smile crept across his lips:
"Trading human lives against tanks?"
"Just wait until I show you what real military power is!"
As the charge drew ever closer, a sinister and terrifying smile appeared on the face of the commander of the Fengtian cavalry division.
"Haha! Those southern barbarians' artillerymen are terrified! They haven't fired a single shot!"
He raised his sharp, broad saber high and shouted loudly to his left and right:
"Brothers! Those southern barbarians only have a few trenches left! Follow the commander's armored train and charge in, chop them all into mincemeat!"
"Kill! Kill! Kill!"
The more than 20,000 elite cavalrymen were completely ignited by these bold words, and their horses increased their speed again. The sound of their hooves was like muffled thunder, almost flattening the entire Xuzhou Plain.
Two massive armored trains of the Fengtian Army, under the raging steam pressure, crashed violently against the rails, producing a deafening, piercing noise, and spewing thick black smoke as they hurtled forward.
However, just as the Fengtian army crossed the three-kilometer red line, a sudden change occurred on the vast plain behind the Chen family army's first line of defense!
"Splash!"
The soldiers suddenly ripped open the anti-aircraft camouflage netting, which was disguised as withered grass and bushes, revealing the enormous object hidden underneath.
"Boom!"
Dozens of high-horsepower tank engines were slammed into action at the same moment, and pungent diesel and gasoline fumes violently spewed out of the exhaust pipes.
As the tracks spun violently, dirt and bits of dry grass were kicked up high, and one after another, heavy steel monsters painted with gray anti-rust paint and various shades of camouflage roared out of the bunker in an indestructible wedge formation.
The robust gun barrel, the heavy steel armor, and the wide tracks that have carved deep grooves into the ground exude a breathtaking industrial steel aesthetic.
"Tanks two, maintain distance and follow my flagship!"
The truck bed was filled with the roar of the engine and the vibrations of the track drive, and the smell of gasoline stimulated everyone's nerves.
"Understood, engine is working properly, air pressure is normal!"
The driver below slammed on the accelerator, and the Panzer III engine roared like a raging beast. Black smoke billowed from the rear, and the tracks churned up mud on the plain, propelling the steel body at a frenzied acceleration.
On either side of them, hundreds of Panzer II tanks and nearly a hundred armored personnel carriers advanced in a wedge formation. The machine gunners on the armored vehicles pulled back their bolts, their eyes fixed on the billowing yellow sand in the distance.
"Let those country bumpkins on horseback see what mechanized land warfare is all about!"
The commander grinned maliciously and closed the circular hatch above his head.
"What...what kind of monster is that?!"
The Fengtian cavalry commander at the forefront froze on his horse, his eyes nearly popping out of their sockets.
The most formidable armored vehicles he had ever seen in his life were the metal armored trains on the railway lines, or the few thin-skinned cars that the Fengtian clique had bought from outside the Great Wall.
But these steel chariots, rampaging across the plains and emitting a violent roar, seemed like metal behemoths that only existed in mythology!
"Reporting to the young marshal! The Second Armored Division has launched a full-scale attack."
In the forward command post, Zang Keping's voice trembled slightly, a tremor entirely caused by extreme excitement:
"More than a hundred Panzer II tanks, more than a hundred Panzer III tanks, and a regiment of nearly a hundred armored personnel carriers—they all went up!"
"This steel-burning frenzy is enough to wipe out Zhang Shizong's entire fortune!"
Chen Zijun picked up his white enamel mug and calmly looked out the window at the rows of crisscrossing steel torrents on the plain.
The exorbitant cost of purchasing these items flashed through his mind in an instant.
A Panzer III tank equipped with a 37mm cannon, along with a full set of ammunition and logistical support, would cost nearly ten thousand pounds on the system panel alone.
However, looking at those old-fashioned warhorses that seemed so flimsy in the face of armored tracks, Chen Zijun's lips curled into an extremely indifferent sneer.
He gently tapped the mahogany board on the podium and murmured a sentence:
"An old-fashioned saber trying to cut through German-made armor plates?"
"Zhang Shizong, times have changed long ago."
The two sides collided head-on on the plain like two raging tides.
The Fengtian cavalry commander was now completely unable to rein in his horse. Once the horse gained momentum, any retreat would only result in him being trampled into the mud by his comrades behind him.
He gritted his teeth, his face contorted, and in the instant the two horses passed each other, he used the momentum of the horses to leap high into the air, gripped his sword with both hands, and slashed hard at the frontal armor of a Panzer III tank!
"when!"
A piercing metallic clang rang out, sparks flying everywhere.
The commander felt an overwhelming force surge through his hands and arms, instantly causing him to lose all feeling in both arms, and even causing blood to seep from between his fingers.
The cavalry saber, forged from refined iron from beyond the Great Wall, shattered into more than a dozen pieces in response!
As for the heavy Panzer III tank, apart from a shallow white knife mark on the five-centimeter-thick alloy steel plate on the front, it was completely undamaged.
The tank coldly spewed out black smoke, without even changing direction. Its massive iron body, carrying astonishing kinetic energy, directly crushed the commander on horseback and his warhorse under the tracks.
The remaining Fengtian cavalry finally saw the despair before them. Faced with these steel behemoths emitting a metallic roar, even the more than 20,000 warhorses, despite having undergone desensitization training, were now terrified by the deafening low-frequency roar of the engines and the huge amounts of mud kicked up by the tank tracks.
The warhorses reared up in terror, neighing and trying to retreat no matter how the cavalrymen whipped them. The charging cavalry tide descended into chaos midway, with horses behind crashing into the rumps of those in front, and many cavalrymen were thrown from their horses, trampled into a bloody pulp by countless frightened hooves.
"No retreat! Charge!"