Chapter 249 Destruction (Second update, please subscribe)

The front trenches were less than 500 meters away from the Union Army's defense line. They had always been the focus of observation by the Union Army's sentries. If the Union Army wanted to attack, it would definitely launch an attack from there.

When the Northern Army's sentries discovered the movement in the forward trench, they immediately shouted loudly.

"The Southerners, the Southerners may attack..."

The Northern Soldiers who were originally chatting raised their Enfield rifles and aimed forward along the trenches. With the help of the moonlight, they could vaguely see that there was indeed some movement on the other side of the forward trench.

"Keep quiet!"

Even with the cover of night, the noise was still quite loud as the soldiers wielded their shovels.

Soon they dug a 45-degree pit at the bottom of the trench, and then, under the command of the platoon leader, they fixed the square wood with bolts. Soon, several strange-looking three-layer wooden pedestals were placed there. A launch tube was erected on the wooden pedestals.

"Hey..." accompanied by a muffled shout, the bottom section of the shell barrel weighing hundreds of pounds was lifted onto the launching tube, followed by the middle section of the shell, and finally the warhead.

In the dark night, an iron pillar with a diameter of one foot stretched out from the front trench, emitting a cold metallic luster under the moonlight.

This is Nanhua's unique cannon - the Type 64 mortar. It is an over-caliber mortar. In order to conquer the fortresses of this era, Zhu Xianhai specifically borrowed from the Type 98 mortar of Japan in World War II and designed and manufactured this powerful weapon. In order to facilitate transportation, its shells are broken down into three sections, with a blunt warhead, explosives and fuses in the front of the body, and a propellant chamber in the middle. The fire line is introduced through the door tube on the side of the body. This shell is extremely powerful. It is about 1.5 meters long and 330 mm in diameter. The shell weighs 300 kilograms and the charge is as high as 200 kilograms! The explosion can reach a diameter of 250 meters. On the battlefield, even the strongest fortifications can be easily blown apart with one shot!

And now, this is the first time it has been put into use on the battlefield. In order to ensure that it can break through the Chilean army's defense line in one battle, Zhu Xianhai transferred all 24 Type 64 mortars to the front line.

24 mortars, like 24 tree stumps emerging from the ground, pointed directly at the defense line of the Northern Army in the moonlight. In the forward trench, the artillerymen stared at the front nervously, while the officers looked at their pocket watches nervously.

At 4:30 in the morning, when the sky was slightly bright, as two green flares dragged the fire dragon into the sky, the gunner in the front trench pulled the fuse hard.

Accompanied by a dull cannon roar and the moment smoke and flames spewed out from the bottom tube of the shell, a 300-kilogram shell whizzed out. Its sound was very strange, a bit like a weird scream, and its speed was very slow, so slow that the Chileans in the trenches could even see it dragging a slight trail of smoke slowly across the night sky, and then falling from the sky.

They were not too worried about the bombardment. After all, they had trenches and breastworks for protection. But now this shell fell from the sky at a nearly vertical angle and hit directly near the trench.

The moment the shell hit the ground, the violent explosion blew tons of soil into the sky. Amid the earth-shaking, a giant gray dragon devoured everything around it with smoke and flames. The Chileans within a radius of hundreds of meters either had their internal organs shattered by the shock wave or were buried alive in the trenches by the collapsed breastwork.

Twenty-four heavy grenades were like twenty-four gods of death, they whistled with death in the air, the whistles merged into one, like the joyful chanting of the god of death, and when they fell on the Chilean fortifications with a piercing whistle, everyone saw the twenty-four huge mushroom clouds composed of smoke and flames of death that rose up one after another. The rapidly expanding smoke cloud rushed into the sky for hundreds of meters, and the broken body parts blown up in the smoke cloud were almost thrown hundreds of meters away.

While the heavy mortars were bombarding, field artillery and mortars were also pouring shells towards the Chilean defense line. Even the armored trains several kilometers away were bombarding the Chilean positions with 180mm cannons. In a short time, thousands of shells fell on the Chilean positions. The violent explosions turned the trenches into ruins. Tons of dirt and smoke flew across the trenches along with steel fragments. The whistling steel fragments harvested lives in the trenches. The shock wave shattered the internal organs of many soldiers. The air was filled with the pungent smell of gunpowder and thick smoke. The Chilean soldiers in the trenches screamed and cried in despair.

Many of them were blown into the sky while crying and screaming. They were terrified by such fierce shelling. Those who survived by chance just huddled in the trenches with their heads in their hands. They trembled, screamed, and cried in fear. Sometimes, some frightened people even stood up like crazy, and then the shrapnel whizzing past would directly penetrate their bodies and shatter their heads.

The earth was shaking violently under the bombardment, dust and fragments of limbs flew up in the air and then fell down. The broken limbs and arms that fell on the ground made the soldiers scream in fear. At this moment, even the bravest soldiers, facing such fierce artillery fire, had only fear in their hearts. Boundless fear and despair devoured their souls and destroyed their will.

During the bombardment, people were like tiny and insignificant things on the sea, drifting with the waves, then having their clothes torn apart by the shock waves, their internal organs shattered, their bodies hit by shrapnel, and finally falling to the ground. Then, in the violent explosion, they were blown into the sky, their flesh and blood mixed with dust.

Suddenly the fierce shelling stopped!

In an instant, the world seemed to suddenly become silent.

peaceful!

In the eerie silence, there was smoke in the air. The wind blew away the smoke, and what appeared before people's eyes was a mess!

Everything was destroyed, the trenches were destroyed, the wooden deer fort in front of the trenches was smashed into pieces, and in the smoke there were the terrified roars of the soldiers and the heart-wrenching cries of the wounded, accompanied by strange laughter...

The laughter came from some crazy soldiers, who seemed to have forgotten that they were on the battlefield, standing there screaming and crying. They sat or stood there like wooden chickens, and some even walked like zombies.

The human will is fragile. In the fierce artillery fire, facing death and earth-shaking explosions, the will of many people collapsed directly. After all, this was a storm they had never experienced before.

It was at this moment that suddenly, the sound of artillery fire rang out again, and this time the bombardment came like a storm!

(End of this chapter)