Chapter 148, Active Attack (6k subscription required!)
Martins accepted Governor Gu's request without much hesitation.
This is indeed what they are good at - at least one of the things they are good at.
Space Marines are powerful, but their lack of numbers is always a major disadvantage. On a battlefield of any scale and intensity, it is extremely stupid to send elite but scarce Space Marines into a head-on battle to compete with others for consumption, and the Space Marines themselves will not accept such an order.
No matter how tough the power armor is, to be honest, it cannot withstand a single shot from a 155mm howitzer; no matter how powerful the grenade launcher is, it can easily penetrate the domestically produced "Challenger" tank, but if it encounters the Astra Militarum's regular Lion tank or even the Lion King tank on a top-level battlefield, it will only be a tickle.
They are knives and should not be used as hammers.
While Gu Hang needs three days to prepare his troops for a counterattack, five Phoenix warriors will sneak behind enemy lines to find and mark high-value strategic targets.
Accompanying them were 28 soldiers from the Storm Squadron. They were the elite marines from the Quintet, and now they had been trained to the T3 level by Gu Hang. Their individual strength was guaranteed, and even in a close combat, it would not be a problem for them to kill an ordinary green-skinned guy.
They will accept the temporary leadership of the Phoenix, follow orders and act in coordination.
Without further ado, a total of thirty-three people set off under the cover of night.
They started from the southernmost side of the entire north-south front. In order to cover their actions, the 4th Infantry Regiment of the 7th Garrison Division stationed there also launched an active attack.
The joint artillery position in the rear allocated an artillery battalion. Thirty artillery pieces advanced five kilometers and fired twenty rounds of fire in the direction where the infantry regiment was about to attack.
The first five rounds were fired rapidly, and the next four rounds were fired about every three or four minutes to maintain the overall bombing rhythm.
Those greenskins were stunned by the explosion.
It’s not that they haven’t been bombed in the past, but generally speaking, the bombardment is when they launch an attack, and those shrimps will ask for artillery support from the rear, and then there will be more fierce firepower to cover their attack or retreat routes.
The main goal is to block their attack and cause casualties.
Or there are many cases where after their iron barrel cannon opened fire, those shrimps would counterattack.
It's not uncommon for them to fire at their own positions, like today, but it's only an occasional occurrence.
Like at this moment, within an hour, six hundred heavy artillery shells fell in a small area. This was a situation that had never happened before.
At least, I've never seen the greenskins stationed here.
The orc leader here, named Gu Li, was not killed by the explosion. The fortification he was in was built on the ruins of a reinforced concrete building, and was further built by moving various construction waste materials. It was quite solid. Unless the heavy artillery hit the fortification where he was, the fragments and shock waves alone would not be able to do anything here.
However, there were not many fortifications with such a high level of protection on the entire battlefield. In addition, the bombardment came too suddenly, and the casualties were likely to be considerable.
Of course, the main casualties came from the early stages, and those who were still alive later all hid in various anti-artillery fortifications. There were indeed still a lot of losses, but it was always within an acceptable range.
However, even though he understood this, Gu Li still paced back and forth in the fortifications anxiously, spitting out all kinds of green-skinned swear words.
He knew that those shrimps were definitely not just joking when they fired at him for no apparent reason. With his green head, he could clearly think that this was probably a prelude to an active attack by those shrimps.
But he couldn't run out of the fortification at the moment and kick those guys in the butt to cheer them up and prepare for the battle.
The artillery above your head would explode every few minutes, and if you left the fortifications, you would be easily killed.
If you are killed by the explosion, you can’t fight anymore.
He could only hold back his anger and continue hiding.
But soon, the opportunity for a fight came.
After the last round of shelling ended, no new shells were seen falling within ten minutes, but the sound of gunfire and shouts of fighting could be heard.
He became alert and rushed out of the fortifications with a few boys.
Arriving at the ground that had been heavily bombarded and where the heat and smoke had not yet had time to dissipate.
He looked in the direction where the gunshots came from, and not too far away, he vaguely saw those shrimps rushing towards him.
Those shrimps moved forward quickly, continuously sending out manpower to clear out every fortification and building wreckage they passed by.
In Gu Li's impression, many places were guarded by his own men. However, only a few of them had battles.
In places where there was no fighting, the shrimps just went in for a while and then came out again.
Gu Li could imagine that the guys he sent to guard those places were probably killed in the previous bombardment. Otherwise, they would not have watched Xiami come in and ignored him.
How many guys died?
He doesn't know.
He shouted loudly: "Waaagh!! Boys! Get out here! The shrimps are coming! It's time to show how good we are! We can't let the shrimps look down on us!"
"waaagh!!"
There were many battle cries of green-skinned boys around, and a group of boys crawled out from the bunkers where they had been hiding before. Some even drove out armed pickup trucks that survived the previous bombardment, and some pushed out "cannons" made of iron barrels tied together.
However, the overall number seems to be much smaller than Gu Li estimated.
Half of the people did not come out.
The big bang of those shrimps is still pretty impressive.
But it doesn’t matter!
Even if only half of the people are left, they can kill all those shrimps who dare to come out and fight!
Guli led the boys under his command and charged forward!
…
Observing the situation on the front line, Reid Mesheko couldn't help but shook his head.
He was a sergeant in the original Cordi Company. Later, he signed up to be a trainee political commissar in the recruitment of Lieutenant Colonel Thadius. Then, during the reorganization of Garbage Town, he was sent to the 4th Regiment of the 7th Garrison Division as a political commissar, and his rank jumped directly to captain.
The military rank was promoted very quickly, but this was a common situation among those old soldiers who had been with Gu Hang for a long time. The army was expanding very quickly, and as long as the old soldiers were loyal and willing to make progress, they would be promoted very quickly.
When the rear headquarters asked them to fully cooperate with the Phoenix Regiment's actions and when Captain Martins asked them to launch a covering frontal attack, Mesheko was determined to carry out the mission.
He knew that their captain was not happy to do so, even though when the adventurers were reorganized into the regular army, they tried to disrupt the organization and stripped away the personal attributes of the adventure captains who became officers. However, the nature of these former adventurers was still not so easy to erase.
They would instinctively fear such missions that require a lot of sacrifice, especially to cover the actions of others.
However, this is the difference between a soldier and an adventurer.
Under his strong pressure and military orders, the 4th Infantry Regiment launched an attack.
Before the fight, both soldiers and officers were afraid.
In the past, the shadow that the greenskins had cast on them was too great. Even if there were hundreds of shells in front of them, clearing the way for them, they still instinctively felt fear when they came up.
This is where Lai De Mesheko is dissatisfied.
But fortunately, after the fighting broke out, the resistance the troops encountered was not strong.
The greenskin troops were obviously knocked unconscious by the explosion, and a large number of greenskins died in the fortifications. Not many of them could form a resistance at the first time.
Those greenskins still showed a strong will to fight. In close-range shooting, it often took the lives of two or three people to kill a greenskin. If they were caught in close range, they were not soldiers of the Beast Killer Corps, so even with bayonets, they often did not dare to fight.
This is not a question of techniques and tactics, nor a question of military skills, but a question of morale and courage.
But in the end, the 4th Regiment was able to defeat the greenskins with its greater numbers.
It turns out that greenskins can also run away. When three or five greenskins popped their heads out from the fortifications and saw hundreds of human soldiers shooting at them, they would also run away in panic.
Some were beaten to death from behind, and these greenskins were the most despised.
Soon, the few greenskins who escaped alive came back to fight. Behind them, a large number of greenskins rushed out, totaling more than 200.
The greenskins howled and laughed at the guys who were running away, and the greenskins who were being laughed at rushed back in anger and shame.
During the shootout, greenskins and soldiers kept falling down.
This was a bloody fight. When one greenskin fell, two or three human soldiers would be beaten to death.
According to this exchange ratio, the human side will certainly win. Especially when they took out weapons such as rocket launchers and mortars, an armed pickup truck that rushed over was blown up halfway.
At most, the casualties would be around 500.
This is still based on the worst-case scenario. In fact, when a certain number of greenskins are killed, their threat will be greatly reduced, their morale will collapse, and they will turn around and flee, just like the ones they encountered just now.
If we keep fighting, there won't be that many deaths.
But even so, it was the human soldiers who were the first to shrink back and dare not move forward.
They were terrified by the sight of their comrades whose bodies were smashed by the greenskins' high-powered guns.
After suffering hundreds of casualties, they were actually showing signs of collapse.
Laird Mesheko was furious.
He shouted at the regiment commander beside him: "Look at these soldiers! It's a disgrace!"
The leader of the 4th Regiment had no words to express his grievances.
Didn’t he give orders requiring all troops to maintain the front line and push forward? But what should he do if they just can’t move forward?
He didn't dare to talk back, because the man in the red hat was a direct military officer sent by the governor, and he played a role like a military supervisor.
Looking at his appearance, Mesheko was even more angry at his lack of fighting spirit.
"Go to the front! Let's go to the front together! We must lead by example!"
He pulled out his pistol and grabbed the captain.
The two men, along with the guard company, began to push forward in person.
Mesheko knew that as a commander, his biggest responsibility was to command the battle, not to be at the front line. Even if he was at the front, how different was his combat capability from that of an ordinary soldier?
But now is a special moment, there is nothing to command. What the soldiers lack is not strategy, not tactics, but courage.
This requires senior military officers to set an example and take the lead.
While pushing forward with the guard company and the regiment commander, he encountered a team that was fighting and retreating.
Mesheko was so angry that he found the captain of the team, grabbed his collar, and shouted: "The order given to you is to advance! Advance! Advance again! Who told you to retreat?!"
"I..." The company commander turned pale and was speechless.
Meshcheko kicked him in the stomach, knocking him down, and pointed the pistol at his head:
"Retreating without permission and refusing to fight will be considered desertion. As an officer, the crime is even more serious!"
"No, no..." The company commander was still trying to explain himself, and the regiment commander standing next to Mesheko also wanted to speak up to persuade him.
But Mesheko didn't bother to listen and just pulled the trigger.
The bullet pierced through the head of the officer who had just been promoted to second lieutenant, and his body fell weakly.
Then, Mesheko shouted to the company instructor who was standing there in a daze, "You take over the command now! Take your company and follow me!"
The instructor nodded suddenly as if waking up from a dream and quickly called out to the team.
Mesheko waved his hand again, signaling the guard company to follow, and said to the regiment commander next to him: "For the Governor! We must win! You can't be like before! We are soldiers! Not scavengers looking for food in the garbage dump!"
"I...I understand."
"Pick up your gun! Fight like a warrior!"
Seeing that the regiment commander was determined to fight, Meshko picked up the mobile phone and issued orders to the instructors of every company in the regiment, strictly ordering them to ensure that the troops were always in an offensive posture, and those who were afraid to fight would be executed on the spot.
Then, Mesheko raised his pistol high into the air and fired, shouting to the people around him: "Comrades! Follow me and charge!"
Under his strict orders, and after he and the regiment commander led the guard company to personally participate in the battle, the entire unit's cowardly attitude was finally reversed. Under the leadership of officers at all levels, especially the political chief under the instructor system, the team began to resume its offensive posture.
As the distance between the two sides got closer, the battle quickly became more bloody and brutal. The greenskins' advantage in close combat was brought into play, and the human soldiers suffered more casualties, but at the same time, the human side still maintained its advantage of more people and stronger firepower, and the accuracy of close-range shooting was also higher.
Human soldiers kept falling, and even officers were killed in battle, but the greenskins fell at an even faster rate.
When the 4th Regiment's losses reached 15%, that is, more than two hundred people fell, there were only about seventy or eighty greenskins left.
Gu Li knew clearly that they were in a desperate situation.
As they were already too close, retreat was impossible; but the bloody battle had completely activated the belligerence in his heart. His skin turned greener, and his body grew slightly before the battle.
" Waaagh! " he howled, bursting out of cover and charging toward the nearest position occupied by human soldiers.
Under his infection, all the living greenskins entered a state of frenzy.
The final charge began.
Gu Li held a heavy gun and fired six times during the charge, killing five soldiers. At the same time, he was hit by at least hundreds of bullets. He was bleeding all over his body, almost covering his green skin; one of his eyes was blinded, but the remaining one became more ferocious.
He rushed into the position of the infantry platoon and instantly turned into a meat grinder on the battlefield. The thick-backed machete in his hand spun like a whirlwind of death, and in just a short while, all the soldiers here were slaughtered.
Although those human soldiers had followed tactical ethics and put on bayonets to fight him when he approached, they were not on the same level in terms of strength, resistance to blows, and even flexibility. After being stabbed seven or eight times with the bayonet, his bone strength showed no signs of exhaustion, and he turned around and killed all the soldiers who dared to fight him in close combat.
When all the brave people are dead, the remaining ones will have no desire to fight.
After the sergeant was killed in the battle, the few surviving members of the infantry platoon fled in panic; after the company instructor who came to support was shot in the upper body, the entire company began to collapse.
This formed a chain reaction. The greenskins who charged forward with Guli defeated a company that was attacking head-on after suffering more than 20 casualties. Then the two companies next to them were caught off guard and showed signs of collapse when faced with the ferocious greenskins rushing towards them.
Laird Mesheko observed this sign.
He would never allow the victory he had achieved to slip away, and seeing the signs of losing it, he immediately led the guard company to block the gap, and ordered several surrounding companies to block it as well.
In his words, even if heaps of human lives were used, he could kill the remaining fifty greenskins.
Gu Li also saw the red-hatted man who kept shouting, and he rushed towards him, howling. He reloaded his rifle and fired wildly in the direction of Mesheko.
In a moment, three or four soldiers around Mesheko were killed, and the green-skinned leader, who could not be defeated no matter how hard he tried, rushed straight towards him.
Mesheko's mood was very calm at this moment.
He knew he had made a mistake. He had forcibly boosted the morale of the entire regiment, and he was now too close to the front line, so that the enemy could rush directly at him. If he died here, the morale of the entire regiment might collapse.
By then, it would really become a joke that thousands of people were defeated by dozens of greenskins.
But this mistake had to be made. This army had just been reorganized from adventurers, and the ideological work had not been carried out yet. The morale was not high. If he had not done this before, I am afraid that they would not have been able to fight to the current level.
He knew the situation was dangerous, but he couldn't run away.
He could only pull out his pistol and stand still, his black coat fluttering in the wind.
He held his head high and kept firing bullets at the greenskins rushing towards him.
Even if I die, I will die standing.
He hoped that his death would infect the soldiers around him. The enemy was just a spent force, and if he could hold on for a little longer, he could kill them all.
The damage caused by pistol ammunition to the greenskin was quite limited, and it could only be considered a symbolic resistance.
But at this moment, a burst of gunfire came from behind him.
Then, heavy footsteps approached quickly and soon passed by him.
It was a giant in red power armor.
The Emperor's Angels have arrived.
The gunshots in front were obviously from a grenade launcher.
The flying bombs hit the three greenskins behind Guli, killing them all with one shot.
With the level of a Space Marine veteran, he could hit the target without missing a single bullet at a distance of dozens of meters. The power of a bolter is not comparable to the small water pipe of a G9 rifle. Even a shot to the greenskin would be fatal.
However, the two explosive shells fired at Gu Li did not kill him. He dodged the first one at the last second - not because he could really dodge bullets, but because he saw the Space Marine rushing out from behind the red hat and shooting, and he made a prediction.
As for the bullet at the back, it hit his right chest solidly and made a big hole, but the furious orc leader only paused for a moment, but did not show any sign of weakness, and continued to charge forward while howling.
Gu Li had never seen a shrimp that looked similar to himself, not to mention that guy was covered in red cans. But he already felt that it was a strong enemy, and he was excited that he could face such a strong enemy!
He raised the thick-backed machete high and slashed at the red-armored giant.
The Phoenix Warrior, who was charging, twisted his waist to dodge the slash, and took out a combat blade, stabbing it into the waist and abdomen of the greenskin. Following the force of the charge, a large amount of blood mixed with internal organs sprayed out.
But Gu Li was not dead yet! He even had enough strength to fight back!
He grabbed the Space Marine's arm with one hand, pulled it hard, and then he tripped and fell to the ground.
Gu Li turned over and pressed on it, grinning, as if he didn't feel the pain in his waist and abdomen. He pressed the lower edge of the Space Marine's helmet with one hand, and raised the thick-backed machete with the other hand, as if he wanted to cut off the head of the phoenix.
However, the knife couldn't cut any further.
During this process, the Phoenix, who had fallen to the ground and was pinned down, had quickly stabbed Gu Li's heart and neck several times with a combat dagger, completely ending his life.
Pushing the corpse away, the red-armored warrior stood up and looked around. The battle was almost over.
(End of this chapter)
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