"boom!"

At the moment when the first shot missed, Zhao Jie once again pushed a capped armor-piercing bullet into the barrel, and a crisp metallic collision sound was heard when the bolt was closed.

When he aimed at the tank again, he did not notice that he was also being targeted - the target was a 5-ton truck.

In the fierce tank battle, almost no one paid attention to the trucks. When the infantrymen on the trucks jumped off the trucks and organized defense nearby, Mason, who was driving the car, did not jump off the car. He sat in the cab with his back hunched over, observed for a while, then stepped on the accelerator and rushed towards a tank at full speed.

At the moment when the side of the tank was hit violently, Zhao Jie was shocked and fell off his seat. He was dizzy and had only one thought in his mind.

"What's wrong?"

The weight of a 5-ton truck is actually about the same as that of a Type 18 tank. After all, a Type 18 tank weighs only a little over 6 tons. The violent collision caused the tank to stall immediately. Of course, Mason, who was driving the truck, was not much better. He was hit on the head and bleeding, and he fell directly on the steering wheel.

"How about it?"

The driver shouted loudly amid Zhao Jie's nervous shouting.

"It's okay, it's stalled, I'll start it again..."

Such a collision was just a minor incident on the battlefield. Before the dazed Mason could come to his senses, he was hit by another tank and his car was turned into a pile of scrap metal.

The six Type 18 tanks were like tigers descending from the mountains, constantly attacking, and even ended the last struggle of the US tanks with armor-piercing shells when they were within 30 or 40 meters. Amid the violent explosion, the turret of a tank was blown high into the sky, and then fell to the ground. The headless tank turned into a huge torch, burning there with black smoke.

Although this was a battle between tanks, the US infantry did not stand idly by. Some of them even bravely used "Thor's Hammer" to attack the Ming army's tanks, but this did not affect the outcome of the battle.

When the U.S. infantrymen were pushing two cannons and trying to build a position to launch a counterattack, another six machine gun tanks that drove out of the forest also launched an attack. They strafed the U.S. soldiers with machine guns and even directly crashed into the U.S. artillery.

Armored soldiers are undoubtedly the kings on the battlefield. Although those American soldiers looked brave, they were soon awakened by the cruel reality. When the tanks roared towards them and rolled over their bodies with steel tracks, looking at the flesh and blood hanging on the tank tracks, the courage they had finally mustered up was washed away by this horrific scene.

What followed was a sense of powerlessness and despair. Some desperate soldiers even shot at the Ming army's tanks with rifles at a loss, but all they heard was a sound of metal collision. Some brave people screamed and wanted to use "Thor's Hammer" to fight back against the tanks, but were torn to pieces by bullets from the tank machine gunners.

For infantrymen who have not received any anti-tank training and who rely entirely on instinct to fight tanks, courage is their only reliance, but sometimes courage is no match for steel.

Faced with the tanks, some veterans began to prepare to flee. They felt that they could not stop the Ming army's tanks no matter what, not to mention the machine guns and artillery shells on the Ming army tanks, which were constantly beckoning them.

Some soldiers' spirits had collapsed. They knelt on the ground crying and praying desperately for God's help. Then they were knocked to the ground by whistling bullets.

The infantry officers looked at the roaring Imperial tanks in panic. As they watched one American tank after another being blown up, they realized that they could not win no matter what. If they continued to stay here, they would be seeking death.

As smart as they were, they abandoned the soldiers and fled desperately to the rear. Between honor and survival, many of them firmly chose the latter, but not all of them did so. In desperate situations, there were still brave warriors who went against the flow.

Through the gap in the armor plate, Lu Daqiang saw an American officer holding a saber in his hand, seemingly shouting something. A small group of American soldiers seemed to be gathering towards him. Some of them were even carrying a heavy square iron box. You didn't need to look closely to know what it was - Thor's hammer - and the iron box was filled with 2 kilograms of explosives.

Without any hesitation, Lu Daqiang immediately picked up his machine gun and fired at the group of American soldiers. In the dense rain of bullets, the group of enemies fell down in groups.

After seeing the enemy fall, Lu Daqiang kicked the driver and shouted.

"Press it up, press it up..."

Although there were still many injured American soldiers on the ground, the tanks still ran over them directly. For a while, the battlefield was full of the desperate screams of the wounded and the sound of bones being crushed.

Such a cruel scene frightened many Americans. They watched in horror as the tanks crushed people into pulp like the meat grinder of the god of death. When the tanks rushed over, the soldiers who were out of their wits chose to flee. But even if they wanted to flee, the Ming people seemed unwilling to let them go. Artillery fire and machine guns began to extend in the direction of their escape. With bursts of dense gunfire, the fleeing American soldiers were knocked to the ground.

How can a person outrun a tank?

The tanks roared and rushed towards the surviving American soldiers, machine guns fired and tanks crushed them. Seeing this scene, the remaining American soldiers finally began to collapse across the board. In order to escape, the soldiers threw away their backpacks, rifles and other burdens on their bodies, and then desperately fled to the rear. Some smart soldiers fled directly to the direction of the forest. It is better to escape into the forest than to be chased by tanks.

The wounded soldiers knelt on the ground with their hands raised, constantly begging the Imperial tanks that rushed towards them to show mercy and give them a way to live, fearing that they would be crushed by the tank tracks and turned into a pile of meat paste.

Not only the infantry were fleeing, but the remaining few US tanks were also fleeing. They were even fleeing faster than the infantry. Seeing that the situation was not right, four tanks put themselves in reverse gear and fled backwards.

As the US troops fled in all directions, the tank company was advancing at a rapid speed, and soon rushed past the front soldiers of the infantry and rushed in front of the tanks. The slow American tanks had already been frightened by the previous battle. Although their tanks could also destroy the Empire's tanks, the problem was that their courage had been lost.

With a gunshot, a fleeing tank was hit, and when thick smoke came out of the tank, the American tankmen, who had no way to escape, saw the Imperial tanks rushing up. They didn't hesitate at all, and quickly climbed out of their tanks and raised their hands to the Imperial tanks. Among them was their company commander, Lieutenant Davis.

As an officer who came from the cavalry, he had no idea about tanks, nor did he know how to command tanks in combat. He even completed his "tank training" in a car. He originally thought that tank battles were like battles between cavalrymen. But he didn't expect that when the battle came, he and his subordinates completely lost contact. The result of this battle was even worse than their training on the training ground - this time, both the man and the vehicle became prisoners of the tank troops.

"Gentlemen, they have won..."

Davis sighed helplessly, looked at the approaching Imperial tank, and let out a long lament.

"Okay, now let's surrender gracefully."

After an officer took the lead in surrendering, everything became very simple. As an officer, Davis was no stranger to surrender. It was not that he had the experience of surrendering, but he had learned about it in military school. After giving the order to surrender, he did not forget to ask the imperial soldiers to give them treatment commensurate with their military ranks, and at the same time asked the Empire to allow them to treat the wounded.

When the battle was over, the valley was littered with scattered corpses and more than a dozen burning tanks were scattered randomly in the valley. One tank even fell into the river valley. It was an American tank that fled in panic, but the river blocked its escape.

There were some corpses hanging on those burning tanks. They were the bodies of the tank drivers!

They were hanging on the hatch of the tank, they were burned to charcoal in the burning tank, their vehicles were still burning, in the billowing flames, black smoke rose slowly into the air. Around the wreckage, many American soldiers were still holding their rifles tightly before they died. These infantrymen proved their courage with their blood. Unfortunately, even the fearless warriors were powerless in the face of steel machines.

The wreckage of the tank, the flames, the fireworks and the corpses on the ground formed a sad yet spectacular picture.

There were hundreds of American officers and soldiers squatting on the ground between the tanks. They had all become prisoners. Just as they were looking at the Ming tanks in panic and obediently listening to their orders to tie their comrades' hands with shoelaces, there was a sudden roar in the air.

It's a plane!

Standing on the turret, Lu Daqiang listened to the roar of the plane. When he looked up at the sky, a hint of doubt flashed between his brows.

Suddenly his brows furrowed and he shouted loudly.

"Enemy plane!"

It's an enemy plane!

The next moment, gunshots were heard. The machine gunners on the two planes in the air operated their machine guns and fired at them. Although the machine guns would not cause any damage to the tanks, they still forced them into the tanks.

As the planes were strafing, the prisoners of war, who seemed to have given up resistance, fled in all directions with a loud bang.

"Chiu..."

The bomb fell, and amid the violent explosion, the tank commanders drove their tanks towards the forest on the side of the road.

It was a short air-to-ground battle. The two American planes only dropped four bombs. After the tanks drove into the forest, they flew a circle and left.

"Damn it, what kind of luck do we have today? Not only did we run into tanks, but we also ran into American planes!"

Looking at the plane flying away, Zhao Jie couldn't help but wonder if he didn't check the almanac before going out today, otherwise how could he be so lucky.

Not only did we encounter tanks, but we also encountered airplanes.

Eight tanks hid at the edge of the forest - in the previous battle, they lost four tanks. Three tanks were destroyed by US tanks in the battle, one tank was hit by the infantry with "Thor's Hammer" and exploded violently, killing all the crew members. As for the crews of the other three vehicles, they were besieged by infantry when they evacuated, and many people were killed and injured.

"Now each crew reports the damage."

Zhao Jie shouted loudly.

In fact, it was clear at a glance that the eight tanks were parked neatly at the edge of the forest.

"Car 03 was not damaged."

"Car 05 was not damaged..."

"Vehicle No. 10 suffered almost no damage, but its road wheels were damaged during the bombing. However, it does not affect its operation."

…

Listening to his comrades' reports, Zhao Jie nodded with satisfaction and said.

"Very good, brothers. Although the battle we fought today cannot be called a perfect victory, this is our first tank battle. We were able to outnumber the enemy by 4 to 12 and captured three tanks. This is already a perfect victory. When this battle is over, I think everyone will have a medal on their chest."

"Captain, I think everyone must have a medal of loyalty and bravery!"

When Li Wenlei, the driver of car No. 3, was talking with a smile, someone suddenly shouted.

"The Americans! The Americans are coming!"

The American who came over was a prisoner who didn't have time to escape, or he didn't run at all. During the bombing, Ander was bandaging the wounds of the wounded. In fact, he had considered whether to escape, but faced with the machine gun, he gave up - a damaged tank was parked near them, and the tank machine gun was pointed directly at them. The reason why he ran here now was because he needed medicine.

"Sir, I still have 26 wounded soldiers who have not received medical treatment."

Walking up to the tank, Ander asked directly.

"Excuse me, Sir, can you provide us with some medicine and bandages for our wounds?"

In fact, when he made this request, he seemed very

In fact, he seemed a little nervous when he made this request. After all, this was his first time dealing with soldiers from the Ming Empire.

The Ming Dynasty was a civilized country.

They wouldn't mistreat their prisoners, would they?

It shouldn’t be, after all, they are also a civilized country!

With a strong sense of uneasiness in his heart, Ander looked at the Ming people whose appearance was different from theirs. Will they treat the captives in the way of civilized countries?

In the face of the American military doctor's request, Zhao Jie did not refuse, just as he had previously promised that the surrendered American soldiers would receive treatment commensurate with their military ranks. As a victor, he did not mind showing his kind side. Of course, the more important point is that the empire is indeed a civilized country and does not need to demonstrate its strength by abusing prisoners of war.

Moreover, according to the official plan of the empire, these American prisoners of war can play a certain role in Africa.