Chapter 441.1: COUNTERATTACK BABY

Boom!

City of Abundance. Outside the riverbank.

A deafening explosion shattered the afternoon silence.

Those crouching on the ground quickly tucked their necks, protecting the messtins in their hands.

"Damn it, my ears... Shit!"

"What was that noise?"

"A nuclear bomb...?"

That was the rumor circulating among the troops.

The Army planned to wipe City of Abundance off the map with a nuclear bomb.

... Had they already used it?

Clutching his ringing ears, a soldier struggled to his feet. He put on his steel helmet and peered out of the trench, looking eagerly towards the City of Abundance. However...

The despairing riverbank still stood firm. A glimmer of hopelessness flickered through his numb pupils.

As if realizing something, he stiffly turned his neck, trying to look behind him.

In the moment he turned, his pupils dilated, and the despair that lurked deep within his soul spread across his face. The world seemed ablaze with floating waves of heat.

Curling black smoke linked the sky and the ground like a flood pouring from the underworld. It was endless.

The center of the explosion was a crater a hundred meters wide, erasing a corner of the vast battlefield, throwing up soil, rocks, and corpses... The winding trenches were buried.

There was no cry of agony, just a deathly silence.

He remembered it was the position of the 7th camp of their first battalion. He even recalled those young men had just relieved the battered 4th camp of the second battalion the day before.

Gulping heavily, the sound of swallowing saliva was the only sound in the silent world. Suddenly, it began to rain with crimson and sticky raindrops.

He raised his trembling right hand and touched his nose. The hot and sticky sensation made his heart nearly stop beating.

From a drizzle to a downpour, more and more bits of flesh and bone fell from the sky. Eventually, the larger bone pieces clanged against his steel helmet like hail.

What is all this for?

What is his purpose here?

Fear finally breached the soldier's mental defenses. Kneeling in the trench, he hugged his helmet and unleashed a heartrending scream.

Nearby, the deafening sound of artillery, continuous gunfire, and the rumbling of tank tracks moving forward together rang through the air.

Cries of rage and hatred pulled the remnants in the trenches back from that silent world to reality.

"Kill!"

...

"Bang!" Thunderous artillery blasts sounded like trumpets, shattering the surrounding skies and gently shaking the Heart of Steel cruising below the clouds.

Thick smoke rose from the 400mm main cannon, tracing a perfect parabola, blasting the ground alongside their diving propeller aircraft.

Watching the pillars of fire rising from the ground, Spring Water Commander, who was standing by the rail of the Heart of Steel couldn't help but click his tongue. "... This might not be weaker than a tactical nuclear bomb."

And it's environmentally friendly too, with no radioactive dust.

The only problem was that the crater was a bit too large. It would take some time to fill.

The last time he saw it firing was when he was down below. Now that he changed perspective, it felt completely different.

Facing the firepower suppression of their aerial battleship, the Falcon Kingdom's siege on City of Abundance was visibly crumbling.

The Goblin Corps’ air force skimmed the edge of the blast wave. 40 W2 ground attack Mosquitos fired non-stop, bathing the lands in a second round of air raids.

Darkest stared at Spring Water Commander and asked, "When are we up?"

"It's not our turn yet."

"Damn, it's already starting!"

"This airship is the star of this war. Let our allies handle the charge. Our role is to appear at critical moments in critical places, like when the enemy's armored forces suddenly arrive, and we bring anti-tank weapons for support... But it seems that won't be necessary now..." Spring Water Commander took out his binoculars and looked down at the ground.

The enemy lines were collapsing faster than expected. It seems the Army has given up their position... The skies were filled with a string of black dots.

The Falcon Kingdom's air force tried to salvage the situation, 30 Falcon propeller planes entering the battlefield from the northwest. But from the moment those flashing red dots appeared on the radar screen of the Heart of Steel, their fate was sealed.

"Master, enemy planes have entered firing range!" In the communication channel, Little Seven sounded full of energy while yelling at the top of its lungs.

Standing in front of the bridge's floor-to-ceiling window, Chu Guang looked at the clear sky nearby and announced their demise with an even voice.

“Fire.”

“Got it!”

Little Seven’s cheeky voice had just fallen when a rain of fire lit up the sky in an instant, the successive smoke and fire forming impenetrable walls, adding a swath of dark clouds to the clear skies.

In the face of overwhelming firepower, any evasive maneuver lost its meaning.

If one couldn't break through the entire airspace in a single breath, being riddled with countless shrapnel was the only outcome. Standing by, Finod gulped in fright.

This guy really knows how to use the Heart of Steel...

He even had the illusion that this airship’s combat strength had escalated by an order of magnitude under this devil's hand.

Under the coordination of the Shelter System and Little Seven, every anti-aircraft gun on the Heart of Steel was pushed to its limits. They even calculated the trajectories of shrapnel, expanding their firepower by 1.5 times without losing efficiency!

The way they turned the deck into a runway to make an airship aircraft carrier was also something mindboggling. His jaws dropped to the ground when he saw their modifications.

The Heart of Steel indeed could carry aircraft, but those carried were specifically aircraft that were capable of vertical takeoff. The way of throwing propeller planes out like paper airplanes was truly beyond his imagination.

Aren't they worried about accidents?

"All enemy air units have been annihilated!" Little Seven reported in the communication channel.

Chu Guang nodded slightly, his gaze returning from the smoke-filled sky to the distant City of Abundance.

Seeing the smoke-covered battlefield where the Scarab Corps, led by Prince Wint, had burst out of the western gate of the riverbank with the support of the Honey Badger Kingdom's resistance army, completely crushing the first battalion of the Falcon Kingdom.

In fact, before they emerged from the riverbank, the Falcon Kingdom's line was already on the verge of collapse. 30 W2 Mosquito ground attack aircraft's successive dive-bombing nearly paralyzed the fixed fire points on the ground.

A total of four 400mm heavy high-explosive and incendiary bombs directly broke the Falcon Kingdom soldiers' psychological defenses.

More soldiers laid down their weapons and raised their hands to surrender than those killed on the spot by artillery. Although most resisted, it still couldn't change their inevitable defeat.

Nuclear bombs were not deployed at the nearest airfield, and the Army didn't even authorize the deployment of more planes. Even as early as the night before, the New Alliance's reconnaissance planes discovered that at least three ground unit battalions and two artillery battalions had retreated toward the northwest.

Those left behind to cover the retreat were the expendable forces Griffin was planning to feed to the New Alliance.

With the northern supply lines unsustainable, it was the most realistic assessment. Griffin’s decisions were even more decisive. If they couldn’t take down their target, they would simply abandon it. If the situation was unfavorable, they would shift strategically without hesitation. They would never underestimate the seemingly insignificant New Alliance.

The old fox was craftier than he imagined.

Considering it best to be cautious, Chu Guang had not ordered the airship to penetrate deep into enemy territory to pursue the advancing enemy.

The Army wouldn't design a weapon that the Army couldn't handle, and he had reason to suspect that they also held a trump card that could deal with the Heart of Steel.

At least according to the New Alliance's chief researcher Yin Fang, the technology to manipulate gravitons was not invincible. Otherwise the Prosperity Era wouldn't have ended so abruptly.

When he had to go all-in, he would unhesitatingly bet all his chips. But when there was a safer option, he would also unhesitatingly choose the latter.

The Heart of Steel would not stray from the front lines deep into enemy territory. Chu Guang would personally follow this flagship, steadily advancing along the front.

The counterattack of the City of Abundance was already without suspense. By comparison, he was more concerned about the situation to the south.

If his initial strategic judgment was correct, then the Army's nuclear bombs should have already arrived at the Lost Valley's airfield.

Staring out the window at the battlefield, Vanus pondered for a moment before suddenly speaking up, "Too fast."

Chu Guang frowned. "Too fast?"

"Yeah.” Vanus nodded. "I didn't even see a bit of effective resistance."

Chu Guang smiled faintly. "Isn't that good?"

"It's not bad, just makes me feel a bit strange," Vanus mused for a moment before suddenly speaking.

"Where are their tanks? Since yesterday, we haven't seen a single tank. The Honey Badger Kingdom's resistance army rushed into the riverbank without resistance. If I were him, I would never let those two units successfully meet."

Without infantry support, tanks were like spears without handles.

The situation at the time could have deployed several anti-tank squads in coordination with armored forces to intercept the Honey Badger Kingdom's resistance army. Even it wasn't necessary to annihilate those forces completely, the Falcon Kingdom just needed to hold them off, keep them pinned below the riverbank, and once tanks stop moving, even the strongest tanks would become iron coffins.

“Even if this is far from the Sunset Province, and they only had so much equipment... Things are just too weird...”Pausing for a few seconds, Vanus couldn’t help but share his thoughts after watching Chu Guang not saying anything. "Shit! Were all their equipment and tanks stationed in Camp 530?!”

...

East of Oasis No.4, 300 kilometers from the Tzobar Mountains, dusk gradually enveloped the land.

Tanks appeared intermittently in the flying sand, only their thick barrels and turrets camouflaged with desert nets visible.

The fronts of the vehicles were reinforced with sandbags and completely buried by sand. These tanks primarily consisted of Conqueror No. 5 light tanks and Conqueror No. 10 heavy tanks.

To stretch the front line sufficiently long, the tanks were spaced widely apart, with large gaps filled by prone infantry in foxholes.

On the northernmost side of the front line, an oddly shaped tank was parked.

It had no turret, the barrel embedded in the wedge-shaped body, and more surprisingly, its tracks were not embedded in the body but attached to the outside like tires.

A military officer in dark blue uniform emerged from the top of the vehicle, holding a pair of binoculars. His huge nose pointed eastwards.

His name was Stan, a tank commander under Griffin's command. He was also the commander of the Falcon Kingdom’s 1st Armored Corps.

Several days ago, Griffin personally briefed him on the operation.

"... Our plan is not foolproof, and if they see through our intentions, sending an armored force to raid our airfield is their only option. It is also their last hope. What you need to do is block their final route of survival!”

Although everything was based on the premise that the New Alliance had seen through their plan, and while the likelihood was slim, it wasn’t impossible. However, Stan wasn’t worried.

With 50 Conqueror No. 5 light tanks, 40 Conqueror No. 10 and Conqueror No. 11 heavy tanks, along with his Wanderer below him... He also had 1,000 motorized infantry and a large amount of anti-tank and anti-infantry gear. He spread a massive net across a battle line tens of kilometers wide.

Whether the enemy sent 1,000 or 10,000 men, no one would breach his wall!