"Watch out for shells! Take cover! Don't expose yourselves!"
"Be careful and take cover!"
Urgent shouts echoed from the coastal fortifications, while the sounds of artillery fire and explosions grew even louder. The western coast of the Qunxing Islands, which was under heavy bombardment, was engulfed in flames of war.
The fortresses standing on the seabed were indeed sturdy, but under the bombardment of shells fired from thousands of meters away, these structures began to tremble. This instilled great fear in the gunners inside the fortresses. In the past, they would have turned this fear into rage and fired back under the enemy's fire. However, they could not do so at this moment.
The enemy ships were far away, and the weapons inside the gun emplacements were currently unable to launch an effective attack on them. Even if they were fired, they would only fall into the sea. Therefore, the gunners could only hide inside the gun emplacements and stay as far away from the windows as possible to avoid being affected by the blast wave.
Unable to retaliate, they could only passively endure the attacks. The occasional explosions landing on the gun emplacements made the gunners increasingly tense. They could only hope that the enemy's bombardment would not last too long, and that the building protecting them could withstand the bombardment.
Under the same heavy bombardment, the defensive bunkers on the shore fared much better. Those bunkers, built of hundreds of kilograms of hard boulders mixed with mortar, remained unmoved by the bombardment. Although the soldiers inside were somewhat panicked, these reliable fortifications gave them a lot of confidence.
The enemy's bombing, at least for now, has not been able to have a significant impact on them. At most, it has only confined them to these fortifications. However, the situation is still not optimistic, as casualties have already occurred. When the first round of shelling came, some soldiers who failed to take shelter in the fortifications in time were unfortunately killed.
The buildings that were not entirely made of stone were already beginning to collapse, but fortunately, there weren't too many of them. The importance of the Star Islands meant that the islands' defenses were designed to be impregnable from the very beginning. As a result, every Goth was convinced that with the Star Islands and the Brando Straits guarding them, no enemy could ever reach their homeland.
However, the continuous bombing still worried some soldiers. In the current situation, they were completely unable to fight back. Everyone had taken refuge in the fortifications. If the enemy continued to bombard them, they would be suppressed indefinitely.
Sasha in the tower was naturally aware of this problem. Although he believed that the fortifications were strong enough, how long could such a defense last if it was bombarded by the enemy without being able to fight back?
Like the other soldiers, he could only hope that the enemy's intense bombardment wouldn't last too long.
"Boom boom boom!"
Shells whistled through the air, and large-caliber explosive shells fell on the coast and exploded. The soft ground was blasted into countless craters, and even the compacted soil slowly became pitted and uneven.
The shelling had been going on for almost an hour. Compared to the beginning of the shelling, the enemy's firepower suppression seemed to have weakened somewhat, but the soldiers hiding in the bunkers looked increasingly worse.
Dust kept falling from above, and the wall they were leaning against was shaking. Every now and then, there were loud explosions overhead or around them, and each explosion made the soldiers' morale soar.
Indeed, the enemy seemed to be firing fewer shells, but they were becoming more and more accurate. At first, the shells were just landing indiscriminately all over the coast, but now the enemy was specifically targeting and precisely bombing various fortifications.
In this situation, the soldiers dared not leave the bunker. Some artillerymen even carefully moved away from the gun ports and windows, because the outer walls were subjected to the most intense bombardment. Moments earlier, some people had been injured by shrapnel from the aftershocks of the explosions.
The situation is becoming increasingly dire, and the precise firepower suppression is putting immense pressure on the soldiers.
Meanwhile, at sea, the Yan Kingdom fleet, which had launched the offensive, had already begun its next move.
On the Dinghai, Qin Ze frowned deeply. What was happening was somewhat unexpected. The shelling had been going on for so long, yet he had not seen the Goths' fortifications destroyed on a large scale. The bunkers, despite being hit with accurate shots, remained standing. This was definitely not the scene he wanted to see.
However, the shelling was not without effect. At least with each round of range-finding corrections, the shells fired by our side became more and more accurate, and the enemy gun emplacements standing on the seabed, which were the main targets, now appeared dilapidated.
Although the bunkers could not be dealt with at the moment, Qin Ze knew that he could not delay any longer. Therefore, a moment ago, he ordered the armored transport ships to carry the infantry toward the beach.
Meanwhile, the battleships continued to fire from a distance, providing fire support for the infantry's subsequent landing.
Such tactical maneuvers were naturally observed by the Goths on the island, and Sasha on the tower immediately gave orders when he saw the warships approaching.
"Get within firing range and aim all cannons at their warships!"
"Sink them all!"
In fact, Sasha knew that this was an almost impossible goal to achieve. Under such firepower suppression, it was questionable whether all the artillery pieces in the fortifications could even fire.
Not to mention the enemy's unique warships.
Through the binoculars, he noticed that the hulls of those warships were different from those of traditional warships; their metallic luster led him to conclude that those warships must be equipped with iron armor.
Therefore, with armor covering the enemy ship, the destructive power of solid shells fired by our side would probably not be enough. It might take hundreds of shells hitting an enemy ship precisely to cause effective damage.
His concerns were soon confirmed.
Moments later, as the ironclad warships approached the shore, the gunners in the fortifications finally got their chance. Despite still being under fire suppression, they fearlessly began to set up their cannons and fire.
One by one, large-caliber solid shot was loaded into the barrel amidst the roars of the gunners.
"Bang bang bang!"
They were finally able to fight back!
At this moment, the Yan Kingdom's warships had all lowered their sails and switched to steam power. Some of the cannonballs fired from the shore fell into the sea, while others hit the hull.
"Clang!"
"Clang!"
"Clang!"
Unlike the explosive shells they fired, which exploded on impact, the solid shells fired from the opposite side only made a thud. The shells that hit the ship's side left a mark on the ship's armor before falling to the seabed, while the shells that landed on the ship bounced twice after hitting the iron deck and rolled around.
Amidst a cacophony of clanging and banging, the Yan Kingdom infantrymen, waiting in the ship's hold, wore cold expressions, gripping their rifles tightly, ready to set foot on land.
On the tower, the staff officer finally cried out urgently in a moment of tension:
"Sir! We seem unable to penetrate their armor!"
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