Chapter 1449 Tanks, Monsters (Second update, please subscribe)
Unlike the thick snow in the mountains of eastern Oregon, around Portland, despite the heavy snow, there is not much snow. Compared with the extreme cold in the mountains, the temperature in Portland even seems a bit "pleasant".
However, this pleasant weather is not what the people here expect. They hope that the temperature can be lower and the snow can be heavier, so that they can stop the attack of the Ming army.
However, they should be thankful. If the weather was really that cold, it might cause some trouble to the Ming army's attack. After all, the frozen Willamette River and Columbia River would be more conducive to the Ming army's attack.
On January 11, 27th year of Shengde, the smoke outside Portland was blown away by the cold wind. From time to time, some American soldiers would show half of their heads from the trenches in the positions outside the west of Portland. Looking at the open area in front, there were many tree stumps scattered in the snow, and many huge tree stumps were at least one meter in diameter. Because the city was built at a fast speed, many stumps left by felled trees outside the city were not cleaned up in time, and the area around the city was full of stumps, so Portland was called "Stump City".
Now, the tree stumps have become the defenders' fortifications - they nailed barbed wire on the tree stumps. Although the barbed wire pulled based on the tree stumps is only about one foot high, it is enough to block the attack of the Ming army's infantry. In the past half month, they have repelled the Ming army's attacks time and time again with the help of barbed wire and trenches.
"It's a pity that we have too few machine guns!"
Neil, lying in the trench, staring at the bodies remaining between the barbed wire, talked to himself.
"machine gun."
Lieutenant Kent's complaint was heard from the side.
"Before the war, they said that machine guns were only effective against Indians and were of no use at all among civilized nations because cannons would destroy everything. But as God knows, we don't have enough cannons and we don't have enough machine guns now."
The view that machine guns are useless was immediately refuted after the outbreak of the war. Almost all troops were demanding machine guns because they found that the role of machine guns on the battlefield could not be replaced by any other weapons, especially in trench defense. Not only machine guns, but also cannons. The US troops on the front line also needed cannons.
"Haha, if you give us ten more machine guns, I swear to God we can hold this place until we kill the last Ming guy."
"That's impossible..."
As Lieutenant Kent finished speaking, Neil saw a green flare flying above the Ming army's position, dragging a trail of smoke into the sky.
"Get ready, the Ming guys are about to attack!"
When Major Neil gave the order, they did not notice that there was a choking blue-gray smoke in the woods in the distance, and more than thirty white squares were moving slowly in the woods.
It was noon, the sun was high in the sky, shining on the snow on the ground, and those seemingly harmless blocks gathered into a cluster on the snow.
tank!
The 10th Tank Regiment attacks!
The engines of 68 tanks made a deafening roar as they slowly approached the front line. Behind the tanks were accompanying infantrymen from an infantry regiment, who followed the tanks carefully and moved slowly.
Amid the roar of tank engines, American officers and soldiers in the trenches could even feel the earth shaking.
"Who are those guys?"
Looking at the slowly approaching "monsters", someone in the trench shouted in fear.
But their shouts were immediately drowned out by the whistling sound overhead, and the whistling of the shells drowned out other sounds on the ground.
Bombardment!
In the fierce bombardment, the US positions were immediately covered by artillery fire, and the dust from the explosion rose into the sky. This time the bombardment was more fierce than ever before.
In the fierce artillery fire, many anti-artillery bunkers were blown down. Major Neil, who was dizzy from the explosion, did not hide in the bunker. As an old officer who participated in the Civil War, he was accustomed to commanding battles under artillery fire. However, such fierce artillery fire finally broke his habit and forced him to hide in the bunker.
The fierce artillery fire came quickly and went away quickly. When the artillery fire stopped, under Neil's command, when the soldiers rushed out of the bunker and walked to the edge of the trench to look at the enemy outside, someone suddenly screamed in fear.
"Tank! Tank!"
Monsters appeared on the battlefield where Kent was pointing, screaming in fear.
"Tank? What's a tank?"
Neil grabbed the terrified officer and shouted.
"Tank? What's a tank?"
Neil, like many other officers, was a temporarily mobilized officer. In order to resist the invasion, Portland, with a population of 100,000, mobilized a full 30,000 people. Although there were many soldiers, there was a serious shortage of officers. Except for the militia captain, people like Neil were all "excellent officers" with rich combat experience.
However, Neil, who was still stuck in the era of muzzle-loaders, had no idea what a tank was.
"Tanks, tanks are something we can't hit with our guns..."
As his advisor, Kent said with some excitement.
"We are finished, we are finished..."
He looked at the tanks that were getting closer and closer, his tone full of despair.
Faced with the oncoming tanks, the officers and soldiers in the trenches just desperately shot at the tanks with their rifles. No matter whether it was the M1890 rifle or the old lever rifle, their bullets only scratched some paint on the tanks and could not stop the tanks from moving forward at all.
"Guns can't do anything...cannons, cannons..."
Thinking this in his mind, Neil hurriedly picked up the phone and shouted to the other end of the line.
"I'm Major Neil from the 1st Division of the Oregon National Guard. We've encountered tanks! I need cannons now. I need you to use them to bombard them hard and smash them to pieces..."
At this moment, he felt the earth shaking even more violently, and everything was shaking. Even the rats in the trenches were startled and scattered everywhere.
Suddenly, he felt that the trench behind him seemed to collapse. The hard frozen soil suddenly collapsed. He looked outside again, and at this moment, he was stunned.
"monster!"
There were screams of fear coming from the trenches. They were obviously terrified. The tanks did not rush across the trenches, but kept moving back and forth on the breastwork in front of the trench, using their tracks to push the frozen soil used to build the breastwork into the trenches. Many frightened people who lay on the edge of the trenches and dared not move were buried alive.
The scene before him made Neil's lips tremble, and he mumbled a few incoherent words.
"Damn it, they're going to bury us all alive here..."
(End of this chapter)
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